geousness?" she now asked.

"I do indeed. I thought you scorned such vanities."

"I do, as a rule, but that dear thing pressed them on me so prettily
that I hadn't the heart to refuse. Mrs. Chesney I mean. She _is_ a dear
thing, Marco."

Her son's voice at once became on guard.

"Yes. I thought you would like her," he said. "You know I told you so."

"You didn't tell me half, my dear. She is a very unusual woman
indeed--girl, I feel like saying. Really she seems amazingly girlish to
have been through such bitter experiences. That terrible dinner you told
me of----"

"Yes. That does strike one."

The Marchesa smoked for a few moments.

"Does she seem very _eprise_ with her husband?" she asked at last.

"I haven't seen them together more than twice--I couldn't say. I haven't
seen much of Mrs. Chesney herself, you know."

"I didn't know," reflected the Marchesa; but matters seemed to her all
the more serious because of that statement. If she, his mother, could
see in a few hours the strong influence that Sophy had upon him, and if
this influence had resulted from such a slight acquaintance, then it was
more necessary than ever that she should speak.

She threw away her cigarette, and leaned back.

"_Caro Marco_," she said, "I'm going to do a thing that I've rarely
done. I'm going to do it because I think I ought to, though I dislike
doing it very much. And I want you to be indulgent to Baldi--eh? Will
you?"

Now Amaldi was more than ever on guard. Something seemed actually to
click in his breast. It was the lock of his heart snapping home. It is a
way that some heart-locks have of doing at the least touch.

His voice was very gentle and courteous as he said:

"Dear Baldi, you know very well that you can speak to me in any way
whatever that you wish."

"_Aie!_" thought the Marchesa. "He's gone under the boat like a sulking
_lusc_ (pike). What a dear, fine, provoking boy to be sure!

"Well, then, Marco, I'll come to the point at once," she said in a
frank, practical voice. "But first I must ask you if you don't really
think that I've trespassed very little on private ground with you, since
you've been grown? Even when your marriage was in question, I said
nothing after giving you my honest opinion, when you asked for it. Isn't
this so?"

"Yes, Maman; it is perfectly true," said Amaldi.

This "Maman" fixed the Marchesa in her opinion that Marco was going to
make things as difficult as possible for her.