"What do you think of him as a teacher?" she asks.
"He sings delightfully," Zino replies, somewhat vaguely.
"Yes, but he is too lax as a teacher; he is not strict enough,--does not suit to their capacity the tasks he imposes upon his pupils."
"Do you think so?" says Zino. "On the contrary, I thought he exacted far too much of his scholars' capacity."
"How so?" Natalie asks, rather offended.
"He required you to be coquettish, and that fellow--what was his name?--Trappenti--to be seductive. Rather too difficult a task for both of you, I should think," says the Prince.
Natalie frowns:
"I thought della Seggiola's remarks to-day highly unbecoming."
"Of course, when you were singing a love-song, to require you to imagine yourself in the place of the singer,--c'est de la dernière inconvenance. Moreover, it was exacting more than you were capable of performing,--that is, so far as I know." And, with a quick turn of the conversation which would be quite inexcusable in any one else, he looks her in the face, and asks with a light laugh, as if the question concerned something infinitely comical, "Do tell us,--it will interest Baroness Stella too, I am sure,--you are twenty-five years old----"
"Twenty-six," Natalie corrects him.