Saracens had
sacked the convent, carried off all the young and pretty nuns, and
murdered the old ones.
Schuyler and Carleton both bowed to Vanno, whom they had met several
times during the "flying week" at Nice, and Schuyler interrupted his
story long enough to say to Mary, "That's Prince Giovanni Della Robbia,
who invented the parachute Rongier tested so successfully the other day.
Dick met him once in Egypt. He goes star-gazing in the desert, I
believe, consorting with Arabs, and learning all sorts of Eastern
_patois_."
Neither Vanno (who caught the sound of his name in passing) nor Schuyler
guessed the half-reluctant interest with which Mary heard the name of
her sulky neighbour at the Hotel de Paris, and learned those few details
of his life.
Vanno had been more than once to Roquebrune since the first day, and
knew that the cure had called twice upon Miss Grant, without finding her
at home. He knew, too, that the priest had received no visit from her in
return; nor had he again seen or heard of the "strange lady" who had
come to question him about Prince Angelo.
Vanno was deeply disappointed at the failure of his plan, and feared
that Mary wished to avoid knowing the priest; otherwise she might at
least have gone to church at Roquebrune. She made other excursions, when
she could tear herself from the Casino, on irresistibly bright
afternoons. Not only had he seen her at Cap Martin, but in Nice and in
Mentone; once, motoring into Italy with people whose faces were strange
to Vanno, and unpromising; and with the same party again in the
beautiful garden at Beaulieu, where it is fashionable to drink tea and
watch the sunset.
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