No doubt she had a liking for Ludovico of a different kind
from that which she had professed to feel for his uncle. No doubt
her imagination had been fired, and her heart awakened to long for
such love as she had seen given to each other by Ludovico and
Paolina, which she too well understood to be of a kind which,
despite her good resolutions, would not be found in her union with
the Marchese Lamberto. And no doubt these feelings manifested
themselves in her visible manner during the conversation which
followed her confession to him of the engagement between her and his
uncle.
It may also be suggested to those who have never been called upon to
act as Ludovico was called upon to act, under the circumstances of
receiving such a communication, so communicated from such a woman,
that they would do well not to judge too severely any such parts of
his behaviour under the ordeal, as may have been of a nature to
produce a very deplorable effect on the jaundiced mind of his uncle,
though, in reality, there was little real meaning and less serious
harm in them.
Of course the unfortunate Marchese could not be expected to see or
reason on what he saw in any such mood or tone. As he said in the
writing he had left, what he saw as Ludovico and Bianca entered the
forest, side by side, in deep and close talk, made a furious madman
of him.
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