REFLECTIONS
RUTH had her way. When the Martha Washington finally arrived in Naples,
good-byes were said to all their ship's acquaintances and the Rainbow
Ranch party had their first ten days in Italy to themselves. There was a
little time of rest and then visits to the Island of Capri, to the ruins
of Pompeii, to Mount Vesuvius. And before very long Ruth and the four
girls found themselves yielding more than they had dreamed to the
wonderful spell of southern Italy. Not that any one object or place made
so great an impression beyond another, but because Italy seemed so
different from their own land. It was as though they had one day been
transported by an airship for a journey through the planet Jupiter or
Mars.
The soft Italian voices with their tuneful cadences, the laziness and
air of having all eternity for the performance of a task, the big,
brown-eyed beauty of the women and children--it was all irresistible.
Actually the girls felt their own characters changing. Where was their
old energetic desire to take long walks, to rise up early and certainly
never to waste a moment in a nap in the afternoon? Why in Naples one
felt always drowsy, less inclined to talk, and wished only to drive and
dream and feast one's eyes and ears and nose, all the senses at once.
For here was beauty, music and such fragrance, surely the three graces
of nature! And the roses, they were everywhere in bloom, climbing over
every ruined wall and broken gateway, covering whole hillsides, until at
last Jack was obliged to admit that they were as abundant and even more
beautiful than her own wild prairie roses.
But Naples was only to be the Ranch girls' first introduction to Italy,
their first taste of her delights. Rome was really the central object of
their pilgrimage, where the greater part of their time was to be spent.
And Rome Ruth had decided must be taken seriously.
In Naples she had let things drift, had even felt as inactive and
pleasure-loving as her younger companions. But then she had been tired
from her sea voyage. Many persons had said that it required a week or
ten days for recovery if one had been seasick. Also this may have
explained why so frequently of late she had caught herself thinking of
Jim Colter. Why should the nights in Naples recall moonlit evenings on
the ranch which they had spent together years before?
Almost the only suggestion that Jim had made to her before their sailing
was that the girls should acquire enough culture on their European trip
to compensate him for the loss of their society. And Ruth had
conscientiously determined to do her best. All the winter past she had
devoted to the study of Roman history. Indeed, it had helped her pass
many a lonely evening, when otherwise the picture of the Rainbow Lodge
living room, with the girls seated about the fire and the big figure of
their guardian stalking in and out half a dozen times within the hour,
had a fashion of appearing before her eyes.
Ruth had begun her acquaintance with the Ranch girls as their teacher.
So that now, although they were nearly grown, it was hard for her to
give up all her old principles and practices. In their different ways
the four girls were charming, and yet there was much Ruth felt that
they should know. However, the past year had made more changes in their
characters than she could ever have supposed. She had been surprised to
find how much they now cared for people and society, and had been
disappointed as well; for Ruth had not realized that the Ranch girls
were yet old enough for these interests, in spite of the fact that Jack
was nearly twenty and Olive and Jean not so far away. Jack in particular
had been a revelation to Ruth, who had been making special plans for her
intellectual development. For she was the oldest of the four girls and
yet had never had the advantage of Primrose Hall and Miss Winthrop.
After their trip abroad then, there would be time enough for society,
their chaperon decided, actually believing that the natural experiences
of life can be persuaded to wait for set times and set places.
So all the way along the road from Naples to Rome, Ruth was making her
own plans for the four girls, little guessing what was occupying their
minds. Nevertheless their thoughts were as eternal to youth as any
symbol of eternity in the most wonderful of all cities.
"'Tis the center
To which all gravitates. One finds no rest
Elsewhere than here. There may be other cities
That please us for a while, but Rome alone
Completely satisfies."
Or at least this was Ruth Drew's idea, as she sat watching the landscape
fly past her window, with these lines keeping time to the turning of the
car wheels.
Notwithstanding that, Jean Bruce sat exactly opposite, with her eyes
closed showing the length of her dark lashes against the clear pallor of
her cheeks, Jean was not devoting all her energies to reflecting upon
the historic curiosities of ancient Rome. She wanted to see everything
of importance, of course, but she was also wondering if the Princess
Colonna would keep the promise made in their farewells on the steamship.
Would she call on them in Rome and afterwards invite them to meet her
friends? The invitation might possibly be to an afternoon tea; yet even
then there was a chance of meeting some member of the Italian nobility
or other prominent person. And Jean did not think herself a snob because
she wanted to meet big people as well as to see big things. Always they
had led such a quiet life at the ranch, and boarding school had offered
but few opportunities for making outside friends. Indeed, her only other
chances for mingling with the world had been their summer trip through
the Yellowstone and her week's visit to Margaret Belknap during the
Christmas holidays at Primrose Hall. So Jean's social aspirations were
possibly not unreasonable.
