but he is
rarely wise if he follows her advice, like a rule, to the letter, for
no woman goes from thought to accomplishment by the same road as a
man. You cannot make a pointer of a setter, nor teach a bulldog to
retrieve.

If Giovanni had sent in his resignation that evening, or even during
the next day, as he was ready to do, it would have been accepted in
the ordinary course of things; he would then, without doubt, have
found employment for his talents and energy, either at home or abroad.
He would in all probability have succeeded in life, because he
possessed the elements of success; he would have married Angela in due
time, and the two would probably have lived happily for many years,
because they were suited to each other in all ways and were possessed
of excellent constitutions. If all this had happened, their story
would have little interest except for themselves, or as an example to
young couples; and it is a deplorable fact that there is hardly
anything so dull and tiresome in the world as a good example. The
hoardings along life's dusty roads are plentifully plastered with good
examples, in every stage of preservation, from those just fresh from
the moral bill-poster's roll, redolent of paste, to the good old ones
that are peeling off in tatters, as if in sheer despair because nobody
has ever stopped to look at them. May the gods of literature keep all
good story-tellers from concocting advertisements of the patent
virtues!

The most important and decisive moment in Angela's life, from its
beginning to its end, had passed so quietly that she never suspected
its presence, and almost the very next instant brought her the first
kiss of the only man she had ever loved, or was to love thereafter.

CHAPTER V

Madame Bernard had not overstated the advantages of the lodging she
occasionally let to foreign ladies who travelled alone and practised
economy, and Angela refused to occupy it till she had satisfied
herself that her old governess's own room was just as large and just
as sunny and just as comfortable.

In the first place, it was much bigger than she had expected, and when
she had spread out all her possessions and put away her clothes, and
had arranged her pretty toilet set and the few books that were quite
her own, she found that she was not at all cramped for space. The
ceiling was not very high, it was true, and there was only one window,
but it was a very wide one, and outside it there w