Cecilia was somewhat surprised.

"Oh yes! He was overcome by your perfection--like every one else. How
could it be otherwise? It is true that Guido has always been very
impressionable."

"I should not have thought it," Cecilia said, wishing that the man would
go away.

But he would not, and, to make matters worse, nobody would come and
oblige him to move. It was plain to the meanest mind that since Cecilia
was to marry Princess Anatolie's nephew, the extraordinary person whom
the Princess called her secretary must not be disturbed when he was
talking to Cecilia, since he might be the bearer of some important
message. Besides, a good many people were afraid of him, in a vague way,
as a rather spiteful gossip who had more influence than he should have
had.

"Yes," he continued, in an apologetic tone, "Guido is always falling in
love, poor boy. Of course, it is not to be wondered at. A king's son,
and handsome as he is, and so very clever, too--all the pretty ladies
fall in love with him at once, and he naturally falls in love with them.
You see how simple it is. He has more opportunities than are good for
him!"

The disagreeable little man giggled, and his loose pink and white cheeks
shook unpleasantly. Cecilia thought him horribly vulgar and familiar,
and she inwardly wondered how the Princess Anatolie could even tolerate
him, not to speak of treating him affectionately and calling him
"Doudou."

"I supposed that you counted yourself among Signor d'Este's friends,"
said the young girl, frigidly.

"I do, I do! Have I said anything unfriendly? I merely said that all the
women fell in love with him."

"You said a good deal more than that."

"At all events, I wish I were he," said Monsieur Leroy. "And if that is
not paying him a compliment I do not know what you would call it. He is
handsome, clever, generous, everything!"

"And faithless, according to you."

"No, no! Not faithless; only fickle, very fickle."

"It is the same thing," said the young girl, scornfully.

She did not believe Monsieur Leroy in the least, but she wondered what
his object could be in speaking against Guido, and whether he were
really silly, as he often seemed, or malicious, as she suspected, or
possibly both at the same time, since the combination is not uncommon.
What he was telling her, if she believed it, was certainly not of a
nature to hasten her marriage with Guido; and yet it was the Princess
who had first suggested the matc