The Prince was the first to speak, as usual.
"You expected to meet us, Duchessa ?" he said; "we expected to meet you.
An expectation fulfilled is better than a surprise.

Everything at Saracinesca is prepared for your reception.

Don Angelo, our priest, has been warned of your coming, and the boy who serves mass has been washed.
You may imagine that a great festivity is expected.

Giovanni has turned the castle inside out, and had a room hung entirely with tapestries of my great-grandmother's own working.

He says that since the place is so old, its antiquity should be carried into the smallest details." Corona laughed gaily--she would have laughed at anything that day--and the old Prince's tone was fresh and sparkling and merry.