ed girls--devilish cunning games, with the same
old trumps up their sleeves--when they wore 'em--but this girl was just
puzzlingly different enough to evoke a curiously haunting wonder.

Was it the difference in environment? Or in herself? He couldn't quite
make her out.

He seemed to be groping for some clew, some familiar sign that would
resolve all the unfamiliarities to old acquaintance.

Meanwhile he continued to smile cheerily at the young person he had so
rudely designated as a little Wop and gestured to the seat beside him.

"Hop in," he admonished. "Let us be off before that horse comes and
steps on me. That's a dear girl."

But Maria Angelina shook her dark head.

"I told you, no, Signor, I could not go. In my country one does not ride
with young men."

"But you are in my country now. And in my country one jolly well rides
with young men."

"In your country--but for a time, yes." Unconvinced Maria Angelina stood
by her rail, like the boy upon the burning deck.

"But your aunt--cousin, I mean--would let you," he argued. "I'll shout
up now and see----"

Unrelentingly, "It is not my cousin, but my mother who would object,"
she informed him.

"Holy Saint Cecilia! You're worse than boarding school. Come on, Maria
Angelina--I'll promise not to kiss you."

That was one of Johnny's best lines. It always had a deal of effect--one
way or another. It startled Maria Angelina. Her eyes opened as if he had
set off a rocket--and something very bright and light, like the impish
reflections of that rocket, danced a moment in her look.

"I will write that promise to my mother and see if it persuades her,"
she informed him.

"Oh, all right, all right."

With the sigh of the defeated Johnny Byrd turned off the gas and climbed
out of his car.

"Just for that the promise is off," he announced. "Do you think your
mother would mind letting you sit in the same room with me and teach me
that song you promised?"

"She would mind very much in Italy." Over her shoulder Maria cast a
laughing look at him as she stepped back into the music room. "There I
would never be alone like this."

Incredulously Johnny stared past her into the music room. Through the
windows upon the other side came the voices of bridge players upon the
veranda without. Through those same windows were visible the bridge
players' heads. Other windows opened upon the veranda in the front of
the Lodge from which they had just come. An arch of doorw