The question sprang from Virginia"s lips before she had stopped to reflect whether it were wise to ask it, and she was terrified at the effect of her impulsive words.
Madeleine Dalahaide"s pale, sad face became ashen, her great eyes dilated, and there was something of fear, perhaps even of distrust, in the look she turned upon Virginia.
"You know him?" she exclaimed, her voice suddenly sharp.
"Yes," admitted the American girl.
"Then I think that you and I cannot be friends."
"Not friends? But if I give up the Marchese Loria for you?"
"I do not ask or wish you to do that."
"If he is your enemy he shall not be my friend."
"I have not said he was my enemy."
"I have heard that he loved your brother dearly."
"Perhaps."
"And yesterday----"
"What of yesterday?"
"He was with us when we rode into the valley. He turned pale, and begged not to come, because the place, he said, was connected with a great sorrow in his life."
"He would not meet me face to face! Did _he_ suggest that you should try to save my brother?"
"No, he did not speak his name before me. He does not know what is in my mind. No one knows yet but you. It was my cousin, Roger Broom, who met you long ago, and told me that the Marchese Loria had done much to save your brother"s life."
"It may be that he did. I don"t deny it. But if you are to be my friend I ask you this: say nothing of Maxime Dalahaide to Loria."
CHAPTER III
A MYSTERY AND A BARGAIN
Lady Gardiner stood at Virginia"s door, remained for a moment undecided, then tapped gently. The girl"s voice answered "Come in!" and Kate obeyed.
Virginia sat at a small writing-table in a window reading a book; but at sight of Lady Gardiner she s.n.a.t.c.hed up a paper and hastily laid it over the volume. "Oh, I thought it was George," she exclaimed, blushing brilliantly. "He has asked me to take a walk."
"Now," thought Kate, "what has that book she"s hiding from me to do with the mystery that"s been going on for the past three days?" but aloud, she said, without appearing to notice the hurried movement or the tell-tale blush: "I came to ask if you would go down to town with me for a little shopping."
"I"m afraid I can"t," Virginia answered. "You see--er--I promised George."
"Perhaps he wouldn"t mind if we arranged for him to meet us in about an hour; and we might all three have tea together at Rumpelmayer"s."
Virginia looked embarra.s.sed, which was unusual for her. "We didn"t think of going into Mentone," she said. "We shall just stroll about, for the fact is, we"ve business to talk over."
"You seem to have had a great deal of business to talk over these last few days, you and Mr. Trent and Sir Roger. Would it be indiscreet to ask, dear child, if there has been any hitch about the purchase of your new toy? Oh, don"t look vexed--your chateau, then?"
"No, there"s been no hitch. What made you think that?"
"Well, business talks are so new for you. A little while ago you fled from the first hint of business. But now--you are very much changed these last few days, since we went to the chateau, Virginia. I"ve been wanting to speak to you about it. However, you are going out to walk, and I must wait."
Virginia met her eyes firmly; yet the violet gaze was not quite as frankly open and childlike as it used to be. "You needn"t wait, if your shopping can," she said. "Do sit down. I dare say it may be twenty minutes before George comes for me. He"s with Roger--somewhere."
"Yes, I saw them. Virginia, do you know, I"ve been rather unhappy for several days?"
"I didn"t know. I"m very sorry. Is it anything I"ve done?"
"Yes and no." Kate did not sit down, but perched on the arm of a big cushioned chair between the writing-desk and the dressing-table. "You see, dear," she went on in her softest voice, to which she could give a pretty, tearful _tremolo_ at will, "I"m in rather a peculiar position.
You have been so sweet all this year and more that we"ve been together, that I suppose you"ve spoilt me. I"ve forgotten often that I"m only a paid chaperon, and have felt like a friend and confidante."
"Why, so you are," returned Virginia.
"Wait, dear; let me finish. I"ve told you my various troubles, and you"ve told me things, too. Now, suddenly, everything is changed. Why, you even sit in your bedroom, instead of in our sitting-room, or on the balcony with me, as you used. You don"t seem to want my society; you make excuses if I suggest going anywhere. You and your brother and cousin are continually getting away by yourselves and talking in whispers. Oh, I"m not hurt. It isn"t that. I"m not so thin-skinned and stupid. But I"ve been thinking that perhaps I"d offended you, or you were simply tired of me, and, being kind-hearted, didn"t like to send me about my business.
You know, dear, if you would rather have any one else----"
"Oh, Kate, you _are_ stupid!" cried Virginia. "Of course I"m not tired of you. We really have had business--not about the chateau. I--didn"t mean to tell you until things were more settled, but since you"ve been talking like this, I will. I"ve discovered lately that I"m tired of the Riviera, heavenly as it is here. We"ve been a month now----"
"I always told you that Monte Carlo was more amusing, while as for Cannes----"
"But I"ve seen enough of the Riviera for a while."
"What about your chateau, then--your chateau in the olive woods that you so adore?"
"That won"t be ready until next winter. There"s lots to be done.
And--I"ve set my heart on a yachting trip."
Kate Gardiner"s face fell. She was a wretched sailor, and Virginia knew it. Even the crossing from Dover to Calais was torture to her on a calm day.
"A _long_ yachting trip?" she asked, controlling her voice.
"I don"t quite know yet. Some weeks, perhaps. The only difficulty is about you."
Kate did not answer for a moment. _Was_ this an excuse to get rid of her, and if so, why? Could it be that Roger Broom had been warning Virginia that her half-brother was in danger of making a fool of himself about a woman many years his senior? A short time ago she might have believed that this was the explanation, for Roger Broom knew a good deal about Lady Gardiner. He was aware that her dead husband was but a city man, knighted when he was sheriff; that she had been governess to the gruff old widower"s one daughter; that she had married him for his money, and spent it freely until what remained was lost in a great financial panic; that since then she had lived as she could, trading upon her own aristocratic connections to chaperon girls, chiefly Americans, who wished to see "English society from the inside." Roger knew her real age, or something near it; he knew that she had been in debt when she had got this chance with Virginia, to whom she had been recommended by an American d.u.c.h.ess; and as there was nothing against her character, he had been too good-natured--as she would have expressed it--to "put a spoke in her wheel." However, if he suspected designs upon George, he might not have continued to be as discreet; but during these last three days of mysterious confabs, George Trent had appeared as much changed toward her as his half-sister had, so that Roger need have had no new fears for him.
George had never ceased to be courteous, but there was a subtle difference in his manner, in his way of looking at her. He appeared preoccupied; he no longer sought her out. And this alteration had only come about since the day when they had visited the Chateau de la Roche.
Perhaps, then, it was George who was tired of her. He had never been the same since he had seen that girl in black, with the tragic eyes and the dead-white face, with no more life in it than a marble statue. Maybe he was planning to attach that girl to the party in some way, and would find the society of the woman with whom he had flirted a constraint.
At this thought Kate Gardiner felt her blood grow hot. It was unbearable that she should be sent out of George Trent"s life to make room for a younger woman. She would not have it--she would not! If it killed her to go on this hateful yachting trip she would go; she would not be whistled down the wind.
"Oh, if the difficulty is only about me," she said sweetly, "it needn"t be a difficulty at all. I dare say I shall be ill for a few days, but it can"t last forever. I shall simply stop in my stateroom until I am fit to lie in a deck-chair and be a more or less interesting invalid."