"
"I really do not see that you need blame yourself for--"
"I ought not to have left her side. Yet, God knows, it never entered
my head to dream of the possibility of any harm; all seemed so
still, so peaceful, so utterly quiet; yet, at that moment, the hand
that did the deed could not have been far off."
"Let the circumstances have been what they might," resumed Manutoli,
after a moment's pause, "nobody would have dreamed of connecting you
with the deed had it not been for the strong motive which seems so
clear and intelligible to every fool who sets his brains to work on
the matter. I suppose it is true that you had been informed of your
uncle's intention to offer the poor girl marriage?"
"True that I had been told of it, for the first time, by herself
during our drive, poor girl."
"Ah--h--h! To think of such a man being guilty of such insane folly-
-and of all the misery that is likely to grow out of it. How on
earth did she ever contrive to get such a fatal influence over him?"
"She schemed for it from her first arrival here--aimed avowedly to
herself at nothing less than inducing the Marchese di Castelmare to
marry her--and succeeded. For all that, I'll tell you what, Adolfo--
there was a great deal more good in that poor girl than you would
have thought."
"Bah! Good in her--Well, she's gone.
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