It is not his fault." "I feel as though it were," said Gianluca.

"I am sure that if I could change, if I could make myself different in some way--but that is absurd, of course." "One cannot suddenly become some one else." For himself, without vanity, Taquisara was probably glad of the fact, but he was sincerely sorry for his friend.

"You might write to her," he suggested.
"Love-letters--to Donna Veronica ?" Gianluca smiled incredulously.

"You do not know her!" "I know her a little," replied Taquisara.

"All women like to receive letters from men who love them, if they are well expressed and sincere." "How horribly practical you are sometimes!" exclaimed the younger man, unaccountably irritated at his friend's generalizations.
Taquisara laughed and knocked the ashes from his long black cigar.
"You came to me for advice, not for sentiment," he observed presently.
"Perhaps I am a bad adviser, but that is the worst you can say of me.