At midday, before and after luncheon, the telephones at all the
hotels and villas did nothing but ring in their little cupboards, and
in German, English, and French--especially in German--there was an
incessant calling, questioning and answering. The morning that had
spread over the Engadine a sky which seemed a shimmering mantle of
azure silk, and that had given to the eye an inexplicable brightness,
and to every panting breast a contented appearance, almost as if
it were a strange, sublime potion, had developed into a splendid
afternoon. Men and women who had lazily passed the morning hours in an
hotel room, or in strolling up and down the nearer meeting-places of
the Bad and Dorf, were seized with a desire of faring forth, away along
the majestic roads and paths and hills--everywhere an afternoon could
be lived in the open air.
In the hotel halls and drawing-rooms there was a continual making
and organising of plans, a calling up by telephone of other hotels,
coach-hirers, and remote restaurants up above and tea-rooms, to summon
friends and acquaintances together, to order carriages and bespeak teas
for fifteen and twenty persons. Frau Mentzel, the exceedingly wealthy
Hamburg Jewess--she herself was a Dutchwoman, her husband an American,
and her sons had been born in different countries of the world--who was
unable to live without a court of ten or fifteen persons at lunch or
dinner, and who could not pass twenty-four hours without changing her
dress four times, who threw her money out of the window and yet always
talked about money, and quoted the price of her clothes and how much
the flowers that adorned her table had cost; Frau Mentzel, courted by
all the parasites of both sexes, telephoned to her friends from the
"Stahlbad," where she was staying, and which at all hours of the day
was filled with the noise of her train, to come at once, as she was
setting out for the Fexthal glacier to take tea up there, and on every
side the usual parasites said yes; but others, the smart people, whom
Frau Mentzel would have liked to have had with her, fenced and adduced
excuses of other outings and excursions.
Don Lucio Sabini answered Frau Mentzel at the telephone that he was
unable to come since he was engaged for tea elsewhere, moreover the
Fexthal glacier was unfortunately too far-off for him to go and look
her up. The beautiful Madame Lawrence, from the "Palace," advised all
her suitors and a lady friend or two that they were going in five or
six carriages to Maloja, that they would leave at three, not later, so
as to arrive at five at the Kursaal Maloja; but her lady friends were
few, all more or less insignificant as to physiognomies, dresses and
hats, in order that she should shine like a jewel among them. Vittorio
Lante, who for an evening had attached himself to the court of the
divinity of the year, excused himself from going to the Maloja; for
with a group of friends he had been invited by Mrs. Clarke to tea at
the Golf Club. Countess Fulvia Gioia telephoned from the "Victoria"
to two of her friends to ask if they were disposed to walk with her
to Pontresina and back, a walk through the woods of about three
hours, but so pleasant and peaceful amidst the pines, along the white
torrent that descends from the Bernina. Although her second youth was
waning, Countess Fulvia kept her beauty, preserving her health by
living a life of action, ardour, and open air, passing July at the
seaside, August in the mountains, the autumn in the country: so all her
youthful fascination lasted, and that in homage to the last powerful
and profound love which held her completely, to which she was bound by
an indissoluble knot because it was the last. Of the two friends, the
Duchesse de Langeais, a French woman of her own age, who treasured her
beauty as a precious thing in the half-light, refused, fearing light,
air, and fatigue, lest they should all discover the invincible traces
of age, and fearing lest certain weaknesses and troubles should be too
apparent after such a walk. The other, Donna Carlotta Albano, an old
lady, who welcomed without sorrow the end of beauty, youth, and love,
as she set herself to love what remains after love is over, accepted.
From Sils Maria the Misses Ellen and Norah West telephoned their friend
Mabel Clarke to ask if they could look in at the "Palace" about four
o'clock to take her with them to tea at the "Belvoir," the restaurant
half-way from Pontresina; but smiling at the telephone Mabel Clarke
declared that mamma had invited some delightful young men to tea with
them at the Golf Club, and that, even so near as they were to St.
Moritz, it was quite impossible that day.
