and when the customary gong resounded, he
presented himself in the salon.

Laura was chatting with two young ladies and an older lady, the Countess
of San Martino and her daughters. They were in Rome for the season and
lived regularly in Venice.

Laura introduced her brother to these ladies, and the Countess pressed
Caesar's hand between both of hers, very affectionately.

The Countess was tiny and dried-up: a mummy with the face of a
grey-hound, her skin close to her bones, her lips painted, little
penetrating blue eyes, and great vivacity in her movements. She dressed
in a showy manner; wore jewels on her bosom, on her head, on her
fingers.

The daughters looked like two little blond princesses: with rosy cheeks,
eyebrows like two golden brush-strokes, almost colourless, clear blue
eyes of a heavenly blue, and such small red lips, that on seeing them,
the classical simile of cherries came at once to one's mind.

The Countess of San Martino asked Caesar like a shot if he was married
and if he hadn't a sweetheart. Caesar replied that he was a bachelor and
that he had no sweetheart, and then the Countess came back by asking if
he felt no vocation for matrimony.

"No, I believe I don't," responded Caesar.

The two young women smiled, and their mother said, with truly diverting
familiarity, that men were becoming impossible. Afterwards she added
that she was anxious for her daughters to marry.

"When one of these children is married and has a _bambino_, I shall be
more contented! If God sent me a _cheru-bino del cielo_, I shouldn't be
more so."

Laura laughed, and one of the little blondes remarked with aristocratic
indifference: "Getting married comes first, mamma."

To this the Countess of San Martino observed that she didn't understand
the behaviour of girls nowadays.

"When I was a young thing, I always had five or six beaux at once;
but my daughters haven't the same idea. They are so indifferent, so
superior!"

"It seems that you two don't take all the notice you should," said
Caesar to the girls in French.

"You see what a mistake it is," answered one of them, smiling.

The last round of the gong sounded and various persons entered the
salon. Laura knew the majority of them and introduced them, as they
came, to her brother.

_OBSERVATIONS BY CAESAR_

The waiter appeared at the door, announced that lunch was ready, and
they all passed into the dining-room.

Laura and her brother were install