In a few days most of the people between Nice and Mentone who had been
interested in the beautiful and rather mysterious Mary Grant knew that
she was engaged to marry Prince Giovanni Della Robbia, a son of the
Roman Duke di Rienzi.
Many of them, especially the women, said that she was very lucky,
probably a great deal luckier than she deserved; and all the gossip
about her which had been a favourite tea-time topic, before her losses
at the Casino began to make her a bore, was revived again. The
self-satisfied mother and bird-like girl who had travelled with her in
the Paris train had a great deal to say. They wondered "if the poor
Prince _knew_; but of course he couldn't know. He was simply infatuated.
Very sad. He was such a handsome young man, so noble looking, and so, in
a way, _historic_. A million times too good for Miss Grant, even if
there were nothing against her. Of course, he had gambled too: but then
everything was so different for a man."
They talked so much that the mother's bridge friends, and the girl's
tennis friends, and the dwellers in villas who, for one cause or
another, had admitted Mrs. and Miss Cayley-Binns to the great honour of
"luncheon-terms" or the lesser honour of "tea-terms," asked them for
particulars. Facts were demanded at a luncheon given for the purpose by
Lady Meason, whose husband had once been Lord Mayor of London. This lady
had gone to bed and stopped there for a month at the end of Sir Henry's
year of office, in sheer chagrin that "Othello's occupation" was gone,
and her crown of glory set upon another's head, while she must retire to
the obscurity of Bayswater. Being threatened with acute melancholia, a
specialist had advised a change of air; and Lady Meason had begun once
more to blossom like a rose--of the fully developed, cabbage order--in
the joy of being "one of the most notable, popular and successful
hostesses of the season at Mentone." She had bought several hundred
copies of a Riviera paper which described her in this manner, and sent
them to all the people who had cooled to her at the end of Sir Henry's
Great Year; and living on her new reputation, she gave each week at her
handsome villa two large luncheons, one small and select dinner where no
untitled person was invited, and a huge Saturday afternoon tea at the
Mentone Casino, with a variety entertainment thrown in. She had rented a
villa last occupied by a notorious semi-royal personage, and engaged at
great expense one of the best _chefs_ to be had on the Riviera; had
indeed, figuratively speaking, snapped him out of the mouth of a duke;
and somehow, no one quite knew how, had succeeded, after nerve-racking
efforts, in capturing a few of the bright, particular stars whose light
really counted in the social illumination of the Riviera. To get them in
the first instance, she had been obliged to give a dance, and to offer
cotillon favours worth at least five hundred francs each; and these
things had been alluringly displayed in a fashionable jeweller's window
for a week before the entertainment, just at the time when people were
making up their minds whether or not to accept "that weird creature's"
invitations. Afterward she had clinched matters by importing _en masse_
a world-famed troop of dancers from the theatre at Monte Carlo to her
villa at Mentone, paying them a thousand pounds for the evening; but her
reward had been adequate. She was becoming a sort of habit--like a
comfortable old coat--among the great, who like comfortable old coats as
well as do those who are not great, and quite important persons were
already forgetting to allude to her as a weird creature in confessing
that they had accepted her invitations. She had even become of
consequence enough to snub Lady Dauntrey at the opera in Monte Carlo,
although, early in the season, the Dauntreys had been the first members
of the peerage who had adorned her villa. As for Mrs. Holbein, of whose
acquaintance she had almost boasted in prehistoric days when Sir Henry
was only an alderman, Lady Meason now loudly refused to know her.
At first, Mrs. Cayley-Binns and her daughter (spelt Alys) had looked
from afar off at the magnificent villa of this notable hostess, and had
read enviously the paragraphs in London and Riviera papers describing
her entertainments, not missing one of the long list of names attached.
