"Is not crowded, and there are half a hundred rooms at my disposal? Very well, I will keep the one I have which commands a very attractive view of a rose-colored villa set in a grove of cypress trees."
The others had waited in a state of suspension, dumbfounded at what was going on. But as soon as the young man dipped into his pocket and fished out a handful of silver, they broke into smiles; this at least was intelligible. The silver was distributed, the luggage was hoisted down, the omnibus was dismissed. The courtyard resumed its former quiet; just the American gentleman, Gustavo and the parrot were left.
Then suddenly a frightful suspicion dawned upon Gustavo--it was more than a suspicion; it was an absolute certainty which in his excitement he had overlooked. From where had the American gentleman dropped? Not the sky, a.s.suredly, and there was no place else possible, unless the door of the summer house. Yes, he had been in the summer house, and not sleeping either. An indefinable something about his manner informed Gustavo that he was privy to the entire conversation. Gustavo, a picture of guilty remorse, searched his memory for the words he had used. Why, oh why, had he not piled up adjectives? It was the opportunity of a lifetime and he had wantonly thrown it away.
But--to his astonished relief--the young man appeared to be bearing no malice. He appeared, on the contrary, quite unusually cheerful as he sauntered whistling, across the court and seated himself in the exact chair the signorina had occupied. He plunged his hand into his pocket suggestively--Gustavo had been the only one omitted in the distribution of silver--and drew forth a roll of bills. Having selected five crisp five-lire notes, he placed them under the sugar bowl, and watched his companion while he blew three meditative rings of smoke.
"Gustavo," he inquired, "do you suppose you could find me some nice, gentle, lady-like donkeys and a red sash and a pair of earrings?"
Gustavo"s fascinated gaze had been fixed upon the sugar bowl and he had only half caught the words.
"_Scusi_, signore, I no understand."
"Just sit down, Gustavo, it makes me nervous to see you standing all the time. I can"t be comfortable, you know, unless everybody else is comfortable. Now pay strict attention and see if you can grasp my meaning."
Gustavo dubiously accepted the edge of the indicated chair; he wished to humor the signore"s mood, however incomprehensible that mood might be.
For half an hour he listened with strained attention while the gentleman talked and toyed with the sugar bowl. Amazement, misgiving, amus.e.m.e.nt, daring, flashed in succession across his face; in the end he leaned forward with shining eyes.
"_Si, si_," he whispered after a conspiratorial glance over his shoulder, "I will do it all; you may trust to me."
The young man rose, removed the sugar bowl, and sauntered on toward the road. Gustavo pocketed the notes and gazed after him.
"_Dio mio_," he murmured as he set about gathering up the gla.s.ses, "zese Americans!"
At the gate the young man paused to light another cigarette.
"_Addio_, Gustavo," he called over his shoulder, "_don"t_ forget the earrings!"
CHAPTER IV
The table was set on the terrace; breakfast was served and the company was gathered. Breakfast consisted of the usual caffe-latte, rolls and strained honey, and--since a journey was to the fore and something sustaining needed--a soft-boiled egg apiece. There were four persons present, though there should have been five. The two guests were an Englishman and his wife, whom the chances of travel had brought over night to Valedolmo.
Between them, presiding over the coffee machine, was Mr. Wilder"s sister, "Miss Hazel"--never "Miss Wilder" except to the butcher and baker. It was the cross of her life, she had always affirmed, that her name was not Mary or Jane or Rebecca. "Hazel" does well enough when one is eighteen and beautiful, but when one is fifty and no longer beautiful, it is little short of absurd. But if anyone at fifty could carry such a name gracefully, it was Miss Hazel Wilder; her fifty years sat as jauntily as Constance"s twenty-two. This morning she was very business-like in her short skirt, belted jacket, and green felt Alpine hat with a feather in the side. No one would mistake her for a cyclist or a golfer or a motorist or anything in the world but an Alpine climber; whatever Miss Hazel was or was not, she was always _game_.
Across from Miss Hazel sat her brother in knickerbockers, his Alpine stock at his elbow and also his fan. Since his domicile in Italy, Mr.
