The Marchesa, accompanied by Andrea and her eldest son, Fernanindo, drove over to Rovigliano, the nearest station, to meet her. As they drove along the road shadowed by lofty poplars, the Marchesa spoke to Andrea of her friend with much affection.
'I think you will like her,' she remarked in conclusion.
Then she began to laugh as if at some sudden thought.
'Well, I was thinking of another introduction I gave you about two years ago, which I accompanied by a delightful prophecy--you remember?'
'And I laughed because this time again there is an unknown lady in question and this time too I may play the part of--an involuntary providence.'
'But this case is very different, or rather the difference lies in the heroine of the possible drama.'
'That Maria Ferrès is a _turris eburnea_.'
'Ah yes, I had forgotten that you had, at last, found the Truth and the Way--"'The glad soul laughs because its loves have fled--'"
'However, I confess, my dear cousin, that your "fair white woman" holding the Host in her pure hands seems to me a trifle suspicious. She has, to my mind, too much of the air of a hollow shape, a robe without a body inside it, at the mercy of whatever soul, be it angel or demon, that chooses to enter it and offer you the communion.
'Ah, you had better take care! Watch that figure and use plenty of exorcisms--But there, I am prophesying again! Really, it seems a weakness of mine.'
They both laughed, and all three entered the little station to wait for the train, which was due in a few minutes. Fernandino a sickly-looking boy of twelve, was carrying a bouquet which he was to present to Donna Maria. Andrea, put in excellent spirits by his little conversation with his cousin, took a tea-rose from the bouquet and stuck it in his button-hole, then cast a rapid glance over his light summer clothes and noticed with complaisance that his hands had become whiter and thinner since his illness. But he did it all without reflection, simply from an instinct of harmless vanity which had suddenly awakened in him.
The Marchesa hurried forward to greet her friend, who was already leaning out of the carriage window waving her hand and nodding. Her head was enveloped in a large gray gauze veil which half covered her large black hat.