I can tell you that no woman has the right to throw away such love as his, to ruin such a life as his, to break such a heart without a thought and without so much as hearing the man speak--whatever this wretched society in which we live may say about proprieties and rights and wrongs, and the difference between the proper behaviour for young girls and married women.

This is God's earth, Donna Veronica--not society's!" Veronica said nothing; but there was perplexity in her face, and she looked down, and pulled at one finger of her glove.

She was wondering whether, if she came on the next day, and stood with Gianluca della Spina on that very spot, he would speak for himself as strongly and well as his friend had been speaking for him.
Somehow, she doubted it, and somehow, too, she knew that if by magic Taquisara should all at once turn out to be the real Gianluca,--not the Gianluca she knew,--she should be better satisfied with the world.

For as things seemed just then, she was not satisfied at all, and the future was more dim and uncertain than ever.

Still she looked down, thinking, and Taquisara glanced at her occasionally, and respected her silence.
"You do not know Bosio Macomer," she said, at last.