d not proceeded far
before one said to the other; "Eh, Luigi, we are not the only interested
party."

Luigi looked slowly around and saw a crowd of Italian loungers gazing
at the little stranger with their softly-bold black eyes full of
admiration. He shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Bah, they gaze in that
way at all womankind. See, now they are watching the next one," and as
he spoke, the boys turned with one accord to stare at a young Italian
girl, who pressed closer to the side of her hook-nosed old duenna:

"It is not those loungers that I noticed," replied the other. "Look
there," and he waved his hand lightly toward the left, where, under a
large-leafed tree, gazing apparently in idleness, stood a young man.

"Ah," said Luigi, still incredulous, "he sees nothing but Rome; he is
fresh from over the seas."

"No, no, watch his eyes," replied the other.

They were assuredly fixed, with a keen searching glance, on a little
form before them, and as Eric and Mae suddenly turned to the left, the
stranger, half carelessly, but very quickly, crossed to another path,
from which he could watch them, but be, in his turn, unobserved.

"Jealous," laughed Luigi, shrugging his shoulders again. "Her lover,
probably."

"No," replied Bero, "but he may be some time." Then after a moment's
pause, "Good evening," he said carelessly. "I am going to say my prayers
at vespers. I've been a sorry scamp of late."

Luigi laughed disdainfully and lightly. "You want to get rid of me?
Well, be it so. I don't want to lose my heart over a little foreigner. I
have other game. However, Lillia shall not know of it. Addio, Bero." So
Luigi went off the other way, and Bero, with a flushed face, followed
Mae at a distance, and kept an eye on the stranger, flattering himself
that he was quite unnoticed by those sharp, keen eyes. He was mistaken,
Norman Mann had seen the officers before they saw him, had watched their
footsteps, and had a pretty clear idea of the whole affair.

Mae walked on happily, chatting with Eric, and with that vague,
delightful feeling of something exciting in the air. She knew there was
an officer behind her, because she had heard the clicking spurs, but she
only guessed that he might be one of the two who had passed--the
taller, perhaps,--which, of course, he was. She had, moreover, in some
mysterious way, caught sight of a figure resembling Norman Mann, trying,
she thought, to avoid her. Her spirits rose with the half-m