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diff --git a/old/mmmmm10.txt b/old/mmmmm10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e88cf66 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/mmmmm10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4629 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Mae Madden, by Mary Murdoch Mason + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, charlie@idirect.com. + + + + + +MAE MADDEN + +by Mary Murdoch Mason + + + + +With an introductory poem, by Joaquin Miller. + + +The wheel of fortune guide you, +The boy with the bow beside you +Run aye in the way, till the dawn of day +And a luckier lot betide you. + +Ben Jonson. + + + +A DREAM OF ITALY. + +AN ALLEGORY INTRODUCING "MAE MADDEN." + + +I. + +We two had been parted, God pity us, when +The stars were unnamed and when heaven was dim; +We two had been parted far back on the rim +And the outermost border of heaven's red bars: +We two had been parted ere the meeting of men +Or God had set compass on spaces as yet. +We two had been parted ere God had set +His finger to spinning the spaces with stars,-- +And now, at the last in the gold and set +Of the sun of Venice, we two had met. + +II. + +Where the lion of Venice, with brows afrown, +With tossed mane tumbled, and teeth in air, +Looks out in his watch o'er the watery town, +With a paw half lifted, with his claws half bare, +By the blue Adriatic, in the edge of the sea, +I saw her. I knew her, but she knew not me. +I had found her at last! Why, I had sailed +The antipodes through, had sought, had hailed +All flags, had climbed where the storm clouds curled, +And called from the awful arched dome of the world. + +III. + +I saw her one moment, then fell back abashed +And filled full to the throat. . . . Then I turned me once more +So glad to the sea, while the level sun flashed +On the far, snowy Alps. . . . Her breast! Why, her breast +Was white as twin pillows that allure you to rest; +Her sloping limbs moved like to melodies, told +As she rose from the sea, and she threw back the gold +Of her glory of hair, and set face to the shore. . . . +I knew her! I knew her, though we had not met +Since the far stars sang to the sun's first set. + +IV. + +How long I had sought her! I had hungered, nor ate +Of any sweet fruits. I had tasted not one +Of all the fair glories grown under the sun. +I had sought only her. Yea, I knew that she +Had come upon earth and stood waiting for me +Somewhere by my way. But the path ways of fate +They had led otherwhere. The round world round, +The far North seas and the near profound +Had failed me for aye. Now I stood by that sea +While a ship drove by, and all dreamily. + +V. + +I had turned from the lion a time, and when +I looked tow'rd the tide and out on the lea +Of the town where the warm sea tumbled and teemed +With beauty, I saw her. I knew her then, +The tallest, the fairest fair daughter of men. +O, Venice stood full in her glory. She gleamed +In the splendor of sunset and sensuous sea; +Yet I saw but my bride, my affinity, +While the doves hurried home to the dome of Saint Mark +And the brass horses plunged their high manes in the dark, + +VI. + +Was it well with my love? Was she true? Was she brave +With virtue's own valor? Was she waiting for me? +O, how fared my love! Had she home? Had she bread? +Had she known but the touch of the warm-tempered wave? +Was she born upon earth with a crown on her head; +Or born like myself, but a dreamer, instead? +So long it had been! So long! Why the sea, +That wrinkled and surly old time-tempered slave, +Had been born, had his revels, grown wrinkled and hoar +Since I last saw my love on that uttermost shore. + +VII. + +O, how fared my love? Once I lifted my face +And I shook back my hair and looked out on the sea; +I pressed my hot palms as I stood in my place +And cried, "O, I come like a king to your side +Though all hell intervene." . . . "Hist! she may be a bride! +A mother at peace, with sweet babes on her knee! +A babe at her breast and a spouse at her side! . . . +Have I wandered too long, and has destiny +Set mortal between us?" I buried my face +In my hands, and I moaned as I stood in my place. + +VIII. + +'Twas her year to be young. She was tall, she was fair +Was she pure as the snow on the Alps over there? +'Twas her year to be young. She was fair, she was tall +And I knew she was true as I lifted my face +And saw her press down her rich robe to its place +With a hand white and small as a babe's with a doll, +And her feet--why, her feet, in the white shining sand, +Were so small they might nest in my one brawny hand. +Then she pushed back her hair with a round hand that shone +And flashed in the light with a white starry stone. + +IX. + +Then, my love she was rich. My love she was fair. +Was she pure as the snow on the Alps over there? +She was gorgeous with wealth, "Thank God, she has bread," +I said to myself. Then I humbled my head +In gratitude. Then I questioned me where +Was her palace? her parents? What name did she bear? +What mortal on earth came nearest her heart? +Who touched the small hand till it thrilled to a smart? +'Twas her day to be young. She was proud, she was fair. +Was she pure as the snow on the Alps over there? + +X. + +Now she turned, reached a hand; then a tall gondolier +That had leaned on his oar, like a long lifted spear, +Shot sudden and swift and all silently +And drew to her side as she turned from the tide. . . +It was odd, such a thing, and I counted it queer +That a princess like this, whether virgin or bride, +Should abide thus apart, and should bathe in that sea; +And I shook back my hair, and so unsatisfied. +Then I fluttered the doves that were perched close about, +As I strode up and down in dismay and in doubt. + +XI. + +Then she stood in the boat on the borders of night +As a goddess might stand on that far wonder land +Of eternal sweet life, which men have named Death. +I turned to the sea and I caught at my breath, +As she drew from the boat through her white baby hand +Her vestment of purple imperial, and white. +Then the gondola shot! swift, sharp from the shore. +There was never the sound of a song or of oar +But the doves hurried home in white clouds to Saint Mark, +And the lion loomed high o'er the sea in the dark. + +XII. + +Then I cried, "Quick! Follow her. Follow her. Fast! +Come! Thrice double fare if you follow her true +To her own palace door." There was plashing of oar +And rattle of rowlock. . . . I sat leaning low +Looking far in the dark, looking out as we sped +With my soul all alert, bending down, leaning low. +But only the oaths of the men as we passed +When we jostled them sharp as we sudden shot thro' +The watery town. Then a deep, distant roar-- +The rattle of rowlock, the rush of the oar. + +XIII. + +Then an oath. Then a prayer! Then a gust that made rents +Through the yellow sailed fishers. Then suddenly +Came sharp forked fire! Then far thunder fell +Like the great first gun! Ah, then there was route +Of ships like the breaking of regiments +And shouts as if hurled from an upper hell. +Then tempest! It lifted, it spun us about, +Then shot us ahead through the hills of the sea +As if a great arrow shot shoreward in wars-- +Then heaven split open till we saw the blown stars. + +XIV. + +On! On! Through the foam, through the storm, through the town, +She was gone. She was lost in the wilderness +Of palaces lifting their marbles of snow. +I stood in my gondola. Up and all down +I pushed through the surge of the salt-flood street +Above me, below. . . Twas only the beat +Of the sea's sad heart. . . Then I heard below +The water-rat building, but nothing but that; +Not even the sea bird screaming distress, +As she lost her way in that wilderness. + +XV. + +I listened all night. I caught at each sound; +I clutched and I caught as a man that drown'd. . . . +Only the sullen low growl of the sea +Far out the flood street at the edge of the ships. +Only the billow slow licking his lips, +Like a dog that lay crouching there watching for me; +Growling and showing white teeth all the night, +Reaching his neck and as ready to bite-- +Only the waves with their salt flood tears +Fawning white stones of a thousand years. + +XVI. + +Only the birds in the wilderness +Of column and dome and of glittering spire +That thrust to heaven and held the fire +Of the thunder still: The bird's distress +As he struck his wings in that wilderness, +On marbles that speak and thrill and inspire. . . +The night below and the night above; +The water-rat building, the startled white dove, +The wide-winged, dolorous sea bird's call +The water-rat building, but that was all. + +XVII. + +Lo! pushing the darkness from pillar to post, +The morning came silent and gray like a ghost +Slow up the canal. I leaned from the prow +And listened. Not even the bird in distress +Screaming above through the wilderness; +Not even the stealthy old water-rat now. +Only the bell in the fisherman's tower +Slow tolling a-sea and telling the hour +To kneel to their sweet Santa Barbara +For tawny fishers a-sea and pray. + + * * * * * * + +XVIII. + +My dream it is ended, the curtain withdrawn. +The night that lay hard on the breast of earth, +Deep and heavy as a horrid nightmare, +Moves by, and I look to the rosy dawn. . . . . +I shall leave you here, with a leader fair; +One gentle, with faith and fear of her worth. +She shall lead you on through that Italy +That the gods have loved; and may it be +A light-hearted hour that, hand in hand, +You wander the warm and the careless love-land. + +XIX. + +By the windy waters of the Michigan +She invokes the gods. . . . Be it bright or dim, +Who does his endeavor as best he can +Does bravely, indeed. The rest is with Him. +Let a new star dance in the Occident +Till it shakes through the gossamer floors of God +And shines, o'er Chicago. . . The Orient +Is hoar with glories. Let Illini sod +Bear glory as well as the gleaming grain, +And engines smoking along her plain. + + +JOAQUIN MILLER. + +CHICAGO, NOV., 1875. + + + +MAE MADDEN. + + +CHAPTER I. + +SCENE. Deck of an ocean steamer. +Characters. Mrs. Jerrold, matron and chaperon in general. +Edith Jerrold, her daughter. +Albert Madden, a young man on study intent. +Eric, his brother, on pleasure bent. +Norman Mann, cousin of the Jerrolds, old classmate of the Maddens. +Mae Madden, sister of the brothers and leading lady. + + +"It's something like dying, I do declare," said Mae, and as she +spoke a suspicious-looking drop slid softly across her cheek, down +over the deck-railing, to join its original briny fellows in the +deep below. + +"What is like dying?" asked Eric. + +"Why, leaving the only world you know. There, you see, papa and +mamma are fast fading away, and here we are traveling off at the +rate of ever so many miles an hour." + +"Knots, Mae; do be nautical at sea." + +"Away from everything and everybody we know. I do really think it +is like dying,--don't you, Mr. Mann?" Mae turned abruptly and +faced the young man by her side. + +"People aren't apt to die in batches or by the half-dozen,' he +replied, coolly. "If you were all by yourself, it would be more +like it, I suppose, but you are taking quite a slice of your own +world along with you, and really--" + +"And really pity is the very last article I have any use for. You +are right. I was only sorry for the moment. 'Eastward Ho' is a +very happy cry. How differently we shall all take Europe," she +continued, in a moment. "There is Albert, I honestly believe he +will live in his Baedeker just because he can see no further than +the covers of a book. You need not laugh, for it is a fact that +people confined for years to a room can't see beyond its limits +when they are taken out into broader space, and I don't see why it +shouldn't be the same with a man who lives in his books as Albert +does." + +"He sees the world in his books," said Mr. Mann, with a little +spirit. + +"He gets a microscopic view of it, yes," replied Mae, +grandiloquently, "and Edith--" + +"Always sees just what he does," suggested Eric maliciously. + +"Now, boys," said Miss Mae, assuming suddenly a mighty patronage, +"I will not have you hit at Albert and Edith in this way. It will +be very annoying to them. They have a right to act just as +absurdly as they choose. We none of us know how people who are +falling in love would act." + +No, the boys agreed this was quite true. + +"And I really do suppose they are falling in love, don't you?" +queried Mae. + +Yes, they did both believe it. + +Just here, up came the two subjects of conversation, looking, it +must be confessed, as much like one subject as any man and wife. + +"What are you talking of?" asked Edith, "Madame Tussaud or a French +salad? No matter how trivial the topic, I am sure it has a foreign +flavor." + +"There you are mistaken," replied the frank Eric, "we were +discussing you two people, in the most homelike kind of a way." + +At this Edith blushed, Albert frowned, Mae scowled at Eric, who +opened his eyes amazedly, Norman Mann looked over the deck railing +and laughed, the wind blew, the sailors heave-ho-ed near by, and +there was a grand tableau vivant for a few seconds. + +"O, come," cried Mae, "suppose we stop looking like a set of +illustrations for a phrenological journal, expressive of the +various emotions. I was only speculating on the different sights +we should see in the same places. Confess, now, Albert. Won't +your eyes be forever hunting out old musty, dusty volumes? Will +not books be your first pleasures in the sight-seeing line?" + +"O, no, pictures," cried Edith. + +"That is as you say," Mae demurely agreed. "Pictures and books for +you two at any rate." + +"And churches." + +"For your mother, yes, and beer-gardens for Eric, and amphitheatres +and battle fields for Mr. Mann." + +"And for yourself?" + +"The blue, blue bay of Naples, a grove of oranges, moonlight and a +boat if it please you." + +"By the way," suggested Albert, "about our plans; we really should +begin to agitate the matter at once." + +"Yes, to do our fighting on shipboard. Let us agree to hoist the +white flag the day we sight land, else we shall settle down into a +regular War of the Roses and never decide," laughed Norman. + +"As there are six minds," continued Albert, "there will have to be +some giving up." + +"Why do you look at me?" enquired Mae. "I am the very most +unselfish person in the world. I'll settle down anywhere for the +winter, provided only that it is not in Rome." + +"But that is the very place," cried Edith, and Albert, and Mrs. +Jerrold from her camp-chair. + +"O, how dreadful! The only way to prevent it will be for us to +stand firm, boys, and make it a tie." + +"But Norman is especially eager to go to Rome," said Edith, "and +that makes us four strong at once in favor of that city." + +"But is not Rome a fearful mixture of dead Caesar's bones and dirty +beggars? And mustn't one carry hundreds of dates at one's finger- +tips to appreciate this, and that, and the other? Is it not all +tremendously and overwhelmingly historical, and don't you have to +keep exerting your mind and thinking and remembering? I would +rather go down to Southern Italy and look at lazzaroni lie on stone +walls, in red cloaks, as they do in pictures, and not be obliged to +topple off the common Italian to pile the gray stone with old +memories of some great dead man. Everything is ghostly in Rome. +Now, there must be some excitement in Southern Italy. There's +Vesuvius, and she isn't dead--like Nero--but a living demon, that +may erupt any night, and give you a little red grave by the sea for +your share." + +"She's not nearly through yet," laughed Edith, as Mae paused for +breath. + +"I'm only afraid," said Mae, "that after I had been down there a +week, I should forget English, buy a contadina costume, marry a +child of the sun, and run away from this big world with its puzzles +and lessons, and rights and wrongs. Imagine me in my doorway as +you passed in your travelling carriage, hot and tired on your way-- +say to Sorrento. I would dress my beautiful Italian all up in +scarlet flowers and wreathe his big hat and kiss his brown eyes and +take his brown hand, and then we would run along by the bay and +laugh at you stiff, grand world's folks as we skipped past you." + +"We shall know where to look for you, if ever you do disappear," +said Norman Mann. + +"But, my dear Mae," added Albert, "though this is amusing, it is +utterly useless." + +"Amusing things always are," said Mae. + +"The question is, shall we or shall we not go to Rome for the +winter?" + +"Certainly, by all means, and if I don't like it, I'll run away to +Sorrento," and Mae shook her sunny head and twinkled her eyes in a +fascinating sort of way, that made Eric feel a proud brotherly +pleasure in this saucy young woman, and that gave Norman Mann a +sort of feeling he had had a good deal of late, a feeling hard to +define, though we have all known it, a delicious concoction of +pleasure and pain. His eyes were fixed on Mae, now. "What is it?" +she asked. "You will like Rome, I am sure." "No, I never like +what I think I shall not." + +"It might save some trouble, then, if I ask you now if you expect +to like me," said he, in a lower tone. "Why certainly, I do like +you very much," she replied, honestly. "What a stupid question," +he thinks, vexedly. "Why did I tell him I liked him?" she thinks, +blushingly. So the waves of anxiety and doubt begin to swell in +these two hearts as the outside waves beat with a truer sea-motion +momently against the steamer's side. + +Between days of sea-sickness come delightful intervals of calm sea +and fresh breezes, when the party fly to the hurricane deck to get +the very quintessence of life on the ocean wave. One morning Mrs. +Jerrold and Edith were sitting there alone, with rugs and all sorts +of head devices in soft wools and flannels, and books and a basket +of fruit. The matron of the party was a tall, fine-looking woman, +a good type of genuine New England stock softened by city breeding. +New Englanders are so many propositions from Euclid, full of right +angles and straight lines, but easy living and the dressmaker's art +combine to turn the corners gently. Edith was like her mother, but +softened by a touch of warm Dutch blood. She was tall, almost +stately, with a good deal of American style, which at that time +happened to be straight and slender. She was naturally reserved, +but four years of boarding-school life had enriched her store of +adjectives and her amount of endearing gush-power, and she had at +least six girl friends to whom she sent weekly epistles of some +half-dozen sheets in length, beginning, each one of them, with "My +dearest ----" and ending "Your devoted Edith." + +As Edith and her mother quietly read, and ate grapes, and lolled in +a delightfully feminine way, voices were heard,--Mae's and +Norman's. They were in the middle of a conversation. "Yes," Mae +was saying, "you do away with individuality altogether nowadays, +with your dreadful classifications. It is all the same from +daffodils up to women." + +"How do we classify women, pray?" + +"In the mind of man," began Mae, as if she were reading, "there are +three classes of women; the giddy butterflies, the busy bees, and +the woman's righters. The first are pretty and silly; the second, +plain and useful; the third, mannish and odious. The first wear +long trailing dresses and smile at you while waltzing, the second +wear aprons and give you apple-dumplings, and the third want your +manly prerogatives, your dress-coat, your money, and your vote. +Flirt with the giddy butterflies, your first love was one. First +loves always are. Marry the busy bee. Your mother was a busy bee. +Mothers always are. And keep on the other side of the street from +the woman s righter as long as you can. Alas! your daughter will +be one." + +"Well, isn't there any classifying on the other side? Aren't there +horsemen and sporting men and booky men, in the feminine mind?" + +"Perhaps so. There certainly are the fops, and nowadays this +terrible army of reformers and radicals, of whom my brother Albert +here is the best known example." + +"What is it?" asked Albert, looking up abstractedly from his book, +for he and Eric had sauntered up the stairs too, by this time. + +"They are the creatures," continued Mae, "who scorn joys and idle +pleasures. They deal with the good of the many and the problems of +the universe, and step solemnly along to that dirge known as the +March of Progress. And what do they get for it all? Something +like this. Put down your book, I'm going to prophesy," and Mae +backed resolutely up against the railing and held her floating +scarfs and veils in a bunch at her throat, while she prophesied in +this way: + +"Behold me, direct lineal descendant of Albert Madden, speaking to +my children in the year 1995: 'What, children, want amusement? +Want to see the magic lantern to note the effects of light? Alas! +how frivolous. Listen, children, to the achievements of your great +ancestor, as reported by the Encyclopedia. "A. Madden--promoter of +civilization and progress, chiefly known by his excellent theory +entitled The Number of Cells in a Human Brain compared to the +Working Powers of Man, and that remarkable essay, headed by this +formula: Given--10,000,000 laboring men, to find the number of +loaves of bread in the world." Here, children, take these works. +Progressimus, you may have the theory, while Civilizationica reads +the essay. Then change about. Ponder them well, and while we walk +to the Museum later, tell me their errors. Then I will show you +the preserved ears of the first man found in Boshland by P. T. +Barnum, jr.' Oh, bosh," said Mae suddenly, letting fly her +streamers, "what a dry set of locusts you nineteenth century +leaders are. You are devouring our green land, and some of us +butterflies would like to turn our yellow wings into solid shields +against you, if we could. There, I've made a goose of myself again +on the old subject. Edith, there's the lunch bell. Take me down +before I say another word." Exeunt feminines all. + +"Where did the child pick up all that?" queried Albert. + +"'All that' is in the air just now," answered Norman. "It is a +natural reaction of a strong physical nature against the +utilitarian views of the day. Miss Mae is a type of--" + +"O, nonsense, what prigs you are," interrupted Eric, "Mae is jolly. +Do stop your reasoning about her. If you are bound to be a potato +yourself to help save the masses from starvation, don't grumble +because she grew a flower. Come, let us go to lunch too." + +Conversation was not always of this sort. One evening, not long +after, there was a moon, and Edith and Albert were missing. Eric +was following a blue-eyed girl along the deck, and Mae and Norman +wandered off by themselves up to this same hurricane deck again. +The moonlight was wonderful. It touched little groups here and +there and fell full on the face of a woman in the steerage, who sat +with her arms crossed on her knee and her face set eastward. She +was singing, and her voice rose clearly above the puff of the +engine and the jabber below. There was a chorus to the song, in +which rough men and tired looking women joined. The song was about +home, and once in a while the girl unclasped her arms and passed +her hands over her eyes. Mae and Norman Mann looked at her +silently. "I suppose we don't know when we make pictures," said +Mae. "Don't we?" asked Norman pointedly. Mae looked very +reprovingly out from her white wraps at him, but he smiled back +composedly and admiringly, and drew her hand a trifle closer in his +arm. And saucy Mae began to feel in that sort of purring mood +women come to when they drop the bristling, ready-for-fight air +with which they start on an acquaintance. Perhaps, if the steamer +had been a sailing-vessel, there would have been no story to tell +about Mae Madden, for a long line of evenings, and girls singing +songs, and hurricane decks by moonlight, are dangerous things. But +the vessel was a fast steamer, and was swiftly nearing land again. + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +ROME, February, 18--. + +MY DEAR MAMMA:--Yes, it is Rome, mamma, and everybody is impressed. +The boys talk of emperors all the time; Edith is wild over Madonnas +and saints, and Mrs. Jerrold runs from Paul's house to Paul's walks +and Paul's drives and Paul's stand at the prisoner's bar, and reads +the Acts through five times a day, in the most religious and +Romanistic spirit. No one could make more fuss over a patron +saint, I am sure. For my part, I feel as if I were in the most +terrible ghost story. The old Romans are all around me. +Underneath the street noises, I seem to hear cries, and in the air +I half see a constant flashing of swords and scars and blood, and I +can't even put my foot on the Roman pavement without wondering +which dead Caesar my saucy Burt boot No. 2 is walking over. I +shouldn't mind trampling old Caligula, but I don't like the thought +on general principles. I feel all out of place, so modern and +fixed up and flimsy. If I could get into old picturesque clothes +and out of the English-speaking quarter, I should not be so +oppressed and might worship Rome. But I seriously think I shall +die if I stay here much longer. There's a spirit-malaria that eats +into my life. I feel as if all the volumes of Roman history bound +in heavy vellum, that papa has in his study, were laid right on top +of my little heart, so that every time it beats, it thumps against +them, and I assure you, mamma, its worse than dyspepsia. If I +could only get out on a New England hillside, where there were no +graves more important than those of grasshoppers and butterflies! +What should I do when I got there? Take off my hat, and scream for +joy, and feel free and glad to be in a fresh country, with rich, +warm, untainted earth and young life. + +But all this is nonsense, mamma, and I shouldn't be writing it, if +I hadn't just come from the catacombs of St. Calixtus. To think of +Albert's insisting upon going there the very first thing! But so +he did, and so we went, and talked solemnly about the Appian Way, +and saw everybody's tombs and ashes, and quoted poetry, until I +stuck a pin in Albert's arm and sang Yankee Doodle, to keep from +crying. Then, oh, how shocked they looked. Even Mr. Mann seemed +ashamed of me. When we reached the place, we each took a candle +and the guide led the way down into the bowels of the earth. +Mamma, they are very unpleasant. There were two German youths +along, and green lizards crawled all over. They winked at me. The +way grew so narrow that we had to walk one by one through