Vanno's way of atonement for continuing to live at Monte Carlo was to
lunch or dine each day at the Villa Mirasole. On the first morning of
his great happiness he was due there for luncheon at one o'clock, but
having news to tell, he decided to go early. There was little danger of
finding Marie and Angelo out, for they walked after an early breakfast,
and generally spent the rest of the morning in their own garden, or on
the covered loggia of the villa, which looked toward the sea. In the
afternoon they sometimes took excursions in their motor-car, but they
made no social engagements and never went to Monte Carlo, not even to
the opera or concerts. This had struck Vanno as being odd; but soon he
had taken it for granted that they cared for no society except each
other's, which was after all quite natural.
Of late, Vanno's habit had been to dash over to Cap Martin at the last
minute in a taxi and back again in the same hurried way, in order to
give himself as much time as possible in the Casino; but this morning
the Casino had seemed of no more importance to him than the railway
station. It was as the curé had prophesied, for Vanno as for Mary: the
absorbing new interest had pushed out the old, from hearts in which
there was room only for love. The other obsession was gone as if it had
never been, as a cloud which broods darkly over a mountain top is
carried away by a fresh gust of wind, leaving no trace on the mountain
steeped in sunshine.
Instead of lying in bed until time to bathe and dress for the Casino,
Vanno rose early, according to his old custom. It was as if he opened a
neglected book at a page where a marker had been placed, and began to
read again with renewed and increased interest. By nine o'clock he was
at the Villa Bella Vista, asking for Mary, who had promised to see him.
They had arranged that he was to tell Lord and Lady Dauntrey not only of
their engagement, but of Mary's decision to leave their house for a
visit to Mrs. Winter. She, however, had summoned unexpected courage and
had already broken the news. It had seemed treacherous, she explained to
Vanno, to go to bed and say nothing; so on an impulse she had told them
all; and both had been kind.
Lady Dauntrey, who seldom appeared before ten o'clock--Casino opening
time--was not only dressed but had breakfasted when Vanno came. She
broke in upon Mary and the Prince in the drawing-room, seemed surprised
to find them there, apologized laughingly, and with an attempt at tact
congratulated Vanno. "I've got awfully fond of this dear girl," she
said, looking Vanno straight in the eyes, a way of hers when people had
to be impressed by a statement. "I think there's nobody like her, and
I--we--will miss her horribly. But you've a right to take her away. You
can see her more comfortably, and everything will be better at the
chaplain's than here. Quite a different atmosphere, I dare say! Only I
hope she won't forget us. I've tried to do my best for her."
As she said this, a mist softened her hard eyes, and she ingeniously
pushed the beginnings of tears back whence they came, with the lace edge
of her handkerchief, fearing damage to her lashes. As she did this,
Vanno noticed that her hands were extraordinarily secretive in shape and
gesture. It seemed to him that they contradicted the expression of her
decorative face, whose misty eyes and quivering lips had begun to disarm
him, even to make him wonder if he had partly misjudged her. The hands,
large and pale rather than white, appeared to curve themselves
consciously in an effort to look small, pretty, young, and aristocratic,
though they were in reality worn by nervousness, as if disappointments
and harsh, perhaps terrible, experiences had kept them thin and made
them old, though face and body had contrived to remain young. It was as
if things the woman had known and endured had determined to betray
themselves in some way, and had seized upon her hands. Suddenly it was
as if Vanno had been given a key, and had heard a whisper: "This unlocks
the secret of a woman's nature"; and he was almost ashamed of having
used the key, even for an instant, as if he had peeped into a room where
some one in torment was writhing in silent passion. He said nothing of
this, afterward, but he could not forget; and when Mary half guiltily
praised Lady Dauntrey's warmth of heart and real affection, he was even
more glad than before to take the girl away. He was glad, too, that
Angelo and Marie would meet her for the first time at the Winters', not
in the Dauntrey ménage.
To-day he did not dash off in a taxi to Cap Martin; but having taken
Mary and a small instalment of her luggage to the Winters' apartment,
sheer joy of life urged him to walk to his brother's. He was so happy
that he felt like a mountain spring let loose in wind and sunshine,
after being long pent up underground.
