harder to refuse the appointment. I will
go.'

A little silence followed, and Madame Bernard, no longer hearing their
voices, and having said everything she had to say to her parrot,
judged that it was time for her to come back and play chaperon again.
She was careful to make a good deal of noise with the latch before she
opened the door.

'Well, Monsieur,' she asked, on the threshold, 'has Donna Angela
persuaded you that she is right? I heard her making a great speech!'

'She is a firebrand,' laughed Giovanni, 'and a good patriot as well!
She ought to be in Parliament.'

'You are a feminist, I perceive,' answered Madame Bernard. 'But Joan
of Arc would be in the Chambers if she could come back to this world.
The people would elect her, she would present herself in the tribune,
and she would say, "Aha, messieurs! Here I am! We shall talk, you and
I." And our little Donna Angela is a sort of Joan of Arc. People do
not know it, but I do, for I have often heard her make beautiful
speeches, as if she were inspired!'

'It takes no inspiration to see what is right,' Angela said, shaking
her head. 'The only difficulty is to do it!'

'Even that is easy when you lead,' Giovanni answered thoughtfully, and
without the least intention of flattering her.

He had seen a side of her character of which he had not even suspected
the existence, and there was something about it so large and imposing
that he was secretly a little ashamed of feeling less strong than she
seemed. In two successive meetings he had come to her with his own
mind made up, but in a few moments she had talked him over to her
point of view without the least apparent difficulty, and had sent him
away fully determined to do the very opposite of that which he had
previously decided to do. It was a strange experience for a young man
of great energy and distinctly exceptional intelligence, and he did
not understand it.

He stayed barely half-an-hour, for Madame Bernard showed no
disposition to leave the room again, and he felt the difficulty of
keeping up an indifferent conversation in her presence, as well as the
impossibility of talking freely to Angela of what was uppermost in her
thoughts and his own. It was true that the governess knew all about
it, and there are excellent women of that sort whose presence does not
always hinder lovers from discussing their future; but either Madame
Bernard was not one of these by nature, or else the two felt the
differen