"
The Marchese put out his hand to assist her to alight, as he added,-
-
"Perhaps you will allow these gentlemen to return in your carriage,
Signora? They have no other here. I did not think it necessary to
bring a second carriage."
"Come loro commandano!--as their lordships please," said La Lalli
with a graceful bow; though the young men were of opinion, that her
eyes very plainly said, as she glanced towards them, that she would
have preferred that they should have returned in the same carriage
together.
She rose, as she spoke, and giving her hand to the Marchese, put one
foot on the carriage-step in the act of descending, and then paused
to say, as if she had forgotten it till that moment:
"Will you permit me, Signor Marchese, to present my father to you,
Signor Quinto Lalli? I never travel without his protection!"
The old man in the corner moved slightly, and made a sort of bow
with his head. He had remained quite still and passive in his cloak
and his corner all through the rest of the scene, taking it all
apparently as something very much in the common order of things.
Perhaps the piece that was being played had been played too often in
his presence to have any further interest for him.
While thus presenting her father, as she called him, to the
Marchese, the beautiful actress had remained for the moments
necessary for that purpose, with her matchless figure poised on the
one dainty foot, which she had stretched down to the step of the
carriage.
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