"He is as noiseless, as keen and as sure," said Orsino smartly.
"There is such a thing as being too clever," answered Maria Consuelo, without a smile.
"No. You are. You say cutting things merely because they come into your head, though I am sure that you do not always mean them. It is a bad habit."
"Because it makes enemies, Madame?" Orsino was annoyed by the rebuke.
"That is the least good of good reasons."
"It will prevent people from loving you," said Maria Consuelo gravely.
"In that case I will reform at once," said Orsino, trying to meet her eyes. But she looked away from him.
"You think that I am preaching to you," she answered. "I have not the right to do that, and if I had, I would certainly not use it. But I have seen something of the world. Women rarely love a man who is bitter against any one but himself. If he says cruel things of other women, the one to whom he says them believes that he will say much worse of her to the next he meets; if he abuses the men she knows, she likes it even less--it is an attack on her judgment, on her taste and perhaps upon a half-developed sympathy for the man attacked. One should never be witty at another person's expense, except with one's own sex." She laughed a little.
"Then the way to win a woman's love is to praise her acquaintances? That is original."
"No? I misunderstood. What is the best way?"
"Oh--it is very simple," laughed Maria Consuelo.
"Tell her you love her, and tell her so again and again--you will certainly please her in the end."
"Madame--" Orsino stopped, and folded his hands with an air of devout supplication.
"Oh, nothing! I was about to begin. It seemed so simple, as you say."
They both laughed and their eyes met for a moment.
"Del Ferice interests me very much," said Maria Consuelo, abruptly returning to the original subject of conversation. "He is one of those men who will be held responsible for much that is now doing. Is it not true? He has great influence."
"I have always heard so." Orsino was not pleased at being driven to talk of Del Ferice again.
"Do you think what he said about you so altogether absurd?"
"Absurd, no--impracticable, perhaps. You mean his suggestion that I should try a little speculation? Frankly, I had no idea that such things could be begun with so little capital. It seems incredible. I fancy that Del Ferice was exaggerating. You know how carelessly bankers talk of a few thousands, more or less. Nothing short of a million has much meaning for them. Three thousand or thirty thousand--it is much the same in their estimation."