"From Rome!" exclaimed the baroness, "that is delightful. Where, oh where are my spectacles?" And she felt and patted herself all over till the superfluous substance shook like a jelly.
"Ah, here they are--I am sitting on them--now then, children," and she began to read the letter aloud.
"Dear Lotti, you must not take it ill that I so seldom write to you"--the baroness looked up over her spectacles--"so seldom!... she never in her life wrote to me so often as from Rome"--"but you cannot imagine the turmoil in which we live. A dinner-party every day, two evening parties and a ball. We are spending the carnival with the crême de la crême of Roman society. To-morrow we dine with Princess Vulpini--she was a Truyn and is the sister of Truyn of R. The next day we have theatricals, etc., etc. Zinka is an immense success. Nicki Sempaly among others--the brother of Prince Sempaly, the great landed proprietor--is very attentive to her...."
Here she was interrupted by her husband. "Well, I never thought the old goose was quite such a simpleton!" he exclaimed, drumming his fingers angrily on the red and white flowered cloth.
"I cannot imagine how Clotilde allows it!" cried the baroness--"and still less do I understand Cecil."
"Take my advice, Lotti, go to Rome," observed the baron ironically; "go and set their heads straight on their shoulders."
"With the greatest pleasure," replied his wife, taking his irony quite seriously, "but unfortunately we have not the money."
Then she read the letter to the end; like all Clotilde's epistles it ended with the words; "What a pity it is that you should not be here too; it would give us the greatest pleasure to have you with us."
Tea was done; the maid servant cleared the table with a great clatter of cups and spoons, the baron retired to play Bulka with his neighbors in the village inn-parlor; the three who were left sat in meditative mood.
"I must confess that I should like to go to Rome," said the baroness, as she swept the crumbs off her lap on to the floor, "and it would be pleasant, too, to have relations there--for their grand acquaintance I own I do not care a straw."