Then Nancy said: "I know Monte Carlo is a dreadful place. Full of horrid women. I hope—oh dear——!"
Aldo kissed her troubled brow. "Dear little girl, I am going there to make money, and nothing else will interest me."
"I know that," said Nancy, with a little laugh and a little sigh. "But the nasty creatures are sure to look at you."
"That cannot be helped," said Aldo, raising superior eyebrows.
Nancy kissed him and laughed. "Such a funny boy!" she said. "I believe your Closed Garden, your hortus conclusus, is nothing but a potato patch! But I like to sit in it all the same."
II
May brought the baby a tooth. June brought it another tooth and a golden shine for its hair. August brought it a word or two; September stood it, upright and exultant, with its back to the wall; and October sent it tottering and trilling into its mother's arms.
Its names were Lilien Astrid Rosalynd Anne-Marie.
"Now baby can walk," said Valeria to her daughter, "you ought to take up your work again."
"Indeed I must," said Nancy, lifting the baby to her lap. "Have you seen her bracelets?" And she held the chubby wrist out to Valeria, showing three little lines dinting the tender flesh. "Three little bracelets for luck." And Nancy kissed the small, fat wrist, and bit it softly.