"You don't think I ought to be ashamed of it?" cried Lily, delightedly conscious that he did not.
"Good heavens, no! I think it's splendid. Why shouldn't you like children's books? I read fairy-tales myself and enjoy them immensely."
"Do you really?" Lily was enchanted.
"Tell me some more about yourself," begged Nicholas Aubray warmly, and Lily was young enough to respond candidly to the invitation.
"We must make some more of these expeditions," was the conclusion reached by Mr. Aubray, when he and Lily had spent an hour in eager conversation eminently satisfactory to them both.
"I was a good deal bored at having to stay on and on here, excellent fellow though della Torre is, but this meeting with you and your aunt has made all the difference in the world. You'll come with me again, won't you?"
"Oh, I should love to!"
"Hurrah!" He looked quite boyishly delighted, and flung his hat into the air and caught it again.
"Now what about lunch? Food—food! I'm starving!"
He reiterated the announcement with the same unabashed exuberance to Aunt Clo herself, having returned into the Cathedral, to Lily's rather awed astonishment, for the express purpose of summoning her away.