Then one day they had come across the name of Miss Constantia Sutfield,
a woman who had been governess to a royal princess. Morton Cayley,
M. D., their distant cousin, had cured Miss Sutfield of a malady
pronounced fatal by other physicians with fewer letters after their
names. He was unfortunately a very distant cousin; but when he was young
Mrs. Cayley-Binns' late husband had lent him money, and he had been so
grateful that she had always felt entitled to speak of him openly as
"dear cousin Morton, the great physician, you know, whom all the
royalties love." She wrote promptly and begged him for a letter of
introduction to Miss Sutfield, who was living above the lower levels of
Mentone, at the Annonciata. The letter came and was sent to Miss
Sutfield, after Mrs. Cayley-Binns had increased her expenses at the
Hotel Victoria Palace, by taking better rooms and a private salon. She
had heard it said that the lady inquired of hall porters, before
presenting her visiting cards, on which floor were the apartments of her
would-be acquaintances, and whether they had their own sitting-room.
Miss Sutfield, who always talked of the princess (now a queen) whom she
had governed as "dear little Mousie," called in her most stately manner
upon Sir Morton's cousins. She was chilling at first, icily regular as
"Maud" herself, using the full power of that invaluable manner which had
kept Mousie hypnotized for years, both as princess and queen. The cold
museum of her memory, full of stately echoings from palaces of kings,
was opened for the Cayley-Binns' benefit as show-houses are thrown open
to the humble public. She wore a majesty of air which, to the
Cayley-Binns and others who had never "been to court" or to country
house parties except in the pages of Society novels, seemed peculiarly
distinctive of the peerage. She warmed slightly, however, when in some
turn of the conversation Mrs. Cayley-Binns mentioned knowing "that Miss
Grant, who is engaged to _poor_ Prince Giovanni Della Robbia." Seeing
that she had inadvertently struck a vein of ore, Mrs. Cayley-Binns
ventured to hint that the family of the Prince was known to her also.
She was wisely a little mysterious about the acquaintance, and contrived
to pique the interest of Miss Sutfield by vague and desperately involved
allusions. When she begged the lady's good offices in the matter of a
card for Lady Meason's next Casino tea, the favour was promised. The
card came for mother and daughter, who met nobody during the early part
of the entertainment, except a journalist who kindly pointed out
notabilities--a good-natured man who confessed hating so intensely to
hurt people's feelings that he invented for his "society" articles new
pink, white or green frocks for girls who were too often obliged to
appear in their old blue ones, during the season. Later, however, Miss
Sutfield swept toward them like a large yacht under full sail, and
regretted that her friend Miss Idina Bland had been prevented from
appearing, on account of a sharp attack of influenza.
"She's staying with me at the Annonciata," Mousie's friend explained; "a
charming creature, so uncommon, lately come into a tremendous lot of
money, I believe, through some relative in America she nursed till the
end. She wanted to have a talk with you both, when I told her you knew
the Duke of Rienzi's family. They're cousins of hers in some way. She
seems keen to hear about this Miss Grant. But everybody wants to hear
about her! Would you like to come to quite a small intimate sort of
lunch party at Lady Meason's, and meet Miss Bland when she gets well,
and let us have a nice little cozy gossip about this _quaint_
engagement?"
Mrs. Cayley-Binns was enchanted. The one difficulty lay in the
scantiness of her information. She made up her mind, however, like a
good general, that the difficulty must somehow be overcome, and accepted
without visible hesitation. Before she left the Casino she invited the
journalist to call, with the intention of pumping him, as he seemed to
know everything about everybody of importance, and might have details to
impart concerning Prince Vanno Della Robbia. Also, on the way home she
bought an "Almanach de Gotha," and made herself familiar with the family
history of the Dukes of Rienzi, since the year 1215, when the title
first came into being.
