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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est f!lfii6 A partir de I'angle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droita, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m6thode. 1 2 3 4 5 6 KI.KANOR ■VS ■-H^V' rXEANOR B 1R0\^C. r.v MRS. HUMPHRY W.>RI) , ;^ i TORONTO: WILLIAM BRIGGS mmmm h I' 1 ELKANOlt ELEANOR m a -wovci HV MRS. HUMPHRY WARD TORONTO : WILLIAM BRIGGS „<»*<» ^fc».«f4.fea •^ xii. ' ^j^w e i\ ^ff^Vi PART I *•/ laouM that you -verc all to tne. You that an- just so much, no more. cVor vours nor mine, nor slave nor Jrce ! Where does the fault lie i What the core 0' the wound, since tvound must be?" \ i I i*. ELEANOR I El L CHAPTER I ET uf5 be quite clear, Aunt Pattie — .vhcn does this young woman arrive ?" In about half an hour. But, really, Ed- ward you need take no trouble \ she is comings to visit me, and I will see that she doesn't get in your way. Neither you nor Eleanor need trouble your heads about her." Miss Manisty — a small elderly lady in a cap — looked at her nephew with a mild and deprecating air. The slight tremor of the hands, which were crossed over the knitting on her lap, betrayed a certain nervousness ; but for all that s he had the air of managing a familiar difficulty in familiar ways. The gentleman addressed shook his head im- patiently. "One never prepares for these catastrophes I i I Mi ■ H a. ' f till they actually arrive," he muttered, taking up a magazine that lay on the table near him, and restlessly playing with the leaves. * "I warned you yesterday." '*And I forgot — and was happy. Eleanor — what are we going to do with Miss Foster ?" A lady, who had been sitting at some little distance, rose and came forward. " Well, I should have thought the answer was simple. Here we are fifteen miles from Rome. The trains might be better — still there are trains. Miss Foster has never been to l^urope before. Either Aunt Pattie's maid or mine can take her to all the proper things — or there are plenty of people in Rome — the Westertons — the Borrows? — who at a word from Aunt Pattie would fly to look after her and take her about. I really don't see that you need be so miserable !" Mrs. Burgoyne stood looking down in some amusement at the aunt and nephew. Edward Manisty, however, was not apparently consoled by her remarks. He began to pace up and down the salon in a disturbance out of all proportion to its cause. And as he walked he threw out phrases of ill-humor, so that at last Miss Manisty, driven to defend herself, put the irresistible question — "Then why — why — my dear Edward, did you make me invite her? For it was really his do- ing — wasn't it, Eleanor ?" "Yes — I am witness !" " One of those abominable flashes of con' i* mm science that have so much to answer for !*' said Manisty, throwing up his hand in annoyance. — " If she had come to us in Rome, one could have provided for her. But here in this s )litude — just at the most critical moment of one's work — and it's all very well — but one can't treat a younjr lady, when she is actually in one's house, as if she were the tongs '" He stood beside the window, with his hands on his sides, moodily looking out. Thus strongly defined against the sunset light, he would have impressed himself on a stranger as a man no longer in his first youth, extraordinarily hand- some so far as the head was concerned, but of a somewhat irregular and stunted figure ; stunted however only in comparison with what it had to carry ; for in fact he was of about middle height. But the head, face and shoulders were all remarkably large and powerful ; the coloring — curly black hair, gray eyes, dark complexion — singularly vivid ; and the lines of the brow, the long nose, the energetic mouth, in their mingled force and perfection, had made the stimulus of many an artist before now. For Edward Manisty was one of those men of note whose portraits the world likes to paint: and this "Olympian head " of his was well known in many a French and English studio, through a fine drawing of it made by Legros when Manisty was still a youth at Oxford. " Begun by David — and fin- ished by Rembrandt," so a young French painter had once described Edward Manisty. 3 -r" ■HH f I : n W ■ The final effect of this discord, however, was an effect of power — of personality— of something that claimed and held attention. So at least it was described by Manisty's friends. Manisty's enemies, of whom the world contained no small number, had other word? for it. But women in general took the more complimentary view. The two women now in his company wf re clearly much affected by the force — wilfulness — ex- travagance — for one might call it by any of these names — that breathed from the man before them. Mi.ss Manisty, his aunt, followed his movements with her small blinking eyes, timidly uneasy, but yet visibly conscious all the time that she had done nothing that any reasonable man could ra- tionally complain of; while in the