ng warm eulogies from
her lips. There was none of the "_bello! bellissimo!_" of the Italian
ladies in her talk, but a series of exact epithets.

Mme. Dawson had left all her capacity for admiration in France, and was
visiting Italy for the purpose of arriving as soon as possible at the
conclusion that there is no town like Paris, no nation like the French,
and it didn't matter much to Caesar whether he agreed or denied it.

Mlle. de Sandoval had a great curiosity about things in Spain and an
absurd idea about everything Spanish.

"It seems impossible," thought Caesar, "how stupid French people are
about whatsoever is not French."

Mlle. de Sandoval asked Caesar a lot of questions, and finally, with an
ironic gesture, said to him:

"You mustn't let us keep you from going to talk with the Countess
Brenda. She is looking over at you a great deal."

Caesar became a trifle dubious; indeed, the Countess was looking at him
in a fixed and disdainful way.

"The Countess is a very intelligent woman," said Caesar; "I think you
would all like her very much."

Mme. Dawson said nothing; Caesar rose, took his leave of the family, and
went over to speak to the Countess and her daughter. She received him
coldly. Caesar thought he would stay long enough to be polite and then
get away, when Carminatti, speaking to him in a very friendly way and
calling him "_mio caro_," asked him to introduce him to Mme. Dawson.

He did so, and when he had left the handsome Neapolitan leaning back
in a chair beside the French ladies, he made the excuse that he had a
letter to write, and said good-night.

"I see that you are an ogre," said Mlle. de Sandoval.

"Do you want me for anything?"

"No, no; you may go when you choose."

Caesar repaired to his room.

"I don't mind those people," he said; "but if they think I am a man made
for entertaining ladies, they are very clever."

The next day Mme. Dawson talked with Caesar very affably, and Mlle. de
Sandoval made a few ironical remarks about his savage ways.

Of all the family Caesar conceived that Mlle. Cadet was the most
intelligent. She was a French country girl, very jovial, blond, with a
turned-up nose, and on the whole insignificant looking. When she spoke,
her voice had certain falsetto inflexions that were very comical.

Mlle. Cadet was on to everything the moment it happened. Caesar asked
her jokingly about the people in the hotel, and he was thunderstruck to
find that she had d