strength, which was considerable. Knack, of course, was a-wanting. I got
it upon end, put my head against it, lifted it--and it fell behind my
back. Twice I did this, and grew dank with humiliation. Then I rushed at
it, lifted it bodily on high, and crammed it down on my head. Clumsy
malapert that I was! It slipped to my shoulder, thence upon the girl's
bare foot. "Hey!" she cried sharply, "now I hope you are satisfied." I
saw that her cheek was bleeding as well as her foot. I would have struck
off my fumbling hands at the wrists for this vexatious affair.

"Forgive me," I said, "forgive me, pray," and went to her. I implored
her pity, execrated my clumsiness; I was born, I said, to be fatal to
ladies. Hereupon she looked at me with some interest.

"You?" she said. I bore the brunt of her extraordinarily intent eyes
with great modesty. "Yes," she continued, "that may be true, for I see
that you are a signore. It is the prerogative of signori to ruin
ladies."

I was stabbed more deeply than she knew, and said at once, "It is true
that I was born a gentleman, it is true that I have ruined a lady, but I
repudiate your conclusion with horror. I beg of you to allow me to
stanch your wound."

She smiled. "Perhaps it may not need it. Perhaps I may not desire it.
But try--try." She offered me her cheek, down which a thin stream of
blood had wandered as it would. A ridiculous difficulty presented
itself; I hovered, undecided. "Suck the wound, suck the wound," said the
girl, "we shall not poison each other." I obeyed: the flow of blood
ceased. I knelt down and treated her foot in the same simple fashion.
When I stood up again she thanked me with what seemed shining eyes and