He came to me and told me that they had planned an
excursion to the forest, as soon as they left the ball-room. The
Conte Leandro told me of it, because, he said, he thought it an
imprudent thing, and I should disapprove it. But why should I, you
know? I said nothing to either of them about it. Why not let them
have such an innocent enjoyment? Young people must be young, you
know, Signor Fortini. For my part, I preferred making the best of my
way to my bed, after being up all night." There was a strange kind
of nervous eagerness and hurry in the Marchese's manner of saying
this, which struck the lawyer as affording yet further evidence of
the degree to which his mind had been utterly unhinged by the
struggle which had been going on in it, doubtless for a longer time
than he, the lawyer, was aware of, between the influence over him
which the singer had acquired, and his sense of the terrible nature
of the step she was inducing him to take. It seemed necessary to
recall his attention to that view of the matter which was now of the
most urgent interest, the suspicions which rested on the Marchese
Ludovico.
"As you say, Signor Marchese," he resumed, "that Signor Ludovico
should have been with La Bianca in the forest, affords no proof
sufficient to convict him of being the author of this crime;
although the fact of his being the last person in whose company she
was ever seen alive, does suffice, in a certain degree, to throw on
him the onus of showing that he is innocent of it.
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