'There! You use the word again! What in the world do you mean by it?'
Miss Slayback was at a loss to furnish the required definition, especially in French.
'Your brother is romantic,' she said, repeating herself. 'I am sure he looks like Cæsar Borgia.'
'I hope not!' exclaimed Vittoria. 'Surely you would not marry—' she stopped.
'Cæsar Borgia?' enquired Lizzie Slayback, calmly. 'Of all people, I should have liked to marry him! He was nice and wicked. He would never have been dull, even nowadays, when everybody is so proper, you know.'
'No,' laughed the Italian girl, 'I do not think anybody would have called him dull. He generally murdered his friends before they were bored by his company.'
Miss Lizzie laughed, for Vittoria seemed witty to her.
'If I had said that at a party,' she answered, 'everybody would have told me that I was so clever! I wish I had thought of it. May I say it, as if it were mine? Shall you not mind?'
'Why should I? I should certainly not say it myself, before people.'