returned to the drawing-room the man took both her hands.

"Well, sweetheart?"

"My sister wanted to carry me off to Italy."

"What did you say?"

"Guess," said the girl, lifting starry eyes.

The man guessed, after the manner of men, and for a moment Emmy forgot
Zora, who went her own way in pursuit of happiness, heedless of the wisdom
of the wise and of the foolish.




CHAPTER II


For five months Zora wandered over the world--chiefly Italy--without an
experience which might be called an adventure. When the Literary Man from
London crossed her mind she laughed him to scorn for a prophetic popinjay.
She had broken no man's heart, and her own was whole. The tribes of Crim
Tartary had exhibited no signs of worry and had left her unmolested. She
had furthermore taken rapturous delight in cathedrals, expensive
restaurants, and the set pieces of fashionable scenery. Rattenden had not a
prophetic leg to stand on.

Yet she longed for the unattainable--for the elusive something of which