not care to meet any one."

"Oh, no," she said hopefully; "he was crazy here, but he will be sane
there and--"

"_Mon Dieu_, madame, have a care!" he cried in a low tone, glancing
apprehensively about.

"What is it?" she asked, alarmed.

He lowered his voice to an almost inaudible pitch.

"It is that we do not discuss our kings in public as you are habited to
do. _Voyons donc_," he continued, "if I said, '_Oh, je trouve l'Empereur
tres-bete!_' (as I well might say, for I find him often bete enough); if
I say that, I might find a _sergeant-de-ville_ at my elbow, and myself
in prison almost as the words were still in the air."

Rosina looked thoroughly frightened.

"And what would they do to you?" she asked, looking up at him with an
expression which brought a strange answering look into his own eyes.

"That would depend on how _bete_ I had found the emperor," he declared,
laughing; "but, madame, do not be so troubled, because no one has heard
this time."

They were walking at a good pace, the puddles considered, and came now
to the arched entrance into the Hofgarten, where a turning brought them
beneath the arcades. The south side was crowded, thanks to the
guide-book recommendation to examine the frescoes there on a day when it
is too wet to "do" other sights about the city; but the west side, where
the frescoes are of landscapes only, and sadly defaced at that, was
quite deserted, and they made their way through the crowd to the
grateful peace of the silence beyond. It was a pleasant place to walk,
with the Hofgarten showing its fresh green picture between the frames of
the arcaded arches. The facade of the Hof formed the background to
all--a background of stone and marble, of serried ranks of windows
marshalled to order by lofty portals and balconies.

"Why are women always like that?" he asked, when they had paced in
silence to the other end and turned to return.

"Like what?"

He threw a quick glance of exasperation at her.

"When I say a question, it is always with another question that you
reply!"

"Well," she said, "we were talking of the emperor, and now you say 'why
are women always like that?' and I ask 'like what?'"

He looked more exasperated than before.

"I have all finished with the emperor," he said, as if outraged by her
want of comprehension as to his meaning. "Is it likely that I will wish
to talk of the emperor when on the nineteenth you sail from Genoa?"

She felt her eyes mois