“I shall prefer to take the chance of finding you elsewhere, since you are more likely to be abroad,” replied he. “And elsewhere is so much pleasanter than at home,” interposed Miss Joscelyn. “The Belle Arti, now--have you been to the Belle Arti, Mr. Kyrle?” Mr. Kyrle replied that he had not. “I have not been sight-seeing since my arrival,” he said, “but only lounging.” “Oh, but you must certainly see the Belle Arti,” said the young lady with animation. “You can have no idea of the Venetian school of art until you have studied it there.” “I have no doubt Mr. Kyrle is aware of that, Lydia,” said Fanny Meredith, dryly; “but since we have exhaustively done the Belle Arti--at least I hope we are done with it--he is not likely to meet us there, and it was of meeting us that he was speaking.” “It was certainly of meeting you that I was thinking,” said Lennox. “Hum--ah!” said the major, addressing his party, “shall we move on?” Kyrle watched them with a smile as they moved away across the sunshiny square. He was saying to himself that it would go hard with him if he did not see again the beautiful eyes he had been looking into, and hear the sweet voice which had just bidden him such a kindly adieu. III. It was no later than the evening of the same day before he met the party again. He was idly sauntering around the arcades of the Piazza, brilliant with lights and filled with the sound of many tongues, when he heard a voice say, “Oh, there is Mr. Kyrle!” and turning, he encountered Fanny Meredith’s bright glance. She was sitting at one of the tables near the door of a _café_, with Aimée, Mr. Meredith, and young Joscelyn, taking coffee and ices, and as Lennox paused she went on, gayly: “Come and join us. You look lonely, and we are stupid. We know each other so well that each knows exactly what the other will say; so, like _Punch’s_ married lovers during the honeymoon, we are ready to welcome a friend, or even an enemy, so he prove entertaining.” “But how if one should not prove entertaining?” asked Kyrle, who needed no second bidding to take a vacant chair by her side. “Then you must have made very poor use of your opportunities,” said she, “and changed very much besides--must he not, Aimée?” This was audacious, Kyrle thought; but glancing at Aimée, he was reassured by her smile. “When I knew Mr. Kyrle, I was not very well able to judge of his powers of entertainment,” she said, “though I have no doubt they were great.” “On the contrary, they have always been of a very limited order,” said Kyrle. “I am immensely flattered, however, by Mrs. Meredith’s kind recollection, and only regret my inability to justify it.” “You have at least improved in modesty,” said Mrs. Meredith.