And yet if each the other's name In some unguarded moment heard, The heart that once you thought so tame Would flutter like a wounded bird.--ANON.
Letters continued to come with fair regularity; and it was understoodthat Gerald, with Lida, had taken up his quarters in an"inexpensive" boarding-house at New York, where he had sent Lida to ahighly-recommended day-school, and he was looking out for employment.His articles had been accepted, he said; but the accounts of hisadventures and of his fellow-inmates gave the sense that there was morehumour in the retrospect than in the society, and that they were betterto write about than to live with. He never confessed it, but to hisaunt, who understood him, it was plain that he found it a differentthing to talk philanthropic socialism, or even to work among the poor,and to live in the society of the unrefined equals.
Then he wrote that Lida had come one day and told him that one of thegirls, with whom she had made friends, had a bad attack of cough andbronchitis, and could not fulfil an engagement that she had made to comeand sing for a person who was giving lectures upon national music. "'Ilooked at some of her songs,' little Lida said in her humble way, 'andI know them. Don't you think, brother, I might take her part?' Well, notto put too fine a point upon it, it was not an unwelcome notion, for myarticles, though accepted, don't bring in the speedy remuneration withwhich fiction beguiles the aspirant. Only one of them, which I send you,has seen the light, and the 'Censor' is slow, though sure, so dollarsfor immediate expenses run short. I called on the fellow, Mr. GracchusB. Van Tromp, to see whether he were fit company for my sister, and Ifound him much superior to his name--gentlemanlike and intelligent, notill-read, and pretty safe, like most Yankees, to know how to behave to ayoung girl. When he found I could accompany my sister on piano or violinhe was transported. Moreover, he could endure to be enlightened by aBritisher on such little facts as the true history of Auld Robin Grayand the Wacht am Rhein. The lecture was a marked success. We haveanother tonight, 16th. It has resulted in a proposal to these twointeresting performers to accompany the great Gracchus on a tour throughthe leading 'cities,' lecturing by turns with him and assisting. Hehas hitherto picked up as he could 'local talent,' but is glad of lessuncertain help, and so far as appears, he is superior to jealousy,though he sees that I'm better read, 'and of the cut that takes theladies.' It is no harm for Lida; she was not learning much, and I cancultivate her better when I have her to myself, and get her not toregard me so much like a lion, to be honoured with distant respect andobedience. We shall get dollars enough to keep us going till my talentsbreak upon the world, and obtain stunning experiences for the 'Censor'.My father's dear old violin is coming to the front. Our first start willbe at Boston; but continue to write to Gerald F. Wood, care of Editor of'Cole's Weekly'."
"How like his father!" was the natural exclamation; but the details thatfollowed in another week were fairly satisfactory, and the spirit ofindependence was a sound one, which had stood harder proofs than perhapshis home was allowed to know, though these were early days.
February was beginning to open the buds and to fill the slopes withdelicate anemones, as well as to bring back Mr. White's workmen, amongwhom Clement could make inquiries. One young man knew the name ofBenista as belonging to a family in a valley beyond his own, but it wasnot an easily accessible one, and a fresh fall of snow had choked theravine, and would do so for weeks to come.
Yet all was lovely on the coast, and Mr. White having occasion to go toSan Remo, offered to take the three girls with him.
"Young ladies always have a turn for shops," said he.
"I want to see the coast," said Franceska, with a little dignity.
"But I do want some gloves--and some blue embroidery silk, thank you,Mr. White," said Anna, more courteously.
"And I want some handkerchiefs, if Mr. White will take me too!" returnedUncle Clement in the same tone.
"I know so well what you mean, dear," observed Maura, sotto voce toFrancie. "It is so trying to be supposed mere common-place, when one'sthoughts are on the beautiful and romantic."
It was just one of the sayings that had begun to go against Francie'staste, and she answered--
"Mr. White is very good-natured."
"Ah, yes, but so--so--you know."
Francie was called, and left Mr. White's description to be unutterable.
The two elder ladies spent the day together, and Mrs. Grinstead thenheard that Jane Mohun had written, that both Lord Ivinghoe and LadyPhyllis Devereux were recovering from the influenza, and that LordRotherwood had had a slight touch of the complaint.
