“Come down and bathe!” she called.“In the pool?” queried Nicola.“No, in the sea. We’ll go to the beach house.”A few moments later Adrienne came into Nicola’s room. She was bubbling with high spirits.“Oh, this has been a day!”“You’ve been up to mischief, I can tell,” Nicola said with mock severity.“No, truly, I have been working hard painting all day. But tell me—did you find your sister?”Nicola shook her head. “The girl was not Lisa.”“Ah. A pity.” After a momentary pause, Adrienne continued, “Dona Elena called quite early, as I knew she would. Oh, she pretended it was pure chance, but I know Sebastian had warned her to come and follow me.” “Well, what harm was there in that?”Adrienne exploded with laughter. “None to me. But poor Elena! She is so tired, walking all those kilometres. You see, when I am painting, naturally I have several canvases not finished. I wait for them to dry, so today I worked on numerous scenes. Elena had to follow where I went.
