d flung such a furious mica at me,
that I would no longer run the risk of spoiling her digestion.

I turned to my friend. "My poor Paul," I said, "I am afraid we have had
our trouble for nothing."

The night came on, one of those hot summer nights which extend their warm
shade over the burning and exhausted earth. Here and there, in the
distance, by the sea, on capes and promontories, bright stars, which I
was, at times, almost inclined to confound with lighthouses, began to
shine on the dark horizon:

The scent of the orange trees became more penetrating, and we breathed
with delight, distending our lungs to inhale it more deeply. The balmy
air was soft, delicious, almost divine.

Suddenly I noticed something like a shower of stars under the dense shade
of the trees along the line, where it was quite dark. It might have been
taken for drops of light, leaping, flying, playing and running among the
leaves, or for small stars fallen from the skies in order to have an
excursion on the earth; but they were only fireflies dancing a strange
fiery ballet in the perfumed air.

One of them happened to come into our carriage, and shed its intermittent
light, which seemed to be extinguished one moment and to be burning the
next. I covered the carriage-lamp with its blue shade and watched the
strange fly careering about in its fiery flight. Suddenly it settled on
the dark hair of our neighbor, who was half dozing after dinner. Paul
seemed delighted, with his eyes fixed on the bright, sparkling spot,
which looked like a living jewel on the forehead of the sleeping woman.

The Italian woke up about eleven o'clock, with the bright insect still in
her hair. When I saw her move, I said: "We are just getting to Genoa,
madame," and she murmured, without answering me, as if possessed by some
obstinate and embarrassing thought:

"What am I going to do, I wonder?"

And then she suddenly asked:

"Would you like me to come with you?"

I was so taken aback that I really did not understand her.

"With us? How do you mean?"

She repeated, looking more and more furious:

"Would you like me to be your guide now, as soon as we get out of the
train?"

"I am quite willing; but where do you want to go."

She shrugged her shoulders with an air of supreme indifference.

"Wherever you like; what does it matter to me?" She repeated her "Che mi
fa" twice.

"But we are going to the hotel."

"Very well, let us all go to the hotel," she