Well, no doubt.

I could love a woman with whom I might never have spoken at all--surely--and why not?
But you take it for granted that she knows you love her and expects you to ask for her, and has been told that you have done so and has herself dictated the refusal.

You are credulous and despondent, and you are not strong.

Besides, you sit here all day long, brooding and doing nothing but expecting to die, and hoping that she will shed a tear when she hears of your untimely end.

Is that what you call making love in Naples ?" "I have told you that I can do nothing." "It does not follow that there is nothing to be done." "What is there, for instance ?" "Go to the Palazzo Macomer and find out the truth yourself.