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 over even the Bastoni. So far as I can tell you have this same treatment for any man whatever."

"Good gracious!" Claire exclaimed. "You are a serious boy! And you must think I'm a very uninventive sort of person, if I have only the one trick to show all gentlemen! Indeed, I'm not the same to the Bastoni that I am to you! They're only fun for me, don't you see? They amuse me because they're so foreign and different—I really let 'em hang around partly to listen to their funny accent. Mother and I scream over them when we're alone! They haven't had the advantage of a year in London that you had, Arturo. I don't think they've ever been out of Raona."

"Oh, yes," he said dryly. "They go to Naples sometime'."

"Well, that doesn't help their English accent much!" Claire laughed. "You don't think I really care anything about them, do you?"

"You came here with them when I begged you not to do it."

"Just for fun, yes," she said, and then, seeming to become serious, she leaned toward him across the small table. "You don't really mind, do you?"

He looked at her steadily. "Will you let me take you back to your hotel now?"