e called him a pest.

"Italo says," she began, after a silence such as often fell while she
posed and he painted, "that Mr. Landini has the evil eye."

"What rubbish!"

"Glad to hear you say so. I don't believe there's any such thing,
myself. But Italo swears there is, and has told me story upon story to
prove it. He wants me to wear a coral horn and poke it at Mr. Landini
whenever he comes near me."

"Wherefore a coral horn? You can more cheaply, and quite as effectually,
make horns of your fingers, like this. I should strongly advise you not
to let the object of this precaution catch you doing it.... I should
think, Mrs. Hawthorne, you would be ashamed to let that inferior little
individual corrupt your mind."

Fancying it teased him, she pursued, "What do you think he says besides?
That Mr. Landini's color isn't natural, but a juice, he says, a dye,
that he stains himself with."

"For the love of Heaven, why?"

"That's what I wanted to know. Why go to all that trouble for the sake
of looking like a darkey? But Italo says, says Italo, that it gives him
more success with the ladies. His difference from other men obliges them
to look at him, then his eyes do the rest."

"I only hope your laugh is sincere, Mrs. Hawthorne, and that you do not
allow this poisonous nonsense to affect your feelings towards--"

"Don't be afraid. If I did, I shouldn't be having him to dinner, should
I? And he's coming to-night."

"Oh."

"Yes. Quite a party. You weren't asked, because we know you now. You
would have managed by sly questions to find out who else was coming and
then you wouldn't have come."

"Well, who is coming? There is nothing sly about that."

"I sha'n't tell you. This much I will tell you, though--" she added with
the frankness usual to her, "I don't look forward to it much."

It was on the end of his tongue to ask next morning how her dinner had
gone off, but on second thoughts he left it for her to speak of when she
was ready.

She at first appeared much as on other days, but when she had lapsed
into silence and fallen into thought her expression became a shade
gloomy. He had noticed that when her eyes were rather more grey than
blue it was the sign of a cloud in her sky.

"Might one ask the lady sitting for her picture to look pleasant?" he
said.

"Yes, yes," she remembered herself; "I will try to look pleasant. But I
feel cross."

"Well?... What went wrong with your dinner?"

"Oh, I made a fool