Will you excuse me ?" Beatrice made an almost imperceptible gesture of indifference with her hand.
"Who is your friend ?" she asked.
"A Piedmontese," answered San Miniato indifferently.

"You do not know him." "We are very sorry to lose you, especially to-day, San Miniato carissimo," said the Marchesa.

"But if it cannot be helped--well, good-bye." So San Miniato went out and left the mother and daughter together again as he had found them.

It is needless to say that the Piedmontese friend was a fiction, and that San Miniato had no engagement of that kind.

He had hastily resolved to keep one of a different nature because he guessed that in Beatrice's present temper he would make matters more difficult by staying.