ooking at her he saw her eyes fill with tears, and he hurried on: "No
rubbish, I notice. Are you fond of reading?"

"Yes."

"I was wondering if you would care to undertake a work for me."

"I should be glad to do anything," she said anxiously.

"I have some thousands of books in the villa. Those I have collected
myself I know--they are all in the library--but there are many that
were left me by my father, and others that came from an uncle, and
they are all piled up in heaps in the empty rooms on the second floor.
I want someone to sort them out, catalogue, and arrange them for me.
Would you care to do it?"

"Yes, indeed."

"That's all right then," he said hastily. "I'll get a carpenter in at
once to put up some more shelves ready for them. And I think you had
better stay on in the villa, if you don't mind. It will be more
convenient. The salary will be two hundred lire a month, paid in
advance."

"Your kindness--I can't express my gratitude--" she began tremulously.

"Nonsense! This is a business transaction, and I am coming out of it
very well. I should not get a man to do the work for that absurdly
small sum. I am underpaying you on purpose because I hate women."

Olive laughed. "Commend me to misogynists henceforth."

She wanted to begin at once, but her host assured her that he would
rather she waited until the shelves were put up.

"You will have to sort them out several times, according to date,
language and subject. Perhaps Jean can help you when he returns. He is
away just now."

Watching her, he saw the deepening of the rose.

"I--I can't remember exactly what happened the night I came, Mr
Avenel. You know I had not been able to find work, and though my
_padrona_ was kind she was very poor too. She pawned my things for me,
but they fetched so little, and I had not had anything to eat for ever
so long when he came. He has not gone away because of me, has he?"

Hilaire threw the fish another biscuit; it fell among the lily leaves
at the feet of the weather-stained marble nymph of the fountain.

"I must decline to answer," he said gravely, after a pause. "I
understand that you are twenty-three and old enough therefore to judge
for yourself, and I do not intend to influence either you or Jean, if
I can help it. You will be perfectly free to do exactly what you think
right, my dear girl. I will only give you one bit of advice, and that
is, look at life with your eyes wide open. Don't blink! This i