I was thinking... That's it! I wanted to ask you... Yes, I know, you're sure of yourself... but is there nothing that you... nothing at all... nothing that you can reproach yourself with?"

Donna Bicetta was dumbfounded. With dilated eyes and her hands over her cheeks, she shouted:

"How's that?... are you now also repeating... his very words to me? How?... how can you?"

Gabriella Vanzi's face took on a false expression, and her eyes turned glassy.

"Me?"

"Yes, you. Oh, God... And now you're becoming dazed just like him... What does it all mean? What does it all mean?"

No sooner had she stopped moaning these words, feeling herself gradually becoming overwhelmed with emotion, than she found her friend in her arms, clinging to her bosom.

"Bice... Bice... do you suspect me?... You've come here because you suspected me, right?"

"No... no... I swear it, Gabriella... no... only now..."

"Now you do, right? Yes... but you're wrong, you're wrong, Bice... because you can't understand..."

"What happened? Gabriella, come on, tell me, what happened?

"You can't understand... You can't understand... I know the reason why your husband went mad... I know it!"

"The reason? Which reason?"

"I know it, because I have it in me too, this reason for going mad... because of what happened to the two of us!"

"To the two of you?

"Yes... yes... to me and to your husband."

"Aha, well?"

"No, no! It's not what you're imagining! You can't understand... Without intending to deceive anyone, without thinking about it or wanting it to happen... in an instant...