"Of course. I had his wife's place. She could not go. Do you dislike being thanked for your good offices? Are you so modest as that?"
"Not in the least, but I hate misunderstandings, though I will get all the credit I can for what I have not done, like other people. When I saw that you knew the Del Ferice, I thought that perhaps she had been exerting herself."
"Why do you hate her so?" asked Maria Consuelo.
"I do not hate her. She does not exist—that is all."
"Why does she not exist, as you call it? She is a very good-natured woman. Tell me the truth. Everybody hates her—I saw that by the way they bowed to her while we were waiting—why? There must be a reason. Is she a—an incorrect person?"
Orsino laughed.
"No. That is the point at which existence is more likely to begin than to end."
"How cynical you are! I do not like that. Tell me about Madame Del Ferice."
"Very well. To begin with, she is a relation of mine."
"Seriously?"