ked depression of
the morning had passed to give heed to her half-hysterical mood. He
entered with zest into her eager scrutiny of their future home, sought
her advice on every little detail, and grew enthusiastic himself at the
prospect of a speedy removal from the barnlike presidential palace to
that leafy paradise. He remembered afterward how Joan's eyes dwelt
longingly on an Italian garden that had always attracted her; but it was
impossible that he should read the farewell in them.

They returned to the city in time for luncheon; then the King had to
hurry away to try and overtake the day's engagements.

His parting words were an injunction to Joan that she should not go out
again during the hot hours, but endeavor to obtain the rest of which she
had been deprived during the night.

"Good-by, dear," she said. "You may feel quite certain that when next we
meet I shall be a different person altogether to the pallid creature
whom you met at breakfast this morning."

Alec was still conscious of some strange detachment in her words. His
earlier feeling that she was acting a part came back with renewed force;
but he again attributed it to the reaction that comes to highly strung
natures after a surfeit of excitement in the midst of a new and
difficult environment.

He kissed her tenderly, and Joan seemed to be on the verge of tears. He
was puzzled; but thought it best to refrain from comment. "Poor girl!"
he said to himself. "She feels it hard to be surrounded by people who
are all strangers, and mostly shut off by the barrier of language."

But he was in no sense alarmed. He left the palace convinced that a few
hours of repose would bring back the color to her cheeks and the natural
buoyancy to her manner. Then he meant to chaff her about her distracted
air; for Joan was no neurotic subject, and she herself would be the
first to laugh at the nervous fit of the morning.

Poluski, hard at work at his frescoes since an early hour, and
grudgingly snatching a hasty meal at midday, was surprised when Joan
came to him after the King's departure and told him that she meant to
finish her picture that afternoon. He made no comment, however, indeed
he was glad of her company, and the two drove away together in the
capacious closed carriage that brought them to and fro between cathedral
and palace. During their working hours, they refused to be hampered by
the presence of servants. An old Greek, who acted as caretaker, took