Bianca glanced sideways at Veronica's face as the latter finished speaking, and she felt that the girl was not cast in the same mould as herself.
"I wonder whether you will ever marry," she said thoughtfully, after a short pause.
"Why? What has that to do with it?" asked Veronica.
"Your husband will find that it has a great deal to do with it, my dear," Bianca answered, with a smile, and speculating upon the possible fate of the Princess of Acireale's future husband.
"Oh,—of course, I should not let him interfere in anything of this kind," said Veronica, gravely. "He should not come between me and my people."
She sat very straight on her horse, and the girl's small head and aquiline features had a dominating expression. A struggling man, with such a look, is a man who means to win, and generally does, whatever the nature of the race may be.
"But I shall never marry," Veronica added presently, and her face softened as she thought of the dead betrothed. "There is plenty to do in the world, without marrying, if one will only do it."
"If you do not, there will be one free man more in the world," answered
Bianca.
Veronica laughed a little.
"I daresay I should have my own way," she said.