e that we take advantage of the Princess's conspiracy. Shall we?"

"My mother is the other conspirator!" Cecilia laughed.

"Is there any harm in letting people see that we like each other?" Guido
asked.

"None in the least. Every one hopes that we may. Besides----" she stopped
short.

"What is the other consideration?" Guido enquired.

"If I am perfectly frank--brutally frank--shall you be less my friend?"

"No. Much more."

"I do not wish to marry at all," said Cecilia, and again she reminded
him of the Sphinx. "But if I ever should change my mind, since you and I
have been picked out to make a match, I suppose I might as well marry
you as any one else."

"Oh, quite as well!"

Then Guido laughed, as he rarely did, not loudly, but with all his
heart, and Cecilia did not try to check her amusement either.

"I suppose it really is very funny," she said.

"The only thing necessary is that no one should ever guess that we have
made a compact. That would be fatal."

"No one!" cried the young girl, eagerly. "No one! Not even your friend!"

"Lamberti? No, least of all, Lamberti!"

"Why do you say, least of all?"

"Because you do not like him," Guido answered, with perfect sincerity.

"Oh! I see. I am not sure, of course, but I am glad you do not mean to
tell him. It would make me nervous to think that he might know. I--I am
not quite certain why it makes me nervous, but it does."

"Have no fear. When shall I see you?"

He had noticed that Cecilia's mother was beginning that little comedy of
movements, and glances, and uneasy turnings of the head, by which
mothers of marriageable daughters signify their intention of going home.
The works of a clock probably act in the same way before striking.

"I will make my mother ask you to dinner. Are you free to-morrow night?"

"Any night."

"No--I mean really. Are you?"

"Yes, really. Lamberti does not count, for we generally dine together
when we have no other engagement."

The shadow again flitted across Cecilia's brow, and she said nothing,
only nodding quickly. Then she looked across the room at her mother.
Young girls are always instantly aware that their mothers are making
signs. When Nelson's commander-in-chief signalled to him at the battle
of Copenhagen the order to retire, Nelson put his spy-glass to his blind
eye and assured his officers that he could see nothing, went on, and won
the fight. Every young girl is totally blind of one eye during period