She must
be right, for she could have no object in saying it if it were not
true, could she? Then what does it matter how any one talks about me
now? I will go with you. We cannot marry, but we shall always be
together."
Malipieri's face expressed his amazement.
"But it is impossible!" he cried. "You cannot do that! You do not know
what you are saying!"
"Oh, yes, I do! That poor, kind old Sassi has left me all he had, and
I can go where I please. I will go with you. Would you rather have me
shut up in a convent to die? That is what my mother will try to do
with me, and she will tell people that I was 'mad, poor girl'! Do you
think I do not know her? She wants this little sum of money that I am
to have, too, as if she and the others had not spent all I should have
had. Do you think I am bound to obey my mother, if she takes me to the
convent door, and tells me that I am to stay there for the rest of my
life?"
The gentle voice was clear and strong and indignant now. Malipieri
twisted his fingers one upon another, and sat with his head bent low.
He knew that she had no clear idea of what she was saying when she
proposed to join her existence with his. Her maiden thoughts could
find no harm in it.
"You do not know what your mother said to me, before you came in," he
answered.
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