. "Women
always end by learning how to spend money, unless it is their own."

Having delivered himself of this piece of wisdom Folco chose a cigar,
nipped off the end of it neatly with a gold cutter, lit it and snuffed
the rich smoke up his nose in a deliberate manner.

"Regina is a very remarkable woman," he said at last. "If she had been
well educated, she would make an admirable wife; and she loves you
devotedly, Marcello. Now, the real question is--at least, it seems to me
so--you don't mind my talking to you just as I would to myself, do you?
Very well. If I were in your position, I should ask myself, as a man of
honour, whether I really loved her as much as she loved me, or whether I
had only been taken off my feet by her beauty. Don't misunderstand me,
my boy! I should feel that if I were not quite sure of that, I ought not
to marry her, because it would be much worse for her in the end than if
we parted. Have you ever asked yourself that question, Marcello?"

"Yes, I have."

Marcello spoke in a low voice, and bent his head, as if he were not
sure of the answer. Corbario, satisfied with the immediate effect of his
satanic speech, waited a moment, sighed, looked down at his cigar, and
then went on in gentle tones.

"That is so often the way," he said. "A man marries a woman out of a
sense of duty, and then makes her miserably unhappy, quite in spite of
himself. Of course, in such a case as yours, you feel that you owe a
woman amends--you cannot call it compensation, as if it were a matter of
law! She has given everything, and you have given nothing. You owe her
happiness, if you can bestow it upon her, don't you?"

"Indeed I do!" assented Marcello.

"Yes. The question is, whether the way to make her happy is to marry
her, when you have a reasonable doubt as to whether you can be a good
husband to her. That is the real problem, it seems to me. Do you love
her enough to give up the life to which you were born, and for which you
were educated? You would have to do that, you know. Our friends--your
dear mother's friends, my boy--would never receive her, least of all
after what has happened."

"I know it."

"You would have to wander about Europe, or live in San Domenico, for you
could not bear to live in Rome, meeting women who would not bow to your
wife. I know you. You could not possibly bear it."

"I should think not!"

"No. Therefore, since you have the doubt, since you are not absolutely
sure of your