A short cut through the glimmering olive grove of the Cap led toward the
Villa Mirasole, and plunging into the gray-green gloom he came suddenly
upon the curé and two little acolytes, the boys robed in white and
scarlet. Their figures moving under the arbour of old trees were like
red and silver poppies blown by the wind, or wonderful tropical birds
astray in the woods: and a glint of sunshine striking the censer was a
thin chain of gold linking it to the sky.
To meet this little procession astonished Vanno, but the curé turned to
smile at him without surprise. "Well met!" he said. "We are on our way
to bless the villa. Last night after you went I received a letter from
the Princess asking us to come this morning, as they are now quite
settled. So here we are, these children and I. And I hoped that you
would be lunching with your brother and sister-in-law, for it is a
pretty ceremony, the blessing. You will tell them to-day--what has
happened?"
The curé slackened his pace, for a talk with his Prince, and the
acolytes walked ahead, two brilliant little figures, whose robes sent
out faint whiffs of incense-perfume.
"Yes. I've come early on purpose to tell," said Vanno. "But the first
business is the blessing of the house. That will put them in a good
mood. I hope you are going to lunch with us afterward?"
"Yes. The Princess has been so kind as to ask me, and I will stay. If
you like, I can say good things of Mademoiselle, your charming fiancée."
"That is what I was thinking!" Vanno admitted. "Do you know, Father,
I've been incredibly stupid. You will hardly believe it when I tell
you--but I have not yet found out her Christian name."
"_Tiens!_" exclaimed the curé. "You did not ask? But, my Principino, it
is impossible. What did you call her?"
"If you must know, I called her 'Angel,' and 'Darling,' and perhaps a
few other things like that. Any other name seemed quite unimportant at
the time: but after I'd left her this morning at Mrs. Winter's (where
she is going to visit, thank heaven!) it flashed into my mind that I'd
never heard her name. It begins with 'M,' that's all I know. I couldn't
very well rush back, ring the door bell, and inquire. I must find out
somehow now without asking, as it's too absurd, when we've been engaged
since yesterday afternoon."
Talking, they came near the edge of the olive wood, where a narrow lane
divided the olives from a sea of pines. The white main road in the
distance was empty, and silent with the digestive silence of Riviera
thoroughfares at noon, when all the world, from millionaire to peasant,
begins to think of the midday meal. Even motors were at rest,
comfortably absorbing petrol and leaving the roads to sleep in peace.
Far off among the trees Vanno caught a glimpse of two men picnicking,
cabdrivers eating their bread and meat and drinking the rough red wine
of the country, while their little _voitures_ stood a few yards away,
the horses well in shade, their faces buried in nose-bags, and a
miniature wolf-like dog asleep on the back of one. As Vanno and the
priest drew nearer both men got up respectfully, wiping their smiling
mouths. They seemed not at all astonished to see the figures in scarlet
and white, with the swinging censer. And indeed it was a common enough
sight in these woods, and elsewhere, the brilliant little procession for
the blessing of houses, or for the last sacrament. The curé knew both
men, for his parish extended from the old village of Roquebrune down to
the outskirts of Mentone on one side and to St. Roman on the other. He
asked one after a new wife, and of the other inquired for the health of
his tiny dog, Pomponette. Nothing would do but the microscopic animal
must be fetched from her ample bed on the horse's back, and displayed
proudly. Her master, a very large dark man, stuck the dog into the
breast of his coat, whence her miniature head protruded like a peculiar
orchid.
"_C'est un bon garçon_," remarked the curé, when the bowings and
politenesses were over, and they had got away. "A strange world this! He
is the last of one of the greatest and oldest families of Southern
France. For generations they have been in ruin, reduced to the life of
peasants. Jacques cares not at all, and hardly remembers that he has in
his veins blood nobler than some kings can boast. What would you? It is
as well for him. We are not snobs, we southerners, Principino. And he is
quite happy, with his little cab, his little white horse, and his little
dog. He will marry a peasant--I think I know who, for she has
embroidered a blanket for Pomponette. At one time he was conductor on
the trams; but he was _triste_ because few of the passengers said good
morning or good evening to him--and he is a friendly fellow. So he gave
up his position on the trams. One would not find that in the north. They
have their faults, these people, but I love them."
