“Exactly. I had some other places too, on Fredriksborg and——”
“I must go in and put on my dress,” said Jenny.
“Put on the one you had yesterday, please!” he called after her.
“It will get so dusty”—but she changed her mind in the same moment. Why should she not make herself look nice? The old black silk had been her best for a good many years; she need not treat it with such deference any more.
“I don’t care! but it fastens at the back, and Cesca’s not in.”
“Come out here and I’ll button it for you. I am an expert at it. It seems to me I have done nothing all my life but fasten mother’s and Sophy’s buttons at the back.”
She could manage all but two, and she allowed Gram to help her with them. As she stood by him in the sunshine while he fastened her dress, he became aware of the faint, mild fragrance of her hair and her body. He noticed one or two small rents in the silk, which were carefully darned, and the sight of it filled his heart with an infinite tenderness towards her.
“Do you think Helge a nice name?” he asked, when they were having lunch at an osteria far out on the Campagna.
“Yes; I like it.”
“Do you know that it is my Christian name?”