Lost causes had a romantic charm for her, and she liked to picture herself as standing aloof from the vulgar press of the Quirinal, and sacrificing her pleasure to the claims of an immemorial tradition.

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How long ago and how far off it all seemed! Those ambitions were hardly more futile and childish than the earlier ones which had centred about the possession of a French jointed doll with real hair.

Was it only ten years since she had wavered in imagination between the English earl and the Italian prince?
Relentlessly her mind travelled on over the dreary interval.