Chapter IX
Strangers
That evening Mrs. Garrison was still unable to leave her room; but Anne never wavered in her determination to see Gino when he came, and give him a chance for self-defense.
Fearing that Dioniseo, not realizing the possibility of her receiving a man alone, might send him away, she rang for the butler and told him that as Mrs. Garrison was unable to see callers she would speak to Signor Curatulo a few moments herself when he came that evening.
“Si, signorina.”
Dioniseo bowed; he advanced into the room to put an evening paper on the desk, and showed himself smiling and radiantly pleased. Few Italian servants are too well trained to show friendliness, and Dioniseo was sympathetic with all that concerned his American mistresses. It was now evident that he considered a romance, if not an actual engagement, to exist between the American signorina and her caller, and was so delighted thereby that he could scarcely resist saying so. It was the first102
