there--Count Camerino."

"The man she married?"

"The man she married. I was very much in love with her, and yet I didn't
trust her. I was sure that she lied; I believed that she could be cruel.
Nevertheless, at moments, she had a charm which made it pure pedantry to
be conscious of her faults; and while these moments lasted I would have
done anything for her. Unfortunately they didn't last long. But you
know what I mean; am I not describing the Scarabelli?"

"The Countess Scarabelli never lied!" cried Stanmer.

"That's just what I would have said to any one who should have made the
insinutation! But I suppose you are not asking me the question you put
to me just now from dispassionate curiosity."

"A man may want to know!" said the innocent fellow.

I couldn't help laughing out. "This, at any rate, is my story. Camerino
was always there; he was a sort of fixture in the house. If I had
moments of dislike for the divine Bianca, I had no moments of liking for
him. And yet he was a very agreeable fellow, very civil, very
intelligent, not in the least disposed to make a quarrel with me. The
trouble, of course, was simply that I was jealous of him. I don't know,
however, on what ground I could have quarrelled with him, for I had no
definite rights. I can't say what I expected--I can't say what, as the
matter stood, I was prepared to do. With my name and my prospects, I
might perfectly have offered her my hand. I am not sure that she would
have accepted it--I am by no means clear that she wanted that. But she
wanted, wanted keenly, to attach me to her; she wanted to have me about.
I should have been capable of giving up everything--England, my career,
my family--simply to devote myself to her, to live near her and see her
every day."

"Why didn't you do it, then?" asked Stanmer.

"Why don't you?"

"To be a proper rejoinder to my question," he said, rather neatly, "yours
should be asked twenty-five years hence."

"It remains perfectly true that at a given moment I was capable of doing
as I say. That was what she wanted--a rich, susceptible, credulous,
convenient young Englishman established near her _en permanence_. And
yet," I added, "I must do her complete justice. I honestly believe she
was fond of me." At this Stanmer got up and walked to the window; he
stood looking out a moment, and then he turned round. "You know she was
older than I," I went on. "Madame Scarabelli is older than you. One