‘Your husband is very fond of it, is he not?’
‘Yes, and he rides well, and looks well on a horse—particularly on that lovely little Andalusian mare he brought from Spain.’
‘The one the Duca di Casalmaggiore is so anxious to buy?’ inquired Giuliana.
‘The Colonel of the Piedmont Lancers?’ Maria wondered whether her friend was trying to lead the conversation back to Castiglione again. ‘I did not know he wanted her.’
‘My dear! He thinks of nothing else! He would like to make it an affair of State. The other day he came to see Sigismondo and talked about the mare for three-quarters of an hour, trying to induce him to use his influence with me, to use my influence with you, to use your influence with your husband, to induce him to sell the Andalusian for twenty thousand francs! I think he must be quite mad! It is an enormous price for a saddle-horse, and he has offered it through half a dozen people. I wonder that Diego should not have spoken of it to you.’
‘He never tells me anything,’ Maria replied. ‘But I can guess what he must have answered. He probably said that the Count of Montalto buys horses but does not sell them!’
Giuliana laughed.
‘I did not know you could be so malicious, Maria! That is precisely what he did say.’
‘I did not mean to say anything disagreeable, I’m sure,’ returned Maria. ‘That is Diego’s way; he is old-fashioned. The idea that a Count of the Holy Roman Empire could possibly sell anything never occurred to him.’
‘My father is just like him in that,’ observed Giuliana.