at his hands, which were clasped loosely
between his knees. Chesney kept glancing towards him vexedly all the
time that Sophy was singing. Amaldi's expression _was_ rather "wooden."

"Sing that Grieg thing," Chesney had said. She sang Solweg's song from
the Peer Gynt series. It seemed to Amaldi that he could not bear it,
when the voice of the woman he loved poured over him in that soft wave
of heart-break. His face looked ever more and more "wooden" as she sang
on. When she stopped and Chesney fixed his eyes on the other man with
that sort of irritated challenge in them, Amaldi said in a cut-and-dried
tone: "Thanks. It was most beautiful."

Chesney couldn't get over it for the rest of the evening. He mimicked
Amaldi's tone and manner to Sophy again and again.

"Damned constipated mind the fellow's got, by God!" he said. "He hears
for the first time a great imperial-purple voice like yours, and all he
says is: 'Thanks; most beautiful.' Why didn't he say: 'Very nice,' and
have done with it!"

Sophy shivered at his ever-increasing irritability. Sometimes she
thought the gentle Luigi would surely burst into flame under Cecil's
fierce cursings and depart forthwith; but the little man merely looked
stolid, as if slightly deaf, on these occasions. She thought that
Lombards, whether noble or peasant, had singular self-control, for
something in the little Milanese's manner under provocation reminded
her vaguely of Amaldi. Then one day she heard him remark to Maria, the
cook, who also seemed astonished at his patience:

"_Cosa te voeuret? L'e matt quel diavol d'un milord. E quella bella
sciora l'e tanto bona._" (What'll you have? He's mad, this devil of a
milord, and his lovely lady is so good!)

One afternoon Amaldi called to tell Chesney that _The Wind-Flower_ was
in the water again. He found Sophy alone on the terrace. She was sewing
on a little blouse for Bobby, who had worn out most of his wardrobe. She
loved making his little fineries herself. Amaldi was more natural in his
manner that afternoon. It was long since he had seen her alone. Sophy
had recovered from the first shock of her husband's return; she also
felt more natural. Before long she was talking to Amaldi almost eagerly.
She had been thinking of her far-away home in Virginia when he arrived.
She ran to fetch some photographs of it to show him. Chesney was away in
the motor-boat--at Stresa, she believed.... But at that moment Chesney
was driving back from Pa