Naturally, when the moment arrived, and everybody at Lady Meason's table
was looking eagerly at Mrs. Cayley-Binns--hitherto insignificant--she
felt forced to say something worth saying about Miss Grant. She
swallowed hard, choked in a crumb, hastily sipped the excellent
champagne Lady Meason gave at her second-best parties, and recovering
herself said that "well, really, what she knew was almost too shocking
to tell." There was a Frenchman, good-looking, evidently a sort of
gentleman, in the train with Miss Grant when she was travelling from
England. They had pretended to be strangers, but had evidently known
each other well, as several little signs crossing on the boat, and
later, had "given away." Since then, this man had followed Miss Grant to
Monte Carlo, and the Cayley-Binns had seen him talking to her _most
earnestly_ in a retired corner of the biggest room at the Casino. Not
(Mrs. Cayley-Binns hastened to interpolate) that she was in the habit of
taking her daughter to the Casino at Monte Carlo, or of going often
herself, but occasionally if with friends she did "just walk through the
Rooms, on a Concert day." Others, whose word _could not be doubted_, had
said that the Frenchman, an artist, had got into difficulties at the
Casino and had obtained money from Miss Grant, some of it in the form of
cheques, which he had boasted of and shown everywhere. Of course he must
be a detestable creature; but that fact did not excuse Miss Grant's
friendship with him; rather the contrary. And even if he were a
blackmailer, why, there must be _some_ foundation for the blackmail;
otherwise there would be no object in paying to have a secret
kept--whatever it might be. Then there ensued a good deal of discussion
as to the nature of the secret, provided it existed; and Mrs.
Cayley-Binns talked eloquently though discreetly with Miss Bland about
the latter's "interesting Roman relatives." She admitted to Prince
Vanno's cousin that she had not "exactly been at Rome, or at Monte Della
Robbia, though she had travelled in Italy"; but she "thought it must
have been in Cairo" that she had met the Prince. He was so much in the
East, was he not? And she too had been in the East. (It was not
necessary to state that it had been in an excursion steamer which
allowed three days for Cairo, three for Constantinople.) The dear Prince
might possibly not remember her name, but she would never forget him, he
was so handsome and agreeable, such a romantic figure in the world; and
Alys was quite in love with his profile.
In the end, she discovered that Miss Bland was far more interested in
the elder brother than the younger, and in Prince Della Robbia's wife
rather than in Prince Vanno's fiancée; but it was too late to construct
an acquaintance, however slight, with the former; and certainly Miss
Bland had seemed interested in the details concerning Mary Grant. The
girl's name had struck her particularly, it appeared. She repeated it
several times over, saying, "Mary Grant--Mary Grant. I didn't know her
name was Mary." And Miss Bland had the air of being puzzled, as if there
was something in the name--a very common sort of name--which perplexed
her.
Luckily Mrs. Cayley-Binns and Alys were sure that the name was Mary.
They had seen it on a cheque, payable at a Monte Carlo bank, which Miss
Grant by request had given to a bazaar for a Mentone charity. Of course
people like that often were charitable; and in such persons it was more
selfish than generous when you came to think of it, as charity was
supposed to cover a multitude of sins.
Everywhere the engagement was talked of, for it was considered
extraordinary and hardly allowable that an eccentric, sensational sort
of girl about whose early career nobody knew anything should have
"gobbled up" a young man whose name was known throughout Europe. There
were only a few who went about saying that she was worthy of her Prince;
Dick Carleton, who was loyal, though heartbroken; Jim Schuyler, who
wondered always why Mary Grant's face was closely associated in his mind
with his cousin Molly Maxwell's; Major Norwood, who rejoiced that Mary
was appropriated, because the Maharajah of Indorwana would now see the
uselessness of lingering at Monte Carlo; and Captain Hannaford, who said
rather loudly wherever he went that the Roman chap was a d----d lucky
fellow.
The Dauntreys said nothing at all on the subject. If they had opinions
they had ceased to count, for more people every day were dropping even
Lord Dauntrey. There had been a scene at a hotel, where Lady Dauntrey
had struck Miss Collis in the face with her muff, for refusing to bow to
her. A pink paper in London had printed a verse describing the scene,
which everybody saw and talked about and laughed at. The paying guests
all, or almost all, left the Villa Bella Vista after this, and--it was
said--tradesmen were refusing supplies. The servants were gone or going;
Lady Dauntrey had to do her own work or leave it undone; but still Lord
Dauntrey was continually in the Casino, his wife hovering restlessly in
the background. Even the Holbeins gave them up, and Lady Dauntrey was
sometimes seen with the Frenchman who boasted of receiving Miss Grant's
cheques. He was supposed to be introducing amateurs to Lord Dauntrey, as
fresh "victims" for the system.
