“I told him nothing of the sort! I said I was your friend, in French.”
“A friend, in French, may mean a good deal. Save your reputation, dear; I give you the chance.”
“What nonsense! I explained to him as well as I could, in French, that I was there taking care of you because I was your friend.”
429“You are hopelessly compromised. Look to me to set you right.”
“Gerald, I shall do nothing of the kind.”
“Ah, I see that your prejudices hold firm. I was afraid of it when I came.” His mask of flippancy slipped for a moment; deep feeling made his voice uncertain. “I am not that hardy and masterful man, Aurora, who could break them down and clutch you above their ruin. But you will find me very faithful to a hope–which, in fact, to relinquish now would be beyond what I can expect of my courage.” He resumed bluffness. “I told Vincent he might look for my return to-morrow.”
“No, sir!” she came out with lively directness. “You’re not going back to Leghorn if I can help it! I–I have a plan.”
“You have a plan? From your face I am afraid not a good one. You look so dubious.”
“Perhaps it isn’t a good one, but it’s the only way I can see. Listen.” She looked down at her hands, and kept him waiting. “One evening last winter at a party a young Italian naval officer got talking to me in a green bower under a pink paper lantern away from the rest. Something in the atmosphere, I guess, made him want to talk to somebody of his love-affairs, and he chose me, though we scarcely knew each other. He told me he had been very much in love with an American girl, but they hadn’t the money to marry on or the hope of ever having it–like Brenda and Manlio at first. Yet they couldn’t keep apart, and so they just became engaged, knowing it couldn’t end as an engagement is supposed to do. In that way they could see each other all they wanted, and be seen together 430without anybody making a remark. And then when she was obliged to go home and it had to end, it looked merely like a broken engagement.”
“And you propose–”