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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jerry, by Jean Webster
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Jerry
+
+Author: Jean Webster
+
+Release Date: January 14, 2007 [EBook #20357]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JERRY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Clarke, Louise Pryor and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  JERRY
+
+
+
+
+  _BY THE SAME AUTHOR._
+  UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME
+    Daddy-Long-Legs.
+    Just Patty.
+    Patty and Priscilla.
+    The Four Pools Mystery.
+    The Wheat Princess.
+    Dear Enemy.
+    Much Ado about Peter.
+  LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON.
+
+
+
+
+  JERRY
+
+  By
+  JEAN WEBSTER
+  Author of "Dear Enemy," etc
+
+
+  HODDER AND STOUGHTON
+  LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
+
+
+
+
+  Copyright, 1907, by
+  THE CENTURY CO.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Copyright, 1906, 1907, by
+  THE CROWELL PUBLISHING COMPANY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+The courtyard of the Hotel du Lac, furnished with half a dozen tables and
+chairs, a red and green parrot chained to a perch, and a shady little
+arbour covered with vines, is a pleasant enough place for morning coffee,
+but decidedly too sunny for afternoon tea. It was close upon four of a
+July day, when Gustavo, his inseparable napkin floating from his arm,
+emerged from the cool dark doorway of the house and scanned the burning
+vista of tables and chairs. He would never, under ordinary circumstances,
+have interrupted his siesta for the mere delivery of a letter; but this
+particular letter was addressed to the young American man, and young
+American men, as every head waiter knows, are an unreasonably impatient
+lot. The courtyard was empty, as he might have foreseen, and he was
+turning with a patient sigh towards the long arbour that led to the lake,
+when the sound of a rustling paper in the summer-house deflected his
+course. He approached the doorway and looked inside.
+
+The young American man, in white flannels with a red guide-book
+protruding from his pocket, was comfortably stretched in a lounging
+chair engaged with a cigarette and a copy of the Paris _Herald_. He
+glanced up with a yawn--excusable under the circumstances--but as his eye
+fell upon the letter he sprang to his feet.
+
+'Hello, Gustavo! Is that for me?'
+
+Gustavo bowed.
+
+'_Ecco_! She is at last arrive, ze lettair for which you haf so moch
+weesh.' He bowed a second time and presented it. 'Meestair Jayreen
+Ailyar!'
+
+The young man laughed.
+
+'I don't wish to hurt your feelings, Gustavo, but I'm not sure I should
+answer if my eyes were shut.'
+
+He picked up the letter, glanced at the address to make sure--the name
+was Jerymn Hilliard, Jr.--and ripped it open with an exaggerated sigh of
+relief. Then he glanced up and caught Gustavo's expression. Gustavo came
+of a romantic race; there was a gleam of sympathetic interest in his eye.
+
+'Oh, you needn't look so knowing! I suppose you think this is a
+love-letter? Well it's not. It is, since you appear to be interested, a
+letter from my sister informing me that they will arrive to-night, and
+that we will pull out for Riva by the first boat to-morrow morning. Not
+that I want to leave you, Gustavo, but--Oh thunder!'
+
+He finished the reading in a frowning silence while the waiter stood at
+polite attention, a shade of anxiety in his eye--there was usually
+anxiety in his eye when it rested on Jerymn Hilliard, Jr. One could never
+foresee what the young man would call for next. Yesterday he had rung the
+bell and demanded a partner to play lawn tennis, as if the hotel kept
+partners laid away in drawers like so many sheets.
+
+He crumpled up the letter and stuffed it in his pocket.
+
+'I say, Gustavo, what do you think of this? They're going to stay in
+Lucerne till the tenth--that's next week--and they hope I won't mind
+waiting; it will be nice for me to have a rest. A _rest_, man, and I've
+already spent three days in Valedolmo!'
+
+'_Si_, signore, you will desire ze same room?' was as much as Gustavo
+thought.
+
+'Ze same room? Oh, I suppose so.'
+
+He sank back into his chair and plunged his hands into his pockets with
+an air of sombre resignation. The waiter hovered over him, divided
+between a desire to return to his siesta, and a sympathetic interest in
+the young man's troubles. Never before in the history of his connexion
+with the Hotel du Lac had Gustavo experienced such a munificent,
+companionable, expansive, entertaining, thoroughly unique and
+inexplicable guest. Even the fact that he was American scarcely accounted
+for everything.
+
+The young man raised his head and eyed his companion gloomily.
+
+'Gustavo, have you a sister?'
+
+'A sister?' Gustavo's manner was uncomprehending but patient. '_Si_,
+signore, I have eight sister.'
+
+'Eight! Merciful saints. How do you manage to be so cheerful?'
+
+'Tree is married, signore, one uvver is betrofed, one is in a convent,
+one is dead, and two is babies.'
+
+'I see--they're pretty well disposed of; but the babies will grow up,
+Gustavo, and as for that betrothed one, I should still be a little
+nervous if I were you; you can never be sure they are going to stay
+betrothed. I hope she doesn't spend her time chasing over the map of
+Europe making appointments with you to meet her in unheard of little
+mountain villages where the only approach to Christian reading matter is
+a Paris _Herald_ four days old, and then doesn't turn up to keep her
+appointments?'
+
+Gustavo blinked. His supple back achieved another bow.
+
+'Sank you,' he murmured.
+
+'And you don't happen to have an aunt?'
+
+'An aunt, signore?' There was vagueness in his tone.
+
+'Yes, Gustavo, an aunt. A female relative who reads you like an open
+book, who sees your faults and skips your virtues, who remembers how
+dear and good and obliging your father was at your age, who hoped great
+things of you when you were a baby, who had intended to make you her heir
+but has about decided to endow an orphan asylum--have you, Gustavo, by
+chance an aunt?'
+
+'_Si_, signore.'
+
+'I do not think you grasp my question. An _aunt_--the sister of your
+father, or perhaps your mother.'
