stars and even I could see that she was tremendously excited at having this lawless wanderer Dominic within her reach and as it were in her power.  Presently she sat down by us, touched lightly Dominic’s curly head silvered on the temples (she couldn’t really help it), gazed at me for a while with a quizzical smile, observed that I looked very tired, and asked Dominic whether for all that I was likely to sleep soundly to-night.

“I don’t know,” said Dominic, “He’s young.  And there is always the chance of dreams.”

“What do you men dream of in those little barques of yours tossing for months on the water?”

“Mostly of nothing,” said Dominic.  “But it has happened to me to dream of furious fights.”

“And of furious loves, too, no doubt,” she caught him up in a mocking voice.

“No, that’s for the waking hours,” Dominic drawled, basking sleepily with his head between his hands in her ardent gaze.  “The waking hours are longer.”

“They must be, at sea,” she said, never taking her eyes off him.  “But I suppose you do talk of your loves sometimes.”

“You may be sure, Madame Leonore,” I interjected, noticing the hoarseness of my voice, “that you at any rate are talked about a lot at sea.”

“I am not so sure of that now.  There is that strange lady from the Prado that you took him to see, Signorino.  She went to his head like a glass of wine into a tender youngster’s.  He is such a child, and I suppose that I am another.  Shame to confess it, the other morning I got a friend to look after the cafe for a couple of hours, wrapped up my head, and walked out there to the other end of the town. . . .  Look at these two sitting up!  And I thought they were so sleepy and tired, the poor fellows!”

She kept our curiosity in suspense for a moment.

“Well, I have seen your marvel, Dominic,” she continued in a calm voice.  “She came flying out of the gate on horseback and it would have been all I would have seen of her if—­and this is for you, Signorino—­if she hadn’t pulled up in the main alley to wait for a very good-looking cavalier.  He had his moustaches so, and his teeth were very white when he smiled at her.  But his eyes are too deep in his head for my taste.  I didn’t like it.  It reminded me of a certain very severe priest who used to come to our village when I was young; younger even than your marvel, Dominic.”

“It was no priest in disguise, Madame Leonore,” I said, amused by her expression of disgust.  “That’s an American.”

“Ah!  Un Americano!  Well, never mind him.  It was her that I went to see.”

“What!  Walked to the other end of the town to see Dona Rita!” Dominic addressed her in a low bantering tone.  “Why, you were always telling me you couldn’t walk further than the end of the quay to save your life—­or even mine, you said.”

“Well, I did; and I walked back again and between the two walks I had a good look.  And you may be sure—­that will surprise you both--that on the way back—­oh, Santa Madre, wasn’t it a long way, too—­ I wasn’t thinking of any man at sea or on shore in that connection.”