Ugo sometimes wore too much jewellery; but his bad taste, if so it could be called, did not extend to the modest equipage.

People accepted the story of the deceased uncle, and congratulated Ugo, whose pale face assumed on such occasions a somewhat deprecating smile.

"A few scudi," he would answer--"a very small competence; but what would you have?
I need so little--it is enough for me." Nevertheless people who knew him well warned him that he was growing stout.
The other man who followed the Duchessa d'Astrardente across the drawing-room was of a different type.

Don Giovanni Saracinesca was neither very tall nor remarkably handsome, though in the matter of his beauty opinion varied greatly.

He was very dark--almost as dark for a man as the Duchessa was for a woman.