s ago. She went up to Roquebrune to see the cure.
She'd heard he was an old friend of ours--and she inquired for
you--wouldn't say who she was. That was before I arrived."

"How do you know it was Idina, if she didn't give her name?"

"The cure's description. There was no mistaking it. He said at a little
distance her eyes looked white, like a statue's."

"Ah--that was good! They are like that. Curious eyes. Curious woman. Why
didn't you tell me before about her visit to the cure?"

"I meant to. But you put off coming so long. And I--well, I confess I
forgot."

"You're excusable in the circumstances, my dear boy. After all, it's of
no importance."

"No. And then, as I never saw her anywhere about, there was reason to
suppose she'd left. If I thought of her at all, I thought she'd gone."

"It seems she's been staying for weeks at the Annonciata--I fancy she
called it--a hotel on a little mountain close to Mentone. She says the
air's very fine--and she's been ordered south by an American doctor. Had
pneumonia in the autumn."

"What about the distant cousin over there who was going to leave her
money?"

"He's dead, and she's got the money. She is wearing a kind of second
mourning--gray and black. It made her look rather hard, I thought."

"She always did look hard, except----"

"Except? What's the rest, Vanno?"

"I was going to say, 'Except for you.'"

"I--er--she seems to have got over that nonsense now. I must confess it
gave me rather a start when I came in from a smoke in the garden
yesterday, and found her sitting with Marie in the yellow salon. For a
minute I was afraid--well, I hardly know of what."

"Dio! You didn't think she'd try to do Marie a mischief?"

"No. Hardly that. But it passed through my mind that she might try to
make trouble between us. Not that she could."

"Did you--don't answer unless you care to--ever tell Marie about Idina?"

"Not till yesterday, after her call. It never occurred to me. Idina had
gone out of my life before Marie came into it, and she was never
anything to me."

"I know. It was the other way round. But--you were good to her, and
cousinly, and I suppose she misunderstood a little."

"I never realized that, until she was going to America, and she
hinted--er--that she wouldn't care about getting the money if it weren't
for--well, you know. Or you can guess."

"She thought father would approve of a marriage between you if she
became an heiress."

"Partly tha