As for Mary, she was out of the exotic atmosphere of gossip and scandal
and system-mongering. It would have surprised her extremely if she had
been told that whole luncheon parties at villas, and tea-parties at
second-rate hotels, thrived and battened on talk concerning her affairs,
past, present, and to come. She was so happy that she felt often as if
she loved everybody in the world, and longed to make everybody else as
happy, or almost as happy, as she.
For two days after meeting the Princess Della Robbia she was thoughtful,
and a little absent-minded even with Vanno; but when his brother and
sister-in-law came together to call upon her, Marie appeared so
light-hearted, so entirely at ease, that Mary began to regain her
spirits again. It was foolish to feel sad and anxious, almost
conscience-stricken, about Marie, if Marie had none of these feelings
about herself.
Then Mrs. Winter gave a large "At Home" in Miss Grant's honour, which
was a great success. Marie did not come, because she was unfortunately
suffering with headache; but Prince Della Robbia appeared, and stood
most of the time near Mary and Vanno.
It was wonderful how many people knew and liked the Winters. All the
most interesting "personages" on the Riviera passed through Rose's
pretty rooms that afternoon, if but to say "How do you do?" and
"Goodbye," and make the acquaintance of Prince Vanno, with the
Princess-to-be. Everybody came, from a dowdy and perfectly charming
German royalty down to poor old General Caradine, who had played
roulette for twenty-five years, with the same live Mexican toad for a
fetish; whose two great boasts were that he had learned the language of
birds, and that he had fought a duel with a man for defaming Queen Mary
of Scots. There were an English Foreign Secretary and a leader of the
Opposition hobnobbing together. There was an author who wrote under two
names, and had come to study Monte Carlo in order to write two
epoch-making novels, one in favour of the Casino, one against, and was
taking notes of everybody he met, for both books. There was an Austrian
princess who had more beautiful jewels than any woman at Monte Carlo,
except a celebrated dancer who was taking a rest cure at the Hôtel de
Paris; and there was the princess' half-sister who had married a poor
artist and lived in his house in the mountains, doing her own cooking.
Also there were all Rose's queer black sheep who yielded meekly to her
ribbon-wreathed crook, though they "butted" against George's methods.
Some of these were seriously shorn sheep, yet Rose would not for worlds
have hurt their feelings by forgetting to invite them.
It was a marvellously incongruous assemblage, as most large and
far-reaching entertainments at Monte Carlo must be; and odd things
happened in corners behind tea-tables, such as young gamblers producing
large wads of notes freshly won in the Rooms and flourishing them under
the eyes of ladies who tabooed the name of the Casino. But there was no
gossip, no scandal: for somehow in "St. George" Winter's house one felt
warmly disposed even to one's enemies; and no unkind words were spoken
by any one except General Caradine. He, who had a habit of mumbling his
secret thoughts aloud unconsciously, was heard to mutter: "Same old
crew: same dull lot, year after year, world without end. Damned tired of
'em!"
This party cleared the air for Mary. Engaged to Prince Vanno Della
Robbia, approved by his elder brother, and the guest of the popular
Winters, those who counted in the great world were quite ready to forget
that she had been "rather talked about," or else to like her all the
better for that reason. It was only the people who were on the fringe of
things, like Mrs. Cayley-Binns, or beyond the pale, like Mrs. Holbein or
Lady Dauntrey, who bitterly remembered her eccentricities.
The day after Rose's "At Home" for Miss Grant was Mary's last as the
Winters' guest. Princess Della Robbia wanted her at the Villa Mirasole,
and Vanno wished her to go. He had written to tell the Duke of his
engagement; and as his father begged him to come home and talk it over,
he thought of leaving soon, for three or four days. He felt that, if he
must part from Mary, he would like her to be at his brother's house.
While Rose's maid obligingly packed her things, Mary went out on that
last afternoon for a walk with Vanno. He had a special object in view,
it seemed, but intended it to be a surprise.
First, he took her to the rock of the tablet, "Remember eternal at my
heart." It was early, and fashionable folk were still lingering over
their luncheons at the restaurants, therefore the two had the long road,
in curve after curve of dusty whiteness, all to themselves, as if hour
and place were both their own.
