The baroness sat very silent and scarcely looked at him; but she held her hands clasped on her knee, and seemed to be thinking.

After a time Nino stopped singing and sat silent also, absently turning over the sheets of music.

It was warm in the room, and the sounds from the street were muffled and far away.
"Signor Nino," said the lady at last, in a different voice, "I am married." "Yes, signora," he replied, wondering what would come next.
"It would be very foolish of me to care for you." "It would also be very wicked," he said, calmly; for he is well grounded in religion.

The baroness stared at him in some surprise, but seeing he was perfectly serious, she went on.
"Precisely, as you say, very wicked.

That being the case, I have decided not to care for you any more--I mean not to care for you at all.