“None at all. But they are so stiff! so frigid! I know one, a Miss Ford, now in Italy, who would not let me have a male friend, and a character, in conjunction.”
“You are acquainted with Count Karl Lenkenstein?”
Adela blushingly acknowledged it.
“The whisper goes that I was once admired by him,” said Violetta.
“And by Count Ammiani.”
“By count? by milord? by prince? by king?”
“By all who have good taste.”
“Was it jealousy, then, that made Countess Anna hate me?”
“She could not—or she cannot now.”
“Because I have not taken possession of her brother.”