He bent his brows in thought, but watched her
steadily.
"You have not yet given me a single reason for all this wild talk," he
said after a pause. "It is absurd to think that without some good cause
you are suddenly filled with repulsion for marriage, or for Jacopo
Contarini. I have heard of young women who were betrothed, but who felt
a religious vocation, and refused to marry for that reason. It never
seemed a very satisfactory one to me, for if there is any condition in
which a woman needs religion, it is the marriage state."
He paused in his speech, pleased with his own idea, in spite of all his
troubles. Marietta had moved a few steps away from him and stood beside
the table, looking down at the things on it, without seeing them.
"But you do not even make religion a pretext," pursued her father. "Have
you no reason to give? I do not expect a good one, for none can have any
weight. But I should like to hear the best you have."
"It is a very convincing one to me," Marietta replied, still looking
down at the table. "But I think I had better not tell it to you to-day,"
she added. "It would make you angry."
"No," said Beroviero. "One cannot be angry with people who are really
out of their senses."
"I am not so mad as you think," answered the girl.
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