The woods of Cap Martin seemed to be populated by the curé's friends. As
he and Vanno walked away from the picnickers, a woman, bareheaded,
carrying a large basket, came toward them, followed by a very old man
with his arms full of bundles. She too was of the peasant class, a noble
creature past her youth, with the face of a middle-aged Madonna, and the
bearing of a Roman matron of distinction. The old man, whose profile
was clear as that of a king on a copper coin, was deeply lined and
darkly sunburnt. His head, bald no doubt, was tied up in a crimson
handkerchief that gave him the value of a rare picture by the hand of
some old master. Seeing the curé, the pair stopped under an immense
olive tree, a tree so twisted, so contorted that it seemed to have
settled down to treehood only after the wild whirl of a mænad dance. Now
in its old age, which had been youth in Cæsar's day, it was more like a
gray, ruined tower than an olive tree. It had divided itself into a few
crumbling, leaning walls with sad oriel windows and a broken
ornamentation of queer gargoyles. Behind the woman with the basket and
the old man with the red handkerchief was the distant background of the
Prince's garden, like a drop curtain at a theatre: a wall overgrown with
flowering creepers; the delicate tracery of wrought-iron gates between
tall pillars; bare branches of peach and plum trees, pink as children's
fingers held close before the fire, or the hands of Arab girls after the
henna-staining; and two cypresses, close together, rising against the
blue sky with pure architectural value. As they hurried along, the man
and woman crushed under foot, without knowing what they did, the sheeny
brown curves of wild orchids, "Jacks in the pulpit," that were like
little hooded snakes rearing heads in rage, to guard the baby violets
sprouting in the grass.
"This is Filomena, the cook I myself secured for your brother's house,"
said the curé; "the best cook and one of the best women on the coast.
See, she is carrying our luncheon in her big basket. That shows how
early you are, Principino. She is just back from the market at Mentone,
where I'll warrant she was delayed by some nice bit of gossip. They love
the marketing, these good creatures."
The woman, smiling charmingly, reached out a brown and shapely hand,
rather workworn, which the curé shook, and proceeded to make her known
to the Prince. Without hesitation or embarrassment she put out her hand
to him also. In his, it felt hard and rough, yet glowing with health. It
was quite a matter of course to Filomena to be introduced to the Prince,
the brother of her new, exalted master, whom she had not until now had
the pleasure of seeing, although she had cooked for him already many
times. She remarked on this fact, with her bright, engaging smile. Her
manner was perfectly respectful, yet free from servility. It would not
have occurred to her that any one could have considered her little
conversational outburst a liberty; and she proceeded to introduce the
old man as her father.
"He has eighty-two years," she said, with a glance from the Prince to
the curé, "yet he thinks little of walking down from our old home far,
far away in the mountains in Italy, to pay me a visit. It was a surprise
this time, his coming. I met him near the market, and profited by
getting him to help with my parcels. Will Messieurs the Prince and Curé
figure to themselves, he married my mother when their two ages together
would not make thirty-five, and there in the mountains they brought up
eight of us. But, after the marriage, they were still children. It was
necessary for the priest to explain to my father why it is that the good
God ordained marrying. And look at him now!"
She laughed gayly, and the old man, who could speak only a _patois_ from
over the frontier, cackled without understanding what his daughter said.
He guessed well that he was the subject of the conversation, and
jokingly he reproved the middle-aged Madonna with a few toothless
mutterings more like Latin than Italian, more Arabic than either.
