It was an Italian speech, but it was spoken with an air of sincerity that was singularly English, and the speaker's eyes were fixed so earnestly and pleadingly upon Margaret's face, that her color rose, and she bent down and got her brushes to hide it. The girl glided to her side.
"Poor Ferdy! But it was very stupid of him, and he might have hurt you as well as the easel, and then I should never have forgiven him, whatever you had done. But you will forgive him, will you not?"
She seemed to set so much value on the expression of forgiveness, that Margaret, with a soft laugh, said at once:
"Certainly, I forgive him!"
The young man's face cleared instantly, and with the slight foreign accent which was more marked in him than his sister, he said:
"I am deeply grateful! I do not deserve it. Florence, have you told the lady your name? Will you tell her mine?"
The girl at this direct invitation stepped forward, and with a little graceful movement of the hand, said:
"Madame, let me present to you my brother, Prince Ferdinand Rivani."
"And I, the Princess Florence, my sister," said the prince; and the prince bowed, and the young girl dropped a courtesy in courtly fashion.
"And now we have been formally introduced," said the girl, with a merry laugh. "We are friends, are we not, and you will come to see us? Ferdy, the lady——" she hesitated and looked at Margaret, and Margaret, with downcast eyes, said: