Max's arm tightened round her.
"Then he's in need of envy, beloved, for love like ours is the most wonderful thing life has to give."
They were silent a moment, and then the quick instinct of lovers told them they were no longer alone.
Baroni stood on the threshold of the room, frowning heavily.
"So!" he exclaimed, grimly addressing Max. "This, then, is how you travel in haste to Paris?"
Startled, Diana sprang to her feet, and would have drawn herself away, but Max laughed joyously, and still keeping her hand in his, led her towards Baroni.
"We travel to Paris to-morrow," he said. "Won't you—wish us luck, Baroni?"
But luck was the last thing which the old maestro was by way of wishing them. For long he argued and expostulated upon the madness, as he termed it, of Diana's renouncing her career, trying his utmost to dissuade her.
"You haf not counted the cost!" he fumed at her. "You cannot haf counted the cost!"
But Diana only smiled at him.