“You have exchanged promises.”
“We can retract them. We are no longer living in the days when people were married by force.”
“What will the world say?”
“Mother, let us define the world.”
“People.”
“And who is Mr. People? I do not know him; I am not obliged to be unhappy for the sake of Mr. People.”
“You are a terrible girl! But how am I to arrange it with Roberto? What am I to say to him?”
“What you wish. That is what you are my mother for.”
“Oh, indeed! To remedy the wrongs you have done. There will be a scandal.”
“I do not think so; you can say it politely, with pretty manners. Indeed, I think you might even speak badly of me—call me capricious, frivolous, childish; say that I would be a very bad wife, that I am not at all serious, that I am lacking in dignity, that my sister is—”