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Updated: June 17, 2025
Guido explained that he was going to dine with the Countess Fortiguerra. He offered to telephone for permission to bring Lamberti with him. "Do you know them well enough for that already?" Lamberti asked. "Yes. I have seen them a great deal since you left. Shall I ask?" "No, thank you. I shall dine at home with my people." "Shall you go to the garden party to-morrow?" "No."
She supposed that Fortiguerra had sometimes discussed religion with his step-daughter, but he always seemed to take it for granted that the latter should do what her mother desired of her.
Guido shook hands with a pleasant smile, and then glanced at Cecilia. "My nephew, Guido d'Este," said the Princess, introducing him. Cecilia looked at him quietly, and bent her head in acknowledgment of the introduction. "My daughter," murmured the Countess Fortiguerra, with satisfaction.
The Countess Fortiguerra believed with the simplicity of a child. Her first husband, freethinker, Garibaldian, Mazzinian, had at first tried to laugh her out of all belief, and had said that he would baptize her in the name of reason, as Garibaldi is said to have once baptized a new-born infant.
His hands felt numb with cold under the scorching sun, and he knew that he was taking pains to look indifferent and to move as if nothing extraordinary had happened to him; for in a few minutes he would be face to face with Guido d'Este and the Countess Fortiguerra.
"It seems so funny that you should be called Doudou at your age," answered Cecilia. "Really " Monsieur Leroy looked at the Princess as if asking for protection. She laughed good-humouredly, somewhat to Lamberti's surprise. "You are very direct with my friends, my dear," she said to Cecilia, still smiling. The Countess Fortiguerra, not knowing exactly what to do, also smiled, but rather foolishly.
Sometimes he was rather flattered by it, and he could not but feel that he had already acquired a position from which any future suitor would find it hard to dislodge him. The Countess Fortiguerra looked on with wondering satisfaction.
Those who went to the Fortiguerra garden party never quite forgot the impression they received. It was one of those events that are remembered as memorable social successes, and spoken of after many years.
"My daughter's guardians bought it for her not long ago," explained the Countess Fortiguerra, "with my approval, and we have of course changed the name." "Naturally," said Guido, gravely, but looking at Lamberti, who almost smiled under his red beard. "And you approved of the change, Mademoiselle," Guido added, turning to Cecilia, and with an interrogation in his voice.
"They have been in Paris all winter!" cried the Princess. "Think what that means! The cold, the rain, the solitude! What in the world did you do with yourselves?" "Cecilia wished to continue her studies," answered the Countess Fortiguerra. "What sort of things have you been learning, Mademoiselle?" asked Lamberti.
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