He judged the young man rightly; he saw him kiss her hand on arriving, but he knew he would ask no kiss when alone with her, so deeply did the lover respect the innocence, the frankness of the young girl, whose excessive sensibility, often tried, taught him that a harsh word, a cold look, or the alternations of gentleness and roughness might kill her.

The only freedom between the two took place before the eyes of the old man in the evenings.
Two years, full of secret happiness, passed thus,--without other events than the fruitless efforts made by the young man to obtain from his mother her consent to his marriage.

He talked to her sometimes for hours together.

She listened and made no answer to his entreaties, other than by Breton silence or a positive denial.
At nineteen years of age Ursula, elegant in appearance, a fine musician, and well brought up, had nothing more to learn; she was perfected.

The fame of her beauty and grace and education spread far.