+
+A gleam of illumination swept over Gustavo's troubled features.
+
+'_Ecco_! You would know if I haf a _zia_--a aunt--yes, zat is it. A aunt.
+_Sicuramente_, signore, I haf ten--leven aunt.'
+
+'Eleven aunts! Before such a tragedy I am speechless; you need say no
+more, Gustavo, from this moment we are friends.'
+
+He held out his hand. Gustavo regarded it dazedly; then, since it seemed
+to be expected, he gingerly presented his own. The result was a shining
+newly-minted two-lire piece. He pocketed it with a fresh succession of
+bows.
+
+'_Grazie tanto_! Has ze signore need of anysing?'
+
+'Have I need of anysing?' There was reproach, indignation, disgust in the
+young man's tone. 'How can you ask such a question, Gustavo? Here am I,
+three days in Valedolmo, with seven more stretching before me. I have
+plenty of towels and soap and soft-boiled eggs, if that is what you
+mean; but a man's spirit cannot be nourished on soap and soft-boiled
+eggs. What I need is food for the mind--diversion, distraction,
+amusement--no, Gustavo, you needn't offer me the Paris _Herald_ again. I
+already know by heart the list of guests in every hotel in Switzerland.'
+
+'Ah, it is diversion zat you wish? Have you seen zat ver' beautiful Luini
+in ze chapel of San Bartolomeo? It is four hundred years old.'
+
+'Yes, Gustavo, I have seen the Luini in the chapel of San Bartolomeo. I
+derived all the pleasure to be got out of it the first afternoon I came.'
+
+'Ze garden of Prince Sartonio-Crevelli? Has ze signore seen ze cedar of
+Lebanon in ze garden of ze prince?'
+
+'Yes, Gustavo, the signore has seen the cedar of Lebanon in the garden of
+the prince, also the ilex tree two hundred years old and the india-rubber
+plant from South America. They are extremely beautiful, but they don't
+last a week.'
+
+'Have you swimmed in ze lake?'
+
+'It is lukewarm, Gustavo.'
+
+The waiter's eyes roved anxiously. They lighted on the lunette of
+shimmering water and purple mountains visible at the farther end of the
+arbour.
+
+'Zere is ze view,' he suggested humbly. 'Ze view from ze water front is
+consider ver' beautiful, ver' nice. Many foreigners come entirely for
+him. You can see Lago di Garda, Monte Brione, Monte Baldo wif ze ruin
+castle of ze Scaliger, Monte Maggiore, ze Altissimo di Nago, ze snow
+cover peak of Monte----'
+
+Mr. Jerymn Hilliard, Jr., stopped him with a gesture.
+
+'That will do; I read Baedeker myself, and I saw them all the first night
+I came. You must know at your age, Gustavo, that a man can't enjoy a view
+by himself; it takes two for that sort of thing.--Yes, the truth is that
+I am lonely. You can see yourself to what straits I am pushed for
+conversation. If I had your command of language, now, I would talk to the
+German Alpine climbers.'
+
+An idea flashed over Gustavo's features.
+
+'Ah, zat is it! Why does not ze signore climb mountains? Ver' helful;
+ver' diverting. I find guide.'
+
+'You needn't bother. Your guide would be Italian, and it's too much of a
+strain to talk to a man all day in dumb show.' He folded his arms with a
+weary sigh. 'A week of Valedolmo! An eternity!'
+
+Gustavo echoed the sigh. Though he did not entirely comprehend the
+trouble, still he was of a generously sympathetic nature.
+
+'It is a pity,' he observed casually, 'zat you are not acquaint wif ze
+Signor Americano who lives in Villa Rosa. He also finds Valedolmo
+undiverting. He comes--but often--to talk wif me. He has fear of
+forgetting how to spik Angleesh, he says.'
+
+The young man opened his eyes.
+
+'What are you talking about--a Signor Americano here in Valedolmo?'
+
+'_Sicuramente_, in zat rose-colour villa wif ze cypress trees and ze
+_terrazzo_ on ze lake. His daughter, la Signorina Costantina, she live
+wif him--ver' young, ver' beautiful'--Gustavo rolled his eyes and clasped
+his hands--'beautiful like ze angels in Paradise--and she spik Italia
+like I spik Angleesh.'
+
+Jerymn Hilliard, Jr., unfolded his arms and sat up alertly.
+
+'You mean to tell me that you had an American family up your sleeve all
+this time and never said a word about it?' His tone was stern.
+
+'_Scusi_, signore, I have not known zat you have ze plaisir of zer
+acquaintance.'
+
+'The pleasure of their acquaintance! Good heavens, Gustavo, when one
+shipwrecked man meets another shipwrecked man on a desert island must
+they be introduced before they can speak?'
+
+'_Si_, signore.'
+
+'And why, may I ask, should an intelligent American family be living in
+Valedolmo?'
+
+'I do not know, signore. I have heard ze Signor Papa's healf was no good,
+and ze doctors in Americk' zay say to heem, "You need change, to breave
+ze beautiful climate of Italia." And he say, "All right, I go to
+Valedolmo." It is small, signore, but ver' _famosa_. Oh, yes, _molto
+famosa_. In ze autumn and ze spring foreigners come from all ze
+world--Angleesh, French, German--_tutti_! Ze Hotel du Lac is full. Every
+day we turn peoples away.'
+
+'So! I seem to have struck the wrong season.--But about this American
+family, what's their name?'
+
+'La familia Veeldair from Nuovo York.'
+
+'Veeldair.' He shook his head. 'That's not American, Gustavo, at least
+when you say it. But never mind, if they come from New York it's all
+right. How many are there--just two?'
+
+'But no! Ze papa and ze signorina and ze--ze--' he rolled his eyes in
+search of the word--'ze aunt!'
+
+'Another aunt! The sky appears to be raining aunts to-day. What does she
+do for amusement--the signorina who is beautiful as the angels?'
