She has had her reward, poor
soul; and I pity her with all my heart. But as for the good in her--
"
"There was good in her, and not a little. I tell you that if you or
any one else could have heard all that passed between us, I should
hardly be suspected of having murdered her, poor girl."
"That is likely enough; but--"
"Do you know, Manutoli, I have a very strong idea that if this had
not happened, the marriage with the Marchese would never have come
off?"
"You think that, between us all, we should have induced him to
listen to reason?"
"I don't know about that; I was not thinking of that; I think that
Bianca would have been induced to listen to reason; I think that the
scheme would have come to nothing through her renunciation of it."
"When, according to your own account, she had been scheming all the
time she has been here to bring it about?" said Manutoli, with
arched eyebrows.
"Yes, even so. She had never known--how should she?--that such a
marriage would turn me out on the world a beggar; she had never
known what sort and what degree of misery and ruin it would bring
about to all parties."
"And you told her this?"
"Yes, in some degree I told her. As to the effect of such a marriage
on myself, I told her simply the entire truth."
"And you are disposed to think that the Diva--No, poor girl! I
didn't mean to speak sneeringly of her.
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