lines of +wall perforated with holes for dead bodies. Once in a while we +would come to a small chapel, for miserable variety's sake, and be +told to admire some very old, very wretched painting. Jonah and +the whale were represented in a double-barreled miracle picture. +Not only was the whale about to swallow Jonah, but he was only as +large as a good-sized brook trout, while Jonah towered away above +him like a Goliath. I found myself wondering if the guide had +convulsions, and, if he should have one now, and die, how many days +would pass before we should eat each other. And would they take me +first, because I am youngest and plumpest? Albert would make good +soup bones, and Eric's shoulder serve as a delicious fore-quarter. +And by the time we came to the top again, I was all ready to cry. +And then, mamma, I did an awful thing. Mr. Mann exclaimed: "Why, +Miss Mae, how frightened you look. You are quite white." And I +answered very sharply: "What a disagreeable man you are. I'm not +frightened at all." I said it in a dreadful tone, and how his face +changed. He looked so strangely. Everybody was still but Albert, +and he said, "Why, Mae, you are very rude to Mr. Mann." Even then +I didn't apologize. So here we are at sword's points, and all the +rest sympathizing with my foe, who is only on the defensive. Why +am I such a belligerent? I can't conceive where I got my nature, +unless from that very disagreeable dear old grandpapa of papa's, +who fought the whole world all his life. But how egotistic I am, +even to my mother. Of course you want to know how we are lodged +and clothed and fed. We have taken apartments, as I presume Albert +wrote you, on the Via San Nicolo da Tolentino, quite near the +Costanzi hotel, which is in the height of the fashion as a hotel; +near too, which is better, to Mr. Story's studio and the old +Barberini palace and the Barberini square and fountains. Off +behind, is that terrible church of the Cappucini, with its cemetery +underneath of bones and skulls and such horrors. I like the +apartments very much, principally because I have made three staunch +friends and one good enemy, in the kitchen. The padrona,--she's +the woman who keeps the house, and serves us, too, in this case-- +though Mrs. Jerrold has a maid to wait on the table and care for +our rooms--well, the padrona is my first friend. Her cousin, a +handsome southern Italian, is here on a visit, and she is not only +my friend, but my instructress. She tells me lovely stories about +her home and the peasants and their life, while I sit on the floor +with Giovanni,--friend number three and eldest son of the padrona,-- +and even Roberto, my enemy, the crying baby of three years, hushes +his naughty mouth to listen to Lisetta, for that is the cousin's +name. I am so glad I studied Italian as hard as I did for my +music, for it comes very easily to me now, and already I slip the +pretty words from my halting tongue much more smoothly and quickly +than you would imagine I could. Mrs. Jerrold isn't quite +satisfied, and would prefer the Costanzi, only she doesn't believe +in letting us girls stay at large hotels. She and Edith are +shocked at my kitchen tastes, so that I generally creep off quietly +and say nothing about it. It is strange for me to have to keep +anything secret, but I am learning how. + +As for our clothes, O, mamma, Edith is ravishing in a deep blue- +black silk, with a curly, wavy sort of fringe on it, and odd +loopings here and there where you don't expect to find them. What +can't a Parisian dressmaker do? They have such a wonderful idea of +appropriateness, it seems to me. Now, at home you know we girls +always wear the same sort of thing, but Madame H---- says no, +Edith, and I should dress very differently; and now Edith's clothes +all have a flow, and sweep, and grace about them, and her silks +rustle in a stately way as she walks, while my dresses haven't any +trimming to speak of, but are cut in a clinging, square sort of +way, with jackets, and here and there a buckle, that makes me feel +half the time as if I were playing soldier in a lady-like fashion. +But what a budget this is. How shocked the people here would be. +They take travel so solemnly, mamma, and treat Baedeker, like the +Bible,--and here am I crushing down Rome, and raising Paris on top +of it. Indeed, I can't help it, for Paris is utterly intoxicating. +It takes away your moral nature and adds it all into your powers of +enjoyment. Well, good-bye, my dear, and keep writing me tremendous +letters, won't you; for I do love you dearly. + +Your loving daughter, + +MAE. + + +Mae felt a great deal better when she had finished the letter, and, +like a volatile girl as she was, buttoned her Burt boots and Paris +gloves, singing gaily a dash from Trovatore in a very light-hearted +manner. + +"Why, you look like a different girl," cried Eric, as she entered +the parlor, where he and Mr. Mann were sitting. "Mrs. Jerrold, +Edith, and Albert have gone on in a carriage, and you are left to +my tender care; will you ride or walk?" + +"How can you ask? My feet are quite wild. No wonder I am a +different girl. Are we not going to the Pincian hill to look at +the live world and people? I have just unlocked the stop-gates and +let the blood bound in my veins as it wants to." + +"It has been taking the cinque-pace, I should say from your long +face to-day." + +"O, it has only been trying to keep step with the march of the +ages, or some such stately tread, but it was hard work, and now the +dear life of me hops, skips and jumps, like this," and Mae seized +her brother and danced across the room, stopping very near Mr. +Mann, who stood with his back to them, drumming on the window pane. +She looked at him quizzically and half raised her eyebrows. + +Eric shook his head, and said aloud in his outspoken way: "You owe +him an apology, Mae, for this morning's rudeness." + +Mr. Mann turned quickly. "I am surprised, Eric. Let your sister +find out for herself when she is rude." + +"Bless me," cried Eric, "what is the row?" + +Mae looked determined. "Are you going to the Pincian with us?" she +asked. + +"No, I am going to stay home." + +"Well, good-bye, then. Come, Eric." The door closed behind them. + +Mr. Mann stood by the window and watched them walk away. Mae, with +her eager, restless, fresh life showing out in every motion; Eric, +with his boy-man air and his student swing and happy-go-lucky toss +of his head. Mr. Mann smiled and then he sighed. "That's a good +boy, so square and fair and merry--and a queer girl," he added. +"Rome isn't the place for her. She must get away, though why I +should take care for her, or worry about her, little vixen. I +don't see." Still he smiled as one would over a very winning, very +wicked child, and shortly after took his hat and went to the +Pincio, after all. + +Meantime, the brother and sister had walked gaily along, passed the +Spanish Steps, and were on the Pincian hill. Here, Mae was indeed +happy. The fine equipages and dark, rich beauty of the Italians +delighted her, and she and Eric found a shaded bench, and watched +the carriages drive round and round, and criticised, and admired, +and laughed like two idle children. They bought some flowers, and +Mae sat pulling them to pieces, when they caught sight, down the +pathway, of two approaching Piedmontese officers. + +"O," cried Mae, and dropped her flowers, and clasped her hands, and +sprang to her feet, "O, Eric, are they gods or men?" + +The Piedmontese officer is godlike. He must be of a certain +imposing height to obtain his position, and his luxurious yellow +moustaches and blue black eyes, enriched and intensified by +southern blood, give him a strange fascination. The cold, manly +beauty and strength of a northern blonde meet with the heat and +lithe grace of the more supple southerner to produce this paragon. +There is a combination of half-indolent elegance and sensuous +langour, with a fire, a verve, a nobility, that puts him at the +very head of masculine beauty. Add to the charms of his physique, +the jauntiest, most bewitching of uniforms, the clinking spurs, the +shining buttons, the jacket following every line of his figure, and +no wonder maidens' hearts seek him out always and young pulses beat +quicker at his approach. + +Mae's admiration was simply rapturous. Utterly regardless of the +pretty picture she herself made, of her vivid coloring and +sparkling beauty, she stood among her dropped flowers until the two +pairs of eyes were fixed upon her. Then she became suddenly aware +of her attitude and with quick feminine cunning endeavored to +transfer her admiration to some beautiful horses cantering by, +exclaiming in Italian, that the officers might surely understand +she was thinking only of the fine animals: "O, what wonderful +horses!" + +The foreign pronunciation, Eric's amusement, Mae's confusion, were +not lost upon the men. Their curiosity was piqued, their eyes and +pride gratified. They sauntered leisurely past, only to turn a +corner and quicken their steps again toward the bench where Eric +and Mae were seated. They found the brother and sister just +arising, and followed them slowly. + +An Italian is quick to detect secrets. The two had not proceeded +far before one said to the other; "Eh, Luigi, we are not the only +interested party." + +Luigi looked slowly around and saw a crowd of Italian loungers +gazing at the little stranger with their softly-bold black eyes +full of admiration. He shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Bah, +they gaze in that way at all womankind. See, now they are watching +the next one," and as he spoke, the boys turned with one accord to +stare at a young Italian girl, who pressed closer to the side of +her hook-nosed old duenna: + +"It is not those loungers that I noticed," replied the other. Look +there," and he waved his hand lightly toward the left, where, under +a large-leafed tree, gazing apparently in idleness, stood a young +man. + +"Ah," said Luigi, still incredulous, "he sees nothing but Rome; he +is fresh from over the seas." + +"No, no, watch his eyes," replied the other. + +They were assuredly fixed, with a keen searching glance, on a +little form before them, and as Eric and Mae suddenly turned to the +left, the stranger, half carelessly, but very quickly, crossed to +another path, from which he could watch them, but be, in his turn, +unobserved. + +"Jealous," laughed Luigi, shrugging his shoulders again. "Her +lover, probably." + +"No," replied Bero, "but he may be some time." Then after a +moment's pause, "Good evening," he said carelessly. "I am going to +say my prayers at vespers. I've been a sorry scamp of late." + +Luigi laughed disdainfully and lightly. "You want to get rid of +me? Well, be it so. I don't want to lose my heart over a little +foreigner. I have other game. However, Lillia shall not know of +it. Addio, Bero." So Luigi went off the other way, and Bero, with +a flushed face, followed Mae at a distance, and kept an eye on the +stranger, flattering himself that he was quite unnoticed by those +sharp, keen eyes. He was mistaken, Norman Mann had seen the +officers before they saw him, had watched their footsteps, and had +a pretty clear idea of the whole affair. + +Mae walked on happily, chatting with Eric, and with that vague, +delightful feeling of something exciting in the air. She knew +there was an officer behind her, because she had heard the clicking +spurs, but she only guessed that he might be one of the two who had +passed--the taller, perhaps,--which, of course, he was. She had, +moreover, in some mysterious way, caught sight of a figure +resembling Norman Mann, trying, she thought, to avoid her. Her +spirits rose with the half-mystery, and she grew brighter and +prettier and more magnetic to the two followers as she tossed her +shoulders slightly and now and then half-turned her sunny head. + +As for Eric, he was totally unconscious of any secrets. He fancied +himself and his pretty, nice, little sister all alone by their very +selves, and he went so far as to expatiate on the vastness of the +world, and how in this crowd there was no other life that bordered +or touched on theirs. + +To which Mae replied: "You don't know; you may fall in love with +one of these very Italian girls, or my future husband may be +walking behind me now." When she had said this, she flushed +scarlet and was very much ashamed of herself in her heart. + +"We must go home now," Eric replied, quite disdaining such +sybilistic remarks. So they left the hill and went down the Steps +in the rich afternoon light, and so homewards. Of course the +Italian and Mr. Mann still followed them; Norman on the other side +of the street, the Italian in a slyer, less conspicuous manner, by +taking side streets, or the next parallel pavement, and appearing +only at every corner in the distance. He appeared, however, close +at hand, as Mae and Eric turned into their lodgings. His eyes met +Mae's. She blushed involuntarily as she recognized him, and at +once, in that moment, there was an invisible half-acquaintance +established between the two. If they should ever meet again, they +would remember each other. + +Mae crept off to the kitchen that evening, to beg for another of +Lisetta's stories, and quite forgot her walk, the officer, and +Norman Mann while she listened to the + + +STORY OF TALILA. + + +Talila was a young girl, destined to be a nun. She was a naughty +little girl and would make wry faces at the thought, and wish she +could be a man, a soldier or sailor, instead of being a woman and a +nun; and as she grew older she would dance all the time, and didn't +say her prayers very much, and was so bad that the priest sent for +her to see him. He told her how wicked she was, and that, too, +when she was to be the bride of the church; but she said the church +had many, many brides, and she would rather be the bride of +Giovanni; and that she loved red-cheeked babies better than beads, +and songs were nicer than prayers. Should she sing him such a +pretty, gay one she knew? And the priest could hardly keep from +laughing at the bright-eyed, naughty, naughty Talila. But he said: +"If Giovanni does not want to marry you, will you then become the +bride of the church?" And Talila laughed aloud and tossed her +head. "Giovanni longs to marry me, Father," she said, "I know that +already." But the Father sent for Giovanni and gave him money if +he would say he did not want to marry Talila. At first he would +not say so, but the Father showed him a purse all full of silver, +which Talila's mother had brought him, for it was she who had vowed +Talila should be a nun. Then the Father said: "This is yours if +you say as I wish, and if not, you shall be cursed forever, and all +your children shall be cursed, because you have married the bride +of the church." Then Giovanni crossed himself and took the bag of +silver, and the priest sent for Talila, and she heard her Giovanni +say he didn't want to marry her--she had better be a nun; and she +threw up her brown arms and screamed aloud, and fell down as if +dead. And afterwards she was very ill, and when she grew better +she had forgotten everything and was only a little child, and she +loves little children, and is ever with them, but she calls them +all Giovanni. They play together by the bay through the long day, +and at night she takes them to their mothers, and goes alone to her +home. But alas! she never tells her beads, or prays a prayer, and +sorry things are said of her--that God gave her up because she left +Him. But the children all love her, and she loves them. + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Edith and Mae had a quarrel one morning. Mae's tongue was sharp, +but although she breezed quickly, she calmed again very soon. The +latter fact availed her little this time, for Edith maintained a +cold displeasure that would not be melted by any bright speeches or +frank apologies. "Edith," said little Miss Mae, quite humbly for +her, as she put on her hat, and drew on her gloves, "Edith, aren't +you going out with me?" "What for?" asked that young person +indifferently. + +"Why--for fun, and to make up. Haven't you forgiven me yet?" + +Edith did not reply directly. "I am going out with mamma to buy +our dominoes for the Carnival, and to see our balcony. Albert has +engaged one for us, on the corner of the Corso and Santa Maria e +Jesu. I suppose you can go too. There will be an extra seat. +We'll come home by the Pincian Hill." + +"Thank you," said Mae, "but I will get Eric and go for a tramp," +and she left the room with compressed lips and flushed cheeks. In +the hall were Albert, Eric and Norman, talking busily. "Where are +you going Eric, mayn't I go too, please?" "I'm sorry Mae, but this +is an entirely masculine affair--five-button gloves and parasols +are out of the question." + +"O, Ric, I am half lonely." Mae laughed a little hysterically. At +that moment she caught Mr. Mann's eyes, full of sympathy. "But +goodbye," she added, and opened the door, "I'm going." + +"Alone?" asked Norman, involuntarily. + +"Yes, alone," replied Mae. "Have you any objections, boys?" Eric +and Albert were talking busily and did not hear her. Norman Mann +held open the door for her to pass out, and smiled as she thanked +him. She smiled back. She came very near saying, "I'm sorry I was +rude the other day, forgive me," and he came very near saying, "May +I go with you, Miss Mae?" But they neither of them spoke, and +Norman closed the door with a sigh, and Mae walked away with a +sigh. It was only a little morning's experience, sharp words, +misunderstandings; but the child was young, far from home and her +mother, and it seemed hard to her. She was in a very wild mood, a +very hard mood, and yet all ready to be softened by a kind, +sympathetic word, so nearly do extremes of emotion meet. + +"There's no one to care a pin about me," said she to herself, "not +a pin. I have a great mind to go and take the veil or drown myself +in the Tiber. Then they would be bound to search for me, and +convent vows and Tiber mud hold one fast. No, I won't, I'll go and +sit in the Pincian gardens and talk Italian with the very first +person I meet and forget all about myself. I wish Mr. Mann +wouldn't pity me. Dear me, here I am remembering these forlorn +people again. I wish I could see mamma and home this morning,--the +dear old library. Why the house is shut up and mamma's south. I +forgot that, and here am I all alone. It is like being dead. +There, I have dropped a tear on my tie and spoiled it! Besides, if +one is dead, there comes Heaven. Why shouldn't I play dead, and +make my own Heaven?" Here Mae seated herself, for she was on the +Pincio by this time, and looked off at the view, at that wonderful +view of St. Peter's, the Tiber, all the domes and rising ruins and +afar the campagna. "I wouldn't make my Heaven here," thought this +dreadful Mae, "not if it is beautiful. I'd not stay here a single +other day. Bah no!" and she shook her irreverent little fist right +down at the Eternal City. + +At this moment, a small beggar, who had been pleading unnoticed at +her side, was lifted from his feet by a powerful hand, and a shower +of soft Italian imprecations fell on Mae's ear. She sprang up +quickly, "No, no," she cried in Italian, "how dare you hurt a +harmless boy?" She lifted her face full toward that of the man who +had inspired her wrath, and her eyes met those of the Piedmontese +officer. She blushed scarlet. + +"Pardon, a thousand pardons," began he. "It was for your sake, +Signorina. I saw you shake your hand that he should leave you, and +I fancied that the little scamp was troubling the foreign lady." + +Mae laughed frankly, although she was greatly confused. The +officer and the beggar boy behind him waited expectantly. "I shook +my hand at my thoughts," she explained. "I did not see the boy. +Forgive me, Signor, for my hasty words." + +The officer enjoyed her confusion quietly. He threw a handful of +small coin at the beggar, and bade him go. Then he turned again to +Mae. "I am sorry, Signorina, that your thoughts are sad. I should +think they would all be like sweet smiles." He said this with an +indescribable delicacy and gallantry, as if he half feared to speak +to her, but his sympathy must needs express itself. + +Mae was, as we have seen, in a reckless, wild mood. She did not +realize what she was doing. She had just broken down all barriers +in her mind, was dead to her old life, and ready to plan for +Heaven. And here before her stood a wonderful, sympathizing, new +friend, who spoke in a strange tongue, lived in a strange land was +as far removed from her old-time people and society as an +inhabitant of Saturn, or an angel. She accepted him under her +excitement, as she would have accepted them. No waiting for an +introduction, no formal getting-acquainted talk, no reserve. She +looked into the devoted, interested eyes above her, and said +frankly: + +"I was feeling all alone, and I hate Rome. I thought I would like +to play I was dead, and plan out a Heaven for myself. It should +not be in Rome. And then I suppose I shook my fist." + +"Where would your Heaven be?" asked the Piedmontese, falling +quickly, with ready southern sympathy, into her mood. Mae seated +herself on the bench and made room for him at her side. + +"Where should it be?" she repeated. "Down among the children of +the sun, all out in the rich orange fields, by the blue Bay of +Naples, I think, with Vesuvius near by, and Capri; yes, it would be +in Sorrento that I should find my heaven." + +The officer smiled under his long moustaches. "For three days,--at +a hotel, Signorina." + +"No, no; with the peasants. I am tired and sick of books, and +people, and reasons. Shall I give you a day of my Heaven?" + +Bero smiled and bent slightly forward and rested his hand lightly +on the stick of her parasol, which lay between them. "Go on," he +said. + +"I would fill my apron with sweet flowers and golden fruit--great +oranges, and those fragrant, delicious tiny mandarins--and I would +get a crowd of little Italians about me, all a-babbling their +pretty, pretty tongue, and I would go down to the bay and get in an +anchored boat, and lie there all the morning, catching the sunlight +in my eyes, trimming the brown babies and the boat with flowers, +looking off at the water and the clouds, tossing the pretty fruit, +and laughing, and playing, and enjoying. Later, there'd be a run +on the beach, and a ride on a donkey, and a dance, with delirious +music and frolic. And then the moon and quiet,--and I would steal +away from the crowd, and take a little boat, and float and drift--" + +"Alone?" asked Bero, softly. "Surely, you wouldn't condemn a +mountaineer's yellow moustache, or a soldier's spurs and sword, if +at heart he was really a child of the sun also? May I share your +day of Heaven? It would be paradise for me, too." All this in the +same soft, deferential manner. + +"Well, well,' half laughed, half sighed Mae. "All this is a dream, +unless, indeed, I go home with Lisetta." + +"Who is Lisetta?" + +"Our padrona's cousin. She is here on a visit. She lives within a +mile of Sorrento, on the coast. She goes home at the end of +Carnival. Oh, how I do long for Carnival," continued Mae, frankly +and confidentially. "Don't you? I am like a child over it, I am +trying already to persuade Eric--that is my brother--to take me +down on the Corso the last night, for the Mocoletti. It would be +much better fun than staying on our balcony." + +"Where is your balcony?" asked Bero, stroking his long moustaches. + +"It is on the corner of Maria e Jesu, and if I ever see you coming +by, I shall be tempted to pepper your pretty uniform. How +beautiful it is!" + +"Yes," replied Bero, again gazing proudly down at his lithe figure, +in its well-fitting clothes, "but I would be willing to be showered +with confetti daily to see you. How shall I know you? What is to +be the color of your domino?" And he bent forward, hitting his +spurs against the paving stones, flashing his deep eyes, and half +reaching out his hand, in that same tender, respectful way. + +Mae saw the sunlight strike his hair; she half heard his deep +breath; and, like a flood, there suddenly swept over her the +knowledge that this new friend, this sympathizing soul, was an +unknown man, and that she was a girl. What had she done? What +could she do? Confusion and embarrassment suddenly overtook her. +She bent her eyes away from those other eyes, that were growing +bolder and more tender in their gaze. "I--I--" she began, and just +at this very inauspicious moment, while she sat there, flushed, by +the stranger's side, the clatter of swiftly-approaching wheels +sounded, and a carriage turned the corner, containing Mrs. Jerrold, +Edith, Albert, and Norman Mann. They all saw her. + +Mae laughed. It was such a dreadful situation that it was funny, +and she laughed again. "Those are my friends," she said, in a low +voice. "We can walk away," replied the officer, and turned his +face in the opposite direction. "It is too late; and, besides, why +should we?" And Mae looked full in his face, then turned to the +carriage, which was close upon them. + +"How do you all do?" she cried, gleefully and bravely. "Isn't +there room for me in there? Mrs. Jerrold, I would like to +introduce Signor--your name?"