+
+Gustavo spread out his hands.
+
+'Valedolmo, signore, is on ze frontier. It is--what you say--garrison
+_città_. Many soldiers, many officers--captains, lieutenants, wif
+uniforms and swords. Zay take tea on ze _terrazzo_ wif ze Signor Papa and
+ze Signora Aunt, and most _specialmente_ wif ze Signorina Costantina. Ze
+Signor Papa say he come for his healf, but if you ask me, I sink maybe he
+come to marry his daughter.'
+
+'I see! And yet, Gustavo, American papas are generally not so keen as you
+might suppose about marrying their daughters to foreign captains and
+lieutenants even if they have got uniforms and swords. I shouldn't be
+surprised if the Signor Papa were just a little nervous over the
+situation. It seems to me there might be an opening for a likely young
+fellow speaking the English language, even if he hasn't a uniform and
+sword. How does he strike you?'
+
+'_Si_, signore.'
+
+'I'm glad you agree with me. It is now five minutes past four; do you
+think the American family would be taking a siesta?'
+
+'I do not know, signore.' Gustavo's tone was still patient.
+
+'And whereabouts is the rose-coloured villa with the terrace on the
+lake?'
+
+'It is a quarter of a hour beyond ze Porta Sant' Antonio. If ze gate is
+shut you ring at ze bell and Giuseppe will open. But ze road is ver' hot
+and ver' dusty. It is more cooler to take ze paf by ze lake. Straight to
+ze left for ten minutes and step over ze wall; it is broken in zat place
+and quite easy.'
+
+'Thank you, that is a wise suggestion; I shall step over the wall by all
+means.' He jumped to his feet and looked about for his hat. 'You turn to
+the left and straight ahead for ten minutes? Good-bye then till dinner.
+I go in search of the Signorina Costantina who is beautiful as the angels
+in Paradise, and who lives in a rose-coloured villa set in a cypress
+grove on the shores of Lake Garda--not a bad setting for romance, is it,
+Gustavo?--Dinner, I believe, is at seven o'clock?'
+
+'_Si_, signore, at seven; and would you like veal cooked Milanese
+fashion?'
+
+'Nothing would please me more. We have only had veal Milanese fashion
+five times since I came.'
+
+He waved his hand jauntily and strolled whistling down the arbour that
+led to the lake. Gustavo looked after him and shook his head. Then he
+took out the two-lire piece and rang it on the table. The metal rang
+true. He shrugged his shoulders and turned back indoors to order the
+veal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+The terrace of Villa Rosa juts out into the lake, bordered on three sides
+by a stone parapet, and shaded above by a yellow-ochre awning. Masses of
+oleanders hang over the wall and drop pink petals into the blue waters
+below. As a study in colour the terrace is perfect, but, like the
+courtyard of the Hotel du Lac, decidedly too hot for mid-afternoon. To
+the right of the terrace, however, is a shady garden set in alleys of
+cypress trees, and separated from the lake by a strip of beach and a low
+balustrade. There could be no better resting-place for a warm afternoon.
+
+It was close upon four--five minutes past to be accurate--and the usual
+afternoon quiet that enveloped the garden had fled before the garrulous
+advent of four girls. Three of them, with black eyes and blacker hair,
+were kneeling on the beach thumping and scrubbing a pile of linen. In
+spite of their chatter they were working busily, and the grass beyond the
+water-wall was already white with bleaching sheets, while a lace-trimmed
+petticoat fluttered from a near-by oleander, and rows of silk stockings
+stretched the length of the parapet. The most undeductive observer would
+have guessed by this time that the pink villa, visible through the trees,
+contained no such modern conveniences as stationary tubs.
+
+The fourth girl, with grey eyes and yellow-brown hair, was sitting at
+ease on the balustrade, fanning herself with a wide-brimmed hat and
+dangling her feet, clad in white tennis shoes, over the edge. She wore a
+suit of white linen cut sailor fashion, low at the throat and with
+sleeves rolled to the elbows. She looked very cool and comfortable and
+free as she talked, with the utmost friendliness, to the three girls
+below. Her Italian, to an unaccustomed ear, was exactly as glib as
+theirs.
+
+The washer-girls were dressed in the gayest of peasant clothes--green and
+scarlet petticoats, flowered kerchiefs, coral beads and flashing
+earrings; you would have to go far into the hills in these degenerate
+days before meeting their match on an Italian highway. But the girl on
+the wall, who was actual if not titular ruler of the domain of Villa
+Rosa, possessed a keen eye for effect; and--she plausibly argued--since
+one must have washer-women about, why not, in the name of all that is
+beautiful, have them in harmony with tradition and the landscape?
+Accordingly, she designed and purchased their costumes herself.
+
+There drifted presently into sight from around the little promontory that
+hid the village a blue and white boat with yellow lateen sails. She was
+propelled gondolier fashion, for the wind was a mere breath, by a
+picturesque youth in a suit of dark blue with white sash and flaring
+collar--the hand of the girl on the wall was here visible also.
+
+The boat fluttering in toward shore, looked like a giant butterfly; and
+her name, emblazoned in gold on her prow, was, appropriately, the
+_Farfalla_. Earlier in the season, with a green hull and a dingy brown
+sail, she had been, prosaically enough, the _Maria_. But since the advent
+of the girl all this had been changed. The _Farfalla_ dropped her yellow
+wings with the air of a salute, and lighted at the foot of the
+water-steps under the terrace. The girl on the parapet leaned forward
+eagerly.
+
+'Did you get any mail, Giuseppe?' she called.
+
+'_Si_, signorina.' He scrambled up the steps and presented a copy of the
+London _Times_.
+
+She received it with a shrug. Clearly, she felt little interest in the
+London _Times_. Giuseppe took himself back to his boat and commenced
+fussing about its fittings, dusting the seats, plumping up the cushions,
+with an air of absorption which deceived nobody. The signorina watched
+him a moment with amused comprehension, then she called peremptorily--
+
+'Giuseppe, you know you must spade the garden border.'
