“You know I am here if you need me,” Major Danilo said in a low voice.
She wondered why he was speaking like this, but there was no time to ask him any questions.
As she came down the stairs, the Ambassadress was waiting for her and the footmen in the hall gazed at her as if she was a being from another planet.
The pageboys and the bridesmaids had gone ahead in one of the State carriages to await her arrival at the Cathedral door.
The open carriage that Pythia and the Ambassador were to travel in was drawn by white horses decorated with garlands of flowers.
They drove down the long road which led from The Palace to the Cathedral and, as they did so, small children crept between the soldiers who were lining the route.
They ran up to the carriage to throw flowers into it and they were
