"Ah, eet ees so sweet loovly ladies een de landscape to see," the Count declared poetically, "where de birds dey twatter een de trees and things smell you so mooch."
"Thank you. Count," Mrs. Harbinger responded. "That is very pretty, but I am afraid that it means nothing."
"What I say to you, Madame," the Count responded, with his hand on his heart, "always eet mean mooch; eet ees dat eet mean everyt'ing!"
"Then it is certainly time for me to go," she said lightly. "It wouldn't be safe for me to stay to hear everything. Come, girls: let's walk over to the field."
The sitters rose, and they moved toward the other end of the piazza.
"It is really too early to go to the field," May said, "why don't we walk out to the new golf-holes first? I want to see how they've changed the drive over the brook."
"Very well," Mrs. Harbinger assented. "The shortest way is to go through the house."
They passed in through a long window, and as they went Alice Endicott lingered a little with the Count. That part of the piazza was at the moment deserted, and so when before entering the house she dropped her parasol and waited for her companion to pick it up for her, they were practically alone.
"Thank you, Count," she said, as he handed her the parasol. "I am sorry to trouble you."
"Nodings what eet ees dat I do for Mees Endeecott ees trouble."