"
"And strong vanity, deeply wounded, by a woman too, will breed a
hate as violent and vicious, perhaps, as any passion that ever
prompted a crime," rejoined the lawyer, still meditating deeply.
"Per Dio Santo!" he exclaimed, after a pause of silence, striking
his open palm strongly on the table, as he spoke, and speaking with
a sort of solemn earnestness, "I am inclined to think, after all,
that he is the man. The Marchesino," he went on again, thoughtfully,
"went out for a frolic--intelligible enough; The girl went out to
look after the preparations for her work--again quite plausible. But
in the name of all the saints what took the Conte Leandro out of the
Porta Nuova at that hour of the morning, after passing the night at
a ball?"
"I still think that the Venetian girl has done the deed," said
Manutoli, whose opinion was no doubt in some degree warped by his
desire that the criminal should turn out to be a foreign plebeian
rather than a Ravenna noble. "After all Leandro is not the man to do
such a deed. He is such a poor creature. Besides, it seems to me
that the girl's motive for hate was the stronger. I don't know that
wounded vanity has had many such crimes to answer for, whereas
jealousy--and such a jealousy--why, it is an old story you know."
"Well, we shall see. Any way, I am very much more easy as to the
result.
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