Since Gianluca was apparently willing to accept the position and to be her friend, it was nobody's affair but his and hers.

She felt that she had been fully justified in what she had said to Taquisara.

At the same time she was half conscious of being disappointed in the man, and of being wounded by the disappointment.
She left Bianca's house early, and as she drove away to the railway station alone with Elettra, she felt that her life was only now really beginning.

The months of independence she had enjoyed had prepared her for this final move.

In the course of setting her affairs in order, she had been brought face to face with a side of the world which few women ever see or understand, and her character had hardened singularly to meet the difficulties she had found in her path.