"Si, Signorina," answered the maid, showing her white teeth in a smile. It was a sly understanding smile that made Ragna hot and uncomfortable. She felt Rosa's curious eyes upon her as she went on down the passageway to the door. In another minute she was flying down the poorly-lit stairs; at the foot of the last flight a dark figure detached itself from the surrounding gloom and came towards her.
"I thought you were never coming," said Mirko. His voice had an odd triumphant note, but Ragna in her excitement failed to notice it. He drew her arm through his and hurried her out and across the shadow side of the Piazza, to where a carriage was waiting.
"Al Coliseo!" he said to the driver.
Ragna sat in a constrained attitude, her eyes cast down.
"Now," said Mirko, "you look as though you were embarking on a crime. I ask you what harm is there in this little escapade?"
"I do so hate to deceive them all! What would Fru Bjork say if she knew?"
"Has she never been young herself? If you knew, Ragna, the memories that half these good and prudish ladies carry under their starched fronts, you would be surprised. There is a proverb that says, 'when you are too old to give yourself to the Devil it is time to turn to God!'" Then seeing she looked shocked; "there, don't mind what I say,—I am so glad you have come that I am not half responsible. You can take my word for it that you are doing nothing very terrible. Do you think for a moment I would ask you to?"
"No," she answered.
"And you are glad you came?"
"I feel as if I were being carried off by a brigand," said Ragna.