The violence of his gesture drew a gasp of pain from him.

At last, when he had mastered it: "They are different," said he, "in that their lives are not their own to dispose of as they will.

They belong to the State which they were born to govern, and in nothing else does this become of so much importance as in their mating.

It behoves them to contract such alliances as shall redound to the advantage of their people." A toss of her auburn head was Valentina's interpolation, but her uncle continued relentlessly in his cold, formal tones--such tones as those in which he might have addressed an assembly of his captains: "In the present instance we are threatened--Babbiano and Urbino--by a common foe.

And whilst divided, neither of us could withstand him, united, we shall combine to his overthrow.