“Leonora, I suppose I am in the wrong—­indeed I am sure I am utterly at fault; but help me.  Don’t you see, carissima, this time I did not wager—­it was a business venture!”

In the midst of her distress she could not help but smile at the absurdity.

“Scorpa is doing it all,” he continued—­“not I. You know what a clever business man he is!  He assured me that it was a rare chance—­the opportunity of a lifetime.  It was because I wanted so to restore to you what my gambling had cost, that I agreed.  I did not think it possible to lose.  But help me this once; believe me, I do know, and with shame, that were it not for my accursed ill luck we should be living in luxury now.  But just this once—­you will help me, won’t you?”

His wife seated herself in a big armchair, and looked at him wearily, running her fingers through the heavy waves of her hair.  She had beautiful hands—­beautiful because they seemed part of her expression; capable hands with nothing helpless in her use of them; the kind that a sick person dreams of as belonging to an ideal nurse; gentle and smooth, but quick and firm.

“It is not a question of willingness, Sandro.”  Her voice was as smooth and strong, as flexible, as her hands.  “You know everything we have just as well as I. I never kept anything from you, and what we have is ours jointly—­as much yours as mine.  I have, as you know, only two jewels of value left, and they would not bring half the amount of this debt.”

“Leonora, no! you have sold too many already; I cannot ask such a thing again.”

His wife’s smile was more sad than tears; it was not that she was making up her mind for some one necessary sacrifice—­it was a smile of absolute helplessness.  “If only I might believe you!  We now have nothing but what is held in trust for me.  I am not reproaching you—­what is gone is gone.  But Sandro! where will it end?”

The maid knocked and entered with two pails of hot water, which she poured into the tub.  She spread a bath towel over a chair, moved another chair near, put out various articles of clothing, and left the room again.

The princess threw off her slippers, and tried the temperature of the water with her toes.

“I think, Sandro, we had better give up Rome,” she said.  “The money saved for that will pay the greater part of the debt.  It is the only way I can see.  But go now; I want to take my bath.  We can talk more by and by.”  She smiled quite brightly, and the prince, emboldened by her cheerfulness, would have taken her in his arms.  But she turned away, her hand involuntarily put up as a barrier between herself and the kiss that at the moment she shrank from.  He took the hand instead and pressed it to his lips.