"I had something especial to say to you." Veronica glanced at him, half startled.

His tone and manner were quite different from anything she had hitherto heard and seen.

She saw that he was not looking at her, and her eyes went back to the roots of the trees.
"Yes," she said, almost inaudibly, for she did not know whether he expected her to say anything.
"I have a very good friend, Donna Veronica," he continued; "I have been with him this morning.

You have heard his name often of late, I think, and you know him--Gianluca della Spina." Veronica started a little, and again the colour came and went in her delicate face.
"Yes," she said.

"I--I know him a little." "He loves you, Donna Veronica," Taquisara said, his voice softening almost to a whisper, for he did not wish Bianca Corleone to hear him.
"He loves you so much that he is almost dangerously ill--indeed, I think it is dangerous--because you will not marry him." He paused to see what she would do.