"Love!" laughed Beatrice, repeating the word. "It always makes one laugh. Were you ever in love, mamma?"
The Marchesa turned her head slowly, and lifted her sleepy eyes to look at her daughter, before she answered.
"No," she said lazily. "I was never in love. But you are far too young to talk of such things."
"San Miniato says that love is for the young and friendship for the old."
"Love," said San Miniato, "is a necessary evil, but it is also the greatest source of happiness."
"What a fine phrase!" exclaimed Beatrice. "You must be a professor in disguise."
"A professor of love?" asked the Count with a very well executed look of tenderness which did not escape Ruggiero.
"Hush, for the love of heaven!" interposed the Marchesa. "This is too dreadful!"
"We were not talking of the love of heaven," answered Beatrice mischievously.
"I was thinking at least of a love that could make any place a heaven," said San Miniato, again helping his lack of originality with his eyes.