"
"And what," exclaimed the cavalier, "can you find to love in your
severe and repelling uncle?"
"Not severe, not repelling, to me. I once thought him so; but it was
only to feel the more the kindness which changed his very nature
towards us. My uncle resembles the impression produced on me by his
palace: when I first entered, the stillness, the time-worn hangings,
the huge, dark rooms, chilled my very heart. We went from these old
gloomy apartments to those destined for us, so light, so cheerful,
where every care had been bestowed, every luxury lavished; and I said
within myself, 'My uncle must love us, or he would never be thus
anxious for our pleasure.'"
A few moments more and their brief conference was over. But they
parted to meet again; and at length Giulietta fled to be the bride of
Lorenzo da Carrara. But she fled with a sad heart and tearful eyes;
and when, after her marriage, every prayer for pardon was rejected by
the cardinal, Giulietta wept as if such sorrow had not been foreseen.
Her uncle felt her flight most bitterly. He had watched his favourite
niece, if not with tenderness of look and tone, yet with deep
tenderness of heart. When her elder sisters married and left his roof,
he missed them not: but now it was a sweet music that had suddenly
ceased, a soft light that had vanished. The only flower that, during
his severe existence, he had permitted himself to cherish, had passed
away even from the hand that sheltered it.
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