"Ah, poor, poor woman!" cried Isabel, who herewith burst into tears. It was a long time since she had shed any; she had suffered a high reaction from weeping. But now they flowed with an abundance in which the Countess Gemini found only another discomfiture.
"It's very kind of you to pity her!" she discordantly laughed. "Yes indeed, you have a way of your own—!"
"He must have been false to his wife—and so very soon!" said Isabel with a sudden check.
"That's all that's wanting—that you should take up her cause!" the Countess went on. "I quite agree with you, however, that it was much too soon."
"But to me, to me—?" And Isabel hesitated as if she had not heard; as if her question—though it was sufficiently there in her eyes—were all for herself.
"To you he has been faithful? Well, it de
