And the countess?
Is she wholly disinterested?
Has she been disappointed by the marriage she made, or not?
She was born a Serra, like yourself, and she married Macomer in the days of the old court, when he was a favourite with the old king and had a brilliant position, and people said that he might be one of the first men in the kingdom.

But Garibaldi swept all that away, and Macomer's chances with it, and the countess is a disappointed woman, for her husband has remained just what he always was--plain Count Macomer, with his name and his palace, neither of them extraordinary.

Truly, Donna Veronica, though you may refuse to speak to me again for what I say, I will dare to tell you that you must be very unsuspicious! They conceal from you the honourable offer of such a man as Gianluca della Spina, the eldest son of a great old house, and they announce your betrothal with Count Bosio before either you or he know of it.

One need not be very distrustful to think all that strange--even granting that Count Bosio is the best of men, a matter of which you are a judge." "I would rather that you should not say those things to me," said Veronica, a little pale, and turning half round as though she would go back to Bianca and Ghisleri.
"Forgive me--for I have risked such opinion of me as you may have, to say them.

There may be reasonable doubt about them.