"I intend to play it in Boston next week, too," he continued. "How I loathe these trips that take me away from you! When the ocean separates us I shall be wild. But you will join me as soon as you can on the Continent? If you don't want me to come to Florence we can meet in Venice, perhaps. I have set my heart on Venice. Think of us in a palazzo over the pole-shadowed waters. We will wind in and out of the tiny canals, in a gondola beneath a golden moon, and I will play to you." "You would take all the trade from the Grand Canal, and we should be solitary for about half a second!" They laughed. "Come, is it a bargain?" "Of course," she was a little breathless. "And in the mornings we can bathe at the Lido." "The mornings! They can take care of themselves! It is the nights, the glorious, moon-ridden nights that I am thinking of. I will hold you in my arms on a dim, star-lit balcony, while the gondolas swish by below and the water laps against the base of our walls." "And tourists rend the heavens with raucous laughter!" He swept her into his arms impetuously. "Anne, let me stay to-night. Don't send me back to Gramercy Park alone." His heart-beats against her cheek, she demurred faintly. "Impossible, darling. You must go. Indeed, you ought to be going now. The servants may return at any moment." "And what difference does that make? Pray, do they invade your sitting room at this hour of the night?" "No--but Regina----" "Can put you to bed, as usual. I shall have gone, you see. But I can come back. There are such things as latch-keys, aren't there?" "If you should be caught!" Her heart swooped in delightful fear. "But I shan't," he countered triumphantly. "In the morning I shall creep out long before your lordly butler is awake. Surely, you can't refuse me anything to-night?" Her laugh was smothered against his breast. She could feel his heart knocking against her lips. "Romeo and Juliet all over again, without even omitting the nurse!" she murmured. "It is really awfully unoriginal of us, you know." His lips within the brazen gold of her hair, he laughed exultantly. A few minutes later the street door closed with rather unnecessary emphasis. Roused from her doze in Anne's bedroom, Regina started up thankfully. The Signorino was gone. That was good. That was as it should be. Now her lady could have a reposeful night. She had looked so weary this evening! CHAPTER XXIV TRICKERY The conventional living room was rendered gay by masses of spring flowers. Padding from vase to vase, Mme. Petrovskey inhaled their fragrance with triumphant nostrils. A tribute to her motherhood from some of Alexis' admirers, she breathed them in luxuriantly.