"It is a very serious thing in our family," said Adeline, with all thesatisfaction of having a family, especially with a complaint, and shebegan to enumerate the victims of the Devereux house and her own, onlybreaking off to exclaim, "I really shall write at once to beg them allto come here for the rest of the winter, March winds and all. My cousinRotherwood has never been here, and they might be quite quiet amongrelations. So unlike a common health resort."
Mrs. White's hospitable anticipations were forestalled. The party camehome from San Remo in high spirits. They had met Lord Rotherwood andhis son in the street, they had been greeted most warmly, and broughtto luncheon at the villa, where they found not only Lady Rotherwood andPhyllis, but Mysie Merrifield.
It was explained that their London doctor had strongly advised immediatetransplantation before there was time to catch fresh colds, and a friendof the Marchioness, who permanently possessed a charming house at SanRemo, had offered it just as it was for the spring. The journey had beenmade at once, with one deviation on Lord Rotherwood's part, to beg forMysie, as an essential requisite to his "Fly's" perfect recovery. Avisit had been due before, only deferred by the general illness, and nodifficulty was made in letting it be paid in these new and delightfulscenes. Phyllis had been there before. She was weak and languid, andwould much rather have stayed at home, except for seeing Mysie's delightin the mountains and the blue Mediterranean, which she dimly rememberedfrom her infancy at Malta. Only she made it a point of honour not toallow that the sea was bluer than the bay of Rockquay.
Ivinghoe was looking ill and disgusted, but brightened up at the sightof the visitors, and his mother, who thought Monte Carlo too near,though she had kept as far from it as possible, accepted the morewillingly Mr. White's cordial invitation to come and spend a day or twoat Rocca Marina. Trifles were so much out of the good lady's focus ofvision that the possible dangers in that quarter never occurred to her,though Maura was demurely bridling, and Francie, all unawakened, butprettier than ever, was actually wearing a scarlet anemone that Ivinghoehad given to her.
In the intervening days, Rocca Marina was in a wonderful state ofpreparation. The master of it was genuinely and honestly kindly andsimple-hearted, and had entertained noble travellers before, who hadbeen attracted by his extensive and artistic works; but no words candescribe the satisfaction of his wife. In part there was the heartfeltpleasure of receiving the cousin who had been like one of her brothersin the home of her childhood; but to this was added the glory of knowingthat this same cousin was a marquis, and that the society of San Remo,nay of all the Riviera and the Italian papers to boot, would know thatshe was a good deal more than the quarry-owner's wife. Moreover, likeall her family, there was a sense of Lady Rotherwood's coming from adifferent sphere, and treating them with condescension. Jane and Lilymight laugh, but to Adeline it was matter of a sort of aggressive awe,half as asserting herself as "Victoria's" equal and relation, half asprotecting her from inferior people.
Geraldine perceived and was secretly amused. Of course all the partydined at the castle on Saturday night, and heard some lamentations thatthere was no one else to meet the distinguished guests, for the youngdoctor was not thought worthy.
"But I knew you would like a family party best, and the Underwoodsare--almost connections, though--"
In that "though" was conveyed their vast inferiority to the house ofMohun.
"I always understoo
d that it was a very good old family," said LadyRotherwood.
"Clement Underwood is one of the most valuable clergy in London," saidher lord; "I am glad he is recovering. I shall be delighted to hear himagain."
Maura was standing under the pergola with Lord Ivinghoe.
"And is not it sad for poor Franceska Vanderkist?--Oh! you know aboutpoor Mr. Gerald Underwood?" said Maura, blushing a little at the awkwardsubject.
"Of course," said Ivinghoe impatiently. "He is in America, is he not?But what has she to do with it?"
"Oh, you know, after being his Mona, and all. It can't go any furthertill it is cleared up."
Phyllis and Mysie came up, asking Maura to tell them the name of amountain peak with a white cap. The party came up to dinner, which wasas genial and easy as the host and Lord Rotherwood could make it, and asstiff and grand as the hostess could accomplish, aided by the deftnessand grace of her Italian servants. In the evening Theodore came up toassist in the singing of glees, and Clement's voice was a delightful andwelcome sound in his sister's ears. Ivinghoe stood among the circle atthe piano, and enjoyed. He and his sister were not particularly musical,but enough to enjoy those remarkable Underwood voices. After that Mauranever promoted musical evenings.
