while it is rare and strange.  You know, not one of these men loves me for myself; they think only of my outward appearance.  I am never more solitary than when they surround me, never feel so little beloved as when they swear that they love me boundlessly.  O my God! must I shroud my heart, must I bury it under the snows of this cold north?  O God, give me a heart for my heart, that can love as Barbarina loves!” She covered her face with her hands, and her tears flowed freely; she trembled and bowed from side to side, like a lily in a storm.

Marietta drew near, and laid her head upon her sister’s shoulder; she did not try to comfort her:  she knew there were griefs to which words of consolation were exasperation; she knew that passion must exhaust itself before it could be soothed.  She comprehended the nobility and energy of Barbarina’s nature; those bursts of tears were like clouds in the tropics; the storm must break, and then the sun would shine more gloriously.  Marietta was right.  In a short time her sister withdrew her hands from her face; her tears were quenched, and her eyes had their usual lustre.

“I am mad,” she cried, “worse than mad!  I ask of the north our southern blossoms.  I demand that their ice shall become fire.  Has not a landscape of snow and ice its grandeur and beauty—­yes, its terrible beauty when inhabited by bears and wolves?”

“But woe betide us, when we meet these monsters!” said Marietta, entering readily into her sister’s jest.

“Why woe betide us?  Every danger and every monster can be overcome, if looked firmly in the face, but not too long, Marietta, not till your own eye trembles.  Now, sister, enough of this; the rain is over, the sun shall shine.  I am no longer ill, and will not be laid aside like a broken play-thing.  I will be sound and healthy; I will flap my wings and float once more over the gay world.”

“Do you know, Sorella, that the higher you fly, the nearer you are to heaven?”

“I will soar, but think not, that like Icarus I will fasten my wings with wax.  No, I am wiser, I will fly with my feet; the sun has no power over them:  they are indeed two suns.  They warm the coldest heart; they set the icy blood in motion, they almost bring the dead to life.  You see, sister, I have adopted the style of speech of my adorers; none of them being present, I will worship and exalt myself.”

Barbarina said all this merrily, but Marietta felt this gayety was not natural.

“Do you know what I have determined upon?” said Barbarina, turning away, so that her face might not be seen; “as I cannot dance either to-day or to-morrow, I will find some other mode of employing my time.  I will go to Pesne and sit for my portrait.”

She had turned away, but Marietta saw that her throat was suffused with a soft flush.

“Will you drive to the palace?” said Marietta.

“Not to the palace, but to Pesne.”