She did not believe that it was to be.

How could she marry a man she did not love?
How could she love any man but Zorzi?
They might show her twenty Venetian patricians, that she might choose among them.

Meanwhile she would show her indifference.

Nothing was easier than to put on an inscrutable expression which betrayed nothing, but which, as she knew, sometimes irritated her father beyond endurance.
He had always promised that she should not be married against her will, as many girls were.

Then why should she marry Contarini, any more than any other man except the one she had chosen?
She need only say that Contarini did not please her, and her father would certainly not try to use force.