38
THE JOYOUS TROUBLE MAKER
reason in the world. So I can talk to you straight out! It's good for your soul to have a man like me around. Good-bye, Neighbour."
She did not move as she watched Bill Steele, the most maddening of men she had ever met, go out. As he strode down the veranda he was humming and snatches of the little song, the most maddening of songs, came back to her in his rich untrained voice; it was La Donna e mobile.
"Ugh!" said Beatrice Corliss. "The brute!"
