"What has suddenly brought
you round?"
"The sense that you are an inconvenience in doorways!" she answered,
smiling as she passed him. Half an hour later she took leave, with
Pansy, and at the foot of the staircase the two ladies, with many
other departing guests, waited a while for their carriage. just as
it approached Lord Warburton came out of the house and assisted them
to reach their vehicle. He stood a moment at the door, asking Pansy if
she had amused herself; and she, having answered him, fell back with a
little air of fatigue. Then Isabel, at the window, detaining him by
a movement of her finger, murmured gently: "Don't forget to send
your letter to her father!"
CHAPTER 44
The Countess Gemini was often extremely bored-bored, in her own
phrase, to extinction. She had not been extinguished, however, and she
struggled bravely enough with her destiny, which had been to marry
an unaccommodating Florentine who insisted upon living in his native
town, where he enjoyed such consideration as might attach to a
gentleman whose talent for losing at cards had not the merit of
being incidental to an obliging disposition. The Count Gemini was
not liked even by those who won from him; and he bore a name, which,
having a measurable value in Florence, was, like the local coin of the
old Italian states, without currency in other parts of the
peninsula.
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