+
+Poor Giuseppe, in spite of his nautical costume, was man of all work. He
+glanced dismally toward the garden border which lay basking in the
+sunshine under the wall that divided Villa Rosa from the rest of the
+world. It contained every known flower which blossoms in July in the
+kingdom of Italy, from camellias and hydrangeas to heliotrope and
+wall-flowers. Its spading was a complicated business and it lay too far
+off to permit of conversation. Giuseppe was not only a lazy, but also a
+social soul.
+
+'Signorina,' he suggested, 'would you not like a sail?'
+
+She shook her head. 'There is not wind enough and it is too hot and too
+sunny.'
+
+'But yes, there's a wind, and cool--when you get out on the lake. I will
+put up the awning, signorina, the sun shall not touch you.'
+
+She continued to shake her head and her eyes wandered suggestively to the
+hydrangeas, but Giuseppe still made a feint of preoccupation. Not being a
+cruel mistress, she dropped the subject, and turned back to her
+conversation with the washer-girls. They were discussing--a pleasant
+topic for a sultry summer afternoon--the probable content of Paradise.
+The three girls were of the opinion that it was made up of warm sunshine
+and cool shade, of flowers and singing birds and sparkling waters, of
+blue skies and cloud-capped mountains--not unlike, it will be observed,
+the very scene which at the moment stretched before them. In so much they
+were all agreed, but there were several debatable points. Whether the
+stones were made of gold, and whether the houses were not gold too, and,
+that being the case, whether it would not hurt your eyes to look at them.
+Marietta declared, blasphemously, as the others thought, that she
+preferred a simple grey stone villa or at most one of pink stucco, to all
+the golden edifices that Paradise contained.
+
+It was by now fifteen minutes past four, and a spectator had arrived,
+though none of the five were aware of his presence. The spectator was
+standing on the wall above the garden border examining with appreciation
+the idyllic scene below him, and with most particular appreciation, the
+dainty white-clad person of the girl on the balustrade. He was
+wondering--anxiously--how he might make his presence known. For no very
+tangible reason he had suddenly become conscious that the matter would be
+easier if he carried in his pocket a letter of introduction. The purlieus
+of Villa Rosa in no wise resembled a desert island; and in the face of
+that very fluent Italian, the suspicion was forcing itself upon him that,
+after all, the mere fact of a common country was not a sufficient bond of
+union. He had definitely decided to withdraw, when the matter was taken
+from his hands.
+
+The wall--as Gustavo had pointed out--was broken; it was owing to this
+fact that he had been so easily able to climb it. Now, as he stealthily
+turned, preparing to re-descend in the direction whence he had come, the
+loose stone beneath his foot slipped and he slipped with it. Five
+startled pairs of eyes were turned in his direction. What they saw, was a
+young man in flannels suddenly throw up his arms, slide into an azalea
+bush, from this to the balustrade, and finally land on all fours on the
+narrow strip of beach, a shower of pink petals and crumbling masonry
+falling about him. A momentary silence followed; then the washer-girls,
+making sure that he was not injured, broke into a shrill chorus of
+laughter, while the _Farfalla_ rocked under impact of Giuseppe's mirth.
+The girl on the wall alone remained grave.
+
+The young man picked himself up, restored his guide-book to his pocket,
+and blushingly stepped forward, hat in hand, to make an apology. One knee
+bore a splash of mud, and his tumbled hair was sprinkled with azalea
+blossoms.
+
+'I beg your pardon,' he stammered, 'I didn't mean to come so suddenly;
+I'm afraid I broke your wall.'
+
+The girl dismissed the matter with a polite gesture.
+
+'It was already broken,' and then she waited with an air of grave
+attention until he should state his errand.
+
+'I--I came----' He paused and glanced about vaguely; he could not at the
+moment think of any adequate reason to account for his coming.
+
+'Yes?' Her eyes studied him with what appeared at once a cool and an
+amused scrutiny. He felt himself growing red beneath it.
+
+'Can I do anything for you?' she prompted with the kind of desire of
+putting him at his ease.
+
+'Thank you----' He grasped at the first idea that presented itself. 'I'm
+stopping at the Hotel du Lac, and Gustavo, you know, told me there was a
+villa somewhere around here that belongs to Prince Someone or Other. If
+you ring at the gate and give the gardener two francs and a visiting
+card, he will let you walk around and look at the trees.'
+
+'I see!' said the girl, 'and so now you are looking for the gate?' Her
+tone suggested that she suspected him of trying to avoid both it and the
+two francs. 'Prince Sartorio-Crevelli's villa is about half a mile
+farther on.'
+
+'Ah, thank you,' he bowed a second time, and then added out of the
+desperate need of saying something, 'There's a cedar of Lebanon in it and
+an india-rubber plant from South America.'
+
+'Indeed!'
+
+She continued to observe him with polite interest, though she made no
+move to carry on the conversation.
+
+'You--are an American?' he asked at length.
+
+'Oh, yes,' she agreed easily. 'Gustavo knows that.'
+
+He shifted his weight.
+
+'I am an American too,' he observed.
+
+'Really?' The girl leaned forward and examined him more closely, an
+innocent, candid, wholly detached look in her eyes. 'From your appearance
+I should have said you were German--most of the foreigners who visit
+Valedolmo are German.'
+
+'Well, I'm not,' he said shortly. 'I'm American.'
+
+'It is a pity my father is not at home,' she returned, '_he_ enjoys
+meeting Americans.'
+
+A gleam of anger replaced the embarrassment in the young man's eyes. He
+glanced about for a dignified means of escape; they had him pretty well
+penned in. Unless he wished to reclimb the wall--and he did not--he must
+go by the terrace, which retreat was cut off by the washer-women, or by
+the parapet, already occupied by the girl in white and the washing. He
+turned abruptly and his elbow brushed a stocking to the ground.
