Had the possibility that she might one day accept such been suggested to her, it would have produced no horror in her mind.

She had no conviction during all these eight months that she never could or would accept such a position from any man.

Why, then, did not matters proceed harmoniously and smoothly between them?
Why had not Paolina become Ludovico's mistress before this time?
What was the meaning of the averted face, and of that broken off "but--" which she had found it so difficult to follow with a completed sentence?
The meaning was, that Paolina's own heart, during those hours of reverie filled with the meditation of her love,--during those pourings forth of her confessions of love to her heavenly confidant in her bedside prayers;--during her nightly review of the love-passages of the day,--her own heart, as it became clearer to her, had revealed to her, that she could not accede to any such proposal as that which, she was well persuaded, the Marchese could alone offer to her;--had revealed it to her, not in obedience to any moral principle; not by any what-do-you-take-me-for process of indignant virtue; but by an instinctive feeling irresistible and not to be gainsayed, that the love she had to bestow must possess its object wholly and entirely, or not at all.

It was quite a matter of course that Ludovico would marry some lady in his rank of life.

She was not ignorant of the position in which he stood with regard to the Contessa Violante.