manner tow- ards him of his widowed cousin Mrs. Burgoyne, in the few words of l:)anter or remonstrance that she threw him on the subject of his aunt's expected visitor, there was an indulgence, a deference even, that his irritation scarcely de- served. " At least, give me some account of this girl" — he said, breaking in upon his aunt's explanations. " I have really not given her a thought — and — good heavens ! — she will be here, you say, in half an hour Is she youn^ — stupid — pretty? Has she any experience — any conversation?" " I read you Adble's letter on Monday," said Miss Manisty, in a tone of patience — "and I told you then all I knew — but I noticed you didn't listen. I only saw her myself for a few hours at 4 ^ v^ •er, was methtng least it [anisty's no small omen in ew. e clearly ?ss — ex- of these )re them. )vements easy, but she had could ra- mer tow- Uirgoyne, 3nstrance his aunt's ilgence, a ircely de- lis girl" — ilanations. ht— and— ay, in half tty ? Has day," said and I told you didn't w hours at Boston. I remember she was rather good-look- ing — but very shy, and not a bit like all the other girls one wae seeing. Her clothes were odd, and dowdy, and too old for her altogether, — which struck me as curious, for the American girls, even the country ones, have such a natural turn for dressing themselves. Her Boston cousins didn't like it, and they tried to buy her things — but she was difficult to manage — and they had to give it up. Still they were very fond of her, I re- member. Only she didn't let them show it much. Her manners were much stiffer than theirs. They said she was very countrified and simple — that she had been brought up quite alone by their old uncle, in a little country town — and hardly ever went away from home." "And Edward never saw her?" inquired Mrs. Burgoyne, with a motion of the head towards Manisty, " No. He was at Chicago just those days. But you never saw anything like the kindness of the cousins I Luncheons and dinners !" — Miss Man- isty raised her little gouty hands — " my dear — when we left Boston I never wanted to eat again. It would be simply indecent if we did nothing for this girl. English people are so ungrateful this side of the water. It makes me hot when I think of all they do for us." The small ladv's blanched and wrinkled face reddened, a little with a color which became her Manisty, lost in irritable reflection, apparently took no notice. 5 m HiiMMalMli I ^ ' 1 1 ! " But why did they send her out all alone ?" said Mrs. Burgoyne. " Couldn t they have found some family for her to travel with?" "Well, it was a series of accidents. She did come over with some Boston people — the Porters — we knew very well. And they hadn't been three days in London before one of the daughters developed meningitis, and was at the point of death. And of course they could go nowhere and see nothing — and poor Lucy Foster felt her- self in the way. Then she was to have joined some other people in Italy, and t/iey changed their plans. And at last I got a letter from Mrs. Porter — in despair — asking me if I knew of any one in Rome who would take her in and chap- eron her. And then — well, then you know the rest." And the speaker nodded again, still more sig- nificantly, towards her nephew. " No, not all," said Mrs. Burgoyne, laughing. *' I remember he telegraphed." " Yes. He wouldn't even wait for me to write. No — 'Of course we must have the girl !' he said. ' She can join us at the villa. And they'll want to know, so I'll wire.' And out he went. And then that evening I had to write and ask her to stay as long as she wished — and — well, there it is!" "And hence these tears," said Mrs. Burgoyne. 'What possessed him?" "Well, T think it was conscience," said the lit- 'I know it was spi plucking up spirit. v^ ie?"said ind some She did 5 Porters n't been aughters point of nowhere felt her- ve joined changed ter from ; knew of and chap- know the more sig- laughing. e to write. !' he said. ley'U want ent. And id ask her ■well, there Burgoyne. laid the lit- :now it was with me. There had been some Americans call- ing on us that day — you remember — those charm- ing Harvard people? And somehow it recalled to us both what a fuss they had made with us — and how kind everybody was. At least I suppose that was how Edward felt. I know I did." Manisty paused in his walk. For the first time his dark whimsical face was crossed by an un- willing smile — slight tut agreeable. " It is the old story," he said. " Life would be tolerable but for one's virtues. All this time, I beg to point out, Aunt Pattie, that you have still told us nothing about the young lady — except something about her clothes, which doesn't mat- ter." Mrs. Burgoyne's amused gesture showed the woman's view of this remark. Miss Manisty looked puzzled. "Well — I don't know. Yes — I have told you a great deal. The Lewinsons apparently thought her rather strange. Adble said she couldn't tell what to be at with her — you never knew what she would like or