“You are quite wrong.  I do not object to saying all that a part calls for, and, above all, I like action.”

“That’s true; I had forgotten!  You are a soldier!  I wonder why you went into the army?”

“It is the only career open to me.”

Nina was thinking of Giovanni and his point of view as she asked, “Why are you not content to be merely Count Tornik?”

“You mean that I, like Carpazzi, should live on the illustriousness of my name?  If I were very poor, perhaps I should.”

“How curious!” Nina exclaimed.  “Does not a career mean making money?”

“On the contrary, it means spending it!  One must have a great deal of money to go to any height in diplomacy.”

“Then you are rich?” Nina already had acquired a brutal frankness of direct interrogation through her Italian sojourn.

“Not exactly.”  He looked bored again.  “But I have a little—­though perhaps not enough for my ambition.  If only there were a serious war, I’d have a good chance.”  Then he added simply, “I am a good soldier!”

The princess, who had been summoned to the telephone, now returned and seated herself beside Nina on the sofa.  “I have just been talking with the Marchesa Valdeste, and she told me that the Queen said most gracious things of you, dear; called you the ‘charming little American.’” The prince entered while the princess was speaking.  He kissed his wife’s hand and began, at great length, to tell her exactly where and how he had spent the afternoon.  After a while, however, as one or two other friends dropped in, Sansevero talked aside with Tornik.

“You were not at Savini’s last night, were you?” he asked.

Tornik looked interested.  “No,” he said, “but I hear they had a very high game.”

“Yes.  Young Allegro was practically cleaned out.”

“Who won?”

“Who, indeed, but Scorpa!  He has the luck, that man!”

“Were you there?  I thought you never played any more; have you taken it up again?”

Sansevero, glancing apprehensively at his wife, answered quickly, “I never play.”  Fortunately, just then the dangerous conversation was ended by the arrival of the Contessa Potensi.  She smiled graciously upon the prince as he pressed her hand to his lips, and bestowed the left-over remnant of the same smile, upon Tornik.  She also kissed the air on either side of the princess with much affection, and shook hands cordially with two other ladies who were present, but she directed toward Nina the barest glance.

She and Nina, by the way, furnished at the moment a typical illustration of the difference in appearance between European and American women.