She flushed under the correction. And there was a pause before she slowly answered him: 'Your eyes are too good, Bernabó.' In a tone that made him change countenance she added: 'I shall remember it, together with your reluctance to accept my word.' Contemptuously she dismissed him. 'Pray, make your search without regard for me.'
The captain stood a moment hesitating. Then he bowed stiffly from the hips, tossed his head in silent command to his men, and so led them off, over the marble bridge.
After he had drawn blank, like the soldiers he had sent to search the enclosure, he returned, baffled, with his four fellows at his heels. The Princess Valeria, wandered now in company with those other gay ones along the terrace by the balustrade.
'You come empty-handed, then,' she rallied him.
'I'll stake my life he entered the garden,' said the captain sullenly.
'You are wise in staking something of no value.'
He disregarded alike the taunt and the titter it drew from her companions. 'I must report to his highness. Do you say positively, madonna, that you did not see this fellow?'
'Lord, man! Do you still presume to question me? Besides, if you're so confident, why waste time in questions? Continue your search.'
The captain addressed himself to her companions. 'You, sirs and ladies, did you have no glimpse of this knave—a tall youngster, dressed in green?'
'In green!' cried the Lady Valeria. 'Now that is interesting. In green? A dryad, perhaps; or, perhaps my brother here.'