that she answered you at once?" asked the Marchesa,
affecting, as usual, to be scandalised.

"She answered me--yes, dear Marchesa--she told me that she loved me. It
only remains for me to claim the maternal blessing which you so
generously promised in advance."

Somehow it was a relief to him to return to the rather stiff and
over-formal phraseology which he always used on important occasions when
speaking to her, and which, as he well knew, flattered her desire to be
thought a very great lady.

"As for my blessing, you shall have it, and at once. But indeed, I am
most curious to know exactly what she said, and what you said--I, who am
never curious about anything!"

"Two words tell the story. I told her I loved her and she answered that
she loved me."

"Dearest friend, how long it took you to say those two words! You must
have hesitated a good deal."

"To tell the truth, there was more said than that. I will not deny the
grave imputation. I spoke of my past life--"

"Dio mio! To my daughter! How could you--" The Marchesa raised her hands
and let them fall again.

"But why not?" asked San Miniato, suppressing a smile. "Have I been such
an impossibly bad man that the very mention of my past must shock a
young girl--whom I love?" In the last words he found an opportunity to
practise the expression of a little passion, and took advantage of it,
well knowing that it would be useful in the immediate future.

"I never said that!" protested the Marchesa. "But we all know something
about you, dear Don Juan!"

"Calumnies, nothing but calumnies!"

"But such pretty calumnies--you might almost accept them. I should think
none the worse of you if they were all true."

"You are charming, dearest Marchesa. I kiss your generous hand! As a
matter of fact, I only told Donna Beatrice--may I call her Beatrice to
you now, as I have long called her in my heart? I only told her that I
had been unhappy, that I had loved twice--once a woman who is dead, once
another who has long ago forgotten me. That was all. Was it so very bad?
Her heart was softened--she is so gentle! And then I told her that a
greater and stronger passion than those now filled my present life, and
last of all I told her that I loved her."

"And she returned the compliment immediately?" asked the Marchesa,
slowly selecting a sugared chestnut from the plate beside her, turning
it round, examining it and at last putting it into her mouth.

"How lightly you sp