"She was the wife of another who dragged me down. You are the
wife of another who have lifted me up. She through sin was attainable.
That you can never, never be, else should I have done with life in earnest.
But do not blame yourself, sweet saint. You did as your pure spirit bade
you; soon all would have been well but that already Messer Pier Luigi had
seen you."
She shuddered.
"You know, dear that if I submitted to wed your cousin, it was to save
you--that such was the price imposed?"
"Dear saint!" I cried.
"I but mention it that upon such a score you may have no doubt of my
motives."
"How could I doubt?" I protested.
I rose, and moved down the room towards the window, behind which the night
gleamed deepest blue. I looked out upon the gardens from which the black
shadows of stark poplars thrust upward against the sky, and I thought out
this thing. Then I turned to her, having as I imagined found the only and
rather obvious solution.
"There is but one thing to do, Bianca."
"And that?" her eyes were very anxious, and looked perhaps even more so in
consequence of the pallor of her face and the lines of pain that had come
into it in these weeks of such sore trial.
"I must remove the barrier that stands between us. I must seek out Cosimo
and kill him.
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