If the hopes of the ardent and generous themselves are
deceived in the uncertain lottery of wedlock, the victim will struggle
hard to maintain the delusion; but when the calculations of others are
parent to the evil, a natural inducement, that comes of the devil I fear,
prompts us to aggravate, instead of striving to lessen, the evil."
"Thou dost not speak of wedlock as one who found the condition happy, poor
Gaetano?"
"I have told thee what I fear was but too true," returned the Genoese,
with a heavy sigh. "My birth, vast means, and I trust a fair name, induced
the kinsmen of my wife to urge her to a union, that I have since had
reason to fear her feelings not lead her to form. I had a terrible ally
too in the acknowledged unworthiness of him who had captivated her young
fancy, and whom, as age brought reflection, her reason condemned. I was
accepted, therefore, as a cure to a bleeding heart and broken peace, and
my office, at the best, was not such as a good man could desire, or a
proud man tolerate. The unhappy Angiolina died in giving birth to her
first child, the unhappy son of whom I have told thee so much.
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