It is true that she had been taught by lips now mute the maiden duties enjoined by honour and religion.

And all love that spoke not of the altar only shocked and repelled her.

But besides that, as grief and solitude ripened her heart, and made her tremble at times to think how deeply it could feel, her vague and early visions shaped themselves into an ideal of love.

And till the ideal is found, how the shadow that it throws before it chills us to the actual! With that ideal, ever and ever, unconsciously, and with a certain awe and shrinking, came the shape and voice of the warning stranger.

Nearly two years had passed since he had appeared at Naples.