As we rode on, Leoni recovered his usual serenity of manner and spoke to me with all his former affection. Enslaved and bound to him by a blind passion, I was an instrument whose every chord he played upon at will. If he was pensive I became melancholy; if he was cheerful, I forgot all my sorrows and all my remorse to smile at his jests; if he was passionate, I forgot the weariness of my brain and the exhaustion caused by weeping; I recovered strength enough to love him and to tell him of my love. VIII We arrived at Geneva, where we remained only long enough to rest. We soon travelled into the interior of Switzerland and there laid aside all fear of pursuit and discovery. Ever since our departure, Leoni's only thought had been to make his way with me to some peaceful rural retreat, there to live on love and poetry in a never-ending tête à-tête. That delicious dream was realized. We found in one of the valleys near Lago Maggiore one of the most picturesque of chalets in a fascinating situation. At a very small expense we had it arranged conveniently inside, and we hired it at the beginning of April. We passed there six months of intoxicating bliss, for which I shall thank God all my life, although He has made me pay very dear for them. We were absolutely alone and cut off from all relations with the world. We were served by a young couple, good-humored, sturdy country people, who added to our contentment by the spectacle of that which they enjoyed. The woman did the housework and the cooking, the husband drove to pasture a cow and two goats, which composed all our live stock, milked and made the cheese. We rose early, and, when the weather was fine, breakfasted a short distance from the house, in a pretty orchard, where the trees, abandoned to the hand of nature, put forth dense branches in every direction, less rich in fruit than in flowers and foliage. Then we went out to drive in the valley or climbed some mountain. We gradually adopted the habit of taking long excursions, and every day discovered some new spot. Mountainous countries have the peculiar charm that one can explore them for a long time before one becomes acquainted with all their beauties and all their secrets. When we went on our longest excursions, Joanne, our light-hearted major-domo, attended us with a basket of provisions, and nothing could be more delightful than our lunches on the grass. Leoni was easily satisfied except as to what he called the refectory. At last, when we had found a little verdure-clad shelf half-way down the slope of some deep gorge, sheltered from wind and sun, with a lovely view, and a brook close at hand sweetened by aromatic plants, he would himself arrange the repast on a white napkin spread on the ground. He would send Joanne to pick strawberries and plunge the wine into the cool water of the stream. He would light a spirit lamp and cook fresh eggs. By the same process I used to make excellent coffee after the cold meat and fruit.