"No man can serve two masters," said the Countess, smiling after her with meaning; "you must give up your shepherdess!"
"What do you mean?" Raphael demanded, in a low tone.
"My brother Paul will tell you to-morrow, when he comes back from Perpignan. He, too, was on the hillside to-day—near to the valley——"
She paused long enough to give him time to ask the question.
"What valley?" said Raphael, in complete apparent forgetfulness.
"The Valley of the Consolation! An excellent name!" answered the Countess Livia, with a low laugh of malice.
She turned and went within. She found Valentine la Niña standing by the open window looking out upon the sea. Her large, amber-coloured eyes were now black and mysterious. She did not show the least trace of emotion. She was as one walking in a dream, or perhaps, rather, like one upheld by a will not her own.
The Countess Livia looked at the girl awhile, and then, with a vexed stamp of her foot, she pulled Valentine round, so that the light of the lamp fell on her face.
"Oh!" she cried, "was there ever a woman like you? As the Duchess said, you care for nothing. You are the most beautiful girl in the world, and it is nothing to you. No wonder a dairy-maid can supplant you. Why, if I had a tenth of your beauty—I would have kings and emperors at my feet!"
Valentine la Niña looked at her without smiling, or the least show of feeling.