--she said, quite clearly, in Italian, +turning to the officer. + +"Bero," he replied. + +"Signor Bero. He was very kind, and saved me from--from a little +beggar boy." + +"You must have been in peril, indeed," remarked Mrs. Jerrold, +bowing distantly to Bero, and beckoning the coachman, as Mae sprang +into the carriage, to drive on. "I am sorry to put you on the box, +Norman," Mrs. Jerrold added, as Mae took the seat, in silence, that +Mr. Mann had vacated for her, "and I hope Miss Mae is also." But +Mae didn't hear this. She was plucking up courage in her heart, +and assuming a saucy enough expression, that sat well on her bright +face. Indeed, she was a pretty picture, as she sat erect, with +lips and nostrils a trifle distended, and her head a little in the +air. The Italian thought so, as he walked away, smiling softly, +clicking his spurs and stroking his moustache; and Norman Mann +thought so too, as he tapped his cane restlessly on the dash-board +and scowled at the left ear of the off horse. The party preserved +an amazed and stiff silence, as they drove homeward. + +"Eric," cried Norman, very late that same night. "Do be sober, I +have something to say to you about Miss Mae." + +"Norman, old boy, how can a fellow of my make be sober when he has +drunk four glasses of wine, waltzed fifteen times, and torn six +flounces from a Paris dress? Why, man, I am delirious, I am. Tra, +la, la, tra, la, la. Oh, Norman, if you could have heard that +waltz," and Eric seized his companion in his big arms and started +about the room in a mad dance. You are Miss Hopkins, Norman, you +are. Here goes--" but Norman struck out a bold stroke that nearly +staggered Eric and broke loose. "For Heaven's sake, Eric, stop +this fooling; I want to speak to you earnestly." + +"Evidently," replied Eric, with excited face, "forcibly also. +Blows belong after words, not before," and the big boy tramped +indignantly off to bed. + +Norman Mann was in earnest truly, forcible also, for he opened his +mouth to let out a very expressive word as Eric left the room. It +did him good seemingly, for he strode up and down more quietly. At +last he sat down and began to talk with himself. "Norman Mann, +you've got to do it all alone," he said. "Albert and Edith and +Aunt Martha are too vexed and shocked to do the little rebel any +good. Ric, oh, dear, Ric is a silly boy, God bless him, and here I +am doomed to make that child hate me, and with no possible +authority over her, or power, for that matter, trying to keep her +from something terribly wild. If they don't look out, she will +break loose. I know her well, and there's strong character under +this storm a-top, if only some one could get at it. Damn it." +Norman grew forcible again. "Why can't I keep my silly eyes away +from her, and go off with the fellows. You see," continued Norman, +still addressing his patient double, "she is a rebel, and--pshaw, I +dare say it is half my fancy, but I hate that long moustached +officer. I wish he would be summoned to the front and be shot. O, +I forgot, there's no war. Well, then, I wish he would fall in love +with any body but Mae. It must be late. Ric didn't leave that +little party very early, I'm sure, but I can't sleep. I'll get +down my Sismondi and read awhile. I wonder if that child is +feeling badly now. I half believe she is--but here's my book." + +Yes, Mae was feeling badly, heart-brokenly, all alone in her room. +After a long, harrowing talk with Mrs. Jerrold, at the close of +which she had received commands never to go out alone in Rome, +because it wasn't proper, she had been allowed to depart for her +own room. Here she closed the door leading into Mrs. Jerrold's and +Edith's apartment, and opened her window wide, and held her head +out in the night air--the poisonous Roman air. The street was very +quiet. Now and then some late wayfarer passed under the light at +the corner, but Mae had, on the whole, a desolate outlook--high, +dark buildings opposite, and black clouds above, with only here and +there a star peeping through. + +She had taken down her long hair, thrown off her dress, and half +wrapped herself in a shawl, out of which her bare arms stretched as +she leaned on the deep window seat. She looked like the first +woman--of the Darwinian, not the Biblical, Creation. There was a +wild, half-hunted expression on her face that was like the set air +of an animal brought suddenly to bay. She thought in little jerks, +quick sentences that were almost like the barking growls with which +a beast lashes itself to greater fury. + +"They treated me unfairly. They had no right. I shall choose my +own friends. How dare they accuse me of flirting? I flirt, pah! +I'd like to run away. This stupid, stupid life!" And so on till +the sentences grew more human. "I suppose Mr. Mann thinks I am +horrid, but I don't care. I wish I could see Eric, he wouldn't +blame me so. What a goose I am to mind anyway. The Carnival is +coming! Even these old tombs must give way for ten whole riotous +days. I must make them madly merry days. I wonder how I will look +in my domino. I suppose the pink one is mine." + +So Miss Mae dried her eyes, picked her deshabille self from the +window seat, turned up the light, slipped into her pink and white +carnival attire, and walked to the window again. + +"This is the Corso all full of people, and I'll pelt them merrily, +so, and so, and so!" She reached forth her bare, round arm into +the darkness, and looked down, where, full under the street light, +gazing up at her, stood the Piedmontese officer. + +It was at that very moment that Norman Mann put down his Sismondi, +and looked from his window also. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Mae met Mr. Mann at the breakfast table the next morning without +the least embarrassment. Indeed, the little flutter in her talk +could easily be attributed to unusually high spirits and an excited +and pleased fancy. That was how Norman Mann translated it, of +course. Really, the flutter was a genuine stirring of her heart +with inquietude, timidity and semi-repentance; but Mae couldn't say +this, and it's only what one says out that can be reckoned on in +this world. So Norman Mann, who saw only the bright cheeks and +eyes and restless quickening of an eager girl and did not see the +palpitating feminine heart inside, was displeased and half-cold. + +Could any one be long cold to Mae Madden? She believed not. She +was quite accustomed to lightning-like white heats of anger in +those with whom she came in contact, but coldness was out of her +line. Still she met the occasion well. "Shall I give you some +coffee?" she asked, pleasantly. "We breakfast all alone, until +Eric appears. Mrs. Jerrold is not well, and Edith and Albert are +off for Frascati." + +"Poor child; how much alone she is," he thought to himself. + +"I understand we all go to the play tonight?" queried Mae. + +"The thought of Shakspeare dressed in Italian is not pleasant to +me," said Mr. Mann, after a silence of a few minutes. + +"I am quite longing to see him in his new clothes. There is so +much softness and beauty in Italian that I expect to gain new ideas +from hearing the play robed in more flowing phrases. Shakspeare +certainly is for all the world." + +"But Shakspeare's words are so strongly chosen that they are a +great element in his great plays. And a translation at best is +something of a parody, especially a translation from a northern +tongue, with its force and backbone, so to speak, into a southern, +serpentine, gliding language. You have heard the absurd rendering +of that passage from Macbeth where the witches salute him with +'Hail to thee, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!' into such +French as 'Comment vous portez vous, Monsieur Macbeth; comment vous +portez vous, Monsieur Thane de Cawdor!" A translation must pass +through the medium of another mind, and other minds like +Shakspeare's are hard to find." + +Norman spoke with so much reverence for Mae's greatest idol that +her heart warmed and she smiled approval, though for argument's +sake she remained on the other side. + +"Isn't a translation more like an engraver's art, and aren't fine +engravings to be sought and admired even when we know the great +original in its glory of color? Then all writing is only +translation, not copying. Shakspeare had to translate the tongues +he found in stones, the books he found in brooks, with twenty-six +little characters and his great mind, into what we all study, and +love, and strive after. But he had to use these twenty-six +characters in certain hard, Anglo-Saxon forms and confine himself +to them. When he wanted to talk about + + + "fen-sucked fogs," + + +and such damp, shivery places, he is all right, but when he sings +of 'love's light wings,' and all that nonsense, he is impeded; now +open to him 'Italian, the language of angels'--you know the old +rhyme--and see what a chance he has among the "liquid l's and bell- +voiced m's and crushed tz's." To-night you will hear Desdemona +call Othello 'Il mio marito,' in a way that will start the tears. +What are the stiff English words to that? 'My husband!' Husband +is a very uneuphonious name, I think." + +Norman Mann smiled. "Another cup of coffee, if you please--not +quite as sweet as the last," and he passed his cup. "I believe +there is always a charm in a novel word that has not been +commonized by the crowd. 'Dear' means very little to us nowadays, +because every school girl is every other school girl's 'dear,' and +elderly ladies 'my dear' the world at large, in a pretty and +benevolent way. So with the words 'husband' and 'wife'; we hear +them every day in commonest speech--'the coachman and his wife,' or +'Sally Jones's husband,'--but I take it this is when we stand +outside. That wonderful little possessive pronoun MY has a great, +thrilling power. 'My husband' will be as fine to your ears as 'il +mio marito,' which has, after all, a slippery, uncertain sound; and +as for 'my wife'--" + +At that moment the coffee cup, which was on its way back, had +reached the middle of the table, where by right it should have been +met and guided by the steadier, masculine hand; Norman's hand was +there in readiness, but instead of gently removing the cup from +Mae's clasp, it folded itself involuntarily about the white, round +wrist, as he paused on these last words. Was it the little +possessive pronoun that sent the sudden thrill through the +unexpecting wrist? At any rate it trembled; the cup, the saucer, +the coffee, the spoon, followed a well known precedent, and "went +to pieces all at once;" "all at once and nothing first just as +bubbles do when they burst." And so alas! did the conversation, +and that burst a beautiful bubble Norman had just blown. + +Damages were barely repaired when Eric entered the breakfast room +with a petulant sort of face and flung himself into a chair. "My! +what a head I have on me this morning," he groaned. "Soda water +would be worth all the coffee in the world, Mae; I'll take it +black, if you please. How cosy you two look. I always take too +much of every thing at a party, from flirtation to-- O, Mae, you +needn't look so sad. I'm not the one in disgrace now. Mrs. +Jerrold, Edith and Albert are just piping mad at you, and as for +Mann, here,--by the way," and Eric rubbed his forehead, as if +trying to sharpen up a still sleepy memory, "I suppose you two have +had it out by this time. Norman sat up till ever so late to talk +you over with me, Mae. Do thank him for me; I am under the +impression that I didn't do so last night." + +Mae tapped her fourth finger, on which a small ring glistened, +sharply against the cream jug. "If I were every body's pet lamb or +black sheep, I couldn't have more shepherd's crooks about me. Have +you joined the laudable band, Mr. Mann, and am I requested to thank +you for that?" + +"Not at all. Perhaps your brother's remembrances of last night are +not very distinct. I certainly sat up for Sismondi's sake, not for +yours." And he really thought, for the moment, that he told the +truth. + +"I warn you," continued Mae, rising as she spoke, "that I have a +tremendous retinue of mentors, and nurses, and governesses already. +You had better content yourself with the fact that you have four +proper traveling companions, and bear the disgrace of being shocked +as best you may by one wild scrap of femininity who will have her +own way in spite of you all." Mae half laughed, but she was +serious, and the boys both knew it. + +"You flatter me," replied Norman, "I had aspired to no such +position, but for your brother's sake, if not for your own, I +wished to tell Eric that the Roman air at midnight was dangerous to +your health. I saw you had your window open." + +"Did you look through the ceiling, pray?" Mae retorted from the +door-way. "Eric, ring if you want anything. Rosetta is close at +hand." + +"I have put my foot in it this time," said Eric, clumsily. "I am +real sorry, Norman, old boy." + +Norman did not feel like being pitied, and this remark of Eric's +roused him. He fairly ground his teeth and clenched his hands, but +his big brown moustache and the tablecloth hid these outer +manifestations of anger. "Don't be a goose, Ric," he said. "What +possible difference can all this make to me? Your sister is young +and quick." + +Now, it was Eric's turn to wince. Was he giving this fellow the +impression that he thought his sister's opinions would affect him? +Horrible suspicion! Boys always fancy everybody in love with their +sister. He must cure that at once. "Of course," he replied +quickly, "I know you and Mae never agree, that you barely stand +each other. But I didn't know but you would prefer to be on good +terms with her, for all that." + +"Miss Mae can choose the terms on which we meet. I shall be +content whatever her decision. What are your plans for the day?" + +Lounging Eric straightened himself at once. "I was a perfect fool +last night," he confessed. "and I must rely on you, old fellow, to +help me out. I made engagements for two weeks ahead with Miss +Hopkins and Miss Rae. At any rate, I'm booked for the play to- +night. Now, I can't take two girls very well. That is, I can, but +I thought you might like a show. You may have your choice of the +two. Miss Rae, by the way, says she's wild to know you; thought +you were the most provoking man she ever saw; and that you were-- +nonsensical idea--engaged to Mae. All because you wouldn't look at +her the other day when she passed you two, But you can go with Miss +Hopkins, if you prefer." + +"Are they pretty?" asked Norman, apparently warming to the task, +"and bright?" + +"I should say they were. Miss Hopkins has gorgeous great eyes,-- +but Miss Rae is more your style. Still, you may have your choice." + +"Silly boy; you're afraid to death that I shall choose Miss +Hopkins. Well, if they are not over stupid and flirtatious--" + +"Stupid! Oh, no,"--Eric scouted that idea--"and flirtatious, +perhaps. Miss Hopkins rolls her eyes a good deal, but then she has +a frankness, a winning way." + +"Well," laughed Norman, "you're such a transparent, susceptible +infant-in-arms that I'll go with you." + +"As shepherd," suggested Eric, "as long as Mae won't have you. But +come, we must go down and call on these people. It won't do at all +for you to appear suddenly this evening, and say, 'I'll relieve my +friend here of one of you.'" + +"Oh, what a bore. Is that necessary? Won't a card or a box of +Stillman's bon-bons do them? Well, if it must be, come along, +then." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +It was evening, and the brilliantly lighted theatre was crowded to +overflowing. Of course there were English who scowled at the +Americans, and Americans who smiled on every one and ate candy +while Othello writhed in jealous rage, and a scattering of Germans +with spectacles and a row of double-barrelled field glasses glued +over them, and Frenchmen with impudent eyes and elegant gloves, and +a general filling in of Italians, with the glitter here and there +of nobility, and still oftener of bright uniforms. Finally there +was a modicum of true gentry, and these not of any particular +nation or class. It is pleasant to name our party immediately +after referring to these goodly folks. They had a fine box, and +although their ranks were thinned by the loss of two cavaliers, +nobody seemed to care. Albert and Edith were perfectly happy side +by side, and Mrs. Jerrold was well contented to observe her +daughter's smile as Albert spoke to her, and the look of manly +protection in his eyes, as his gaze met Edith's. + +As for Mae, she had that delicious feminine pride which is as good +a stimulant as success to women--in emergencies. And to-night was +an emergency to this small, excitable, young thing. Her eyes were +very dark from the expansion of the pupil. They possessed a rare +charm, caught from a trick the eyelids had of drooping slowly and +then suddenly and unexpectedly lifting to reveal the wide, bright +depths, that half-concealed, half-revealed power, which is so +tantalizing. Mae was dressed in this same spirit to-night, and she +was dimly conscious of it. The masses of tulle that floated from +her opera hat to her chin and down on her shoulders, revealed only +here and there a glimpse of rich brown hair, or of white throat. +Her cheeks were scarlet, her lips a-quiver with excitement and +pleasure. She formed a pretty contrast to Edith, who sat by her +side. Miss Jerrold leaned back in her chair quietly, composedly. +She fanned herself in long sweeps, looked pleased, contented, but +in no wise displaced or surprised--thoroughly well-bred and at +home. She might have had a private rehearsal of Othello in her own +dramatic hall the evening before, from her air and mien. Mae, on +the contrary, was alert, on the qui vive, as interested as a child +in each newcomer, and, after the curtain rose, in every tableau. + +Such a woman can not fail to attract attention, as long as she is +herself unconscious. The world grows blase so speedily that it +enjoys all the more thoroughly the sight of freshness, verve, +life,--that is, the male portion of the world. Women's great +desire, as a rule, is to appear entirely at ease, city-bred, high- +bred, used to all things, surprised by none. + +So there were a great many glasses turned toward Mae that evening. +Very probably the young women in the next box accepted a share of +these glances as their own, and, in a crowd where the French and +Italian elements predominate, or largely enter, they could not have +been far wrong. Every girl or woman who pretends to any possible +charm is quite sure of her share of admiration from these +susceptible beings. The young ladies of the next box had that +indescribable New York air, which extends from the carefully +brushed eyebrows quite to the curves of the wrist and hand. Praise +Parisian modes all you will, but for genuine style, a New York +girl, softened a trifle by commonsense or good taste, leads the +world--certainly if she is abroad. For there she soon finds it +impossible to go to the extremes that American air seems to rush +her into. Three months, or perhaps, if she is observant, three +days in Paris, teach her that the very biggest buttons, or the very +largest paniers, or the very flaringest hats are not for her, or +any lady, and by stepping back to size number two, she does not +detract from her style, while she does add to her lady-likeness. + +These two girls, it may be surmised, were no other than Miss +Hopkins and Miss Rae, whom chance or fate or bungling Eric Madden, +who bought the tickets, had seated side by side with the Maddens +and Jerrolds. It was bothersome, when Norman and Eric had played +truant at any rate, but there was no help for it; so after a little +Eric introduced them all round, and the two parties apparently +merged into one, or broke up into four, for tete-a-tetes soon +began. It was a little hard that three girls should have each a +devoted servant, and that only one, and that one, Mae, should be +obliged to receive her care from the chaperon; but so it was. + +Nevertheless, Mae bore herself proudly. She was seated next Miss +Rae, separated only by the nominal barrier of a little railing, +while just beyond sat Norman, his chair turned toward the two +girls. The stranger insisted on drawing Mae into the conversation, +partly for curiosity's sake, to watch her odd face and manners, +partly from that genuine generosity that comes to the most selfish +of women, when she is satisfied with her position. It is pleasant +to pity, to be generous; and Miss Rae, having the man, could afford +to share him now and then, when it pleased her, with the lonely +girl by her side. But Miss Rae's tactics did not work. Mae +replied pleasantly when addressed, but returned speedily and +eagerly to Mrs. Jerrold or a survey of the house, with the frank +happiness of a child. She was all the more fascinating to the +admiring eyes that watched her, because she sat alone, electrified +by the inspiration and magnetism from within, and did not need the +stimulus of another voice close by her side, breathing compliments +and flattery, to brighten her eyes and call the blushes to her +cheeks. Norman Mann saw the eyes fixed on her, and they vexed him. +At the same time, he liked her the better on that very account. + +And at last the curtain rose. + +It was just as Desdemona assures her father of her love for +Othello, that Mae became conscious of a riveted gaze--of a +presence. Lifting her eyes, and widening them, she looked over to +the opposite side of the house, and there, of course, was the +Piedmontese officer again, handsomer, more brilliant than ever, +with a grateful, soft look of recognition in his eyes. + +Mae was out of harmony with all her friends. She was proud and +lonely. The man's pleased, softened look touched her heart +strangely. There was almost a choke in her throat, there were +almost tears in her eyes, and there was a free, glad, welcoming +smile on her lips. + +Norman Mann saw it and followed it, and caught the officer +receiving it, and thought "She's a wild coquette." + +And Mae knew what he saw and what he thought. + +Then a strange spirit entered the girl. Here was a man who vexed +her, who piqued her, and who was rude, for Mae secretly thought it +was rude to neglect Mrs. Jerrold, as the boys did that evening, and +yet who was vexed and piqued in his turn, if she did what he didn't +like and looked at another man. + +And then here was the other man. Mae looked down at him. + +Bless us! who is to blame a young woman for forgetting everything +but the "other man" when he is a godlike Piedmontese officer, with +strong soft cheek and throat, and Italian eyes, and yellow +moustaches, and spurs and buttons that click and shine in a +maddening sort of way? + +Of course, in reality, everybody is to blame her, we among the very +virtuous first. In this particular case, however, we have facts, +not morals, to deal with. Mae did see Norman Mann talking +delightedly to a pretty girl, and she did see the officer gazing at +her rapturously, and she quite forgot Othello, and gave back look +for look, only more shy and less intense perhaps, and knew that +Norman Mann was very angry and she and the officer very happy. +What matter though the one should hate her, and the other love her, +and she-- + +But, bother all things but the delirious present moment. Never +fear consequences. There were bright lights, and brilliant people, +the hum of many voices, the flash of many eyes, and a half secret +between her, this little creature up in the box, and the very +handsomest man of them all. + +So while Othello fell about the stage, and ground out tremendous +curses, Mae half shivered and glanced tremblingly toward Bero, and +Bero gazed back protectingly and grandly. Once, when Desdemona +cried out thrillingly, "Othello, il mio marito," Mae looked at +Norman involuntarily and caught a half flash of his eye, but he +turned back quickly to his companion and Mae's glance wandered on +to Bero and rested there as the wild voice cried out again, "il mio +marito, il mio marito." + +So the evening slid on. Mae smiled and smiled and opened and half +closed her eyes, and Norman invited Miss Rae to go to church with +him, and to drive with him, and to walk with him, and to go to the +galleries with him, "until, Susie Hopkins, if you will believe it, +I fairly thought he would drop on his knees and ask me to go +through life with him, right then and there." So Miss Rae confided +to Susie Hopkins after the victorious night, in the silence of a +fourth-story Costanzi bedroom. + +Susie Hopkins was putting her hair up on crimping-pins, but she +paused long enough to say: "Well, Jack Durkee had better hurry +himself and his ring along, then." + +"O, he's coming as quickly as ever he can," laughed Miss Rae, +whereat she proceeded to place a large letter and a picture under +the left-hand pillow, crimped her hair, cold-creamed her lips, and +laid her down to pleasant dreams of--Jack. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +Mae was very much ashamed of herself the next morning. She had +been restored in a measure to popular favor, through Eric, the day +before. Edith and Albert were home from Frascati, when Eric made +his raid bravely on their forces combined with those of Mrs. +Jerrold. He advanced boldly. "It's all nonsense, child, as she +is," he said. "It was natural enough, to talk with the man," for +Mae had made a clean breast of her misdoings to him, to the extent +of saying that they had chatted after the beggar left. "Do forgive +her, poor little proud tot, away across the sea from her mother. +Albert, you're as hard as a rock, and that Edith has no spirit in +her," he added, under his breath. This remark made Albert white +with rage. Nevertheless, he put in a plea for his wayward, +reckless little sister, with effect. After a few more remarks from +Mrs. Jerrold, Mae came out of the ordeal; was treated naturally, +and, as we have seen, accompanied Mrs. Jerrold to the play the +night before. + +Now, it was the next day. Mrs. Jerrold breakfasted in her own room +again, and spent the hours in writing home letters full of the +Peter and Paul reminiscences and quotations. Norman and Eric left +for the Costanzi, and Albert and Edith, armed with books, and note- +books, and the small camp-stools, again started away together. +This last 'again' was getting to be accepted quite as a matter of +course. Everybody knew what it meant. They always invited the +rest of the company to go with them, and were especially urgent, +this morning, that Mae should accompany them. + +"Why, with mamma in her room you will be lonely," suggested Edith, +"and you can't go out by yourself." + +Mae winced inwardly at this, but replied pleasantly: "I have +letters to write also, and I'm not in the mood to-day for pictures, +and the cold, chilling galleries filled with the damp breath of the +ages." + +So Edith and Albert, nothing loth, having discharged their duty, +started off. These two have as yet appeared only in the +background, and may have assumed a half-priggish air in opposition +and contrast to Mae. They really, however, were very interesting +young people. Albert with a strong desire in his heart--or was it +in his head?