They had been, to a certain degree, acquaintances from an early
period of their childhood. He was the only young man she had ever
known with anything like the same degree of intimacy; and Ludovico,
as we know, was not devoid of qualities calculated to win a lady's
love.
But Violante knew right well that Ludovico did not love her, and
that there had never been any probability that he should do so; and,
had she any lingering doubt on the subject, the good Assunta took
very good care to dispel it. And there was a bitterness in this
knowledge which did much towards producing in Violante the state of
mind that has been described. She was not in love with Ludovico, but
she had liked him--he was the only man she had ever liked at all.
She knew that she was to be married to him if he could be persuaded
to marry her, and if she were sufficiently obedient to marry him.
She thought that no man could ever love her, and she knew very
certainly that this man did not. Her own hope and firmest purpose,
therefore, was, if such resistance to the higher authorities might
in any way be possible to her, to avoid a marriage with Ludovico di
Castelmare: if possible to her, she would fain escape from any
marriage at all. If this should be altogether impossible, then the
Duca di San Sisto, as well as anybody else. It was not that she had
any hope that the Duca di San Sisto would love her: but, at least,
it had not been proposed to him to love her, and found impossible by
him to do so.
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