The rest of the party came out, and Nino bowed to the ground, as he bid the contessina good-night.
He was glad to be free of that pressure on his arm, and he was glad to be alone, to wander through the streets under the moonlight, and to think over what he had done.
"There is no risk of my being discovered," he said to himself, confidently.

"The story of the near relation was well imagined, and besides, it is true.

Am I not my own nearest relation?
I certainly have no others that I know of.

And this baroness--what can she want of me?
She speaks Italian like a Spanish cow, and indeed she needs a professor badly enough.

But why should she take a fancy for me as a teacher.