“Must you needs ask his permission for everything? Have you bartered your liberty so far as that?”
“Sai, a wife!”
“Tell me, Caterina, what is the happiness, the charm of married life?”
“I can’t explain it.”
“Tell me why is marriage the death of love.”
“I don’t know, Lucia.”
“Then marriage is to be the eternal mystery of life?”
“Who tells you these things, Lucia?”
“My own heart, Caterina,” replied the other, rising.
Then, assuming a solemn tone and raising her hand to swing it swordwise through the air—“One thing only exists for certain.”