whom are you bowing?' asked Donna Maria, turning round too, 'who are
those ladies?'

'Lady Heathfield and the Princess of Ferentino.'

She noticed a tremor of annoyance in his voice.

'Which of them is the Princess of Ferentino?'

'The fair one.'

'The other is very beautiful.'

Andrea said nothing.

'But is she English?' she asked again.

'No, she is a Roman. She was the widow of the Duke of Scerni, and now
married again to Lord Heathfield.'

'She is very lovely.'

'What is coming next?' Andrea asked hurriedly.

'The Brahms Quartett in C minor.'

'Do you know it?'

'No.'

'The second movement is marvellous.'

He went on speaking to hide his embarrassment.

'When shall I see you again?' he asked.

'I do not know.'

'To-morrow?'

She hesitated. A cloud seemed to have come over her face.

'To-morrow,' she answered, 'if it is fine I shall take Delfina to the
Piazza di Spagna about twelve o'clock.'

'And if it is not fine?'

'On Saturday evening I shall be at the Countess Starnina's----'

The music began once more. The first movement expressed a sombre and
virile struggle, the Romance a memory full of passionate but sad desire,
followed by a slow uplifting, faltering and tentative, towards the
distant dawn. Out of this a clear and melodious phrase developed itself
with splendid modulations. The sentiment was very different from that
which animated Bach's Adagio; it was more human, more earthly, more
elegiacal. A breath of Beethoven ran through this music.

Andrea's nervous perturbation was so great that he feared every moment
to betray himself. All his pleasure was embittered. He could not exactly
analyse his discomfort; he could neither gather himself together and
overcome it, nor put it away from him; he was swayed in turn by the
charm of the music and the fascination exercised over him by each of
these women without being really dominated by any of the three. He had a
vague sensation as of some empty space, in which heavy blows perpetually
resounded followed by dolorous echoes. His thoughts seemed to break up
and crumble away into a thousand fragments, and the images of the two
women to melt into and destroy one another without his being able to
disconnect them or to separate his feeling for the one from his feeling
for the other. And above all this mental disturbance was the anxiety
occasioned by the immediate circumstances, by the necessity for adopting
some practical line of action. Do