ver' dusty. It is more cooler to take ze paf by ze lake. Straight to
ze left for ten minutes and step over ze wall; it is broken in zat place
and quite easy."

"Thank you, that is a wise suggestion; I shall step over the wall by all
means." He jumped to his feet and looked about for his hat. "You turn to
the left and straight ahead for ten minutes? Good-bye then till dinner. I
go in search of the Signorina Costantina who is beautiful as the angels
in Paradise, and who lives in a rose-colored villa set in a cypress grove
on the shores of Lake Garda--not a bad setting for romance, is it,
Gustavo?--Dinner, I believe, is at seven o'clock?"

"_Si_, signore, at seven; and would you like veal cooked Milanese
fashion?"

"Nothing would please me more. We have only had veal Milanese fashion
five times since I came."

He waved his hand jauntily and strolled whistling down the arbor that led
to the lake. Gustavo looked after him and shook his head. Then he took
out the two-lire piece and rang it on the table. The metal rang true. He
shrugged his shoulders and turned back indoors to order the veal.

CHAPTER II

The terrace of Villa Rosa juts out into the lake, bordered on three sides
by a stone parapet, and shaded above by a yellow-ochre awning. Masses of
oleanders hang over the wall and drop pink petals into the blue waters
below. As a study in color the terrace is perfect, but, like the
court-yard of the Hotel du Lac, decidedly too hot for mid-afternoon. To
the right of the terrace, however, is a shady garden set in alleys of
cypress trees, and separated from the lake by a strip of beach and a low
balustrade. There could be no better resting place for a warm afternoon.

It was close upon four--five minutes past to be accurate--and the usual
afternoon quiet that enveloped the garden had fled before the garrulous
advent of four girls. Three of them, with black eyes and blacker hair,
were kneeling on the beach thumping and scrubbing a pile of linen. In
spite of their chatter they were working busily, and the grass beyond the
water-wall was already white with bleaching sheets, while a lace trimmed
petticoat fluttered from a near-by oleander, and a row of silk stockings
stretched the length of the parapet. The most undeductive observer would
have guessed by this time that the pink villa, visible through the trees,
contained no such modern conveniences as stationary tubs.

The fourth girl, with gray eyes and yellow-brow