Tale of male friendship surviving female perfidy. The Italian mountains witness a reunion between two friends of youth, an English traveller and the other a scholar and hermit who had lived in the area for ten years. Slowly they unfold the story of their separation by a beautiful woman they both loved and who was false to them both. An action to protect his friend from a murder charge had prompted the hermit to flee England, and a calumny implicating him in the murder prevented his friend from following and forgiving him for many years. Condensed atmosphere. (PB)