The man knocked at the door for his mistress, and then hurried away to do her errand.
It was the conventional "dinner call" that brought Valerie to the Hotel Borghese.
An English footman admitted the visitor, conducted her to the private drawing-room of Lady C., and announced her.
Several other ladies, whom Valerie had met at the dinner party, were there on the same duty as herself.
Lady C. advanced from among them to receive the new comer, kissed her on both cheeks, inquired affectionately after her health and then made her sit down in the most comfortable of the easy-chairs at hand.
After courteously saluting the ladies present, Valerie subsided into a dull silence, from which she could not arouse herself; but her voice was not missed, since every visitor seemed anxious to talk rather than listen, and therefore kept up a chattering that would have carried off the palm in a contest with a village sewing-circle or aviary full of excited magpies.
Valerie, the last to enter, was also the first to rise, but Lady C. detained her by a slight signal, and she sat down again, and relapsed into dullness and silence.
One by one the visitors arose and took leave, chattering to the very last.
As soon as the two ladies were left alone together, Lady C. took Valerie's hand, and gazing earnestly in her face, said:
"What is the matter with you, my child? You look pale and ill. Although I am so glad to see you, under any circumstances, I am half inclined to scold you for coming out at all."