"Major
rerum sibi nascitur ordo!" She was intent on playing a higher and
greater game. Was it likely she would be able so to fix the harpoon
she had successfully thrown in the very vitals of the prey, so to
make this man feel that she was absolutely essential to his
happiness, as to induce him to marry her? That was the question! And
Bianca did not delude herself into imagining that anything that had
passed between herself and the Marchese that morning entitled her to
consider the battle which should lead to that victory as even begun.
The Diva did not conceal from herself the greatness and arduous
nature of the task before her. She knew what a Marchese of mature
age, of noble lineage, and of unblemished reputation, was; and she
knew what she was. But she did not appreciate those extra
difficulties in the case, which arose from the special social
position, and still more from the special character and temperament
of the man,--and these were the greatest difficulties of all!
On the whole, she was sanguine; and what was perhaps more to the
purpose, old Quinto, when they talked the matter over together, and
the general result of the morning interview had been reported to
him, was sanguine too.
"Depend upon it, bambina mia," he said, "it is the best game--the
real game. Young fry will rise to the bait more readily; but they
also wriggle off the hook much more easily.
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