Allison smiled with full understanding of the situation. "We men have to be careful what we say to women," he replied, with an air of caution and comradeship that made his young guest feel like a full-fledged man of the world.
"Sure," a.s.sented Romeo, with a broad grin and a movement of one eyelid which was almost--but not quite--a wink.
Presently the three other guests came in, followed by the Colonel.
Madame Francesca was in white silk over which violets had been scattered with a lavish hand, then woven into the shining fabric. She wore violets in her hair and at her belt, and a single amethyst at her throat. Isabel was in white, with flounces of spangled lace, and Rose was unusually lovely in a gown of old gold satin and a necklace of palest topaz. In her dark hair was a single yellow rose.
Juliet was for the moment aghast at so much magnificence and painfully conscious of her own white muslin gown. Madame Francesca, reading her thought, drew the girl"s tall head down and kissed her. "What a clover blossom you are," she said, "all in freshest white, with pink cheeks and sunshiny curls!"
Thus fortified, Juliet did not mind Isabel"s instinctive careful apprais.e.m.e.nt of her gown, and she missed, happily, the evident admiration with which Romeo"s eyes followed Isabel"s every movement.
"Why didn"t you tell me?" Allison was asking Rose, "so I could have ransacked the town for golden roses?"
"I"ve repeatedly done it myself," laughed Rose, "without success. I usually save my yellow gowns for June when all the yellow rose bushes in the garden may lavish their wealth upon me."
"Happy rose," Allison returned, lightly, "to die in so glorious a cause."
The twins were almost at the point of starvation when dinner was announced, though they had partaken liberally of bread and b.u.t.ter and jam just before leaving home. Romeo had complained a little but had not been sufficiently Spartan to refuse the offered refreshment.
"I don"t see why you want to feed me now and spoil my dinner," he grumbled, as he reached out for a second slice.
"I don"t want to spoil your dinner," Juliet had answered, with her mouth full. "Can"t you see I"m eating, too? We don"t want to be impolite when we"re invited out, and eat too much."
"You"ve been reading the etiquette book," remarked Romeo, with unusual insight, "and there"s more foolish things in that book than in any other we"ve got. When we"re invited out to eat, why shouldn"t we eat? They may have been cooking for days just to get ready for us and they won"t like it if we only pick at things."
"Maybe they want some left," Juliet replied, brushing aside the crumbs.
"I remember how mad Mamma was once when the minister ate two pieces of pie and she had to make another the next day or divide one piece between you and me."
"I"ll bet she made another. She always fed us, and I remember that the kids around the corner couldn"t even have bread and mola.s.ses between meals."
On the way to the dining-room, Juliet drew her brother aside and whispered to him: "watch the others, then you"ll be sure of getting the right fork."
"Huh!" he returned, resentfully, having been accustomed to only one fork since he and Juliet began to keep house for themselves.
When he saw the array of silver at his plate, however, he blessed her for the hint. As the dinner progressed by small portions of oysters, soup, and fish, he gratefully remembered the bread and jam. The twins noted that the others always left a little on their plates, but proudly disdained the subterfuge for themselves.
Madame Francesca sat opposite the Colonel and Rose was at his right.
Romeo sat next to her and across from them was Allison, between Isabel and Juliet.
Somewhat subdued by the unfamiliar situation, the twins said very little during dinner. Juliet took careful note of the appointments of the table and dining-room, and of the gowns the other women wore. When Romeo was not occupied with his dinner and the various forks, he watched Isabel with frank admiration, and wondered what made the difference between her and Juliet.
Everybody tried to produce general conversation, but could extract only polite monosyllables from the twins. Questions addressed directly to them were briefly answered by "yes" or "no," or "I don"t know," or, more often, by a winning smile which included them all.
Had it not been for Madame Francesca, gallantly a.s.sisted by the Colonel, the abnormal silence of the younger guests might have reacted unfavourably upon the entertainment, for Isabel was as quiet as she usually was, in the presence of her aunt and cousin, Allison became unable to think of topics of general interest, and Rose"s efforts to talk pleasantly while her heart was aching were no more successful than such efforts usually are.
But Madame Francesca, putting aside the burden of her seventy years, laughed and talked and told stories with all the zest of a girl.
Inspired by her shining example, the Colonel dragged forth a few musty old anecdotes and offered them for inspection. They were new to the younger generation, and Madame affected to find them new also.
