"Oh, Rome can be very gay—though I am not out in society myself, and know so little. . . . What did you do, then? I suppose you went to the Forum and the Vatican and the Via Appia like all the tourists and drove out to the Coliseum by moonlight?"
Delightedly she laughed as Barry Elder confirmed her account of his activities.
"Me, I have never seen the Coliseum by moonlight," she reported plaintively, adding with eager wistfulness, "And did you buy violets on the Spanish Stairs? And throw a penny into the Trevi fountain to ensure your return? And do you remember the street that turns off left, the Via Poli? From there you come quick to my house, the Palazzo Santonini——"
"And do you really live in a palace?" It was Barry's turn to question. "A really truly palace? And is your father a really truly prince?"
"Nothing so great! He is a count—but of a very old family, the Santonini," Maria Angelina explained with becoming pride.
"And is your mother of a very old——"
"My mother is American—the cousin of Mrs. Blair. But Mamma has never been back in America—she is too devoted to us, is Mamma, and she has so much to look after for Papa. Papa is charming but he does not manage."
"That makes complications," said Barry gravely.
"And Francisco, my brother, is just like him. He is always running bills, now that he is in the army. And he was so brave in the war that Mamma cannot bear to be cross. He will have to marry an heiress, that boy," she sighed and Barry Elder's eyes lighted in amusement.
"How many of you are there?" he wanted interestedly to know, and vivaciously Maria Angelina informed him of her sisters, her life, her lessons, the rare excursions, the pension at the seashore, the engagement of her sister Lucia and Paolo Tosti.