e, will just run close
in and take a near look, and then square away and go to Livorno, where
there is much more to amuse her officers, than here in Porto Ferrajo.
This Sir Brown has his Ghita, as well as Raoul Yvard."

"No, not a Ghita, I fear, Raoul," answered the girl, smiling in spite of
herself, while her color almost insensibly deepened--"Livorno has few
ignorant country girls, like me, who have been educated in a lone
watch-tower on the coast."

"Ghita," answered Raoul, with feeling, "that poor lone watch-tower of
thine might well be envied by many a noble dame at Roma and at Napoli;
it has left thee innocent and pure--a gem that gay capitals seldom
contain; or, if found there, not in its native beauty, which they
sully by use."

"What know'st thou, Raoul, of Roma and Napoli, and of noble dames and
rich gems?" asked the girl, smiling, the tenderness which had filled her
heart at that moment betraying itself in her eyes.

"What do I know of such things, truly! why, I have been at both places,
and have seen what I describe. I went to Roma on purpose to see the Holy
Father, in order to make certain whether our French opinions of his
character and infallibility were true or not, before I set up in
religion for myself."

"And thou _didst_ find him holy and venerable, Raoul," interposed the
girl, with earnestness and energy, for this was the great point of
separation between them--"I _know_ thou found'st him thus, and worthy to
be the head of an ancient and true church. My eyes never beheld him; but
this do I _know_ to be true."

Raoul was aware that the laxity of his religious opinions, opinions that
he may be said to have inherited from his country, as it then existed
morally, alone prevented Ghita from casting aside all other ties, and
following his fortunes in weal and in woe. Still he was too frank and
generous to deceive, while he had ever been too considerate to strive to
unsettle her confiding and consoling faith. Her infirmity even, for so
he deemed her notions to be, had a charm in his eyes; few men, however
loose or sceptical in their own opinions on such matters, finding any
pleasure in the contemplation of a female infidel; and he had never
looked more fondly into her anxious but lovely face than he did at this
very instant, making his reply with a truth that bordered on
magnanimity.

"_Thou_ art my religion, Ghita!" he said; "in thee I worship purity and
holiness and--"

"Nay--nay, Raoul, _do_