were no silences! They came in one after another
with some new thing, something to see and to do. We separated to dress,
to make ourselves beautiful for the evening, and then till the morning
light came in through the curtains, never a pause or a weariness. Yes!
sometimes one had a terrible pang. There would be a toilette, which was
ravishing, which was far superior to mine--for I never had money to
dress as I wished--or some one else would have a success, and attract
all eyes. But what did that matter?" the Contessa cried, lighting up
more and more. "One did not really grudge what lasted only for a time;
for one knew next day one would have one's turn. Ah!" she said, with a
sigh, "I knew what it was to be a queen, Bice, in those days."

"And so you do still, Madama," said the girl, soothingly.

Madama di Forno-Populo shook her head. "It is no longer the same," she
said. "You have known only the worst side, my _poverina_. It is no
longer one's own palace, one's own people, and the best of the
strangers, the finest company. You saw the Duchess at Milady's party the
other day. To see me made her lose her breath. She could not refuse to
speak to me--to salute me--but it was with a consternation! But, Bice,
that lady was only too happy to be invited to the Palazzo Populino. To
make one of our expeditions was her pride. I believe in my soul," cried
the Contessa, "that when she looks back she remembers those days as the
most bright of her life."

Bice's clear shining eyes rested upon her patroness with a light in them
which was keen with indignation and wonder. She cried, "And why the
change--and why the change, Madama?" with a high indignant tone, such as
youth assumes in presence of ingratitude and meanness. Bice knew much
that a young girl does not usually know; but the reason why her best
friend should be thus slighted was not one of these things.

The Contessa shrank a little from her gaze. She rose up again and went
to the window and looked out upon the wintry landscape, and standing
there with her face averted, shrugged her shoulders a little and made
answer in a tone of levity very different from the sincerer sound of her
previous communications. "It is poverty, my child, poverty, always the
easiest explanation! I was never rich, but then there had been no crash,
no downfall. I was in my own palace. I had the means of entertaining. I
was somebody. Ah! very different; it was not then at the baths, in the
watering-p