on both cheeks just as she had always done when
she was pleased, ever since she had been a child, and suddenly the elder
woman's eyes glistened.

"It is a pleasure to do anything for you, darling," she said. "I have
only you in the world," she added quietly, after a little pause, "but I
sometimes think I have more than all the other women."

Then Cecilia laid her head on her mother's shoulder for a moment, and
gently patted her cheek, and they both felt very happy.

They drove home in the warm dusk, and when they reached the high road
down by the Tiber they looked up and saw moving lights through the great
open windows of the villa, and on the terrace, and in the gardens, like
fireflies. For the servants were bringing in the chairs and putting
things in order. The nightingale was singing again, far up in the woods,
but Cecilia could hear the song distinctly as the carriage swept along.

Now the Countess was kind and true, and loved her daughter devotedly,
but she would not have been a woman if she had not wished to know what
Guido had said to Cecilia that afternoon; and before they had entered
Porta Angelica she asked what she considered a leading question, in her
own peculiar contradictory way.

"Of course, I am not going to ask you anything, my dear," she began,
"but did Signor d'Este say anything especial to you when you went off
together?"

Cecilia remembered how they had driven home from the Princess's a
fortnight earlier, almost at the same hour, and how her mother had then
first spoken of Guido d'Este. The young girl asked herself in the moment
she took before answering, whether she were any nearer to the thought of
marrying him than she had been after that first short meeting.

"He loves me, mother," she answered softly. "He has made me understand
that he does, without quite saying so. I like him very much. That is our
position now. I would rather not talk about it much, but you have a
right to know."

"Yes, dear. But what I mean is--I mean, what I meant was--he has not
asked you to marry him, has he?"

"No. I am not sure that he will, now."

"Yes, he will. He asked me yesterday evening if he might, and of course
I gave him my permission."

It was a relief to have told Cecilia this, for concealment was
intolerable to the Countess.

"I see," Cecilia answered.

"Yes, of course you do. But when he does ask you, what shall you say,
dear? He is sure to ask you to-morrow, and I really want to know wha