e French pattern; but I prefer the sofa and my ease, and will
simply beg you to remember the contract we made the other day,--that
each was to be at liberty to say any impertinence to the other, without
offence being taken."

Pracontal laid his hand on his heart, and bowed low and deep.

"There are some half a dozen people in that garden yonder, who have
passed and repassed--I can't tell how many times--just to observe us.
You 'll see them again in a few minutes, and we shall be town-talk
to-morrow, I 'm certain. There are no _tete-a-tetes_ ever permitted in
Rome if a cardinal or a monsignore be not one of the performers."

"Are those they?" cried he, suddenly.

"Yes, and there 's not the least occasion for that flash of the eye and
that hot glow of indignation on the cheek: I assure you, monsieur, there
is nobody there to _couper la gorge_ with you, or share in any of those
social pleasantries which make the 'Bois' famous. The curiously minded
individual is a lady,--a Mrs. Trumpler,--and her attendants are a few
freshly arrived curates. There, now, sit down again, and look less like
a wounded tiger; for all this sort of thing fusses and fevers me. Yes,
you may fan me; though if the detectives return it will make the report
more highly colored."

Pracontal was now seated on a low stool beside her sofa, and fanning her
assiduously.

"Not but these people are all right," continued she. "It is quite wrong
in me to admit you to my intimacy--wrong to admit you at all. My sister
is so angry about it she won't come here--fact, I assure you. Now don't
look so delighted and so triumphant, and the rest of it. As your nice
little phrase has it, you 'are for nothing' in the matter at all. It is
all myself, my own whim, my fancy, my caprice. _I_ saw that the step
was just as unadvisable as they said it was. I saw that any commonly
discreet person would not have even made your acquaintance, standing
as I did; but unfortunately for me, like poor Eve, the only tree whose
fruit I covet is the one I 'm told is n't good for me. There go our
friends once more. I wish I could tell her who you are, and not keep her
in this state of torturing anxiety."

"Might I ask, my Lady," said he, gravely, "if you have heard anything to
my discredit or disparagement, as a reason for the severe sentence you
have just spoken?"

"No, unfortunately not; for in that case my relatives would have
forgiven me. They know the wonderful infatuation that at