None of the lads of Pampinara, Palestrina, or Valmontone had been able to gain any influence over him or even to become his companion.

His disposition (always inclined to exact concessions rather than to make them) kept him aloof from all friendships.

Teresa alone ruled by a look, a word, a gesture, this impetuous character, which yielded beneath the hand of a woman, and which beneath the hand of a man might have broken, but could never have been bended.

Teresa was lively and gay, but coquettish to excess.

The two piastres that Luigi received every month from the Count of San-Felice's steward, and the price of all the little carvings in wood he sold at Rome, were expended in ear-rings, necklaces, and gold hairpins.