dislike. Tom Lewinson seems to have liked her better than Adfele did. He said ' there was no nonsense about her — and she never kept a fellow waiting,' Adfele says she is the oddest mixture of knowledge and ignorance. She would ask the most absurd elementary ques- tions — and then one morning Tom found out that she was quite a Latin scholar, and had read Horace and Virgil, and all the rest." 7 :11 iE " Good God !" said Manisty under his breath, resuming his walk. '* And when they asked her to play, she played — quite respectably." "Of course : — t 'vo hours' practising in the morn- ing—I foresaw it," said Manisty, stopping short. "Eleanor, we have been like children sporting over the abyss !" Mrs. Burgoyne rose with a laugh — a very soft and charming laugh — by no means the least among the various gifts with which nature had endowed her. "Oh, civilization has resources," she said — " Aunt Pattie and I will take care of you. Now we have got a quarter of an hour to dress in. Only first — one must really pay one's resi)ects to this sunset." And she stepped out through an open door upon a balcony beyond. Then turning, with a face of delight, she beckoned to Manisty, who followed. *' Every night more marvellous than the last " — she said, hanging over the balustrade — " and one seems to be here in the high box of a theatre, with the sun playing pageants for our particular bcnefit." Before them, beneath them indeed, stretched a scene, majestic, incomparable. The old villa in which they stood was built high on the ridge of the Alban Hills. Below it, olive - grounds and vineyards, plough-lands and pine -plantations sank, slope after slope, fold after fold, to the a m%^ Campagna. And beyond the Campagna, along the whole shining line of the west, the sea met the sunset ; while to the north, a dim and scat- tered whiteness rising from the plain — was Rome. The sunset was rushing to its height through every possible phase of violence and splendor. From the Mediterranean, storm - clouds were rising fast to the assault and conquest cf the upper sky, which still above the hiljs shone blue and tranquil. But the northwest wind and the sea were leagued against it. They sent out threatening fingers and long spinning veils of cloud across it — skirmishers that foretold the black and serried lines, the torn and monstrous masses behind. Below these wild tempest shapes, again, — in long spaces resting on the sea— the heaven was at peace, shining in delicate greens and yellows, infinitely translucent and serene, above the dazzling lines of water. Over Rome itself there was a strange massing and curving of the clouds. Between their blackness and the deep purple of the Campagna, rose the city — pale phantom — upholding one great dome, and one only, to the view of night and the world. Round and above and behind, beneath the long flat arch of the storm, glowed a furnace of scarlet light. The buildings of the city were faint specks within its fierce intensity, dimly visible through a sea of fire. St. Peter's alone, without visible foun- dation or support, had consistence, form, identity. — And between the city and the hills, waves of blue and purple shade, forerunners of the night, stole 9 '^' if over the Campagna towards the higher ground. But the hills themselves were still shining, still clad in rose and amethyst, caught in gentler repe- tition from the wildness of the west. Pale rose even the olive-gardens ; rose the rich brown fal- lows, the emerging farms ; while drawn across the Campagna from north to south, as though some mighty brush had just laid it there for sheer lust of color, sheer joy in the mating it with the rose, --one long strip of sharpest, purest green. Mrs. Burgoyne turned at last from the great spectacle to her companion. "One has really no adjectives left," she said. ** But I had used mine up within a week," " It still gives you so much pleasure?" he said, looking at her a little askance. Her face changed at once. "And you? — you are beginning to be tired of it?" " One gets a sort of indigestion. — Oh ! I shall be all right to-morrow." Both were silent for a moment. Then he re- sumed. — "I met General Fenton in the Borgia rooms this morning." She turned, with a quick look of curiosity. " Well ?" " I hadn't seen him since I met him at Simla three years ago. I always found him particu- larly agreeable then. We used to ride together and talk together, — and he put me in the way of seeing a good many things. This morning he lO ■i-:":- received me with a change of manner — I can't exactly describe it ; but it was not flattering ! So I presently left him to his own devices and went on into another room. Then he followed me, and seemed to wish to talk. Perhaps he per- ceived that he had been unfriendly, and thought he would make amends. But I was rather short with him. We had been real friends ; we hadn't met for three years ; and I thought he might have behaved differently. He asked me a num- ber of questions, however, about last year, about my