She felt not only very angry, but also disgusted. In fact, so violent was her emotion and her surprise that she found herself trembling all over.
“Sit down, Lily,” said the Marchesa slowly. “And forgive me for what I said just now. I do not speak English really well; I ought to have said ‘if you marry Beppo.’ It is, after all, a possibility—is it not? It would be absurd to deny—surely you do not deny—that he is in love with you? That is why I said that about the Countess.”
But Lily, even in the midst of her agitation, could not help noticing that the Marchesa’s manner, as well as her voice, had changed; there was no longer in her words the thrill of sincerity that there had been.
“I’m sure that Beppo is not in love with me,” said the girl firmly. “He has not known me long enough to fall in love with me. He has a pretty, coaxing, kind of manner——”
“He has indeed!” broke in the Marchesa sarcastically, but Lily was determined to finish her sentence.
“——But his manner is just as pretty to Cristina as it is to me,” she concluded.
She felt as if she were on the brink of tears. How dare this foreign woman insult her so!
And then something else happened which amazed the English girl more than any of the other amazing things which had gone before.
The Marchesa Pescobaldi sank gracefully upon her knees, and from that lowly posture she looked up into Lily’s face. She clasped her hands together, and there seemed to be nothing affected or even out of the way in the gesture. The surprised girl felt that now, again, the woman kneeling there was quite honest, quite sincere.
“Forgive me!” exclaimed Livia Pescobaldi. “Forgive me, Lily! I see that I have offended and distressed you—that I have outraged your modesty. But you must remember that we Italians fall in love far more suddenly than do the cold-blooded English and the calculating French. I saw at once that Beppo was fascinated—also that the Countess Polda, who never acts without a motive, was quite willing, nay, desirous, that you and he should become good comrades. So I put two and two together, as you say in England. I see now that in this case my two and two made five—not four, as I thought! I apologise with deep humility for having said what I did.”