All these feelings, however, resulted in the same circumstance--the
prompt departure of the two heirs from the eternal city. When they left,
Aminta felt a deep distress, and the Prince de Maulear a sombre
presentiment.

Fifteen days afterwards, a letter, dated at Rome, informed the young
Marquise of the arrival of her husband and brother at the capital of the
Christian world. This letter informed them also that there were
difficulties in the way of obtaining possession of the estate of
Cardinal Justiniani, from the fact that his eminence had made various
bequests to convents, churches, and religious foundations, in relation
to which it was necessary for the Holy Father himself to make a
decision, which would much retard the final arrangement of their
business.

Aminta felt that her sadness was doubled at this news, and the feeling
grew more poignant from the fact that her husband's letters became every
day more rare and more cold. Aware of the devotion of the Prince de
Maulear to her, and knowing how uneasy the old man was about his son,
the young woman did all she could to conceal her anxiety from her
father-in-law, and by means of a thousand pretexts kept from his sight
the often icy letters written by her husband. When the Prince questioned
her about what he wrote from Rome, he received an evasive reply. "Well,
well," he would say, "one should not inquire into them. Fathers have
nothing to say about them; and provided, my child, that you are happy, I
will ask nothing more." Thus two months rolled by. The young Marquise
waited anxiously every day for the coming of the post, and the hours
rolled by only to deceive her. Deep mortification soon replaced regret.
Surrounded by the homage of a society which adored her, Aminta saw
herself deserted by the man to whom she was bound for life, and the
humiliation of this indifference almost overpowered the agony she felt.
The fact was, that having already been sacrificed to the miserable
passion for play, she now fancied she was postponed to the pleasure of
travel, and her firm character, softened by the happiness in which the
early days of her marriage had been passed, began now to assume the
firmness of womanhood, with all the characteristics of the Italian
nature. Such was the condition of Aminta's mind when she received the
visit of the Count Monte-Leone. When he came she was alone. They were
both annoyed by this novel position, and for a time their conversation
was common