resignation, and so forth ; and I answered as little as I could. So presently he looked at me and laughed — ' You remind me,' he said, * of what somebody said of Peel — that he was bad to go up to in the stable ! — But what on earth are you in the stable for? — and not in the running?' " Mrs. Burgoyne smiled. " He was evidently bored with the pictures !" she said, dryly. Manisty gave a shrug. " Oh ! I let him off. I wouldn't be drawn. I told hirn I had expressed myself so much in public there was nothing more to say. ' H'm,' he said, * they tell me at the Embassy you're writing a book !' You should have seen the little old fellow's wizened face — and the scorn of it ! So I inquired whether there was any objection to the writing of books. * Yes !' — he said — ' when a man can do a d d sight bet- ter for himself — as you could ! Every one tells me that last year you had the ball at your feet.' ' Well/ — I said — and I kicked it — and am still kick- n ^•ir ^i , ■H 1.5 ing it — in my own way. It mayn't be yours— or anybody else's— 1 ^t wait and see.' He shook his head. 'A man ^ .th what zuerc your prospects can't afford escapades. It's all very well for a Frenchman; it don't pay in England.' So then I maintained that half the political reputations of the present day were based on escapades. ' Whom do you mean ?' — he said — ' Randolph Churchill ? — But Randolph's escapades were always just what the man in the street understood. As for your escapade, the man in the street can't make head or tail of it. That's just the differ- ence." Mrs. Burgoyne laughed — but rather impa- tiently. " I should like to know when General Fenton ever considered tUt man in the street !" "Not at Simla certainly There you may de- spise him. — But the old man is right enough as to the part he plays in England. — I gathered that all my old Indian friends thought I had done for myself. There was no sympathy for me anywhere. Oh ! — as to the cause I upheld — yes. But none as to the mode of doing it." "Well — there is plenty of sympathy elsewhere ! What does it matter what dried-up officials like General Fenton choose to think about it ?" " Nothing — so long as there are no doubts in- side to open the gates to the General Fentons outside !" He looked at/ her oddly — half smiling, half frowning. I? 1^ ral Fenton "The doubts ?ire traitors. Send them to ex- ecution !" He shook his head. " Do you remember that sentence we came across yesterday in Chateaubriand's letters 'As to my career — I have gone from shipwreck to shipwreck.' What if I am merely bound on the same charming voyage ?" ** I accept the comparison," she said with vi- vacity. *' End as he did in re-creating a church, and regenerating a literature — and see who will count the shipwrecks I" Her hand's disdainful gesture completed the sally. Manisty's face dismissed its shadow. As she stood beside him, in the rosy light — so proudly confident — Eleanor Burgoyne was very delightful to see and hear. Manisty, one of the subtlest and most fastidious of observers, was abundantly conscious of it. Yet she was not beautiful, except in the judgment of a few excep- tional people, to whom a certain kind of grace — very rare, and very complex in origin — is of more importance than other things. The eyes were, indeed, beautiful ; so was the forehead, and the hair of a soft ashy brown folded and piled round it in a most skilful simplicity. But the rest of the face was too long ; and its pallor, the singularly dark circles round the eyes, the great thinness of the temples and cheeks, together with the emaci- ation of the whole delicate frame, made a rather painful impression on a stranger. It was a face of 13 li ^m (experience, a face of grief; timid, yet with many strange capacities and suggestions both of vehe- mence and pride. Tt could still tremble into youth and delight. But in general it held the world aloof. Mrs. Burgoyne was not very far from thirty, and either pliy?.ical weakness, or the presence of some enemy within more destructive still, had emphasized the loss of youth. At the same time she had still a voice, a hand, a carriage that lovelier women had often envied, discerning in them those subtleties of race and personality which are not to be rivalled for the asking. To-night she brough'. :'ll her ciiarin to bear upon her com{)anion's despondency, and suc- ceeded as she had often succeeded before. She divined that he needed flattery, and she gave it; that he must be supported and endorsed, and she had soon pushed General Fenton out of sight be- hind a cloud of witness of another sort. Manisty's mood yielded ; and in a short time he was again no less ready to admire the sunset than she was. " Heavens !" she said at last, holding out her watch. — "Just look at the time — and Miss Fos- ter !" Manisty struck his hand against the railing. " How is one to be civil about this visit ! Noth- ing could be more unfortunate. These last crit- ical weeks— and each of us so dependent on the other — Really it is the most monstrous