He could hardly help smiling. Madame Grandoni had insisted on the fact that Christina was an actress, though a sincere one; and this little speech seemed a glimpse of the cloven foot. She had played her great scene, she had made her point, and now she had her eye at the hole in the curtain and she was watching the house! But she blushed as she perceived his smile, and her blush, which was beautiful, made her fault venial.
"You are an excellent girl!" he said, in a particular tone, and gave her his hand in farewell.
There was a great chain of rooms in Mrs. Light"s apartment, the pride and joy of the hostess on festal evenings, through which the departing visitor pa.s.sed before reaching the door. In one of the first of these Rowland found himself waylaid and arrested by the distracted lady herself.
"Well, well?" she cried, seizing his arm. "Has she listened to you--have you moved her?"
"In Heaven"s name, dear madame," Rowland begged, "leave the poor girl alone! She is behaving very well!"
"Behaving very well? Is that all you have to tell me? I don"t believe you said a proper word to her. You are conspiring together to kill me!"
Rowland tried to soothe her, to remonstrate, to persuade her that it was equally cruel and unwise to try to force matters. But she answered him only with harsh lamentations and imprecations, and ended by telling him that her daughter was her property, not his, and that his interference was most insolent and most scandalous. Her disappointment seemed really to have crazed her, and his only possible rejoinder was to take a summary departure.
A moment later he came upon the Cavaliere, who was sitting with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, so buried in thought that Rowland had to call him before he roused himself. Giacosa looked at him a moment keenly, and then gave a shake of the head, interrogatively.
Rowland gave a shake negative, to which the Cavaliere responded by a long, melancholy sigh. "But her mother is determined to force matters,"
said Rowland.
"It seems that it must be!"
"Do you consider that it must be?"
"I don"t differ with Mrs. Light!"
"It will be a great cruelty!"
The Cavaliere gave a tragic shrug. "Eh! it is n"t an easy world."
"You should do nothing to make it harder, then."
"What will you have? It "s a magnificent marriage."
"You disappoint me, Cavaliere," said Rowland, solemnly. "I imagined you appreciated the great elevation of Miss Light"s att.i.tude. She does n"t love the prince; she has let the matter stand or fall by that."
The old man grasped him by the hand and stood a moment with averted eyes. At last, looking at him, he held up two fingers.
"I have two hearts," he said, "one for myself, one for the world. This one opposes Miss Light, the other adores her! One suffers horribly at what the other does."
"I don"t understand double people, Cavaliere," Rowland said, "and I don"t pretend to understand you. But I have guessed that you are going to play some secret card."
"The card is Mrs. Light"s, not mine," said the Cavaliere.
"It "s a menace, at any rate?"
"The sword of Damocles! It hangs by a hair. Christina is to be given ten minutes to recant, under penalty of having it fall. On the blade there is something written in strange characters. Don"t scratch your head; you will not make it out."
"I think I have guessed it," Rowland said, after a pregnant silence. The Cavaliere looked at him blankly but intently, and Rowland added, "Though there are some signs, indeed, I don"t understand."
"Puzzle them out at your leisure," said the Cavaliere, shaking his hand.
"I hear Mrs. Light; I must go to my post. I wish you were a Catholic; I would beg you to step into the first church you come to, and pray for us the next half-hour."
"For "us"? For whom?"
"For all of us. At any rate remember this: I worship the Christina!"
Rowland heard the rustle of Mrs. Light"s dress; he turned away, and the Cavaliere went, as he said, to his post. Rowland for the next couple of days pondered his riddle.
CHAPTER XI. Mrs. Hudson
Of Roderick, meanwhile, Rowland saw nothing; but he immediately went to Mrs. Hudson and a.s.sured her that her son was in even exceptionally good health and spirits. After this he called again on the two ladies from Northampton, but, as Roderick"s absence continued, he was able neither to furnish nor to obtain much comfort. Miss Garland"s apprehensive face seemed to him an image of his own state of mind. He was profoundly depressed; he felt that there was a storm in the air, and he wished it would come, without more delay, and perform its ravages. On the afternoon of the third day he went into Saint Peter"s, his frequent resort whenever the outer world was disagreeable. From a heart-ache to a Roman rain there were few importunate pains the great church did not help him to forget. He had wandered there for half an hour, when he came upon a short figure, lurking in the shadow of one of the great piers. He saw it was that of an artist, hastily transferring to his sketch-book a memento of some fleeting variation in the scenery of the basilica; and in a moment he perceived that the artist was little Sam Singleton.