+
+He stooped to pick it up and then he blushed still a shade deeper.
+
+'This is washing day,' observed the girl with a note of apology. She rose
+to her feet and stood on the top of the parapet while she beckoned to
+Giuseppe, then she turned and looked down upon the young man with an
+expression of frank amusement. 'I hope you will enjoy the cedar of
+Lebanon and the india-rubber tree. Good afternoon.'
+
+She jumped to the ground and crossed to the water-steps, where Giuseppe,
+with a radiant smile, was steadying the boat against the landing. She
+settled herself comfortably among the cushions and then for a moment
+glanced back towards shore.
+
+'You would better go out by the gate,' she called. 'The wall on the
+farther side is harder to climb than the one you came in by; and
+besides, it has broken glass on the top.'
+
+Giuseppe raised the yellow sail and the _Farfalla_, with a graceful dip,
+glided out to sea. The young man stood eyeing its progress revengefully.
+Now that the girl was out of hearing, a number of pointed things occurred
+to him which he might have said. His thoughts were interrupted by a fresh
+giggle from behind, and he found that the three washer-girls were
+laughing at him.
+
+'Your mistress's manners are not the best in the world,' said he
+severely, 'and I am obliged to add that yours are no better.'
+
+They giggled again, though there was no malice behind their humour; it
+was merely that they found the lack of a language in common a
+mirth-provoking circumstance. Marietta, with a flash of black eyes,
+murmured something very kindly in Italian, as she shook out a linen
+sailor suit--the exact twin of the one that had gone to sea--and spread
+it on the wall to dry.
+
+The young man did not linger for further words. Setting his hat firmly on
+his head, he vaulted the parapet and strode off down the cypress alley
+that stretched before him; he passed the pink villa without a glance. At
+the gate he stood aside to admit a horse and rider. The horse was
+prancing in spite of the heat; the rider wore a uniform and a shining
+sword. There was a clank of accoutrements as he passed, and the wayfarer
+caught a gleam of piercing black eyes and a slight black moustache turned
+up at the ends. The rider saluted politely and indifferently, and jangled
+on. The young man scowled after him maliciously until the cypresses hid
+him from view; then he turned and took up the dusty road back towards the
+Hotel du Lac.
+
+It was close upon five, and Gustavo was in the courtyard feeding the
+parrot, when his eye fell upon the American guest scuffling down the road
+in a cloud of white dust. Gustavo hastened to the gate to welcome him
+back, his very eyebrows expressive of his eagerness for news.
+
+'You are returned, signore?'
+
+The young man paused and regarded him unemotionally.
+
+'Yes, Gustavo, I am returned--with thanks.'
+
+'You have seen ze Signorina Costantina?'
+
+'Yes, I saw her.'
+
+'And is it not as I have said, zat she is beautiful as ze holy angels?'
+
+'Yes, Gustavo, she is--and just about equally remote. You may make out my
+bill.'
+
+The waiter's face clouded.
+
+'You do not wish to remain longer, signore?'
+
+'Can't stand it, Gustavo; it's too infernally restful.'
+
+Poor Gustavo saw a munificent shower of tips vanishing into nothing. His
+face was rueful, but his manner was undiminishingly polite.
+
+'_Si_, signore, sank you. When shall you wish ze omnibus?'
+
+'To-morrow morning for the first boat.'
+
+Gustavo bowed to the inevitable; and the young man passed on. He paused
+half-way across the courtyard.
+
+'What time does the first boat leave?'
+
+'At half-past five, signore.'
+
+'Er--no--I'll take the second.'
+
+'_Si_, signore. At half-past ten.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+It was close upon ten when Jerymn Hilliard, Jr., equipped for travel in
+proper blue serge, appeared in the doorway of the Hotel du Lac. He looked
+at his watch and discovered that he still had twenty minutes before the
+omnibus meeting the second boat was due. He strolled across the
+courtyard, paused for a moment to tease the parrot, and sauntered on to
+his favourite seat in the summer-house. He had barely established himself
+with a cigarette when who should appear in the gateway but Miss Constance
+Wilder, of Villa Rosa, and a middle-aged man--at a glance the Signor
+Papa. Jerymn Hilliard's heart doubled its beat. Why, he asked himself
+excitedly, _why_ had they come?
+
+The Signor Papa closed his green umbrella, and having dropped into a
+chair--obligingly near the summer-house--took off his hat and fanned
+himself. He had a tendency toward being stout, and felt the heat. The
+girl, meanwhile, crossed the court and jangled the bell; she waited
+two--three--minutes, then she pulled the rope again.
+
+'Gustavo! Oh, Gustavo!'
+
+The bell might have been rung by any one--the fisherman, the
+omnibus-driver, Suor Celestina from the convent asking her everlasting
+alms--and Gustavo took his time. But the voice was unmistakable; he
+waited only to throw a clean napkin over his arm before hurrying to
+answer.
+
+'_Buon giorno_, signorina! Good morning, signore. It is beautiful
+wea-thir, but warm. _Già_, it is warm.'
+
+He bowed and smiled and rubbed his hands together. His moustaches, fairly
+bristling with good will, turned up in a half-circle until they caressed
+his nose on either side. He bustled about placing table and chairs, and
+recklessly dusting them with the clean napkin. The signorina laid her
+fluffy white parasol on one chair and seated herself on another, her
+profile turned to the summer-house. Gustavo hovered over them, awaiting
+their pleasure, the genius itself of respectful devotion. It was
+Constance who gave the order--she, it might be noticed, gave most of the
+orders that were given in her vicinity. She framed it in English out of
+deference to Gustavo's pride in his knowledge of the language.
+
+'A glass of _vino santo_ for the signore and _limonata_ for me. I wish to
+put the sugar in myself, the last time you mixed it, Gustavo, it was all
+sugar and no lemon. And bring a bowl of cracked ice--_fino_--_fino_--and
+some pine nut cakes if you are sure they are fresh.'
