"

"Not half as much as I am."

"But what can I do?" he asked, in despair. "It is my work. It is her
palace. You are free to come and go as you will, and if you will not
come--"

"I know, I know," she answered, still clinging to him. "You will say it
is my fault. It is just like a man. And yet I know that you are there,
hour after hour, with her, and she is young and beautiful. And she loves
you--oh, I know she loves you!"

Reanda began to lose patience.

"How absurd!" he exclaimed. "It is ridiculous. It is an insult to Donna
Francesca to say that she is in love with me."

"It is true." Gloria suddenly raised her head and drew back from him a
very little. "I am a woman," she said. "I know and I understand. She
meant to sacrifice herself and make you happy, by marrying you to me,
and now she regrets it. It is enough to see her. She follows you with
her eyes as you move, and there is a look in them--"

Reanda laughed, with an effort.

"It is altogether too absurd!" he said. "I do not know what to say. I
can only laugh."

"Because you know it is true," answered Gloria. "It is for your sake
that she has done it all, that she makes such a pretence of being
friendly to me, that she pushes us into society, and brings her friends
here to see me. They never come unless she brings them," she added
bitterly. "There is no fear of that. The Duchess of Astrardente would
not have her black horses seen standing in the Macel de' Corvi, unless
Donna Francesca made her do it and came with her."

"Why not?" asked Reanda, simply, for his Italian mind did not grasp the
false shame which Gloria felt in living in a rather humble
neighbourhood.

"She would not have people know that she had friends living in such a
place," Gloria answered.

Unwittingly she had dealt Reanda a deadly thrust.

He had fallen in love with her and had married her on the understanding
with himself, so to say, that she was in all respects as much a great
lady as Donna Francesca herself, and he had taken it for granted that
she must be above such pettiness. The lodging was extremely good and had
the advantage of being very conveniently situated for his work. It had
never struck him that because it was in an unfashionable position,
Gloria could imagine that the people she knew would hesitate to come and
see her. Since their marriage she had done and said many little things
which had shaken his belief in the thoroughness of her refinement. She
had suddenl