"Not at all," she said. But she added, "Don"t be gone long."
"Oh no," he answered, pulling off his mask. "Be sure not to move from here on any account."
He plunged into the midst of the crowd that buffeted him from side to side as he struck against its ma.s.ses. The squeaking and gibbering masks mocked in their falsetto at his wild-eyed, naked face thrusting hither and thither among them.
"I saw your lady wife with another gentleman," cried one of them, in a subtle misinterpretation of the cause of his distraction.
The throng had immensely increased; the clowns and harlequins ran shrieking up and down, and leaped over one another"s heads.
It was useless. He went back to Imogene with a heart-sickening fear that she too might have vanished.
But she was still there.
"You ought to have come sooner," she said gaily. "That red mask has been here again. He looked as if he wanted to make love to _me_ this time.
But he didn"t. If you"d been here you might have asked him where Mrs.
Bowen was."
Colville sat down. He had done what he could to mend the matter, and the time had come for philosophical submission. It was now his duty to keep up Miss Graham"s spirits. They were both Americans, and from the national standpoint he was simply the young girl"s middle-aged bachelor friend. There was nothing in the situation for him to beat his breast about.
"Well, all that we can do is to wait for them," he said.
"Oh yes," she answered easily. "They"ll be sure to come back in the course of time."
They waited a half-hour, talking somewhat at random, and still the others did not come. But the red mask came again. He approached Colville, and said politely--
"_La signora e part.i.ta._"
"The lady gone?" repeated Colville, taking this to be part of the red mask"s joke.
"_La bambina pareva poco lene._"
"The little one not well?" echoed Colville again, rising. "Are you joking?"
The mask made a deep murmur of polite deprecation. "I am not capable of such a thing in a serious affair. Perhaps you know me?" he said, taking off his mask, and in further sign of good faith he gave the name of a painter sufficiently famous in Florence.
"I beg your pardon, and thank you," said Colville. He had no need to speak to Imogene--, her hand was already trembling on his arm.
They drove home in silence through the white moonlight of the streets, filled everywhere with the gay voices and figures of the Carnival.
Mrs. Bowen met them at the door of her apartment, and received them with a manner that justly distributed the responsibility and penalty for their escapade. Colville felt that a meaner spirit would have wreaked its displeasure upon the girl alone. She made short, quiet answers to all his eager inquiries. Most probably it was some childish indisposition; Effie had been faint. No, he need not go for the doctor.
Mr. Waters had called the doctor, who had just gone away. There was nothing else that he could do for her. She dropped her eyes, and in everything but words dismissed him. She would not even remain with him till he could decently get himself out of the house. She left Imogene to receive his adieux, feigning that she heard Effie calling.
"I"m--I"m very sorry," faltered the girl, "that we didn"t go back to her at once."
"Yes; I was to blame," answered the humiliated hero of her Carnival dream. The clinging regret with which she kept his hand at parting scarcely consoled him for what had happened.
"I will come round in the morning," he said. "I must know how Effie is."
"Yes; come."
X
Colville went to Palazzo Pinti next day with the feeling that he was defying Mrs. Bowen. Upon a review of the facts he could not find himself so very much to blame for the occurrences of the night before, and he had not been able to prove to his reason that Mrs. Bowen had resented his behaviour. She had not made a scene of any sort when he came in with Imogene; it was natural that she should excuse herself, and should wish to be with her sick child: she had done really nothing. But when a woman has done nothing she fills the soul of the man whose conscience troubles him with an instinctive apprehension. There is then no safety, his nerves tell him, except in bringing the affair, whatever it is, to an early issue--in having it out with her. Colville subdued the cowardly impulse of his own heart, which would have deceived him with the suggestion that Mrs. Bowen might be occupied with Effie, and it would be better to ask for Miss Graham. He asked for Mrs. Bowen, and she came in directly.
She smiled in the usual way, and gave her hand, as she always did; but her hand was cold, and she looked tired, though she said Effie was quite herself again, and had been asking for him. "Imogene has been telling her about your adventure last night, and making her laugh."
If it had been Mrs. Bowen"s purpose to mystify him, she could not have done it more thoroughly than by this bold treatment of the affair. He bent a puzzled gaze upon her. "I"m glad any of you have found it amusing," he said;--"I confess that I couldn"t let myself off so lightly in regard to it." She did not reply, and he continued: "The fact is, I don"t think I behaved very well. I abused your kindness to Miss Graham."
"Abused my kindness to Miss Graham?"
"Yes. When you allowed her to dance at the veglione, I ought to have considered that you were stretching a point. I ought to have taken her back to you very soon, instead of tempting her to go and walk with me in the corridor."
"Yes," said Mrs. Bowen. "So it was you who proposed it? Imogene was afraid that she had. What exemplary young people you are! The way each of you confesses and a.s.sumes all the blame would leave the severest chaperone without a word."
Her gaiety made Colville uncomfortable. He said gravely, "What I blame myself most for is that I was not there to be of use to you when Effie----"
"Oh, you mustn"t think of that at all. Mr. Waters was most efficient. My admirer in the red mask was close at hand, and between them they got Effie out without the slightest disturbance. I fancy most people thought it was a Carnival joke. Please don"t think of that again."
Nothing could be politer than all this.
"And you won"t allow me to punish myself for not being there to give you even a moral support?"
"Certainly not. As I told Imogene, young people will be young people; and I knew how fond you were of dancing."
Though it pierced him, Colville could not help admiring the neatness of this thrust. "I didn"t know you were so ironical, Mrs. Bowen."
"Ironical? Not at all."
"Ah! I see I"m not forgiven."
"I"m sure I don"t know what you mean."
Imogene and Effie came in. The child was a little pale, and willingly let him take her on his knee, and lay her languid head on his shoulder.
The girl had not aged overnight like himself and Mrs. Bowen; she looked as fresh and strong as yesterday.
"Miss Graham," said Colville, "if a person to whom you had done a deadly wrong insisted that you hadn"t done any wrong at all, should you consider yourself forgiven?"
"It would depend upon the person," said the girl, with innocent liveliness, recognising the extravagance in his tone.
"Yes," he said, with an affected pensiveness, "so very much depends upon the person in such a case."
Mrs. Bowen rose. "Excuse me a moment; I will be back directly. Don"t get up, please," she said, and prevented him with a quick withdrawal to another room, which left upon his sense the impression of elegant grace, and a smile and sunny glance. But neither had any warmth in it.