"Why--what is the matter, sweetheart?" asked her brother, who took everything seriously.
"I have lost something," she said in a tone of deep melancholy which evidently covered some jest.
"Not a four-leaved shamrock or a medal blessed by the pope?" asked the general.
"Oh, no! something much more important."
"Your purse!" exclaimed the baroness hastily. But Zinka burst out laughing. "No, no, something much greater--you will never guess: Rome."
On which Sterzl, who could never make out what his fascinating little sister would be at, only said: "That is beyond me."
But Sempaly was sympathetic. "I see you are terribly disappointed," he said, and Zinka went on like a person accustomed to be listened to.
"Yes, ever since I could think at all I have dreamed of Rome and longed to see it. My Rome was a suburb of Heaven, but this Rome is a suburb of Paris. My Rome was glorious and this Rome is simply hideous."
"Do not be flippant, Zinka," said the general, who always upheld traditional worship.
"Well, as a city Rome is really very ugly," interposed her brother, "it is more interesting as a museum of antiquities with life-size illustrations. Still, you do not know it yet. You have seen nothing as yet...."