+
+'Sank you, signorina. _Subitissimo_!'
+
+He was off across the court, his black coat-tails, his white napkin
+streaming behind, proclaiming to all the world that he was engaged on the
+Signorina Americana's bidding; for persons of lesser note he still
+preserved a measure of dignity.
+
+The young man in the summer-house had meanwhile dropped his cigarette
+upon the floor and noiselessly stepped on it. He had also--with the
+utmost caution lest the chair creak--shifted his position so that he
+might command the profile of the girl. The entrance to the summer house
+was fortunately on the other side, and in all likelihood they would not
+have occasion to look within. It was eavesdropping of course, but he had
+already been convicted of that yesterday, and in any case it was not such
+very bad eavesdropping. The courtyard of the Hotel du Lac was public
+property; he had been there first, he was there by rights as a guest of
+the house; if anything, they were the interlopers. Besides, nobody talked
+secrets with a head waiter. His own long conversations with Gustavo were
+as open and innocent as the day; the signorina was perfectly welcome to
+listen to them as much as she chose.
+
+She was sitting with her chin in her hand, eyeing the flying coat-tails
+of Gustavo, a touch of amusement in her face. Her father was eyeing her
+severely.
+
+'Constance, it is disgraceful!'
+
+She laughed. Apparently she already knew or divined what it was that was
+disgraceful, but the accusation did not appear to bother her much. Mr.
+Wilder proceeded grumblingly.
+
+'It's bad enough with those five deluded officers, but they walked into
+the trap with their eyes open and it's their own affair. But look at
+Gustavo; he can scarcely carry a dish without breaking it when you are
+watching him. And Giuseppe--that confounded _Farfalla_ with its yellow
+sails floats back and forth in front of the terrace till I am on the
+point of having it scuttled as a public nuisance; and those three
+washer-women and the post-office clerk and the boy who brings milk, and
+Luigi and--every man, woman and child in the village of Valedolmo!'
+
+'And my own dad as well?'
+
+Mr. Wilder shook his head.
+
+'I came here at your instigation for rest and relaxation--to get rid of
+nervous worries, and here I find a big new worry waiting for me that I'd
+never thought of having before. What if my only daughter should take it
+in her head to marry one of these infernally good-looking Italian
+officers?'
+
+Constance reached over and patted his arm.
+
+'Don't let it bother you, Dad; I assure you I won't do anything of the
+sort. I should think it my duty to learn the subjunctive mood, and that
+is impossible.'
+
+Gustavo came hurrying back with a tray. He arranged the glasses, the ice,
+the sugar, the cakes, with hovering, elaborate obsequiousness. The
+signorina examined the ice doubtfully, then with approval.
+
+'It's exactly right to-day, Gustavo! You got it too large the last time,
+you remember.'
+
+She stirred in some sugar and tasted it tentatively, her head on one
+side. Gustavo hung upon her expression in an agony of apprehension; one
+would have thought it a matter for public mourning if the lemonade were
+not mixed exactly right. But apparently it was right--she nodded and
+smiled--and Gustavo's expression assumed relief. Constance broke open a
+pine nut cake and settled herself for conversation.
+
+'Haven't you any guests, Gustavo?' Her eyes glanced over the empty
+courtyard. 'I am afraid the hotel is not having a very prosperous
+season.'
+
+'_Grazie_, signorina. Zer never are many in summer; it is ze dead time,
+but still zay come and zay go. Seven arrive last night.'
+
+'Seven! That's nice. What are they like?'
+
+'German mountain-climbers wif nails in zer shoes. Zey have gone to Riva
+on ze first boat.'
+
+'That's too bad--then the hotel is empty?'
+
+'But no! Zer is an Italian signora wif two babies and a governess, and
+two English ladies and an American gentleman----'
+
+'An American gentleman?' Her tone was languidly interested. 'How long has
+he been here?'
+
+'Tree--four days.'
+
+'Indeed--what is he like?'
+
+'Nice--ver' nice.' (Gustavo might well say that; his pockets were lined
+with the American gentleman's silver lire.) 'He talk to me always.
+"Gustavo," he say, "I am all alone; I wish to be 'mused. Come and talk
+Angleesh." Yes, it is true; I have no time to finish my work; I spend
+whole day talking wif dis yong American gentleman. He is just a
+little----' He touched his head significantly.
+
+'Really?' She raised her eyes with an air of awakened interest. 'And how
+did he happen to come to Valedolmo?'
+
+'He come to meet his family, his sister and his--his aunt, who are going
+wif him to ze Tyrollo. But zay have not arrive. Zey are in Lucerne, he
+says, where zer is a lion dying, and zey wish to wait until he is dead;
+zen zey come.--Yes, it is true; he tell me zat.' Gustavo tapped his head
+a second time.
+
+The signorina glanced about apprehensively.
+
+'Is he safe, Gustavo--to be about?'
+
+'_Si_, signorina, _sicuramente_! He is just a little simple.'
+
+Mr. Wilder chuckled.
+
+'Where is he, Gustavo? I think I'd like to make that young man's
+acquaintance.'
+
+'I sink, signore, he is packing his trunk. He go away to-day.'
+
+'To-day, Gustavo?' There was audible regret in Constance's tone. 'Why is
+he going?'
+
+'It is not possible for him to stand it, signorina. Valedolmo too dam
+slow.'
+
+'Gustavo! You mustn't say that; it is very, very bad. Nice men don't say
+it.'
+
+Gustavo held his ground.
+
+'_Si_, signorina, zat yong American gentleman say it--dam slow, no
+_divertimento_.'
+
+'He's just about right, Gustavo,' Mr. Wilder broke in. 'The next time a
+young American gentleman blunders into the Hotel du Lac you send him
+around to me.'
+
+'_Si_, signore.'
+
+Gustavo rolled his eyes toward the signorina; she continued to sip her
+lemonade.
