It was hard to find in her now so little warmth of heart, so
little power to understand, above all such a display of determination
and such quiet force in argument. Very indolent women are sometimes very
deceptive in regard to the will they hold in reserve, but Beatrice could
not have believed that her mother could influence her as she had done.
She reflected that it had surely been within the limits of the
Marchesa's choice to take her daughter's side so soon as she had seen
that the latter had mistaken her own feelings. She need not have agreed
with San Miniato, on that fatal evening at Tragara, that the marriage
was definitely settled, until she had at least exchanged a word with
Beatrice herself.
The future looked black enough on that hot summer morning. The girl was
to be tied for life to a man she despised and hated, to a man who did
not even care for her, as she was now convinced, to a man with a past of
which she knew little and of which the few incidents she had learned
repelled her now, instead of attracting her. She fancied how he had
spoken to those other women, much as he had spoken to her, perhaps a
little more eloquently as, perhaps, he had not been thinking of their
fortunes but of themselves, but still always in that high-comedy tone
with the studied gesture and the cadenced intonation.
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