folly on all our parts that we should have brought this girl upon us." '4 "Poor Miss Foster!" said Mrs, Hurp^oyne, rais- ing her eyebrows, '* But of course you won't be civil ! — Aunt Pattie and I know that. When I think of what I went through that first fort- night—" "Eleanor!" " You are the only man I ever knew that could sit silent through a whole meal. By to-morrow Miss Foster will have added that experience to her collection. Well — I shall be prepared with my consolations— there's the carriage--and the bell !" They fled in-doors, escaping through the side entrances of the salon, before the visitor could be shown in. " Must I change my dress?" The voice that asked the question trembled with agitation and fatigue. But the girl who owned the voice stood up stiffly, looking at Miss Manisty with a frowning, almost a threatening shyness. " Well, my dear," said Miss Manisty, hesitating. "Are you not rather dusty? We can easily keep dinner a quarter of an hour." She looked at the gray alpaca dress before her, in some perplexity. "Oh, very well" — said the girl hurriedly, — "Of course I'll change. Only" — and the voice flut- tered again evidently against her will — " I'm afraid I haven't anything very nice. I must get something in RomQ, Mrs. Lewinson advised me »5 I i r V i I This is my afternoon dress, — I've been wearing it in Florence. But of course— I'll put on my other. — Oh ! please don't send for a maid. I'd rather unpack for myself — so much rather!" The speaker flushed crimson, as she saw Miss Manisty's maid enter the room in answer to her mistress's ring. She stood up indeed with her hand grasping her trunk, as though defending it from an assailant. The maid looked at her mistress. " Miss Foster will ring, Benson, if she wants you" — said Miss Manisty ; and the black -robed elderly maid, breathing decorous fashion and the ways of "the best people," turned, gave a swift look at Miss Foster, and left the room. " Are you sure, my dear? You know she would make you tidy in no time. She arranges hair beautifully." "Oh quite — quite sure! — thank you," said the girl with the same eagerness. " I will be ready, — right away." Then, left to herself, Miss Foster hastily opened her box and took out some of its contents. She unfolded one dress after another, — and looked at them unhappily, " Perhaps I ought to have let Cousin Izza give me those things in Boston," she thought. " Per- haps I was too proud. And that money of Uncle Ben's—it might have been kinder — after all he wanted me to look nice " — She sat ruefully on the ground beside her trunk, turning; the things over, in a misery of annoyance l6 wearing it my other. I'd rather 3 saw Miss war to her with her fending it I," said the : be ready, tily opened ents. She i looked at 1 Izza give ht. " Per- y of Uncle fter all he her trunk, annoyance and mortification ; half inclined to laugh too as she remembered the seamstress in the small New England country town, who had helped her own hands to manufacture them. "Well, Miss Lucy, your uncle's done real handsome by you. I guess he's set you up, and no mistake. There's no meanness about him!" And she saw the dress on the stand — the little blond withered head of the dressmaker — the spectacled eyes dwelling proudly on the master- piece before them. — Alack! There rose up the memory of little Mrs. Lewinson at Florence — of her gently pursed lips — of the looks that were meant to be kind, and were in reality so critical. No matter. The choice had to be made ; and she chose at last a blue and white check that seemed to have borne its travels better than the rest. It had looked so fresh and striking in the window of the shop whence she had bought it. "And you know. Miss Lucy, you're so tall, you can stand them chancy things ' — her little friend had said to her, when she had wondered whether the check might not be too large. And yet only with a passing wonder. She could not honestly say that her dress had cost her much thought then or at any other time. She had been content to be very simple, to admire other girls* cleverness. There had been influences upon her own childhood, however, that had somehow separated her from the girls around her, had made it difficult for her to think and plan as they did. 17 s*"*-^/ \ \ She rose with the dress in her hands, and as she did so, she caught the glory of the sunset through the open window. She ran to look, all her senses flooded with the sudden beautv, — when she heard a man's voice as it seemed close beside her. Looking to the left, she distinguished a balcony, and a dark figure that had just emerged upon it. Mr, Manisty — no doubt I She closed her window hurriedly, and began her dressing, trying at the time to collect her thoughts on the subject of these people whom she had come to visit. Yet neither the talk of her Boston cousins, nor the gossip of the Lewinsons at Florence had left any very clear impression. She remembered well her first and only sight of Miss Manisty at Bos- ton. The little