ish cemetery," said
Roma.

"Good!" said David Rossi.

"But it's half-past two," said Roma, looking at her little watch, "and
I'm as hungry as a hunter."

"Naturally," said David Rossi, and they laughed again. There was an
osteria somewhere in that neighbourhood. He had known it when he was a
boy. They would dine on yellow beans and macaroni.

Presently they saw a house smoking under a scraggy clump of eucalyptus.
It was the osteria, half farmstead and half inn. A timid lad took their
horses, an evil-looking old man bowed them into the porch, and an
elderly woman, with a frightened expression and a face wrinkled like the
bark of a cedar, brought them a bill of fare.

They laughed at everything--at the unfamiliar menu, because it was
soiled enough to have served for a year; at the food, because it was so
simple; and at the prices, because they were so cheap.

Roma looked over David Rossi's shoulder as he read out the bill of fare,
and they ordered the dinner together.

"Macaroni--threepence! Right! Trout--fourpence! Shall we have
fourpennyworth of trout? Good! Lamb--sixpence! We'll take two lambs--I
mean two sixpenny-worths," and then more laughter.

While the dinner was cooking they went out to walk among the eucalyptus,
and came upon a beautiful dell surrounded by trees and carpeted with
wild flowers.

"Carnival!" cried Roma. "Now if there was anybody here to throw a flower
at one!"

He picked up a handful of violets and tossed them over her head.

"When I was a boy this was where men fought duels," said David Rossi.

"The brutes! What a lovely spot! Must be the place where Pharaoh's
daughter found Moses in the bulrushes!"

"Or where Adam found Eve in the garden of Eden?"

They looked at each other and smiled.

"What a surprise that must have been to him," said Roma. "Whatever did
he think she was, I wonder?"

"An angel who had come down in the moonlight and forgotten to go up in
the morning!"

"Nonsense! He would know in a moment she was a woman."

"Think of it! She was the only woman in the world for him!"

"And fancy! He was the only man!"

The dinner was one long delight. Even its drawbacks were no
disadvantage. The food was bad, and it was badly cooked and badly
served, but nothing mattered.

"Only one fork for all these dishes?" asked David Rossi.

"That's the best of it," said Roma. "You only get one dirty one."

Suddenly she dropped knife and fork, and held up both hands. "I forgot!