He thanked and blessed her for the kindly attention, and in terror lest the signorina should think evil of him as 'one of the generation of the hasty,' he said, 'Were it anything but horses! anything but horses! one's horses!--ha!' The audible hoofs called him off.

He kissed the tips of his fingers, and tripped out.
The signora stepped rapidly to the window, and leaning there, cried a word to the coachman, who signalled perfect comprehension, and immediately the count's horses were on their hind-legs, chafing and pulling to right and left, and the street was tumultuous with them.

She flung down the window, seized Vittoria's cheeks in her two hands, and pressed the head upon her bosom.

'He will not disturb us again,' she said, in quite a new tone, sliding her hands from the cheeks to the shoulders and along the arms to the fingers'-ends, which they clutched lovingly.

'He is of the old school, friend of my heart! and besides, he has but two pairs of horses, and one he keeps in Vienna.