spinster, so much a lady, so kind, cheerful and agreeable, had left a very favorable impression in America. Mr. Manisty had left an impression too — that was certain — for people talk- ed of him perpetually. Not many persons, how- ever, had liked him it seemed. She could re- member, as it were, a whole track of resentments, hostilities, left behind. " He cares nothing about us" — an irate Boston lady had said in her hearing — " but he will exploit us ! He despises us, — but he'll make plenty of speeches and articles out of us — you'll see !" As for Major Lewinson, the husband of Mr. Manisty's first cousin, — she had been conscious all the time of only half believing what he said, of holding out against it, He must be so different t8 and as she ;et through ;d with the n's voice as to the left, :lark figure ler window ring at the subject of isit. :ousins, nor ice had left nbered well isty at Bos- dy, so kind, y favorable had left an people talk- srsons, how- e could re- esentments, thing about her hearing ;es us, — but icles out of and of Mr. onscious all he said, of so different from Mr. Manisty — the little smart, quick-tem- pered soldier — with his contempt for the undis- ciplined civilian way of doing things. She did not mean to remember his remarks. For after all, she had her own ideas of what Mr. Manisty would be like. She had secretly formed her OAvn opinion. He had been a man of letters and a traveller before he entered politics. She remem- bered — nay, she would never forget — a volume of letters from Palestine, written by him, which had reached her through the free library of the little town near her home. She who read slowly but, when she admired, with a silent and worship- ping ardor, had read this book, had hidden it under Her pillow, had been haunted for days by its pliant, sonorous sentences, by the color, the perfume, the melancholy of pages that seemed to her dreaming youth marvellous, inimitable. There were descriptions of a dawn at Bethlehem — a night wandering at Jerusalem — a reverie by the Sea of Galilee — the very thought of which made her shiver a little, so deepl} had they touched her young and pure imagination. And then —people talked so angrily of his quar- rel with the government — and his resigning. They said he had been foolish, arrogant, unwise. Perhaps. But after all it had been to his own hurt— it must have been for principle. So far the girl's secret instinct was all on his side. Meanwhile, as she dressed, there floated through her mind fragments of what she had been told as to his strange personal beauty ; but these she 19 -r-' ■ I h\ only entertained shyly and in passing. She had been brought up to think little of such matters, or rather to avoid thinking of them. She went through her toilet as neatly and rap- iuly as she could, her mind all the time so full of speculation and a deep restrained exc'tement that she ceased to trouble herself in the least about her gown. As for her hair she arranged it almost mechan- ically, caring only that its black masses should be smooth and in order. She fastened at her throat a small turquoise brooch that had been her mother's; she clasped the two little chain bracelets that were the only ornaments of the kind she possessed, and then without a single backward look towards the reflection in the glass, she left her room — her heart beating fast with iimidity and expectation. " Oh ! poor child — poor child ! — what a frock !" Such was the inward ejaculation of Mrs. Bur- goyne, as the door of the salon was thrown open by the Italian butler, and a very tall girl came abruptly through, edging to one side as though she were trying to escape the servant, and look- ing anxiously round the vast room. Manisty also turned as the door opened. Miss Manisty caught his momentary expression of wonder, as she herself hurried forward to meet the nev/-comer. "You have been very quick, my dear, and I am sure you must be hungry.— This is an old friend ir ( She had ich matters, |tly and rap- lime so full exc'tement in the least St mechan- sses should sned at her it had been little chain ents of the ut a single in the glass, g fast with at a frock !" f Mrs, Bur- hrown open 1 girl came - as though t, and look- ;ned. Miss pression of rd to meet r, and I am old friend of ours — Mrs. Burgoyne — niy nephew — Edward. Manisty. He knows all your Boston cousins, if not you. Edward, will you take Miss Foster? —she's the stranger." Mrs. Burgoyne pressed the girl's hand with a friendly effusion. Beyond her was a dark-haired man, who bowed in silence. Lucy Foster took his arm, and he led her through a large interven- ing room, in which were many tables and many books, to the dining-room. On the way he muttered a few embarrassed words as to the weather and the lateness of din- ner, walking meanwhile so fast that she had to hurry after him. "Good Heavens, why she is a perfect chess-board !" he thought to himself, looking askance at her dress, in a sudden and passionate dislike — "one could play draughts