The maddest,
wildest thoughts rush through my brain like flashes of lightning,
dazzling and confusing me. I feel the prompting of some evil spirit to
do some rash and irreparable thing, I feel as if I were treading on the
edge of perdition. It would, I feel, lift the great weight from my
heart, would take this suffocating knot from my throat if, at this
moment, I could cry aloud, into the silence of the night, with all the
strength of my soul--"I love him! I love him! I love him!"'
BOOK III
CHAPTER I
Two or three days after the departure of the Ferres, Sperelli and his
cousins returned to Rome, Donna Francesca, contrary to her custom,
wishing to shorten her stay at Schifanoja.
After a brief stay at Naples, Andrea reached Rome on the 24th of
October, a Sunday, in the first heavy morning rain of the Autumn season.
He experienced an extraordinary pleasure in returning to his apartments
in the Casa Zuccari, his tasteful and charming _buen retiro_. There he
seemed to find again some portion of himself, something he had missed.
Nothing was altered; everything about him retained, in his eyes, that
indescribable look of life which material objects assume, amongst which
one has lived and loved and suffered. His old servants, Jenny and
Terenzio, had taken the utmost care of everything, and Stephen had
attended to every detail likely to conduce to his master's comfort.
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