Wait--do not be angry--there are other reasons why I do not care for Madame Mayer.

She is too gay for me--too fond of the world." The Prince burst into aloud ironical laugh.

His white hair and beard bristled about his dark face, and he showed all his teeth, strong and white still.
"That is magnificent!" he cried; "it is superb, splendid, a piece of unpurchasable humour! Giovanni Saracinesca has found a woman who is too gay for him! Heaven be praised! We know his taste at last.

We will give him a nun, a miracle of all the virtues, a little girl out of a convent, vowed to a life of sacrifice and self-renunciation.

That will please him--he will be a model happy husband." "I do not understand this extraordinary outburst," answered Giovanni, with cold scorn.