"Who's more faithful to
the Casa Sanviano----"
"At tea time," Lavinia interrupted.
"Lavinia," her sister said sharply, "don't be impertinent. There are so
many strangers driving," she continued, to the man; "do stand and tell
us who they are. You know every second person in Europe."
He pressed eagerly forward, and Anna Mantegazza turned and patted his
hand.
"I wish you were so attentive to Pier and myself," she remarked, both
light and serious. "I'd like to buy you--you're indispensable in
Florence."
"Contessa!" he protested. "Delighted! At once."
"Bembo," Gheta demanded, "duty--who's that in the little carriage with
the bells bowed over the horses?"
He leaned out over the grille, his beady alert gaze sweeping the way
below.
"Litolff," he pronounced without a moment's hesitation--"a Russian
swell. The girl with him is----" He stopped with a side glance at
Lavinia, a slight shrug.
"Positively, Lavinia," Gheta insisted again, more crossly, "you're a
nuisance! When do you go back to school?"
"In a week," Lavinia answered serenely.
With Bembo added to the others, she could see almost nothing of the
scene below. Across the river the declining sun cast a rosy light on
the great glossy hedges and clipped foliage of the Boboli Gardens; far
to the left the paved height of the Piazzale Michelangelo rose above
the somber sweep of roofs and bridges; an aged bell rang harshly and
mingled with the inconsequential clatter on the Lungarno.
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