"Not at all, not at all, your Highness!" protested Don Nicola, rising. "I should be very much surprised if Monsieur Leroy expressed himself differently."
Monsieur Leroy had no retort ready, and tried to smile.
"It will give me the greatest pleasure to be your guide to the new excavations in the Forum," added the priest, as he took his leave.
The Princess and Monsieur Leroy were left alone.
"Shall we?" he asked after a moment's silence, and waited anxiously for the answer.
"I am afraid They will not come to-night, Doudou," said the Princess. "You have excited yourself in argument. You know that always has a bad effect."
"That man irritates me," answered Monsieur Leroy, peevishly. "Why do you receive him?"
He spoke in the tone of a spoilt child—a spoilt child of forty, or thereabouts.
"I thought you liked him," replied the Princess, very meekly. "I will give orders that he is not to be received. We will not go to the Forum with him."
"No, no! How you exaggerate! You always think that I mean a great deal more than I say. I only said that he irritated me."