If I am not mistaken, one of the ladies in that boat is his daughter, Agatha." "But what can Alexander want of two Christian women ?" asked Melissa.
Andreas fired up, and a vein started on his high forehead as he retorted angrily: "What should he not want! He and those who are like him--the blind--think nothing so precious as what satisfies the eye .-- There! the brightness has vanished which turned the lake and the shore to gold.
Such is beauty!--a vain show, which only glitters to disappear, and is to fools, nevertheless, the supreme object of adoration!" "Then, is Zeno's daughter fair ?" asked the girl.
"She is said to be," replied the other; and after a moment's pause he added: "Yes, Agatha is a rarely accomplished woman; but I know better things of her than that.

It stirs my gall to think that her sacred purity can arouse unholy thoughts.

I love your brother dearly; for your mother's sake I can forgive him much; but if he tries to ensnare Agatha--" "Have no fear," said Melissa, interrupting his wrathful speech.
"Alexander is indeed a butterfly, fluttering from flower to flower, and apt to be frivolous over serious matters, but at this moment he is enslaved by a vision--that of a dead girl; and only last night, I believe, he pledged himself to Ino, the pretty daughter of our neighbor Skopas.

Beauty is to him the highest thing in life; and how should it be otherwise, for he is an artist! For the sake of beauty he defies every danger.

If you saw rightly, he is no doubt in pursuit of Zeno's daughter, but most likely not to pay court to her, but for some other season." "No praiseworthy reason, you may be sure," said Andreas.