Before he had sung a dozen bars the window opened, and the girl's figure could be seen, black against the light within.

He went on for a few notes, and then ceased suddenly.
"Let us go," he said in a low voice to Ercole; and they went away, leaving the contessina listening in the stillness to the echo of their feet.

A Roman girl would not have done that; she would have sat quietly inside, and never have shown herself.

But foreigners are so impulsive! Nino never heard the last of those few notes, any more than the contessina, literally speaking, ever heard the end of the song.
"Your cousin, about whom you make so much mystery, passed under my window last night," said the young lady the next day, with the usual display of carnation in her cheeks at the mention of him.
"Indeed, signorina ?" said Nino, calmly, for he expected the remark.
"And since you have never seen him, pray how did you know it was he ?" "How should one know ?" she asked, scornfully.

"There are not two such voices as his in Italy.