She was my first glimpse of fresh young maidenhood, and I was filled with pleasant interest and desirous of more acquaintance with this phenomenon.

Beyond that I did not go.
I told her frankly that she was very beautiful.

Whereupon she looked at me with suddenly startled eyes that were full of fearful questionings, and made to draw her hand from mine.

Unable to understand her fears, and seeking to reassure her, to convince her that in me she had a friend, one who would ever protect her from the brutalities of all the Rinolfos in the world, I put an arm about her shoulders and drew her closer to me, gently and protectingly.
She suffered it very stonily, like a poor fascinated thing that is robbed by fear of its power to resist the evil that it feels enfolding it.
"O Madonnino!" she whispered fearfully, and sighed.

"Nay, you must not.
It...