“Have you come on business?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a lovely place, Rome. There’s a lot to be seen.”
“Yes ... but this evening I’m rather tired,” he ventured; and as though excusing himself: “I’ve been travelling for three days.”
“It’s a long journey to get here.”
“And I haven’t slept for three nights.”
At those words, Madame Carola, with a sudden Italian familiarity, which Amédée still couldn’t help being astounded at, chucked him under the chin.
“Naughty!” said she.
This gesture brought a little blood back into Amédée’s face, and in his desire to repudiate the unfair insinuation, he at once began to expatiate on fleas, bugs and mosquitoes.
“You’ll have nothing of that kind here, dearie; you see how clean it is.”