"I have it from my lord himself."
She knit her brows, her eyes upon the ground; then slowly she raised them,
and looked at me again, the same unusual seriousness and alertness in every
line of her face.
"Why, by what dark ways does he burrow to his ends?" she mused.
And then her eyes grew lively, her expression cunning and vengeful. "I see
it!" she exclaimed. "0, it is as clear as crystal. This is the Roman
manner of using complaisant husbands."
"Madonna!" I rebuked her angrily--angry to think that anyone should
conceive that Bianca could be so abused.
"Gesu!" she returned with a shrug. "The thing is plain enough if you will
but look at it. Here his excellency dares nothing, lest he should provoke
the resentment of that uncompromising Lord of Pagliano. But once she is
safely away--as Cosimo's wife..."
"Stop!" I cried, putting out a hand as if I would cover her mouth. Then
collecting myself. "Do you suggest that Cosimo could lend himself to so
infamous a compact?"
"Lend himself? That pander? You do not know your cousin. If you have any
interest in this Madonna Bianca you will get her hence without delay, and
see that Pier Luigi has no knowledge of the convent to which she is
consigned. He enjoys the privileges of a papal offspring, and there is no
sanctuary he will respect.
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