Page:Her Roman Lover (Frothingham, 1911).djvu/77

 automobile with Anne, she turned to her with some excitement.

“Anne,” she cried, “from the moment that I gave him permission to take us to the Diocletian next Thursday, until the door of the car shut him out, Curatulo never saw me. He never saw me in spite of his excellent European manners, and I am not small. It seemed as if he hardly knew where to put his feet, he was so occupied with you. Why have n’t you told me this?”

“Aunt Margaret! Didn’t you see, long ago?”

“Long ago!”

“Since that first afternoon he called.”

“And you knew it then?”

“Yes,” said the girl in a small voice.

Her aunt was silent for a while. “I must think what I ought to do about it.”

“Why should you do anything?”

“Will you promise me not to like him?”

“No, indeed, I will not, for I like him very much already. I like his brown hair and skin, and his brown small hands. And though he is small, I am sure he is also strong, and his shoulders are as broad as Jack’s. Sometimes he is eager and irrational as a child, and I like that, too, because he is always a man. So you see it is too late to promise not to like him. But you know that I do not love easily, and