"Oh yes it is, my dear," said Mrs. Vervain. "At least it's important to
me, if it isn't to you; for I'm your mother, and really, if I thought
you looked like this, as a general thing, to a casual observer, I
should consider it a reflection upon myself." Ferris gave a provoking
laugh, as she continued sweetly, "I must insist, Don Ippolito: now did
you ever see Florida look so?"

The girl leaned back, and began to wave her fan slowly to and fro
before her face.

"I never saw her look so with you, dear madama," said the priest with
an anxious glance at Florida, who let her fan fall folded into her lap,
and sat still. He went on with priestly smoothness, and a touch of
something like invoked authority, such as a man might show who could
dispense indulgences and inflict penances. "No one could help seeing
her devotedness to you, and I have admired from the first an obedience
and tenderness that I have never known equaled. In all her relations to
you, madamigella has seemed to me"--

Florida started forward. "You are not asked to comment on my behavior
to my mother; you are not invited to speak of my conduct at all!" she
burst out with sudden violence, her visage flaming, and her blue eyes
burning upon Don Ippolito, who shrank from the astonishing rudeness as
from a blow in the face. "What is it to you how I treat my mother?"

She sank back again upon the cushions, and opening the fan with a clash
swept it swiftly before her.

"Florida!" said her mother gravely.