MAIDS AND MEN
"I WOULD give a great deal to have my people see you tonight, Jack,"
Frank Kent whispered several hours later.
[Illustration: "YOU WOULD HAVE MARRIED ME ANYHOW"]
True to her promise Jacqueline had dressed before the others and come
down for a few moments alone with Frank. And it was small wonder that
the young man was proud of her. She had on a pure white tulle dress made
over silk and no ornament except the string of pearls and diamonds about
her throat. For she had persuaded Frank to let her wait until after
their marriage before wearing the more conspicuous jewels. Somehow she
felt that the tiara would look out of taste and inappropriate among her
old friends and neighbors. The bouquet of jasmine flowers with their
darkly shining green leaves were resting in her lap.
"Your people will see enough of me, Frank, before very long," she
answered. "How glad I am that they already know me and that they do
not object very seriously to our marriage! Of course they must have
preferred your caring for one of your own countrywomen, but----"
"You would have married me anyhow, wouldn't you, dear, even if they
_had_ objected?" Frank asked and then laughed at himself. "That's a
dreadfully unfilial speech, but I expect every man likes to feel that
the girl he cares for would have stuck to him through every kind of
obstacle--poverty, obscurity, the world's misunderstanding. Not that I
have much doubt of you, Jack. You are giving up more than most people
realize in turning your back on the dear old ranch and your beloved
family. But we'll come back as often as possible and have them come to
us, and after a while Ruth must let Frieda be with you for a year or so.
She is my little sister, and honestly I don't quite like her intimacy
with this fellow, Russell--he is much too cranky and old." Frank had
taken Jack's hand and was touching it to his lips when she made a quick
though silent signal. She and Frank were sitting in the bay window
almost hidden by evergreens and at this moment Ruth and Jim, the other
three girls and their guests were entering the ball room.
Olive wore a yellow crepe dress and carried the yellow roses. Jean was
in deep pink, her costume of shimmering satin and lace, and had one of
Frank's flowers in her dark brown hair. Her bouquet was not the same
that it had been two hours before, when she had first removed it from
its wrappings; for now encircled by Frank's roses were a dozen purple
orchids.
"Do you think, Frank, that Jean intends--" Jack whispered softly,
inclining her head toward her cousin to indicate what she meant to say.
Then when her companion made no reply, fearing to be overheard, she
continued. "It is Jean I am most worried about. How can she make up her
mind to marry a foreigner instead of an American? Just look at the
Prince and then at Jim or Ralph Merrit. He is so little and so dark and
so kind of different. Even that scar on his face from a duel he once
fought makes me have almost a dislike for him, though I know it is
foolish of me."
"But Jean isn't really going to marry him!" Frank protested.
This time Jack nodded uneasily. "I am afraid so; indeed she almost told
me that she intended to accept him; and I suppose she means to do it
this evening. I wish I could have said something to influence her, but I
did not dare. Besides, it would have done no good. You know Jean might
have said that I too was marrying a foreigner and had no right to say
anything to her. Only the difference is that Jean does not love
Giovanni--and then an Englishman isn't the same and--"
Frank was now smiling over Jack's effort at an apology and explanation.
She had slipped her hand into his and was holding it fast. At this
moment a splendidly handsome figure marched across the floor with
surprising swiftness and now stood looking down upon the girl and man
with an expression that was a combination of wrath, sympathy and
devotion.
"Jacqueline Ralston," Jim began so unexpectedly that to save her life
Jack could not restrain a guilty start, "have I not told you and Frank
Kent at least a dozen times that I would not have any stealing off by
yourselves or any spooning until you were safely away from the Rainbow
Ranch? It is bad enough, Kent, when I think of your taking my 'partner'
from me and leaving me to look after this great place without her. But I
tell you I can't stand _looking_ at you doing it."
And Jim gave a mournful sigh that was part pretense and part reality.
Its effect was to make Jack at once jump to her feet and throw her arms
about him, regardless of his immaculate shirt. Then she ran for
protection to Ruth.
Happiness had made Ruth grow a year younger each month, her husband had
stoutly declared, and though this statement was not strictly true, she
did look very little older than the four Ranch girls as she stood
waiting to receive their guests tonight. For the girls and Jim had
insisted that she discard her nun-like fondness for gray and drab colors
at least for this one evening and wear white. So Ruth's costume of heavy
white corded silk with silver trimming was both youthful and becoming.
