This letter was brought to the duke just as he was going out to a ball.  He went back to his room to read it; and, having read it, he flung it angrily into the lighted grate.

“What does the woman mean!  I’ll shoot the fellow if he dares to wring a promise out of Aurora.  And this stuff about Lady Maud.  What did I write?  Do they fancy that I care for her?  I like her as I like Wenham ice.  Aurora ‘softening’ toward this impudent Englishman!  She would soften toward a cat if it cried.  Mr. Edward Churchill her devoted lover! Arcidiavolo!”

With this growl of rage, rolling and deep-drawn, the Italian went to his escritori, and wrote, “Aurora should not think of marrying an Englishman.  Sooner or later he is sure to return to England; and what would she do here?  I do not at all approve of the match; and I hope that you will do all that you can to prevent it.  Above all, do not let anything be concluded in haste.”

An event of importance in Mrs. Lindsay’s family prevented her replying to this note.  Shortly after its reception her first child was laid in her arms.  Nor did she show the note to Aurora, though she requested her to write a line to the duke, informing him that a young lady of the most tender age but obstinate will had placed a veto on her writing at present.

It would be impossible to say whether father or mother was more happy and proud over the advent of this little girl, but there could be no doubt that the mother was the more peremptory and authoritative concerning it.  If Mrs. Lindsay had been queen of the household before, she was empress now, and that in her own right.

“You are only prince consort, John,” she remarked to her husband, when he suggested that the child might be baptized in the house by the resident Protestant minister.  “I am regnant.  My daughter may be baptized by a Protestant minister, and welcome, if—­but she is going to be baptized in San Marco, and Aurora Coronari is to be her godmother and Prince P——­ her godfather.  If you can reconcile that with your minister, do so.”

The prince consort bowed his head meekly.  “I have no particular objection that a priest should baptize her,” he said.  “I am very much pleased to have the prince and Aurora stand sponsors for her.  Of course it doesn’t make any difference what they promise for her now.  She will be sure to do as she pleases when she grows up,—­if she should turn out to be like her mother.”

The baptism took place on the first day of May, in the morning; and the company invited to assist were to return to Palazzo Pesaro to breakfast in honor of the event.

Mrs. Lindsay had her gondola—­the baby’s gondola pro tem..—­decorated for the occasion.  An immense white umbrella, lined with gold-colored silk, was fixed to cover the seats, and the whole gondola was lined and carpeted with white and pale blue.  A blue fringe fell over the edge almost to the water, and bouquets of flowers were bespoken.