--to aid the world, and Edith with a clear self- +possession and New England shrewdness that helped and pleased him. +Their travels were enriching them both. Edith was trying to draw +the soul from all the great pictures and some of the lesser ones, +and Albert was waking, through her influence, to the world of art. +This morning they were on their way to the Transfiguration to study +the scornful sister. They were taking the picture bit by bit, +color by color, face by face. There are advantages in this +analytical study, yet there is a chance of losing the spirit of the +whole. So Mae thought and said: "I know that sister now, Edith, +better than you ever will." This was while she was looping up her +friend's dress here, and pulling out a fold there, in that +destructive way girls have of beautifying each other. "See here!" + +And down sank Miss Mae on her knees, with her lips curved, and her +hands stretched out imploringly, half-mockingly. No need of words +to say: "Save my brother, behold him. Ah, you cannot do it, your +power is boast. Yet, save him, pray." + +"A little more yellow in my hair, some pearls and a pink gown, and +you might have the sister to study in a living model, Edith," +laughed Mae, arising. + +Edith and Albert were both struck by Mae's dramatic force, and they +talked of her as they drove to the Vatican. "I wish I understood +her better," said Edith. "I cannot feel as if travel were doing +her good. She is changing so; she was always odd, but then she was +always happy. Now she has her moods, and there is a look in her +eye I am afraid of. It is almost savage. You would think the +beauty in Rome would delight her nature, for she craves beauty and +poetry in everything. I don't believe the theatre is good for her. +Albert, suppose we give up our tickets for Thursday night." + +"But you want particularly to see that play, Edith." + +"I can easily give it up for Mae's sake. It would be cruel to go +without her, and I think excitement is bad for her." + +"You are very generous, Edith, and right, too, I dare say. I wish +my little sister could see pleasure and duty through your steadier, +clearer eyes." + +Then the steady, clear eyes dropped suddenly, and the two forgot +all about Mae, and rolled contentedly off, behind the limping +Italian horse. And the red-cheeked vetturino with the flower in +his button-hole, whistled a love-song, and thought of his Piametta, +I suppose. + +Meantime, Mae, left to herself, grew penitent and reckless by +turns, blushed alternately with shame and with quick pulse-beats, +as she remembered Norman Mann's face, or the officer's smile. She +wondered where he lived, and whether she would see him soon again. +Poor child! She was really innocent, and only dimly surmised how +he would haunt her hereafter. Would he look well in citizen's +clothes? How would Norman Mann seem in his uniform? She wished +she had a jacket cut like his. And so on in an indolent way. But +penitence was getting the better of her, and after vainly trying to +read or write, she settled herself down for a cry. To think that +she, Mae Madden, could have acted so absurdly. She never would +forgive herself, never. Then she cried some more, a good deal +more. + +About four in the afternoon a very bright sunbeam peeped through +her closed blinds, and she brushed away her tears, and peace came +back to her small heart, and she felt like a New England valley +after a shower, very fresh and clean, and goodly,--just a trifle +subdued, however. + +She would go to church. She had heard that there was lovely music +at vespers, in the little church at the foot of Capo le Case. St. +Andrea delle Frate, was it? It wasn't very far away. She could +say her prayers and repent entirely and wholly. So she dressed +rapidly, singing the familiar old Te Deum joyously all the while, +and off she started. + +The air was cool and clear and delicious and the street-scenes were +pretty. Mae took in everything before her as she left the house, +from the Barberini fountain to the groups of models at the corner +of the Square and the Via Felice; but she did not see, at some +distance behind her, on the opposite side of the street, the sudden +start of a motionless figure as she left the house, or know that it +straightened itself and moved along as she did, turning on to the +pretty Via Sistina, so down the hill at Capo le Case, to the church +below. + +She was early for vespers, and there was only the music singing in +her own happy little heart as she entered the quiet place. The +contrast between the spot, with its shrines and symbols and aids to +faith, and all that she had associated with religion, conspired to +separate her from herself and her past, and left her a bit of +breathing, worshiping life, praising the great Giver of Life. She +fell on her knees in an exalted, jubilate spirit. She was more +like a Praise-the-Lord psalm of David than like a young girl of the +nineteenth century. + +And yet close behind her, a little to the left, was Bero on his +knees too, at his pater nosters. + +By and by the music began. It was music beyond description; those +wonderful male voices, the chorus of young boys, and then suddenly, +the organ and some one wild falsetto carrying the great Latin soul- +laden words up higher. + +All this while Mae's head was bent low and her heart was a-praying. + +All this while Bero was on his knees also, but his eyes were on +Mae. + +The music ceased; the prayers were ended. Mae heard indistinctly +the sweep of trailing skirts, the sound of footsteps on the marble +floor, the noise of voices as the people went away, but still she +did not move. The selah pause had come after the psalm. + +When she did rise, and turn, and start to go, her eyes fell on the +kneeling form. She tried to pass quickly without recognition, but +he reached out his hand. + +"This is a church," said Mae; "my prayers are sacred; do not +disturb me." + +He held his rosary toward her, with the cross at the end tightly +clasped in his hand. "My prayers are here, too," he said. "Oh, +Signorina, give me one little prayer, one of your little prayers." + +He knelt before her in the quiet, dim, half light, his hands +clasped, and an intense earnestness in his easily moved Italian +soul, that floated up to his face. It looked like beautiful +penitence and faith to Mae. Here was a soul in sympathy with hers, +one which met her harmoniously in every mood, slid into her dreams +and wild wishes, sparkled with her enjoyment, and now knelt as she +knelt, and asked for one of her prayers. + +She stood a minute irresolute. Then she smiled down on him a full, +rich smile, and said in English: "God bless you," The next moment +she was gone. + +Bero made no movement to follow her, but remained quietly on his +knees, his head bowed low. + + * * * * * * * + +"I looked in at St. Andrea's, at vespers," said that dear, bungling +fellow, Eric, at dinner that night, "and saw you Mae, but you were +so busy with your prayers I came away." There was a pause, and Mae +knew that people looked at her. + +"Yes, I was there; the music was wonderful." + +"Mae," asked Mrs. Jerrold, "Do you have to go to a Roman Catholic +Church to say your prayers?" For Mrs. Jerrold was a Puritan of the +Puritans, and had breathed in the shorter catechism and the +doctrine of election with the mountain air and sea-salt of her +childhood. Possibly the two former had had as much to do as the +latter with her angularity and severe strength. + +"Indeed," cried Mae, impulsively, "I wish I could always enter a +church to say my prayers. There is so much to help one there." + +"Is there any danger of your becoming a Romanist?" enquired Mrs. +Jerrold, pushing the matter further. + +"I wish there were a chance of my becoming anything half as good, +but I am afraid there isn't. Still, I turn with an occasional +loyal heart-beat to the great Mother Church, that the rest of you +have all run away from." "Yes, you have," Mae shook her head +decidedly at Edith. "She may be a cruel mother. I know you all +think she's like the old woman who lived in a shoe, and that she +whips her children and sends them supperless to bed, and gives them +a stone for bread, but she's the mother of all of us, +notwithstanding." + +"What a dreadful mixture of Mother Goose and Holy Bible," exclaimed +Eric, laughingly, while Mae cooled off, and Mrs. Jerrold stared +amazedly, wondering how to take this tirade. She concluded at last +that it would be better to let it pass as one of Mae's +extravagances, so she ended the conversation by saying: "I hope, +Eric, you will wait for your sister, if you see her alone, at +church. It is not the thing for her to go by herself." + +"No," added Albert, "we shall have to buy a chain for you soon." + +"If you do," said Mae quietly, "I'll slip it." And not another +prayer did she say that night. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +It was the first day of Carnival. The determination to enjoy +herself was so strong in Mae, that her face fairly shone with her +"good time coming." She popped her head out of the doorway, and +flung a big handful of confetti right at Eric, but he dodged, and +Norman Mann caught it in his face. Then, seeing a try-to-be- +dignified look creeping upon Mae, he seized the golden moment, +gathered up such remnants of confetti as were tangled in his hair +and whiskers, and flung them back again, shouting: "Long live King +Pasquino! So his reign has begun, has it?" + +"Yes; King Pasquino is lord, now, for ten whole days," and she +slowly edged her right hand about, to take aim again at Norman. He +saw her, and frustrated the attempt by catching it and emptying the +contents out upon the floor. The little white balls rolled off to +the corners and the little hand fell slowly by Mae's side. "Why +not go down to the Corso, you and I, and see the beginning of the +fun?" suggested Norman. + +"Come along," cried Mae, "you, too, Eric," and the three started +off like veritable children, in a delightful, familiar, old-time +way. Arrived at their loggia, they found an old woman employed in +filling, with confetti, a long line of boxes, fastened to the +balustrade of the balcony. Little shovels, also, were provided, +for dealing out the tiny missals of war upon the heads below. +There were masks in waiting, some to be tied on, while others +terminated in a handle, by a skilful use of which they could be +made as effective as a Spanish lady's fan. Mae chose one of these +latter. + +The Corso was alive with vendors of small bouquets and bon-bons and +little flying birds tied in live agony to round yellow oranges. +The fruit in turn was fastened to a long pole and so thrust up to +the balconies as a tempting bait. If bought, the birds and flowers +were tossed together into the streets to a passing friend. As Mae +was gazing rapturously over the balcony, laughing at the few +stragglers hurrying to the Piazza del Popolo, admiring the bannered +balconies and gay streamers, several of these little birds were +thrust up to her face, some of them peeping piteously and flapping +their poor wings. She put up her hands and caught the oranges, +one--two--three--four. In a moment she had freed the fluttering +birds and tossed the fruit back into the street. "Pay them, Eric," +she cried indignantly; "Why, what is this?" for one of the little +creatures, after vainly flapping its wings, had fallen on the +balcony. Mae picked it up. It half opened its eyes at her and +then lay still in her hands. + +"It is dead," said Mae, quietly, going up to Norman. "Oh! Mr. +Mann, I thought Carnival meant real fun, not cruelty. Isn't there +anywhere in this big world where we can get free from such dreadful +things? Well!" she added, impatiently, as Norman paused. + +"Give a slow fellow who likes the world better than you do, time to +apologize for it," replied Norman, as familiarly as Eric would have +done. The tone pleased Mae. She looked up and laughed lightly. +"At any rate," suggested he, "let's forget the cruelty now and take +the fun. Three of them are safe and very likely this scrap," and +he touched the dead bird in her hand, "is flying to rejoin his +brothers in hunting-grounds that are stocked with angle-worms, and +such game. We are to have a good time to-day, you and I." + +At this moment Eric rushed up. "Say, Mann," he cried, "here they +come. They have taken the balcony just opposite, after all. And +Miss Hopkins looks perfectly in a white veil. And oh! here are the +rest of our own party." + +Mae lifted her eyes to the opposite side of the street, but they +did not fall to the level of the Hopkins-Rae party, being stopped +by something above. At a high, fourth-story window, beyond the +circle of flying fun and frolic, confetti and flowers, Mae saw a +wonderful woman's face, a face with great dark eyes and raven hair. +A heavily-figured white lace veil was pulled low over her brow, and +fell in folds against her cheeks. Her skin was white, the scarlet +of her face concentrating in her lips. + +There was a strange consonance between the creamy heavy lace and +its flowing intertwined figures, and the face it encircled. A +mystery, a grace, a subtle charm, that had the effect of a vivid +dream, in its combination of clearness and unreality. There was +life, with smothered passion and pride and pain in it, Mae was +sure. So near to her that her voice could have arched the little +distance easily, and yet so far away from her life and all that +touched it. + +A gentleman attending the lady whispered to her. She bent her eyes +on Mae, and met her glance with a smile, and Mae smiled rapturously +back. + +Mae had been looking for Bero all that afternoon. She felt sure he +would be there, and very soon she saw him among a crowd of officers +sauntering slowly down the Corso. He looked up at the window +opposite. The veiled lady leaned slightly forward and bowed and +waved her white hand. Bero bowed. So did the other officers. + +Norman Mann and Eric excused themselves long enough to dash over to +welcome their friends and then stayed on for a little chat. These +young women were quite gorgeous in opera cloaks and tiny, nearly +invisible, American flags tucked through their belts. They tossed +confetti down on every one's heads, and shouted--a little over- +enthusiastically, but one can pardon even gush if it is only +genuine. That was the question in this case. + +The horse race came; and Mae went fairly wild. When it was over, +every body prepared to go home. King Pasquino had virtually +abdicated in favor of the Dinner Kings. Mae unclasped her tightly +strained hands, clambered down from a chair she had perched herself +on, smiled a good-bye at the veiled lady, and came away. She rode +home quietly with a big bouquet of exquisite blue violets in her +hand. There was a rose on top and a fringe of maiden's hair at the +edge, and the bouquet was flung from Bero's own hand up at the side +window on the quiet Jesu e Maria, when everyone else but Mae was +out on the Corso balcony. + +"It is dreadful to grow old," said Mae, breaking silence, as the +carriage clattered over the stony streets. + +"My dear," expostulated Edith, "you surely don't call yourself old. +What do you mean?" + +"I fancied I could take the Carnival as a child takes a big bonbon +and just think with a smack of the lips, 'My! how good this is.' +But here I am, wondering what my candy is made of all the time, and +forgetting, except at odd moments, to enjoy myself for trying to +separate false from true, and gold from gilt. Still, what is the +use of this stuff now! I'll remember that horse race, for there I +did forget myself and everything but motion. How I would like to +be a horse!" And the volatile Mae seized the stems of her bouquet +for whip and bridle and gave a little inelegant expressive click- +click to her lips as if she were spurring that imaginary steed +herself. + +Norman smiled. "We can't keep children for ever, even--" + +"The silliest of us?" + +"Even the freshest and blithest." + +"O, dear, that is like a moral to a Sunday-school book," said Mae; +"don't be goody-goody to-night." + +"What bad thing shall I do to please your majesty, my lady +Pasquino?" + +"Waltz," said Mae. So, after dinner, Edith and Eric sang, and +Norman and Mae took to the poetry of motion as ducks take to water, +and outdanced the singers. + +"Thank you," said Mae, smiling up at him. "This has done me good." +She pushed the brown hair back from her forehead and drew some deep +breaths and leaned back in her chair, still tapping her eager, +half-tired foot against the floor, while Norman fanned her with his +handkerchief. + +This time Bero and the strange, veiled lady and Miss Hopkins and +every other confusing thought floated off, and left them quite +happy for--well--say for ten minutes. + +And ten minutes consecutive enjoyment is worth waiting for, old and +cynical people say. + + * * * * * * * + +The next morning brought back all her troubles, with variations and +complications, on account of some more misunderstood words. + +"I think," said Mae, as she paused to blot the tenth page of a home +letter. "that likes and dislikes are very similar, don't you, +Edith?" Then, as Edith did not reply, she glanced up, and saw that +her friend's chair was occupied by Norman Mann. He looked up also +and smiled. + +"I am not Edith, you see, but I am interested in your theory all +the same. Only, as I am a man, I shall require you to show up your +reasons." + +"Well, I find that people who affect me very intensely either way, +I always feel intuitively acquainted with. I know what they will +think and how they will act under given conditions, and I believe +we are driven into friendship or strong dislikes more by the force +of circumstances than by--" + +"Elective affinities or any of that nonsense," suggested Norman +Mann. + +"Yes," said Mae, nodding her head, and repeating her original +statement under another form, as a sort of conclusion and proof to +the conversation. "Yes, a natural acquaintance may develop into +your best friend or your worst foe." She started on page number +eleven of her letter, dipping her pen deep into the ink-stand and +giving such a particular flourish to her right arm, as to nearly +upset the bouquet of flowers at her side. It was Bero's gift. +Norman Mann put out his hand to save it. His fingers fell in among +the soft flowers and touched something stiff. It felt like a +little roll of paper. Indignantly and surprisedly he pulled it +out. "What is this?" he cried. + +Mae sprang forward, her cheeks aflame. "It is mine," she said. + +"Did you put it here?" asked Norman. + +"No." + +"Then how do you know it is yours? Is not this a carnival bouquet. +idly tossed from the street to the balcony?" + +Mae straightened to her utmost height which wasn't lofty then and +said hastily: "Mr. Mann, this is utterly absurd, and more. I am +not a child, and if I catch an idly flung bouquet that holds idle +secrets, I surely have a right to them." She laughed hurriedly. +"Come, give me my note,--some Italian babble, I dare say." + +Norman looked at her for a minute with a struggle in his heart and +a flash of half scorn, Mae thought, on his face. What was he +thinking? + +That the child was in danger. He had no doubt in his own mind now +that the flowers and the note came from Bero and that Mae knew it. +He held the paper crushed in his hand, while he looked at her. + +"I presume you will never forgive me," he said, "but I must warn +you, not as a mentor or even as a friend," noticing her annoyed +air, "but as one soul is bound to warn another soul, seeing it in +danger. Take care of yourself, and there!" And taking the crushed +note between his two hands, he deliberately tore it asunder and +threw the halves on the table before her. + +"And there, and there, and there!" cried Mae, tearing the fragments +impetuously, and scattering the sudden little snow flakes before +him. Then, with a look of supreme contempt, she left the room. + +Norman looked down on the white heap that lay peacefully at his +feet. "I am a fool," he thought. + +"Little Mae Madden, little Mae Madden, I am so sorry for you," +repeated that excited bit of womankind to herself in the silence of +her own room. "What won't they drive you to yet? How dreadful +they think you are? And only last night we thought things were all +coming around beautifully!" + +And she looked at herself pityingly in the glass. A mirror is a +dangerous thing for a woman who has come to pity herself. She sees +the possibilities of her face too clearly. And Mae, looking into +the mirror then, realized to an extent she never had before, that +her eyes and mouth might be powerful friends to herself and foes to +Norman Mann, if she so desired. And to-day she did so desire, and +went down to the Carnival with as reckless and dangerous a spirit +as good King Pasquino could have asked. + +The details of this day were very like those of the last. Norman +and Eric vibrated between the Madden and Hopkins balconies; the +crowd was great; confetti and flowers filled the air; and up above +it all, circled by her crown of misty, heavy lace-work, shone out +the beautiful, wonderful face of the strange lady. She dropped +smiles from under her long black lashes and from the corners of the +rare, sweet mouth over the heads of the idlers to Mae, who looked +up to catch them. There was a resting, almost saving influence, +Mae's excited soul believed, in the strange face; and her eyes +sought it constantly. She had been quite oblivious to the friends +about this beautiful stranger, but once, as her eyes sought the +Italian's, she saw her arise with a sudden flash of light on her +face, and hold out a white hand. A head bent over it, and as it +lifted itself slowly, Mae saw once more the well-known features of +the Signor Bero. + +She looked down toward the street quickly and a sharp pain filled +her heart. + +She had lost her only friend in Rome, so the silly girl said to +herself. If he knew that wonderful woman, and if she flashed those +weary, great eyes for him, how could he see or think of any other? +Moreover, it was very vexatious to have him there. If she smiled +up at the girl, Bero might think she was watching him, trying to +attract his notice. So Mae appeared very careless and played she +did not see him at all, at all. Yet she could not resist looking +up now and then for one of the rare smiles. They seemed like very +far between "nows and thens" to Mae, averaging possibly a distance +of four minutes apart. But that is as one counts time by steady +clock-ticks, and not by heart-beats. + +Meanwhile, what could she do with her eyes? They would wander once +in a while over to the opposite balcony, at just such moments as +when Norman Mann was picking up Miss Rae's fan and receiving her +thanks for it from under her drooped eyelids, or choosing a flower +for himself, "the very, very prettiest, Mr. Mann," before she threw +the rest to the winds and the passing gallants. + +As Mae grew reckless her eyes grew bright. There were few passers- +by who were not attracted by the flash of those eyes. The sailor +lads, as they trundled past in their ship on wheels, left the +barrels of lime from which they had been pelting the pleasure- +seekers to throw whole handfuls of flowers up to the Jesu e Maria +balcony; a set of hale young Englishmen picked out their prettiest +bonbons for the same purpose; and one elderly, pompous man, who +drove unmasked and with staring opera glasses up and down the +Corso, quite showered her with bouquets, which he threw so poorly, +and with such a shaky old hand, that the street gamins caught them +all except such as he craftily flung so that they might assuredly +tumble back to the carriage again. And Mae, though she had felt +the pleased gaze of a good many eyes before, had never quite put +its meaning plainly to herself. She was apt, on such occasions, to +feel high-spirited, excited, joyous, but now she realized well that +she was being admired, and she led on for victory ardently. + +She tossed back little sprays of flowers, or quiet bonbons, or now +and then mischievously let drop a sprinkling of confetti balls +through her half-closed fingers. To do this she drooped her hand +low over among the balcony trimmings, following the soft shower +with her eyes, as some straight soldier would wipe the tiny minie +balls from his face and glance up to see where they came from. If +he looked up once, he never failed to look again, and generally +darted around the nearest corner to return with his offering, in +the shape of flowers or other pretty carnival nonsense. Mae rather +satisfied her conscience, which was tolerably fast asleep for the +time being, at any rate, with the fact that she didn't smile at +these strangers--she only looked! + +Her pleasure was heightened by the knowledge that she was watched. +If she glanced across quickly, Miss Rae's eyes were invariably +fixed on her and Norman Mann would be gazing in the opposite +direction in the most suspicious manner. From above her strange +friend leaned over admiringly and once, as Mae looked joyously +upwards, clapped her white hands softly together, while beyond her +a tall figure stood motionless, Mae had pretended not to see Bero +yet, but as the Italian applauded her in this gentle manner, her +eyes sought his involuntarily. He was gazing very fixedly and +rapturously down on her, without any apparent thought of the +beautiful girl by his side. After that, Mae looked up often, in a +glad, childlike way, for spite of this first lesson in wholesale +coquetry, and the new conflict of emotions within her mind, she was +enjoying herself with the utter abandon of her glad nature. + +Toward the close of the afternoon, the Italian was suddenly +surrounded by a great mass of flowers, over which she waved her +hand caressingly and pointed down at Mae. "For you," the gesture +seemed to say. The veiled lady appeared to summon several of her +friends, for a number of gentlemen left the other window and its +group of girls, and began the difficult task of attempting to toss +the bouquets from their height down to Mae. This was rendered the +more difficult as the Madden balcony was covered, and the best +shots succeeded in landing their trophies on this awning, where +they were speedily captured and drawn in by the occupants of the +next flat, an ogre of an old woman and her hook-nosed daughter, who +wore an ugly green dress and was otherwise unattractive. + +The entire Madden party became interested and stood looking on with +the most encouraging smiles. The very last bouquet was vainly +thrown, however, and gathered in by the ogre, when Bero suddenly +appeared, a little behind the party in the window. The flowers in +his hand were of the same specimens as those he had given Mae the +day before, although different in arrangement. He lifted the +bouquet quickly to his lips, so quickly that perhaps only Mae +understood the motion, and flung it lightly forward. Mae leaned +over the balcony, reaching out her eager hands, and caught it in +her very finger tips. The party above bowed and applauded, as she +raised the flowers triumphantly to her face. + +So the second day of the Carnival was a success, till they turned +their backs on the Corso. In the carriage Mrs. Jerrold spoke +gently but firmly to Mae. "Be a little more careful, dear; don't +let your spirits carry you quite away during these mad