s to keep the head
cool when the blood burns. You think she loves you?"

"Think! Gran Dio! She has--" here he paused and his face flushed
deeply--"nay! I have no right to say anything on that score. I know she
never cared for her husband."

"I know that too!" I answered, steadily. "The most casual observer
cannot fail to notice it."

"Well, and no wonder!" he exclaimed, warmly. "He was such an
undemonstrative fool! What business had such a fellow as that to marry
so exquisite a creature!"

My heart leaped with a sudden impulse of fury, but I controlled my
voice and answered calmly:

"Requiescat in pace! He is dead--let him rest. Whatever his faults, his
wife of course was true to him while he lived; she considered him
worthy of fidelity--is it not so?"

He lowered his eyes as he replied in an indistinct tone:

"Oh, certainly!"

"And you--you were a most loyal and faithful friend to him, in spite of
the tempting bright eyes of his lady?"

Again he answered huskily, "Why, of course!" But the shapely hand that
rested on the table so near to mine trembled.

"Well, then," I continued, quietly, "the love you bear now to his fair
widow is, I imagine, precisely what he would approve. Being, as you
say, perfectly pure and blameless, what can I wish otherwise than
this--may it meet with the reward it deserves!"

While I spoke he moved uneasily in his chair, and his eyes roved to my
father's picture with restless annoyance. I suppose he saw in it the
likeness to his dead friend. After a moment or two of silence he turned
to me with a forced smile--

"And so you really entertain no admiration for the contessa?"

"Oh, pardon me, I DO entertain a very strong admiration for her, but
not of the kind you seem to suspect. If it will please you, I can
guarantee that I shall never make love to the lady unless--"

"Unless what?" he asked, eagerly.

"Unless she happens to make love to me, In which case it would be
ungallant not to reciprocate!"

And I laughed harshly. He stared at me in blank surprise. "SHE make
love to YOU!" he exclaimed, "You jest. She would never do such a thing."

"Of course not!" I answered, rising and clapping him heavily on the
shoulder. "Women never court men, it is quite unheard of; a reverse of
the order of nature! You are perfectly safe, my friend; you will
certainly win the recompense you so richly merit. Come, let us go and
drink coffee with the fair one."

And arm-in-arm we sauntered out