"I understand you perfectly," she said in a choking voice, "but there is something you have not counted upon, and you are quite mistaken."
And making a great call on her resolution, she threw up her head and walked firmly down the stairs.
Immediately on reaching home she wrote to David Rossi:
"I must see you to-night. Where can it be? To-night! Mind, to-night. To-morrow will be too late.
Roma."
Bruno delivered the note by hand, and brought back an answer:
"Dearest,—Come to the office at nine o'clock. Sorry I cannot go to you. It is impossible.
D. R.
"P.S.—You have converted Bruno, and he would die for you. As for the 'little Roman boy,' he is in the seventh heaven over your presents, and says he must go up to Trinità de' Monti to begin work at once."