I will not dwell on the scene that ensued.  Bianca rejoiced in the reverse of my situation, because she saw it lightened my heart of a load of care; for her own part she had loved me for myself, and had never doubted that my own merits would command both fame and fortune.

I now felt all my native pride buoyant within me; I no longer walked with my eyes bent to the dust; hope elevated them to the skies; my soul was lit up with fresh fires, and beamed from my countenance.

I wished to impart the change in my circumstances to the Count; to let him know who and what I was, and to make formal proposals for the hand of Bianca; but the Count was absent on a distant estate.  I opened my whole soul to Filippo.  Now first I told him of my passion; of the doubts and fears that had distracted me, and of the tidings that had suddenly dispelled them.  He overwhelmed me with congratulations and with the warmest expressions of sympathy.  I embraced him in the fullness of my heart.  I felt compunctious for having suspected him of coldness, and asked him forgiveness for having ever doubted his friendship.

Nothing is so warm, and enthusiastic as a sudden expansion of the heart between young men.  Filippo entered into our concerns with the most eager interest.  He was our confidant and counsellor.  It was determined that I should hasten at once to Naples to re-establish myself in my father’s affections and my paternal home, and the moment the reconciliation was effected and my father’s consent insured, I should return and demand Bianca of the Count.  Filippo engaged to secure his father’s acquiescence; indeed, he undertook to watch over our interests, and was the channel through which we were to correspond.

My parting with Bianca was tender—­delicious—­agonizing.

It was in a little pavilion of the garden which had been one of our favorite resorts.  How often and often did I return to have one more adieu—­to have her look once more on me in speechless emotion—­to enjoy once more the rapturous sight of those tears streaming down her lovely cheeks—­to seize once more on that delicate hand, the frankly accorded pledge of love, and cover it with tears and kisses!  Heavens!  There is a delight even in the parting agony of two lovers worth a thousand tame pleasures of the world.  I have her at this moment before my eyes—­at the window of the pavilion, putting aside the vines that clustered about the casement—­her light form beaming forth in virgin white—­her countenance all tears and smiles—­sending a thousand and a thousand adieus after me, as, hesitating, in a delirium of fondness and agitation, I faltered my way down the avenue.

As the bark bore me out of the harbor of Genoa, how eagerly my eyes Stretched along the coast of Sestri, till it discerned the villa gleaming from among trees at the foot of the mountain.  As long as day lasted, I gazed and gazed upon it, till it lessened and lessened to a mere white speck in the distance; and still my intense and fixed gaze discerned it, when all other objects of the coast had blended into indistinct confusion, or were lost in the evening gloom.