days." Mae +smiled, but was silent. + +"What a strangely beautiful girl that was in the gallery opposite," +Edith said, a moment later. "I wonder if she is engaged to that +superb man; I fancied I had seen him before. Why, Mae, what in the +world are you blushing at?" For Mae's face was scarlet. "Why, +nothing," replied Mae, redder yet; "nothing at all. What do you +mean?" + +The same thought occurred to Edith and Albert. The officer was +Mae's chance acquaintance. They both looked grave, and Albert +remarked: "It is as well to be careful before getting up too +sudden an acquaintance with your Italian girl. Take care of your +eyes." + +"Has it come to this?" cried Mae, half jestingly, half bitterly. +"Are nor my very eyes my own? I shall feel, Albert, as if you were +trying to bind me in that chain you threatened," and Mae started: +her fingers had felt another scrap of paper among the flowers, but +she did not drop it from the carriage, as her first impulse was; +she held it tight and close in her warm right hand until she was +fairly at home and safe in her own room. Then she opened and read +in an Italian hand, "To my little Queen of the Carnival." + +Could he have written that as he stood by the wonderful veiled +lady, with her white mysterious beauty, with the purple shadows +about her dark eyes, while she--and Mae looked in her glass again. +What did she see? Certainly a different picture, but a picture for +all that. Life and color and youth, a-tremble and a-quiver in +every quick movement of her face, in the sudden lifting of the +eyelids, the swift turn of the lips, the litheness and carelessness +of every motion; above and beyond all, the picture possessed that +rare quality which some artist has declared to be the highest +beauty, that picturesque charm which shines from within, that +magnetic flash and quiver which comes and goes "ere one can say it +lightens." + +The veiled lady's face was stranger, more mysterious, to an +artistic or an imaginative mind; but youth, and intense life, and +endless variety usually carry the day with a man's captious heart, +and so Bero called Mae + + + "My little Queen of the Carnival." + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +Mae's good times were greatly dimmed after this by the thought that +she was watched. The bouquets which came daily from Bero troubled +her also not a little. They were invariably formed of the same +flowers, and might easily attract Edith's attention and possible +suspicion. So she stayed home from the Corso one day not long +after, when she was in a particularly Corso-Carnival mood. She +wandered helplessly about, restless and full of desire to be down +at the balcony with the rest. And such a strange thing is the +human heart, that it was Norman Mann's face she saw before her +constantly, and she found Miss Rae's little twinkling sort of eyes +far more haunting than those of her veiled friend. + +The rich life in Mae's blood was surging in her veins and must be +let off in some way. If she had had her music and a piano she +might have thrown her soul into some great flood-waves of harmony. +The Farnesina frescoes of Cupid and Psyche over across the Tiber +would have helped her, but here she was alone, and so she did what +so many "fervent souls" do--scribbled her heart out in a colorful, +barbarous rhyme. Mae had ordinarily too good sense for this, too +deep a reverence for that world of poetry, at the threshold of +which one should bow the knee, and loose the shoe from his foot, +and tread softly. She didn't care for this to-day. She plunged +boldly in, wrote her verse, copied it, sent it to a Roman English +paper, and heard from it again two days later, in the following +way. + +The entire party were breakfasting together, when Albert suddenly +looked up from his paper and laughed. "Look here," he cried. +"Here is another of those dreadful imitators of the Pre-Raphaelite +school. Hear this from a so-called poem in the morning's journal: + + + 'The gorgeous brown reds + Of the full-throated creatures of song.'" + + +"I don't see anything bad in that," said Eric, helping himself to +another muffin. "What is the matter with you?" + +"Matter enough," returned Albert. "Because their masters, +sometimes, daub on colors with their full palettes and strong +brushes, this feeble herd tag after them and flounder around in +color and passion in a way that is sickening." + +"Go on," shouted Eric, "he is our own brother, Mae, after all, you +see. Fancy my Lord Utilitarian turning to break a lance in defence +of beauty. Edith, you and the picture-galleries are to blame for +this." + +Mae had been paying great attention to her rolls and coffee, and +very little apparently to the conversation, but she spoke eagerly +now. "Their masters do not daub. They do hold palettes full of +the strongest, richest colors, and dare lay them, in vivid flecks, +on their canvas. They do not care if they may offend some modern +cultivated eyes, used only to the invisible blues and shadowy +greens and that host of cold, lifeless, toneless grays, of refined +conventional art. They know well enough that their satisfying reds +and browns and golds of rich, free nature will go to the beating +hearts of some of us." + +Mae had a way of dashing into conversation abruptly, and the Madden +family had been brought up on argument and table-talk. So the rest +of the party ate their breakfast placidly enough. "Mae's right," +said Eric, a trifle grandly, "only, to change the figure of speech +for one better fitted for the occasion, they may satiate, though +they never starve you. But they are wonderfully fine, sometimes. +O, bother, I never can quote, but there is something about 'I will +go back to the great sweet mother."' + +"Or this," suggested Mae, + + + "'And to me thou art matchless and fair + As the tawny sweet twilight, with blended + Sunlight and red stars in her hair.'" + + +"I love my masters," continued this young enthusiast, "because they +fling all rules aside, and cry out as they choose. It is their +very heart's blood and the lusty wine of life that they give you, +not just a scrap of 'rosemary for remembrance' and a soothing herb- +tea made from the flowers of fancy they have culled from those much +travestied, abominable fields of thought." + +"And this from a lover of Wordsworth, who holds the 'Daffodils' and +'Lucy' as her chief jewels, and quotes the 'Immortality' +perpetually!" cried Eric. "If any body ever wandered up and down +those same fields of thought, by more intricate, labyrinthine +passages and byways, I'd like to know of him. Talk about soothing +herbs, bless me, it's hot catnip-tea, good and strong, that he +serves up in half of his strings about--" + +"O, Eric, hush," cried Mae, "I am afraid for you with such words on +your lips. Think of Ananias." + +"Before you children go wandering off on one of your poet fights," +broke in Albert, "let me take you to task, Mae, for stealing; that +lusty wine you talked of just now is in the poem (?) I hold in my +hand." + +"Do read it to us," said Edith, "and let us judge for ourselves." +So Albert began: + + +ALL ON A SUMMER'S DAY. + + + "Far away the mountains rise, purpling and joyous, +Through the half mist of the warm pulsing day, while nigh + At hand gay birds hang swinging and floating +And waving betwixt earth and sky, + Ringing out from ripe throats + A sensuous trickling of notes, +That fall through the trees, +Till caught by the soft-rocking breeze + They are borne to the ears of the maiden. + + Her eyes wander after the sound, +And glimpses she catches along + Through green broad-leaved shadows, +Through sunbeams gold-strong, +Of the gorgeous brown reds of the full-throated creatures of song. + One hand on her brown bosom rests, +Rising and falling with every heart-beat + Of the delicate, slow-swelling breasts. + + A lily, proud, all color of amber and wine, + Waves peerless there, by right divine +Queen o'er the moment and place. + As the wind bends her coaxingly, + Brushes softly the maiden's white hand-- +That falls with an idle grace, + Listlessly closed at her side-- + With a rippling touch, such as the tide, +Rising, leaves on a summer day, +On the quiet shore of some peaceful bay. + +There she stands in the heavily-bladed grass, + Under the trumpet-vine, +Drinking long, deep, intoxicate draughts + Of Nature's lusty, live wine. +There he sees her as he approaches; + Then pauses, as full on his ear + There swells, on a sudden, loud and clear, + A wonderful burst of song. + + A mad delicious glory; a rainbow rhythm of life, + Strong and young and free, a burst of the senses all astrife, + Each one fighting to be first, + While above, beyond them all, + Loud a woman's heart makes call." + + +"Now, fire ahead," said Eric, "get your stones ready. Mrs. +Jerrold, pray begin; let us put down this young parrot with her +'lusty, live wine.'" + +"Her?" exclaimed Edith. "Him, you mean." + +"Not a bit of it; a woman wrote that, didn't she?" + +Eric was very confident. Norman agreed with him, and he glanced at +Mae to discover her opinion. There was a look of secret amusement +in her face, and a dim suspicion entered his mind, which decided +him to watch her closely. + +"Well," said Mrs. Jerrold, "I will be lenient. You children may +throw all the stones. It is not poetry to my taste. There's no +metre to it, and I should certainly be sorry to think a woman wrote +it." + +"Why?" asked Mae, quickly, almost commandingly. Norman glanced at +her. There was a tiny rosebud on each cheek. + +"Because," replied Mrs. Jerrold, "it is too--too what, Edith?" + +"Physical, perhaps," suggested Edith. + +"It is a satyr-like sort of writing," suggested Norman. + +"I should advise this person," said Edith-- + +"To keep still?" interrupted Eric. + +"No, to go to work; that is what he or she needs." + +"That is odd advice," said Mae; "suppose she--or he--is young, +doesn't know what to do, is a traveler, like ourselves, for +instance." + +"There are plenty of benevolent schemes in Rome, I am sure," said +Edith, a trifle sanctimoniously. + +"And there's study," said Albert, "art or history. Think what a +chance for studying them one has here. Yes, Edith is right--work +or study, and a general shutting up of the fancy is what this mind +needs." + +"I disagree with you entirely," said Norman with energy. "She +needs play, relaxation, freedom." Then he was sorry he had said +it; Mae's eyes sparkled so. + +"She needs," said Eric, pushing back his chair, "to be married. +She is in love. That's what's the matter. Read those two last +lines, Albert: + + + 'While above, beyond them all, + Loud a woman's heart makes call.' + + +"Don't you see?" + +"O, wise young man," laughed Edith. But Mae arose. The scarlet +buds in her cheeks flamed into full-blown roses. "There speaks the +man," she cried passionately, "and pray doesn't a woman's heart +ever call for anything but love--aren't life and liberty more than +all the love in the world? Oh!" and she stopped abruptly. + +"Well, we have wasted more time than is worth while over this +young, wild gosling," laughed Albert. "Let us hope she will take +our advice." + +Mae shook her head involuntarily. There was a smile on Norman +Mann's lips. + +"Here's health and happiness to the poor child at any rate," he +said. + +"He pities me," thought Mae, "and I hate him." But then she didn't +at all. + +Mae wandered off to the kitchen, as usual, that day, for another of +Lisetta's stories. The Italian, with her glibness of tongue and +ready fund of anecdote, was transformed in her imaginative mind +into a veritable improvisatore. Talila was not by any means the +only heroine of the little tales. Mae had made the acquaintance of +many youths and maidens, and to-day Lisetta, after thinking over +her list of important personages, chose the Madre Ilkana as the +heroine of the occasion. Mae had already heard one or two amusing +incidents connected with this old mother. "I am sure she has a +cousin in America," she asserted to-day, before Lisetta began, "for +I know her well. She knits all the time, and is as bony as a ledge +of rocks, and her eyes are as sharp as her knitting-needles, and +her words are the sharpest of all. Her name is Miss Mary Ann +Rogers. Is she like the Madre Ilkana?" + +Lisetta shook her head. "No, no, Signorina, La Madre is as plump +and round as a loaf of bread, and as soft as the butter on it. She +has five double chins that she shakes all the while, but then she +has stiff bristles, like a man's, growing on them, and her +knitting-needles and her words are all sharp as la Signora Maria +Anne R-o-o-g-eers, I doubt not. But her eyes! Why, Signorina, she +has the evil eye!" This Lisetta said in a whisper, while Giovanni +shrugged his shoulders bravely, and little Roberto cuddled closer +to Mae. + +"Yes," continued Lisetta, "and so no one knows exactly about her +eyes, not daring to look directly into them, but as nearly as I can +make out they are black, and have a soft veil over them, so that +you would think at first they were just about to cry, when +suddenly, fires creep up and burn out the drops, and leave her hot +and angry and scorching. + +"She must be terrible," cried Mae, with a sudden shrinking. + +"She IS terrible," replied Lisetta, "but then she is very clever. +You will see if she is not clever when you hear the story I shall +now tell you," and Lisetta laughed, and showed her own one double +chin, with its two little round dimples. Then she smoothed down +her peasant apron, bade Giovanni leave off pinching Roberto, and +commenced. + +"The government hates the banditti," began Lisetta, wisely, "and +indeed it should," and she looked gravely at Giovanni, "for they +are very wild men, who live reckless bad lives, and steal, and are +quite dreadful. But we poor, we do not hate them as the government +does, because they are good to us, and do not war with us, and +sometimes those we love join them--a brother or a cousin, perhaps"-- +and Lisetta's black eyes filled, and her lip quivered. "As for +the Madre, she loved them all, and said they were all relations. + +"At this time of which I speak, the soldiers were chasing and +hunting the banditti very hard, and they had been compelled to hide +for their lives up among the mountains. There they would have +died, had it not been for the peasants, who supplied them with +food. Small parties of the bandits would come out for it. There +were two very powerful men of the banditti, who were skirmishing +about in this way, not far from the Madre Ilkana's, when they saw +two soldiers, in advance of their company, approaching them. The +banditti were not afraid for themselves, but they wanted to get +back to their friends with the bread and meat, so instead of +fighting, they fled to the Madre. She took them in, and bade them +be sure they were safe with her. But the soldiers had caught sight +of them, and they stopped at every house and enquired and searched +for them; and so, soon they came to the Madre Ilkana's. They +charged her in the name of the government to give up the banditti +in her house. The Madre kept on with her knitting, and told them +there were only her two sons in the house, and mothers never gave +up their sons to any one. + +"'Ha!' laughed one of the soldiers,' mothers must give up their +children to King Death, and it is He who wants your bad boys.' +Upon which, the Madre arose and cursed them. Curses are common +with us, Signorina, but not La Madre's curses. She talked of their +mothers to them, and of their sons, and of the Holy Virgin and +child, and she cursed them in the name of all these, if they dared +steal her children from her. They should take them over her old +dead body, she swore, though her knitting-needles and her eyes were +her only weapons, and then she turned her eyes full upon them, with +the evil spirit leering and laughing out of them, and the soldiers, +one of whom was an officer, fell on their knees and shook like +leaves, and prayed her to forgive them; saying that they were sure +her boys were good sons, and no banditti. And while they knelt +crouching there, La Madre knocked on the floor and in rushed the +banditti, armed with great knives. They caught and bound the two +soldiers, and took away their weapons, and jumped on their horses, +and fled. + +"La Madre took her knitting again, and sat down quietly by the side +of the bound men, until a half hour later some twelve more soldiers +cantered up. As they rode by, all the people came to their +doorways, and the soldiers stopped and asked if they had seen two +horsemen. Then La Madre gathered up her knitting and went quietly +out into the crowd. She made a low bow to the man with the biggest +feather in his cap, and she told him her story. 'I have two sons,' +she said, 'whom I love so well.' Then she told how the soldiers +mistook her sons for banditti, and tried to take them from her in +her own house. 'Though I am old, I have a good life among my +friends and neighbors here, and I fought a while in my own mind +before I said to my sons: Go, my boys, your mother will die for +you. But I did it. I bade them bind the soldiers and steal away. +Then I sat guarding the men till you came. You will find them safe +in my little house there. Now, take me to prison--kill me, but +look in my eyes first, and then, whoever lays a hand on me, take La +Madre Ilkana's curse.' + +"And the people all swore that there were two snakes coiled up in +La Madre's eyes then, and they hissed, and struck out with their +fiery tongues, and the crowd fell on their knees, and the neighbors +all set up a great shout of 'La Madre Ilkana,' so that they quite +drowned the voice of the man with the big feather." + +"Is that all?" asked Mae, as Lisetta paused. "What did the +soldiers do?" + +"O, they hired a passing carriage to take the men whose horses were +stolen back to Castellamare, and they all cantered off, without +saying a word to La Madre, and when they had turned a corner of the +road, she began to laugh. O, how she laughed! All the people +laughed with her, and the children crowed and the dogs barked, for +the rest of that whole day. + +"And a neighbor who passed La Madre's at midnight, said she was +laughing out loud then." + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +"Signorina." Mae was passing down the long hall when she heard the +whisper. She turned and saw Lisetta, with shining eyes and pink +cheeks, standing at her side. Her pretty plump shoulders were only +half covered, and the array of colors about her transformed her +into a sort of personified rainbow. This was Lisetta's Carnival +attire, and very proud she was of it. + +"Why, Lisetta, what do you want, and what makes you so happy?" +called Mae. + +"O, Signorina, the cousins are here,--and others,--all in mask. +They fill Maria's rooms quite full. It is very gay out there, and +they all want to see you, Signorina. I have told them how well you +speak Italian and how you love Italy, and to-night, they say, you +shall be one of us. So come." All this while Lisetta had been +leading Mae swiftly down the corridor, until as she said these last +words, she reached and pushed open the door. A great shout of +laughter greeted Mae's ear, and a pretty picture met her eyes-- +gaily decked youths and maidens clapping their hands and chattering +brightly, while the padrona was just entering the opposite doorway, +bearing two flasks of native wine, and some glasses. + +"'Tis genuine Orvieto," she called out, and this raised another +shout. Then she caught sight of Mae and bowed low towards her. +"Here is the little foreign lady," she cried, and a dozen pairs of +big black eyes were turned eagerly and warmly on Mae. She bowed +and smiled at them, and said in pleading tones, "O, pray do not +call me the 'little foreign lady' now. Play I am as good an +Italian as my heart could wish I were." + +This speech was received with new applause, and the padrona handed +around the glasses saying: "We must drink first to the health of +our new Italian. May she never leave us." + +"Yes, yes," called Lisetta, lifting high her glass. "Yes, yes," +cried all, and Mae drank as heartily as any of them. Then she +shook her head and gazed very scornfully down on her dark, stylish +clothes. "I am not thoroughly Italian yet," she cried. "Here, and +here, and here," cried one and another, proffering bits of their +own gay costumes, and in a moment Mae had received all sorts of +tributes--a string of red beads from one, a long sash from another, +a big-balled stiletto from a third, so that she was able from the +gleanings to trim herself up into at least a grotesque and un- +American Carnival figure. Then the Italians with their soft +tongues began to flatter her. + +"How lovely the Signorina would look in a contadina costume--the +home costume," said Lisetta gravely. "It is so beautiful, is it +not?" And then those two or three privileged ones, who had seen +Lisetta's home, went into ecstasies over its many charms. Lisetta, +next to the Signorina, was the heroine of the occasion. She was +from a distance, was handsome and clever, and the padrona gave +glowing accounts of her full purse, and two pretty donkeys, and +house by the sea. + +They had a very gay time. Such singing, and then dancing and +frolicking, and such a feline softness in all their gaiety. None +of the German or Saxon bullying, and barking and showing of teeth; +in no wise a game of dogs, which always ends in a fight; but a +truly kittenish play, with sharp claws safely tucked out of sight +behind the very softest paws, and a rich, gentle curve of motion, +inexpressibly witching to our little northern maiden, who was fast +losing her head amid it all. Mae did not reflect that felines are +treacherous. She only drew a quick, mental picture of the parlor +on the other side of the hall, which she compared to this gay +scene. Mrs. Jerrold filling in dull row after row of her elaborate +sofa cushion, which was bought in all its gorgeousness of floss +fawn's head and bead eyes, Edith and Albert hard at work over their +note books, or reading up for the sights of to-morrow, Mr. Mann +with his open book also, all quiet and studious. Eric, alone, +might be softly whistling, or writing an invitation to Miss Hopkins +to climb up St. Peter's dome with him, or to visit the tomb of +Cecilia Metella, or the Corso, as the case might be, while here-- + +As Mae reached this point in her musings, the Italians were forming +for a dance, so she sprang up to join them. Two or three peasants +from the country south had wandered up with the world to Rome, for +Carnival time, then for Lent. They had brought with them their +pipes and zitterns. In the mornings they made short pilgrimages, +playing in front of the shrines about the city, or roaming out on +the campagna to some quiet church. In the evening time they +wandered up the stone stairways of the great houses, and paused on +the landings before the different homes. If all was still they +passed on, but if there was noise, laughter, sound of voices, they +laid aside their penitential manner, and struck into dance music, +flashing their velvety eyes, and striking pretty attitudes, aided +greatly by their Alpine hats and sheep-skins and scarlet-banded +stockings. + +Three of these peasants had appeared at the padrona's doorway, by a +sort of magic. They bowed and smiled, and commenced to play. +Every one sprang up. "Dance," cried they all, and flew for their +partners. Mae found herself in the midst of the crowd, and having +the most willing and nimble of feet, she soon toned and coaxed the +fashionable waltz on which she had started into accord with the +more elastic footsteps of her companion. There was something in +the serpentine, winding and unwinding motion, the coaxingness of +the steps, that was deliciously intoxicating to Mae. The color +came to her cheeks, the smile played around her lips, and when she +paused to breathe, she found the Italians showing their white +teeth, and clapping their brown hands in her honor, while the +tallest musician gazed at her from the dark doorway, with the rapt +reverence he gave to all things beautiful and thrilling. She was a +new song to him. + +"The Signorina is the veriest Italian of us all," cried Lisetta. + +"She honors our Italy," called Mae's last partner. + +"Her feet are those of a chamois," said one from the north. + +"Nay, she flies," replied another. + +They all spoke in their earnest manner, and the praises, that fall +in fulsome flattery in English, were delicate and stimulating as +they slid in soft Italian from their full, red lips. Mae tossed +her head carelessly, but she sipped the praises and found them +sweet. + +"Now for the Tarantella," said the padrona, so Lisetta shook her +tambourine wildly, and the very prettiest girl of them all, and a +big, brown boy (happy fellow!) began that coquettish bit of +witchery. The pretty girl tripped around and around and wreathed +her arms over her head, and the boy knelt appealingly and sprang up +passionately again and again, until the clock struck ten, and the +party broke up. Mae shook hands with a new friend. He was a +stone-cutter, and was soon to be married, and he poured out all his +plans and hopes into her sympathetic ears, and told of his pretty +bride to be, and of her dowry. Mae, in turn, sent her love to the +happy bride, and took a charm from her watch-chain to go with it, a +tiny silver boat, and she sent it with a hope that some day they +might both sail over to America. At which the bridegroom shook his +head very decidedly, and kissed Mae's hand and bowed himself out. +Then, after she had disrobed her of her borrowed plumes, all the +others kissed her hand and bowed themselves out, and Roberto and +Giovanni awaked, and got up from the corner, and stood on their +heads and hallooed as loud as ever they pleased, and the evening +was over, and Lisetta and the padrona and the boys and Mae were +alone. + +"Oh, oh, oh," cried Mae, "how perfectly perfect. Do you always +have such good times as this?" + +"At home, yes," replied Lisetta, folding her hands and smiling. +"We have many a play-day on the bay of Naples." Then she roused +herself: "Good night, Signorina," she said, "keep your ears open." + +Mae had barely reached her room when she appreciated Lisetta's last +words. She heard music in the street below. She raised her +window; Eric and Norman lifted the parlor window at the same +moment, "Come in here," they cried. So in she ran, took a place +between them, and they silently listened to the maskers' serenade. +The musicians sang at first the gayest of tunes, but suddenly, by +some subtile impulse, they changed to quieter minor airs, and sang +songs full of tears and passion and love and