“I! good gracious!” cried Bianca; “I carry a letter? I would not to be a queen. I hope your highness thinks, though I am poor, I am honest—did your highness never hear what Count Marsigli offered me when he came a-wooing to my Lady Matilda?”
“I have not leisure,” said Manfred, “to listen to thy tales. I do not question thy honesty; but it is thy duty to conceal nothing from me. How long has Isabella been acquainted with Theodore?”
“Nay, there is nothing can escape your highness,” said Bianca: “not that I know anything of the matter. Theodore, to be sure, is a proper young man, and, as my Lady Matilda says, the very image of good Alfonso: has not your highness remarked it?”
“Yes, yes,—no,—thou torturest me,” said Manfred: “where did they meet? when?”
“Who? my Lady Matilda?” said Bianca.
“No, no, not Matilda; Isabella. When did Isabella first become acquainted with this Theodore?”
“Virgin Mary!” said Bianca, “how should I know?”
“Thou dost know,” said Manfred, “and I must know; I will.”
“Lord! your highness is not jealous of young Theodore!” said Bianca.
“Jealous! no, no: why should I be jealous? perhaps I mean to unite them, if I were sure Isabella would have no repugnance.”