So love, the casuist, argued; and during those first months, when happiness seemed at last its own justification, Fulvia lived in every fibre.  But always, even then, she was on the defensive against that higher tribunal which her own conception of life had created.  In spite of herself she was a child of the new era, of the universal reaction against the falseness and egotism of the old social code.  A standard of conduct regulated by the needs of the race rather than by individual passion, a conception of each existence as a link in the great chain of human endeavour, had slowly shaped itself out of the wild theories and vague “codes” of the eighteenth-century moralists; and with this sense of the sacramental nature of human ties, came a renewed reverence for moral and physical purity.

Fulvia was of those who require that their lives shall be an affirmation of themselves; and the lack of inner harmony drove her to seek some outward expression of her ideals.  She threw herself with renewed passion into the political struggle.  The best, the only justification of her power, was to use it boldly, openly, for the good of the people.  All the repressed forces of her nature were poured into this single channel.  She had no desire to conceal her situation, to disguise her influence over Odo.  She wished it rather to be so visible a factor in his relations with his people that she should come to be regarded as the ultimate pledge of his good faith.  But, like all the casuistical virtues, this position had the rigidity of something created to fit a special case; and the result was a fixity of attitude, which spread benumbingly over her whole nature.  She was conscious of the change, yet dared not struggle against it, since to do so was to confess the weakness of her case.  She had chosen to be regarded as a symbol rather than a woman, and there were moments when she felt as isolated from life as some marble allegory in its niche above the market-place.

It was the desire to associate herself with the Duke’s public life that had induced her, after much hesitation, to accept the degree which the University had conferred on her.  She had shared eagerly in the work of reconstructing the University, and had been the means of drawing to Pianura several teachers of distinction from Padua and Pavia.  It was her dream to build up a seat of learning which should attract students from all parts of Italy; and though many young men of good family had withdrawn from the classes when the Barnabites were dispossessed, she was confident that they would soon be replaced by scholars from other states.  She was resolved to identify herself openly with the educational reform which seemed to her one of the most important steps toward civic emancipation; and she had therefore acceded to the request of the faculty that, on receiving her degree, she should sustain a thesis before the University.  This ceremony was to take place a few days hence, on the Duke’s birthday; and, as the new charter was to be proclaimed on the same day, Fulvia had chosen as the subject of her discourse the Constitution recently promulgated in France.