"
"One thing is clear--and a very good thing it is--that Violante has
no more desire to marry me than I have to marry her. As soon as ever
Carnival is over, my own darling, I mean to speak definitively to my
uncle, and tell him, in the first place, that he must give up all
notion of a marriage between Violante and me."
"As soon as Carnival is over. Why, that will be the day after to-
morrow,"--said Paolina, flushing all over.
"Exactly so; the day after to-morrow. But I mean only to tell him,
in the first instance, that I cannot make the marriage he would have
me. Then, when that is settled--and some little time allowed for him
to get over his mortification, il povero zio--will come the
announcement of the marriage I can make. I have quite fixed with
myself to do it the day after to-morrow. But--I don't know what to
make of my uncle. He is not in the least like himself. I am afraid
he must be ill. I fully expected that I should have to fight all
through Carnival against constant exhortations to pay my court to
the Contessa. But he has never spoken to me a word on the subject."
"Perhaps he has discovered that the lady likes the proposal no
better than you do," suggested Paolina, with a wise look of child-
like gravity up at her lover's face.
"No; it's not that. He never dreams of her having any will in the
matter apart from that of her family.
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