miled, and looked down at her hand, and then glanced at him
quickly, and almost happily. If she had studied men for ten years she
could not have found word or look more certain to touch him and win him
to her way.

"Thank you," he said, rather curtly, for he was thinking of another
answer. "If I take you to Guido, what shall you say to him?"

She drew herself up against the back of the sofa, but the smile still
lingered on her lips.

"You must trust me, too," she answered. "Do you think I can compose set
speeches beforehand? When shall we go? How is it to be managed?"

"You often go out with your maid, do you not? What sort of woman is she?
A dragon?"

"No!" Cecilia laughed. "She is very respectable and nice, and thinks I
am perfection. But then, she is terribly near-sighted, and cannot wear
spectacles because they fall off her nose."

"Then she loses her way easily, I suppose?" said Lamberti, too much
intent on his plans to be amused at trifles.

"Yes. She is always losing her way."

"That might easily happen to her in the Palazzo Farnese. It is a huge
place, and you could manage to go up one way while she went up the
other. Besides, there is a lift at the back, not to mention the
servants' staircases, in which she might be hopelessly lost. Can you
trust her not to lose her head and make the porters search the palace
for you, if you are separated from her?"

"I am not sure. But she will stay wherever I tell her to wait for me.
That might be better. You see, my only excuse for going to the Palazzo
Farnese would be to see the ambassador's daughter, and she is in the
country."

"I think she must have come to town for a day or two, for I met her this
afternoon. That is a good reason for going to see her. At the door of
the embassy send your maid on an errand that will take an hour, and tell
her to wait for you in the cab at the gate. If the girl is at home you
need not stay ten minutes. Then you can see Guido during the rest of the
time. It will be long enough, and besides, the maid will wait."

"For ever, if I tell her to! But you, where shall you be?"

"You will meet me on the stairs as you come down from the embassy. Wear
something simple and dark that people have not seen you wear before, and
carry a black parasol and a guide-book. Have one of those brown veils
that tourists wear against the sun. Fold it up neatly and put it into
the pocket of the guide-book instead of the map, or pin it to the inside
of