"You're disappointed at not—not getting on better with him, and it makes you bitter."
"And you? You get on very well with him?"
"I don't think I'm blind about him. I see what you mean and what a lot of people feel. If there is a pit, I've walked into it open-eyed."
"He's in love with you, of course?"
A denial was hardly worth while and quite useless. "You must ask him that, Miss Quisanté," May replied. Aunt Maria nodded and gazed at her long and steadily.
"Yes, you're his Empress among women," she said at last with a little sneer. "Sandro has a phrase for everything and everybody. And are you in love with him?"
May had wanted to come to close quarters and was glad that Aunt Maria gave her a lead. But she did not return a direct answer to the question.
"You wouldn't be encouraging, if I were thinking of becoming his wife."
"It would be very extraordinary that you should."
"I've no particular desire to be ordinary," said May, smiling.