Nicco--it is my command.' 'Nicco,' she calls me--it
is what you call jack-name."

The Count smiled deprecatingly, and looked at me with a great deal of
sentiment, twisting his moustache. Another pause ensued. It's all very
well to say I should have dismissed him long before this, but I should
like to know on what grounds?

"I wish very much to write my mother that I have found the American lady
for a new Countess Filgiatti," he said at last with emotion.

"Well," I said awkwardly, "I hope you will find her."

"Ah, Mees Wick," exclaimed the Count recklessly, "you are that American
lady. When I saw you in the railway I said, 'It is my vision!' At once I
desired to embrace the papa. And he was not cold with me--he told me of
the soda. I had courage, I had hope. At first when I see you to-day I
am a little derange. In the Italian way I speak first with the papa.
Then came a little thought in my heart--no, it is propitious! In America
the daughter maka always her own arrangimento. So I am spoken."

At this I rose immediately. I would not have it on my conscience that I
toyed with the matrimonial proposition of even an Italian Count.

"I think I understand you, Count Filgiatti," I said--There is something
about the most insignificant proposal that makes one blush in a
perfectly absurd way. I have never been able to get over it--"and I fear
I must bring this interview to a close. I----"

"Ah, it is too embarrassing for you! It is experience very new, very
strange."

"No," I said, regaining my composure, "not at all. But the fact is,
Count Filgiatti, the transaction you propose doesn't appeal to me. It is
too business-like to be sentimental, and too sentimental to be
business-like. I'm sorry to seem disobliging, but I really couldn't make
up my mind to marry a gentleman for his ancestors who are dead, even if
he was willing to marry me for my income which may disappear. Poppa is
very speculative. But I know there's a certain percentage of Americans
who think a count with a family seat is about the only thing worth
bringing away from Europe, now that we manufacture so much for
ourselves, and if I meet any of them I'll bear you in mind."

"_Upon my word!_"

It was Mrs. Portheris, in the doorway behind us, just arrived from
Siena.

* * * * *

I mentioned the matter to my parents, thinking it might amuse them, and
it did. From a business point of view, however, poppa could not help
fee