is a shock to most civilized persons; and that you English would
strongly disapprove of my watch and my many other things. But I
like them myself--it is no trouble for one of my valets to draw a
straight line with a pair of scissors--and if I must look at the
time, I prefer to look at something beautiful. I am entirely
uninfluenced by the thoughts or opinions of any people--they do
not exist for me except in so far as they interest me and are
instructive or amusing. I never permit myself to be bored for an
instant."

"How good that must be," Stella ventured to say--her courage was
returning.

"Civilized human beings turn existence into a prison," he went on,
meditatively, "and loaded themselves with shackles, because some
convention prevents their doing what would give them innocent
pleasure. If I had been under the dominion of these things we
should not now be enjoying this delightful drive--at least, it is
delightful to me--to be thus near you and alone out of doors."

Stella did not speak, she was altogether too full of emotion to
trust herself to words just yet. They had turned into the Corso by
now, and, as ever, it appeared as though it were a holiday, so
thronged with pedestrians was the whole thoroughfare. Count
Roumovski seemed quite unconcerned, but Miss Rawson shrank back
into her corner, a new fear in her heart.

"Do not be so nervous," her companion said gently. "I always
calculate the chances before I suggest another person's risking
anything for me. They are a million to one that anyone could