It would make a difference, perhaps."
"To you, Signora?" asked Sabina quickly.
"No. To you. Perhaps it would make a great difference in the way I
should act." She paused an instant. "It is rather hard to ask, I
know," she added shyly.
She seemed to be a timid little woman.
"Please tell us what it is that you wish to know, Signora," said
Malipieri, in the same kind tone, trying to encourage her.
"I should like to ask--I hardly know just how to say it--if you would
tell me whether you are fond of each other--"
"What difference can that make to you, Signora?" Malipieri asked with
sudden hardness. "You know that I shall not break my word."
She was hurt by the tone, and looked down meekly, as if she had
deserved the words.
"We love each other with all our hearts," said Sabina, before either
of the others could say more. "Nothing shall ever part us, in this
world or the next."
There was a ring of clear defiance to fate in the girl's voice, and
Signora Malipieri turned to her quickly, with a look of sympathy. She
knew the cry that comes from the heart.
"But you think that you can never be married," she said, almost to
herself.
"How can we? You know that we cannot!" It was Malipieri who answered.
Then the timid little woman raised her head and looked him full in the
face, and spoke without any more hesitation.
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