“I passed the day in a vision. I was like one possessed.
“Two days later young Anglesea made us the first call of many days.
“Madame de la Champe immediately beset him with questions about the young Italian.
“I said nothing, but listened with the deepest interest for his replies.
(“This is a confession, you know, Abel. And I mean that it shall be a full one.)
“I listened with the most eager curiosity to hear all that could be told of one who had taken complete possession of my fancy and imagination, if not of my heart.
“And what Anglesea told us of Luigi Saviola did but deepen the profound interest I already took in the young stranger.
“He told us that Saviola was of royal race, yet of advanced republican ideas. That for the expression of his principles he was a political exile. He was wealthy, and his wealth had been confiscated. He was now living in Brighton on the wreck of his fortune; but was brave, cheerful and heroic, as we had seen him.
“All this, as I say, deepened my interest in Saviola, and heightened my admiration for him. He was no longer a most charming person, but he was a hero and a martyr, a patriot and a humanitarian. And already I loved, adored, worshiped him, or believed that I did.
“You see, Abel, what a very ‘foolish virgin’ I was. But then, I was a motherless child.