And again, as he walked, the lawyer turned his mind, with all the
analytical power of which he was master, to the question whether or
no there were any possibility of hope that the Marchese Ludovico
were innocent of the crime imputed to him,--whether there were any
other theory possible by virtue of which any other person might be
suspected of the deed.
His anxiety to speak with Professor Tomosarchi indicated, indeed,
that he had not wholly abandoned, despite what he had said on that
point both to the Marchese Ludovico and his uncle, the hope that the
death might be pronounced to have resulted from natural causes.
Possibly, had the lawyer possessed more medical knowledge, this
chance might have seemed to him a somewhat better one; but, to his
thinking, it was altogether incredible that a healthy girl of
Bianca's age should lie down to sleep, and, without any such change
of position as would disorder her attire--without any evidence of a
death-struggle--should simply never wake again. Again the lawyer's
meditations told him that small hope was to be found in this
direction.
Were there any persons in the city who might be supposed to feel
enmity or ill-will towards the singer? Many a one of the young
nobles had, doubtless, been kept at arms' length by Bianca in a
manner that might easily be supposed to breed hatred in a vain and
ill-conditioned heart.
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