"
"Dio mio!" ejaculated the young girl. "The compliments are beginning in
good earnest!"
"It was time," said San Miniato, "since your mother---"
"Dear Count," interrupted Beatrice, "do not talk any more about mamma. I
am anxious to get at the compliments. Do pray let your indiscretion be
as ostentatious as possible. I cannot wait another second."
"No need of waiting," answered San Miniato, again addressing himself to
the Marchesa. "Donna Beatrice has two great gifts. She is kind, and she
has charm."
There being no exact equivalent for the word "charm" in the Italian
language, San Miniato used the French. Ruggiero began to puzzle his
brains, asking himself what this foreign virtue could be which his
master estimated so highly. He also thought it very strange that
Beatrice should have said of herself that she was pretty, and still
stranger that San Miniato should not have said it.
"Is that all?" asked Beatrice. "I need not have been in such a hurry to
extract your compliments from you."
"If you had understood what I said," answered San Miniato unmoved, "you
would see that no man could say more of a woman.
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