"Seriously. Of course that gives me a right to handle the whole dictionary of abuse against her."
"Of course. Are you going to do that?"
"No. You would call me cynical. I do not like you to call me by bad names, Madame."
"I had an idea that men liked it," observed Maria Consuelo gravely.
"One does not like to hear disagreeable truths."
"Then it is the truth? Go on. You have forgotten what we were talking about."
"Not at all Donna Tullia, my second, third or fourth cousin, was married once upon a time to a certain Mayer."
"And left him. How interesting!"
"No, Madame. He left her—very suddenly, I believe—for another world. Better or worse? Who can say? Considering his past life, worse, I suppose; but considering that he was not obliged to take Donna Tullia with him, decidedly better."
"You certainly hate her. Then she married Del Ferice."