Marie Belloc Lowndes

“ Lily was amazed at the bitterness with which these words were uttered.
“Still, after all, Aunt Cosy is Beppo's mother, and she does love him with all her heart!” she said impulsively. No wonder Aunt Cosy disliked the Pescobaldis if they hated her so, and perhaps tried to set her son against her.
“If you are wise,” said the Marchesa impressively, “you will see very, very little of the Countess Polda during the course of your future life. She is likely to live to be a very old woman, and she will wreck your happiness if you are not careful.” ”

“ When all was said and done she, Lily Fairfield, was really a stranger to them all.
The Marchesa was looking at her intently, evidently willing her to speak again.
“Of course, Aunt Cosy is a very peculiar woman,” began the girl awkwardly. “She is so devoted to Beppo that one feels she would be jealous of anyone he really cared for. The other day I could not help feeling that she was actually jealous of dear old Cristina!”
“She has reason to be jealous of Cristina,” said the Marchesa slowly, “for Beppo, very rightly, is devoted to that noble woman, who has given up her whole life to him. ”

“ Even so, as she followed the Marchesa into the lift, as she answered more or less mechanically Beppo's gay little remarks and questions, she felt bewildered and oppressed.
Lily Fairfield had always lived among very straightforward, simple people—people, too, who were conventional, who never indulged in intrigue. And now she felt that as long as she lived she would never forget seeing the beautiful Marchesa Pescobaldi sink down on her knees and beg so earnestly, so pathetically, for forgiveness. ”