“ ‘Catholic,’ she said. ‘Of course. The grand Church. Nothing less would be worthy of you and Mrs. McQueen, would it? It seems one evening in Naples that I saw you and your party at Mass. No. It was in the catacombs of San Gennaro. Your family had booked a private tour. Why, I’m almost sure of it.’ She lifted the ciborium and filled it from the bottle. She gave me the cup.

“ ‘You saw us in Naples?’ I asked. My head was spinning. I drank the wine, thinking that just a little bit more might eliminate this precarious feeling. That happened sometimes, didn’t it? Of course it didn’t. ‘How utterly remarkable,’ I said. ‘Because I could have sworn I saw you in Naples as well.’

“ ‘And where was that?’ she asked.

“ ‘Are you my enemy?’ I asked.

“ ‘Not at all,’ she said. ‘If I could, I’d deliver you from old age and death, from aches and pains, from the blandishments of ghosts, from the torment of your familiar, Goblin. I’d deliver you from heat and cold and from the arid dullness of the noonday sun. I’d deliver you into the placid light of the moon and into the domain of the Milky Way forever.’

“ ‘Those are strange words,’ I said. ‘I can’t make sense out of them. I could have sworn I saw you in Naples, that I saw you on my balcony at the Excelsior Hotel, that I had a nightmare sent from you. Isn’t that madness? Surely you’ll tell me it was.’

“ ‘Nightmare?’ she asked softly, sweetly. ‘You call a fragment of my soul a nightmare? Oh, but who would want a fragment of another person’s soul? You think you want Mona Mayfair’s soul. You don’t know what it would mean to see her now.’

“ ‘Don’t play with her name,’ I said. I was startled. Suddenly it seemed to me that everything that was happening was wrong. Mona, my beloved Mona. Don’t speak of Mona. The wine was not wine. The house was overwhelming. Petronia herself was too large and grand for a woman. I was too drunk to be where I was.

“ ‘When I am finished with you, you won’t want Mona Mayfair,’ she said quickly, almost angrily, though her voice remained soft. She purred like a cat. ‘And of my soul you’ll know no more. My soul will be locked as though a key, a golden key, were turned inside it. It will all be silence between us, the silence you know now.’

“ ‘I have to get away from here,’ I said weakly. I knew I couldn’t stand. I tried. My muscles wouldn’t work. ‘I have to get back to the boat. If you have a modicum of honor, you’ll help me.’