“‘I was fairly puzzled by this unexpected _denoûment_ to the intrigue I had been at so much pains to invent. It was in vain that I sought to detect the slightest intelligence between them—there was none. The young girl seemed engrossed during supper by her attentions to her father, and scarcely raised her eyes towards any of us, save in the courtesy which she might consider to be due from the hostess to her guests; whilst my brother, whose seat at table was immediately opposite to hers, never once even glanced towards her. I left the villa that night full of strange feelings, and from that hour my existence was changed.
“‘How _can_ I tell you, my friends, how it became so? I know not myself, save that a web was spun around me, from which I am not free at this very hour! There seemed, from the very first, an overstrained demonstration of attachment towards me, and absolute _appropriation_ of my time and of my actions, nay, my very thoughts were no more my own. The Abbé Giordoni was never absent from my side, and, what seemed stranger still, he was acquainted with the most minute secrets of our existence—the value of our land—the produce of our plantations—the revenue which we drew from the silkworms; he even knew of the circumstances of the loan which we had been compelled to raise a few years before, and which, as we thought, had been kept a profound mystery between ourselves and the party of whom the money had been borrowed. I have lain awake whole nights to discover how this could be, and yet could not compass the mystery. I cannot tell you how much this circumstance preyed upon my spirit, for Heaven had gifted me with an independent soul, and an utter abhorrence of control, and the invisible fetters with which I felt myself manacled became more and more galling as I grew more determined to be free.
“‘It was on the occasion of my father’s death that I felt this most of all. The abbé took upon himself, unsolicited and unapproved, the whole management of our affairs. He it was who arranged the retirement of our mother to the neighbouring convent of the Annunciata, to which I most decidedly objected; but my opinion in this, as well as in everything else, was entirely overruled by that of the abbé. The next occurrence in the family, which gave me the strangest trouble and perplexity, was the determination of Cesario to sell the portion of the estate which had become his by my father’s will; and my amazement was increased tenfold upon learning who was the purchaser—it was the Abbé Giordoni. I was angry with my brother, and reproached him bitterly, but he replied, in a despairing voice, and with the tears flowing from his eyes, “What could I do? The land was needed by the good abbé!”