‘I forget where that was,’ said she carelessly. ‘No, Nina, you do not,’ said he eagerly; ‘it was at Albano, the day we all went to Pallavicini’s villa.’ ‘And I sang a little French song, “_Si vous n’avez rien à me dire_,” which you were vain enough to imagine was a question addressed to yourself; and you made me a sort of declaration; do you remember all that?’ ‘Every word of it.’ ‘Why don’t you go and speak to my cousin; she has opened the window and gone out upon the terrace, and I trust you understand that she expects you to follow her.’ There was a studied calm in the way she spoke that showed she was exerting considerable self-control. ‘No, no, Nina, it is with you I desire to speak; to see you that I have come here.’ ‘And so you do remember that you made me a declaration? It made me laugh afterwards as I thought it over.’ ‘Made you laugh!’ ‘Yes, I laughed to myself at the ingenious way in which you conveyed to me what an imprudence it was in you to fall in love with a girl who had no fortune, and the shock it would give your friends when they should hear she was a Greek.’ ‘How can you say such painful things, Nina? how can you be so pitiless as this?’ ‘It was you who had no pity, sir; I felt a deal of pity; I will not deny it was for myself. I don’t pretend to say that I could give a correct version of the way in which you conveyed to me the pain it gave you that I was not a princess, a Borromeo, or a Colonna, or an Altieri. That Greek adventurer, yes--you cannot deny it, I overheard these words myself. You were talking to an English girl, a tall, rather handsome person she was--I shall remember her name in a moment if you cannot help me to it sooner--a Lady Bickerstaffe--’ ‘Yes, there was a Lady Maude Bickerstaffe; she merely passed through Rome for Naples.’ ‘You called her a cousin, I remember.’ ‘There is some cousinship between us; I forget exactly in what degree.’ ‘Do try and remember a little more; remember that you forgot you had engaged me for the cotillon, and drove away with that blonde beauty--and she was a beauty, or had been a few years before--at all events, you lost all memory of the daughter of the adventurer.’ ‘You will drive me distracted, Nina, if you say such things.’ ‘I know it is wrong and it is cruel, and it is worse than wrong and cruel, it is what you English call underbred, to be so individually disagreeable, but this grievance of mine has been weighing very heavily on my heart, and I have been longing to tell you so.’ ‘Why are you not singing, Nina?’ cried Kate from the terrace. ‘You told me of a duet, and I think you are bent on having it without music.’ ‘Yes, we are quarrelling fiercely,’ said Nina. ‘This gentleman has been rash enough to remind me of an unsettled score between us, and as he is the defaulter--’ ‘I dispute the debt.’ ‘Shall I be the judge between you?’ asked Kate. ‘On no account; my claim once disputed, I surrender it,’ said Nina.