"To the Alp Nova," replied Don Giovanni Vergas, with a smile.
"Four hours climbing and descending," continued Otto von Raabe, with a very German guttural accent, and a kind smile on his large mouth.
"And we have all these beautiful flowers, Sabini, these beautiful gentians," concluded Massimo Granata, as if in a dream.
They greeted each other and vanished. Lucio followed them for a moment with his eyes.
"They do not come from a restaurant," he murmured, as if to himself.
"What do you mean, Signor?" asked Miss Temple, looking at him with her beautiful eyes that questioned so ingenuously.
"These friends of mine, Miss Temple, have all of them been far on high to-day, all of them, even the oldest and the invalid."
He spoke as in a dream, in the evening that had already fallen.
"And they gathered those blue and violet flowers," added Miss Temple, thoughtfully and dreamily.