Hitherto Gino had not interfered with Lilia.  She was so much older than he was, and so much richer, that he regarded her as a superior being who answered to other laws.  He was not wholly surprised, for strange rumours were always blowing over the Alps of lands where men and women had the same amusements and interests, and he had often met that privileged maniac, the lady tourist, on her solitary walks.  Lilia took solitary walks too, and only that week a tramp had grabbed at her watch—­an episode which is supposed to be indigenous in Italy, though really less frequent there than in Bond Street.  Now that he knew her better, he was inevitably losing his awe:  no one could live with her and keep it, especially when she had been so silly as to lose a gold watch and chain.  As he lay thoughtful along the parapet, he realized for the first time the responsibilities of monied life.  He must save her from dangers, physical and social, for after all she was a woman.  “And I,” he reflected, “though I am young, am at all events a man, and know what is right.”

He found her still in the living-room, combing her hair, for she had something of the slattern in her nature, and there was no need to keep up appearances.

“You must not go out alone,” he said gently.  “It is not safe.  If you want to walk, Perfetta shall accompany you.”  Perfetta was a widowed cousin, too humble for social aspirations, who was living with them as factotum.

“Very well,” smiled Lilia, “very well”—­as if she were addressing a solicitous kitten.  But for all that she never took a solitary walk again, with one exception, till the day of her death.

Days passed, and no one called except poor relatives.  She began to feel dull.  Didn’t he know the Sindaco or the bank manager?  Even the landlady of the Stella d’Italia would be better than no one.  She, when she went into the town, was pleasantly received; but people naturally found a difficulty in getting on with a lady who could not learn their language.  And the tea-party, under Gino’s adroit management, receded ever and ever before her.

He had a good deal of anxiety over her welfare, for she did not settle down in the house at all.  But he was comforted by a welcome and unexpected visitor.  As he was going one afternoon for the letters—­they were delivered at the door, but it took longer to get them at the office—­some one humorously threw a cloak over his head, and when he disengaged himself he saw his very dear friend Spiridione Tesi of the custom-house at Chiasso, whom he had not met for two years.  What joy! what salutations! so that all the passersby smiled with approval on the amiable scene.  Spiridione’s brother was now station-master at Bologna, and thus he himself could spend his holiday travelling over Italy at the public expense.  Hearing of Gino’s marriage, he had come to see him on his way to Siena, where lived his own uncle, lately monied too.