tly. "I told you that you were a girl after my
own heart. In your place I should have walked myself out of that house
as quickly as I had entered, but all the same--that would not be my
advice. However, this is not the serious part of the story." Even Zoya's
buoyancy became restrained as she concluded: "All Rome is asking what
you have done with the duke. He followed you out of the room and has not
been seen since. Giovanni is said to have spoken of seeing him at the
club--and that is known to be untrue. Carlo was at the Circolo d'Acacia
all the afternoon; so was that Ugo Potensi, as well as a dozen others--and
neither Scorpa nor Giovanni was there! So where is the duke? Come, tell
me!"

A look of terror came into Nina's eyes, and the young contessa darted
her a swift returning glance of comprehension. "Listen, _carissima_,"
she said, "I am your friend, therefore don't look so frightened--you are
a regular baby! The situation is not difficult to read. Obviously there
was a scene between you, the thick duke, and the agile Giovanni. Just
what it was all about, of course, I can only surmise; but I _do_ know
that Giovanni is deep in it, and, what is more important, I know also
that the result is likely to be troublesome for you. For men to quarrel
between themselves is one thing; but when a _woman_ comes into it, one
can never see the end."

"Woman? I know nothing of any woman." Nina shook her head.

"I told you that you were a baby! But we can't talk here. I shall come
to see you to-morrow, but not until late in the afternoon. I shall then
perhaps be useful, for in the meantime I am going about like the wolf in
the sheep's pelt, to see what news I can pick up. Till then--have
courage!"

Just then the Sansevero carriage was announced, and Nina was obliged to
hasten after her aunt. At the door she glanced back at Zoya with a
half-questioning look, which the contessa answered by blowing her a
kiss.

That night the little sleep Nina was able to get was fitful and broken
by dreams. The duke and his mother appeared to her as cuttlefish in a
cave under perpendicular cliffs that ran into the sea. Nina was out in a
little boat alone, and the waves dashed the tiny craft nearer and nearer
to the cave where the cuttlefish were waiting; finally she came so close
that one tentacle seized her. Terrified, she awoke. After hours of
half-waking, half-sleeping, formless confusion, she dreamed again. In
this dream she and Giovanni were