Then he rang.
The servant recognised him and said at once: 'If the Signor Conte will have the kindness to wait a moment I will go and inform _Mademoiselle_.' He nodded assent, and began pacing the vast ante-chamber, which seemed to echo the violent beating of his heart.

Hanging lamps of wrought iron shed an uncertain light over the stamped leather panelling of the walls, the carved oak chests, the antique busts on pedestals.

Under a magnificently embroidered baldachin blazed the ducal arms: a unicorn on a field gules.

A bronze card-tray, heaped with cards, stood in the middle of a table, and happening to cast his eye over them, Andrea noticed the one which Grimiti had just left lying on the top--_Bonne chance!_--The ironical augury still rang in his ears.
Mademoiselle now made her appearance.

'The duchess is feeling a little better,' she said.