"It was here we first spoke to each other," Vanno said, "here where
another man of Italy who loved a girl of your country had the great
moment of his life to remember. Something made me speak to you at this
spot. Perhaps where love has been--everlasting love--it leaves an
influence always, something stronger and more eternal and far more
subtle than words carved in a tablet of marble or stone. Who can tell
about such things in life, things that are in life yet beyond and behind
it, where we can catch only whispers of a message and a mystery?
Perhaps it was the influence of that other love which made me speak in
spite of myself--for I hadn't meant to speak. I wanted to tell you here,
dearest one, _cara_, _carissima_, how I love you--how my love for you is
'eternal at my heart' and my soul--all there is of me."
He took both her hands, and when his eyes had said again to her eyes
what his lips had just spoken, they both looked up at the words on the
marble tablet.
"If those two who loved each other return in spirit sometimes together,"
Vanno said, "I think they must have been here the day when we first met
at this spot, and that they are here again now. If they see us they know
why we have come, and they are glad and pleased with us, like two lovers
who 'make a match' between dear friends."
"It is a beautiful thought of yours," Mary answered; "and it seems so
real that I can almost see those lovers. But remember the story--how
they were parted forever on this earth. Do you know, I feel almost--just
a tiny bit--superstitious. I mean about our coming here especially to
make a vow of eternal love to each other. What if we, too, should be
parted?"
"Darling, nothing can part us," Vanno assured her, "because love has
made our hearts one, now and forever. You and I have belonged to each
other since time began, through hundreds of earth-lives perhaps, and
thousands of vicissitudes: always finding one another again. A little
while ago, a cloud came between us, and it seemed as if we might be
swept away from one another; but it passed, and we found each other and
ourselves, in the light, far above cloudline. That's why I say, nothing
can part us now, not even death. And as for this tablet of two parted
lovers, it wasn't put up to commemorate their sorrows, but their
happiness; and so it can bring us only happiness."
"Look!" Mary exclaimed, standing back a little from the mule path which
descended there, and pressing closer under the rock of the tablet.
Winding down the path came a little procession, a few peasants
bareheaded, dressed in black, clean and piteous in their neatness. The
women were silently crying, tears wet on their brown cheeks, their eyes
red. The men, two who were old and two who were young, carried a very
small, roughly made bier, on which was a tiny coffin almost covered with
flowers, and wild, scented herbs of the mountains. Their thick boots
clattered on the cobblestones, but they made no other sound, and none
raised their eyes as they went by. It was as if the lovers were
invisible to them, as though they were of a different order of being
which the sad eyes were not fitted to see.
As the procession defiled upon the main road, at the foot of the mule
path it paused a moment. Though the mourners did not see him, Vanno took
off his hat and stood with it held rather high above his head, in his
right hand, as is the custom with all Latin men for the passing of a
funeral. The driver of a landau that climbed the hill, and a chauffeur
driving an automobile down toward the lower Corniche, paid the same
reverence to the little coffin, giving right of way to the procession
before moving on. The funeral turned in the direction of Roquebrune, and
Mary and Vanno guessed that it was going to the church there, and the
curé. But in the landau which had waited was a pretty young bride and a
tall-hatted bridegroom, with bridesmaid and "best man." They were
evidently beginning the honeymoon, which would consist of a long drive
in wedding finery and flowers, then a dinner, and perhaps the grand
_finale_ of a dance. At sight of the funeral coming out from the mule
path and passing directly in front of their horses, the bride let fall
her huge bouquet, and regardless of tulle veil and fluffy laces, cast
herself into her husband's arms, hiding her face on his shoulder.
"_Quel mauvais signe!_" muttered the driver, as he put on his much
paraffined silk hat, settled his wedding _boutonnière_ in its place, and
drove on at a trot.
Mary looked up at Vanno without speaking, but her eyes, saddened by the
sorrow of others, asked a question.
"'In the midst of life!'" Vanno quoted. "But it is not a bad sign for us
or for any one. And even if we were superstitious, we saw the wedding
_last_."