Free Portrait of a Girl by Dörthe Binkert Page A

sufficient inexperience for you to shine as a seducer?”
    James sighed. “What can I say? Didn’t I wait patiently for you after our tennis game and follow you like a puppy to this place? Am I not exposing myself to your husband’s suspicious looks, just to be with you, at this very moment? What else would you like me to say, beautiful Kate?” While he was speaking, he looked over as she had ordered him to at the two ladies and thought it charming the way the younger one lowered her eyes as he looked at her. Of course, she was well brought up, but it wasn’t just good manners that made her avoid his eyes. She liked him, of that there was no doubt.
    Kate, who had been watching James, asked, “What else would I like to hear? Well, naturally, that you find me irresistible, and that you’ll think of me tonight.”
    James smiled. “I’d certainly be doing that if I didn’t know that by then you’ll be lying next to another man.”
    “Oh, then have some flowers sent,” she said, without hesitation. “Their fragrance will make me think of you whether I want to or not! We’ll be together in a most innocent way.”
    He flushed hearing these words because he couldn’t imagine anything innocent in connection with her.
    “Will you promise to think only of me tonight?” Kate’s voice was insistent. “And not of the pretty girl over there? Look, you really have confused her.”
    He laughed and nodded obediently. Kate got up, and while James was saying good-bye to her friends, he managed to look unobtrusively at the other table, and received a furtive glance in return.

Dear Mr. Danby,
Signor Giovanni Segantini has asked me to reply to your kind letter of June 12, 1896. He is prepared to meet with you to discuss his work. If the date is convenient for you, the meeting can take place on June 20th at 4 o’clock in the Spa Hotel Maloja. Signor Segantini speaks only Italian. If you need an interpreter, please let me know. I’m sure that I can be of assistance in that case. I would appreciate your confirming the appointment.
With best regards,
in the name of Sig. Giovanni Segantini
Yours faithfully,
Achille Robustelli
Assistant Director, Spa Hotel Maloja
    James Danby examined the letter from all angles and then went to find his friend.
    “Eddie, things are getting serious. But not now, not till an eternity from now, not until June twentieth. Didn’t I plan to be back in London long before then?”
    Even though it was only a rhetorical question, Edward, lying on his bed reading, mumbled, “I thought you had met an interesting woman and were staying for an indefinite time.”
    “Whatever,” James said, dropping into the flowered easy chair. “Segantini wants to meet with me June twentieth. At the Spa Hotel Maloja. The same place the lady I’ve been seeing recently is staying. And you’re coming along.”
    “Oh.” Edward lowered his book.
    “Yes. Because being an art historian you know Italian. Segantini speaks only Italian. Someone from the hotel had to write the letter in English for him. And besides, you wanted to meet Segantini too.”
    Edward sat up and closed his book.
    “I can read Italian pretty well, but I can’t speak it.”
    “Oh, you’ll be able to manage. Don’t let me down. Besides, you’ve been neglecting me, Edward.”
    Edward gave his friend an amused look. “I didn’t think we were married yet, Jamie. Actually, you care as little for my presence as most married couples who have been acquainted as long as we have. Habit. It’s all just habit, my man.”
    They’d been friends since their days in school, and even though both of them were only around thirty, that was a long time.
    “Nonsense,” James continued. “It’s like this. If you leave me alone too long, I get involved in difficult situations.”
    “That’s news to me,” Edward said.
    “You dragged me here even though you know that I’m not much interested in nature. So I’ve been looking around for beautiful women. Not