I will telephone to the War Office, and if the Count is there I will explain everything.' Angela looked at her doubtfully.
'But then the servant who telephones will know,' she objected.
'The servant?
Why?
I do not understand.

I shall speak myself.

No one will be there to hear.' 'Yourself?
My father never could, and I never was shown how to do it.
Are you sure you understand the thing?
It is very complicated, I believe.' Madame Bernard was not surprised, for she knew the ways of the Palazzo Chiaromonte; but she smiled and assured the young girl that a telephone was not really such a dangerous instrument as she had been led to believe.
'I once tried to make a few stitches with a sewing-machine,' Angela said, apparently in explanation.
'A telephone is different,' Madame Bernard answered gravely.

'Shall I ask the Count to come to-morrow at four o'clock, instead of to-day ?' Angela hesitated, and then blushed faintly.
'Do you think----' she began, but she stopped and hesitated.

'He would be angry, I am sure----' She seemed to be suddenly distressed.
'Your father ?' asked the Frenchwoman, guessing what she meant.