"She has dropped something, Silvio," Giacinta said. "Had you not better go after her? It is a letter, I think."
"Of course!" Silvio answered, a little hastily. "I will catch up with her and give it to her," and he turned and ran down the staircase as he spoke.
Giacinta, leaning over the balustrade, saw him pick up the piece of paper. Then he crumpled it up and thrust it into his pocket.
"That," said Giacinta to herself, "was not prudent of Silvio. One does not crumple up a letter and pocket it if one is about to restore it to its owner, unless one's pocket is its proper destination."
Nevertheless, Silvio continued to pursue the lady, and three or four minutes or more elapsed before he rejoined his sister.
"Well," Giacinta observed, tranquilly. "You gave her back her letter?"
"It was not a letter," said Silvio, "it was only a--a memorandum--written on a scrap of paper. A thing of no importance, Giacinta."
"I am glad it was of no importance," returned Giacinta, not caring to press her original question. "Do you know who she is?" she added.
"I think," answered Silvio, carelessly, "that she must be the lady who comes to teach the princess's daughter."
"Step-daughter," corrected Giacinta, dryly.
"Of course--step-daughter--I had forgotten. Do you know, Giacinta," he continued, "that we shall be very late for breakfast?"
It was a silent affair, that breakfast. The professor had been occupied the whole of the morning in correcting the proofs of a new scientific treatise, and he had even brought to the table some diagrams which he proceeded to study between the courses. Silvio's handsome face wore a thoughtful and worried expression, and Giacinta was engrossed with her own reflections.
Presently Professor Rossano broke the silence. He was eating asparagus, and it is not easy to eat asparagus and verify diagrams at the same time.
"Silvio," he said, mildly, "may one ask whether it is true that you have fallen in love?"
Silvio started, and looked at his father with amazement. Then he recovered himself.
"One may ask it, certainly," he replied, "but--"
"But one should not ask indiscreet questions, eh?" continued the professor. "Well, falling in love is a disease like any other--infectious in the first stage--after that, contagious--decidedly contagious."