“I cannot believe that,” said Bosio.

“That you are desirable as a husband?  My dear Bosio, do not pretend to be so absurdly modest!  Any woman would be glad to marry you.  But for me, you could have made the best match in Naples years ago—­”

“Not even years ago.  Much less now.  But that was not what I meant.  I cannot believe that Veronica is really inclined to marry me.  It seems to me that she might be my daughter—­”

“If you had been married at fifteen,” suggested Matilde, laughing softly.  “Because you feel tired and harassed to-day, you feel a hundred years old.  It is no compliment to me to say so, for I am even a little older than you, I think.  And you—­you are young, you are handsome, you are talented, you have the manners that women love—­”

“It is not many minutes since you were saying that we were both growing old—­”

“No, no!  I said that we could not always be young.  That is very different.  And that we have lived our lives—­our lives so long as they can be lived together—­that is what I meant.  You are young!  How many men marry at fifty!  And you are not forty yet.  You have ten years of youth before you.  That is not the question.  So far as that is concerned, say that you are old to-night, at dinner, and you shall see how Veronica will laugh at you!  But that you and I should part, Bosio—­and yet, it is far better, if you have the courage.”

“Have you?” he asked sadly.

“Yes—­I have, for your sake, since I see how you look at this.  And you are right.  I know you are, though I am only a woman, and cannot have a man’s ideas about honour.  For my own part—­well, I am a woman, and I have loved you long.  But you are the one to be thought of.  You shall be free, as though I had never lived.  You shall be able to say to yourself that in marrying Veronica you are not doing anything in the least dishonourable.  I shall not exist for you.  I shall not feel that I have the right to think of you and for you as I always have.  I shall never ask you to do anything for me, lest you should feel that I were asserting some claim to you, as though you were still mine.  It will be hard at first.  But I can do it, and I will do it, in order that your conscience may be free.  You shall marry her, as though you had never known me, and hereafter I will always be the same.  Only—­” She fixed her eyes upon him with a look which, whether genuine or assumed, was fierce and tender—­

“Only—­if you are not true to her, Bosio—­if you leave her and go after some other woman—­then I will turn upon you!”

Bosio met her glance with a look of something like astonishment, wondering how in a few sentences she had got herself into a position to threaten him with vengeance if he were unfaithful to Veronica.