"And brothers?"
"I haven't any brothers."
"And friends?"
"Yes, and friends." I could not help laughing; then thinking that he looked rather offended, I added by way of general conversation—
"How beautiful this room looks. It seems quite desecration to dance in it."
He looked round, and up and down.
"Yes, I suppose it is elegant. I think it very gloomy."
Again I found myself smiling. There was something so absurd in this mixture of the soft, sweet Italian tones and the very pronounced American accent, not to speak of the occasional flowers of American idiom.
This time, however, Andrea did not appear offended, but smiled back at me most charmingly, then turned to greet his mother, who, the two girls in her wake, came sweeping across the room in violet velvet and diamonds.
"You are down early, Miss Meredith," she said to me without moving a muscle of her face, but making me feel that I had committed a breach of propriety in venturing alone downstairs.