At the Grand Hotel the Spanish lady with the soft eyebrows painted
black, and lips painted red, with cheeks disappearing beneath a stratum
of _veloutine Rachel_, but in spite of this of a most alluring beauty,
Donna Mercédès de Fuentes, was torturing herself and her husband,
really to know where the high society of the Engadine would foregather
at tea on that day, and where she could take a sister and her friend,
who had arrived the day before from Madrid, to show them this high
society. At each different news with which Francis Mornand, the
chronicler of the Engadine, whimsically furnished her, Donna Mercédès
de Fuentes, restless and agitated, changed her mind, suffering in
every fibre from her snobbishness.
By two o'clock, and at three and four, the coming and going, the
meeting and disappearing of the large stage-coaches drawn by four
horses and full of gentlemen and ladies, of large brakes filled with
smiling girls and young men, of landaus drawn by impatient horses, of
victorias with solitary couples, became even more vertiginous.
There was a running greeting from one carriage to another, a moment's
halt to invite each other to set out together, and a prompt acceptance
from someone who was jumping up into his carriage smiling. There was
a general giving of appointments for dinner and for the evening, with
a gay cry in French, in English, or in German; there was a cracking
of whips, a tinkling of horses' bells, and sounding of coach horns,
and over all a fluttering of the veils of every colour and shade which
surrounded the ladies' heads.
The carriages descended towards Silvaplana, Sils, Fexthal, and the
Maloja; they ascended towards Pontresina, the Roseg glacier, and the
Morteratch glacier, towards Samaden and Celerina. The departure of
the five or six carriages of Madame Lawrence towards the Maloja was
impressive. She was in the first in a completely white costume with
face and head enveloped in a close green veil, but so transparent that
the large grey-blue eyes and the golden hair, strikingly combed into
big tresses, were well discernible.
As for Frau Mentzel's party, her stage-coach and other equipages had
ascended and descended three times from St. Moritz Bad to St. Moritz
Dorf, with a great flourish of horns, to pick up people, but in reality
to attract attention. However, it was all done so late that they would
never reach the Fexthal glacier, and, at the most, the restaurant for
tea. Still that sufficed.
Donna Mercédès de Fuentes, as she descended in her large landau
towards the Maloja, experienced a heart-burning at seeing the equipage
of Her Royal Highness, the reigning Princess of Salm, directed towards
"Belvoir," where, it seemed, Her Royal Highness had invited ten or a
dozen French, English, German, and Italian ladies, actually the ten or
twelve noblest of the noble. Also the carriage of Her Royal Highness,
the Grand Duchess of Gotha, was directed up above; but she was not
going to tea. She was going to Celerina, as she did each day, to visit
the great doctor who lived there. The Grand Duchess was ill, but to
deceive herself into feeling better she went to the doctor daily. And
Donna Mercédès de Fuentes registered a vow to herself that if ever she
were ill in the Engadine, she would only allow herself to be healed by
the doctor of the Grand Duchess at Celerina.
A great moral laziness had seized Lucio Sabini on that second portion
of the day. Two or three telephone calls had invited him to go in
gay and amiable society to two or three different places, and two or
three easy excuses had served him to decline the invitations--the
Roseg glacier, a boating party on the Lake of the Maloja, a visit to
Friedrich Nietzsche's house at Sils Maria. All were excuses to meet
once more, after a hundred times, people already known; to talk on the
way, without ever looking where they were passing, of the incidental
things of the day before, and of the days before that, and then to
finish, not before the colossal wall of a glacier, not in a poetical
crossing of a lonely lake amidst the lofty black mountains, not before
a little garden of rose bushes, geraniums, and yellow marguerites, that
the eyes of the poet of Zarathustra had seen born and perish, from May
to September, at Sils Maria, but at tea-tables laden with toast, cakes
and pastry and plates of confectionery at the restaurants half-way
between the glaciers, in the smart _latterie_, in the halls of large
hotels, and vestibules of small hotels. "Glaciers, lakes, hills, large
tracts, villages," thought Lucio Sabini, in a bad temper; "all little
excuses to wrap up in a large veil and drive in a carriage, speaking
ill of worthy people and beautiful things--and to take tea!"
