"I am glad you defended Lady Herbert as you did," she said, after a short pause. "It was nice of you." Then she turned and talked with the man on her other side.
Donna Maria Boccapaduli had been waiting for her opportunity and attacked Ghisleri as soon as he had ceased talking with his other neighbour.
"Tell me," she said, "you like Laura Arden very much, do you not?" Of course she made the sign at Laura's name.
"She ought to be grateful to you. She would be, if she knew how you stood up for her just now."
"I should be sorry if she ever came to know that she needed to be defended," answered Ghisleri, almost indifferently.
"She will, of course. It will be all over Rome to-night that you and Campodonico almost quarrelled about her. She is sure to hear about it. Why do you take so much interest in her?"
"Because her husband was my friend," Pietro replied, rather wearily. "I just said so."
"You need not be so angry with me because I ask questions," said Donna Maria with a laugh. "I always do--it is the way to find out what one wants to know."
"But I want to know so much," objected Donna Maria, with an expression that made Ghisleri smile.
"Then you must take the risk," he said. "It is not very great."
"Well, then, I will." She dropped her voice almost to a whisper. "Is the lady in question--I mean--is she the sort of woman you can imagine falling in love with?"
"I do not think I should ever fall in love with her," answered Ghisleri, without betraying emotion or surprise.
"Why not? There must be some reason. So many men have said the same thing about her."
"She is too good a woman for any of us to love. We feel that she is too far above us to be quite human as we are."
"What a strange man you are, Ghisleri! I should never have dreamt that you could say such a thing as that. It is not at all like your reputation you know, and not in the least like those delightfully dreadful verses you addressed to the saint last year on Shrove Tuesday at Gouache's studio. I should think that Mephistopheles would delight in making love to saints."
"In real life Mephistopheles would get the worst of it, and be shown to the door with very little ceremony."
"I doubt that. Every woman likes a spice of devilry in the man she loves--and as for being shown to the door, that is ridiculous. Is there any reason in the world why you should not fall in love with a woman exactly like the unmentionable lady and marry her, too, if you love her enough--or little enough, according to your views of married life? You are quite free, and so is she, and you said yourself that in the course of time she would naturally come back to the world."