tenderness. Then they +silently turned to go. Norman Mann touched Mae on the shoulder. +He handed her a bunch of Carnival flowers. They were Bero's, but +she flung them unhesitatingly into the street, leaning far out to +watch the singers catch them and separate them in the moonlight. +They called out loud their thanks--their "Grazie, grazie," as sweet +as any lily just broken from its stem--and as they turned to go Mae +saw that each one was decked with a sprig from the bouquet, pulled +through his button-hole or the riband of his hat. + +Only the tallest musician, who walked somewhat apart, carried his +flower tightly clasped in his hand, and now and again he raised it +to his lips. He probably dreamed over it that night, and played +his dream out in a gentle, wistful, minor adoration before the +Madonna at the Quattro Fontane the next morning. + +O, the dreams and poems and songs without words that drop into our +lives from the sudden flash of stranger eyes, or the accidental +touch of an unknown hand, or the tender warmth of a swift smile! +And if our eyes, our touch, our smiles may only have floated off in +like manner--as dreams and poems and melody--to give added rhythm +and harmony to other lives. + +Mae drew a long sigh, one of those delightful, contented sighs, +with a smile wrapped up in it. "I am glad you are so happy," said +Norman Mann, smiling down at her. When Norman spoke like that Mae +felt only, O, so very content. She quite forgot all grudges +against him; she would have liked just at that moment to have the +world stand quite still. This was very different from the ordinary +Mae. Usually she longed that it might go faster, and would put her +pink and white ear quite close to the brown earth to hear if it +were turning as swiftly as ever it could. "I like it to hurry, +hurry, hurry," said eager, restless Mae. "I love to live quickly +and see what's coming next." + +But Mae was not in that mood to-night. She leaned out of the +window all untroubled. If the sun could stand still off behind the +world--as he is now--and the moon could stand still right before +us--as she is now--and we could stay right here, we three. Why, +no, Eric has gone in and is walking up and down nervously. Thus +Mae thought, and was quiet. "What are you thinking about?" asked +Norman. She told him naturally, with her eyes on his until she +reached the words "and we." Then her eyes fell, and she paused. + +"Yes," replied Norman, "I have the same feeling," and there was a +great deal more on the very tippest tip of his tongue. But Mae +turned her face from him slightly; the moon stole softly behind the +flimsiest little cloud that any one could have seen through, and he +paused, silly fellow. These slight withdrawals, that should have +urged him on, deceived him. He stopped, and then he remembered +Mae's past doings, her recklessness, her waywardness. It was not +time yet to speak what he had in his heart to say, and what +quivered on his tongue. So he only asked abruptly: "You will go +with me to-morrow night for one of your gayest frolics, will you +not? We will go down on the Corso for all the Mocoletti fun. I am +very anxious to be in another of your good times." + +"O, would you like it?" said Mae; "I am so glad. I should delight +in it. It will be almost too good." She stopped abruptly again, +and gave him a quick, soft glance, just as the moon rode +triumphantly out from behind the filmy, flimsy veil, and shone full +down on her eyes and hair. It fell on a bright, round, glistening +ball, tucked in among some half curls behind her ear. "What is +that?" asked Norman. + +"That"--Mae put up her hand and drew it out--"that is my stiletto. +I forgot to give it back to Lisetta. It is pretty, isn't it?" + +Norman took the long needle from her hand and looked at it. "It is +not as pretty as the flowered stiletto. Why didn't you get one of +those?" + +"Why, do you not know that those are not worn by free maidens? +They are one of the added glories of a matron. I like my round, +smooth ball a great deal better. It means liberty." And she +plunged the steel tremulously back into her hair. + +"We had better go in now; this night air is bad for you." The moon +blazed scornfully down on Norman Mann as he said this. She had had +a wide experience, and had rarely seen such a stupid, cowardly +fellow, so she thought. Yet, after all, Norman only acted in self- +defense. Here was a girl by his side who gloried, as it seemed to +him, in her freedom, and that being so, he must get away as soon as +possible from that window, that moon, and that little girl. + +"Well, Norman," cried Eric, advancing eagerly as they turned from +the window, "when do you really suppose it will come off?" + +"Suppose what will come off?" inquired Mae. + +"O, I forgot you were here. Well, don't tell any one else. Norman +is to fight a duel." + +"To fight a duel--and be killed?" gasped Mae. + +"You have but a poor opinion of my powers," laughed Norman, +"although the German looked a veteran duellist from his scars. His +face was fairly embroidered or fancy-worked with red lines. A sort +of hem in his nose, and tucks and seams all over his cheeks. +Notice my knowledge in this line, Miss Mae. You ought to be +ashamed, Eric, to have spoken of it." + +"Isn't it all a joke?" asked Mae, pushing her head out of the +window again, to hide the sudden white terror in her face. "I +didn't suppose Americans fought duels when they were off +pleasuring." This sentence Mae meant to pass as a gay, light, easy +speech, to prove that Norman Mann and a duel were not such a very +dreadful combination to her feminine mind. + +"NO, it is no joke, but dead earnest," replied Eric. "I am to be +his second, and you must keep it a great secret, Mae, till it is +all over." + +"All over!"--a sudden vision of Norman lying white and motionless +with a deep wound across his soft, brown temple. Mae closed her +eyes. "I suppose I might as well tell you about it," said Norman, +"now that this stupid Eric has let out about the affair, although +it may never come to anything. I was dining to-night at a little +restaurant on the Felice, a quiet, homelike place, which a good +many artists, and especially women, frequent. There is a queer, +crazy little American, who thinks herself a painter, and is a +harmless lunatic, who is a regular guest at this restaurant. +Everybody smiles at her absurdities, but is ready enough to be kind +to the poor old creature. To-night, however, I was hardly seated +when in came a party of Germans, all in mask and Carnival costume. +One of them was arrayed in exact imitation of this old lady. He +had on a peaked bonnet and long, black gloves, with dangling +fingers, such as she invariably wears. These he waved around +mockingly and seating himself opposite her, he followed her every +motion. The ladies at the same table rose and went away. Then up +gets this big ruffian and sits down on the edge of the old lady's +chair. I could stand it no longer, but jumping in front of him, +showered down all the heavy talk I knew in German, Italian and +French, subsiding at last into my mother tongue, with her +appropriate epithets. Having sense enough left to know that he +could not reap the full benefit of English, I pulled out my card, +wrote my address on it, and threw it on the table, and I rather +think that was understood. There's no country that I have heard of +where men don't know what "we'll fight this out, means." Norman +was striding up and down the room now almost as restlessly as Eric +had done, but he seated himself again as Mae asked for the rest. + +"The rest is very simple, Miss Mae--mere business. I turned to go +away, and one of his friends approached me to ask for the name of +my second. I gave Eric's here. He bowed and said: 'He shall hear +from me this evening, and I came home. The evening has advanced to +midnight, but not a word yet. No, it is not quite eleven, I see." + +"You'll have the choice of weapons if they challenge you," said +Eric; "you'll take pistols, I suppose? Just think of my living to +really assist in a 'pistols-and-coffee-for-two' affair!" + +"I daresay it will be coffee for two, served separately, and with +no thought of pistols. I don't really believe it will come to +anything. There are ways of getting out of it," said Norman, +lighting a cigarette. + +"Will you refuse to fight?" asked Mae, and her heart, which had +been white with fear for Norman the second before, flashed now with +quick, red scorn. Even the Huguenot maiden would, after all, have +despised her lover if he had quietly allowed her to tie the white +handkerchief to his arm. Believe it, she loved him far, far better +as she clung to him, pressed closely to his warm, living heart, +because she realized in an agony that his honor was strong enough +to burst even the tender bonds of her dear love, and that he would +break from her round arms to rush into that ghostly, ghastly death- +embrace on the morrow, at the dreadful knell of St. Bartholomew +bells. + +Suppose he had yielded. Suppose we saw him in the picture standing +quietly, unresistingly, as her soft fingers bound the white badge, +that meant protection and life, to his arm. Would not she, as well +as he, have known that it was a badge of cowardice, and that he +wore a heart as white? + +And afterwards, would she have loved the living man, breathing in +air heavy with the hearts' life of his brothers and friends, as she +worshiped the dead man, whose cold body rested forever down deep in +mother earth's brown, soft bosom, but whose very life of life +swelled the great throng of heroes and martyrs who have closed +their own eyes upon life's pictures, that those pictures might +shine clearer and brighter to other eyes? + +If the man had yielded, and the picture showed him thus, would we +see the Huguenot lovers adorning half the houses of the land? Most +often they are found in that particular corner of the home +belonging to some maiden--that sacred room of her own, where she +prays her prayers, and lives her most secret life. I have often +wondered at the many girls who hang that especial picture over +their fire-places. It must be a case of unconscious ideality. +They realize that love must be so subject to honor that heart- +strings would break for the sake of that honor, if need be, even +though the harmonious love-song of two hearts is hushed; and what +is the love-song of any two beings compared to a life-song of honor +for the world--those wonderful life-songs that we all know? One of +them sings itself so loudly to me now, over ages of romance and +history, that I must let my simple story wait and give way to it +for a minute. + +There was a man who lived once. If God did not create him, Homer +did. The Oracle told him that the first man who put foot on the +Trojan shores would die. He knew this before he started on his +voyage for Greece. He left a wife and home behind him, whom he +dearly loved. I wonder if he used to pace the deck of the rich +barge, and listen to the men chatting around him, and smile as they +planned of returning, proud and victorious, to their homes and +their wives. + +All the while under his smile he knew he was to die, not in the +glory of fight, although his sword swung sharp and bright at his +side, in any thrilling fashion, to be sung of and wept of by his +fellows. + +All the while the heavy barge sailed on, and at last land came in +sight. I wonder if his heart was full when he saw it? Did he +remember his wife and his home? Did he feel his life strong within +him, and eager as a battle-horse, as he neared the land where wars +were to be fought, and glories won? + +All the while his heart was firm. He stood the very foremost of +them all, as they drifted quite in to the green, green shore. +Around him men talked and laughed, and the sun shone. He may have +laid his hand commandingly on some youthful shoulders and pushed +back the eager boy who longed to bound first into this new world. +He may have saved him thus from death for life. We do not know. + +All we do know is, that with his own brave feet he marched ahead of +them all, solemnly, smilingly, with the oracle in his heart. From +the vessel to the green, green shore--such a little step. He leaps +from the Grecian barge to the Trojan land, alive. Does he turn to +look at his comrades and off eastwards, beyond homewards, with a +great thrill before he falls dead? We do not know. + +All we do know is, that WE thrill now as we see him leaping to his +death, even over this gap of ages, through these shadows of +unreality. + +We have left Mae flashing scorn at Norman for a long while, a much +longer while than she really needed for her flash, for Norman's +angry start, violent exclamation, and indignant glance convinced +her of her mistake before he answered her. + +"I refuse to fight--I--Great--I beg your pardon, Miss Mae, but of +course I'll fight. I only hope the fellow isn't such a craven as +to let it blow over. However, I strongly suspect policy and his +friends will keep him from it. For my part, I would like to break +my lance for the poor woman. Any good blow struck for the fair +thing, helps old Mother earth a bit, I suppose." + +"That's your idea of life?" queried Eric, rather gravely. "My +efforts are all to push Eric Madden on his way a bit." + +"And I haven't any idea; I just live," said Mae, "like a black and +tan dog. I wish I were one. Then the only disagreeable part of +me, my conscience, would be out of the way. But what has all this +to do with the duel?" "That has something to do with it, I fancy," +said Eric, rising and leaving the room hastily, as the bell rang. +"No, stay where you are. I'll receive him in the little salon." +Mae rose and walked to the fireside, and looked down on the two +small logs of wet wood that sizzled on the fire-dogs. The faint, +red flame that flickered around them, looked sullen and revengeful, +she thought, as she watched the feeble blaze intently. It seemed +hours since Eric had left the room. What was Norman thinking? +What was the stranger saying out in the little salon? No, no, she +would not think thus. She would repeat something to quiet herself- +-poetry--what should it be? Ah, here is Eric. + +It was Eric. His face was flushed. His lip curled. "Coward! +craven!" he exclaimed, "Coward, craven." + +"Well, tell us about it," said Norman, coolly, but a wave of color +rushed over his face. + +"O, palaver and stuff. Somebody's dreadfully ill--dying, I +believe, and that somebody is wife, or mother, or son to this brute +you challenged. He's got to go, the coward. If you are ever in +his vicinity again, and send him your card, he will understand it +and meet you at such place and with such weapons as you prefer. +Bah--too thin!" and Eric concluded with this emphatic statement. + +Mae leaned her head against her two clasped hands which rested on +the mantel-piece. How strangely everything looked; even the dim +fire had a sort of aureole about it, as her eyes rested there +again; but when one looks through tears, all things are haloed +mistily. Norman turned and looked at Mae, as Eric walked +impatiently about. She did not move or speak. He walked to her +side, and stood looking down at her. The faint mist in her left +eye was forming into a bright, clear globe as large as any April +raindrop. Mae knew this, and knew it would fall, unless she put up +her hand and brushed it away, and that would be worse. The color +rose to her cheeks as she waited the dreadful moment. She was +perfectly still, her hands clasped before her, her head bent, as +the crystal drop gathered all the mist and halo in its full, round +embrace, and pattered down upon the third finger of her left hand-- +her wedding-ring finger--and lay there, clear and sparkling as a +diamond! + +Norman Mann stooped and laid his hand over it. "You are glad, +then!" "I should be sorry to have you die," said Mae, but her +dimples and blushes and drooping eye-lids said, oh, a great deal +more. "Good night," she fluttered, and ran off. + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +Mae dreamed happy dreams that night, and awoke with a smile on her +lips. She dressed with the greatest care, put a touch of the color +Norman liked at her throat, and fastened a charm he had given her +to her bracelet. Still, she loitered on her way to the breakfast- +room, and when she seated herself at the table, a sudden +embarrassment made her keep her eyes on her plate, or talk to Eric, +or Edith, or any one but Norman. Yet she was perfectly conscious +of his every word and motion. She knew he only took two cups of +coffee instead of three, and that he helped her to mandarins--a +fruit of which she was very fond--five times, so that she had a +plate heaping with golden untouched balls before her. After +breakfast, she felt a great desire to run away, so she asked Eric +to take her to the Capitol, and leave her there for a time. "I +want to see something solid this morning, that has lasted a long +while, and the marbles will do me good." + +Yes, Eric would take her at once. Would she go and get her hat? +She went for it, and scolded herself all the time for running away +when she wanted to stay home. Yet, after all, who dares put out +one's hand to grasp the moon when at last it approaches? No woman, +at any rate. + +There was a malicious sort of teasing pleasure in running away from +Norman, mingled with a shrinking modesty; and, besides, he knew the +way to the Capitol, if he chose to follow, and knew she was to be +there alone. So, on the whole, Mae went off with a blissful heart. + +As she sat down in that celebrated room, immortalized by the +Gladiator, the Faun and the Antinous, scales seemed to fall from +her eyes and a weight from her heart. Life meant something more +than the mere play she delighted in, or the labor she despised. +She took it in in this way. She realized, first of all, the +enduringness of the marbles. They had stood, they will stand, for +thousands of years. What have stood? What will stand? Idle +blocks of stone, without form or meaning, or simply three beautiful +shapes? No; three souls, thinks Mae, three real people, and she +looks at the abiding faun, freedom and joy of the Satyr, the +continual sentimental sadness of the Antinous, and the perpetual +brave death-struggle of the Gladiator. They are living on now, and +touching our hearts. Their mute lips open other eloquent mouths to +speak for them. Hawthorne and Byron tell us what the Faun's soul, +what the Gladiator's soul, look from the white marbles to us, and +the world daily repeats the story the Antinous whispers in his +bent, beautiful head, the vanitas vanitatum that our own hearts +whisper, when we drop earnest life for voluptuous pleasures. + +The Faun may smile, although life is only one long play-day in +green fields and woods, because he is a Faun. The man must sigh, +when he has drained his wine-cups and laughed his heartiest laugh, +and wakes to another morning, because he is a man. The cry of +humanity echoes in our souls. We cannot stifle it; we may hush it, +and follow our idle joys, but the day comes when we bend our head +with Antinous and Solomon and the rest of them, and sigh out our +vanitas, vanitas also, in the great weary chorus. + +No need, alas! for a Hawthorne, or Byron, or even a Shakspeare to +interpret what the Antinous says for us. Our own hearts do it. + +Mae caught the spirit of all this, as her eyes roamed out of the +window on the Sabine hills, where woods and springs sang. She saw +the aqueducts bounding, even in their ruin, arch after arch, to the +treasure house of the waters. "They never can reach it, now," +thinks she, "never. Suppose they cannot, is not the spirit the +same?" And now Mae is ready for the sudden light that dawns on her +soul. She springs to her feet. She is alone in the room with the +marble men; and they are quiet; even the Gladiator bites back his +last groan once more. + +"The Eternal City," shouts Mae; "I know what it means at last. Oh! +Rome, Rome, I love you!" and she rests her hand on the windowsill, +and looks out on Rome. "Why, it is like a resurrection morn. +Ruins? Yes, it is all ruins, dry bones, and great dead in dust; +but there is something more. I only saw that graveyard part of it +before; now, the spirit of the great men, and great deeds, and +words, and thoughts, and prayers," cries Mae, exultantly. "Why, +they are here; not dead, like the rest, but alive, all around us. +Oh! Rome, Rome, forgive me!" + +Now, this might have seemed absurd to the custode, or some other +people, if they had put their head in at the door just then. But +they didn't; and, really, it was not absurd. I cannot believe that +this small Mae Madden is the only being who has had a swift, +brilliant awakening from the first surface, depressing thoughts of +Rome--an awakening to the living spirits which float proudly over +their vacant shells that lie below the old pavements. Once you do +feel the strong, rich Roman life about you, the decay, the ruin +float off on the dust of the ages, before the glorified breath of +proud matrons and stately warriors, who step over the centuries to +walk by your side. And the centuries have improved them,--have +left their grandeur, and nobility, and bravery, and civilized them +a bit. They form into pageants for you, and fill the baths and the +palaces, but never crowd the Coliseum for the dreadful contests, +unless, maybe, for an occasional bull-fight--some great, horrid, +big bull which would be killed at market to-morrow at any rate--and +even that is as you please. It is wonderful, truly, once we +discern the spirits around us, to notice what a miraculous place +Rome is; how the intervening years of purgatorial flames have +turned old Nero himself into a fairly benevolent, soft old +gentleman, even though his estates have crumbled to such an extent +that he may put his golden palace into the head of his cane, which +he always carries now, since his chariots have gone away. Where +are they? Caligula has even made it up with his mother-in-law, and +you reflect with joy on that fact, as the two flit by your mind's +eye, hand in hand. All this nonsense is for those of us who HAVE +awakenings. The rest of "our party" may sit at Spillman's and eat +coffee-cakes and sip Lachrymae Christi, while we walk alone through +the Coliseum, with the crowd of old heathen. They stop, every one, +at the iron cross in the middle, reared over their carnage and mad +mirth, and press their lips to it now. The centuries have done +that. We only, alas! stand gazing mournfully, doubtingly. "Will +you have another coffee-cake?" says some one, and we remember that +we are at Spillman's also. And, indeed, we might be more sensible +to stay with our party always; eat cakes, drink wine, laugh at the +old world, vaunt the new, read Baedeker and the Bible, say our +orthodox Protestant prayers, with a special "Lead us not into +Romanism" codicil, and go to bed, and dream of our own golden +houses, Paris dresses, and fat letters of credit. + +At any rate, Mae Madden was electrified by a great sudden sweep of +love, a surging rush of reverence for Rome, and makes no doubt in +her own mind, to this day, that the Faun laughed with her in her +joy. In this exalted frame of mind, she wandered down through the +long halls. She was passing from the room of the Caesars when she +heard Norman's voice. So he had come for her with Eric. She had +half fancied he would. She paused to listen. It was a ringing +elastic voice, in no wise lagging in speech, with a certain +measurement in its tones, as if he weighed his words and thoughts, +and gave them out generously, pound for pound, a fair measure which +our grandmother's recipes approved. Mae smiled to herself. "He +has loved Rome always. He caught the spirit of it long ago. He +will be glad to know I have found it also. I wish"--and Mae sighed +a scrap of a sigh, and looked down at the toe of her boot, with +which she drew little semi-circles before her. + +Mae was truly in a very tender mood to-day. I think if Norman had +caught sight of her face at that moment, he would have sent Eric +off, and right there and then, before all the Caesars--why what is +the matter? The face contracts as if in pain. What was the cause? +She had heard Norman say, "I'm afraid I was wrong, but I never +meant anything by my attentions to the girl, Eric. It was really +on your account. I never liked Miss Rae particularly. I was +thrown much with her because you and I have been together +constantly, but she does not grow on me. I never expected you +should consider me as her necessary cavalier always. As for this +evening, I am engaged to Miss Mae, so that settles this matter, but +I wish that hereafter you would not get me into such scrapes." + +Poor Mae! she leaned against Nero--or was it Caracalla?