"Does your excellenza think so?"
"To be sure I do; and if I mistake not, so does the lady."
"I know not that, excellenza."
"Ask her then, Signor Latrezzi. Either I cannot read the language of her fair face, or she loves the artist."
"But he's a foreigner, excellenza."
"What of that?"
"Nothing, save that Florinda is nobly born, and bears some of the best and oldest blood of Italy."
"Time will settle the matter," said the duke, turning away.
Signor Latrezzi having ascertained that the duke favored the alliance of his niece with the American artist, was too good a subject-or rather, too experienced a courtier-to attempt openly before his master to oppose the matter, taking good care to avoid any interference with one whose wish, when expressed, was law. His opposition to the proposed marriage was, however, none the less rigorous; and he determined, on such occasions as he could do so, to exercise his spirit with impunity, and he was often heard to say that the affair should never take place, even if he was himself obliged to call out the young American to single combat.
The thought of the bare possibility of the connection as sanctioned by the duke, so embittered his feelings as to render him disagreeable to all about him. His conscious pride and self-interest both prompted him in this emergency; for in the case of Florinda's marrying Petro, as we have already intimated, there would be some important pecuniary interest of his own benefited thereby-and then his old aristocratic notions were shocked at the prospect of the plebeian match.