"Be quiet, Caracciolo. You distress me."
"It's much better to have no illusions; then we can't lose them, dear lady."
"It is better to lose illusions, than never to have had them."
"What a deep heart is yours! How I should like to drown in it! Let me drown myself in your heart, Anna."
"Don't call me by my name," she said, as if she had heard only his last word.
"I will obey," he answered meekly.
"You, too, are good," she murmured, absently.
"I am as bad as can be, Signora," he rejoined, piqued.
She shook her head good-naturedly, with the smile of one who would not believe in human wickedness, who would keep her faith intact, in spite of past delusions. And the more Luigi Caracciolo posed as a depraved character, the more she showed her belief that at the bottom every human soul is good.