What was the astonishment of Oswald in hearing her! He remained at first immovably fixed to the spot where he was, and feeling confused he leaned against one of the lions of basalt at the foot of the stairway descending from the Capitol.

Corinne viewed him again, forcibly struck with the emotion he betrayed; but she was dragged away towards the car, and the whole crowd disappeared long before Oswald had recovered his strength and his presence of mind.
Corinne, till then, had enchanted him as the most charming of foreigners--as one of the wonders of that country he had come to visit; but her English accent recalled every recollection of his native country, and in a manner naturalised all the charms of Corinne.

Was she English?
Had she passed several years of her life in England?
He was lost in conjecture; but it was impossible that study alone could have taught her to speak thus--Corinne and Lord Nelville must have lived in the same country.

Who knows whether their families were not intimate?
Perhaps even, he had seen her in his infancy! We often have in our hearts, we know not what kind of innate image of that which we love, which may persuade us that we recognise it in an object we behold for the first time.
Oswald had cherished many prejudices against the Italians; he believed them passionate, but changeable, and incapable of any deep and lasting affection.

Already the language of Corinne at the Capitol had inspired him with a different idea.