Sansevero and Giovanni had mounted their hunters, and now joined Nina, but that gave her little pleasure, for the contessa immediately returned.  Nina was glad when Donna Francesca Dobini and the young Prince Allegro cantered up.  Donna Francesca was soon talking with Sansevero, leaving Nina to Allegro—­an attractive youth, but light as a bit of fluff.

As for Giovanni, she felt that he was as unstable as the dead leaves which the wind at that moment was blowing around and around.  They were graceful, too, those leaves, and Giovanni was fascinating, agile, charming—­but in case one counted upon him seriously, where would he be?  Smiling sweetly, no doubt, at some other woman, and telling her that her eyes were twin lakes of heaven’s blue, or forest pools in which his heart was lost forever.

The contrasting image of John Derby came sharply to mind.  John was going to Sicily to do a man’s work in a man’s way.  A little later she noticed Tornik, who was cantering ahead of her:  his figure was not unlike John’s—­he was strong and masculine.  She wondered aimlessly if they might be in any other way alike.  Supposing, in some unaccountable situation she were to be thrown upon his chivalry for protection, what would he do?  Shrug his shoulders and look bored?  Or detail a company from his regiment to stand guard over her?  The idea made her laugh.

“You are gay this morning,” observed Giovanni, light-heartedly joining in her laughter.

With a quizzical little expression Nina looked at him—­“I wonder if you would be amused if you knew why I laughed.”

[Illustration:  “NINA LOOKED AT HIM—­’I WONDER IF YOU WOULD BE AMUSED IF YOU KNEW WHY I LAUGHED’”]

“If it gives you pleasure—­it is delicious, whatever it is!”

All the softness went out of the girl’s brown eyes; they glittered curiously.  “Yes,” she said, “that is just what I thought.”  After which ambiguous remark she returned to her former gayety—­“Come,” she said, “let’s go fast; we shall be the last!” Urging her horse, she galloped across the fields.

She would have been at a loss to understand her own vacillations of mood that day:  she seemed to feel an unaccountable revulsion against every one.  The gesticulations of the men around her, their airs and blandishments, annoyed her.  Not an hour earlier she had found John dull and flat by comparison with Europeans.  Now suddenly they were effeminate dandies, and John alone was a real man.

But the exhilaration of jumping brought her to a more equable frame of mind, and at the first check she and the Prince Allegro were in the lead.  Her cheeks were pink and her eyes bright from the long gallop.

They had stopped on a knoll out on the Campagna, and Nina remained apart from the other hunters, walking her horse slowly, while Allegro went over to the carriage to get a handkerchief for her from the Princess Sansevero.  She drew in deep breaths of the fresh air, as she gazed out over the rolling hills to the snowclad tops of the Albanian mountains glistening in the sunshine.