VI


Back at the villa, he enquired of Marietta who the pretty
brown-eyed young girl might have been.

"The Signorina Emilia," Marietta promptly informed him.

"Really and truly?" questioned he.

"Ang," affirmed Marietta, with the national jerk of the head;
"the Signorina Emilia Manfredi--the daughter of the Duca."

"Oh--? Then the Duca was married before?" concluded Peter,
with simplicity.

"Che-e-e!" scoffed Marietta, on her highest note. "Married?
He?" Then she winked and nodded--as one man of the world to
another. "Ma molto porn! La mamma fu robaccia di Milano. But
after his death, the Duchessa had her brought to the castle.
She is the same as adopted."

"That looks as if your Duchessa's heart were in the right
place, after all," commented Peter.

"Gia," agreed Marietta.

"Hang the right place!" cried he. "What's the good of telling
me her heart is in the right place, if the right place is