--surely +somebody very hard and cold and cruel,--and stopped breathing for a +moment. For she had heard wrong, had misunderstood Miss Rae for +Miss Mae, and supposed it was of herself that he spoke. Her heart +stood still for the minutest part of a minute. Then she turned +softly and quickly, went back to the Gladiator's room, left word +with the custode for Eric that she wasn't well, and had gone home +alone, walked off down the Capitol steps, took a cab and drove +away. + +At home she had a long, earnest talk with Lisetta, after which +Lisetta had a short, brisk talk with the padrona. "It means +money," she said, "and I can play I did it for the Signorina's +safety." Later, Mae wrote a brief, polite note to Norman Mann. +She was ill, had gone to bed, and wouldn't be able to go to the +Corso with him to-night. She tried to stifle the hot anger and +other emotions out of the words, and read and re-read them to +assure herself that they were perfectly easy, natural, and polite. +At last she tore them up and sent this instead: + + +MY DEAR MR. MANN:--Such a pity that we are not to have our fun, +after all. Yet, perhaps it is just as well. I should be very +speedily without my light, and the cry of "senza moccolo, senza +moccola," must be very dispiriting. Have a good time right along. +Good-bye--good-bye. + + +Of course, if Mae had not been beside herself with conflicting +emotions, she would never have sent this note, or repeated the +good-bye in that echoing, departing sort of way. Norman Mann knit +his brow as he read it. "What is the row now?" he thought. "What +a child it is, anyway. She has had the mocoletti fun in her mind +since we left America, and now she throws it away. Well, there's +no help for it; I'm booked for Miss Rae. I'll get Eric to see if +Mae's really ill. I wonder if she's afraid of me, because she +cried last night, afraid I took that big tear for more than it was +worth. + +"Mae," said Eric, entering her room an hour later, "Norman feels +dreadfully that you are not able to go to-night, and so do I. I +suppose those wretched marbles did it this morning. Couldn't you +possibly come?" + +"No," replied Mae, rising on her elbow, "but sit down a moment, +Eric." + +"How pretty you look," said her brother, seating himself by her +side. Mae's hair was tumbled in brown waves that looked as if they +couldn't quite make up their minds to curl, much as they wanted to; +her eyes shone strangely; and the little scarlet shawl that she had +drawn over her head and shoulders was no brighter than her flushed +cheeks. She smiled at her brother, but said hurriedly; "Tell me of +your plans for to-night. I suppose you and Mr. Mann are going with +your new friends." + +"Yes, Norman will go with me and the girls, but he does it with a +bad enough grace. He's dreadfully tired of Miss Rae; and, to tell +you the truth, Mae, she is rather namby-pamby--very different from +Miss Hopkins, and then, besides, he had so set his heart on going +with you to-night." + +"O, yes," said Mae, scornfully, and bit her lips. + +"Why, Mae, what is the matter with you? You seem to doubt every +one and everything. You know Norman is truth itself." "Is he?" +asked Mae, indifferently. + +"I've seen for a long time," continued Eric, "that you two were not +the friends you once were, but I don't understand this open +dislike. Doesn't it spoil your pleasure? You don't seem to have +the real old-fashioned good times, my little girl," and Eric pulled +his clumsy dear hand through a twist of the brown hair caressingly. + +"O, Eric," cried Mae, "that is like old times again," and a tear +splattered down into the big hand. "What, crying, Mae?" "No, +dear--that is, yes. I believe I am a little bit homesick. I wish +I could go back behind my teens again. Do you remember the summer +that I was twelve--that summer up by the lake? I wish you and I +could paddle around in one of the old flat-bottomed tubs once more, +don't you, Eric? We'd go for lilies and fish for minnows--that is, +we'd fish for perch and catch the minnows--and talk about when you +should go to college and pull in the race, and I should wear a long +dress and learn all the college tunes to sing with you and your +Yale friends. Do you remember, Eric? And now, O dear me, you lost +your race, and I hate my long gowns. O--my--dear--brother--do you +like it all as well as you thought you would?" + +"Why, Mae, you poor little tot, you're sentimental--for you. Yes, +I like the future as well as I always did. I never gave much for +the present, at any rate." + +"But I did, Eric; I always did, till just now, and now I hate it, +and I'm afraid of the future, and I'd like to grow backwards, and +instead, in a month, I'll have another birth-day, and go into those +dreadful twenties." Then Mae was quiet a moment. "Eric, I was +sentimental," she said, after a pause. "Really, I do like the +future very much. I quite forgot how much for the moment." + +"You're a strange child, indeed," replied Eric, the puzzled. "Your +words are like lightning. I had just got melted down and ready to +reply to your reminiscences by lots of others, and here you are all +jolly and matter-of-fact again. I was growing so dreadfully +unselfish that I should have insisted on staying home with you this +evening to cheer you up a bit." + +"And give up the mocoletti! Why, Eric! I shouldn't have known how +to take such an offer. No, no, trot off and array yourself, and +you may come back and say good-bye." + +"I must say good-bye now, dear, for I dine at the Costanzi with the +girls and their aunt." + +"Now, just now, Eric?" + +"Why yes, Mae. You are getting blue again, aren't you? Getting +ready for Ash Wednesday to-morrow?" + +"Oh, no, no, dear. Kiss me, Eric, again. You're a good, dear boy. +No; I didn't cry that drop at all. Good-bye; and to-morrow is Ash +Wednesday. But we don't sorrow or fast in Paradise, I suppose." + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +The Corso was all ablaze. The whole world was there. Under a +balcony stood a party of peasants. Of this group, two were +somewhat aside. One of these was tall, dark, a fair type of +Southern Italian; the other small, agile and graceful, dressed in a +fresh contadina costume, with her brown hair braided down her +shoulders. She seemed excited, and as the crowd pressed nearer she +would draw back half-fearfully. "Lisetta," she whispered, "I am +spoiling your good time. Talk to your friends; never mind me. I +will follow by your side, and soon I shall catch the spirit of it +all, too." Saying this, she stepped from under the balcony, held +out her feeble little taper and joined in the cries around her, +pausing to blow at any lowered bit of wax that came in her way. It +was maddening sport; her light was extinguished again and again, +but she would plead to have it relit, and there was sure to be some +tender-hearted, kindly knight at hand to help her. + +She ran on quickly, fearlessly, gliding and creeping and sliding +through the crowd, her hair flying, her eyes dancing. Even in the +dense throng many turned to look at her, and one tall man started +suddenly from the shadow of a side street, where he had been +standing motionless, and threw himself before the girl. He put out +his arm, grasped her tightly, and drew her a few feet into the +shadow. "Signorina!" he said. "Hush, hush," she whispered then in +colder tones. "Let me go, Signor; you are mistaken. You, do not +know me. He smiled quietly, holding her hands clasped in his. "I +do not know you, Signorina? You do not know me. Your face is the +picture always before my eyes." + +"Yes, yes, forgive me," she fluttered, "I was startled, and indeed +I am no Signorina now, but one of your own country peasants. I am +with Lisetta. Why, where is Lisetta?" + +Where, indeed, was she? There were hundreds of contadine in the +great crowd surging by, but no Lisetta. The little peasant wrung +her hands quite free from the man's grasp. "I must go home," she +said. "I don't want any more Carnival." + +"No, no," said the officer, quietly, reassuringly. "Get cool. +Tell me how Lisetta looks and is dressed, and if we can not find +her here, I will take you up to your friend's balcony." + +"O, no, not there. Anywhere else, but not there." + +"Why not?" asked Bero. + +"Because, because,--yes, I will tell you," said Mae, remembering +her wrongs, and suddenly moved by the sympathy and softness of the +great eyes above her,--"because they think I am home ill, and here +I am, you see," and she laughed a little hurriedly,--"besides, I go +away with Lisetta to-morrow morning,--hush, let no one hear,--to +Sorrento. You must never, never tell. How do I look? Will I make +a good peasant, when once the dear sun has browned my hands and +forehead, and I have grown Italianized?" And she lifted her face, +into which the saucy gaiety had returned, up to him temptingly. + +His warm blood was kindled. "You are a little child of the sun-god +now," he exclaimed, passionately. "May I share some of your days +in heaven? I am ordered to Naples tomorrow night; shall be only +twelve hours behind you. May I come on the day after to see you in +your new home?" + +"O, how delightful! But, perhaps, my lord, our little cottage by +the sea isn't grand enough for your spurs and buttons and glory. +We are simple folks you know,--peasants all,--but our hearts, +Signor, they are hospitable, and such as we have we will gladly +give you. What do you say to the bay of Naples, and oranges for +our luncheon day after tomorrow?" And Mae laughed lightly and +joyously. Her little burnt taper fell to the ground, and she +clasped her hands together. "What a happy thing life will be!" + +"Will you live there and be a peasant forever?" asked Bero, leaning +forward. "There are villas by the sea, too, Signorina." + +Mae didn't hear these last words. Her heart had stood still on +that "forever." Live there forever, forever, and never see her +mother or Eric, or,--or any one again! "I hadn't thought of that," +she said, "I hadn't thought of that." She stood still with her +hands clasped, thinking. The officer at her side, looking down at +her, was thinking also. He was fighting a slight mental struggle, +a sort of combat he was quite unused to. Should he let the child +go on in this wild freak? He knew the cottage by the sea; the +peasant home would be dreadful to her. He knew that by that same +day after to-morrow, life in lower Italy, with the dirty, coarse +people about her would be a burden. Yet he hesitated. He fought +the battle in this way: Should he not stand a better chance if he +let her go? He had his leave of absence for three weeks (this was +true; "ordered to Naples," he had called it to Mae). Three weeks +away from his world, near this winsome, strange, magnetic little +being, with the bay of Naples, and moonlight, and his own glories +and her loveliness! He couldn't give up this chance. No, no. He +would surely see her in a few hours after her troubles began, and +comfort her. So he only smiled quietly down at her again, as she +stood troubled by his side, and said: "Lisetta will seek you near +your balcony if she knows where it is. Don't be troubled." + +"But where is my balcony?" asked Mae. + +"Come here," said Bero, leading her slightly forward. She looked +up and saw the quiet side-window, where day after day the officer +had flung her the sweet flowers when no one was looking. "I know +this place very well," he said meaningly. Mae smiled a little +cheerfully. "You have beautiful taste," she replied, "I have never +seen such exquisite bouquets before." + +Bero stroked his moustaches complacently. "You honor me, +Signorina. I hope you may receive many, many more beautiful +flowers--from the same hand." He whispered these last words, and +Mae turned her head half uneasily. She looked up at the balcony. +How odd it was that there, but a few feet away, were Mrs. Jerrold, +Edith, and Albert. She fancied she could detect their voices, +though she could not see them. The Hopkins-Rae window was vacated. +"The girls" were probably down on the Corso with Eric and Norman, +and Mae drew a little nearer to Bero, and looked up half +appealingly. His eyes were fixed strangely on something or some +one across the street. Mae followed their gaze, and saw upon the +opposite balcony the beautiful veiled lady. She held in her hand a +long rod tipped with a blazing taper. + +"O, she is like a vestal virgin with her light, or a queen with a +sceptre," cried Mae exultingly. + +"She may be the vestal virgin, but the queen is by my side," said +Bero earnestly. + +Mae wished he would not talk in this way, and she tried to laugh it +off. "I have no sceptre or crown; I'm but a poor queen in my +common garb." + +"We'll have the coronation day after to-morrow," replied Bero, very +earnestly still. + +"Tell me about her," and Mae nodded her head toward the strange +lady. "There is little to tell," said Bero, in a quiet tone. "Her +brother is well known in Rome as an artist. He lives there with +his sister and an old duenna. She wears this mysterious veil +constantly, and some fanciful people see just as mysterious a cloud +resting about her life. I only know she is strange and beautiful, +and that her name is Lillia." + +Yet Bero had seen this woman almost daily for six months. But he +only knew she was strange and beautiful, and that her name was +Lillia. + +Mae had never spoken to the veiled stranger, yet if Bero had turned +upon her and asked, "Who is she?" she would have replied: "I do not +know her name or where she lives, but I know she struggles, and +despairs, and smiles over all. And I know her suffering comes from +sorrow--not from sin." But Mae did not say all this. She only +looked at the veiled lady. Her vestal lamp had dropped for the +moment, and she seemed to be gazing far away. A fold of her heavy +veil fell over her brow quite down to her great dark eyes. They +were unshaded, yet they too, seemed clouded for the moment. "Her +name is Lillia," said Mae, reassuringly to herself. "Her name is +Lillia. I am sure she is like her name." Bero smiled. Just then +Lisetta appeared. + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +Early the next morning, in the misty light, Lisetta and Mae, the +latter still in her contadina costume, left the house quietly. In +an hour the train for Naples was to start, but Lisetta wanted to +say her prayers in Rome on this Ash Wednesday. They wandered into +a little church, one of the many Roman churches, and knelt side by +side, Lisetta with her beads and her penance, and Mae with her +thoughts, which grew dreary enough before the peasant was ready to +go. Mae had already entrusted her money to Lisetta's keeping--some +one hundred and fifty dollars, which she had gotten the day before +from Albert to buy clothes with--and with her money she had also +resigned all care. She did not know therefore, until the train +started, that their seats were in a third-class carriage. Every +one was hurrying on board, so Mae was obliged to jump in without a +word, and accept her fate as best she could. It was no very +pleasant fate. The van was dirty, crowded, garlic-scented. Mae +was plucky, however, and knew she was to find dirt and dreadful +odors everywhere. Two months of Rome had taught her that. But it +grew very dreadful in the close travelling-carriage. There was an +old woman at her side, with a deformed hand, and two soldiers +opposite, who stared rudely at her, and made loud, unpleasant +remarks; and having no books, and nothing to entertain herself +with, she was forced to curl up in a corner, and try to sleep, +which she could not do. + +Poor child! it was a hard day. Dull and dreary outside, and +within, the sickening odors and people. Back in Rome, what were +they doing? Had they found out that she had gone? And Eric, how +was he feeling? No, no, she must not think of all this. It +belonged to the past. Before her lay Sorrento, the bay of Naples, +oranges, white clouds, and the children of the sun. Mamma was +south, too--if she were only going to her. So the day dragged on, +until with the evening they reached Naples. They spent the night +with a friend of Lisetta, who rented apartments to English and +Americans. Mae was fortunate, therefore, in securing an unlet +bedroom that was comfortably furnished. She enjoyed listening to +Lisetta's stories of Rome and the Carnival; and after a quiet night +in a clean bed, awoke tolerably happy and very eager for her first +sight of the bay. They took an early train out to Castellamare, +and as they left the city, Mae wondered if Bero were just entering +it. But she soon forgot him and every one in the blue glories of +the bay. + +At Castellamare, Gaetano, Lisetta's husband, was awaiting them, +with a malicious little donkey, tricked out gaily enough in tags of +color and tinkling bells. It was very quaint and delightful to get +into the funny, low, rattling cart, and go jogging off, while the +feminine sight-seers fanned themselves in the windows of the +ladies' waiting-room, and grumbled, and the poor masculine +travellers bartered in poor Italian, with their certain-to-conquer +enemies, those triumphant swindlers, the drivers of the conveyances +between Sorrento and Castellamare. + +Then they began that wonderful ride along the coast. The horrors +of the day before rolled away like a mist as the donkey jogged +along that miraculous drive. Lisetta and Gaetano chattered +together, and Mae sat very still, with her face to the sea, +drinking in all the glory, as she had longed and planned. Hope +revived in her breast, pride had stood by her all the while, and +here was glorious nature coming to her aid. She was going swiftly +to the orange groves and the children of the sun. She should see +Talila and brown babies and dancing, and at night a great, yellow +moon would light up the whole scene. So on and on they went, the +travelling carriages dashing by them now and then, with their three +donkeys abreast, and the driver cracking his whip, and the +travellers oh-ing and ah-ing. + +"That is the most picturesque peasant I have yet seen," said a +gentle lady in brown to her husband, as they passed the humble +little party. "Yes, she is clean, and more like the ideal than the +actual peasant, and I am very glad I have seen her." + +Really, Mae was for the moment, at a quick glance, the ideal +peasant. Her hands lay in her lap, her face was toward the sea, +and her attitude and features were all full of that glow of +existence that peasant portraits possess. She lived and moved and +had her being as part of a great, warm, live picture. If the lady +in brown had not passed so quickly, however, she would have seen a +something in Mae's face that spoiled her for a peasant, an +earnestness in her admiration, a sharp intensity in her joy, that +was very different from the languid content of a Southern Italian. +Her movements were rather like those of the Northern squirrel, +which climbs nimbly and frisks briskly, than like the sinuous, +serpentine motions of the Southern creatures of the soil. We are, +after all, born where we belong, as a rule, and the rest of us soon +belong where we are born. + +After a time the donkey pattered along towards a little patch of +houses on the shore. They had already passed a half dozen of +similar settlements. Very dirty children ran about crying, ugly, +old women knitted, mongrel dogs and cats barked and yelped and +rolled in the mud. Bits of orange-peel and old cabbage and other +refuse food lay piled near the doors. There were, to be sure, +young girls with dark eyes, plaiting straw, and the very dirt heaps +had a picturesque sort of air. An artist might linger a moment to +look, but never to enter. Yet it was here that Mae must enter. +This was her new home. The neighbors came crowding about +curiously, and she was hurried into the little hut that seemed as +if it were carved roughly from some big garlic, probably by taking +out the heart of it for dinner. Mae hardly comprehended the +situation at first, but when she began to realize that this was a +substitute for sea breeze, and that the coarse clipped patois +(which sounded worse in the mass than when it fell from Lisetta's +lips alone) was in place of the flowing melody of speech she had +longed for, she grew sick at heart. The folly, the dreadfulness of +what she had done, swept over her like a flood, and with it came +dreadful fear. She was helpless,--an outcast. Pride would never +let her go home. She could go nowhere else. They had her money, +and here she must live and die. She sat down in a sort of stupor, +and paid no heed to the squabbling children who pulled at her gown, +or the dogs who sniffed snappingly at the stranger. + +Lisetta, busy with greetings and chattings, quite forgot her for a +time, and was dismayed when she saw her sitting disconsolately by. +"Come, Signorina," she cried, "go down to the bay. Here is Talila; +she will guide you." + +Mae looked up quickly at that. Talila, was she here? A few feet +from her she saw an uncouth woman, with that falling of the jaw +most imbeciles possess, and a vacancy in her eyes. She had her +hand raised and was swearing at one of the children. "Talila," +repeated Mae, rubbing her eyes, and shivering, "but I thought +Talila would be different. You said she loved children, but this +woman swears at them." + +"O, dear, we all swear at them, but we love them; you shall see how +they follow her. Talila, off with you and your babies." And the +next moment there was a general scamper of brown children headed by +this tall, vacant-looking woman. "Take the lady to the sea," +continued Lisetta. And Mae arose, as if in a dream, and followed +them. + +The half-clad children of the sun ran before her as she had dreamed +they would; flowers sprang up along the way, but she did not stop +to pluck a single bud or turn to look at anything. She wandered on +in an awful sort of fright and came at length to the water's edge. +Here there were row-boats lying at anchor, into which the children +clambered. Mae stepped into one of them and sat down in the stern, +and looked about. All was as she had planned. Her day of heaven +was here. She tried to be brave. O, she tried very hard. She +wanted to love and enjoy the sea, and think beautiful thoughts. +She roused a little and stretched herself out to catch the sunbeams +in her eyes, as she had said she would. How warm they were. An +umbrella would be a luxury--and a book! But these belonged to the +world she had left so far behind her. The dirty children babbled a +strange tongue; the water around the boat, by the shore, was +covered with a scum, and alas! alas! the land of her desire was +farther off than ever. Then she remembered that Norman Mann had +once said: "If you ever do disappear I shall know where to look for +you. Would he think of it now? Would he come for her? If he had +only come last night, and would drive by now to Sorrento. He would +be here soon if he had. Would she call him loudly or shrink down +in the boat and hide her face in her hands till she knew he was a +long way past? The rest of them would not know where to look for +her. They did not know anything about Lisetta, and she had +promised not to tell even the padrona. (Faithless Lisetta!) But +of course Norman wouldn't come for her, after what he had said at +the Capitol. That was what finally drove her away. How unlike him +it did seem to speak of her in that way to Eric. She thought over +his words, and as she did so she seemed to see her mistake, and +grasp his meaning. + +She sprang up in the boat. "It was the other girl--Miss Rae--he +was speaking of. Oh, oh, oh--and now it is too late. He will hate +me always." + +As she stood there, a carriage rolled by. Some one looked out. +"O, mamma," said a young voice in English, "look at that pretty +little peasant," and a kid-gloved hand was stretched through the +open window to spatter a shower of base coin toward her. It was +terrible! The children sprang for it, and, fighting and laughing, +ran homewards with the dreadful Talila. The parti-colored +picturesque dress had been a joy to Mae. Now she longed to tear it +off and die--die! No, she was afraid to die. She would have to +live, and she didn't know how, and she laughed a bitter sort of +laugh. + +There was a sound of horses' feet again. The road lay almost close +to the shore just here. A low exclamation, a vault from his horse, +which was speedily cared for by a dozen boys near at hand, and +before Mae knew it, the officer was beside her once more. + +O, how beautiful it was to see some one from the world, fresh, and +clean, and fair. Mae gazed at him in delight, and sprang up +warmly, holding out both her hot hands, "How is Heaven?" asked +Bero, as he raised the white fingers to his lips. + +"That is not the custom with us," said Mae, withdrawing her hand. + +"But what is custom in Heaven?" he laughed. "Can't we do as we +please in our Heaven, Signorina?" + +"This isn't our Heaven, and I don't please. O, how could you let +me come to this dreadful place. Did you know how awful it would +be?" + +"Shall I tell you why I said nothing? Let me row you away from all +this," and he began to untie the boat. + +"When did you come?" asked Mae, + +"I left Rome last night, reached Naples this morning, and here I am +as soon as possible, Signorina." + +Mae felt herself gradually yielding to the spell of this man's soft +power. She had grown strangely quiet and passive, and she folded +her hands and looked off seawards in a not unhappy way. She seemed +to be some one else in a strange dream. + +"Are you glad I came?" asked Bero, as he jumped into the boat and +sat down opposite her. Mae did not reply. She had almost lost the +power of speech. She only smiled feebly and faintly. Bero had +never seen her thus before, but he realized dimly that it was he +who had changed her, and the sense of his own power excited him the +more. He bent his proud head and flashed his beautiful eyes as he +lifted the oars to the locks, and silently pulled out toward the +bay. + +As he rowed he gazed fixedly at her, and the frightened, puzzled +child could not turn her eyes from his. His look grew softer and +tenderer, his head bent towards her, the oars moved slower and +slower and at last stopped imperceptibly. Still the man gazed +passionately, claimingly, and the girl breathed harder and let her +eyes rest on his, as if he had been a wondrous, charming serpent, +and she a little, unresisting dove. Then he spoke. + +His words were so low, it seemed as if his eyes had found voice; +his words were so caressing, it seemed as if they changed to kisses +as they fell. "Listen," he said, softly, and drew up his dripping +oars and let the boat drift--"Listen. This is not our Heaven, but +I know a villa by the sea. There are hills and woods about it; +flowers, fruits, and in the day, sunshine, at night, moonlight and +music; drives, and walks, and vines, and arbors. Could you find +there your Heaven--with me? May I take you to my villa?" + +When he ceased, his words dropped slowly into silence, and Mae +still gazed at him. She saw him come nearer to her, with his eyes +fixed on hers; she saw his hand leave the oar and move slowly +toward hers, but she was motionless, looking at the picture he had +painted her of life--the cloudless days, moonlit nights--the villa +by the sea--the glowing Piedmontese. Her eyelids trembled, her +pulse beat. + +Could she take that villa for her home? That man for her husband? +She had half thought till now in soft luxurious Italian, but 'my +home' and 'my husband' said themselves to her in her own mother +tongue. She gave a long shiver, and pulled her eyes from his. It +was like waking from a dream. "No--oh, no; take me home," she +gasped, and turned toward the shore, where, erect, with folded arms +and head bared, stood Norman Mann. + +The Italian bit his lip, and said something under his breath, but +he took the oars and pulled ashore. Mae turned her eyes downward +and felt the color creep up, up into her cheeks. It seemed +eternity. The boat was Charon's, and she was drifting to her fate. +Norman Mann stood like a statue. The wind moved his hair over his +forehead, and once Mae saw him toss the unruly locks back in a +familiar way he had. She did not know why, but the tears half came +to her eyes as he did it. He stood as firm and hard and still as a +New England rock, while the Italian swayed lithely as he pulled the +oars, with the curve and motion of a sliding, slippery stream. + +The boat came safely ashore. The Piedmontese helped her to land, +and the three stood silent; but Mae under all her shame felt +content to be near Norman. His voice broke the quiet, quick and +clear. "Are you married?" he asked. + +"I! married! What do you--what can he mean?" + +"Why is this man here, then?" + +Mae stood an instant so still that the heavy breaths of the two men +were distinctly audible, the passionate boundings of Bero's pulse, +the long, deep throbs of Norman's heart. The officer stepped +toward her. Norman stood unmoved. The Italian's eye wandered +restlessly, his hand fell to his sword. Norman's arms were folded, +and his face set. + +Mae looked at one, then at the other, perplexedly. Then she +understood. Like lightning, a terrible temptation flashed into her +mind. The Italian loved her, would shield, protect, honor her. +Norman must hate her, would always despise her. Should she lift +her little weak woman's hand and place it in the man's hand ready +to claim it, or stand still and be crushed by that other hand +there? + +Ah! she could not do it. She tried once. She held out weakly her +right hand toward Bero; but the left stretched itself involuntarily +to Norman. Then the two met in each other's pitiful clasp over her +bent head, and with a low wailing cry she fell in a little heap on +the sand. + +When she opened her eyes, they were both bending over her. "Take +me home," she gasped to Norman. He glared at the officer. "Go!" +he said. Bero put his hand to his sword. Mae sprang up. "No," +she said, gently, "no, my friend, for you have always been kind and +friendly to me. Pray go." Bero was touched by this. This little +girl had taken only good from him, after all, sympathy and +friendliness. Norman was touched also with the same thought. Then +the officer smiled pleasantly. He shrugged his shoulders slightly, +regretfully, and bowed and rode away. And so the clinking spurs +and yellow moustaches and amorous eyes vanished from Mae's sight. + +As he rode off he was somewhat sorrowful; but he took a picture +from his pocket and looked at it. "She'll be glad to welcome me +back again," he said to himself, pleasantly, "and she belongs to my +own land. This little foreigner might have pined for her own home, +by and by." Then he sighed and shook his head. "Alas! this little +stranger will dance before you often, still!" and he touched his +eyes; "but I will put you back in your place here, now." This he +said, looking at Lillia's picture and with his hand on his heart. