The Baroness was delighted at this information.
"To think," she said, "that by a mere accident you and Donna Sabina
should meet here, the descendants of two of the oldest families of the
Italian aristocracy!"
"I am a republican," observed Malipieri quietly.
"You!" cried the Baroness in amazement. "You, the offspring of such
races as the Malipieri and the Gradenigo a republican, a socialist, an
anarchist!"
"There is a difference," said Malipieri with a smile. "A republican is
not an anarchist!"
"I can never believe it," answered the Baroness solemnly.
She ate a few green peas and shook her head.
"I went to Carthage because I was condemned to three years'
confinement in prison," replied Malipieri with calm.
"Prison!" exclaimed the Baroness in horror, and she looked at her
husband, mutely asking why in the world he had brought a convict to
their table.
The Baron smiled benignly, as he disposed of an ample mouthful of
green peas, before he spoke.
"Signor Malipieri," he said, when he had swallowed the last one,
"founded and edited a republican newspaper in the north of Italy."
"And you were sent to prison for that?" asked Sabina with indignation.
"It is one thing to send a man to prison," said Malipieri. "It is
another to make him go there. I escaped to Switzerland, and I came
back to Italy quite lately, after the amnesty.
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