+
+'I have told him yesterday an American family live at Villa Rosa; he say,
+"All right, I go call," but--but I sink maybe you were not at home.'
+
+'Oh!' The signorina raised her head in apparent enlightenment. 'So that
+was the young man? Yes, to be sure, he came, but he said he was looking
+for Prince Sartorio's villa. I am sorry you were away, father, you would
+have enjoyed him; his English was excellent.--Did he tell you he saw me,
+Gustavo?'
+
+'_Si_, signorina, he tell me.'
+
+'What did he say? Did he think I was nice?'
+
+Gustavo looked embarrassed.
+
+'I--I no remember, signorina.'
+
+She laughed and to his relief changed the subject.
+
+'Those English ladies who are staying here--what do they look like? Are
+they young?'
+
+Gustavo delivered himself of an inimitable gesture which suggested that
+the English ladies had entered the bounds of that indefinite period when
+the subject of age must be politely waived.
+
+'They are tall, signorina, and of a thinness--you would not believe it
+possible.'
+
+'I see! And so the poor young man was bored?'
+
+Gustavo bowed vaguely. He saw no connexion.
+
+'He was awfully good-looking,' she added with a sigh. 'I'm afraid I made
+a mistake. It would be rather fun, don't you think, Dad, to have an
+entertaining young American gentleman about?'
+
+'Ump!' he grunted. 'I thought you were so immensely satisfied with the
+officers.'
+
+'Oh, I am,' she agreed with a shrug which dismissed for ever the young
+American gentleman.
+
+'Well, Gustavo,' she added in a business-like tone, 'I will tell you why
+we called. The doctor says the Signor Papa is getting too fat. I don't
+think he's too fat, do you? He seems to me just comfortably chubby; but
+anyway, the doctor says he needs exercise, so we're going to begin
+climbing mountains with nails in our shoes like the Germans. And we're
+going to begin to-morrow because we've got two English people at the
+villa who adore mountains. Do you think you can find us a guide and some
+donkeys? We want a nice, gentle, lady-like donkey for my aunt, and
+another for the English lady, and a third to carry the things--and maybe
+me, if I get tired. Then we want a man who will twist their tails and
+make them go; and I am very particular about the man. I want him to be
+picturesque--there's no use being in Italy if you can't have things
+picturesque, is there, Gustavo?'
+
+'_Si_, signorina,' he bowed and resumed his attitude of strained
+attention.
+
+'He must have curly hair and black eyes and white teeth and a nice smile;
+I should like him to wear a red sash and earrings. He must be obliging
+and cheerful and deferential and speak good Italian--I won't have a man
+who speaks only dialect. He must play the mandolin and sing Santa
+Lucia--I believe that's all.'
+
+'And I suppose since he is to act as guide he must know the region?' her
+father mildly suggested.
+
+'Oh, no, that's immaterial; we can always ask our way.'
+
+Mr. Wilder grunted, but offered no further suggestion.
+
+'We pay four lire a day and furnish his meals,' she added munificently.
+'And we shall begin with the castle on Monte Baldo; then when we get very
+proficient we'll climb Monte Maggiore. Do you understand?'
+
+'Ze signorina desires tree donkeys and a driver at seven o'clock
+to-morrow morning to climb Monte Baldo?'
+
+'In brief, yes, but _please_ remember the earrings.'
+
+Meanwhile a commotion was going on behind them. The hotel omnibus had
+rumbled into the courtyard. A _fachino_ had dragged out a leather trunk,
+an English hat-box and a couple of valises and dumped them on the ground
+while he ran back for the paste pot and a pile of labels. The two
+under-waiters, the chambermaid and the boy who cleaned boots had drifted
+into the court. It was evident that the American gentleman's departure
+was imminent.
+
+The luggage was labelled and hoisted to the roof of the omnibus; they all
+drew up in a line with their eyes on the door; but still the young man
+did not come. Gustavo, over his shoulder, dispatched a waiter to hunt him
+up. The waiter returned breathless. The gentleman was nowhere. He had
+searched the entire house; there was not a trace. Gustavo sent the
+boot-boy flying down the arbour to search the garden; he was beginning to
+feel anxious. What if the gentleman in a sudden fit of melancholia had
+thrown himself into the lake? That would indeed be an unfortunate affair!
+
+Constance reassured him, and at the same time she arose. It occurred to
+her suddenly that, since the young man was going, there was nothing to be
+gained by waiting, and he might think---- She picked up her parasol and
+started for the gate, but Mr. Wilder hung back; he wanted to see the
+matter out.
+
+'Father,' said she reproachfully, 'it's embarrassing enough for him to
+fee all those people without our staying and watching him do it.'
+
+'I suppose it is,' he acknowledged regretfully, as he resumed his hat and
+umbrella and palm-leaf fan.
+
+She paused for a second in the gateway.
+
+'_Addio_, Gustavo,' she called over her shoulder. '_Don't_ forget the
+earrings.'
+
+Gustavo bowed twice and turned back with a dazed air to direct the
+business in hand. The boot-boy, reappearing, shook his head. No, the
+gentleman was not to be found in the garden. The omnibus driver leaned
+from his seat and swore.
+
+_Corpo di Bacco_! Did he think the boat would wait all day for the sake
+of one passenger? As it was, they were ten minutes late and would have to
+gallop every step of the way.
+
+The turmoil of ejaculation and gesture was approaching a climax; when
+suddenly, who should come sauntering into the midst of it but the young
+American man himself! He paused to light a cigarette, then waved his hand
+aloft toward his leather belongings.
+
+'Take 'em down, Gustavo. Changed my mind; not going to-day--it's too
+hot.'
+
+Gustavo gasped.
+
+'But, signore, you have paid for your ticket.'
+
+'True, Gustavo, but there is no law compelling me to use it. To tell the
+truth I find that I am fonder of Valedolmo than I had supposed. There is
+something satisfying about the peace and tranquillity of the place--one
+doesn't realize it till the moment of parting comes. Do you think I can
+obtain a room for a--well, an indefinite period?'
