Then Bosio started violently and turned very white, almost rising from his seat.
"Murder ?" he cried; "what do you mean ?" Matilde's smooth red lips smiled.
"I merely mentioned it as an instance of a crime," she said, without any change of tone.

"You said it would be a crime for you to marry Veronica.
It did not strike me that it could be called by that name.

Crimes are murder, stealing, forgery--such things.

Who would say that it was criminal for Bosio Macomer to marry Veronica Serra?
There is no reason against it.

I daresay that many people wonder why you have not married her already, and that many others suppose that you will before long.