However, to conquer his attack of misanthropy, after lunch he went
for a stroll along the road, to excuse himself again to those whose
invitation he had refused, to greet some more sympathetic and elect
acquaintance, and to watch some unknown faces passing, those solitary
faces that attracted him powerfully. What a lot of people he had seen
thus, climbing, descending, and stopping half-way, and setting out
again in the early hours of the afternoon, as he quietly came and went
to the "Palace" and the "Badruth," stopping and chatting with everyone,
foregathering with some friend just about to leave, commenting with
irony and sometimes with bitterness on certain bizarre, clamorous and
scandalous events. But still all this giddy worldliness had not excited
him. Gradually he saw everyone he knew and did not know pass up and
down; then a dominant thought, at first vague and uncertain, afterwards
more insistent, mastered him. At noon, on entering his hotel, at the
porter's box, he had read a notice in German that the day before a
lady's silver purse had been lost in the gardens near the tennis-court,
and it was requested that the purse should be returned for a reward to
the porter of the Hôtel Kulm.
"An hotel for American and English women," he thought at once. "This
Lilian will be a governess of fifty, with a maroon veil to her hat. She
will give me a dollar for a reward in exchange for her purse." And he
laughed at his little romance.
Moreover, when, through a singular and inexplicable motive of
fastidiousness, he had refused all the invitations that would have
carried him far-away from the Hôtel Kulm, and had seen the great
crowd set off gradually, excited by another experience and the life in
the open air, but seated in carriages beneath rugs and veils; when he
found himself alone, he was again conquered by the desire of finding
and knowing her who had lost the silver purse. He thought himself
sometimes puerile and sometimes downright grotesque. But he believed
in opportunity; so a little later he watched the simpler, modest, and
unknown people set off on foot through the Alpine paths to the Meierei,
to Waldschlossli, to Oberalpina or Unteralpina, all those who were fond
of walking or could not afford to spend money on carriages, and he saw
them disappear along the roads and lanes, beneath the trees, or across
the tall grass. Towards four o'clock he observed that the broad roads
and paths were becoming almost deserted, and silence and peace to be
enveloping St. Moritz Bad and St. Moritz Dorf. Then it was that slowly
he took the path that leads from the central place of the Dorf, where
the tram stops, to the Engadine "Kulm."
He thought: "Probably this Lilian is very ugly; but surely she has a
beautiful soul. What does it matter? I shall be very polite to her for
some minutes."
On arriving at the big door of the "Kulm" he entered slowly, to make
inquiries from the porter, as if it were of no consequence.
"The person who has lost the silver purse," replied the porter at once,
"is Miss Temple."
"Ah," said Lucio, "and is Miss Temple in the hotel?"
"No, she has gone out for a walk. You can leave the purse with me."
"No; I would rather return. Do you know where Miss Temple has gone?"
"She has gone out as usual with her friend, Miss Ford. I believe they
have gone towards Chasselas."
"Towards Chasselas? Two single ladies? Both young?" As a matter of fact
he waited for the reply with secret trepidation.
"One is young, the other is not."
And Lucio Sabini, like a boy, or a student, did not want to, and did
not know how to, ask anything else. He turned his back, left the hotel,
and stopping for a moment, he tried to remember the way that leads
from the Dorf to Chasselas. It was a walk, at a good pace, of about
three-quarters of an hour. He believed in opportunity. He set out; but
he had not walked three minutes before he met a group of people, one
of whom greeted him with a smile. Mrs. Clarke and Miss Mabel Clarke
were climbing towards the Golf Club accompanied by various men. The
graceful American girl, with her slender and flexible figure, was
walking well in front, in a light grey dress, her little head crowned
with a hat surrounded by roses, beneath which her chestnut hair surged
in rebellious waves, breaking over the white forehead and covering the
tips of the little pink ears. Beside her was Don Vittorio Lante della
Scala, and the two were carrying on a friendly and lively conversation,
as they looked and smiled at each other, Vittorio Lante with sweet and
serious eyes, together with that quick virile smile that is a grace
in an Italian face. Behind came Mrs. Clarke in a very fashionable and
rich dress, certainly too rich to go to tea at the Golf Club. On her
old lace cravat shone a solitary jewel, to wit, a small thread of gold
from which were hanging, like drops, two enormous emeralds shaped like
pears. On her head was the large hat with the feather that the more
mature American women delight in at all hours of the day and night.
