She flushed under the correction. And there was a pause before she slowly answered him: 'Your eyes are too good, Bernabó.' In a tone that made him change countenance she added: 'I shall remember it, together with your reluctance to accept my word.' Contemptuously she dismissed him. 'Pray, make your search without regard for me.' The captain stood a moment hesitating. Then he bowed stiffly from the hips, tossed his head in silent command to his men, and so led them off, over the marble bridge. After he had drawn blank, like the soldiers he had sent to search the enclosure, he returned, baffled, with his four fellows at his heels. The Princess Valeria, wandered now in company with those other gay ones along the terrace by the balustrade. 'You come empty-handed, then,' she rallied him. 'I'll stake my life he entered the garden,' said the captain sullenly. 'You are wise in staking something of no value.' He disregarded alike the taunt and the titter it drew from her companions. 'I must report to his highness. Do you say positively, madonna, that you did not see this fellow?' 'Lord, man! Do you still presume to question me? Besides, if you're so confident, why waste time in questions? Continue your search.' The captain addressed himself to her companions. 'You, sirs and ladies, did you have no glimpse of this knave--a tall youngster, dressed in green?' 'In green!' cried the Lady Valeria. 'Now that is interesting. In green? A dryad, perhaps; or, perhaps my brother here.' The captain shook his head. 'That is not possible.' 'Nor am I in green,' added the young marquis. 'Nor have I been outside the garden. She mocks you, Messer Bernabó. It is her cursed humour. We have seen no one.' 'Nor you, Messer Corsario?' Pointedly now the captain addressed the pedant, as by his years and office the likeliest, to return him a serious answer. 'Indeed, no,' the gentleman replied. 'But then,' he added, 'we were some way off, as you observed. Madonna, however, who was up here, asserts that she saw no one.' 'Ah! But does she so assert it?' the captain insisted. The Lady Valeria looked him over in chill disdain. 'You all heard what I said. Repetition is a weariness.' 'You see,' the captain appealed to them. Her brother came to his assistance. 'Why can't you answer plainly, and have done, Valeria? Why must you forever remember to be witty? Why can't you just say "no"?' 'Because I've answered plainly enough already, and my answer has been disregarded. Ser Bernabó shall have no opportunity to repeat an offence I am not likely to forget.' She turned away. 'Come, Dionara, and you, Isotta. It is growing chill.' With her ladies obediently following her she descended towards the lower gardens and the palace. Messer Bernabó stroked his chin, a man nonplussed. The Lord Castruccio chided him. 'You're a fool, Bernabó, to anger her highness. Besides, man, what mare's nest are you hunting?'