Adela suggested to him faintly--she believed it was her spontaneous idea
--that he might be making his countess jealous. He assured her that the
fancy sprang from scenes which she remembered, and that she could have no
idea of the pride of a highborn Austrian girl, who was incapable of
conceiving jealousy of a person below her class. Adela replied that it
was not his manner so much as Emilia's which might arouse the suspicion;
but she immediately affected to appreciate the sentiments of a highborn
Austrian girl toward a cantatrice, whose gifts we regard simply as an
aristocratic entertainment. Wilfrid induced his sister to relate
Vittoria's early history to Countess Lena; and himself almost wondered,
when he heard it in bare words, at that haunting vision of the glory of
Vittoria at La Scala--where, as he remembered, he would have run against
destruction to cling to her lips. Adela was at first alarmed by the
concentrated wrathfulness which she discovered in the bosom of Countess
Anna, who, as their intimacy waxed, spoke of the intruding opera siren in
terms hardly proper even to married women; but it seemed right, as being
possibly aristocratic. Lena was much more tolerant. "I have just the
same enthusiasm for soldiers that my Wilfrid has for singers," she said;
and it afforded Adela exquisite pleasure to hear her tell how that she
had originally heard of the 'eccentric young Englishman,' General
Pierson's nephew, as a Lustspiel--a comedy; and of his feats on
horseback, and his duels, and his--he was very wicked over here, you
know;" Lena laughed. She assumed the privileges of her four-and-twenty
years and her rank. Her marriage was to take place in the Spring. She
announced it with the simplicity of an independent woman of the world,
adding, "That is, if my Wilfrid will oblige me by not plunging into
further disgrace with the General."

"No; you will not marry a man who is under a cloud," Anna subjoined.