"A husband!"
She smiled.
"The usual appendage!" she said—"To my mind, quite unnecessary, and likely to spoil the most perfect environment! Though the Marchese Rivardi DID ask me to-day what was the use of my pretty 'palazzo' and gardens without love! A sort of ethical conundrum!"
She glanced at Rivardi as she spoke—he was rolling a cigarette in his slim brown fingers and his face was impassively intent on his occupation.
"Well, that's so!"—and her American friend looked at her kindly—"Even a fairy palace and a fairy garden might prove lonesome for one!"
"And boresome for two!" laughed Morgana—"My dear Colonel Boyd! It is not every one who is fitted for matrimony—and there exist so many that ARE,—eminently fitted—we can surely allow a few exceptions! I am one of those exceptions. A husband would be excessively tiresome to me, and very much in my way!"
Colonel Boyd laughed heartily.
"You won't always think so!" he said—"Such a charming little woman must have a heart somewhere!"
"Oh, yes, dear!" chimed in his fragile invalid wife, "I am sure you have a heart!"
Morgana raised herself on her cushions to a sitting posture and looked round her with a curious little air or defiance.