Mrs. Clarke's countenance was, as usual, calm and inexpressive, with
Mabel's fine features which had become gross and fat. Beside her was
the Marquis de Jouy, a young Frenchman, very brilliant and witty, full
of pretensions, whose fixed idea was to speak well of all countries
save his own, and constantly to speak ill of France; thereby he
thought himself most original. His latest caprice was for America and
Americans; he sought them out everywhere, going into ecstasies at every
speech and every act of theirs. There was also the Vicomte di Loewe,
a Belgian, a most ardent and fortunate gambler, who always attached
himself to gamblers of both sexes who were rich and inexperienced; and
two or three other Austrian and French gentlemen, all more or less
courtiers of the mother or daughter, for diverse objects, but whose
sole magnet as a matter of fact was the Clarke money.
Lucio Sabini stopped for a moment, as he smiled at Vittorio Lante:
with an expressive glance he questioned, approved, and congratulated
discreetly. With a single glance Vittorio also answered, thanked, and
hoped discreetly. The two friends understood each other without any
of the bystanders having understood. The Clarke party pursued its
way towards the Golf Club, while Lucio Sabini set out for the Wald
Promenade, a path that dominates the main road from St. Moritz Dorf
to Campfer, and that guards St. Moritz Bad from on high amidst the
trees. It was a little path now entirely discovered to view, showing
the country down below with a lake that seemed much smaller, like a
silver cup, beneath a sky that was growing white as the day declined,
now hidden by dense foliage of large bushes and trees. At that hour in
which all had reached their goal, in which carriages and people were
in front of the restaurants, and in the _latterie_ and hotel saloons,
ladies, with veils unloosed, were carrying cups of tea to their lips,
while the men were eating buttered toast; in that declining hour of
the day not a soul was traversing the Wald Promenade. Lucio Sabini
hurried, though he smiled at his haste, as he thought that perhaps, no
certainly, he would never meet Miss Lilian Temple and her friend, who
quite likely had not even gone to Chasselas or had taken another way,
or would take another way thence to return to the Dorf; whom perhaps
he would not recognise as he did not know them, for he could not ask
all the ladies he should meet if they were Miss Lilian Temple and Miss
Ford. But that day--why, he knew not--he believed ever more firmly in
Destiny. Suddenly the path inclined, the trees became scarcer: the Wald
Promenade, the walk in the wood, ended, and he saw at once that he
could not be very far from Chasselas.
The day continued to decline. Already the sun was hidden between the
two lofty snow peaks, between the proud Monte Albana and the majestic
Julier. Much further to right and left the more modest heights of the
Polaschin and the gentle Suvretta at that first hour of sunset had
become light and transparent beneath the pearlish-grey sky. In front
of him Lucio saw the broad road that he had followed parallely, which
starts from the Dorf, incline below, all white behind a promontory,
as it goes towards Campfer. To his right a small, green, open valley
climbed in a pleasant curve, with scarcely sloping meadows crowned with
small hedges and trees, towards a little group of white houses. To
the left a large grassy bank, leafy and very dense, hid the rumbling
course of the Inn with its rocks, and the road that returned to St.
Moritz Bad. Further below the scene opened out, giving a glimpse of the
little lake of Campfer with the village nestling on its shore, then a
large tongue of land, and much further still the lake of Silvaplana,
and further off, but imposing with its two white peaks, was the Margna
covered with eternal snow.
Lucio stood and watched. He remembered now that those little white
houses up there on the ascending little valley were Chasselas. He
looked again, beyond and around. It was the point where the four roads
divide; in fact the four sign-posts were a little further on, with
their little red flags picked out in white with four inscriptions. If
Miss Temple had gone to Chasselas, and if she had not already returned
thence, she must pass there. A fountain hard by was singing its little
water song. There was a seat there: he sat down. Some people passed
as they came from Chasselas: first two Germans, husband and wife, the
one in front, the other behind, with gymnastic step, both red in the
face and taciturn, the wife with a black skirt held up by some elastic
bands; then came a nursemaid who was hurrying with her two little ones;
then no one else. The day declined.
