Page:Her Roman Lover (Frothingham, 1911).djvu/29

 Garrison stood shivering by an ineffective fire and wondering if she had made a mistake.

“What were you thinking about all alone in the dark?” she asked.

“I was thinking how wonderful it was to be in Rome, and trying to imagine that the spirits of all the wicked men and beautiful women who had walked through these rooms were crowding about me.”

“Then I think it is time you had your tea. Mrs. Wallace was here soon after you went out, and she told me things about Roman society which made me feel that I should not have brought a child like you into it. It might have been better to have presented no letters and kept ourselves busy with sight-seeing.”

“What did Mrs. Wallace tell you that was so dreadful about Roman society?” asked the girl.

“It seems—” Margaret hesitated before continuing; “it seems quite an immoral world.”

“We are not immoral,” said Anne. “No one could mistake us for that, and it will be fun to look on at the others who—may be! For my part, I love this dear, mysterious old world, and I don’t care how wicked it is.”

At this moment Dioniseo appeared noiselessly with a card on the silver plate.