upon her. What has my aunt been about?" The girl looked round her in bewilderment as they sat down. What a strange place ! The salon in her momentary glance round it had seemed to her all splendor. She had been dimly aware of pictures, fine hangings, luxurious car- pets. Here on the other hand all was rude and bare. The stained walls were covered with a series of tattered daubs, that seemed to be meant for family portraits— of the Malestrini family perhaps, to whom the villa belonged ? And be- tween the portraits there were rough modern doors everywhere of the commonest wood and manufacture which let in aL the draughts, and made the room not a room, but a passage. The 21 uneven brick floor was covered in the centre with some thin and torn matting ; many of the chairs ranged against the wall were broken ; and the old lamp that swung above the table gave hardly any light. Miss Manisty watched her guest's face with a look of amusement. " Well, what do you think of our dining-room, my dear? I wanted to clean it and put it in or- der. But my nephew there wouldn't have a thing touched." She looked at Manisty, with a movement of the lips and head that seemed to implore him to make some efforts. Manisty frowned a little; lifted his great brow and looked not at Miss Foster but at Mrs. Bur- goyne — " The room, as it happens, gives me more pleas- ure than any other in the villa." Mrs. Burgoyne laughed. "Because it's hideous?" " If you like. I should only call it the natural, untouched thing." Then while his aunt and Mrs. Burgoyne made mock of him, he fell silent again, nervously crum- bling his bread with a large wasteful hand. Lucy Foster stole a look at him, at the strong curls of black hair piled above the brow, the moody em- barrassment of the eyes, the energy of the lips and chin. Then she turned to her companions. Sud- denly the girl's clear brown skin flushed rosily 22 le centre ny of the ken; and able gave ice with a ing-room, t it in or- e a thing ent of the e him to reat brow Mrs. Bur- ore pleas- le natural, yne made isly crum- nd. Lucy ig curls of loody em- )f the lips >ns. Sud- led rosily and she abrn.ptly took her eyes from Mrs. Bur- goyne. Miss Manisty however — in despair of her neph- e^v — was bent upon doing her own duty. She asked all the proper questions about the girl's journey, about the cousins at Florence, about her last letters from home. Miss Foster answered quickly, a little breathlessly, as though each ques- tion were an ordeal that had to be got through. And once or twice, in the course of the conversa- tion she looked again at Mrs. Burgoyne, more lin- geringly each time. That lady wore a thin dress gleaming with jet. The long white arms showed under the transparent stuff. The slender neck and delicate bosom were bare, — too bare surely, — that was the trouble. To look at her filled the girl's shrinking Puritan sense with discomfort. But what small and graceful hands! — and how she used them ! — how she turned her neck ! — how delicious her voice was ! It made the new-comer think of some sweet plashing stream in her own Vermont valleys. And then, every now and again, how subtle and startling was the change of look ! — the gayety passing in a moment, with the drooping of eye and mouth, into something sad and harsh, like a cloud dropping round a goddess. In her elegance and self-possession in- deed, she seemed to the girl a kind of goddess — heathenishly divine, because of that mixture of unseemliness, but still divine. Several times Mrs. Burgoyne addressed her— with a gentle courtesy — and Miss Foster answer- 23 /' I Ji. r ed. She was shy, but not at all awkward or con- scious. Her manner had the essential self-pos- session which is the birthright of the American woman. But it suggested reserve, and a curious absence of any young desire to make an effect. As for Mrs. Burgoyne, long before dinner was over, she had divined a great many things about the new-comer, and among them the girl's dis- approval of herself. "After all" — she thought — "if she only knew it, she is a beauty. What a trouble it must have been first to find, and then to make that dress ! — 111 luck ! — And her hair ! Who on earth taught her to drag it back like that? If one could only loosen it, how beautiful it would be! What is it? Is it Puritanism? Has she been brought up to go to meetings and sit under a minister? Were her forbears married in drawing-rooms and under trees? The Fates were certainly frolicking when they brought her here ! How am I to keep Edward in order?" And suddenly, with a little signalling of ey& and brow, she too conveyed to Manisty, who was looking listlessly towards her, that he was behav- ing as badly as even she could have expected. He made a little face that only she saw, but he turned to Miss Foster and began to talk, — all the time adding to the mountain of crumbs beside him, and scarcely waiting to listen to the girl's answers. "You came by Pisa?" "Yes. Mrs. Lewinson found me an escort — " "It was a mistake — "he said, hurrying his )r con- If-pos- lierican urious feet. er was about I's dis- ught— Vhat a d then r hair! .ck like ^autiful 1? Has and sit married [e Fates ight her er?" r of ey& who was s behav- xpected. 