n
the wall. She nodded to him, and then spoke to her father, evidently
calling his attention to Reanda, for Dalrymple looked down at once, and
also nodded, while Griggs leaned forward a little and stared vacantly
into the pit.

"It is an obsession to-day," said Reanda to himself, reflecting that
though the girl lived in Rome he had never noticed her before, and had
now seen her twice on the same day.

He mentally added the reflexion that she must have good nerves, and that
most young girls would be at home with a headache after such a narrow
escape as hers. She was quite as handsome as he had thought, however,
and even more so, now that he saw her in her girlish evening gown, which
was just a little open at the throat, and without even the simplest of
ornaments. The white material and the shadow around and behind her threw
her head into strong relief.

The curtain went up again, and Reanda sat down and watched the
performance and listened to the simple, stirring melodies. But he was
uncomfortably conscious that Gloria was looking at the back of his head
from her box. Nervous people know the unpleasant sensation which such a
delusion can produce. Reanda moved uneasily in his seat, and looked
round more than once, just far enough to catch sight of Gloria's hair
without looking up into her eyes.

His thoughts were disturbed, and he recalled vividly the face of the
dead nun, which he had seen long ago. The resemblance was certainly
strong. Maria Addolorata had sometimes had a strange expression which
was quite her own, and which he had not yet seen in Gloria. But he felt
that he should see it some day. He was sure of it, so sure that he had
thrown its full force into the sketch on the wall, knowing that it would
startle Donna Francesca. It was not possible that two women should be so
much alike and yet that one of them should never have that look. Perhaps
Gloria had it now and was staring at the back of his head.

An unaccountable nervousness took possession of the sensitive man, and
he suffered as he sat there. After the curtain dropped he rose and left
the theatre without looking up, and crossed the narrow street to a
little coffee shop familiar to him for many years. He drank a cup of
coffee, broke off the end of a thin black Roman cigar, and smoked for a
few minutes before he returned.

Gloria had not moved, but Griggs was either gone or had retired further
back into the shadow. Dalrymple was leaning back in his