Hath she return’d thy love? COUNT. Not yet! ELISABETTA. And will she? COUNT (_looking at LADY GIOVANNA_). I scarce believe it! ELISABETTA. Shame upon her then! [_Exit._ COUNT (_sings_). “Dead mountain flowers”—— Ah well, my nurse has broken The thread of my dead flowers, as she has broken My china bowl. My memory is as dead. [_Goes and replaces guitar._ Strange that the words at home with me so long Should fly like bosom friends when needed most. So by your leave if you would hear the rest, The writing. LADY GIOVANNA (_holding wreath toward him_). There! my lord, you are a poet, And can you not imagine that the wreath, Set, as you say, so lightly on her head, Fell with her motion as she rose, and she, A girl, a child, then but fifteen, however Flutter’d or flatter’d by your notice of her, Was yet too bashful to return for it? COUNT. Was it so indeed? was it so? was it so? [_Leans forward to take wreath, and touches LADY GIOVANNA’S hand, which she withdraws hastily; he places wreath on corner of chair._ LADY GIOVANNA (_with dignity_). I did not say, my lord, that it was so; I said you might imagine it was so. _Enter FILIPPO with bowl of salad, which he places on table._ FILIPPO. Here’s a fine salad for my lady, for tho’ we have been a soldier, and ridden by his lordship’s side, and seen the red of the battle-field, yet are we now drill-sergeant to his lordship’s lettuces, and profess to be great in green things and in garden-stuff. LADY GIOVANNA. I thank you, good Filippo. [_Exit FILIPPO._ _Enter ELISABETTA with bird on a dish which she places on table._ ELISABETTA (_close to table_). Here’s a fine fowl for my lady; I had scant time to do him in. I hope he be not underdone, for we be undone in the doing of him. LADY GIOVANNA. I thank you, my good nurse. FILIPPO (_re-entering with plate of prunes_). And here are fine fruits for my lady—prunes, my lady, from the tree that my lord himself planted here in the blossom of his boyhood—and so I, Filippo, being, with your ladyship’s pardon, and as your ladyship knows, his lordship’s own foster-brother, would commend them to your ladyship’s most peculiar appreciation.