"I shall come to no harm, believe me. I am known to be young, rich, and my marriage is but a few days off. What more natural, therefore, than for some Mafioso to try to frighten me and profit by the dreaded name of Cardi? I am a stranger here in my own birthplace. When I become better known, there will be no more feeble attempts at blackmail. Other landholders have maintained their independence, and I shall do the same, for an enemy who fears to fight openly is a coward, and I am in the right."
"I am glad I came. I shall be glad, too, when you are married and safely off on your wedding journey."
"I feared to tell you all this lest you should think I had no right to bring you here at such a time—"
"Don't be an utter idiot, Martel."
"You are an American; you have your own way of looking at things. Of course, if anything should happen—if ill-fortune should overtake me before the marriage—"
"See here! If there is the slightest danger, the faintest possibility, you ought to go away, as you did before," Norvin declared, positively.
"I am no longer a child. I am to be married a week hence. Wild horses could not drag me away."
"You could postpone it—explain it to the Countess—"
"There is no necessity; there is no cause for alarm, even. All the same, I feel much easier with you here. Margherita has relatives, to be sure, but they are—well, I have no confidence in them. In the remote possibility that the worst should come, you could look out for her, and I am sure you would. Am I right?"
"Of course you are."