e my conviction that
many phoenixes may be alive with whom I was unworthy to consort.

After living through the mortal illness which I suffered during the
first days of my residence at Zara--an illness undergone and overcome in
that squalid room described by me in the first part of these Memoirs--I
moved into one of the so-called Quarterioni situated on the beautiful
walls of Zara, and built for the use of officers. A very good room,
which I furnished suitably to my moderate means, together with a
kitchen, formed the whole of my apartment. I engaged a soldier for my
service at a small remuneration. He had orders to retire in the evening
to his quarters, leaving me a light burning. I remained alone; went to
bed, with a book and a candle at my side; read, yawned, and fell asleep.

Now to attack the tale of my first love-adventure! Its details will
perhaps prove tiresome, but they may yet be profitable to the
inexperience of youngsters.

Opposite my windows, at a certain distance, rose the dwelling of three
sisters, noble by birth, but sunk in poverty which had nothing to do
with noble blood. An officer, their brother, sent them trifling monies
from his foreign station, and they earned a little for their livelihood
by various woman's work, with which I saw them occupied. The elder of
these three Graces would not have been ugly, if her bloodshot eyes,
rimmed round with scarlet, had not obscured the lustre of her
countenance. The second was one of those bewitching rogues who are bound
to please. Not tall, but well-made, and a brunette; her hair black and
long; eyes very black and sparkling. Under her demure aspect there
transpired a force of physique and a vivacity which were certainly
seductive. The third was still a girl, lively, spirited, with
possibilities of good or evil in her make.

I never saw these three nymphs except by accident, when I opened the
window at which I used to wash my hands, and when their windows were
also open, which happened seldom. They saluted me with a becoming bow. I
answered with equal decorum and sobriety. Meanwhile, I did not fail, as
time went on, to notice that whenever I opened my window to wash my
hands, that little devil, the second sister, lost no time in opening her
window too, and washed her hands precisely while I was washing mine;
also, when she bent her lovely head to greet me, she kept those fine
black eyes of hers fixed on my face in a sort of dream, and with a kind
of languo