"But deuce take it, my dear fellow, she is here!" said Hector, compelled by Nasi's tone and by the presence of his witnesses to pronounce himself a little more clearly. "She is either in your house or in your garden, for she was seen to ride into your avenue--and, God's blood! there's her horse now!--my horse, I mean, for it was her good pleasure to take him for her expedition, and leave her hack for me." And he tried, by a loud, forced laugh, to enliven an interview which Nasi did not seem disposed to treat so lightly. "Signor," he replied, "I have not the honor to be sufficiently well acquainted with you for you to call me _my dear fellow_. I must ask you, therefore, to address me as I address you. Furthermore, I will call your attention to the fact that my house is not a tavern nor my garden a public promenade, that passers-by should take the liberty to explore it." "Faith, signor, I am very sorry if you are displeased," said Hector. "I thought that I knew you well enough to venture to enter your grounds, and I was not aware that your country house was a fortress." "Such as it is, signor, palace or hovel, I am the master of it, and I beg you to consider yourself informed that no one is at liberty to enter it without my permission." "By Bacchus! signor count, you are terribly afraid that I shall ask leave to enter your house, for you refuse me beforehand with a tartness which gives me much food for thought. If, as I believe, Alezia Aldini is in this house, I begin to hope, for her sake, that she came here on your account. Give me that assurance, and I will go away content." "I do not recognize any man's right to question me on any subject," rejoined Nasi; "least of all do I recognize your right to question me concerning a woman to whom your conduct at this moment is a deadly insult." "Damnation! I am her cousin! She is in my mother's charge. What answer is my mother to give my uncle, Prince Grimani, when he asks her for his stepdaughter? And how do you suppose that my mother, who is old and infirm, is to run about the country after a young madcap who rides like a dragoon?" "I am certain, signor," retorted Nasi, "that your mother did not instruct you to search for her niece in such a noisy fashion as this, and to question everybody you meet in such an unseemly way; for if that were the case, her anxiety would be more insulting than protecting, and to place the object of such protection out of reach of your zeal would be a matter of duty with me."