"
I said it without anger, without heat of any sort: a calm, cold statement
of a step that it was necessary to take. It was a just measure, the only
measure that could mend an unjust situation. And so, I think, she too
viewed it. For she did not start, or cry out in horror, or manifest the
slightest surprise at my proposal. But she shook her head, and smiled very
wistfully.
"What a folly would not that be!" she said. "How would it amend what is?
You would be taken, and justice would be done upon you summarily. Would
that make it any easier or any better for me? I should be alone in the
world and entirely undefended."
"Ah, but you go too fast," I cried. "By justice I could not suffer, I need
but to state the case, the motive of my quarrel, the iniquitous wrong that
was attempted against you, the odious traffic of this marriage, and all men
would applaud my act. None would dare do me a hurt."
"You are too generous in your faith in man," she said. "Who would believe
your claims?"
"The courts," I said.
"The courts of a State in which Pier Luigi governs?"
"But I have witnesses of the facts."
"Those witnesses would never be allowed to testify. Your protests would be
smothered. And how would your case really look?" she cried. "The world
would conceive that the lover of Bianca de' Cavalcanti had killed her
husband that he might take her for his own.
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