“Do you like that woman?”

“She is one of the beauties of Rome,” he said evasively.

“No, but do you like her?” Nina could not herself have told why she was so insistent.

“She is an old friend of mine,” he said lightly; then changed the subject.  “Do you follow the hounds, Miss Randolph?”

“At home, yes.”  But she came back to the former topic.  “Does she ride very well, the Contessa Potensi?”

“Wonderfully.”  This time he answered her easily.  “But I am sure you ride well, too.  Any one who dances as you do, must also be a horsewoman.”

There was something in Giovanni’s manner that excited suspicion, but she did not know of what.  She half wondered if there had been a love affair between him and the Contessa.  Maybe he had wanted to marry her and she had accepted Potensi instead.  She wondered if Giovanni still cared; and for a while her sympathy was quite aroused.

The curtain went up and every one stopped talking.  At the beginning of the entr’acte Giovanni left the box, and Count Tornik took his chair.  He was a strange man, but Nina was beginning to like him.  Notwithstanding his brusque indifference, he had a charm that he could exert when he chose.  Giovanni’s speeches were no more flattering than Tornik’s lapses from boredom.

As a matter of fact, in spite of his assumed bad manners, the social instinct was so strong in him that, just as a vulgar person shows his origin in every unguarded moment or unexpected situation, Tornik’s good breeding was constantly revealed.  And in appearance, he was an attractive contrast to the Italians, tall, broad-shouldered, very blond, and high cheekboned; he might have been taken for an Englishman.

Presently her Majesty, the Dowager Queen, appeared in the royal box, and every one in the audience arose.

“Shall we see both queens to-night at the ball?” Nina asked the Princess Sansevero.

“No; only Queen Elena.  The Queen Mother has never been present at a ball since King Umberto’s tragic death.”

“I wish this evening were over,” said Nina, with a half-frightened sigh.

The Contessa Olisco, who had caught the remark and the sigh, asked sympathetically, “But why?”

“I was nervous enough over going alone to the presentation the other afternoon, but to go to a ball is much worse.”

“But you won’t be alone.  We shall be there!  You may have your endurance put to the test, though.  Are you very strong?”

Nina laughed.  “You mean, have I the strength to stand indefinitely without dropping to the floor?”

“Ah! you know, then, how it is.  Still—­if it is hard for us, think what it must be for their Majesties.  To-night, for instance, the King does not once sit down!”

Nina opened her eyes wide.  “I thought the King and Queen sat on their throne.  But then—­I had an idea the presentation would be like that, too—­and that I should have to courtesy all across a room, and back out again.”