“Where is that?”

“On the fringe of Naples.”

“Do you live in a hotel?”

“No.” A slight surprise sounded in his voice. “I have a villa there.”

“Do you know what that seems to me?” Cora asked gravely, after a pause; then answered herself, after another: “Like magic. Like a strange, beautiful dream.”

“Yes, it is beautiful,” he said.

“Then tell me: What do you do there?”

“I spend a lot of time on the water in a boat.”

“Sailing?”

“On sapphires and emeralds and turquoises and rubies, melted and blown into waves.”