"A few," replied the big youth, in a bass voice. Regina looked at Gabrie, who, after a rapid glance at the wolves in the porch, was covertly scrutinising the servant. He carried the wraps into an adjacent room, and Antonio familiarly opened the door to the right. "Wait one moment," said Regina, who was smoothing her hair. It was beautifully arranged. She was rosy, and a little plumper than she had been a year or two ago. Her light dress with its neck garniture of foamy white was becoming. She looked young and almost a beauty. Indeed, she thought so herself, and entered the Princess's drawing-room quite satisfied. "How's the little one?" asked Madame. "Quite well, thank you. May I introduce my friend?" Gabrie bowed to the hostess, who scarcely noticed her. Then she sat down in the corner of a sofa and stayed there the whole evening, shy, quiet and silent. The usual old ladies and old gentlemen filled the rooms, which, as usual, were overheated. The only person at all young was a lady dressed childishly in blue, with big blue eyes and long, downcast golden lashes. She sat near the hostess, in a circle of two old ladies and three old men, amongst whom was he of the pink-china bald head. Madame was silent, listening to a German traveller who was giving an account of his recent tour in India. Fatter than ever, paler, more dowdy in her clumsy black velvet gown, the Princess looked like one of the many old women of remoter ages whose ugliness has been immortalised by the painters of their day. Her eyes alone seemed alive in her swollen, corpse-like face. The lady in blue asked the German if he had read Loti's article on India (without the English) in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_. "Oh, he exaggerates, as usual. To read Loti, you'd suppose the burial in the Ganges a poem. On the contrary, it's a great----" "----a great _saleté_," said Marianna, sitting near Gabrie, and whispering so as not to be overheard by Madame, who often reproved her for her coarse language. Gabrie, who had understood from her Sabbioneta friend that great ladies never said ugly words, stared at Marianna, then dropped her eyes and remained quiet in her corner. "Whatever Loti says is false," continued the German. "I once heard Madame Ciansahma, a Japanese authoress, say that when she wanted a laugh she read a book of Loti's." "And don't we laugh when Madame Ciansahma takes us off, and tries to look like an European?" asked the lady in blue. "How can she know what Madame Ciansahma looks like?" whispered Marianna, leaning forward. Regina also leaned forward and indicated the blue lady. "She's blind, isn't she?" "Stone blind. For that matter," added Marianna, "the blind sometimes see more than those with eyes."