fancy imagining you in a white mantilla receiving the bullfighter's hat in Madrid."
"You're out of your head."
"Don't tell me you've been stupid enough to refuse Nino?"
She threw back her head and laughed, thinking it was the first time she had laughed in months. "You old matchmaker! You're crazy. There's nothing like that. We're only very good friends. I am more fond of him than any man I know."
"Thank you!" he said acidly.
"You don't count," she said, patting his cheek, and looked about again. "From the looks of this room you must be reforming. I miss those worn-off mirrors you could hardly see anything in. I guess that suited you," she teased.
"Those were valuable 18th century French minors," he instructed, "but when I was a child in Rome I always adored my mother's room. The castle's new owners—it's sold—are having it done over, new wall silks woven and so on, so I had everything shipped to me. The bed, as you know, I've had. I still must have the windows done in leaded bottle bottom glass, then the room will be the same, except the rug."
"It's beautiful—but what I want to talk about is what the boys will wear when they play their harps for the recital."
"Evening clothes, naturally."
"Top hats?"
"Certainly not, it's not a variety act. The evening clothes will be of the 1900 period. My tailor will make them under my direction. They will wear gilded laurel wreaths. No diamond crowns. Paste of course. No, coronets."
"What's the difference?"
"Coronets are less ornate. It must be kept simple. Then your manager must see that the boys have small gilt ballroom chairs of the period."
"It sounds good. I only hope somebody in the audience looks at us girls."
He chuckled. "How are things going?"
"All right, I hope, I haven't had time to think. There are almost as many details as for a big production."
Figente was surprised at the necessity for Lucy's personal preoccupation. "Surely a manager attends to those things. You should not think of anything but your performance."
"Boy, you don't know the half of it! Why, we never had a theatre
