It was late on the following morning when the Marchesa came out upon her curtained terrace, moving slowly, her hands hanging listlessly down, her eyes half closed, as though regretting the sleep she might be still enjoying.

Beatrice was sitting by a table, an open book beside her which she was not reading, and she hardly noticed her mother's light step.

The young girl had spent a sleepless night, and for the first time since she had been a child a few tears had wet her pillow.

She could not have told exactly why she had cried, for she had not felt anything like sadness, and tears were altogether foreign to her nature.

But the unsought return of all the impressions of the evening had affected her strangely, and she felt all at once shame, anger and regret--shame at having been so easily deceived by the play of a man's face and voice, anger against him for the part he had acted, and regret for something unknown but dreamt of and almost understood, and which could never be.