"
The keeper's daughter led the way into the little room in which she was
accustomed to converse with Jacopo.
"You were saying, lady, that I had a feeling for the weakness and
helplessness of our sex, and surely you did me justice."
Violetta had leisure to reflect an instant, in passing from one room to
the other, and she began her communications with more reserve. But the
sensitive interest that a being of the gentle nature and secluded habits
of Gelsomina took in her narrative, won upon her own natural frankness,
and, in a manner nearly imperceptible to herself, she made the keeper's
daughter mistress of most of the circumstances under which she had
entered the prison.
The cheek of Gelsomina became colorless as she listened and when Donna
Violetta ceased, every limb of her slight frame trembled with interest.
"The Senate is a fearful power to resist!" she said, speaking so low as
hardly to be audible. "Have you reflected, lady, on the chances of what
you do?"
"If I have not, it is now too late to change my intentions, I am the
wife of the Duke of Sant' Agata, and can never wed another."
"Gesu! This is true. And yet, methinks, I would choose to die a nun
rather than offend the council!"
"Thou knowest not, good girl, to what courage the heart of even a young
wife is equal. Thou art still bound to thy father, in the instruction
and habits of childhood, but thou mayest live to know that all thy hopes
will centre in another.
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