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42 42 NOSTALGIA

" We'll read it later. Now I'm going to write home," she said, reseating herself at the bureau.

Antonio took all the letters and set himself to read them over, buried in a corner of the ottoman. Every now and then, while Regina wrote rapidly, he burst into exclamations and little laughs, then suddenly became serious, as if in the lively recollection of the

last days passed at C e he were living his happiness

over again.

Later the pair presented themselves at Arduina's Apartment, where they were to dine. The authoress lived on the top floor of the palace in a small suite of rooms furnished in rather strange taste and pervaded by what seemed to Regina affected disorder.

Arduina came to meet her guests screaming with delight. She was dressed in a long white overall, her sleeves tucked up and displaying lean, yellow arms.

" Come in ! " she said, hiding her hands behind her back ; " give me a kiss, Regina ! "

Regina kissed her without enthusiasm, and Antonio said

" I've explained that to get time for writing you prepare dinner at 5 a.m. God only knows what sort of meal you'll give us ! "

" Here's what will reassure you ! " said Arduina, revealing floury hands. " I write easily, you know," she went on, " at any hour and in any place ; so it's true, sometimes, when the inspiration comes I do sit down with a pen at a corner of the kitchen table. And I get so wrapped up in what I'm doing that the meat's apt to get burned. But what does it matter ? " she added, laughing with her rather silly but apparently conceited laugh ; " roast meat is no more than roast