Being married, she had taken it for granted that she might
be as winsome as she chose; but the young Italian had misunderstood
the game, and had whispered words of serious import, which had so
horrified Sylvia that she flew to her husband and told him the
story--begging him incidentally not to horse-whip the fellow. In
reply it had to be explained to her she had laid herself liable to
the misadventure. The ladies of the Italian aristocracy were severe
and formal, and Sylvia had no right to expect an ardent young duke
to understand her native wildness.
11. Something of that sort was always happening--something in each
country to bewilder her afresh, and to make it necessary for her
husband to remind her of the proprieties. In France, a cousin of van
Tuiver's had married a marquis, and they had visited the chateau.
The family was Catholic, of the very oldest and strictest, and the
brother-in-law, a prelate of high degree, had invited the guests to
be shown through his cathedral. "Imagine my bewilderment!" said
Sylvia. "I thought I was going to meet a church dignitary, grave and
reverent; but here was a wit, a man of the world. Such speeches you
never heard! I was ravished by the grandeur of the building, and I
said: 'If I had seen this, I would have come to you to be married.
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