The jilted Gabriele had accepted the situation with a parade of
philosophical scorn which removed him beyond the pale of the sympathy
Marina would have offered him; and Marina--whose exquisite sense of
truth, decorum, and duty had been outraged to a degree beyond Toinetta's
comprehension--forgot it all in the overwhelming compassion with which
she took her little sister in her arms and tried to help her live her
difficult life; she realized, as only a large nature could, that love
was the only hope for this emergency, and, feeding on her measureless
compassion, love, the diviner faculty, grew to be a power.
Slowly and very dimly she had helped the young wife to some vague
comprehension of the duties she had so rashly assumed. Hitherto, for
Toinetta, there had been no difficulties, and now there were so many she
was frightened and did not understand; now, when Piero scolded at her
tears or temper she could not run away nor change him for a pleasanter
companion, and she knew no other way to manage such a difficulty; and
there was no pleasure in the Piazza because of that eternal critica.
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