A SURPRISE
JACQUELINE RALSTON was sitting alone in a quiet portion of the Princess
Colonna's Italian garden, listening to the soft splashing of a fountain
at no great distance away. Now and then she put her hands to her face.
Why were her fingers so cold and her cheeks so warm? For Jack was no
longer pale; indeed, her whole countenance was curiously flushed. No
longer did she look the tall, stately goddess of a few hours before, but
like a tremulous and startled girl. For Jack had just received her first
proposal and could not for the life of her tell whether she had accepted
or rejected it.
Captain Madden had gone away. She had sent him to find Ruth, as she did
not wish to remain alone; neither did she wish him to stay with her. It
was not that Jack wanted to confide what had taken place to her
chaperon. Nothing was further from her intention at the present time.
For Jack had not yet been able to make up her mind whether or not she
cared for the man who had just told her that he loved her. And
fortunately or unfortunately it was not Jacqueline Ralston's habit to
ask the advice of other people about what seriously concerned herself.
She must decide one way or the other, and then it would be time to tell
Ruth. But suddenly she had felt very young and lonely and forlorn with
an absurd disposition to cry. If only Ruth would come to her now she
could say that she was tired and not feeling particularly well. It would
be quite true. Tonight had been the most wonderful in her whole life;
never had she dreamed of such beauty and such splendor. Yet suddenly
Jack had felt a kind of homesick longing for Jim Colter and the
simplicity of their old life on the ranch.
And yet Jack could not truthfully have said that she had been taken
completely by surprise by Captain Madden's proposal. Ever since their
meeting with him in Rome, there had been times when she had wondered if
it could be possible that he was learning to care for her with more than
a friendly interest. For even a girl as young and as innocent as Jack
cannot be wholly blind.
Ruth had believed herself a careful chaperon. Little did she dream of
the intimate talks the girl and man had had together, standing side by
side in some church or gallery, looking at some special object, when the
other members of their party had wandered away.
Then had come tonight! Jack had grown tired; Ruth was talking to some
new acquaintances, Jean and Frieda and Olive were dancing. Captain
Madden had asked that she walk into the garden with him to rest.
There were many people about and yet they had managed to find a secluded
place. Jack could see a number of men and women passing near her, some
of them in wonderfully beautiful costumes, others looking a trifle
absurd. She closed her eyes, not wishing to see but to think!
Captain Madden had told her that he loved her. He had confessed also
that he was twice her age and poor. But could Jack forget these things
and care for him notwithstanding?
One wonders how the man had come to appreciate Jacqueline Ralston's
nature so thoroughly in the few weeks of their acquaintance? Did he know
that this appeal would be the surest way to awaken her sympathies? Jack
had always a passion for doing things for other people rather than
having them do for her. If she loved Captain Madden, she would gladly
share all her money with him. It was stupid of her, however, not to
realize that no true man could have been willing to ask _all_ the
sacrifices of her. Jack's only present problem was: "Did she care
enough?" Captain Madden was older and wiser and so much better and
braver! Think of all the stories he had told them in which she felt sure
he must have been a hero! Although never once had he so spoken of
himself! Then, too, had he not saved her life? Jack had never forgotten
that moment of danger at Gibraltar, however little her rescuer had made
of his part in it.
Jack sat up suddenly. Captain Madden had consented that she have a week
in which to make up her mind, but had asked that his suit be kept a
secret. Now some one was evidently coming toward her and there must be
nothing in her face or manner to betray her.
What a picture she made at this moment Jacqueline Ralston would never
know! For nowhere could there be surroundings more beautiful nor a
figure which seemed so unreal and yet so ideally lovely! Surely Diana
had wandered to earth from the groves of high Olympus and was resting
here, waiting for her nymphs. She was sitting on a three-cornered marble
bench under a group of palms, with the moonlight flooding her white
dress and sending forth tiny sparks of light from the crescent of
brilliants in her hair.
In surprise she lifted her head to watch the stranger approaching her.
She had thought at first that it might be Captain Madden with Ruth or
one of the other girls. But the man was taller, younger, more slender
and was alone. Who on earth could he be? Jack rose hurriedly and took a
step forward. The man was holding out both hands with an oddly familiar
gesture.
"Jack," he said slowly, "don't you know me? Aren't you glad to see me? I
arrived in Rome only an hour ago and came directly here. I have spoken
to Jean and Ruth and now have found you."
"Frank Kent!" Jack repeated, too surprised by the young man's unexpected
appearance to show any other emotion. "You _have changed_, but in the
daylight of course I should have recognized you. It was only that I
should never have dreamed of your coming to Rome without letting us
know. I asked you to wait to see us until we arrived in England."
She had given both her hands to her old friend and was trying not to
have her manner appear cold. Yet she could feel rather than see that
Frank's face was flooding with color, just as it had so easily in those
old days of their first acquaintance at the Rainbow Ranch.
