I had often spoken to him with impatience, even harshness; and yet I had "won his heart"-- so he said.

Why should he care for me?
why should my poor old butler Giacoma cherish me so devotedly in his memory; why should my very dog still love and obey me, when my nearest and dearest, my wife and my friend, had so gladly forsaken me, and were so eager to forget me! Perhaps fidelity was not the fashion now among educated persons?
Perhaps it was a worn-out virtue, left to the bas-peuple--to the vulgar--and to animals?
Progress might have attained this result--no doubt it had.
I sighed wearily, and threw myself clown in an arm-chair near the window, and watched the white-sailed boats skimming like flecks of silver across the blue-green water.

The tinkling of a tambourine by and by attracted my wandering attention, and looking into the street just below my balcony I saw a young girl dancing.

She was lovely to look at, and she danced with exquisite grace as well as modesty, but the beauty of her face was not so much caused by perfection of feature or outline as by a certain wistful expression that had in it something of nobility and pride.

I watched her; at the conclusion of her dance she held up her tambourine with a bright but appealing smile.