"And now, Messieurs," Filomena finished, "we must be hurrying on, or the
_déjeuner_ will be late. That would make me so angry, I should poison
all the fishes if I were thrown into the sea! How Monsieur the Prince is
handsome, and like my _patron_--yet different, too! Ah, it does seem to
me, begging Monsieur the Curé's pardon, that now-a-days the good God is
becoming more experienced and therefore fashioning finer men. When He
first began, He was but young and had no practice, so it is not strange
if He made mistakes."
"You people of this country are very free with the great name of your
Creator," remarked the curé, but not too sternly. "Think, Principino, I
have heard this very Filomena saying that after Christmas it is safe to
sin a little, for the enfant Jesus is so very small He takes no notice;
and between Good Friday and Easter He is dead, so then again there is a
chance. It is well that I know you mean no sacrilege, Filomena, or I
should have to scold--and to-day that would be a pity, for it is a day
of good omen for us all."
"Ah, yes," agreed Filomena. "Monsieur the Curé is to bless the house."
"Not only that, but his Highness here has come with great news to tell.
He is going to marry a beautiful young lady."
"Then is the blessing a double one. I am sure the young lady must indeed
be beautiful if she is worthy; perhaps even as beautiful as the
Princess, my mistress."
"Quite as beautiful, Filomena. But you are the first one to have the
news. You must not go and tell. Leave that to the Prince."
"Indeed, Monsieur the Curé need have no fear. I've my _déjeuner_ to
cook. And I shall make something extra in honour of the great occasion."
So, with a flash of white teeth and a bow no duchess could have
bettered, Filomena went off about her business, followed by that aged
patriarch, her father.
Three minutes after the pair had disappeared through the _porte de
service_, Vanno and the curé arrived at the great gate, which was a
famous landmark at Cap Martin, the Villa Mirasole having been built
years ago for a Russian grand duke. Since he had been killed by a bomb
in his own country, the house he loved had passed into other hands. Now
it belonged to an English earl who had lost a fortune at the Casino: and
it was owing to his losses that the villa was let this season to Prince
Della Robbia.
Much of the furniture, which was of great value, had been sold, and the
house was so denuded that it had practically to be redecorated and
refurnished, to suit Angelo's ideas of fitness for his wife; because he
wished to keep it on year after year. Only to-day was everything
finished to his satisfaction.
The villa, whose exterior copied the Petit Trianon, had a large entrance
hall of marble which opened to the roof, and was surrounded by a
gallery. This hall was coldly beautiful, with its few bronzes and gilded
seventeenth-century chairs, its tall vases of orange blossoms and tea
roses, its faded Persian rugs and mosaic tables. But it made an
extraordinarily impressive background or frame for a lovely woman, and
Marie Della Robbia was a lovely woman. Vanno had seen her many times now
in many different dresses since New Year's eve, when he had met her with
Angelo, at the Mentone railway station; but she had never struck him as
being a beauty, until to-day. As she came forward to greet her two
visitors, he said to himself for the first time that she was beautiful.
She and Angelo had evidently just entered from the garden. Her right
hand was full of roses, which she hastily changed into her left, and she
wore a softly folding white dress, with a great cart-wheel of a Leghorn
hat, drooping in all the right places, and wreathed with pink roses. She
was a tall woman with a long neck, therefore could well wear such a
hat; and it framed her head like an immense halo of dull gold. Her hair
was brown with red lights in it, and her eyes were of exactly the same
shade, the colour of ripe chestnuts. She had a beautiful short, rather
square face, of a creamy paleness; a square, low forehead, straight dark
brows, drawn very low over the long eyes; a short, straight nose, and a
short, curved upper lip, fitting so charmingly into the full squareness
of the under lip that her mouth looked like two pieces of pink coral
cleverly carved one upon another. Her short, square chin was deeply
cleft, and her long yet solid-looking white throat was like one of those
slender marble columns which divide the arch of a Moorish window. At
first sight, before she spoke, she would be taken for a woman of
sensuous temperament, lazy, luxury-loving, not talkative, and the gay
smile which flashed over her face at sight of Vanno and the curé seemed
somehow unsuited to it, giving almost the effect of electric light
suddenly turned upon a still pool, covered with the waxen weight of
white water-lilies. Her manner, too, was a contradiction of her type. It
had a light, sleigh-bell gayety, bringing thoughts of sparkling snows
and iced sunshine. There was charm in it, yet it was oddly remote and
cold, as if she, the woman herself, had gone away on an errand, leaving
some other woman's spirit in temporary charge of her body. She looked to
be twenty-five or six, and was meant by nature to be more dignified than
she chose to be. She had elected to be light and girlish; and whatever
she was, it was evident that in her husband's eyes she was perfect. He
watched her admiringly, adoringly, as she welcomed her brother-in-law
and the curé. The love in his eyes was pathetic, and would have been
tragic if it had not been a happy love, fully returned, and culminating
in a perfect marriage.
