go downstairs looking like that!"

"Why not?" asked the Princess, surprised. "But of course, if you will
be so kind as to see whether the horses need anything, it is quite
useless for me to go myself. You will promise? I am sure they are
starving by this time."

The Baroness promised solemnly, and said that she would come back
within an hour, with her servants, to take away Sabina and to help the
Princess's preparations. In consideration of all she was doing the
Princess kissed her on both her sallow cheeks as she took her leave.
The Princess attached no importance at all to this mark of
affectionate esteem, but it pleased the Baroness very much.

Just as the latter was going away, the door opened suddenly, and a
weak-looking young man put in his head.

"Mamma! Mamma!" he cried, in a thin tone of distress, almost as if he
were going to cry.

He was nearly thirty years old, though he looked younger. He was thin,
and pale, with a muddy and spotted complexion, and his scanty black
hair grew far back on his poorly developed forehead. His eyes had a
look that was half startled, half false. Though he was carefully
dressed he had not shaved, because he could not shave himself and his
valet had departed with the rest of the servants. He was the
Princess's only son, himself the present Prince, and the heir of all
the Conti since the year eleven hundred.

"Mamma!"