Mrs Lucas blew him a kiss in acknowledgment of this compliment and
smiled on her partner. "_Amico!_" she said. "It is nice to see you
again. How goes it?"

"_Va bene_," said Georgie to show he could talk Italian too.
"_Va_ very _bene_ now that you've come back."

"_Grazie!_ Now tell us all the news. We'll have a good gossip."

Georgie's face beamed with a "solemn gladness" at the word, like a
drunkard's when brandy is mentioned.

"Where shall we begin?" he said. "Such a lot to tell you. I think we
must begin with a great bit of news. Something really mysterious."

Lucia smiled inwardly. She felt that she knew for dead certain what the
mysterious news was, and also that she knew far more about it than
Georgie. This superiority she completely concealed. Nobody could have
guessed it.

"_Presto, presto!_" she said. "You excite me."

"Yesterday morning I was in Rush's," said Georgie, "seeing about some
_Creme de menthe_, which ought to have been sent the day before.
Rush is very negligent sometimes--and I was just saying a sharp word
about it, when suddenly I saw that Rush was not attending at all, but
was looking at something behind my back, and so I looked round. Guess!"

"Don't be tantalising, _amico_," said she. "How can I guess? A