Giovanni at once informed her that the Cavaliere di Leyni had a message for her from, the Senator.
"While you are speaking together we will listen to the music," he said.
He and his wife stepped aside from Jeanne, who had turned pale, and who, in spite of her violent effort to do so, could not entirely conceal her impatience to hear this message.

Di Leyni sat down beside her, and began to speak in a low tone.
The violoncello and the piano were jesting together on a pastoral theme, full of caresses and of simple and lively tenderness.

Maria could not refrain from murmuring, "_Dio!_ Poor woman!" and her husband could not refrain from following, on Jeanne's face, the painful words her companion was speaking to the sound of this tender and lively music.
He watched the young man's face also, who, while speaking to the lady, often looked towards him as if to express his grief and to ask for advice.

Jeanne listened to him, her eyes fixed on the ground.

When he had finished she raised to the Selvas those great eyes of hers, so full of pitiful distress.