"Do you mean to say, Diana, that you loved him?" asked Marcantonio in great surprise.
"Even you must not ask me questions like that," said Diana, a little coldly. "But this I will tell you,—it was not for any consideration of birth, nor out of any regard of our dear father's anger, that I did not marry Batiscombe. Once I was very near it. We are very good friends now."
She turned a little in her seat and drew the blue woollen curtain across the window to shield her from the draught.
"You do not mind meeting him?" asked Marcantonio, rather doubtfully.
To tell the truth he feared he had committed a mortal error, and was taking his sister into the jaws of danger and unhappiness. He had never suspected that she had entertained any idea of marrying Batiscombe. Julius was a very agreeable man, very amiable, as Marcantonio would have said. What a fearful thing if Diana were to take a fancy to him! Loyal as she was to Charleroi, she did not care a straw for him,—her brother knew it very well. Italian brothers are very watchful and Argus-eyed about their sisters.
"Why should I mind?" asked Diana, looking at him again. "We are very good friends. He comes to see me in Rome, every now and then. I do not object in the least, and he is really very agreeable."
'Worse and worse!' thought Marcantonio. 'She wants to meet him and is glad of the chance. But then, she is so good—what harm can it do?' Between his idea that he ought to keep them apart, and his knowledge of his sister's upright character, Marcantonio was in a sad quandary. It always took him some time to grasp new situations,—and the idea that Diana had ever loved Batiscombe was utterly new to him. True, she had not said it; she had only said that she had been near to marrying him.
CHAPTER IX.
When Leonora was alone, she resolved to have a good fit of thinking. Accordingly, the next morning after Marcantonio's departure she sat by herself in a cool room, surrounded with books and dainty writing materials,—thinking. The little white cat that her husband had procured, because she liked animals, climbed to the back of her chair and made passes at her head with its small, soft paws, seeming to delight in touching her. She put up her hand and pulled the little creature down to her lap.