Gigi, the
carpenter, sprang forward and opened the postern door, touching his
paper cap to the ladies.
They did not exchange a word as they walked to the Piazza Sant'
Apollinare to find a cab. Sabina held her head high and looked
straight before her, and the Baroness's invisible silk bellows were
distinctly audible in the quiet street.
"By the hour," said the Baroness, as they got into the first cab they
reached on the stand. "Go to the Russian Embassy, in the Corso."
CHAPTER XIX
"So you spent last night in the rooms of a man you have not seen half
a dozen times," said the Princess, speaking with a cigarette in her
mouth. "And what is worse, those dreadful Volterra people found you
there. No Conti ever had any common sense!"
What Sabina had foreseen had happened. Her mother had looked her over,
from head to foot, to see what sort of condition she was in, as a
horse-dealer looks over a promising colt he has not seen for some
time; and the Princess had instantly detected the signs of an
accident. In answer to her question Sabina told the truth. Her mother
had watched her face and her innocent eyes while she was telling the
story, and needed no other confirmation.
"You are a good girl," she continued, as Sabina did not reply to the
last speech. "But you are a little fool.
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