little."

"You have, at any rate, what we call a fixed idea."

"There is no harm in that so long as it's a good one."

"But yours is abominable!" she exclaimed, with a laugh.

"Of course you can't like me or my ideas. All things considered, you
have treated me with wonderful kindness, and I thank you and kiss your
hands. I leave Florence tomorrow."

"I won't say I'm sorry!" she said, laughing again. "But I am very glad
to have seen you. I always wondered about you. You are a curiosity."

"Yes, you must find me so. A man who can resist your charms! The fact
is, I can't. This evening you are enchanting; and it is the first time I
have been alone with you."

She gave no heed to this; she turned away. But in a moment she came
back, and stood looking at me, and her beautiful solemn eyes seemed to
shine in the dimness of the room.

"How _could_ you treat my mother so?" she asked.

"Treat her so?"

"How could you desert the most charming woman in the world?"

"It was not a case of desertion; and if it had been it seems to me she