"Oh, come," she urged. "Let's go into the garden. It is so much nicer
there than here. There are lots of cockchafers. Besides"--she held out
as an additional inducement--"we might meet Maria Dolores."

"No," said John. "Though the cockchafers are a temptation, I will stop
here. But go you to the garden, by all means. And if you do meet Maria
Dolores, tell her what you have just told me. I think she would like to
hear it."

"All right," consented Annunziata, moving towards the door. "I'll see
you at dinner. You won't forget the marchpane?"




II


John was in a state of mind that perplexed and rather annoyed him. Until
the day before yesterday, his detachment here at Sant' Alessina from
ordinary human society, the absence of people more or less of his own
sort, had been one of the elements of his situation which he had
positively, consciously, rejoiced in,--had been an appreciable part of
what he had summarized to Lady Blanchemain as "the whole blessed thing."
He had his castle, his pictures, his garden, he had the hills and
valley, the birds, the flowers, the clouds, the sun, he had the Rampio,
he had Annunziata, he even had Annunziata's uncle; and with all this he
had a sense of having stepped out of a world that he knew by heart, that
he knew to satiety, a world that was stale and stuffy and threadbare,