Angelo was delighted to see his brother, and especially to see him come
in with their old friend the curé. This meant, he hoped, that the good
man had found a chance to talk to Vanno, and perhaps to persuade him to
stay at the Villa Mirasole.
The two young men shook hands cordially, with an affectionate grip, as
if they had not seen each other for some time, though it was really no
more than twenty-four hours since they had parted.
They were very much alike, and yet, as Filomena had shrewdly noticed at
first glance, utterly different. Angelo was five years older than Vanno
and looked more, because he wore a short pointed beard, cut almost close
to the long oval of his cheeks, like the beards of many Italian naval
officers. He was dark, but not so dark as Vanno's face had been painted
by the desert; and whereas Vanno was both man of action and dreamer,
Angelo had the face of a poet whose greatest joy is in his dreams. He
seemed less Roman, more Italian than Vanno, and his profile was less
salient, more perfect, being so purely cut that people who had seen him
seldom, would think of him in profile, as one thinks always of a sword.
Vanno would dream, and strenuously work out his dream. Angelo would
dream on, and let others work; consequently the elder was not so vital,
not so magnetic as the younger. He showed no trace of those battles with
himself which gave Vanno's face strength and his eyes fire; yet it was
clear that Angelo was a man of high ideals, and would be lost in losing
them; whereas Vanno would fight on without ideals, only becoming harder.
All this the curé had known since Angelo was a big boy and Vanno a
little one, and he had learned it after an acquaintance of but a few
days, for it was a theory of his that character is like the scent of
various plants. It must so distil itself that it cannot in any way be
hidden for long; and those who cannot recognize character for what it is
are like people who have lost their sense of smell, and can detect no
difference in the odour of flowers.
Almost at once the Princess proposed that the curé should begin to bless
the house. He had brought with him a small olive branch which he had
gathered in the woods; and with this he sprinkled each room with holy
water, while the acolytes accompanied him, one holding a bowl, the other
swinging the censer which sent clouds of perfume through the house. All
the servants had been called together, even the Princess' English maid,
who had left England for the first time to come to the Riviera. They
followed the family from room to room, grave and deeply interested,
Filomena in a large white apron exhaling a faint odour of spices and
good things of the kitchen. When the ceremony was finished and not a
room unvisited, Filomena flew back to duty, and carefully, but not
anxiously, lifted the lid of each _marmite_ on the huge stove. She had
possessed her soul in perfect confidence that the patron saint of the
household would look after her dishes during her absence, and she would
have been not only surprised but indignant if anything had been burnt.
Now had come the moment for Vanno to speak.
The curé had sent away the acolytes. It still wanted half an hour of
luncheon time, and the Princess led the way to a wide window-door on to
the loggia. This was very broad, like an American veranda, with a roof
of thick, dull greenish glass which softened the glare of sunlight, and
did not darken the rooms inside. Roses garlanded the marble pillars, and
Indian rugs were spread on the marble floor. There were basket chairs
and tables, and a red hammock piled with cushions was suspended on bars
arranged after a plan of Angelo's. Marie Della Robbia in her white dress
made a picture among the crimson cushions, and it was scarcely possible
for her not to know that the three men who grouped round her found the
picture charming.