Rose wondered at her, as often, envying her the gift of detachment. The fear that had come upon Rose at midnight was with her still, haunting her, waking or sleeping, like some evil thing. Proudly she said to herself that she would seek no man, though her heart should break for love of him; that though her soul writhed in anguish, neither he nor the woman who took him from her should ever even suspect she cared.
She forced herself to meet Allison"s eyes with a smile, to answer his questions, and to put in a word, now and then, when Madame or the Colonel paused. Yet, with every sense at its keenest, she noted Isabel"s downcast eyes, the self-conscious air with which Allison spoke to her, and the exaggerated consideration of Juliet which he instinctively adopted as a shield. She saw, too, that Isabel was secretly annoyed whenever Allison spoke to Juliet, and easily translated the encouraging air with which Isabel met Romeo"s admiring glances. Once, when he happened to turn quickly enough to see, a shadow crossed Allison"s face, and he bit his lips.
"How civilised the world has become," Madame was saying, lightly. "The mere breaking of bread together precludes all open hostility. Bitter enemies may meet calmly at the dinner table of a mutual friend, and I understand that, in the higher circles in which we do not care to move, a man may escort his divorced wife out to dinner, and, without bitterness, congratulate her upon her approaching marriage."
"I"ve often thought," returned the Colonel, more seriously, "that the modern marriage service should be changed to read "until death or divorce do us part." It"s highly inconsistent as it stands."
""Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,"" she quoted.
"Inconsistency goes as far toward making life attractive as its pleasures do toward spoiling it."
"What do you call pleasure?" queried Allison.
"The unsought joy. If you go out to hunt for it, you don"t often get it.
When you do, you"ve earned it and are ent.i.tled to it. True pleasure is a free gift of the G.o.ds, like a sense of humour."
By some oblique and unsuspected way, the words brought a certain comfort to Rose. Without bitterness, she remembered that Allison had once said: "In any true mating, they both know." Over and over again she said to herself, stubbornly: "I will have nothing that is not true--nothing that is not true."
It was a wise hostess who discovered the fact that changing rooms may change moods; that many a successful dinner has an aftermath in the drawing-room as cold and dismal as a party call. Madame Francesca had once characterised the hour after dinner as "the stick of a sky-rocket, which never fails to return and bring disillusion with it." Hence she postponed it as long as she could, but the Colonel himself gave the signal by moving back his chair.
An awkward pause followed, which lasted until Rose went to the piano of her own accord and began to play. At length she drifted into the running chords of a familiar accompaniment and Allison took his violin and joined in. As he stood by Rose, the mere fact of his nearness brought her a strange peace. Had she looked up, she would have seen that though he stood so near her, he had eyes only for Isabel and was playing to her alone.
Isabel did not seem to care. She sat with her hands folded idly in her lap, occasionally glancing at the twins who sat together on a sofa across the room. Madame Bernard and the Colonel had gone out on the balcony that opened off of the library.
The night was cool, yet had in it the softness of May. Every wandering wind brought a subtle, exquisite fragrance from orchards blooming afar.
High in the heavens swung the pale gold moon of Spring.
"What a night," said Madame, almost in a whisper. "It seems almost as if there never had been another Spring."
"And as if there never would be another."
"That may be true, for one or both of us," she replied, with unwonted sadness.
"My work is done," sighed the Colonel. "I have only to wait now."
"Sometimes I think that all of Life is waiting," she went on, with a little catch in her voice, "and yet we never know what we were waiting for, unless--when all is done--"
A warm, friendly hand closed over hers. "Do not question too much, dear friend, for the G.o.d who ordained the beginning can safely be trusted with the end, as well as with all that lies between. Do you know," he continued, in a different tone, "a night like this always makes me think of those wonderful lines:
""The blessed damozel leaned out From the gold bar of Heaven; Her eyes were deeper than the depth Of waters stilled at even; She had three lilies in her hand And the stars in her hair were seven.""
Francesca"s eyes filled and the stars swam before her, for she remembered the three white lilies the Colonel had put into the still hands of his boy"s mother, just before the casket was closed. "I wonder," she breathed, "if--they--know."
"I wonder, too," he said.
The strains of the violin floated out upon the scented night, vibrant with love and longing, with pa.s.sion and pain. Something had come into the music that was never there before, but only Rose knew it.
"Richard," said Francesca, suddenly, "if you should go first, and it should be as we hope and pray it may be--if people know each other there, and can speak and be understood, will you tell him that I am keeping the faith; that I have only been waiting since we parted?"
"Yes. And if it should be the other way, will you tell her that I, too, am waiting and keeping the faith, and that I have done well with our boy?"
"I will," she promised.