It had come to-night, but it was of a nature which made it wiser not to tell Gregorio about it.

Such things, being complicated and delicate, and difficult of execution, were best kept to herself, at least until her plans were matured and ready.

But this time, she believed that she had at last what she wanted.

The scheme flashed upon her all at once, complete and feasible, and perfectly safe, but she resolved to think it over for twenty-four hours before finally deciding to adopt it.
And while such things were being said and done in the lonely night, and deeply pondered through the long, silent days, Veronica came and went peacefully, with sad but not unhappy eyes, her thoughts fixed upon the new path by which her single sorrow was to lead her up to the eternity of all celestial joys.
In those days she determined to lead a holy life, in the memory of the dead betrothed, and perhaps in the thought that by the outpouring of much good around her, she might yet obtain mercy for the soul of one self-slain.

She meant not to cut herself off from all mankind, devoting her maidenhood to heaven and her body to the servitude of slow suffering, whereby some say that the spirit may be saved most certainly--in the hard rule of daily dying, and daily rising again one day nearer to death.