Vanno's heart was thumping. He had thought it would be easy and
delightful to tell the news of his engagement, but it struck him
suddenly that these two, Angelo and Marie, were utterly absorbed in each
other. Perhaps they would not care as much as he had hoped. Or Angelo
might disapprove. Not that any disapproval would matter now, not even
their father's; but Vanno wanted sympathy and interest. As he searched
for the right word to begin, groping for it, ashamed of his shyness,
the butler appeared at the window, a Mentonnais-Italian who prided
himself passionately upon his English. He too had been found for the
house by the friendly offices of the curé--an eager, intelligent man
with glittering eyes and a laughable tendency to blushing. He had
learned his English in three months at a Bloomsbury boarding-house
where, apparently, conversations had been carried on entirely in slang.
If he were addressed by an English-speaking person in any other
language, his feelings were so deeply wounded that he turned a rich
purple.
"Highnesses please," he announced, "a French mister has come to appear.
It is a Stereo-Mondaine and he have a strong want to prend some
photographs of the garden and peoples which is done from colours
already, very rippin'."
Angelo frowned slightly. And when he frowned his long oval face looked
cold and proud, the face of an aristocrat who believed that the world
was made for him and his kind. "Tell the man that we cannot allow him to
take photographs here," he said.
The butler hesitated. "Highness, it is necessary that this man vivre. I
think he has not too much oof. _C'est dure, la publicité!_"
"I can't help that, Americo," Angelo persisted. "You can offer him food
if you think he is poor, but we do not want him to take photographs."
Vanno saw that Marie was looking at her husband intently, with a
peculiar, almost frightened expression, as if she were studying him
wistfully, and finding out something new which she had not wholly
understood.
"Angelo," she ventured, in a small, beguiling voice, "perhaps this poor
man has his pride of an artist. You see, I have a fellow feeling!" She
smiled pleadingly, yet mischievously, and turned an explanatory glance
on the curé. "I was an artist, and I should so love to know what is a
Stereo-Mondaine."
Vanno had never before liked her so much.
Angelo's face changed and softened. "If you want him, it is different!"
he returned. "But you've seemed always to have a horror of
snapshotters."
"He might take the garden," she suggested.
"Bring the fellow, Americo," said Prince Della Robbia.
The butler flushed furiously with joy. "Rightho, my good Highnesses," he
exclaimed; and the three who understood why he was funny stifled
laughter till he was out of earshot. "His English is a constant delight
to us," said Marie, instantly picking up again her sleigh-bell gayety of
manner, like a dropped, forgotten garment. "It's as wonderful as my
English maid's French, which she's earnestly studying, though she finds
that a language where meat is feminine and milk masculine simply doesn't
appeal to her reason. She's learned to call Wednesday 'Mur_cree_dy' and
Saturday 'Samdy.' When she goes to Mentone to buy me something at Aux
Dames de France, she says she's bought it at the 'Ox Daimes.' But she
reached her grandest height this morning. I walked into my room, to hear
her groaning at a window that looks toward Monte Carlo. 'Oh, those poor,
poor men committing suicide! I can't get them out of my head,' she
moaned when I asked if she were ill. 'That day when I went over there
sightseeing. It was too awful, walking on the terrace, to hear those
poor creatures blowing out their brains every two minutes down under the
Casino. I couldn't stand it, so I had to come away, but nobody else
seemed to mind, and some of 'em was hanging over the wall to see what
was going on!' I couldn't imagine what she meant, for a minute. Then I
knew it must be the pigeon-shooters."
Angelo laughed. "Of course. But what do _you_ know of the
pigeon-shooters, Marie mia? You have sternly refused to let me take you
to Monte Carlo."
Marie blushed, a sudden bright blush. "Oh, you have told me about
them--how they shoot under the terrace. That's one reason why I love
staying here at Cap Martin, or taking excursions where everything is
purely beautiful, and nothing to make one sad."
"I don't remember telling you about the pigeon-shooting," Angelo said.
"Well, if you didn't tell me, somebody else must have, mustn't
they--else how could I know?"
"Highnesses, Mister the Stereo-Mondaine."
