“What does he say?”

“Silly boy! He thinks he's being dignified. He knew we should go off in the spring — he has known it for six months — that if mother wouldn't give her consent we should take the thing into our own hands. They had fair warning, and now he calls it an elopement. Ridiculous boy — ”

“Signorino, domani faremo uno giro — ”

“But it will all come right in the end. He has to build us both up from the beginning again. I wish, though, that Cecil had not turned so cynical about women. He has, for the second time, quite altered. Why will men have theories about women? I haven't any about men. I wish, too, that Mr. Beebe — ”

“You may well wish that.”