"And I am truly to have the blue-and-orange bird?" said Isabel. "You're sure you won't miss him very much?"
"Not a bit," said Antonio. "I know he will have a good home."
He stood watching the chariot as it rolled away. At the bend of the road she turned and waved her hand.
IV
The wine-merchant and his son did not drive home with Sir Percy and the ladies. They preferred to walk.
"Now then," demanded Crowberry fils, pouncing upon Antonio as he returned from the gate. "Out with it. What do you think of Isabel?"
But Crowberry père, following hard on his heels, swiftly sent the youth about his business. He wanted ten minutes' talk, he said, with Antonio alone.
"Da Rocha," he began, as they paced the shady length of the chief pergola; "believe me, it was one of the greatest disappointments of my life when I could not lend you the two thousand pounds you wrote for. If I'd only had sense enough to stick to wine, you could have had the money twice over in a jiffy. But I'm up to the ears in these damned railways; and Heaven only knows what will be the end."
"A big profit, I hope," said the monk.