"My dear Conte," said Fortini, "I have just done the painful task
which you, doubtless, have kindly come to undertake. You must excuse
the Marchese if he declines, for the present, to see you. You will
readily understand how terrible the shock has been to him. He is, as
might be expected, quite broken down by it. In truth, I wish you had
had the telling him instead of me. It was most painful."
"But, Signor Fortini," urged the poet, eagerly, as the lawyer was
turning away to return to the Marchese, "are you aware--have you
heard what is said in the town?--that the Marchese had offered
marriage to La Bianca, and that this was the cause--of course I do
not believe anything of the kind myself--but I assure you it is what
people are saying. And I think the Marchese ought to be told, you
know, for--"
"I will tell the Marchese of your kind intention, Signor Conte,"
said the lawyer; "I think it would be better for you not to attempt
seeing him now. And, in the meantime, you cannot do better than to
contradict, most emphatically, any such monstrously absurd reports,
as those you have mentioned."
"You know, of course, that Ludovico is arrested; and I am shocked to
say, that the general opinion in the city is very much against him.
Of course I need not tell you that I am perfectly convinced of his
entire innocence.
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