ch,
though it seemed a shame to waste anything so good. "You can have the
rest," she said to the waiter, when she had finished her first glass. He
was surprised, for most ladies, he noticed, could finish two or three
glasses, or even more.

Again the man with the profile of a young Dante was looking at her with
the grave, anxious look that puzzled her. She met his eyes for the third
or fourth time, and was so sorry for his apparent unhappiness where
every one else seemed merry, that she half smiled, very sweetly and
gently, as one would smile at a gloomy child.

The man did not return her kindness. An angry flash lit his eyes, and he
looked extremely haughty and unapproachable, no longer a lonely figure
needing sympathy, but a high personage. Mary lowered her lashes,
abashed; and when she did this Vanno, who was on the point of hating
her because she was not the white angel he had thought, doubted again,
and was more bewildered than ever. Her friendly smile had been sweet,
and he, who was here only because of her, had quenched its light! He
regretted passionately his own ungraciousness, no matter what the girl
might be. And she looked so young, her eyes so full of sea and heaven!
On what errand had she come alone to this place? He determined that he
would know, and soon.

VII

Mary ordered coffee in the hall, because something of her delight in the
gay restaurant had been crushed out by Vanno's snub. She was no longer
at peace under his eyes, and wished to avoid meeting them again, so it
was pleasanter to go away. But even in the hall she could not forget
him, as she had forgotten him after Marseilles. When he too came out
from the restaurant, not long after, she saw him, though he was at a
distance, saw him without even turning her eyes; and she thought how
tall he was, and how much a man, although slender to the point of
leanness. He sat on a sofa in the hall, and ordered coffee. Mary knew,
though she did not look at him again, and interested herself instead in
other people.

All those who came from dinner, except the Prince, drank their coffee
and went out. Some went by the front door, taking the direction of the
Casino. Others disappeared into an unknown part of the hotel; and so
many chose this way, that Mary inquired of a passing waiter where they
were all going. "To the Casino, Mademoiselle, by the underground
passage, to avoid the night air," the servant answered.

To the Casino. Everybody was go