The pen nearly dug through the paper as she signed her name.
Besides giving Celeste this missive to deliver, she sent her upon a tour
of trivial shopping--anything to be left alone.
When the door was closed, Nina threw herself across the bed, still
hardly able to credit her senses. Giovanni had asked her, Nina, to be
his wife, not half an hour before--he still had the effrontery to hope
for a change in her answer. He had dared to tell her that he loved her,
he had dared to call her, too, "_Carissima!_"
With her head buried in the pillows, she did not hear the door open, and
the princess reached the bed and took Nina in her arms before the girl
knew that she had entered.
Nina poured out the whole story. The one clear idea that she had in mind
was to leave Rome at once. She wanted to go away! Above all, she wanted
to go away! She was by this time quite hysterical.
The princess's coolness gradually dominated as she said finally: "The
thing is incredible--you must have misunderstood. I don't know what the
explanation is, myself, but the worst blunder we can make is to judge
too hastily. I am sure it will come out differently than it seems, if
you will but have patience."
Savagely Nina turned on her. "Are you against me? _You_, auntie! Do you
side with him? And that Potensi?"
With an expression more troubled than angry, the princess answered
gently, "Of course, my child, I don't side against you--but I can't
believe that they were really as you thought they were.
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