CHAPTER IV.
I said next day to Martelli, "You will see Mrs. Fraser this afternoon, I hope. She has half promised to come and look at my flowers."
"What have I to do with Mrs. Fraser?" he exclaimed with a shrug. "My business is with books, not women. I can understand the one, but not the other."
"But I want to justify my love. Her beauty will do this for me."
"Have I not seen her?" he asked, stretching out his arms.
"Yes, by moonlight—with blank eyes and expressionless face. Her beauty by noon is somewhat different from her beauty by night."
"Sir, yellow hair and black eyes make no charm for me."
"You are a Goth."
"When I was a young man I fell in love once a week. That proves a catholic taste, at all events, for my Hebes must have varied."