and rolled away,
somewhere. I moved every piece of furniture in the room; I got down on
all fours and squinted along the floor; I went to the dressing-table to
look for another; my man, after putting out my things, had locked up
everything and gone to his dinner. I couldn't dine with you, like
freedom, 'with my bosom bare'--"

"No," said Miss O'Kelly, glancing down at her topazes, "you couldn't do
that."

"Certainly not," said the earl, "and so I put on my top-coat and went
out to Testonni's in the Piazza, and bought a stud. I was lucky to find
them open, for it was past closing time. They told me they were working
late on a hurry order. I put the stud in my shirt, raced across to the
molo, jumped into a gondola, and here I am. Am I forgiven?"

"Yes," said Lady Nora; "you were only five minutes late and your excuse
is, at least, ingenious. You could not have come unadorned."

"Unadorned!" exclaimed the earl; "it was a question of coming
unfastened."

Pietro began to refill the cardinal's glass, but his master stopped him.
Pietro bent and whispered. The cardinal laughed. "Pietro tells me," he
said, "that this is better wine than that which I get at home and that I
should make the most of it. The only difference I remark in wines is
that some are red and some are white."

"That minds me of one night when Father Flynn dropped in to dine," said
Miss O'Kelly--"'twas he had the wooden leg, you remember, Nora,
dear--and he and Phelim sat so late that I wint in with fresh candles.
'I call that good whiskey,' says the father as I came in. '_Good_
whiskey?' exclaimed Phelim; 'did ever you see any whiskey that was
_bad_.' 'Now that you mintion it,' says his riverince, 'I never did; but
I've seen some that was scarce.' 'Another bottle, Aunt Molly,' says
Phelim, 'his riverince has a hollow leg.' When I came back with the
bottle they were talking to a little, wild gossoon from the hills. He
was barefooted, bareheaded, and only one suspinder was between him and
the police. 'Is your mother bad?' asked his riverince. 'Dochtor says
she'll die afore mornin',' says the gossoon. 'Will you lind me a horse,
Phelim?' asked his riverince. 'You ride a horse, with that leg!' says
Phelim. 'No, I'll drive you, in the cart;' and he went off to the
stables. In five minutes he came back with the dog-cart and the gray
mare. His riverince got up, with the aid of a chair, the little gossoon
climbed up behind, and the gravel flew as the gray mare s