And, curiously enough, Olive Van Mater, for at least a portion of their
pilgrimage to Rome, was considering certain friends whom she might
possibly meet there, instead of the marvels of the city itself. For she
was expecting that her cousins, Mrs. Harmon, Donald and Elizabeth, might
make their appearance. And although Olive was fond of all three of them,
she could not look forward to their meeting with pleasure. The truth is
that Olive's grandmother, as we must know from the past volume in this
series, was a self-willed, unwise old woman. No sooner had she seen
Olive and Donald together half a dozen times and noticed the young
fellow's liking for her granddaughter, than she had made up her mind the
way she intended to escape her own difficulty. Why puzzle to decide
whether she should leave her large fortune to the Harmons, as she had so
long promised, or give it to the newly found granddaughter?
"Let the two young persons marry and share the money between them.
Elizabeth could be comforted with a reasonable legacy." This decision
Madame Van Mater had confided to Miss Winthrop almost as soon as the
idea had come into her head. And then, in spite of Miss Winthrop's
openly expressed disapproval, after Olive's return from the ranch for
her second winter at Primrose Hall, her grandmother had made known her
wishes to her.
"So that you may not get any other love nonsense into your head," Madame
Van Mater explained to Olive, as though there could be no possibility of
her desire being disobeyed. And this in spite of the fact that Olive had
insisted that Donald could never care for her or she for him, and that
nothing would induce her to follow her grandmother's wishes. Indeed,
except for Miss Winthrop, Olive might have been made extremely unhappy.
But her friend had explained that Madame Van Mater was growing childish
with age and would probably change her mind in regard to the willing of
her wealth many times before her death. Also she assured her that
Madame Van Mater had never mentioned her purpose to Donald Harmon, and
if Miss Winthrop could influence her, never should. Nevertheless Olive's
peace of mind and pleasure in her cousin's society had been successfully
destroyed by her grandmother's suggestion. Actually the girl lived in a
kind of shy dread of Don's ever finding it out or attempting to follow
Madame Van Mater's wishes. She had always protested that the greater
share of the family fortunes should be left to the Harmons. She herself
would be content with very little and wanted no special favors, since
her grandmother had never brought herself to care for her.
Notwithstanding this, the old lady had seen that her granddaughter had
an even larger sum than the three Ranch girls for her traveling expenses
in Europe. And had said that she was to buy whatever she liked and to
send for more money whenever it was necessary.
Yet Ruth and the girls were traveling in a far more expensive fashion
and spending more money than they ever had before. For, in spite of the
discovery of the Rainbow mine, they had continued to live simply.
Nevertheless, in starting off on their European trip, Jim had advised
them to have a good time and not to worry, as he guessed the gold mine
could do the rest.
So that Jack in the course of her journey from Naples rather wondered if
Captain Madden had not received a wrong impression of the amount of
their wealth. Or possibly Frank Kent had told him. In any case it was
annoying for Frank to have mentioned their financial affairs to so
complete a stranger as Captain Madden had then been. Jack was glad she
had written asking Frank not to join them in Italy. Two years might have
made a great change in his character, so that they could not be friends
as they had once been. Besides, had she not guessed, without actually
having been told, that Captain Madden and Frank, in spite of being
cousins, were not particularly good friends? And as Captain Madden had
mentioned that there was a bare chance of his spending the spring in
Rome it might be awkward meeting them together. Of course Jack had not
spoken of the chance of running across Captain Madden in Rome to any of
her family. In the first place, Captain Madden had been by no means sure
of his presence there, and in the second, Jack had the impression that
Jean, Olive and Frieda did not like him. This was absurd, of course,
with a man so much older! As he had traveled and spent other seasons in
Rome, surely he would be an agreeable guide and help them to see the
right things in the right way?
Only Frieda, besides Ruth, was not looking forward with either pleasure
or dread to any persons whom she might happen to run across in Rome.
Certainly Dick Grant and his mother were to be there (Dick had told her
every detail of their plans in the course of their early acquaintance),
but whether they were in Rome or not was of no interest to Frieda. For
the younger Miss Ralston had been true to her decision and not once in
the two-day-and-a-half sail from Gibraltar to Naples had she
acknowledged the existence of either Mrs. Grant or her son. And this in
spite of their humble apologies to Jack, and her sister's ready
acceptance of them.
However, this much justice must be accorded the Ranch girls that when,
at sunset, they at last entered "the eternal city" all personal thoughts
and considerations were swept from their minds. High in the distance
they could see the tower of St. Peter's; in the midst of the town ran
the muddy stream of the Tiber; and over all Rome's beauty and antiquity
hovered the golden atmosphere for which the city is also justly famous.