"Hop in," he admonished. "Let us be off before that horse comes and steps on me. That's a dear girl."
"I told you, no, Signor, I could not go. In my country one does not ride with young men."
"But you are in my country now. And in my country one jolly well rides with young men."
"In your country--but for a time, yes." Unconvinced Maria Angelina stood by her rail, like the boy upon the burning deck.
"But your aunt--cousin, I mean--would let you," he argued. "I'll shout up now and see----"
Unrelentingly, "It is not my cousin, but my mother who would object," she informed him.
"Holy Saint Cecilia! You're worse than boarding school. Come on, Maria Angelina--I'll promise not to kiss you."
That was one of Johnny's best lines. It always had a deal of effect--one way or another. It startled Maria Angelina. Her eyes opened as if he had set off a rocket--and something very bright and light, like the impish reflections of that rocket, danced a moment in her look.
"I will write that promise to my mother and see if it persuades her," she informed him.
With the sigh of the defeated Johnny Byrd turned off the gas and climbed out of his car.
"Just for that the promise is off," he announced. "Do you think your mother would mind letting you sit in the same room with me and teach me that song you promised?"
"She would mind very much in Italy." Over her shoulder Maria cast a laughing look at him as she stepped back into the music room. "There I would never be alone like this."
Incredulously Johnny stared past her into the music room. Through the windows upon the other side came the voices of bridge players upon the veranda without. Through those same windows were visible the bridge players' heads. Other windows opened upon the veranda in the front of the Lodge from which they had just come. An arch of doorway gave upon the wide hall where a guest was shuffling the mail.
"My mother allows this when my sister Lucia and her fiancé, Paolo Tosti, are together," said Maria Angelina. "I am in the next room with a book. And that is very advanced. It is because Mamma is American."
"I'll say it's advanced," Johnny muttered. "You mean--you mean your sister and that--that toasted one she's engaged to have never really seen each other----?"