He took a cigar and lighted it, but made no answer.
"You are dull, my friend," I continued, gayly, hooking my arm through his and pacing him up and down on the turf in front of his studio. "Wit, they say, should be sharpened by the glance of a bright eye; how comes it that the edge of your converse seems blunted? Perhaps your feelings are too deep for words? If so, I do not wonder at it, for the lady is extremely lovely."
He glanced quickly at me.
"Did I not say so?" he exclaimed. "Of all creatures under heaven she is surely the most perfect! Even you, conte, with your cynical ideas about women, even you were quite subdued and influenced by her; I could see it!"
I puffed slowly at my cigar and pretended to meditate.
"Was I?" I said at last, with an air of well-acted surprise. "Really subdued and influenced? I do not think so. But I admit I have never seen a woman so entirely beautiful."
He stopped in his walk, loosened his arm from mine, and regarded me fixedly.
"I told you so," he said, deliberately. "You must remember that I told you so. And now perhaps I ought to warn you."
"Warn me!" I exclaimed, in feigned alarm. "Of what? against whom? Surely not the Contessa Romani, to whom you were so anxious to introduce me? She has no illness, no infectious disorder? She is not dangerous to life or limb, is she?"
Ferrari laughed at the anxiety I displayed for my own bodily safety--an anxiety which I managed to render almost comic--but he looked somewhat relieved too.
"Oh, no," he said, "I meant nothing of that kind. I only think it fair to tell you that she has very seductive manners, and she may pay you little attentions which would flatter any man who was not aware that they are only a part of her childlike, pretty ways; in short, they might lead him erroneously to suppose himself the object of her particular preference, and--"
I broke into a violent fit of laughter, and clapped him roughly on the shoulder.
"Your warning is quite unnecessary, my good young friend," I said. "Come now, do I look a likely man to attract the attention of an adored and capricious beauty? Besides, at my age the idea is monstrous! I could figure as her father, as yours, if you like, but in the capacity of a lover--impossible!"