ly to amuse herself with the captain's
astonishment, she made a long pause. Then she added:

"I saw your name on the list of arrivals yesterday, on my return to the
hotel. I always look them over. It pleases me to know who my neighbors
are."

"And for that reason you did not come down to the dining-room?..."

Ulysses asked this question hoping that she would respond negatively.
She could not answer it in any other way, if only for good manners'
sake.

"Yes, for that reason," Freya replied simply. "I guessed that you were
waiting to meet me and I did not wish to go into the dining-room.... I
give you fair warning that I shall always do the same."

Ulysses uttered an "Ah!" of amazement.... No woman had ever spoken to
him with such frankness.

"Neither has your presence here surprised me," she continued. "I was
expecting it. I know the innocent wiles of you men. 'Since he did not
find me in the hotel, he will wait for me to-day in the street,' I said
to myself, upon arising this morning.... Before coming out, I was
following your footsteps from the window of my room...."

Ferragut looked at her in surprise and dismay. What a woman!...

"I might have escaped through any cross street while your back was
turned. I saw you before you saw me.... But these false situations
stretching along indefinitely are distasteful to me. It is better to
speak the entire truth face to face.... And therefore I have come to
meet you...."

Instinct made him turn his head toward the hotel. The porter was
standing at the entrance looking out over the sea, but with his eyes
undoubtedly turned toward them.

"Let us go on," said Freya. "Accompany me a little ways. We shall talk
together and then you can leave me.... Perhaps we shall separate
greater friends than ever."

They strolled in silence all the length of the _Via Partenope_ until
they reached the gardens along the beach of Chiaja, losing sight of the
hotel. Ferragut wished to renew the conversation, but could not begin
it. He feared to appear ridiculous. This woman was making him timid.

Looking at her with admiring eyes, he noted the great changes that had
been made in the adornment of her person. She was no longer clad in the
dark tailor-made in which he had first seen her. She was wearing a blue
and white silk gown with a handsome fur over her shoulders and a
cluster of purple heron feathers on top of her wide hat.

The black hand-bag that had always accompanied her on her