The seed would grow, there was no fear of that, and his position was strong.

He could wait quietly for the result.
At the end of half an hour he excused himself upon the plea that he was still only convalescent, and was unable to bear the fatigue of late hours.

Donna Tullia did not press him to stay, for she wished to be alone; and when he was gone she sat long at the open piano, pondering upon what she had done, and even more upon what she had escaped doing.

It was a hideous thought that if Giovanni, in all that long winter, had asked her to be his wife, she would readily have consented; it was fearful to think what her position would have been towards Del Ferice, who would have been able by a mere word to annul her marriage by proving the previous one at Aquila.

People do not trifle with such accusations, and he certainly knew what he was doing; she would have been bound hand and foot.