"It can do no harm if I meet him this once," she argued. Then, "I suppose I am a fool." A panic seized her, suppose he should not come, after all? As she turned the end of the Forum, she saw the graceful figure of Prince Mirko coming to meet her.
"I knew it!" he cried joyously, waving his hat like a school-boy. "I knew you would not disappoint me!"
His gaiety was infectious, and Ragna's laugh echoed his. He took the red guide-book from her hand, and held it up accusingly.
"Why have you brought this? I told you, you would not need one with me!" he cried, stuffing the offending book into his pocket.
They passed through the turnstile, and strolled up the path in the wake of the official guide. The bright Roman sunshine illuminated the Forum below, gilding the columns and casting short blue shadows in the excavations. Overhead, the sky was a deep rich blue, and the air was charged with the peculiar sweetness of approaching Spring. The guide walked slowly, his hands in his pockets, humming an air from Rigoletto: "_Questao quella per me pari sono_,"--Mirko hummed it also, then broke into "_La donno è mobile_," giving it with rollicking voice.
"In the opera it is the man who is 'mobile,' in spite of what the song says!"
"Oh, no, the song is quite right--when a man is openly unfaithful, it is only in answer to a secret defection on the part of the woman. Any intelligent woman who wishes to keep a man, can do it--you can always be sure that it is really the woman's fault if a man strays in his allegiance."
"That is an extremely convenient theory," said Ragna, laughing, "but it is a poor rule that won't work both ways. Would you make the man responsible for infidelity on the part of the woman?"
"You will not pretend, I suppose, that a woman is exactly the same as a man? The difference between them alters the whole aspect of the case."
"Oh!" said Ragna, "you are incorrigible, you twist and turn so,--you will never meet me fairly!"
"The infidelity of man," continued Mirko, "is different in its very essence from that of woman,--it is quite possible for a man to be constant when he is apparently most unfaithful--the superficial change only enhances the charm of the real affection; he never tires of coming back to it,--if he were never to leave it, it would pall on him."