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In Venice," said she, her voice gentle, "you accepted the chance readily enough. What has changed you?" O'Mally flushed. What she said was true. "I was a fool in Venice," frankly. "And you, Mr. Smith?" continued La Signorina, as with a lash. But it was ineffectual. "I was a fool, too," admitted Smith. "In Venice it sounded like a good joke, but it looks different now." He sat down beside O'Mally. "So much for gallantry! And you, Kitty?" "I made a promise, and I'll keep it. But I think you are cruel and wicked." "No nonsense, Kitty," interposed Merrihew. "I've some rights now. You will have this villa to-night." "I refuse," replied Kitty simply. Hillard slipped into the pause. "Did you issue those invitations yourself?" he asked this strange, incomprehensible woman. "Do you believe that?" La Signorina demanded, with narrowing eyes. "I don't know what to believe. But I repeat the question." "On my word of honor, I know no more about this mystery than you do." And there was truth in her voice and eyes. "But are you not over-sure of your princess? Being a woman, may she not have changed her plans?" "Not without consulting me. I am not only sure," she added with a positiveness which brooked no further question, "but to-morrow I shall prove to you that her Highness has not changed her plans. I shall send her a telegram at once, and you shall see the reply. But you, Mr. Hillard, will you, too, desert me?" "Oh, as for that, I am mad likewise," he said, with a smile on his lips but none in his eyes. "I'll see the farce to the end, even if that end is jail." "If!" cried O'Mally. "You speak as though you had some doubt regarding that possibility!" "So I have." Hillard went to the table, selected a rose, and drew it through the lapel of his coat. "I say, Jack!" Merrihew interposed, greatly perturbed. "And you will stay also, Dan." "Are you really in earnest?" dubiously. Why hadn't this impossible woman sung under somebody else's window? "Earnest as I possibly can be. Listen a moment. La Signorina is not a person recklessly to endanger us. She has, apparently, put her head into the lion's mouth. But perhaps this lion is particularly well trained. I am sure that she knows many things of which we are all ignorant. Trust her to carry out this imposture which now seems so wild. Besides, to tell the truth, I do not wish it said that I was outdone by Miss Killigrew in courage and the spiri
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