o smile of itself, and the
lovely eyes had their separate art of smiling. Her lips parted of
themselves, and then you felt your own lips parting.

"You were to have been busy with your fountain to-day...." began the
Baron.

"So I expected," she said in a voice that was soft yet full, "and I did
not think I should care to see any more spectacles in Rome, where the
people are going in procession all the year through--but what do you
think has brought me?"

"The artist's instinct, of course," said Don Camillo.

"No, just the woman's--to see a man!"

"Lucky fellow, whoever he is!" said the American. "He'll see something
better than you will, though," and then the golden complexion gleamed up
at him under a smile like sunshine.

"But who is he?" said the young Roman.

"I'll tell you. Bruno--you remember Bruno?"

"Bruno!" cried the Baron.

"Oh! Bruno is all right," she said, and, turning to the others, "Bruno
is my man in the studio--my marble pointer, you know. Bruno Rocco, and
nobody was ever so rightly named. A big, shaggy, good-natured bear,
always singing or growling or laughing, and as true as steel. A terrible
Liberal, though; a socialist, an anarchist, a nihilist, and everything
that's shocking."

"Well?"

"Well, ever since I began my fountain ... I'm making a fountain for the
Municipality--it is to be erected in the new part of the Piazza Colonna.
I expect to finish it in a fortnight. You would like to see it? Yes?
I'll send you cards--a little private view, you know."

"But Bruno?"

"Ah! yes, Bruno! Well, I've been at a loss for a model for one of my
figures ... figures all round the dish, you know. They represent the
Twelve Apostles, with Christ in the centre giving out the water of
life."

"But Bruno! Bruno! Bruno!"

She laughed, and the merry ring of her laughter set them all laughing.

"Well, Bruno has sung the praises of one of his friends until I'm
crazy ... crazy, that's English, isn't it? I told you I was half an
Englishwoman. American? Thanks, General! I'm 'just crazy' to get him
in."

"Simple enough--hire him to sit to you," said the Princess.

"Oh," with a mock solemnity, "he is far too grand a person for that! A
member of Parliament, a leader of the Left, a prophet, a person with a
mission, and I daren't even dream of it. But this morning, Bruno tells
me, his friend, his idol, is to stop the Pope's procession, and present
a petition, so I thought I would kill two birds with one s