Bianca did not answer, but a little smile stole over her face and played about her lips. The hardness was all gone now, and there was only tenderness in her expression. Perhaps she was thinking that within the last few weeks she had learned the difference between love and duty.
"No, Bianca," continued Princess Montefiano, "if you had wanted to give me your confidence—if you had ever felt enough affection for me to make you wish to give it me—there could be no reason why you should persistently have withheld it. Nevertheless," she added, "your ingratitude towards me will not deter me from doing my duty. You must be protected against your own inexperience of the world, and against those who would take advantage of that inexperience."
Bianca looked at her almost wistfully. "You think me ungrateful," she said. "I am not that. But to confide in you meant confiding in Monsieur l'Abbé. He has always come between you and me—oh, ever since I was a child."
Princess Montefiano made a gesture of impatience. "If I have found Monsieur l'Abbé worthy of my confidence and my esteem, it should be a proof that he is also worthy of yours," she said. "You have a rebellious nature, Bianca, and God will punish you for it, both in this world and in the next."
A quick gleam of amusement flashed from Bianca's eyes. "How do you know?" she asked.
The princess stared at her. Assuredly, she thought, Bianca became every day more difficult to deal with.
"As to Monsieur l'Abbé," she said, preferring to leave her step-daughter's question unanswered, "your dislike to him is unreasonable—it is unreasonable and wrong. Setting aside his devotion to your worldly interests, which, when you are of an age to understand, you will appreciate better than you are able to do now, you owe him respect as a priest, the respect due to his sacred calling. I am deeply grieved at your attitude towards him; but there again your rebellious nature is at fault. As to saying that he comes between you and me, that is absurd. What does come between us is your own self-will—your own arrogance."
Bianca looked at her step-mother steadily for a moment, and the hard expression on her face returned.
"E sia!" she replied. "Do not let us discuss Monsieur l'Abbé Roux; it is a waste of time. As you say, when I am of an age to understand his devotion to my worldly interests I shall be able to appreciate them. I am sorry that Fontana is dismissed," she continued. "To be sure, I have only seen him a few times, but he appears an honest man."
The princess glanced at her, and her countenance displayed more displeasure than ever. "These business matters need not concern you for nearly three years to come," she said, coldly. "Your interests are in my hands, Bianca, as you very well know. Luckily for you, you have no voice in the management of your affairs. If you had, I fear you would very soon fall a prey to some adventurer like this—"