On the day of the Assumption she had left her island for the first time in her life, chance having chosen her among the maidens of the kingdom vowed by their mothers to the special protection of the Virgin.  But, overwhelmed by the weight of a position so new to her, blushing and confused under the eyes of an immense crowd, she had scarcely dared to raise her wondering looks, and the splendours of the town had passed before her like a dream, leaving but a vague remembrance.

When she perceived the presence of this handsome young man, so slenderly and elegantly built, whose noble and calm demeanour contrasted with the timidity and awkwardness of her other admirers, she felt herself inwardly disturbed, and no doubt she would have believed that her prince had come, if she had been unpleasantly struck by the poverty of his dress.  She had, nevertheless, allowed herself to listen to him longer than she ought to have done, and she drew back with her bosom heavy, her cheek on fire, and her heart rent by an ache that was both dull and sharp.

“If my father does not wish me to marry him,” she said to herself, tormented by the first remorseful feeling of her life.  “I shall have done wrong to speak to him.  And yet he is so handsome!”

Then she knelt before the Virgin, who was her only confidante, the poor child having never known her mother, and tried to tell her the torments of her soul; but she could not achieve her prayer.  The thoughts became entangled within her brain, and she surprised herself uttering strange words.  But, assuredly, the Holy Virgin must have taken pity upon her lovely devotee, for she rose with the impression of a consoling thought, resolved to confide everything to her father.

“I cannot have a moment’s doubt,” she said to herself, as she unlaced her bodice, “of my father’s affection.  Well, then, if he forbids me to speak to him, it will be for my good.  And indeed, I have seen him but this once,” she added, as she threw herself upon the bed, “and now I think of it, I consider him very bold to dare to speak to me.  I am almost inclined to laugh at him.  How confidently he brought out his nonsense, how absurdly he rolled his eyes!  They are really very fine, those eyes of his, and so is his mouth, and his forehead and his hair.  He does not suspect that I noticed his hands, which are really very white, when he raised them to heaven, like a madman, as he walked up and down by the sea.  Come, come, is he going to prevent my sleeping?  I will not see him again!” she cried, drawing the sheet over her head like an angry child.  Then she began to laugh to herself over her lover’s dress, and meditated long upon what her companions would say to it.  Suddenly her brow contracted painfully, a frightful thought had stolen into her mind, she shuddered from head to foot.  “Suppose he were to think someone else prettier than me?  Men are so foolish!  Certainly, it is too hot, and I shall not sleep to-night.”