Singleton pocketed his sketch-book with a guilty air, as if it cost his modesty a pang to be detected in this greedy culture of opportunity.
Rowland always enjoyed meeting him; talking with him, in these days, was as good as a wayside gush of clear, cold water, on a long, hot walk.
There was, perhaps, no drinking-vessel, and you had to apply your lips to some simple natural conduit; but the result was always a sense of extreme moral refreshment. On this occasion he mentally blessed the ingenuous little artist, and heard presently with keen regret that he was to leave Rome on the morrow. Singleton had come to bid farewell to Saint Peter"s, and he was gathering a few supreme memories. He had earned a purse-full of money, and he was meaning to take a summer"s holiday; going to Switzerland, to Germany, to Paris. In the autumn he was to return home; his family--composed, as Rowland knew, of a father who was cashier in a bank and five unmarried sisters, one of whom gave lyceum-lectures on woman"s rights, the whole resident at Buffalo, New York--had been writing him peremptory letters and appealing to him as a son, brother, and fellow-citizen. He would have been grateful for another year in Rome, but what must be must be, and he had laid up treasure which, in Buffalo, would seem infinite. They talked some time; Rowland hoped they might meet in Switzerland, and take a walk or two together. Singleton seemed to feel that Buffalo had marked him for her own; he was afraid he should not see Rome again for many a year.
"So you expect to live at Buffalo?" Rowland asked sympathetically.
"Well, it will depend upon the views--upon the att.i.tude--of my family,"
Singleton replied. "Oh, I think I shall get on; I think it can be done.
If I find it can be done, I shall really be quite proud of it; as an artist of course I mean, you know. Do you know I have some nine hundred sketches? I shall live in my portfolio. And so long as one is not in Rome, pray what does it matter where one is? But how I shall envy all you Romans--you and Mr. Gloriani, and Mr. Hudson, especially!"
"Don"t envy Hudson; he has nothing to envy."
Singleton grinned at what he considered a harmless jest. "Yes, he "s going to be the great man of our time! And I say, Mr. Mallet, is n"t it a mighty comfort that it "s we who have turned him out?"
"Between ourselves," said Rowland, "he has disappointed me."
Singleton stared, open-mouthed. "Dear me, what did you expect?"
"Truly," said Rowland to himself, "what did I expect?"
"I confess," cried Singleton, "I can"t judge him rationally. He fascinates me; he "s the sort of man one makes one"s hero of."
"Strictly speaking, he is not a hero," said Rowland.
Singleton looked intensely grave, and, with almost tearful eyes, "Is there anything amiss--anything out of the way, about him?" he timidly asked. Then, as Rowland hesitated to reply, he quickly added, "Please, if there is, don"t tell me! I want to know no evil of him, and I think I should hardly believe it. In my memories of this Roman artist-life, he will be the central figure. He will stand there in radiant relief, as beautiful and unspotted as one of his own statues!"
"Amen!" said Rowland, gravely. He remembered afresh that the sea is inhabited by big fishes and little, and that the latter often find their way down the throats of the former. Singleton was going to spend the afternoon in taking last looks at certain other places, and Rowland offered to join him on his sentimental circuit. But as they were preparing to leave the church, he heard himself suddenly addressed from behind. Turning, he beheld a young woman whom he immediately recognized as Madame Grandoni"s maid. Her mistress was present, she said, and begged to confer with him before he departed.
This summons obliged Rowland to separate from Singleton, to whom he bade farewell. He followed the messenger, and presently found Madame Grandoni occupying a liberal area on the steps of the tribune, behind the great altar, where, spreading a shawl on the polished red marble, she had comfortably seated herself. He expected that she had something especial to impart, and she lost no time in bringing forth her treasure.
"Don"t shout very loud," she said, "remember that we are in church; there "s a limit to the noise one may make even in Saint Peter"s.
Christina Light was married this morning to Prince Casama.s.sima."