"Then what is it, exactly, you expect to do for me?" "I shall be your guide, philosopher and friend. '_Sous les remparts de Rome et sous ses vastes plaines!_'" he declaimed, drawing himself up. Ragna's eyes sparkled mischievously, "I believe I should make a better cicerone than you, if it comes to that!" "Oh, that is quite beside the point! It is unspeakably barbarian to insist on guide-book accuracy. I shall supply what is much more important: the atmosphere." "That is what Fröken Hagerup says she is absorbing." "She will never know anything about it. Haven't I told you it takes two to see it?" "How so? One to pour it out and one to drink it in?" "I didn't remember you so flippant--have you lost all respect for your elders?" "The child is ready to learn," said Ragna, assuming an expression of becoming meekness. Indeed she hardly recognised her sedate self in this new and agreeable sensation of buoyancy. "Now," said Prince Mirko, changing his tone, "where shall I meet you again? This afternoon--" "Is out of the question; I must go out with Fru Bjork and Astrid." "Then to-morrow morning meet me at the entrance to the Palatino." "But I haven't said that I would come." "Oh, yes, you will." "You take too much for granted." "I don't think so." "Then I shan't come," said Ragna, nettled by his air of complacent certainty. "I shall be there, and we shall see what we shall see," was his calm rejoinder. They had reached the Piazza Colonna, and Mirko paused, hat in hand. "I shall come no further--until to-morrow, then!" He turned and left her without waiting for a reply. Ragna watched his lithe figure as he strode easily across the open space. She felt dissatisfied with herself and angry with him for this somewhat cavalier leave-taking, and his confident assumption that she would do as he said. "What does he take me for?" she asked herself as she sped with rapid steps towards her belated luncheon. "I shall not go to meet him, no I shall not." She entered the dining-room of the pension, flushed and breathless from the stairs, and found it nearly empty, most of the guests having already finished. Fru Bjork, who liked to take things easily, was still busy with a slice of cold meat, and Astrid picked daintily at an orange with slender fingers. "Wherever have you been, so long, Ragna?" she asked. "Did you get the photographs in the Corso?" "Yes,--or at least no," answered Ragna in some confusion. "It was such a lovely morning I went for a walk instead. I thought I would leave the photographs till you could come with me to choose them." Lying did not come easily to her, and her awkwardness would have betrayed her at once to a keen observer, but Fru Bjork was too unobservant to notice it and Astrid felt confused herself, owing to her failure to be ready to go out as she had promised.