"A look? Yes; and I looked all I could look. I saw a charming face, younger and fresher looking than might have been expected from the length of time she has been on the boards,--a very pretty figure, as far as her travelling-dress would show it one; and the loveliest foot and ankle I ever saw in my life. I could swear to that again at any time. Don't you remember how she stood with her foot down on the step, when she was getting out of the carriage. I thought at the time that she knew what she was about very well." "Of course she did. Do you think they don't always know very well, every one of them, off the stage or on the stage?" said Farini. "But I want to know what sort of body, she is?" returned Manutoli; "I don't need to be told that she is a very lovely woman; but of what sort is she? Why does she keep us all at a distance? What is her game?" "Upon my life I don't know," answered Ludovico, "unless it's a devouring passion for Leandro. I protest I have no reason to think she cares a button for anything but her own art. I never tried; but it's my impression that if I had ever whispered a word in her ear I should have got a flea in my own for my pains." "You don't want to make us believe that you have been seeing her frequently all this time,--passing hours with her a quattro occhi, and have never made love to her, Ludovico?" said Farini. "No; I don't want to make you believe don't care a straw whether you have it or not; but it is the the fact, for all that," returned Ludovico. "Ludovico has enough on his hands in quarter. What would they say about it in the Via Santa Eufemia if he were to bow down to new and strange goddesses?" said Manutoli. "That, if you please, Manutoli, we will not discuss either now or at any other time," said Ludovico, with a look that showed he was in earnest. "But, as for La Diva Bianca, I have no objection to tell all I know to anybody. My belief is that she is as correct and proper, and all that sort of thing, as a Vestal." "Che!" "Che!" "Che!" A chorus of protestations of incredulity in every tone of the gamut met the monstrous assertion. "What, after all we heard of her doings at Milan--after all the histories of her goddess-ship in every city of Italy?" said Manutoli. "Well, what did we hear of her doings at Milan? The fact is, we know nothing about the matter; and as to her previous history--of course I don't suppose that she is, and always has been, a Diana; but it may be that she has come to the time when she has thought it well to turn over a new leaf. Such times do come to such women; but all I know is, that I firmly believe that since she has been here she has lived the life of a nun," said Ludovico, in the simple tone of a man who is stating a truth which he has no interest in causing his hearers to credit or discredit.