"Would you—might I—that is——" Mary began to stammer.
"We would—you might!" Clotilde finished for her, laughing.
"I wonder you have not more pride!" Madame d'Ambre reproached the four, her white-rose cheeks flushing with annoyance.
"Pride does not buy us supper, or new hats," the girl with golden hair reminded her.
"Oh, please take these, and do whatever you like with them," Mary said hastily, her voice quivering with shyness and compassion. She began dealing out her thousand-franc notes, and did not stop until she had given one to each of the four.
It was at this moment that Prince Giovanni Della Robbia, unable to resist his desire to follow Mary to the Casino, came within sight of her. This was the picture he saw: the strikingly dressed girl, bright-eyed, carmine-cheeked, feverishly distributing notes to a crowd of young women more showily dressed than herself.
He turned away instantly, chilled and disgusted.
IX
Others were less fastidious than Vanno.