A frail wisp of a man was ushered by the butler on to the loggia: a man
very shabby, very thin, very proud, with a camera out of proportion to
his size and strength, hugged under one arm. He would have been known as
a Frenchman if found dressed in furs at the North Pole.
He explained passionately that, had he been a mere photographer, he
would not have ventured to intrude upon such distinguished company; but
he was unique in his profession, a Stereo-Mondaine, a traveller who knew
his world and had a _métier_ very special. He was, in short, an artist
in colour photography; and before asking the privilege that he desired,
he would beg to show a sample of his most successful work at Monte
Carlo.
"Here, for instance," he went on hurriedly in his French of the Midi,
"is a treasure of artisticness; a marvel of a portrait, a poem!" And he
displayed a large glass plate, neatly bound round the edges with gilt
paper. His thin hand, on which veins rose in a bas relief, held the
plate up tremulously against the light. All bent forward with a certain
interest, for none of the three had seen many specimens of colour
photography. Vanno and the curé both gave vent to slight exclamations.
They were looking at a picture of Mary Grant, dressed in pale blue, with
a blue hat. She was standing in the _Place_ of the Casino at Monte
Carlo, feeding pigeons.
It seemed to Vanno that his sister-in-law also uttered a faint, "Oh!"
But turning to her, he saw that she was leaning back among the cushions
of the hammock, having ceased to take an interest in the prettily
coloured photograph. She met his eyes. "I thought I heard Americo
coming to call us to luncheon," she said. "It must be nearly time. But
it wasn't he, after all. Yes, indeed, it is a charming photograph."
Breaking from English into French, she complimented the Stereo-Mondaine.
"Will you sell me that picture?" Vanno asked.
"But, Monsieur, it is my best. I should have to demand a good price; for
it could be produced in a journal, and I would be well paid. When the
plate of a coloured photograph is gone--biff! _all_ is gone. There is an
end."
"I will give you three louis."
The Stereo-Mondaine accepted at once, lest the Monsieur should change
his mind; and Vanno having taken the plate from him, he proceeded to
produce others.
"Nothing more, thanks--unless you have any of the same lady."
"No, unfortunately, Monsieur. She would have posed again, for she was a
most sympathetic as well as beautiful personality. But the crowd closed
around us. I may induce her to stand again, however."
"I hardly think that is likely to happen," Vanno muttered.
"Let him go into the garden, and take half a dozen of the prettiest
views--things we should like to carry away with us," the Princess said,
hastily, as if she were anxious now to be rid of her protégé. "When they
are ready, he can send them to us--and the bill."
The Stereo-Mondaine was disposed of, while Angelo took the glass plate
from Vanno, and looked at the picture.
"Do you know the lady, by any chance," he asked lightly, "or did you buy
merely as an admirer of beauty?"
"I--am going to marry her, I hope," said Vanno. "We have been engaged
since last night. I came over early to tell you."
* * * * * * *
There was a pause. Each one seemed waiting for another to break the
silence. Then the curé stepped into the breach.
"I speak from knowledge when I say that the Principino's fiancée is as
good as beautiful--a most rare lady. He is to be congratulated."
"Of course we congratulate him!" Angelo said cordially. He got up and
shook hands warmly with his brother, like an Englishman: then he patted
him affectionately on the shoulder. "Dear boy," he added, "you have
given us a great surprise. But I am sure it is a happy one. And we can
feel for you because of our own happiness, which is so new: though I
think it always will be new. Can we not sympathize, Marie mia?"
"Yes," said the Princess. "Yes, of course. I congratulate you." There
was a different quality in her voice. It did not ring quite true; and
Vanno was disappointed. He thought that to please Angelo and him she was
affecting more interest than she was able to feel.
Angelo still had the coloured photograph on the glass plate, but now he
handed it to his wife. "What a lovely girl!" he exclaimed. "I don't
believe that in your artist days, dearest, you ever had a prettier
model."
"No, never," said Marie. She took the plate that Angelo held out, and
looked at it with a slight quivering of the eyelids as if the sun, which
was very bright, shone too strongly. Then, quickly, she sprang up,
leaving the photograph in the hammock. "An awfully pretty girl," she
went on. "Vanno must tell us all about her, at luncheon. Here comes
Americo to announce it."
