How
will that do, Nina?"
"You always were kind to me, Leo," she said--though the gratitude
plainly shining in the gentle, dark eyes rendered the words quite
unnecessary.
And indeed she was delighted, with a sort of childish delight, to sit in
this swift hansom, bowling along the smooth thoroughfare; and she
chatted and chattered in her gay, rapid, disconnected fashion; and she
had nothing but contempt for the shabby Neapolitan fiacre and the
jolting streets that Leo of course remembered; and when at last she
found herself and her companion of old days seated at a small, clean,
bright window-table in the Restaurant Gianuzzi--they being the only
occupants of the long saloon--she fairly clapped her little hands
together in her gladness. And then how pretty she looked! She had
removed her bonnet; and the light from the window, falling on the
magnificent masses of her jet-black hair gave it almost a blue sheen in
places; while here and there--about the wax-like ear, for example, a
tiny ringlet had got astray, and its soft darkness against the olive
complexion seemed to heighten the clear, pure pallor of the oval cheek.
And now all doubts as to how Leo might receive her had fled from her
mind; they were on the old, familiar terms again; and she followed with
an eager and joyous interest all that he had to say to her.
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