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"
"But what for?"
He hesitated.
"I--can't tell you--at least, it's very difficult;
but please come if you can."
He raised his eyes suddenly from the ground,
and she saw how strange their expression was.
"There is something the matter with you," she
said gently. He pulled a leaf from the flower in
his button-hole, and began tearing it to pieces.
Who was it that he was so oddly like? Someone
who had that same trick of the fingers and hurried,
nervous gesture.
"I am in trouble," he said, looking down at his
hands and speaking in a hardly audible voice. "I
--don't want to be alone this evening. Will you
come?"
"Yes, certainly, unless you would rather go to
my lodgings."
"No; come and dine with me at a restaurant.
There's one on the Signoria. Please don't refuse,
now; you've promised!"
They went into a restaurant, where he ordered
dinner, but hardly touched his own share, and
remained obstinately silent, crumbling the bread
over the cloth, and fidgeting with the fringe of
his table napkin.


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