An odd little Sunday-school for the children of the English workmen hadbeen instituted at Rocca Marina, where Maura had always assisted thechaplain's wife, and Anna and Francie shared the work. Mysie heard of itwith enthusiasm, for, as Ivinghoe told her, she was pining for a breathof the atmosphere, but she came down to enjoy the delights thereofalone, taking Maura's small class. Maura was supposed to be doing thepolite to Lady Phyllis, but in point of fact Phyllis was lying downin the balcony of her mother's dressing-room, and Maura was gracefullyfanning herself under a great cork tree, while Lord Ivinghoe was lyingon the grass.
Francie looked languid, and said it was getting dreadfully hot, butMrs. Grinstead took no notice, trusting that the cessation of attentionswould hinder any feeling from going deeper, so that--as she could nothelp saying to herself--she might not have brought the poor child out ofthe frying-pan into the fire--not an elegant proverb, but expressing herfeeling!
More especially did it do so, when she found that Lord Rotherwood wasso much delighted with the beauty and variety of the marbles of RoccaMarina as to order a font to be made of them for the church that wasbeing restored at Clarebridge, and he, and still more his son, foundconstant diversion in running over by train from San Remo to superintendthe design, and to select the different colours and patterns of thestones as they were quarried out and bits polished so as to show theirbeauty. Their ladies often accompanied them, and these expeditionsgenerally involved luncheon at the castle, and often tea at theparsonage, but it might be gradually observed, as time went on, thatthere was a shade of annoyance on the part of the great house at thepreference sometimes unconsciously shown for the society of the smallerone.
Mysie openly claimed Anna as her own friend of some standing, andboth she and Phyllis had books to discuss, botanical or geologicaldiscoveries to communicate or puzzle out, with Mrs. Grinstead or hernieces. Lord Rotherwood had many more interests in common with ClementUnderwood than with Mr. White, and even the Marchioness, though moreimpartial and on her guard, was sensible to Mrs. Grinstead's charm ofmanner and depth of comprehension. She patronized Adeline, but respectedMrs. Grinstead as incapable of and insensible to patronage.
That her gentlemen should have found such safe and absorbing occupationin the opposite direction to Monte Carlo was an abiding satisfactionto her, and she did not analyze the charms of the place as regarded herson. She had seen him amused by other young ladies, as he certainly wasnow by that Miss White, who was very handsome and very obliging.
She knew and he knew all the antecedents too well for alarm, till oneday she saw Maura's face, as she made him pull down a spray of banksiafrom the side of a stone wall, and watched the air of gallant courtesywith which he presented it.
Francie watched it too, as she had watched the like before, and saidnothing, but there was an odd, dull sense of disappointment, and theglory had faded away from sea and sky, spring though it was. Yet therewere pressures of the hand in greeting and parting, and kind, wistfullooks, as if of sympathy, little services and little attentions, thatset her foolish little heart bounding, in a way she was much ashamedto feel, and would have been more utterly ashamed to speak of, or tosuppose observed. She only avowed to Anna that it was very warm, wearyweather, and that she was tired of absence, and felt homesick, but AuntCherry was so kind that she must not be told.
Lady Rotherwood proposed moving away, but her husband and son would nothear of it till their font was finished.
It was not unwelcome to any one of the elder ladies that the youngofficer's leave would be over in another week. Geraldine was glad thatFrancie should be freed from the trial of seeing attention absorbed byMaura, and herself so often left in the lurch, so far as that young ladycould contrive it, for though not a word was said, the brightened eyeand glowing cheek, whenever Lord Ivinghoe brought her forward, or paidher any deference or civility, were dangerous symptoms. Peace of mindin so modest and innocent a maiden would probably come back when theexcitement was once over.
As to Adeline, there was nothing she dreaded so much as the commotionthat would be excited if Ivinghoe's flirtation came to any crisis. Hismother would never forgive her, his father would hardly do so; she wouldfeel like a traitor to the whole family, and all her attempts to put acheck on endeavours on Maura's part to draw him on--an endeavour thatbegan to be visible to her--were met by apparent unconsciousness or bytears. And when she ventured a word to her husband, he gruffly answeredthat his niece's father had been an officer in the army, and he couldmake it worth any one's while to take her! Young lords were glad enoughin these days to have something to put into their pockets.
CHAPTER XXX. -- DREAMS AND NIGHTINGALES