Thou art youthful, wealthy beyond the indulgence of all healthful desires, of a lineage to excite an unwholesome worldly pride, and fair enough to render thee the most dangerous of thine own enemies--and thou repinest at a lot to which all of thy sex and station are, of necessity, subject!" "For the offence against Providence I am already a penitent," returned the Donna Violetta.

"But surely it would be less embarrassing to a girl of sixteen, were the fathers of the state so much occupied with more weighty affairs as to forget her birth and years, and haply her wealth ?" "There would be little merit in being content with a world fashioned after our own caprices, though it may be questioned if we should be happier by having all things as we desire than by being compelled to submit to them as they are.

The interest taken by the Republic in thy particular welfare, daughter, is the price thou payest for the ease and magnificence with which thou art encircled.

One more obscure, and less endowed by fortune, might have greater freedom of will, but it would be accompanied by none of the pomp which adorns the dwelling of thy fathers." "I would there were less of luxury and more of liberty within its walls." "Time will enable thee to see differently.

At thy age all is viewed in colors of gold, or life is rendered bootless, because we are thwarted in our ill-digested wishes.