"I do not ask it for myself, but for our children. You will respect my good name, won't you? You won't bring public disgrace upon us? You won't drag the honor of our family, the name of our children into the streets?"
The intuitive tactics of a woman are like those of a shrewd and careful general, who saves his best troops until the battle seems almost lost. I felt that now she had declared herself ready to yield in the main point, I could refuse her no concession.
"What do you demand of me, Lucia?"
"That all this remains a secret between us. That you avoid all public scandal. That before the world our household remains as it was."
I could not suppress a slightly disdainful smile.
"So you would withhold my uprightness, which for yourself you so greatly desire, from the world?"
"Oh, Vico, you will promise me that. You do care for us, don't you?"
"Of course I do."
"And you are sensible of your obligations toward your family. Even the most corrupt man is sensible of those."
"I too am sensible of them, Lucia."