"
The boy's bright face changed, looked almost sad, but he called up:
"Non fa niente, Signorina!" He stood still for a moment, then made a
gesture of salutation, and added; "Thank you, Signorina. A rivederci!"
He moved to go to the boat, but Vere cried out, quickly:
"Wait, Ruffo! Can you catch well?"
"Signorina?"
"Look out now!"
Her arm was thrust out over the bridge, and Ruffo, staring up, saw a
big cigarette--a cigarette such as he had never seen--in her small
fingers. Quickly he made a receptacle of his joined hands, his eyes
sparkling and his lips parted with happy anticipation.
"One!"
The cigarette fell and was caught.
"Two!"
A second fell. But this time Ruffo was unprepared, and it dropped on
the rock by his bare feet.
"Stupido!" laughed the girl.
"Ma, Signorina--!"
"Three!"
It had become a game between them, and continued to be a game until
all the ten cigarettes had made their journey through the air.
Vere would not let Ruffo know when a cigarette was coming, but kept
him on the alert, pretending, holding it poised above him between his
finger and thumb until even his eyes blinked from gazing upward; then
dropping it when she thought he was unprepared, or throwing it like a
missile.
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