In heaven's name have you got any?"

"Santo Dio!" she exclaimed, without heeding my question;
and she hurried upstairs and out of sight. I might count
upon her in the last resort, but for the present she
was visibly alarmed. The proof of it was that she began
to hide again, so that for a fortnight I never beheld her.
I found my patience ebbing and after four or five days of this
I told the gardener to stop the flowers.



VI


One afternoon, as I came down from my quarters to go out,
I found Miss Tita in the sala: it was our first
encounter on that ground since I had come to the house.
She put on no air of being there by accident; there was an
ignorance of such arts in her angular, diffident directness.
That I might be quite sure she was waiting for me she informed me
of the fact and told me that Miss Bordereau wished to see me:
she would take me into the room at that moment if I had time.
If I had been late for a love tryst I would have stayed for this,
and I quickly signified that I should be delighted to wait
upon the old lady. "She wants to talk with you--to know you,"
Miss Tita said, smiling as if she herself appreciated that idea;
and she led me to the door of her aunt's apartment.
I stopped her a moment before she had opened it, looking at
her with some curiosity. I told her that this was a great