My father considered for some time before he answered. I could see that the idea half pleased him, although he could not quite make up his mind to break through his old habit.
"I don't think I should mind much, Hugh," he said at last. "But there's no one else, is there?"
"Only a son, and two daughters. Lady Olive is quite as anxious to know you as her father. Oh! and there's a fellow called Burton Leigh."
"Burton Leigh!" repeated my father. "Burton Leigh! There is no man whom I should like to meet more if it's the same Burton Leigh who wrote this treatise on Modern Mahometanism."
"Same fellow," I declared, without hesitation. "He looks beastly clever, and Lady Olive said that he'd lived for years in Egypt with a tribe of Arabs. Same fellow for certain."
"How strange! When are they coming, Hugh?"
"To-morrow," I answered, invoking secret blessings on the head of Mr. Burton Leigh. "They are coming this way to San Martino, and I was to let them know whether they might call."
CHAPTER XXXV
WE ENTERTAIN AT THE VILLA
My father and I were sitting at breakfast on the following morning, out of doors, on the wooden balcony, when I again recurred to the visit which we were to receive.