She was angry at the thought that the Sicilian should know anything of their correspondence, as it seemed evident that he must.

It was true that her own friend, Bianca, knew something about it.

She could forgive Gianluca, if he had confided too much in Taquisara, but she could not forgive Taquisara for having been the recipient of the confidence, and she would neither forgive nor forget the way in which he had shown her how much he knew.
For the first time in her life, Veronica longed to be a man, that she might not only resent the insult, but have satisfaction of the man who had insulted her.

She felt that she was emphatically not playing with Gianluca, as Taquisara had expressed it.

She had told him frankly, several months earlier, that she could not love him,--she had shaken her head and had said that she was sorry,--and neither he nor any one else had a right to suppose that she was now changing her mind.