Chapter 17 THE BALL AT THE VILLA

"Do you know the Duchessa?" asked Flora Desimone.

"Yes." It was three o'clock the same afternoon. The duke sat with his wife under the vine-clad trattoria on the quay. Between his knees he held his Panama hat, which was filled with ripe hazelnuts. He cracked them vigorously with his strong white teeth and filliped the broken shells into the lake