7, but he —all the »s beside ;he girl's 1 words like a school-boy. " You should have come by Perugia and Spoleto. Do you know Sp'»!lo?" Miss Foster stared. "Edward!" said Miss Manisty, "how could sho have heard of Spello? It 's the first time she has ever been in Italy." "No matter!" he said, and in a moment his moroseness was lit up, chased away by the little pleasure of his own whim — " Some day Miss Fos- ter must hear of Spello. May I not be the first person to tell her that she should see Spello?" " Really, Edward !" cried Miss Manisty, looking at him in a mild exasperation. " But there was so much to see at Florence !" said Lucy Foster, wondering. " No — pardon me ! — there is nothing to be seen at Florence — or nothing that one ought to wish to see — till the destroyers of the town have been hung in their own new Piazza !" "Oh yes! — that is a real disfigurement!" said the girl eagerly. "And yet— can't one under- stand? — they must use their towns for them- selves. They can't always be thinking of them as museums — as we do." "The argument would be good if the towns were theirs," he said, flashing round upon her. ** One can stand a great deal from lawful own- ers. Miss Foster looked in bewilderment at Mrs. Burgoyne. That lady laughed and bent across the table. " Let mc warn yuu, Miss Foster, this gentleman 25 here must be taken with a grain of salt when he talics about poor Italy — and the Italians," "But I thought" — said Lucy Foster, staring at lier host — "You thought he was writing a book on Italy? That doesn't matter. It's the new Italy of course that he hate^— the poor King and Queen — the government and the officials." "He wants the old times back?" — said Miss Foster, wondering — " when the priests tyrannized over everybody ? when the Italians had no country — and no unity?" She spoke slowly, at last looking her host in the face. Her frown of nervousness had disap- peared. Manisty laughed. " Pio Nono pulled down nothing — not a brick — or scarcely. And it is a most excellent thing, Miss Foster, to be tyrannized over by priests." His g.eat eyes shone — one might even say, glared upon her. His manner was not agree- able ; and Miss Foster colored. " I don't think .so " — she said, and then was too shy to say any more. "Oh, but you will think so,"— he said, obstinate- ly — "only you must stay long enough in the country. What people are pleased to call Papal tyranny puts a few people in prison — and tells them what books to read. Well! — what ma ter? Who knows what books they ought to read?' ^,, " But all their long struggle! — and their heroes! They had to make themselves a nation — " The words stumbled on the girl's tongue, but 26 I j*. i her effort, the hot feeling in her youtig face be- cajne her.— Miss Manisty thought to herself, "Oh, we shall dress, and improve her— We shall see!"— " One has first to settle whether it was worth while. What does a new nation matter? Theirs, anyway, was made too quick," said Manisty, ris- ing in answer to his aunt's signal. " But liberty matters !" said the girl. She stood an instant with her hand on the back of her chair, unconsciously defiant. "Ah ! Liberty !" said Manisty — " Liberty !" He lifted his shoulders contemptuously. Then backing to the w^all, he made room for her to pass. The girl felt almost as though she had been struck. She moved hurriedly, appeal- ingly towards Miss Manisty, who took her arm kindly as they left the room. " Don't let my nephew frighten you, my dear " —she said — " He never thinks like anybody else." " I read so much at Florence — and on the jour- ney " — said Lucy, while her hand trembled in Miss Manisty's — "Mrs. Browning — Mazzini ~ many things. I could not put that time out of my head !" a; CHAPTER II ON the way back to the salon the ladievS passed once more through the large book-room or library Avhich lay between it and the dining-room. Lucy Foster looked round it, a Sttle piteously, as though she were seeking for something to undo the impression — the disappointment — she had just received. "Oh! my dtj.r, you never saw such a place as it was when we arrived in March" — said Miss Manisty. " It was the billiard-room— a ridiculous table — and ridiculous balls — and a tiled flo^n without a scrap of carpet— and the ro/cL' In the whole apartment there were just two bed-rooms with fireplaces. Eleanor went to bed in one, I went to bed in the other. No carpets — no stoves — no proper beds even. Edward of course said it was all charming, and the climate balmy. Ah, well! — now we are really quite comfortable — ex- cept in that odious dining-room, which Edward will have left in its sins." Miss Manisty surveyed her work with a mild satisfaction. The table indeed had been carried away. The Hoor was covered with soft carpet r;. ?« . '^ I 4 The rough uneven walls paint''