As the Porta San Paolo drew near, Vickers remarked:—
"I shall write you a song of Venice,—that is the music for you."
"Venice, and Paris, and Vienna, and Rome,—all! I love them all!"
She reached her arms to the great cities of the earth, seeing herself in triumph, singing to multitudes the joy of life…. "Come to-night,—I will sing for you!"…
On the porter's table at the hotel lay a thick letter for Mrs. Conry. It bore the printed business address,—THE CONRY CONSTRUCTION COMPANY. Mrs. Conry took it negligently in her white hand. "You will come later?" she said, smiling back at the young man.
* * * * *
Sitting crowded in front of Arragno's and sipping a liqueur, Fosdick remarked to Vickers: "So you have run across the Conry? Of course I know her. I saw her in Munich the first time. The little girl still with her? Then it was Vienna…. She's got as far as Rome! Been over here two or three years studying music. Pretty-good voice, and a better figure. Oh, Stacia is much of a siren."
Vickers moved uneasily and in reply to a question Fosdick continued:—
"Widow—grass widow—properly linked—who knows? Our pretty country-women have such a habit of trotting around by themselves for their own delectation that you never can tell how to place them. She may be divorced—she may be the other thing! You can't tell. But she is a very handsome woman."…
Mrs. Conry herself told Vickers the facts, as they sat at a little restaurant on the Aventine where they loved to go to watch the night steal across the Palatine.