Donna Beatrice may come with me in the skiff, under your eye, if she is
accompanied by your maid?"

"Of course, my dear San Miniato! Do you expect me to get into your
little boat and hunt for reptiles? Or do you expect that Beatrice will
renounce the amusement of getting wet and covered with seaweed and
thoroughly unpresentable?"

"And you, Donna Beatrice? Do you still wish to come?"

"Yes. I just said so."

"But that was at least a minute ago," answered San Miniato.

"Ah--you think me very changeable? You are mistaken. I will go with you
to find crabs to-night. Is that categorical? Must you consult my mother
to know what I mean?"

"It will not be necessary this time," replied the Count, quite unmoved.
"I think we understand each other."

"I think so," said Beatrice with a hard smile.

The Marchesa was not much pleased by the tone the conversation was
taking. But if Beatrice said disagreeable things, she said them in a
pleasant voice and with a moderately civil expression of face, which
constituted a concession, after all, considering how she had behaved
ever since the night at Tragara, scarcely vouchsafing San Miniato a
glance, answering him by monosyllables and hardly ever addressing him
at all.

"My dear children," said the elder lady, affecting a tone she had not
assumed before, "I really hope that you mean to understand each other,
and will."

"Oh yes, mamma!" assented Beatrice with alacrity. "With you to help us I
am sure we shall come to a very remarkable understanding--very
remarkable indeed!"

"With originality on your side, and constancy on mine, we may accomplish
much," said San Miniato, very blandly.

Beatrice laughed again.

"Translate originality as original sin and constancy as the art of
acting constantly!" she retorted.

"Why?" enquired San Miniato without losing his temper. He thought the
question would be hard to answer.

"Why not?" asked Beatrice. "You will not deny me a little grain of
original sin, will you? It will make our life so much more varied and
amusing, and when I say that you act constantly--I only mean what you
said of yourself, that you are constant in your actions."

"You so rarely spare me a compliment, Donna Beatrice, that you must
forgive me for not having understood that one sooner. Accept my best
thanks--"

"And agree to the expression of my most distinguished sentiments, as the
French say at the end of a letter," said Beatrice, rising. "And now that
I have