Wilder"s fan had a.s.sumed the nature of a symbol; he could no more be separated from it than St. Sebastian from his arrows or St. Laurence from his gridiron. At Mr. Wilder"s elbow was the empty chair where Constance should have been--she who had insisted on six as a proper breakfast hour, and had grudgingly consented to postpone it till half-past out of deference to her sleepy-headed elders. Her father had finished his egg and hers too, before she appeared, as nonchalant and smiling as if she were out the earliest of all.
"I think you might have waited!" was her greeting from the doorway.
She advanced to the table, saluted in military fashion, dropped a kiss on her father"s bald spot, and possessed herself of the empty chair. She too was clad in mountain-climbing costume, in so far as blouse and skirt and leather leggings went, but above her face there fluttered the fluffy white brim of a ruffled sun hat with a bunch of pink rosebuds set over one ear.
"I am sorry not to wear my own Alpine hat, Aunt Hazel; I look so deliciously German in it, but I simply can"t afford to burn all the skin off my nose."
"You can"t make us believe that," said her father. "The reason is, that Lieutenant di Ferara and Captain Coroloni are going with us today, and that this hat is more becoming than the other."
"It"s one reason," Constance agreed imperturbably, "but, as I say, I don"t wish to burn the skin off my nose, because that is unbecoming too.
You are ungrateful, Dad," she added as she helped herself to honey with a liberal hand, "I invited them solely on your account because you like to hear them talk English. Have the donkeys come?"
"The donkeys are at the back door nibbling the buds off the rose-bushes."
"And the driver?"
"Is sitting on the kitchen doorstep drinking coffee and smiling over the top of his cup at Elizabetta. There are two of him."
"Two! I only ordered one."
"One is the official driver and the other is a boy whom he has brought along to do the work."
Constance eyed her father sharply. There was something at once guilty and triumphant about his expression.
"What is it, Dad?" she inquired sternly. "I suppose he has not got a sash and earrings."
"On the contrary, he has."
"Really? How clever of Gustavo! I hope," she added anxiously, "that he talks good Italian?"
"I don"t know about his Italian, but he talks uncommonly good English."
"English!" There was reproach, disgust, disillusionment, in her tone.
"Not really, father?"
"Yes, really and truly--almost as well as I do. He has lived in New York and he speaks English like a dream--real English--not the Gustavo--Lieutenant di Ferara kind. I can understand what he says."
"How simply horrible!"
"Very convenient, I should say."
[Ill.u.s.tration: Beppo and the donkeys]
"If there"s anything I detest, it"s an Americanized Italian--and here in Valedolmo of all places, where you have a right to demand something unique and romantic and picturesque and real. It"s too bad of Gustavo!
I shall never place any faith in his judgment again. You may talk English to the man if you like; I shall address him in nothing but Italian."
As they rose from the table she suggested pessimistically, "Let"s go and look at the donkeys--I suppose they"ll be horrid, scraggly, knock-kneed little beasts."
They turned out however to be unusually attractive, as donkeys go, and they were innocently engaged in nibbling, not rose-leaves but gra.s.s, under the tutelage of a barefoot boy. Constance patted their s.h.a.ggy mouse-colored noses, made the acquaintance of the boy, whose name was Beppo, and looked about for the driver proper. He rose and bowed as she approached. His appearance was even more violently spectacular than she had ordered; Gustavo had given good measure.
He wore a loose white shirt--immaculately white--with a red silk handkerchief knotted about his throat, brown corduroy knee-breeches, and a red cotton sash with the hilt of a knife conspicuously protruding. His corduroy jacket was slung carelessly across his shoulders, his hat was c.o.c.ked jauntily, with a red heron feather stuck in the band; last, perfect touch of all, in his ears--at his ears rather (a close examination revealed the thread)--two golden hoops flashed in the sunlight. His skin was dark--not too dark--just a good healthy out-door tan: his brows level and heavy, his gaze candor itself. He wore a tiny suggestion of a moustache which turned up at the corners (a suspicious examination of this, might have revealed the fact that it was touched up with burnt cork); there was no doubt but that he was a handsome fellow, and his attire suggested that he knew it.
Constance clasped her hands in an ecstasy of admiration.
"He"s perfect!" she cried. "Where on earth did Gustavo find him? Did you ever see anything so beautiful?" she appealed to the others. "He looks like a brigand in opera bouffe."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Constance clasped her hands in an ecstasy of admiration"]