to fulfil her bargain towards me, but because there was nothing more that she wanted.  She liked me, I suppose, very much; she respected me—­perhaps she might have been a little afraid of me.  She knew that I was a signore who could end my absurdities—­so she freely considered my conduct—­whenever I chose; she thought me a little mad.  Meantime, as I was uniformly kind to her, she had never been so happy in her life.  On my part, I spent my time in the writing of great quantities of poetry—­which I read to Virginia in the evenings and which she thought very fine—­and in teaching her to read and write.  She proved an apt and willing pupil, quick to learn and with a retentive memory; but she could never spell.  I think it may be said that, on the whole, I gave her as much as I got, for not only did she become happier and healthier, but I was able to soften the harsh angles of her mind, to humanise, reclaim her from savagery.  I could not, however, make her religious after my own fashion.  She went to Mass with me, and once, when I insisted upon it, confessed and took the communion.  But she hated the priests, though she would never tell me the reason, and could hardly ever be drawn to confession again.

After trying various shelters from the weather and being driven from each by unforeseen circumstances—­a cloister or two, a church (where the sacristan surprised us asleep one morning and turned us out into the rain), an old family sepulchre, an empty palace, and a baker’s oven which had fallen to be let (and had been occupied by cockroaches)—­we finally discovered and took possession of a ruined tower near the church of Sant’ Andrea, which suited us excellently well.  It had been the fortress of a great old family in the Middle Ages, that of the Vergiolesi, from whom sprang the beautiful Selvaggia, beloved by Cino of Pistoja.  The lower floor being choked with rubbish and fallen masonry, the only access to our retreat was by a broken beam projecting from the original doorway.  You jumped for this, caught it if you were expert enough, and must swing yourself up to straddle it.  You could then gain the string-course of brick which encircled the tower, and, edging along that, reach the lower sill of a window.  That window was our front door.  The interior was perfectly dry, rainproof and (from all quarters but one) windproof.  Enchanting occupancy to me! fit household for a poet without pence; and to Virginia, who had never known a dry lodging, a very palace.  Here by the light of candle ends, got for the asking from the churches, I made her acquainted with letters; I held her fingers at the charcoal until they could move alone.  I pointed my own along the page until her eye could run true.  The greater part of the walls of our chamber was covered with her sprawled lettering:  and, for all I know to the contrary, may reveal to this day the names of Francis Strelley, of Aurelia Gualandi and of Virginia Strozzi.  It is a fine proof of her loyalty to our bargain that the first