On one side of the hostess stood Miss Katherine Winthrop, looking
singularly handsome and imposing in a gray satin evening gown trimmed
with duchess lace and with a bunch of Frieda's violets at her waist.
Olive was next in line, and then Jean, while on Ruth's other side the
Princess Colonna was made more radiantly fair by a wonderful black gown
and a diamond star in her hair. Jack stood beside her, and then Frieda.
The Princess seemed far more at ease and better able to appreciate and
make herself popular with the hundred or more visitors than Miss
Winthrop. For the Princess appeared almost to have forgotten, for the
time at least, the years spent in the formal society of Rome and to be
remembering only her own early girlhood in this same western country. A
large number of the guests were traveled and cultured persons, the
owners of large ranches and estates; but Jim had asked that all of their
old acquaintances be invited regardless of wealth and position, so that
there were many interesting figures who appeared as "western types" to
Miss Winthrop, but whom the Princess immediately understood and enjoyed.
Indeed during the evening Jim Colter, who had never liked the Princess
Colonna nor felt entirely comfortable in her presence, confided to Ralph
Merrit that maybe a Princess could after all be a real live woman,
though he hoped to the Lord that Jean Bruce was not going to undertake
the job. Ralph had little comfort to offer either to Jim or to himself
in return for this confidence. For everybody in the ball room who had
heard the gossip concerning Jean and the young Prince had no doubt of
its ultimate outcome. And naturally they marveled over two of the
Rainbow Ranch girls making such distinguished marriages.
Perhaps Jean was not altogether displeased with this gossip, for she
certainly danced with the young Prince most of the earlier part of the
evening. The exact number of her dances Ralph Merrit could have told,
although he was not conscious of having counted them. For except for
dancing once with each one of the four Ranch girls and once with Ruth,
he had spent the rest of the evening watching the dancers from a safe
corner. For some reason or other he seemed not to feel sufficient energy
for anything else.
It was a few moments after eleven o'clock that same evening when the
Princess Colonna, feeling a hand laid lightly on her arm and turning,
discovered Jean Bruce alone. The girl seemed to have grown suddenly
tired and pale.
Fortunately the older woman's companion suggested at this moment that
she might like him to get her an ice, so that she and Jean were
uninterrupted for a moment.
"I wonder if you could come somewhere with me for a little while, where
we could talk without any one else seeing us?" Jean pleaded. "I know you
will think it strange of me, Princess, but all of a sudden it seemed to
me that you were the only person in the world whom I could ask a certain
question. And I must ask it of you before another hour has passed."
Jean spoke quietly and with entire self-possession; yet there was no
doubting the girl's earnestness or her necessity.
Instantly the Princess slipped her arm through Jean's with the
affectionate intimacy which she had always felt for her and the woman
and girl together left the room. Providentially for their opportunity to
be alone, the greater number of guests were now in the supper room. So
without much effort Jean found two chairs at the end of a long veranda
which had been enclosed for the evening's use and made into a kind of
conservatory. There they appeared to be quite free from interruption.
The older woman sat in the shadow, but could see the girl's face
plainly. And though she could hardly guess what question Jean might
wish to ask her, she was not altogether uncertain of the subject
uppermost in the girl's thoughts, so thoroughly had her nephew taken her
into his confidence.
"Princess," Jean began, but she was not looking at her friend. Her eyes
were seeing nothing, she was so deeply engrossed. "I wonder if you will
tell me if you were happy in your married life? Oh, yes, I know that
sounds like an impertinence; but I do not believe that you will think of
it in that light. You understand I would ask you for no such reason. The
Prince was a great deal older than you, but then you were very good
friends and you had a splendid title and people everywhere looked up to
you and were proud to meet you. I remember how dreadfully impressed we
girls were when we first saw you on board the steamship. It did not seem
to us then that a Princess could be like other people. And none of us
ever dreamed of knowing you as an intimate friend. Those days when I was
visiting you in Rome it seemed so wonderful to me that you, an American
woman and a western girl like me, could be a leader in European
society!" Jean drew a long breath. "Of course it never occurred to me
then that any such chance could ever come to me. It sounds like a fairy
tale and yet my own family don't understand how I can care so much for
position and a title and all that it must mean."
