She found him reclining upon a couch, seeking distraction in a volume of the prose works of Piccinino.

He was a handsome man, of excellent shape, scarce thirty years of age.

His face was pale, and there were dark circles round his eyes, and lines of pain about his strong mouth.
He sat up at her advent, and setting his book upon the table beside him, he listened to her angry complaints.
At first, the courtly Montefeltro inclined to anger upon learning of the roughness with which Gian Maria had borne himself.

But presently he smiled.
"When all is said, I see in this no great cause for indignation," he assured her.

"I acknowledge that it may lack the formality that should attend the addresses of a man in the Duke's position to a lady in yours.
But since he is to wed you, and that soon, why be angered at that he seeks to pay his court like any other man ?" "I have talked in vain, then," she answered petulantly, "and I am misunderstood.