"Do you live in a hotel?"

"No." A slight surprise sounded in his voice. "I have a villa
there."

"Do you know what that seems to me?" Cora asked gravely, after a
pause; then answered herself, after another: "Like magic. Like a
strange, beautiful dream."

"Yes, it is beautiful," he said.

"Then tell me: What do you do there?"

"I spend a lot of time on the water in a boat."

"Sailing?"

"On sapphires and emeralds and turquoises and rubies, melted and
blown into waves."

"And you go yachting over that glory?"

"Fishing with my crew--and loafing."

"But your boat is really a yacht, isn't it?"

"Oh, it might be called anything," he laughed.

"And your sailors are Italian fishermen?"