“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” said Winterbourne.  “I like her extremely.”

“All the more reason that you shouldn’t help her to make a scandal.”

“There shall be nothing scandalous in my attentions to her.”

“There certainly will be in the way she takes them. 
But I have said what I had on my conscience,” Mrs. Walker pursued. 
“If you wish to rejoin the young lady I will put you down. 
Here, by the way, you have a chance.”

The carriage was traversing that part of the Pincian Garden that overhangs the wall of Rome and overlooks the beautiful Villa Borghese.  It is bordered by a large parapet, near which there are several seats.  One of the seats at a distance was occupied by a gentleman and a lady, toward whom Mrs. Walker gave a toss of her head.  At the same moment these persons rose and walked toward the parapet.  Winterbourne had asked the coachman to stop; he now descended from the carriage.  His companion looked at him a moment in silence; then, while he raised his hat, she drove majestically away.  Winterbourne stood there; he had turned his eyes toward Daisy and her cavalier.  They evidently saw no one; they were too deeply occupied with each other.  When they reached the low garden wall, they stood a moment looking off at the great flat-topped pine clusters of the Villa Borghese; then Giovanelli seated himself, familiarly, upon the broad ledge of the wall.  The western sun in the opposite sky sent out a brilliant shaft through a couple of cloud bars, whereupon Daisy’s companion took her parasol out of her hands and opened it.  She came a little nearer, and he held the parasol over her; then, still holding it, he let it rest upon her shoulder, so that both of their heads were hidden from Winterbourne.  This young man lingered a moment, then he began to walk.  But he walked—­not toward the couple with the parasol; toward the residence of his aunt, Mrs. Costello.

He flattered himself on the following day that there was no smiling among the servants when he, at least, asked for Mrs. Miller at her hotel.  This lady and her daughter, however, were not at home; and on the next day after, repeating his visit, Winterbourne again had the misfortune not to find them.  Mrs. Walker’s party took place on the evening of the third day, and, in spite of the frigidity of his last interview with the hostess, Winterbourne was among the guests.  Mrs. Walker was one of those American ladies who, while residing abroad, make a point, in their own phrase, of studying European society, and she had on this occasion collected several specimens of her diversely born fellow mortals to serve, as it were, as textbooks.  When Winterbourne arrived, Daisy Miller was not there, but in a few moments he saw her mother come in alone, very shyly and ruefully.  Mrs. Miller’s hair above her exposed-looking temples was more frizzled than ever.  As she approached Mrs. Walker, Winterbourne also drew near.