‘You can’t help it—of course not. You would if you could, but you can’t, unfortunately. Unfortunately for me, I mean. I ask nothing—nothing, that is, I shouldn’t. But I do ask one sole satisfaction:—that you tell me—that you tell me—!’

‘That I tell you what?’

‘Whether I may pity you.’

‘Should you like that?’ Isabel asked, trying to smile again.

‘To pity you? Most assuredly! That at least would be doing something. I’d give my life to it.’

She raised her fan to her face, which it covered all except her eyes. They rested a moment on his. ‘Don’t give your life to it; but give a thought to it every now and then.’ And with that she went back to the Countess Gemini.