If Corona longed to be alone with him in the hills, Giovanni himself desired such a retreat still more.

To be out of the world, even for a month, seemed to him the most delightful of prospects, for he was weary of the city, of society, of everything save the woman he was about to marry.

Of her he could never tire; he could not imagine that in her company the days would ever seem long, even in old Saracinesca, among the grey rocks of the Sabines.

The average man is gregarious, perhaps; but in strong minds there is often a great desire for solitude, or at least for retirement, in the society of one sympathetic soul.

The instinct which bids such people leave the world for a time is never permanent, unless they become morbid.