While
I was there the Signora came and since then the young lady has not been
out of her room."
"What is that Signora's name?" Vanno asked.
"I do not know, Principe, I have not been told, and I do not understand
the sound of English words, though I have learned a little French."
"Is the lady's husband here?"
"Oh, yes, a very sad, tired-looking gentleman who seems to be ill
himself; but he is a doctor. I know that, for when I offered to make a
tisane of orange flowers for the Signorina to soothe her nerves and
bring her sleep, she thanked me, but said the Signore had got her a
sleeping draught made up the day before, when he went back over the
French frontier. She told me that he was a doctor, and had prescribed
for her."
"A doctor!" Vanno repeated, suddenly puzzled. He had been confident that
the "Signore and Signora" were Lord and Lady Dauntrey. But he had never
heard that Dauntrey had studied medicine and practised in South Africa.
"Where is the Signore now?" he asked quickly.
"He was with his wife in the room of the Signorina a short time ago."
"Take me to the door of that room, and I will talk with one of them."
"Oh, with the greatest joy, Principe. I have not been happy leaving them
alone with her, but what could I do? I am only a servant."
"Why were you not happy leaving them alone with her? Did you think they
might do her harm?"
Apollonia shrugged her shoulders, and tears sparkled in her eyes, yellow
as the eyes of a lioness.
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