But she needed none, as it seemed to her.

It was enough that he should have acted his comedy last night and got by a stratagem what he could never have by any other means.

Ruggiero returned after two or three minutes.
"Well ?" inquired Beatrice.
"He sent one at nine o'clock this morning, Excellency." For one minute their eyes met.

Ruggiero's were fierce, bright and clear.
Beatrice's own softened almost imperceptibly under his glance.

If she had seen herself at that moment she would have noticed that the hard look she had observed in her own face had momentarily vanished, and that she was her gentle self again.
"One only ?" she asked.
"Only one, Excellency.