As it was not yet time to go out, and in order to get rid of her aunt, Veronica bade Elettra take out a ball gown which needed some change and improvement, Matilde understood well enough that it was useless to wait longer for the chance of being again alone with her niece, and in a few minutes she went away.
On the whole, she had the impression that the prospect was very good.
But after she had closed the door, she turned in the outer room, stood still a moment and looked back, allowing her face for a moment to betray what she felt.

The expression was a strange one; for it showed doubt, fear, conditional hatred, and potential vengeance--a complicated state of mind, which the cleverest judge of human faces could hardly have understood from Matilde's features.

Then, with bent head, and closed hands hanging by her sides, she went on her way.
An hour later Veronica and her maid were driving through the rain westward, towards Bianca's villa.

As they approached their destination, Veronica felt that she was by no means as calm and indifferent as she had expected to be.

Yesterday, it had seemed a very simple matter to go to the garden, to find Gianluca there, to walk ten or twenty paces with him out of hearing of Bianca, and to listen to what he had to say.