Page:Her Roman Lover (Frothingham, 1911).djvu/143



NE day, just before Christmas, Mrs. Garrison and her niece drove out to the “Tre Fontane,” and Curatulo went with them, sitting upon his usual seat.

“Of course you know the legend in connection with the ‘Tre Fontane,’” said Margaret; “but St. Paul was probably never executed there, because he was probably never in Rome.”

“There is a debated point,” said Curatulo, who was invariably irritated by Mrs. Garrison’s attitude toward tradition.

He looked across at Anne with eyes that asked, “How long? How long?” and Anne’s eyes dropped quickly. She was dressed in the black velvet costume, and the small black hat with the wing of clear scarlet, that she had worn on the morning in the Borghese Garden when he had first walked with her; and he loved her especially well in that suit.

Mrs. Garrison pointed to the excavations which have ripped open the fields by the road to the Porta Paolo.