"No, there it is. I am honestly doing you a favour," and Novelli thrust the swathed cross into the hands of his fairly hypnotised customer. John's left hand clutched it instinctively, while with the frightened fingers of his right he counted off nine fifty dollar bills.
"Thank you, Mr. Baxter, neither you nor your wife will ever regret it.
Nobody in America has anything finer, and that you know."
These words pounded terribly in John's brain as he found his way home, stumbled up stairs, and boggled with the latchkey. All the way down, unheeded passersby had wondered at the crimson burden (he had not waited for a parcel to be made) hugged closely to the shabby black cutaway. The danger signal smote Miriam in the eyes as she rose to be kissed. Standing away from her, he placed the shrouded cross on the table and tried for the confession that would not say itself.
"Why, it's our cross," she cried wonderingly. "Mr. Novelli has lent it to us for a last look before we go where the lovely thing was made. But, John, what's the matter? How you do look! Has something awful happened?"
"Yes," and the pale nondescript head sunk into his hands. "I have bought it. I don't know how. I had the money, I was there, and I bought it."
She repressed the word that was on her lips, and the harder thought that was in her mind, looked long at his humiliation until the pity of a mother came over her tired face. She had mercifully escaped scorning him. Then she spoke.
"It was a bad time to buy it, wasn't it, Dear, but it is a beautiful thing, almost worth a real trip to Italy." She added with a curious air of a suppliant, "And then perhaps we can sell it."
"Yes, that's so, perhaps we can sell it," echoed John listlessly, wrapping the cross closely in its crimson cover and laying it in his most treasured lacquer box. "Yes, perhaps we can sell it," he repeated, and there was a long silence between them.
THE MISSING ST. MICHAEL
Dennis, our Epicurean sage, addressed us all as we lolled on his terrace, drank his tea, and divided our attention between his fluent wisdom and his spacious view of the Valdarno.