We only notice this one because it shall lie
bleeding, and get no sympathy at all.
PART VII.
DISSOLVING VIEW.
That he might not meet with his own countrymen, Ralph halted at Milan,
and in the great deserted gallery of the Brera went steadily to work.
If, as it often happened, Suzette's pale face got between him and the
canvas, he mentioned his own name and said "renown," and took a turn in
the remote corridor where young Raphael's _Sposializo_ hung opposite
that marvel of Guercino's--poor Hagar and her boy Ishmael driven
abroad. These adjuncts and the fiercer passion of self had their effect.
He never wrote to Suzette, but sent secretly for his baggage, and was
well pleased with the consciousness that he could forget her. After
three months he set out for Florence and studied the masterpieces of
Andrea del Sarto, and tried his hand at the _Flora_ of Titian.
He went into society somewhat, and was very much afraid his unworthy
conduct in Paris might be bruited abroad. Indeed, he could hardly
forgive himself the fondness he had known, and came to regard Suzette as
a tolerably bad person, who had bewitched him. He burned all her
letters, and a little lock of hair he had clipped while she was asleep
once, and blotted the whole experience out of his diary.
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