He was clever enough to say nothing, letting her work out the implications for herself.

When they came out, the water had gone, and they strolled contentedly back to the hotel. While he saw to some business in the hotel she went up to the apartment and took a shower.

He arrived upstairs later to find her swathed in one of his towel dressing gowns, drinking tea. He held out his hand and led her to bed.

His loving was like himself, generous, skillful, unpredictable. Relaxed at last, Justine responded wholeheartedly, and discovered that she too was unpredictable. It was like finding that you'd turned into a new person.

Dozing in his arms afterward she found her mind traveling along new paths of discovery. Much of her business involved traveling abroad. She could run it as well from Venice as from England.

She woke to find him planting soft kisses on her face.

"Stay with me always," he begged.

It would be so easy to say yes, to believe in the bright dream. She closed her eyes, breathing in the scent of him. Now the last leap seemed not only possible but easy, inevitable.

But before she could speak her cell phone shrilled.

"Answer it," he said. "There's time enough for what we have to say to each other."

It was Dulcie, calling from her honeymoon hideout.

"Blissful," she said in answer to Justine's question. "I can recommend marriage."

Justine laughed. "That's very interesting."

"But something sad has happened. Harriet has left Marco."

"What? But they were setting the date," Justine protested.

"I know. Now it's all over."

When the call ended Justine slowly replaced the receiver, feeling stunned.

"What has happened?" Riccardo asked, with foreboding.

"Harriet and Marco have broken up. Two days after it was going to last forever."

In a daze she saw the bright dream disintegrate and fall with tinkling shivers around her feet. So much for love eternal! What had she been thinking of to believe in such stuff?