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FRANCESCA CARRARA.
83

sometimes bitterly contrasted her present state with what might have been its lot but for the cruel deception of Francis; but she was strong in her newly awakened reliance—she could look forward—the future owed her some recompense for the wretchedness of the past. The first time when she gave herself up to that aerial architecture, after the events we have just recorded, was her ensuing visit to Guido's grave. The sympathy was still entire between them, and it seemed as if her happiness were incomplete till shared with him; and beside that green and quiet mound his presence was so actual! Perhaps the stillness and seclusion aided the imagination—nothing was there to disturb or destroy the illusion. She threaded the narrow paths of the forest: in the pleasant company of her own thoughts—those paths through which Evelyn had so often wandered. Frequently before had this idea risen in her mind, but then it was sternly banished—now she dwelt upon it with eager delight. With what a feeling of joyful security did her heart go back to its old allegiance! Till now she had scarcely been aware of its strength, for she had known it but by its disappointment—now she fully admitted that early and passionate emotion with which Robert Evelyn had inspired her was indeed her destiny; both in the first develope-