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 really great, and these extraordinary foreign types—I wouldn't have missed it for anything! What's the matter with it?"

"Nothing, as you see it. You only see it as interestingly foreign. There are undercurrents—undercurrents that I know."

"Are there?" Claire laughed as she cast a lively glance about the room. "There's one that I see. Every woman in the place is covertly looking at you and hoping you'll dance with her. Do you see that?"

"No," he said. "But a few of the men are looking at me by no means so flatteringly."

"Are they? Arturo, at your age I should think it would be much more fun to drop politics and just have a great time. You're so serious!"

"I fear so," he said, and shook his head ruefully. "How can I be anything but serious when you behave to me in such a manner that you do?"

"I? Why, I think I'm perfectly heavenly to you!"

"Too much so, indeed! But that is in my own appreciation of you. I spoke of how you behave toward me. You snub me for my advice and you come to this absurd and unworthy place with such people as the Bastoni. Then you immediately drop them when you see me sitting alone here and unhappy