Veronica had been pleased by the letter.  She was beginning to like him for himself, and to forget how very foolish he had seemed to be when he was declaring his passion for her.  But his letter showed him all at once in an entirely new light, and was at once a pleasure and a surprise.  She thought it natural to write him a few words of thanks.  Indeed, it would have seemed rude not to do so.

In the liberty she was enjoying in Bianca’s house, she was rapidly forgetting that she was only a young girl, and that society would be shocked if it knew that she was exchanging letters with Gianluca della Spina.  There is nothing which a girl learns so easily and all at once as independence of that social kind.  What grey-haired man of the world has not at one time or another been amazed at the full-grown assurance of some bride of eighteen or nineteen summers?  A month is enough—­with proper advantages—­to make a drawing-room queen and a society tyrant of a schoolgirl.  And that sort of independence is not alone the result of marriage.  In Veronica’s case, a slowly developed strength had been suddenly set free to act, by an accidental emancipation from all semblance of restraint; and the emancipation was so complete that even in the widest interpretation of the law, no one could have now claimed a right to control or direct her actions.

She was nearly twenty-two years of age; she had a great position in her own right, and she was immensely rich.  It was not until long afterwards that she learned how many offers of marriage had been refused for her by her aunt and uncle.  For the present, the fathers and mothers of marriageable sons were waiting until three or four months should have elapsed, for they generally guessed that there had been a catastrophe of some sort at the Palazzo Macomer after Bosio’s death; and, moreover, as has been seen, it was impossible to ascertain the proper person to whom to address any such proposal.

The consequence of it all was, that Veronica was absolutely her own mistress, and free to go and come, and to do what seemed right in her own eyes.  As she had told the cardinal, when she and society should discover that they needed each other, they would try and agree.  In case of a disagreement, it was probable that, of the two, society would yield to Veronica Serra.  Meanwhile she would correspond with Gianluca, if she pleased.  During the arrangement of her affairs, she had constantly written to men, about business, under the advice of the bankers to whom she had confided the whole matter.  Gianluca was merely a few years younger, and happened to belong to her own class.  That was all.  Why should he and she not write to each other?  Yet it was not long since the idea of meeting Gianluca at Bianca’s house, by agreement, had seemed a dangerous adventure, about entering upon which she had really hesitated.  To-day, for any reasonable cause, she would have walked through Naples with him in the face of the world, at the hour when every one was in the streets.