the months she had spent there the tears rose to her eyes. She flattered herself, as I say, upon her
ingenuity, but she had need of all she could muster; for several events occurred which seemed to confront
and defy her. The Countess Gemini arrived from Florencearrived with her trunks, her dresses, her
chatter, her falsehoods, her frivolity, the strange, the unholy legend of the number of her lovers. Edward
Rosier, who had been away somewhere,no one, not even Pansy, knew where,reappeared in Rome
and began to write her long letters, which she never answered. Madame Merle returned from Naples
and said to her with a strange smile: What on earth did you do with Lord Warburton? As if it were any
business of hers!