Suddenly, as he looked a little ahead, Lucio perceived a small white
wall encircling a field: a little open gate joined together the two
sides of the small wall. This little wall was so low that flowers
with long stems showed themselves above it, bright flowers that bent
themselves slightly to the evening wind. He thought that it might be
one of the numerous pretty and flourishing gardens which surround the
little villas and houses of Switzerland; but he perceived neither villa
nor house. Instead he discovered amidst the clusters of flowers some
white stones. Then he understood that, without seeking for it, he had
found a little cemetery, the little cemetery of St. Moritz Dorf, far
from habitation, perched aloft behind a wood, a little cemetery all
flowery, gracious, and solitary. Immediately afterwards he saw, along
the wall, two feminine forms leaning over to look at the modest tombs
so well surrounded by groups of little plants and brightly coloured
flowers. The two ladies were separated from each other by a few paces,
and they were watching silently.
"Miss Temple?" asked Lucio Sabini of the first lady, taking off his hat.
A serious face already touched by years turned to him. The lady replied
in a low voice:
"No, sir." And turning towards her companion, she called out in English:
"Darling!"
The other came forward at once.
"Miss Temple?" asked Lucio Sabini again.
The young woman raised her eyes of purest blue, whence emanated a sweet
light; a slight blush coursed beneath the transparent skin of her
virginal face, and she replied:
"Yes, sir."
A long minute of silence followed. The three were standing near the
beautiful, little, solitary cemetery, where had been sleeping in the
high mountains for years, or months, or days, unknown men, women, and
children; the flowers were hardly bowing over the stones, which were
becoming even whiter in the sunset.
"I beg pardon," murmured Lucio, recovering his composure. "I have to
restore you something, Miss Temple."
"My purse--really!" she exclaimed, advancing a little, somewhat
anxiously.
"Here it is, _miss_."
And drawing the precious object from his pocket he gave it to Miss
Lilian Temple. The beautiful eyes glanced with sweetness, and the
mouth, so perfect, smiled; the little hand clasped the recovered
object, as if to caress it.
"Thank you, sir," she added.
Then she stretched out the little hand that was free, gloved in white.
He took it lightly and kept it but for a moment in his own, then he
released it with a deep bow.
Miss May Ford, silent, indifferent, strange, waited. Now all three
were silent, while for a long time Lucio Sabini fixed his eyes on the
enchanting face for which the blond hair made a soft aureole. At last
he said, with a courteous smile:
"Did not Miss Temple promise a reward to whomsoever brought back her
purse?"
The girl, marvelling a little, raised her eyebrows, questioning the
Italian gentleman without speaking.
"Lucio Sabini asks her, as reward, to be allowed to accompany her now
as far as the 'Kulm.'"
"Certainly, sir," replied the girl at once in a frank way. "My dear
friend, Miss May Ford, Signor Lucio Sabini."
The elderly English lady replied with cold courtesy to the greeting of
Don Lucio Sabini. And without giving another glance to the surrounding
country, which was enveloping itself in the finest tints, from a
delicate violet to the most delicate green, the three withdrew from the
quiet cemetery and proceeded silently along the broad high road that
leads to the Dorf. Lilian Temple's step was rather quick, and Lucio
Sabini adapted his to the girl's. Miss May Ford went more slowly.
"Are you glad, Miss Temple, to have found your purse?" he began to say
in his insinuating voice that in French became even more penetrating.
"So glad: I am very grateful to you, Signor."
"You valued it, then?"
"Very much."
"Perhaps it was a souvenir, or a gift?" he ventured to ask,
scrutinising those beautiful blue eyes.
But the girl lowered her eyelids; she did not reply.
He understood that he had asked too much; they were silent for a little.
"Do you know Italy, Miss Temple?" he resumed.
"I know Italy; not all, though," she replied, again courteously. "I
hope to see it all later on."
"And do you like our country, Miss Temple?"
"Yes, Signor," she murmured, her voice a little veiled.
Again their eyes met and fixed each other for an instant, as they both
walked a little ahead.
"Which city pleased you most, Miss Temple?" he asked, bending towards
her, lowering his voice still more.
"Florence," she replied.
"Florence; I ought to have guessed it!"
"Why guess it?"
"Didn't you write a verse from Dante in your pocket-book?" he asked,
looking fixedly at her.
"Then you read my pocket-book?" she exclaimed, stopping, confused and
hurt.
