"I looked up the law," said Padway quickly, "and while there's an ordinance against marriage of Goths to Italians, there's nothing about Americans. So—"
Mathaswentha interrupted: "I could hear you better, dear Martinus, if you came closer."
Padway went over and sat down beside her. He began again: "The Edicts of Theoderik—"
She said softly: "I know the laws, Martinus. That is not what I need instruction in."
Padway suppressed his tendency to talk frantically of impersonal matters to cover emotional turmoil. He said, "My love, your first lesson will be this." He kissed her hand.
Her eyes were half closed, her mouth slightly open, and her breath was quick and shallow. She whispered: "Do the Americans, then, practice the art of kissing as we do?"
He gathered her in and applied the second lesson.
Mathaswentha opened her eyes, blinked, and shook her head. "That was a foolish question, my dear Martinus. The Americans are way ahead of us. What ideas you put in an innocent girl's head!" She laughed joyfully. Padway laughed too.
Padway said: "You've made me very happy, princess."
"You've made me happy, too, my prince. I thought I should never find anyone like you." She swayed into his arms again.