"
"What?"
"That!" She tossed a little cardboard box
into his hand.
"B-burnt almonds! Why d-didn't you tell me
before I began to s-smoke?" he cried reproachfully.
"Why, you baby! you can eat them when you
have done smoking. There comes the coffee."
The Gadfly sipped his coffee and ate his burnt
almonds with the grave and concentrated enjoyment
of a cat drinking cream.
"How nice it is to come back to d-decent coffee,
after the s-s-stuff one gets at Leghorn!" he said
in his purring drawl.
"A very good reason for stopping at home now
you are here."
"Not much stopping for me; I'm off again
to-morrow."
The smile died on her face.
"To-morrow! What for? Where are you going to?"
"Oh! two or three p-p-places, on business."
It had been decided between him and Gemma
that he must go in person into the Apennines to
make arrangements with the smugglers of the
frontier region about the transporting of the firearms.
To cross the Papal frontier was for him a
matter of serious danger; but it had to be done if
the work was to succeed.
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