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +Take me home," said Mae again imploringly. "Not back there," as +Norman drew her hand through his arm and started for the hut, "O +no, not even for a minute." + +"Sit here then," he replied quietly, "while I arrange it with the +woman," and he walked quickly away. Mae watched him till he +entered the low doorway, in a sort of subdued, glorified happiness, +that would break out over her shame and fear. She was afraid he +would hate her, at least she told herself so, but in reality, +everything and everybody and every place were fast fading out of +this eager little mind. She and Norman were together, and she +could not help being content. There was a certain joy in her +weakness and shame, though they were genuine and kept her hushed +and silent. + +Poor Lisetta was very much frightened, but told her story to this +angry stranger with true Southern palaver. She said the little +lady loved Italy so, and wanted to be a peasant, and insisted she +would run away quite by herself if Lisetta would not take her, and +so she consented, knowing she could, through the padrona, send word +to the friends. + +"And the man?" asked Norman, impatiently. + +"What man? O, the officer. He just rode down this morning for a +morning call. I never saw him before." + +A great weight, as large as the Piedmontese, fell from Norman's +heart then, and he scattered money among the children recklessly +and ordered up the donkey; and smiled on the amazed Lisetta all in +the same breath, and went back to help Mae into the wagon with the +lightest kind of a heart. It was a strange ride they took back to +Castellamare. I think they both wished the world could stand still +once more. When they had arrived at the station they found the +next train to Naples was not due for two hours. Norman left Mae in +the waiting-room for a time. Through the window she watched +Gaetano and the donkey start homeward, with a great sigh of relief. +She had time while she was sitting to think, but her head was in +too great a whirl. She could only feel sorry and ashamed and meek +and happy, all mixed together. The sensation was odd. + +"I have telegraphed Eric that we would start home by the next +train, that you had only been off for a frolic. I hope we can buy +a waterproof or shawl and a hat in Naples for you?" + +"Yes," said Mae, meekly, "I have my waterproof here. I think I +will put it on now, please," and she began nervously to untie the +shawl strap. Norman put her fingers gently aside, and unbuckled it +for her. He handed her the long deep-blue cloak, which she put +tightly about her, drawing the hood over her head. You look like a +nun," said Norman, smiling. "I wish I were one," replied Mae, with +a choke in her throat. She was growing very penitential and +softened. + +"What shall we do now?" asked Mr. Mann. "We have a long time to +wait. If you feel like walking, we can find a pleasanter spot than +this." + +"Go anywhere you please," replied Mae meekly. "What is the matter +with you?"--for Norman had a very amused expression in his brown +eyes." + + "I hardly recognize you. Not a trace of fight so far, and it must +be two hours since we met." + +"Don't," said Mae, with her eyes down, so of course he didn't, but +the two just marched quietly along back on the Sorrento road +towards some high rocks. They sat down behind these, with their +faces towards the sea, and were as thoroughly hidden from view, as +if they had been quite alone in the world. + +"I suppose they were frightened," asked Mae, "at home--at Rome, I +mean." "Dreadfully," replied Norman, trying to be sober, but with +the glad ring in his voice still. "Edith was for dragging the +Tiber; she was sure you and the seven-branched candlestick lay side +by side. Mrs. Jerrold searched your trunks and read all your +private papers, I am morally certain." Then Norman stopped +abruptly, and Mae drew the long stiletto from her hair nervously +and played with it before she said, "And the boys?" "Albert was +very, very sad, but reasonably sure you would be found. We all +feared the Italian, but Albert worked carefully, and soon +discovered that the officer was said to be engaged to a young girl +with whom he had been seen the day after you left, and that gave +him courage,"--then Norman stopped again abruptly. "And Eric?" +"Eric sat down with his face in his hands and cried, Miss Mae, and +said, 'I've lost my sister, the very dearest little sister in the +world.'" + +"And you came and found me," said Mae, after a pause, wiping the +tears from her eyes. "Yes, thank God," said Norman. He was sober +enough now. "Why did you do it?" asked Mae, "when I had been so +naughty, and silly, and unkind?" He came very near telling her the +reason as she looked up at him, but he did not, for she dashed on, +"O! Mr. Mann, I have been--" + +"Don't confess to me, Miss Mae. Leave all of this till you get +home to your own, who have a right to your confessions and +penitence. Never mind what you have been, here you are, and as I +have only one more handkerchief and your own looks as if it had +been sea-bathing, you had better dry your eyes and be jolly for the +next two hours." This was a precarious speech, but Mae only +laughed at it, and dried her eyes quickly. "But I have one thing +to say to you," she said, "and please mayn't I?" + +"You may say anything you please to me, of course," replied this +very magnanimous Norman. + +"It is not about the miserable past or my doings, but it's about +the future. I've said good-bye to my dreams of life--the floating +and waving and singing and dancing life that was like iced +champagne. I'd rather have cold water, thank you, sir, for a +steady drink, morning, noon and night. I'm going to be good, to +read and study and grow restful,"--and Mae folded her hands and +looked off toward the sea. "She's a witching child," thought +Norman. Then she raised her head. "I said it lightly because I +felt it deeply," she added, as if in reply to his thought. "I am +going to grow, if I can, unselfish and sympathetic, and perhaps, +who knows, wise, and any way good." + +"There is no need of giving up your champagne entirely. Give +yourself a dinner party now and then o' holidays. The world is +full of color and beauty, and poetry you love. All study is full +of it--most of all it lives in humanity." + +"Well," said Mae, "aren't you glad I'm going to change so?" + +"I'm glad you're going to give your soul a chance. Your body has +been putting it down hard of late." + +"It's but a weakling," said Mae, with a shake of her head, "and +I've hardly heard its whimpers at all, but--O, Mr. Mann, if you +could have seen Talila--she's dreadful." + +"Who is Talila? and what has she to do with your soul?" + +"O, she's one of those Sorrento people," replied Mae, as if she had +lived there for years. "I have so much to tell you: it will take-- +" + +"Years, I hope, dear." The last word dropped without his noticing +it, but Mae caught it and hid it in her heart. + +"What made you think of coming for me?" she asked, after a pause, +during which Norman had hummed a song as she had been writing her +name on the sand. They were quite on the shore and only a narrow +stretch of beach separated them from the bay. "You said if you +ever came away, you would go to Sorrento, and I knew you had a +friend in the kitchen who lived near Naples. So I searched for her +and the padrona, and, finding neither of them, set Giovanni a +babbling, and learned that the woman Lisetta had left that morning +for Sorrento. I told the boys I had a mere suspicion that I would +trace for them. So off I came last night, and by stopping and +enquiring at every settlement, at last discovered you." + +"This is my birth-day; I am twenty years old," said Mae, "Why, what +are you doing?" For Norman had bent down to the sand also, and had +drawn a queer little figure there. + +"That is you when you were one year old," he laughed, "and you +could only crow and kick your small feet, and smile now and then, +and cry the rest of the time." + +"That is about all I can do yet," said Mae. + +"Here comes number two," and he drew his hand across the sand and +smoothed the baby image away, leaving in its place a round, sturdy +little creature, poised dangerously on one foot. "You have walked +alone, and you have called your father's name, and you're a +wonderful child by this time." + +"This is the three-year-old, white aprons and curls, please +observe. Now, you recite 'Dickery, dickery dock' and 'I want to be +an angel,' and you have cut all your wisdom teeth." + +"O, Mr. Mann, I haven't cut them yet. Babies don't have them." + +"Don't they? Well, you have other teeth in their place, white and +sharp--but by this time you are four years old." + +"Ah, here I begin to remember. You draw the pictures, and I'll +describe myself. Four years old!--let me see--I had a sled for +Christmas, and I used to eat green apples. That's all I can +remember; and five and six years old were just the same." + +"O, no, I'm sure you went to church for the first time somewhere +along there; and isn't that a noteworthy event? I suppose all your +thoughts were of your button boots and your new parasol?" + +"I behaved beautifully, I know; mamma says so; sat up like a lady, +while you were sleeping, on that very same Sunday, off in some +little country church, I suppose." + +"I shouldn't wonder--sleeping in my brother's outgrown coat into +the bargain, with the sleeves dangling over my little brown hands." + +"It doesn't seem as if they could ever have been very little, does +it, Mr. Mann?" + +Mr. Mann unfolded five fingers and a thumb and surveyed them +gravely for a moment. "It is strange that this once measured three +inches by two and couldn't hit out any better than your's could." + +Mae had laid her hand on her knee and was looking at it also in the +most serious manner. Now she doubled it into a small but very +pugnacious looking fist, which she shook most entrancingly before +the very eyes of the young man by her side. The eyes turned such a +peculiar look upon her that she hastened to add: "Go on with your +dissolving views. It is number eight's turn next. You are the +showman, and I am interested spectator." + +"You insist upon describing my pictures, so I think you are +properly first assistant to the grand panorama. Here's eight-year- +old. Try your powers on her." + +"Let me see. O, then I read all the while, the 'Fairchild Family' +and 'Anna Ross,' and I used to wear my hair in very smooth braids, +I remember. I was ever so good." + +"Impossible; you must have forgotten," suggested Norman. "You +surely whispered in school and committed similar dreadful crimes. +Poor little prig." + +"No, don't," plead Mae; "please don't laugh at the little girl me. +I love to think of her as so goody-goody. Last night," and Mae +lowered her voice, "I seemed to see little Mae Madden kneeling down +in the old nursery in her woolly wrapper saying her prayers," and +Mae brought up on the prayers very abruptly, and bent over toward +the sand and began to draw hastily. "Here comes nine-year-old Mae. +Mr. Mann, you may do the describing." + +"O, I suppose there were doll's parties, first valentines, and +rides with Albert in his buggy, when you clung very tightly to the +slight arm of the carriage and smiled very bravely up in his face. +You must have been pretty then." + +"No, I was dreadfully ugly. I had broken out two teeth climbing a +stone wall." + +"You had stopped being good?" + +"Yes, that only lasted a little bit of a time." + +"Miss Mae, I'm sure you were never ugly, but naughty and silly, I +dare say. Kept a diary now, didn't you?" + +"Yes, and went to sleep with Eliza Cooke's poems under my pillow +every night, and my finger holding the book open at some such +thrilling verse as this: + + + 'Say on that I'm over romantic + In loving the wild and the free, + But the waves of the dashing Atlantic, + The Alps and the eagle for me.'" + + +"Did you wear your hair plaited when you were ten years old?" +enquired Norman, intensely busy with another drawing. + +"O no; I didn't do anything when I was ten years old but get mad +and make up with my two dearest friends." + +"One of whom was your dearest friend one-half of the time and the +other the rest of it, I suppose." + +"Don't be satirical, sir. I had a lover when I was eleven; I used +to skate with him and write him little notes, folded very queerly." + +"Why do you draw twelve and thirteen with their heads down?" asked +Mae, after a moment. + +"Because they read so much; everything they can get hold of, +including, possibly, a very revised edition of 'Arabian Nights'?" + +"Yes," laughed Mae, "and my first novel, 'Villette.'" + +"You go to a play for the first time now," suggested Norman. "How +you clasp your hands and wink your eyes and bite your lips! And +next day, in front of your mother's pier-glass, how you scream 'O, +my love,' and gasp and tumble over in a heap in your brown calico, +as the grand lady did the night before, in her pink silk." + +"Brown calico, indeed! I never condescended to die in my own +clothes, let me assure you. The garret was overhauled, and had +been since I was a mere baby, for effective, sweeping garments. +Let us hurry along over fourteen and fifteen. I was sentimental +and tried to be so young-ladyish then. I used to read history with +Albert, and always put on both my gloves when I started out, and +had great horror of girls who talked loud in the street. I learned +to make bread, and shirt bosoms, and such things." + +"Well, here you are in a long dress, Miss Sweet Sixteen. I +remember you home from boarding school on a vacation." + +"What did you think of me?" asked Mae, "didn't we have a nice time +that summer? O, how silly I was!" + +She hurried on, because the eyes had given her that peculiar look +again, which put her heart in a tremble. "I did have a beautiful +time at boarding school," she continued, "the darlingest principal +and such girls." + +"Then I suppose you wrote a salutatory in forlorn rhyme to end off +with," laughed Norman, "and read it, all arrayed in white, in a +trembling voice, and everybody applauded, and even old Judge +Seymour admired it, while you were reading, with your pink cheeks +and trembling hands and quivering voice." + +"Abominable! I didn't have the salutatory, and the girl who did, +read a superb one, as strong and masculine--" + +"Then the Judge went to sleep, I'm sure," declared Norman. + +"Well," said Mae, "you are leaving out two years," for Norman had +leaned back against the rock with his arms folded. + +"By and by," said Norman, "we all come off to Europe, and some of +us go through the heart-ache, don't we?" + +"Yes," replied Mae, softly. + +"But come out ahead one day at Sorrento, perhaps?" asked Norman. +To which Mae made no direct reply. + +"All the Mae Maddens have faded away," she said, looking down at +the sand again. "The tide is rising." And she walked forward to +the ripples of water, and then came slowly back and stood before +Norman seriously. He laughed. + +"Why, Mr. Mann," said Mae, "I have been so very, very wicked." + +The dreadful Mr. Mann only laughed again. + +"You act as if it were all a joke. I never saw you so merry +before." + +"I have never been as happy before in my life." + +"Why?" asked Mae, in a low voice. + +"Because I have found you," he answered earnestly, and before she +knew it Mae was lifted in the strong, manly arms, her pink cheek +close to Norman's brown one, and his lips on hers. She leaned her +face against his and clung tightly to him, + +"O, Mr. Norman Mann," she said, "do you really want me as much--as +I do you?" + +And Norman, still holding her tightly, bent his hand, with hers +clasped in it, to the sand, and after the Mae Madden, he wrote +another name, so that it read: + + + MAE MADDEN MANN. + + +Then he said a great many, many things, all beginning with that +electric, wonderful little possessive pronoun "my," of which he had +discoursed formerly, and he held her close all the while, and they +missed the next train for Naples. + +The gay peasant costume fell about the girl's round lithe form like +the luxuriant skin of some richly marked animal; but out of her +eyes looked a woman's tender, loving, earnest soul. Norman Mann +had saved her. + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +Edith was quietly married to Albert at Easter time, in the English +Chapel at Florence. The event was hastened by the sudden +appearance of Mae's parents, who set sail soon after hearing of the +Sorrento escapade and the embryonic engagement, which awaited their +sanction before being announced. Everything was beautifully smooth +at last. Edith and Albert left the day of their marriage for +Munich, and later, Mrs. Jerrold was to settle down with them at +Tuebingen. The rest of the party were to summer in Switzerland; +then came fall, and then--what? + +Norman thought he knew, and Mae said she thought he didn't, but +this young woman was losing half her character for willfulness, and +Norman was growing into a perfect tyrant, so far as his rights were +concerned. Easter is a season of marriages. Mae read in a Roman +paper the betrothal announcement of the Signor Bero and Signorina +Lillia Taria. "I would like to send them a real beautiful +present," said she, and Norman did not say no. So these two hunted +all over Florence, and at length, in the studio of a certain not +unknown Florentine, they discovered the very gift Mae desired--a +picture of a young Italian soldier, bringing home his bride to his +own people. There was the aged mother, proud and happy, waiting to +bid the dark-eyed girl welcome. "She has a real 'old Nokomis' +air," laughed Mae. "I know she would have told her son not to seek +'a stranger whom he knew not.'" The distant olive-colored +hillsides, the splashing fountain near at hand, each face, and even +the thick strong sunshine seemed to bear a tiny stamp with Italy +graven on it. "The name of the picture is exactly right," said +Mae. Under the painting were these words: "Italia Our Home." + +Norman would hardly have been human if he had not cast a quick +glance at her as she stood thoughtfully before the picture. Mae +was almost as good as an Italian for involuntary posing. She had +made a tableau of herself now, with one hand at her eyes to shade +them from the glare of the sun that fell fiercely through the +window, her head half on one side, and a bit of drapery, of lace or +soft silk, tight around her white throat. She felt Norman's +glance, and looked up quickly, and smiled and shook her head: "No, +Italy is not my home, although I love it so well. There is a +certain wide old doorway not many miles from New York, and the +hills around it, and the great river before it, and the people in +it, all belong together, too. That's where we belong, Norman, in +America, our home," and Mae struck a grand final pose with her +hands clasped ecstatically, and her eyes flashing in the true +Goddess of Liberty style. + +"Yes, I believe we do, Mae; I am almost anxious to get back and +begin work in that young, eager country." + +"And so am I," said Mae. + +Norman laughed. "To think of your coming down to work, you young +butterfly." + +"It is what we all have to come to, isn't it?--unless we go to that +creature that finds some mischief still for idle hands to do. I +don't expect to come to stone-cutting or cattle-driving, but I do +expect to settle down into a tolerable housewifely little woman, +and--" + +"And look after me." + +"Yes, I suppose so--and myself, and probably a sewing-class and the +cook's lame son. Heigh-ho-hum! What a pity it is, that it is so +uninteresting to be good." + +"How do you know?" + +"Don't be saucy. I do know, perfectly well, that Mae Madden, +naughty, idle, and silly, may be, after all, not so stupid; but get +me good, industrious and wise, and it will take all of my time when +I'm not asleep to keep so. No, there'll be nothing to say about me +any more. I'll be as humdrum as--" + +"As I am." + +"You--why Norman, are you humdrum?" + +"Of course I am, dreadfully humdrum. If you and I were in a story- +book, you would have ten pages to my one, to keep the reader awake. +But then, story-books aren't the end of life. Suppose you, Mae +Madden, have been odd, full of variety, ready to twist common +occurrences into something startling and romantic, have you been +happy? Haven't you been restless and discontented? Now, can't +you, grown humdrum and good, be very happy and contented and +joyful, even if the sun rises on just about the same Mondays and +Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the year round? You will not do for a +story-book then, but won't you do better for life? And, after all, +a lively murderer is a great deal more sensational than you could +ever be." + +"Even when I ran away?" + +"Yes. Now, you see, I have been humdrum again, and half preached a +sermon." + +"All right, sir; so long as you take me for a text, you may preach +as you want to, and by and by, I dare say, I shall agree with you." + +"It would have been a great deal more interesting if you had +married that Italian." + +"How do you know I could have married that Italian, my lord? He is +going to marry a girl as much more beautiful than I am as--as Bero +himself is than you--and yet I would rather have you. And now, +don't you dare look at me in that way. I'll never say another nice +thing to you if you do. This artist will think we are--" + +"Lovers, my dear. And aren't we?" + + * * * * * * * + + +Ten days later Norman entered with a letter for Mae. "Read it to +me," she said, throwing back the blinds and leaning her elbows on +the window-cushion. + +"It is from Lillia. Would you rather read it yourself?" "O, no." +So Norman read what Lillia had written in her pretty broken +English: + + +"My DEAR MISS MAE:--Thank you of all my heart for your so lovely +gift. I have had so little home since long, long ago my mother +died, and now I am to have one as the maid in the picture has. We +will marry the fifth day of May at five o'clock, and will wish you +to be there. Don't forget me. + +LILLIA." + + +"Signor Bero has added a postscript, Mae, which you can translate +better than I." And Norman handed her the letter. Mae translated +it thus: + + +"Did you know all that the picture would say to me, Signorina? +Receive my thanks for it, too, and believe I shall always live +worthy of my Italy, my wife and friends that I see in the picture, +and of another friend who lives so far away, whom I shall never see +again, if I have such a friend. Think of my beautiful Lillia on +our wedding day. We shall be married at St. Andrea's, at vesper +time. + +Bero." + + +"And this is the day," said Mae, dropping the note. + +"And the very hour, allowing the bride and the sun a few minutes +each," added Norman, glancing at the clock. + +They gaze quietly out of the window of their lodgings on the Borgo +Ognissante, but Mae sees far away beyond the Arno, into the church +of St. Andrea,--music, and pomp, and beautiful ceremony, and before +the altar, a woman in her bridal robes, with heavily figured lace +falling over her black hair and white forehead, and against her +soft cheeks and shoulders. Her great brown eyes have thrown away +the mist of sadness for a luminous wedding veil of joy, and she is +Lillia, and by her side, erect, proud, glorious, with a lingering +ray of light falling on his golden head, is her happy husband, +Bero. They stand before the altar of St. Andrea's. "God bless +you," says Mae aloud. Then her gaze wanders back to the coral and +mosaic shops below in the street, and up across to the opposite +window, where a long-haired, brown-moustached, brown-eyed man +leans, puffing smoke from his curved lips, and holding his +cigarette in his slender fingers. She meets his gaze now, as she +has met it before. "He is wondering what life will bring to these +two young people, I fancy," says Mae. + +"Our own wedding-day, Mae," Norman replies; and they both forget +all about Lillia, and Bero, and the stranger, and suddenly leave +the window. The long-haired man puffs his cigar in a little +loneliness, and wishes that wedding bells might ring for his empty +heart too. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Mae Madden, by Mary Murdoch Mason + |