She hurried to the door, smiling at the three men over her shoulder. The
sun had given her a bright colour. Even her ears were rose-pink. Vanno,
in following, retrieved the glass plate from among the cushions. He was
not sure whether or no his announcement had been a success, but the
method of it seemed to have been thrust on him by Fate.
For a few minutes after they were seated at the table Marie chatted of
other things, talking very fast about a _Blinis au caviar_ for which she
had given Filomena the recipe. "I tasted it first in Russia," she
remarked, immediately adding "when I was very young." Then abruptly she
jumped back to the subject of Vanno's great news. "Tell us about _her_,"
she commanded, giving her brother-in-law a charming smile. But as he
began, rather jerkily, to supply the information asked for, the Princess
looked down at her plate, eating slowly and daintily, as a child eats
when it wishes to make some delicious food last as long as possible. Not
once did she raise her thick, straight eyelashes, as Vanno said that the
girl was a Miss Grant, now staying with the wife of the chaplain at
Monte Carlo. Her first question seemed to have satisfied the Princess'
curiosity, for all those that followed were asked by her husband.
"Miss Grant!" he echoed, deeply interested in his brother's love affair,
though still puzzled by its suddenness, and a little uneasy. He felt
that it would not be well for both the Duke's sons to marry women
unknown socially; and almost unconsciously he was influenced by a
selfish consideration. Vanno was expected to make his, Angelo's, peace
with the father, who worshipped the younger, tolerated the elder, of his
sons. It was Vanno's duty to describe Marie in glowing terms, to induce
the Duke to feel that despite her social unimportance she was a pearl
among women. But if Vanno had his own peace to make, his own pearl to
praise, other interests might suffer. "Miss Grant! It is odd, isn't it,
that we should choose girls of names so much alike? Marie Gaunt,
and--but what is your Miss Grant's Christian name?"
Vanno had to confess ignorance; and this forced him to explain that he
had known Miss Grant for a very short time. "But I felt from the
beginning that I'd known her always," he added bravely. "It was--love at
first sight. You--I think you'll understand when you see her. The curé
sees. And that's what I want to ask. Will you both go to call upon her
with me--and be kind?"
"Of course," said Angelo. "It can't be too soon. When shall we go?"
"Well," said Vanno, almost shamefacedly, "I thought if you could manage
it this afternoon----"
Angelo laughed a pleasant but teasing laugh. "He doesn't want any grass
to grow between Cap Martin and Monte Carlo before our motor-car has
rushed us to his lady's bower. We can go this afternoon, I'm sure, can't
we, Marie?"
The eyes of the three men were turned upon the Princess, who was still
delicately eating her _Blinis au caviar_, though the others had
finished. For an instant she did not answer. Then she looked up
suddenly, first at Angelo, her glance travelling to Vanno almost
pleadingly before she spoke. "I should love to go," she said to him,
emphatically. "Only, I do think it would be so much more proper and
better in every way for me to call on--on Miss Grant first alone,
without either of you. Do let me. It will be far more of a compliment, I
assure you. And she will prefer it."
"I don't quite see that," observed Angelo.
"Because you are a man! Why, she can talk to me, and tell me little
confidential things that she will love telling, and couldn't so much as
mention before you. Vanno says she has no relatives with her, but is
staying with friends; and I will try to make her feel as if I were a
sister."
"Marie, you _are_ good!" exclaimed Vanno, his eyes warm with gratitude.
After all, his sister-in-law was not disapproving, as he had begun to
fear. "She's perfectly right, Angelo. It will be splendid of her to go
alone."
"I begin to see the point of view," said Angelo. "I might have known.
She's always right."
Marie smiled at him sweetly and softly; and as her husband's eyes met
hers a beautiful look of love and understanding flashed from the hidden
soul of the woman to the soul of the man. Vanno saw it, and thrilled. So
would it be with him and the girl he loved.