And it must be supposed that the
resolution was then taken between them which led to the summons of
Signor Fortini, the family lawyer, to the palazzo on the first day
of Lent, as was related in the first book of this narrative. It was
on the morning of Ash Wednesday, it will be remembered, that the
lawyer had received from the Marchese the formal communication of
his intention to marry the Signorina Bianca Lalli.
The reader knows, also, that what took place in the interval between
the night of the reception at the Palazzo Castelmare and the morning
of the first day in Lent was not calculated, as might have been
supposed, to assist in bringing the mind of the Marchese to a final
determination to that effect. The terrible degree to which his
jealousy and anger had been excited on the night of the ball at the
Circolo by Ludovico and Bianca will also not have been forgotten.
The conduct which had awakened that jealousy was, in a great
measure, if not entirely, innocent on the part of both the
offenders, as the reader will also, no doubt, remember. The
similarity of the costume adopted by the Marchesino and Bianca was
entirely accidental. And this, trifling as the circumstance may
seem, had contributed very materially to arouse the Marchese's wrath
and jealous agony. Bianca, perhaps, under the circumstances, ought
not to have danced as frequently as she did with the Marchesino.
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