XL

It was Mrs. Luna who received him, as she had received him on the

occasion of his first visit to Charles Street; by which I do not mean

quite in the same way. She had known very little about him then, but she

knew too much for her happiness to-day, and she had with him now a

little invidious, contemptuous manner, as if everything he should say or

do could be a proof only of abominable duplicity and perversity. She had

a theory that he had treated her shamefully; and he knew it--I do not

mean the fact, but the theory: which led him to reflect that her

resentments were as shallow as her opinions, inasmuch as if she really

believed in her grievance, or if it had had any dignity, she would not

have consented to see him. He had not presented himself at Miss

Chancellor's door without a very good reason, and having done so he

could not turn away so long as there was any one in the house of whom he

might have speech. He had sent up his name to Mrs. Luna, after being

told that she was staying there, on the mere chance that she would see

him; for he thought a refusal a very possible sequel to the letters she

had written him during the past four or five months--letters he had

scarcely read, full of allusions of the most cutting sort to proceedings

of his, in the past, of which he had no recollection whatever. They

bored him, for he had quite other matters in his mind.

"I don't wonder you have the bad taste, the crudity," she said, as soon

as he came into the room, looking at him more sternly than he would have

believed possible to her.

He saw that this was an allusion to his not having been to see her since

the period of her sister's visit to New York; he having conceived for

her, the evening of Mrs. Burrage's party, a sentiment of aversion which

put an end to such attentions. He didn't laugh, he was too worried and

preoccupied; but he replied, in a tone which apparently annoyed her as

much as any indecent mirth: "I thought it very possible you wouldn't see

me."

"Why shouldn't I see you, if I should take it into my head? Do you

suppose I care whether I see you or not?"

"I supposed you wanted to, from your letters."

"Then why did you think I would refuse?"

"Because that's the sort of thing women do."

"Women--women! You know much about them!"

"I am learning something every day."

"You haven't learned yet, apparently, to answer their letters. It's

rather a surprise to me that you don't pretend not to have received

mine."

Ransom could smile now; the opportunity to vent the exasperation that

had been consuming him almost restored his good humour. "What could I

say? You overwhelmed me. Besides, I did answer one of them."

"One of them? You speak as if I had written you a dozen!" Mrs. Luna

cried.

"I thought that was your contention--that you had done me the honour to

address me so many. They were crushing, and when a man's crushed, it's

all over."

"Yes, you look as if you were in very small pieces! I am glad that I

shall never see you again."

"I can see now why you received me--to tell me that," Ransom said.

"It is a kind of pleasure. I am going back to Europe."

"Really? for Newton's education?"

"Ah, I wonder you can have the face to speak of that--after the way you

deserted him!"

"Let us abandon the subject, then, and I will tell you what I want."

"I don't in the least care what you want," Mrs. Luna remarked. "And you

haven't even the grace to ask me where I am going--over there."

"What difference does that make to me--once you leave these shores?"

Mrs. Luna rose to her feet. "Ah, chivalry, chivalry!" she exclaimed. And

she walked away to the window--one of the windows from which Ransom had

first enjoyed, at Olive's solicitation, the view of the Back Bay. Mrs.

Luna looked forth at it with little of the air of a person who was sorry

to be about to lose it. "I am determined you shall know where I am

going," she said in a moment. "I am going to Florence."

"Don't be afraid!" he replied. "I shall go to Rome."

"And you'll carry there more impertinence than has been seen there since

the old emperors."

"Were the emperors impertinent, in addition to their other vices? I am

determined, on my side, that you shall know what I have come for,"

Ransom said. "I wouldn't ask you if I could ask any one else; but I am

very hard pressed, and I don't know who can help me."

Mrs. Luna turned on him a face of the frankest derision. "Help you? Do

you remember the last time I asked you to help me?"

"That evening at Mrs. Burrage's? Surely I wasn't wanting then; I

remember urging on your acceptance a chair, so that you might stand on

it, to see and to hear."

"To see and to hear what, please? Your disgusting infatuation!"

"It's just about that I want to speak to you," Ransom pursued. "As you

already know all about it, you have no new shock to receive, and I

therefore venture to ask you----"

"Where tickets for her lecture to-night can be obtained? Is it possible

she hasn't sent you one?"

"I assure you I didn't come to Boston to hear it," said Ransom, with a

sadness which Mrs. Luna evidently regarded as a refinement of outrage.

"What I should like to ascertain is where Miss Tarrant may be found at

the present moment."

"And do you think that's a delicate inquiry to make of _me_?"

"I don't see why it shouldn't be, but I know you don't think it is, and

that is why, as I say, I mention the matter to you only because I can

imagine absolutely no one else who is in a position to assist me. I have

been to the house of Miss Tarrant's parents, in Cambridge, but it is

closed and empty, destitute of any sign of life. I went there first, on

arriving this morning, and rang at this door only when my journey to

Monadnoc Place had proved fruitless. Your sister's servant told me that

Miss Tarrant was not staying here, but she added that Mrs. Luna was. No

doubt you won't be pleased at having been spoken of as a sort of

equivalent; and I didn't say to myself--or to the servant--that you

would do as well; I only reflected that I could at least try you. I

didn't even ask for Miss Chancellor, as I am sure she would give me no

information whatever."

Mrs. Luna listened to this candid account of the young man's proceedings

with her head turned a little over her shoulder at him, and her eyes

fixed as unsympathetically as possible upon his own. "What you propose,

then, as I understand it," she said in a moment, "is that I should

betray my sister to you."

"Worse than that; I propose that you should betray Miss Tarrant

herself."

"What do I care about Miss Tarrant? I don't know what you are talking

about."

"Haven't you really any idea where she is living? Haven't you seen her

here? Are Miss Olive and she not constantly together?"

Mrs. Luna, at this, turned full round upon him, and, with folded arms

and her head tossed back, exclaimed: "Look here, Basil Ransom, I never

thought you were a fool, but it strikes me that since we last met you

have lost your wits!"

"There is no doubt of that," Ransom answered, smiling.

"Do you mean to tell me you don't know everything about Miss Tarrant

that can be known?"

"I have neither seen her nor heard of her for the last ten weeks; Miss

Chancellor has hidden her away."

"Hidden her away, with all the walls and fences of Boston flaming to-day

with her name?"

"Oh yes, I have noticed that, and I have no doubt that by waiting till

this evening I shall be able to see her. But I don't want to wait till

this evening; I want to see her now, and not in public--in private."

"Do you indeed?--how interesting!" cried Mrs. Luna, with rippling

laughter. "And pray what do you want to do with her?"