That may be so with most women. It was not so
with me.
"My father was what is called a self-made man. But his fortune did not
content him. He wanted to found a family. If he had had a son this might
have been easy. Having only two daughters, he saw no way but that of
marrying one of us into the Italian nobility.
"My sister was the first to disappoint him. She fell in love with a
young Roman musician. The first time the young man asked for my sister
he was contemptuously refused; the second time he was insulted; the
third time he was flung out of the house. His nature was headstrong and
passionate, and so was my father's. If either had been different the
result might not have been the same. Yet who knows? Who can say?"
The Reverend Mother paused for a moment. The boy's voice in the vineyard
was going on.
"To remove my sister from the scene of temptation my father took her
from Rome to our villa in the hills above Albano. But the young musician
followed her. Since my father would not permit him to marry her he was
determined that she should fly with him, and when she hesitated to do so
he threatened her.
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