bstraction, and she
saw also that she alone was able to attract his attention and interest
him when the fit was upon him. Slowly, by a gradual study of him, she
learned what few had ever guessed, namely, that beneath the experienced
man of the world, under his modest manner and his gentle ways, there
lay a powerful mainspring of ambition, a mine of strength, which would
one day exert itself and make itself felt upon his surroundings. He had
developed slowly, feeding upon many experiences of the world in many
countries, his quick Italian intelligence comprehending often more than
it seemed to do, while the quiet dignity he got from his Spanish blood
made him appear often very cold. But now and again, when under the
influence of some large idea, his tongue was loosed in the charm of
Corona's presence, and he spoke to her, as he had never spoken to any
one, of projects and plans which should make the world move. She did not
always understand him wholly, but she knew that the man she loved was
something more than the world at large believed him to be, and there was
a thrill of pride in the thought which delighted her inmost soul. She,
too, was ambitious, but her ambition was all for him. She felt that there
was little room for common aspirations in his position or in her own. All
that high birth, and wealth, and personal consideration could give, they
both had abundantly, beyond their utmost wishes; anything they could
desire beyond that must lie in a larger sphere of action than mere
society, in the world of political power. She herself had had dreams, and
entertained them still, of founding some great institution of charity, of
doing something for her poorer fellows. But she learned by degrees that
Giovanni looked further than to such ordinary means of employing power,
and that there was in him a great ambition to bring great forces to bear
upon great questions for the accomplishment of great results. The six
months of her engagement to him had not only strengthened her love for
him, already deep and strong, but had implanted in her an unchanging
determination to second him in all his life, to omit nothing in her power
which could assist him in the career he should choose for himself, and
which she regarded as the ultimate field for his extraordinary powers. It
was strange that, while granting him everything else, people had never
thought of calling him a man of remarkable intelligence. But no one knew
him as Corona knew hi