Was it perhaps the exquisite delicacy apparent in all she did or said?
Even the most reverent thought seemed gross in touching her; the mind flitted round about her, kept from contact by a supreme modesty, which she alone could inspire If her head were painted, it must be against the tenderest eastern sky; all associations with her were of the morning, when heatless rays strike level across the moist earth, of simple devoutness which renders thanks for the blessing of a new day, of mercy robed like the zenith at dawn.
His study just now was of the early Italians, in art and literature.
There was more of Adela than he perceived in the impulse which guided him in that direction.

When he came to read the 'Vita Nuova,' it was of Adela expressly that he thought.

The poet's passion of worship entered his heart; transferring his present feeling to his earlier self, he grew to regard his recent madness as a lapse from the true love of his life.
He persuaded himself that he had loved Adela in a far more serious way than any of the others who from time to time had been her rivals, and that the love was now returning to him, strengthened and exalted.

He began to write sonnets in Dante's manner, striving to body forth in words the new piety which illumined his life.

Whereas love had been to him of late a glorification of the senses, he now cleansed himself from what he deemed impurity and adored in mere ecstasy of the spirit.