d, since he is not rich for his rank--but
above all, with a true tender heart and an innocent soul--one who will
be a child to his mother, and fall into his own ways. Many a parent
would be glad to welcome him as a son-in-law, but report tells him that
Violante's daughter is just the girl he wants.'"

"The marriage takes place. Foolish Pietro is talked over and strips
himself of everything he has. He and his wife have no choice but to go
and live with their son-in-law and his mother and brother. They meet
with nothing under his roof but starvation, insult, and cruelty, and
return home after a few months, duped and beggared, to ask hospitality
of those whom they had once entertained. Violante, overwhelmed by these
misfortunes, confesses that Pompilia is not her child, and Pietro
proclaims the fact; not that he wishes to leave Pompilia in the lurch,
but because he thinks this a sure way of getting her back.--Count Guido
is clearly not the man to wish to retain as his wife a base-born girl
without a dowry, and whom he has never loved.--But the case must be
settled by law, the law pronounces in Count Guido's favour so far as the
actual marriage portion is concerned; and Count Guido clearly lays his
plans so as to half-drive and half-tempt his wife into the kind of
misconduct which will rid him of her without prejudicing his right to
what she has brought him."

This half of Rome accepts Pompilia's story of all that led to her
flight, and Caponsacchi's statement that he assisted in it simply to
save her life. It thinks the husband's intrigues sufficiently proved by
the fact that the Canon owns to having received letters which the wife
denies having written, and which must, therefore, have been forged.
Count Guido, it declares, has had no wrongs to avenge, and supposing he
had wrongs, he has adopted too convenient a mode of avenging them. "He
demands protection from the law, and the moment its balance trembles
against him he flies out of court, declaring that wounded honour can
only be cured by the sword. At all events he has given the law plenty to
do: three courts at work for him, and an appeal to the Pope besides. If
any law is binding on mankind it is that such as he shall be made an end
of. He is the common enemy of his fellow-men."

TERTIUM QUID sees no reason for assuming that the wrong is altogether on
either side, and reviews the circumstances in such a manner as to show
that there is probably right on both. He lays