They had reached the west door, and the Princess sent a gardener around to the main entrance for the porter to bring his keys.  The old man came quickly enough, fumbling in the pocket of his greatcoat, but he did not look at all edified at the whim of Her Excellency which allowed a lot of strangers to track mud through the best rooms of the Castle.  He preceded the party, however, with all signs of deference, unlocking doors as they went.

The little New Englander was meekly trailing after the guide, leaving Nina and her aunt for the moment alone.

“Oh, but these are beautiful rooms, Aunt Eleanor!  Why don’t you use them?”

“We do in summer sometimes, but one needs a staff of servants to keep them up.  Besides in winter it is impossible to get them warm.”

“Then why,” Nina spoke as though she had discovered an obviously simple solution, “don’t you have the proper heating put in?  You won’t mind if I ask you something, will you?”

“Ask what you like, dearest.”

“Why don’t you make yourself more comfortable?  For instance, why don’t you have modern plumbing put in?  And don’t you prefer electric light?”

The Princess smiled as though she had never felt the need of any of these things.  “You have left the land of modern improvements and come over to the land of romance!” For a moment she kept the illusion, but the next she seemed to change her mind, for she said practically and with no veiling of the facts:  “Quite apart from the difficulty of putting pipes and wires through these thick stone walls, even if every modern improvement were already installed, the cost would make it prohibitive to attempt either heating or lighting.”

Nina gasped, “I don’t understand!  You don’t have to think of such a thing as the expense of keeping warm, do you?”

“Indeed we do.  Fuel is a very serious item.”

“But, you have plenty of money, surely.  I thought living abroad—­especially in Italy—­was cheap.”

“I did have a bigger income than now—­one does not get as good a rate of interest as one used.”  She colored a little at the false inference and dwelt with more emphasis on the next sentence.

“When we go to Rome we spend much more money; we have all the rooms open there, and we have a great number of servants—­in short we live like princes.”  She smiled brightly.  “But you see in order to do that we have to live quietly and save during the rest of the year.”

Nina looked perplexed.  “That sounds very queer,” she said.  “I should think you would even things up and be more comfortable all the time.”

“Then we would have nothing.  It would be additional expenditure on things that don’t matter, and no money left for things that do.  Opening these rooms, for instance, would not greatly add to our pleasure.  After all, we can only sit in one room at a time.  To have many guests and motors and horses for hunting, and to have big shooting parties—­all that is an expense not to be thought of.  It amuses us more to go to Rome, so we prefer to save for nine months in order to live well the other three.”