And if Love, as sure he is so, be the child of accident--of situation; warmed in this hour, and cherished by that which chills and wastes him in the next; aided to-day by absence, which makes that precious which possession held too cheap; to-morrow, triumphing by that very presence which overcomes, when at a distance we might have denied;--if these be truths--as sure they are--take one truth more, and let who can gainsay it--love, born amidst zephyrs, lives but in a storm! Flowers may charm; but these have thorns; which, cease to pique, and he will cease to worship them. Pain is his food, of life--far more than pleasure! mistresses or wives, the women who goad us to distraction are those ever from whom we have the hardest task to part. Di Vasari was of that age, and of that temperament, in which absence was likely to weaken a passion rather than increase it. We sigh to Eugenia of Sophia's coldness, and end in forgetting Sophia altogether! But the heart that wanders is not lost for ever. He had quitted Florence with unwillingness--in horror--almost in despair. Quitted it only, at last, because, unhappily, his stay might have aggravated those dangers which were past his hope to aid. And was it in man, now, that he could look upon that beautiful form--that form which he had so loved, so worshipped--and fancy but the possibility of its destruction--of its decay! See those dark eyes, into which he had so often gazed for hope and happiness--their lustre yet undimmed, but shining over a pallid cheek, and soon to shine no more! That long black hair which flowed in ringlets down a neck so full and white! Those fair round arms and polished throat--these are charms to live, and still have power, long after the transient red and white, which charms the first observer, is familiar! Could he behold his mistress--so young and beauteous still--so soon to be resigned for ever--now before him, and not forget that any other woman lived, on whom he ever had bestowed a thought? not feel that, without her life--her love--her safety--life--all the world--to him, would be no longer worth possessing?