"I _understand_," the Princess finally replied when Jean had given her
opportunity to speak, "but there is one thing or at least one person
whom you have not mentioned, my nephew, Giovanni. Do you care for him,
Jean?"
In answer the girl, whose clear pallor was one of her noticeable
characteristics, flushed hotly. "I like him very much, he is most kind,
he----"
"You mean that Giovanni is entirely devoted to you and that you regard
him as a friend. I see," the Princess finished softly. "And you think
that after you marry him you will learn to care more for him because you
would most enjoy his title and all it could do for you. I wonder just
what Giovanni would receive in exchange for all he has to give?"
For a moment the older woman took the girl's cold fingers in her own.
"I don't mean to hurt your feelings, dear, or to seem unkind. But you
have asked me to talk to you tonight because you believe that better
than any one else I can understand and appreciate your ambition and your
emotions. And you are entirely right. I know just what you are thinking,
just what you have been saying to yourself over and over ever since I
asked your guardian to permit you to marry my nephew. I know because I
have passed through almost exactly the same experience. So I am going to
talk frankly about my marriage to you tonight, Jean, though I never have
and probably never will again to any one else as long as I live. You
see, I, too, was a Western girl, only I was a great deal poorer in the
beginning of my life than you have ever been. And then my father and
mother were plainer people. But one day when I was about twelve years
old my father began making a great fortune, and when I was fourteen, as
is the way in this western country, he was many times a millionaire. In
those days the West was not what it is now, so as my mother was
ambitious for me and believed I was going to be a pretty woman I was
sent East to school. Later on I went to Paris and studied there, and
then to Italy, so that I might learn several languages. Now and then I
used to see my father and mother, but not often. They did not enjoy
Europe and I seemed to have so much to learn there was little time to
stay at home. One or two wonderful summers I spent here in the West with
them, loving this country and its people almost as your cousin Jack
does. But by and by, when I was traveling in Italy with some rich
American friends, I met the Prince Colonna. He asked me to marry him and
I--well, I thought about things pretty much as you are doing, dear. I
wanted to be a Princess; I thought it the most romantic, wonderful fate
possible for a plain American girl with nothing but some prettiness and
her money to exchange for fairyland. True, my Prince was old, but I
liked him and I thought we would be better friends after we married. I
believe we were. But, dear, I was not happy. I have missed the most
wonderful thing that can come into one's life, for by and by I found
that the people with titles were nothing but ordinary human beings. The
people who count most, or at least who count most to me, are the people
who do things for themselves, who have made their own way and their own
positions, like so many of our big American men. Often I was very lonely
and sad and often sorry for a decision I made years ago when I was even
younger than you are tonight."
The Princess let go Jean's hand which she had been holding.
"Isn't there any one here in your own country, Jean, whom you like
better than you do Giovanni, whom you would a great deal rather marry if
he had the same position to offer?" she inquired.
For a moment the girl made no answer. Then she said faintly: "Yes,
Princess, there is, though I have never confessed it to anybody in the
world except you, and scarcely to myself. For you see it is not only the
other man's lack of money and position that comes between us, but Ralph
does not even care for me. Some time ago he did, I think, but I was not
very kind to him then, and now for months and months he has been nothing
more to me than a friend. So I can see that his feelings have changed
entirely. I thought if I went away with Giovanni I too would forget. It
is hard to be right here on the ranch and have to pretend and pretend
all the time that I feel toward him just as I used to when I was a
little girl."
"Jean," the older woman's voice had quite changed and was now both cold
and stern, "I wonder what kind of a partnership you think marriage is?
Do you think that when men go into business together that one brings
everything to the firm and the other nothing? For that is what you wish
to do with Giovanni. You must play fair, child. Why do you consider that
an Italian is different from other men? Giovanni is young; he is not
unattractive. Unless you loved him, you would soon learn to hate each
other. For his sake if not for yours I could never approve of your
marriage."
But before Jean could reply the Princess had laid a restraining touch
upon her. "Some one is coming toward us--a stranger, I think. We had
best talk of this another time."