ded official, the tenente departed as they were all in
conversation. The tenente wished not to disturb them. The signorino went
with him to his carriage and, behold! the signorino himself! Jimmy,
indeed, came through the portal at the moment from the Piazza Umberto
side, but not the blithe, bounding, joyous Jimmy of the morning. The
young face was clouded with a look the father never before had seen, and
when he called and Jimmy suddenly turned and saw him, though the bright
eyes lighted instantly with all the old love--perhaps, too, with some
relief--the cloud did not entirely vanish, nor did the boy come
bounding. He ran; he took his father's hand and looked up in his face,
and when he was asked what he had done with Mr. Ray, said slowly: "Why,
daddy, he isn't a bit like what I 'sposed he'd be. He only spoke to
mamma a minute or two, and--I guess he isn't well. He didn't have time
to speak to me--he hardly said good-by, or--anything."

"Oh, then mamma saw Mr. Ray! I'm glad of that," said Dwight, though
remembering she had not mentioned it.

"Yes, on the gallery," said Jimmy. "At least, I suppose so. He came out
through the corridor, and then mamma sent me after him with the gloves
he had left. I wanted to ask him----" hesitated Jimmy. He did not know
whether to go on or not, but he need not have worried. Papa had suddenly
turned from him, turned to meet his new mamma--his beautiful young
mamma, who, with bared neck and arms, in dinner toilet, was coming
slowly and with trailing skirts down the broad and carpeted stairway and
looking more radiant and beautiful than Jimmy ever before had seen her;
she whom, a few minutes earlier, he had found on the gallery pallid and
excited, trembling from weakness, perhaps. Now she had diamonds in her
ears and at her creamy throat, diamonds flashing in her corsage. There
were shimmer and spangle and firefly sparklings in the lustrous folds of
her gown. There were starlight twinklings from the bands of those
wondrous, dainty, high-heeled little "slipper shoes," as Jimmy called
them. There were glowworm gems in the dark masses of her luxuriant hair.
There were rich and precious stones upon her slender, clasping fingers,
for Dwight had been lavish to an extent he only now began to realize,
for, though his heart leaped in unison with the instant admiration and
worship in his eyes, it ached in strange, dull foreboding and reproach
for the thought that instantly seized him: How utterly unl