"That is a discouraging greeting after a two years' separation. I hoped
you might feel more pleasure in seeing me," Frank suggested.
Jack and the young man had walked slowly forth from her retreat and were
now within the glow of the yellow-shaded electric lights. Jack looked up
into her companion's face. He was older and tonight seemed graver. Also
he wore the expression of dignified displeasure, which Jack recalled so
readily. She could almost remember this same look on his face the day
she had run away to the round-up and so lost Olive and brought
tremendous unhappiness upon herself and her family. Less than anybody in
the world did Jacqueline Ralston desire to see Frank Kent during this
particular week of her life. Yet she could not willingly hurt his
feelings.
Now she laughed, looking a little more like the girl of the past.
"I didn't mean to sound ungracious, Frank. Of course I am glad to see
you, for you must have had some good reason for coming to Rome just now.
Otherwise I know you would have granted me my wish and waited until we
got to England for our meeting. What was your reason?"
But Frank Kent did not at the present moment have to answer this
question. For within a few feet of them were Captain Madden, Ruth and
Olive.
And whatever of kindness Jack's reception may have lacked was made up
for by Olive's enthusiasm. Forgetting her shyness for one of the
occasional times in her life, she ran forward with her eyes shining and
a lovely color in her cheeks. Jack thought she had never seen her friend
prettier or happier.
"Oh, I am so delighted you have come, Mr. Kent--Frank," she declared.
"It seems too much like old times to be formal. Ruth had just told me of
your arrival and I could hardly give you time even to speak to Jack."
There could be no doubt of how much pleasure Olive's frank welcome
afforded the Ranch girls' former friend. Frank Kent had always been
much interested in Olive and her peculiar history from the day when his
presence saved her from being taken away from Rainbow Lodge by the
Indian woman Laska and her son. He had seen her develop from an
apparently poorly educated, part-Indian into a gentle and charming
American girl.
And now she was no longer a girl, but almost a woman.
The expression of Frank's brown eyes changed. He gazed so steadily at
Olive that she blushed and then smiled.
"I have been seeing so many visions tonight I ought to be prepared for
most anything," he remarked. "But I confess I am not for this
transformation of Olive into a sea nymph." The young man made no effort
to conceal his admiration as he held Olive's hand in his own a little
longer than was necessary.
For just half an instant Jack wondered; then she brought herself sharply
to task. Because of her own recent experience why should she be dwelling
so much on one subject? Besides, without wishing any one to guess it,
she was interested in Frank Kent's and Captain Madden's manner toward
each other. Captain Madden approached to shake hands with his cousin
with entire amiability, but to Jack's irritation Frank's behavior was
hardly civil. The young man never had been able to disguise his real
feelings (the trait is not an English one); so now he bowed coldly. Then
he continued talking to Ruth and Olive, almost as though the older man
were not present.
If all of Jack's friends had been doing their level best to force her
into the championship of Captain Madden, they could hardly have arranged
a better method. She slipped her arm through the older man's at this
moment in a very pretty fashion and together they led the way back to
the ball room.
It was now a good deal past midnight and Ruth decided that the time had
come for saying farewell. Jean was dancing with Giovanni Colonna and
Frieda with Leon. But in a few moments they were persuaded to stop, and
the Ranch party found the Princess Colonna, to say good-night.
The Princess had appeared at her ball in the character of Atalanta, the
maiden who could run more swiftly than any man in the world. To all her
suitors she had imposed the condition that she should be the prize of
the man who could conquer her in a race, and had been finally won by the
youth who dropped the golden apples at her feet, which she stooped to
pick up.
Jean's Princess wore a crimson robe and around her yellow hair a wreath
of golden laurel leaves. In her hand she carried a golden apple.
Yet in spite of the magnificence of the scene about her, she excused
herself from her guests and went with the Ranch girls to Jean's room.
Jean was going home tonight with her family.
Quite like another girl, who was neither a Princess nor yet a
mythological character, the Princess Colonna kissed Jean good-by.
"I do wish you could let one of your girls stay with me always," she
said, when she and Ruth were parting. "I think I am often homesick for
America and the old life in the west which I led as a child. Jean has
made me feel almost young again."
And though Ruth and the four girls laughed at the suggestion of the
Princess' needing to feel young, each one of them noticed that when one
studied her face closely there were lines about her mouth and eyes.
On the way home, the five women crowded into one carriage, Jean turned
to her chaperon: "I know it isn't good taste to talk about people, Ruth
dear, when one has been visiting them, so please don't reproach me. But
I could not help seeing while I was the Princess' guest that, without
knowing it, she has been a kind of Atalanta. Only in the race for
happiness the golden apple she stopped to pick up was not money. She had
wealth enough, but it was a title and a great position. The Prince may
be very nice. I did not learn to know him very well, but certainly he
seemed more like his wife's father than her husband. How can a girl ever
marry a man twice as old as she is?"