"Why, yes! Have I done wrong, Miss Temple?"
She bent her head; her mouth became serious and almost severe, and she
hurried her step.
"Have I really done so wrong, Miss Temple?" he asked, this time with
genuine anxiety.
She shook her head without replying; her gentle face had already become
sweet again.
"Anyone would have read that pocket-book, Miss Temple," he added, quite
sadly.
"Not an Englishman, Signor," she said in a low voice.
"That is true, not an Englishman; but an Italian, yes," he replied.
"Our fantasy is as ardent as our hearts. You must understand us to
excuse us, Miss Temple."
"It doesn't matter, Signor," she replied seriously, with a little smile
of indulgence. "I know Italy, but not Italians. If they are as ardent
as you say, it no longer matters having read my pocket-book, Signor."
"And you will pardon an Italian who confesses his fault, and is very
sorry for it?" he asked in that penetrating tone of his, where always
there seemed to be deep emotion.
Miss Lilian Temple looked at him an instant, furtively.
"Oh, yes, Signor; I pardon you willingly."
And gracefully, with a spontaneous, youthful gesture, she again offered
him her hand, as if rancour could not exist in her gentle soul. At
such ingenuous kindness the man, over whose mind had passed such
fearful tempests, leaving their ineffaceable traces, felt a tremor
of complacency, as he pressed that little hand, which was given him
without hesitation and so sincerely.
It grew darker. A pungent breath of wind arose, whirling and causing
the trees to rustle. The two ladies wanted to put on their coats,
which up to then they had carried on their arms, and Lucio performed
the gallant duty of helping both of them, then he exchanged some words
with Miss May Ford, the elderly lady who kept silent with such English
dignity.
He, however, with his constant desire of conquest, instead of returning
her speech in French, as he had done with Miss Temple, had the
politeness to speak in English, a tongue that he spoke slowly, but with
certainty and some elegance.
Upon the rather severe and purposely impassive face of Miss Ford, there
appeared for the first time a gracious expression. Now the three walked
together, Lucio having Miss Ford on his right and Lilian Temple on the
other side of her friend: all three talked English. A sudden wind that
was becoming rough revolved in whirling circles. On the road by which
they were pursuing their return, and on which they still more hurried
their steps, there was a continuous returning of all the equipages
which three hours previously had left the Dorf for Sils, Fexthal, the
Maloja, and which to get home more quickly were returning at a lively
trot from the Campfer road towards the Dorf. In the carriages the
women had put on their large, dark cloaks, and the white and light
dresses of the early hours of the afternoon, all joyous in the sun, had
vanished: cold and silent, they wrapped themselves in their cloaks.
Some had buried their necks in thick fur stoles, and the large, flowing
veils had been closed round the hats, and tied round the neck in ample
knots, like large handkerchiefs or scarves.
The men had put on their overcoats, raising the collars, and they had
lowered the flaps of their soft felt hats. In many of the carriages the
broad rugs, some white and soft, others striped like tiger skins, had
been spread. On all who were returning there was seemingly a feeling
of weariness. The women lolled well back in the seats of the carriage,
some with the head thrown back a little as if to repose, others with
bowed forehead, but all were silent, with their white-gloved hands lost
in the large sleeves of their cloaks or hidden beneath the carriage
rug; the men had that air of weariness and boredom that ages the
physiognomy of the youngest. All were weary through having once again
chattered vainly of vain things, through having flirted with trite and
cold words, with accustomed and banal actions; they were tired of all
this, but without wishing to confess it and attributing their weariness
to the open air, in which they were unaccustomed to live for so many
hours. They were ready, when they had passed along the road now beaten
by the strong, gelid evening wind, and had reached the warmth of their
hotels, amidst the shining lights, to resume the same conversations,
and begin again the same flirtations, till the night was advanced.
Now all were silent and bored: the women were almost pallid beneath
their veils, the tints of which were becoming uniform in the rapidly
increasing dusk.
The men, no longer gracious, were glad to be silent, being desirous of
arriving quickly at their hotels. Thus they passed at a brisk trot,
and the three wayfarers had repeatedly to avoid them. Suddenly the
carriage of Madame Lawrence, that year's beauty, passed, followed by
four or five others. She had placed over her white dress a large, round
cloak without sleeves, of a very dark red cloth, and to be original she
had taken off the immense hat covered with a large green veil, and had
drawn over her head the dark red hood trimmed with old silver lace.
