d, she sat down on her trunk again, and
clasping one knee between her hands, she seemed to be thinking.

At that moment I pretended to first notice her, and said:

"Good-morning, Francesca."

Without seeming in at all a better temper than the previous night, she
murmured, "Good-morning!"

When I asked her whether she had slept well, she nodded her head, and
jumping out of bed, I went and kissed her.

She turned her face toward me like a child who is being kissed against
its will; but I took her tenderly in my arms, and gently pressed my lips
on her eyelids, which she closed with evident distaste under my kisses
on her fresh cheek and full lips, which she turned away.

"You don't seem to like being kissed," I said to her.

"Mica!" was her only answer.

I sat down on the trunk by her side, and passing my arm through hers,
I said: "Mica! mica! mica! in reply to everything. I shall call you
Mademoiselle Mica, I think."

For the first time I fancied that I saw the shadow of a smile on her
lips, but it passed by so quickly that I may have been mistaken.

"But if you never say anything but Mica, I shall not know what to do to
please you. Let me see; what shall we do to-day?"

She hesitated a moment, as if some fancy had flitted through her head,
and then she said carelessly: "It is all the same to me; whatever you
like."

"Very well, Mademoiselle Mica, we will have a carriage and go for a
drive."

"As you please," she said.

Paul was waiting for us in the dining-room, looking as bored as third
parties usually do in love affairs. I assumed a delighted air, and shook
hands with him with triumphant energy.

"What are you thinking of doing?" he asked.

"First of all, we will go and see a little of the town, and then we
might get a carriage and take a drive in the neighborhood."

We breakfasted almost in silence, and then set out. I dragged Francesca
from palace to palace, and she either looked at nothing or merely
glanced carelessly at the various masterpieces. Paul followed us,
growling all sorts of disagreeable things. Then we all three took a
drive in silence into the country and returned to dinner.

The next day it was the same thing and the next day again; and on the
third Paul said to me: "Look here, I am going to leave you; I am not
going to stop here for three weeks watching you make love to this
creature."

I was perplexed and annoyed, for to my great surprise I had become
singularly attached to F