It seemed to her that the very tone of his voice was like her own, as his brown eyes were like hers.
And later, he took Orsino's hand and laid it in his daughter's and pressed the two together.
'You loved more wisely than you knew,' he said. 'But I know how bravely you loved, when you would not give her up, nor yield to anyone. Your father will not refuse to take my daughter from my hands, I think.'
'He will be as proud to take her as I am,' said Orsino.
'Or as I am to give her to such a man as you.'
So Orsino was married at last, and this tale comes to its happy end. For he was happy, and his people took his wife to themselves as one of them, and loved her for her own sake as well as for his; and they loved her, too, for the many troubles she had so bravely borne, under the disgrace of a name not her own. But neither were her sorrows hers, any more.
'Such things can only happen in Italy,' said Mrs. Slayback, after the wedding.
'I am glad that nothing worse happened,' answered her niece, thoughtfully. 'To think that I might have married that man! To think that I cared for him! But I always felt that Vittoria was not his sister. If I ever marry, I shall marry an American.'
She laughed, though there was a little ache left in her heart. But she knew that it would not last long, for she had not been very desperately in earnest, after all.
THE END