"Then you have not even one?" Count Filgiatti's eyes were full of melancholy sympathy.
"I think," I said with coldness, "that in a matter of that kind, momma's word should hardly need corroboration."
"Ah, it is sad! With me what difference! Can you believe of eleven? And the father with the saints! And I of course am the eldest of all."
"Dear me," I said, "what a responsibility!"
"Ah, you recognise! you understand the—the necessities, yes?"
At that moment the train stopped at Civita Vecchia, and the Senator awoke and put his hat on. "The Eternal City," he remarked when he descried that the name of the station was not Rome, "appears to have an eternal railway to match. There seems to be a feeding counter here though—we might have another try at those slices of veal boiled in tomatoes and smothered with macaroni that they give the pilgrim stranger in these parts. You may lead the world in romance, Count, but you don't put any of it in your railway refreshments."
As we passed out into the smooth-toned talkative darkness, Count Filgiatti said in my ear, "Mistra and Madame Wick have kindly consented to receive my visit at the hotel to-morrow. Is it agreeable to you also that I come?"
And I said, "Why, certainly!"