Tebaldo smiled at Orsino's remark, not at all acknowledging that it might be intended as a rebuke.
'It is hard to believe that she can be your mother,' he said quietly, and with such frankness as completely disarmed resentment.
But Orsino in his thoughts contrasted Tebaldo's present tone with the sound of his voice when speaking to the Princess an instant earlier, and he forthwith disliked the man, and believed him to be false and double. Corona either had not heard, or pretended not to hear, and talked indifferently with San Giacinto, whose vast, lean frame seemed to fill two places at the table, while his energetic gray head towered high above everyone else. Orsino turned to Vittoria again.
'Should you be pleased if someone told you that you were the most beautiful young lady in Italy?' he enquired.
Vittoria looked at him wonderingly.
'No,' she answered. 'It would not be true. How should I be pleased?'
'But suppose, for the sake of argument, that it were true. I am imagining a case. Should you be pleased?'
'I do not know—I think—' She hesitated and paused.
'I am very curious to know what you think,' said Orsino, pressing her for an answer.
'I think it would depend upon whether I liked the person who told me so.' Again the blood rose softly in her face.