She hesitated a moment, smiling. "It seems to me that your question is a
little impertinent. But I think you are like that."

"A little impertinent? Never. As I say, your mother did me the honour,
more than once, to accompany me to the Uffizzi."

"My mother must have been very kind to you."

"So it seemed to me at the time."

"At the time only?"

"Well, if you prefer, so it seems to me now."

"Eh," said the Countess, "she made sacrifices."

"To what, cara Signora? She was perfectly free. Your lamented father
was dead--and she had not yet contracted her second marriage."

"If she was intending to marry again, it was all the more reason she
should have been careful."

I looked at her a moment; she met my eyes gravely, over the top of her
fan. "Are _you_ very careful?" I said.

She dropped her fan with a certain violence. "Ah, yes, you are
impertinent!"

"Ah no," I said. "Remember that I am old enough to be your father; that
I knew you when you were three years old. I may surely ask such