“Very well, then! The Neapolitans are absurd!” said Vere, with decision. “And what a voice! Ruffo doesn’t sing like that. That shaking sounds—sounds so artificial.”

“And yet I dare say he is very much in earnest.”

Artois was almost pleading a cause against his will.

“Oh!”

The girl gave almost a little puff that suggested a rather childish indignation.

“I like the people best,” she added. “They say what they feel simply, and it means ever so much more. Am I a democrat?”

He could not help laughing.

“Chi lo sa? An Anarchist perhaps.”

She laughed too.

“Bella tu si—Bella tu si! It’s too absurd! One would think—”