The Count of Monte Cristo

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could in his solitude, he was given to alternating fits of sadness and
enthusiasm, was often angry and capricious, and always sarcastic. None
of the lads of Pampinara, Palestrina, or Valmontone had been able
to gain any influence over him or even to become his companion. His
disposition (always inclined to exact concessions rather than to make
them) kept him aloof from all friendships. Teresa alone ruled by a look,
a word, a gesture, this impetuous character, which yielded beneath the
hand of a woman, and which beneath the hand of a man might have broken,
but could never have been bended. Teresa was lively and gay, but
coquettish to excess. The two piastres that Luigi received every month
from the Count of San-Felice's steward, and the price of all the little
carvings in wood he sold at Rome, were expended in ear-rings, necklaces,
and gold hairpins. So that, thanks to her friend's generosity, Teresa
was the most beautiful and the best-attired peasant near Rome. The two
children grew up together, passing all their time with each other, and
giving themselves up to the wild ideas of their different characters.
Thus, in all their dreams, their wishes, and their conversations, Vampa