nd leaning over
towards Elena.

'With whom?'

'With you--have you not observed it yet?'

'No.'

'Well, look at him.'

Elena looked across at him. The amorous gaze of the disguised _daimio_
suddenly affected her with such ill-disguised mirth that the Japanese
felt deeply hurt and humiliated.

'See,' she said, and to console him she detached a white camellia and
threw it across the table to the envoy of the Rising Sun,--'find some
comparison in praise of me!'

The Oriental carried the flower to his lips with a ludicrous air of
devotion.

'Ah--ah--Sakumi!' cried the little Baroness d'Isola, 'you are unfaithful
to me!'

He stammered a few words while his face flamed. Everybody laughed
unrestrainedly, as if the foreigner had been invited solely to provide
entertainment for the other guests. Andrea turned laughing towards
Elena.

Her head was raised and a little thrown back, and she was gazing
furtively at the young man under her eyelashes with one of those
indescribably feminine glances which seem to absorb--almost one would
say drink in--all that is most desirable, most delectable in the man of
their choice. The long lashes veiled the soft dark eyes which were
looking at him a little side-long, and her lower lip had a scarcely
perceptible tremor. The full ray of her glance seemed to rest upon his
lips as the most attractive point about him.

And in truth his mouth was very attractive. Pure and youthful in outline
and rich in colouring, a little cruel when firmly closed, it reminded
one irresistibly of that portrait of an unknown gentleman in the
Borghese gallery, that profound and mysterious work of art in which the
fascinated imagination has sought to recognise the features of the
divine Cesare Borgia depicted by the divine Sanzio. As soon as the lips
parted in a smile the resemblance vanished, and the square, even
dazzlingly white teeth lit up a mouth as fresh and jocund as a child's.

The moment Andrea turned, Elena withdrew her eyes, though not so quickly
but that the young man caught the flash. His delight was so poignant
that it sent the blood flaming to his face.

'She is attracted by me!' he thought to himself, inwardly exulting in
the assurance of having found favour in the eyes of this rare creature.
'This is a joy I have never experienced before!' he said to himself.

There are certain glances from a woman's eye which a lover would not
exchange for anything else she can offer him later. He who