Orsino shook his head.
"I would rather die—if possible at your feet, Madame."
"Are you afraid to call upon Madame Del Ferice?"
"More than of death itself."
"How can you say that?"
"The conditions of the life to come are doubtful—there might be a chance for me. There is no doubt at all as to what would happen if I went to see Madame Del Ferice."
"Is your father so severe with you?" asked Maria Consuelo with a little scorn.
"Alas, Madame, I am not sensitive to ridicule," answered Orsino, quite unmoved. "I grant that there is something wanting in my character."
Maria Consuelo had hoped to find a weak point, and had failed, though indeed there were many in the young man's armour. She was a little annoyed, both at her own lack of judgment and because it would have amused her to see Orsino in an element so unfamiliar to him as that in which Donna Tullia lived.
"And there is nothing which would induce you to go there?" she asked.