I do not intend to wed this ducal clod you have chosen to be my husband." Guidobaldo stared at her with brows raised, and wonder in his fine eyes.

Then he shrugged his shoulders a trifle wearily.

This handsome and well-beloved Guidobaldo was very much a prince, so schooled to princely ways as to sometimes forget that he was a man.
"We forgive much to the impetuousness of youth," said he, very coldly.
"But there are bounds to the endurance of every one of us.

As your uncle and your prince, I claim a double duty from you, and you owe a double allegiance to my wishes.

By my twofold authority I have commanded you to wed with Gian Maria." The princess in her was all forgotten, and it was just the woman who answered him, in a voice of protest: "But, Highness, I do not love him." A shade of impatience crossed his lofty face.
"I do not remember," he made answer wearily, "that I loved your aunt.
Yet we were wed, and through habit came to love each other and to be happy together." "I can understand that Monna Elizabetta should have come to love you," she returned.