What are the wishes of a girl, or what
the happiness of a solitary and helpless female, to their fortunes? That
my charge is young, is a reason why their wisdom should interfere,
though it is none to touch their hearts with the reflection that the
misery to which they would condemn her, is to last the longer. They take
no account of the solemn obligations of gratitude; the ties of affection
are so many means of working upon the fears of those they rule, but none
for forbearance; and they laugh at the devotedness of woman's love, as a
folly to amuse their leisure, or to take off the edge of disappointment
in graver concerns."
"Can anything be more grave than wedlock, lady?"
"To them it is important, as it furnishes the means of perpetuating
their honors and their proud names. Beyond this, the council looks
little at domestic interests."
"They are fathers and husbands!"
"True, for to be legally the first, they must become the last. Marriage
to them is not a tie of sacred and dear affinity, but the means of
increasing their riches and of sustaining their names," continued the
governess, watching the effect of her words on the countenance of the
guileless girl. "They call marriages of affection children's games, and
they deal with the wishes of their own daughters, as they would traffic
with their commodities of commerce. When a state sets up an idol of gold
as its god, few will refuse to sacrifice at its altar!"
"I would I might serve the noble Donna Violetta!"
"Thou art too young, good Gelsomina, and I fear too little practised in
the cunning of Venice.
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