"It really is absurd how one meets every one in Rome," she said presently, when she had been questioned as to the how and where of the party she had just quitted. "Who do you think I came across to-day, Marie?--That Lenz girl from Vienna; now she is a duchess or a Countess Montidor--Heaven knows which; once, years ago, I had something to do with a charity sale she got up, so now she comes up to me as if I were an old acquaintance and pretends to be intimate, talks of 'we Austrians,' and 'at home at Vienna.'--Amusing, rather?"
"Poor Fritzi! I feel for you!" exclaimed Sempaly with a malicious laugh. "But there is a greater treat in store for you. The Sterzl women, mother and sister, are coming in a few days."
"Indeed! that is pleasant certainly!"
"Why?" asked Madame de Gandry, throwing herself into the conversation. "Are they objectionable people?"
"By no means," said the countess quickly. "I believe they are the most respectable people in the world, but--it is a bore to be constantly meeting people here whom one could not possibly recognize in Vienna. You should give him a hint, Nicki--tell him--explain to him...."
"To be sure," said Sempaly laughing, "I might say: Look here, my good friend, beware of taking your mother and sister out anywhere; my cousin the countess would rather not meet them."
The countess shrugged her shoulders and turned away from her flippant interlocutor, tapping her fan impatiently. "Do you mean to receive them Marie?" she asked.
"Whom do I not receive?" said the princess in an undertone, with a significant glance.
"Well I cannot--decidedly not," said the countess excitedly, "though I shall be grieved to annoy Sterzl. It will be his own fault entirely if he forces me to explain myself."
"Do as you think proper," replied her friend, "but you know I am very fond of Sterzl; he stands high in my good graces."