"I shall be enchanted!" exclaimed Maria Consuelo without hesitation.
"I shall be delighted!" answered Orsino with an alacrity which surprised himself.
"At eight then," said Del Ferice, shaking hands with him again, and in a moment he was gone.
Orsino was too much confused, and too much delighted at having escaped so easily from his difficulty to realise the importance of the step he was taking in going to Del Fence's house, or to ask himself why the latter had so opportunely extended the invitation. He sat down in his place with a sigh of relief.
"You have compromised yourself for ever," said Maria Consuelo with a scornful laugh. "You, the blackest of the Black, are to be numbered henceforth with the acquaintances of Count Del Ferice and Donna Tullia."
"What difference does it make? Besides, I could not have done otherwise."
"You might have refused the dinner."
"I could not possibly have done that. To accept was the only way out of a great difficulty."
"What difficulty?" asked Maria Consuelo relentlessly.
Orsino was silent, wondering how he could explain, as explain he must, without offending her.