She wished to think of it--that is as much as to say that she will not even make any serious objections.

You have no idea how young girls feel about marriage, Bosio.

How should you?
You cannot comprehend the horror a girl like Veronica feels of a stranger, of a man like Gianluca, even, whom she has met half a dozen times and talked with.

It seems so dreadful to think of spending a lifetime with a man about whom she knows nothing, or next to nothing.

And yet it is the custom, and most of them accept it and are happy.