Then, turning the subject adroitly, he went on: "So now you are on your way home for a well-earned holiday?
Your people must be looking forward to seeing you after so long a time--you have been away a year, didn't you say ?" "Yes, I spent the other two vacations abroad, in Italy, for the sake of acquiring the language.

Signor Baroni"-- laughingly--"was horror-stricken at my Italian, so he insisted.

But I have no people--not really, you know," she continued.

"I live with my guardian and his daughter.

Both my parents died when I was quite young." "You are not very old now," he interjected.
"I'm eighteen," she answered seriously.
"It's a great age," he acknowledged, with equal gravity.
Just then a waiter sped forward and with praiseworthy agility deposited their coffee on the table without spilling a drop, despite the swaying of the train, and Diana's fellow-traveller produced his cigarette-case.
"Will you smoke ?" he asked.
She looked at the cigarettes longingly.
"Baroni's forbidden me to smoke," she said, hesitating a little.