en for a month, seemed to him the
most delightful of prospects, for he was weary of the city, of society,
of everything save the woman he was about to marry. Of her he could never
tire; he could not imagine that in her company the days would ever seem
long, even in old Saracinesca, among the grey rocks of the Sabines. The
average man is gregarious, perhaps; but in strong minds there is often a
great desire for solitude, or at least for retirement, in the society of
one sympathetic soul. The instinct which bids such people leave the world
for a time is never permanent, unless they become morbid. It is a natural
feeling; and a strong brain gathers strength from communing with itself
or with its natural mate. There are few great men who have not at one
time or another withdrawn into solitude, and their retreat has generally
been succeeded by a period of extraordinary activity. Strong minds are
often, at some time or another, exposed to doubt and uncertainty
incomprehensible to a smaller intellect--due, indeed, to that very
breadth of view which contemplates the same idea from a vast number of
sides. To a man so endowed, the casting-vote of some one whom he loves,
and with whom he almost unconsciously sympathises, is sometimes necessary
to produce action, to direct the faculties, to guide the overflowing
flood of his thought into the mill-race of life's work. Without a certain
amount of prejudice to determine the resultant of its forces, many a
fine intellect would expend its power in burrowing among its own
labyrinths, unrecognised, misunderstood, unheard by the working-day world
without. For the working-day world never lacks prejudice to direct its
working.

For some time Giovanni and Corona talked of their plans for the spring
and summer. They would read, they would work together at the schemes for
uniting and improving their estates; they would build that new road from
Astrardente to Saracinesca, concerning which there had been so much
discussion during the last year; they would visit every part of their
lands together, and inquire into the condition of every peasant; they
would especially devote their attention to extending the forest
enclosures, in which Giovanni foresaw a source of wealth for his
children; above all, they would talk to their hearts' content, and feel,
as each day dawned upon their happiness, that they were free to go where
they would, without being confronted at every turn by the troublesome
duties o