perfect in its symmetry; her gait was peculiarly graceful, and her
manners were evidently modest and reserved: for she looked neither to
the right nor to the left, but pursued her way with all the
unobtrusiveness of strict propriety. I longed to behold her face; and,
quickening my steps, presently passed her. I then had an opportunity of
beholding the most beautiful countenance that ever adorned a woman.
Heaven seemed to smile through the mirror of her mild black eyes; and
there was such an indescribable sweetness in the general expression of
her face, that it might have served a limner to copy for the countenance
of an angel! She saw that I gazed intently upon her, and instantly
turned aside into another street; for I should observe that females of
the lower orders in Naples are not permitted to wear veils.

"I stood looking after her until she was lost to my view; and then I
went slowly back to the inn, my mind full of the image of the beautiful
unknown.

"Day after day did I rove through that same quarter of the city in the
hope of meeting her again; and every evening did I return to my lonely
chamber, chagrined and disappointed. My spirits sank, my appetite fled,
and I grew restless and melancholy. At length I one morning beheld her
in the flower-market, and I stood gazing on her with such enthusiastic,
and yet such respectful admiration, that though she turned away, still
methought it was not with a feeling of resentment.

"I was transfixed to the spot for some minutes, and it was not until she
had disappeared amidst the crowd gathered in that quarter, that I could
so collect my scattered thoughts as to curse my folly for having omitted
such an opportunity of accosting her. I however inquired of an old woman
of whom she had purchased some flowers, who she was; but all the
information I could glean was, that she had recently been in the habit
of buying a few flowers every Wednesday of that same old woman. I went
away more contented than I had felt for many days, because I now felt
certain that I knew where to meet the lovely creature again.
Nevertheless, during the six succeeding days I rambled about the flower
market and the squalid quarter of the city where I had first seen her,
but my search was unsuccessful; and the greater the disappointment I
experienced, the more powerful grew my love. Yes, it was indeed love
which I now felt, for the first time, and for a being to whom I had
never spoken--whom I had only