Seeing her glance, Barnard turned to her again.
"Shall we charter a gondola?" he asked. "It's the thing to do here?"
Her eyes sparkled.
"Oh, how lovely!" she said; then involuntarily her face fell and she looked at her husband.
"But perhaps——" she began deprecatingly.
As the word escaped her, Milbanke—who had been oblivious of the conversation—pushed back his chair and rose from table with a faint exclamation of excitement.
"Ah, there he is!" he said, his eyes fixed upon a distant corner of the room. "There he is! I must not run the risk of missing him!"
Clodagh turned to him eagerly.
"James," she began, "Mr. Barnard says——"
But Milbanke's mind was elsewhere.