"
"Signore, you say true."
"Though the parental love of the councils may have seemed to be dormant,
it has ever been wakeful and vigilant. Now that the years, instruction,
beauty, and other excellences of their daughter, have come to so rare
perfection, they wish to draw the ties that unite them nearer, by
assuming their own immediate duties about her person."
"By this I am to understand that I am no longer a ward of the Signor
Gradenigo?"
"Lady, a ready wit has helped you to the explanation. That illustrious
patrician is released from his cherished and well acquitted duties.
To-morrow new guardians will be charged with the care of your prized
person, and will continue their honorable trust, until the wisdom of the
Senate shall have formed for you such an alliance, as shall not
disparage a noble name and qualities that might adorn a throne."
"Am I to be separated from those I love?" demanded Violetta impetuously.
"Trust to the Senate's wisdom. I know not its determination concerning
those who have long dwelt with you, but there can be no reason to doubt
its tenderness or discretion. I have now only to add, that until those
charged anew with the honorable office of your protectors shall arrive,
it will be well to maintain the same modest reserve in the reception of
visitors as of wont, and that your door, lady, must in propriety be
closed against the Signor Gradenigo as against all others of his sex.
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