The prince was stupid, Rowland suspected, but he imagined he was amiable, and he saw that at any rate he had the great quality of regarding himself in a thoroughly serious light.

Rowland touched his companion's arm and pointed to the melancholy nobleman.
"Why in the world does he not go after her and insist on being noticed!" he asked.
"Oh, he 's very proud!" said the Cavaliere.
"That 's all very well, but a gentleman who cultivates a passion for that young lady must be prepared to make sacrifices." "He thinks he has already made a great many.

He comes of a very great family--a race of princes who for six hundred years have married none but the daughters of princes.

But he is seriously in love, and he would marry her to-morrow." "And she will not have him ?" "Ah, she is very proud, too!" The Cavaliere was silent a moment, as if he were measuring the propriety of frankness.

He seemed to have formed a high opinion of Rowland's discretion, for he presently continued: "It would be a great match, for she brings him neither a name nor a fortune--nothing but her beauty.