Jerry Junior Read Free Page B

Sartorio-Crevelli's villa is about half a mile farther on."
    "Ah, thank you," he bowed a second time, and then added out of the desperate need of saying something, "There's a cedar of Lebanon in it and an India rubber plant from South America."
    "Indeed!"
    She continued to observe him with polite interest, though she made no move to carry on the conversation.
    "You--are an American?" he asked at length.
    "Oh, yes," she agreed easily. "Gustavo knows that."
    He shifted his weight.
    "I am an American too," he observed.
    "Really?" The girl leaned forward and examined him more closely, an innocent, candid, wholly detached look in her eyes. "From your appearance I should have said you were German--most of the foreigners who visit Valedolmo are German."
    "Well, I'm not," he said shortly. "I'm American."
    "It is a pity my father is not at home," she returned, " he enjoys meeting Americans."
    A gleam of anger replaced the embarrassment in the young man's eyes. He glanced about for a dignified means of escape; they had him pretty well penned in. Unless he wished to reclimb the wall--and he did not--he must go by the terrace which retreat was cut off by the washer-women, or by the parapet, already occupied by the girl in white and the washing. He turned abruptly and his elbow brushed a stocking to the ground.
    He stooped to pick it up and then he blushed still a shade deeper.
    "This is washing day," observed the girl with a note of apology. She rose to her feet and stood on the top of the parapet while she beckoned to Giuseppe, then she turned and looked down upon the young man with an expression of frank amusement. "I hope you will enjoy the cedar of Lebanon and the India rubber tree. Good afternoon."
    She jumped to the ground and crossed to the water-steps where Giuseppe, with a radiant smile, was steadying the boat against the landing. She settled herself comfortably among the cushions and then for a moment glanced back towards shore.
    "You would better go out by the gate," she called. "The wall on the farther side is harder to climb than the one you came in by; and besides, it has broken glass on the top."
    Giuseppe raised the yellow sail and the Farfalla with a graceful dip, glided out to sea. The young man stood eyeing its progress revengefully. Now that the girl was out of hearing, a number of pointed things occurred to him which he might have said. His thoughts were interrupted by a fresh giggle from behind and he found that the three washer-girls were laughing at him.
    "Your mistress's manners are not the best in the world," said he, severely, "and I am obliged to add that yours are no better."
    They giggled again, though there was no malice behind their humor; it was merely that they found the lack of a language in common a mirth-provoking circumstance. Marietta, with a flash of black eyes, murmured something very kindly in Italian, as she shook out a linen sailor suit--the exact twin of the one that had gone to sea--and spread it on the wall to dry.
    The young man did not linger for further words. Setting his hat firmly on his head, he vaulted the parapet and strode off down the cypress alley that stretched before him; he passed the pink villa without a glance. At the gate he stood aside to admit a horse and rider. The horse was prancing in spite of the heat; the rider wore a uniform and a shining sword. There was a clank of accoutrements as he passed, and the wayfarer caught a gleam of piercing black eyes and a slight black moustache turned up at the ends. The rider saluted politely and indifferently, and jangled on. The young man scowled after him maliciously until the cypresses hid him from view; then he turned and took up the dusty road back towards the Hotel du Lac.
    It was close upon five, and Gustavo was in the court-yard feeding the parrot, when his eye fell upon the American guest scuffling down the road in a cloud of white dust. Gustavo hastened to the gate to welcome him back, his very eyebrows expressive of his