y dear child; yet such marriages
often turn out for the best--at least it was my duty to ask for your
answer. You have given it--and now let us go out. The carriage has been
waiting some time."

Shortly afterward they were in the Pincio--for the custom still prevails
among Roman ladies and gentlemen of slowly driving up and down or
standing for a chat with friends. The dome of St. Peter's looked like a
globe of gold set in the center of the celebrated frame of the Pincio
trees, but as the sun went down it grew chilly, and the Sansevero landau
rolled briskly up the Corso. At Nina's suggestion they stopped at a tea
shop.

No sooner were they seated at a little table when they were joined by
the Duchess Astarte. The duchess had most graceful manners, but she
talked to the princess across Nina, and about her, as though she were an
article of furniture, or at least a small child who could not understand
what was said. She spoke frankly of Nina's suitors. Scorpa's was an
excellent title, but Scorpa was a widower and no longer young. Then she
begged the princess to consider her nephew, the young Prince Allegro.

It would be a brilliant match, for he was one of the mediatized princes
and ranked with royalty. But his properties took such an immense amount
of money to keep up that an added fortune would be a great relief to the
whole family. Her consummate naturalness did away with much of the
bluntness of her speech; but even so, this was too much for Nina's
calmness.

"But, Duchessa," she broke in, "have the Prince Allegro and I nothing to
do with the arranging of our own future?"

The duchess observed her in as much astonishment as though a baby of six
months had broken into the conversation. A moment or two elapsed before
she said smoothly: "Oh, the Prince is enchanted at the idea. He danced
with you at Court and finds you _molto simpatica_. It is a great name,
my dear, that he has to offer you----" and then with a condescension,
yet a courteousness that prevented offense: "We shall all be willing,
nay, delighted, to receive you with open arms. Your position will be in
every way as though you had been born into the nobility."

"Thank you," said Nina quietly, "but I don't think I am quite used to
the European marriage of arrangement."

"Ah, but it need not be a marriage of arrangement. If you will permit
Allegro to pay his addresses to you, he will consider himself the most
fortunate of men. May I tell him?"

"Please