From the back of this hood appeared her calm and thoughtful beauty,
the large eyes, clear and penetrating, gleamed, and the blond tresses,
braided round the head in Florentine fashion, caused her in that red
cloak, so like a soldier's tunic of olden times, and beneath that
hood, to look like the woman whom the Italian poet loved. Miss Temple
followed her with a long stare and then glanced at Lucio Sabini.
"Do you like Madame Lawrence?" asked Miss Ford.
"She is beautiful; but I don't like her," he replied.
"Why?" asked Miss Temple.
"I prefer the violets," replied Lucio, with a smile.
"Violets, Signor?" again questioned the girl.
"The modest beauties, Miss Temple. The beauties who hide themselves."
"Ah," she replied, without further remark.
They had almost reached the "Kulm," when a group of four men came
towards them on foot. They emerge from a path that tortuously descends
and re-climbs a small valley towards the end of the village. They were
Don Giovanni Vergas, an Italian gentleman of a great Southern family,
seventy years of age, with a still lively physiognomy, in spite of a
fine, correctly cut white beard; Monsieur Jean Morel, a Frenchman,
a Parisian, an old man of eighty, slender of figure, shrivelled and
upright, with a clean-shaven face, furrowed with a thousand wrinkles,
but on which physical strength was still to be read; Herr Otto von
Raabe, a German from Berlin, a man of forty, tall, bony, and imposing,
with a brown and haggard face, a little black, bristling beard,
streaked with white, and two blue eyes, blue as blue-bottle flowers
and the sky, and finally Massimo Granata, a Southern Italian, with a
thin, yellowish face that could never have known youth, with a body
all twisted with the rickets. He was already advanced in years, and
invalided by a long, slow, incurable disease; his glance scintillated
with goodness and intelligence, and a dreamy expression was in all his
countenance.
The well-cut boots of Don Giovanni Vergas and the Parisian, Jean Morel,
were covered with dust, as also were the big stout boots of Otto von
Raabe and Massimo Granata. All four, in costume and bearing, had the
appearance of having walked far. The German carried a large bundle of
Alpine flowers, formed of wild geraniums, fine and rosy, bluebells long
of stalk, and tall green grasses streaked with white, and his face
every now and then was bent over the mountain flowers. Massimo Granata
pressed to his bosom a bunch of gentians, some dark, some light, of a
dark and pale violet, and of a violet-blue. The meeting with the four
was for a moment only: their words were rapid and joyous.
"Where have you been?" asked Lucio Sabini.
"On high, on high," exclaimed Jean Morel vivaciously.
"To the Alp Nova," replied Don Giovanni Vergas, with a smile.
"Four hours climbing and descending," continued Otto von Raabe, with a
very German guttural accent, and a kind smile on his large mouth.
"And we have all these beautiful flowers, Sabini, these beautiful
gentians," concluded Massimo Granata, as if in a dream.
They greeted each other and vanished. Lucio followed them for a moment
with his eyes.
"They do not come from a restaurant," he murmured, as if to himself.
"What do you mean, Signor?" asked Miss Temple, looking at him with her
beautiful eyes that questioned so ingenuously.
"These friends of mine, Miss Temple, have all of them been far on high
to-day, all of them, even the oldest and the invalid."
He spoke as in a dream, in the evening that had already fallen.
"And they gathered those blue and violet flowers," added Miss Temple,
thoughtfully and dreamily.
There was a little silence.
"The mountain flowers are so beautiful," continued the English girl;
"and the mountains themselves are so near to heaven."
"Would you like to climb up there, Miss Temple?"
"Yes, Signor; even where there are no flowers, even where there are
only rocks and eternal snows," she added mysteriously, with lowered
eyes.
That white, cold, pure vision remained in her beautiful eyes when she
took leave of Lucio Sabini and disappeared with her friend into the
hall of the Hôtel Kulm. Alone, in the dark evening, he was surrounded
by the cold wind, and all his soul was invaded by an unknown,
inexplicable, and mortal sadness.