+
+Gustavo saw a dazzling vista of silver lire stretching into the future.
+With an all-inclusive gesture he placed the house, the lake, the
+surrounding mountains, at the disposal of the American.
+
+'You shall have what you wish, signore. At dis season ze Hotel du
+Lac----'
+
+'Is not crowded, and there are half a hundred rooms at my disposal? Very
+well, I will keep the one I have, which commands a very attractive view
+of a rose-coloured villa set in a grove of cypress trees.'
+
+The others had waited in a state of suspension, dumbfounded at what was
+going on. But as soon as the young man dipped into his pocket and fished
+out a handful of silver, they broke into smiles; this at least was
+intelligible. The silver was distributed, the luggage was hoisted down,
+the omnibus was dismissed. The courtyard resumed its former quiet; just
+the American gentleman, Gustavo and the parrot were left.
+
+Then suddenly a frightful suspicion dawned upon Gustavo--it was more than
+a suspicion; it was an absolute certainty which in his excitement he had
+overlooked. From where had the American gentleman dropped? Not the sky,
+assuredly, and there was no place else possible, unless the door of the
+summer-house. Yes, he had been in the summer-house, and not sleeping
+either. An indefinable something about his manner informed Gustavo that
+he was privy to the entire conversation. Gustavo, a picture of guilty
+remorse, searched his memory for the words he had used. Why, oh why, had
+he not piled up adjectives? It was the opportunity of a lifetime, and he
+had wantonly thrown it away.
+
+But--to his astonished relief--the young man appeared to be bearing no
+malice. He appeared, on the contrary, quite unusually cheerful as he
+sauntered, whistling, across the court and seated himself in the exact
+chair the signorina had occupied. He plunged his hand into his pocket
+suggestively--Gustavo had been the only one omitted in the distribution
+of silver--and drew forth a roll of bills. Having selected five crisp
+five-lire notes, he placed them under the sugar bowl, and watched his
+companion while he blew three meditative rings of smoke.
+
+'Gustavo,' he inquired, 'do you suppose you could find me some nice,
+gentle, lady-like donkeys, and a red sash and a pair of earrings?'
+
+Gustavo's fascinated gaze had been fixed upon the sugar bowl and he had
+only half caught the words.
+
+'_Scusi_, signore, I no understand.'
+
+'Just sit down, Gustavo, it makes me nervous to see you standing all the
+time. I can't be comfortable, you know, unless everybody else is
+comfortable. Now pay strict attention and see if you can grasp my
+meaning.'
+
+Gustavo dubiously accepted the edge of the indicated chair; he wished to
+humour the signore's mood, however incomprehensible that mood might be.
+For half an hour he listened with strained attention while the gentleman
+talked and toyed with the sugar bowl. Amazement, misgiving, amusement,
+daring, flashed in succession across his face; in the end he leaned
+forward with shining eyes.
+
+'_Si, si_,' he whispered after a conspiratorial glance over his shoulder,
+'I will do it all; you may trust to me.'
+
+The young man rose, removed the sugar bowl, and sauntered on toward the
+road. Gustavo pocketed the notes and gazed after him.
+
+'_Dio mio_,' he murmured as he set about gathering up the glasses, 'zese
+Americans!'
+
+At the gate the young man paused to light another cigarette.
+
+'_Addio_, Gustavo,' he called over his shoulder, '_don't_ forget the
+earrings!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+The table was set on the terrace; breakfast was served and the company
+was gathered. Breakfast consisted of the usual caffè-latte, rolls and
+strained honey, and--since a journey was to the fore and something
+sustaining needed--a soft-boiled egg apiece. There were four persons
+present, though there should have been five. The two guests were an
+Englishman and his wife, whom the chances of travel had brought over
+night to Valedolmo.
+
+Between them, presiding over the coffee machine, was Mr. Wilder's sister,
+'Miss Hazel'--never 'Miss Wilder' except to the butcher and baker. It was
+the cross of her life, she had always affirmed, that her name was not
+Mary or Jane or Rebecca. 'Hazel' does well enough when one is eighteen
+and beautiful, but when one is fifty and no longer beautiful, it is
+little short of absurd. But if any one at fifty could carry such a name
+gracefully, it was Miss Hazel Wilder; her fifty years sat as jauntily as
+Constance's twenty-two. This morning she was very business-like in her
+short skirt, belted jacket, and green felt Alpine hat with a feather in
+the side. No one would mistake her for a cyclist or a golfer or a
+motorist or anything in the world but an Alpine climber; whatever Miss
+Hazel was or was not, she was always _game_.
+
+Across from Miss Hazel sat her brother in knickerbockers, his Alpine
+stock at his elbow and also his fan. Since his domicile in Italy, Mr.
+Wilder's fan had assumed the nature of a symbol; he could no more be
+separated from it than St. Sebastian from his arrows or St. Laurence from
+his gridiron. At Mr. Wilder's elbow was the empty chair where Constance
+should have been--she who had insisted on six as a proper breakfast hour,
+and had grudgingly consented to postpone it till half-past out of
+deference to her sleepy-headed elders. Her father had finished his egg
+and hers too, before she appeared, as nonchalant and smiling as if she
+were out the earliest of all.
+
+'I think you might have waited!' was her greeting from the doorway.
+
+She advanced to the table, saluted in military fashion, dropped a kiss on
+her father's bald spot, and possessed herself of the empty chair. She too
+was clad in mountain-climbing costume, in so far as blouse and skirt and
+leather leggings went, but above her face there fluttered the fluffy
+white brim of a ruffled sun hat with a bunch of pink rosebuds set over
+one ear.
+
+'I am sorry not to wear my own Alpine hat, Aunt Hazel; I look so
+deliciously German in it, but I simply can't afford to burn all the skin
+off my nose.'
+
+'You can't make us believe that,' said her father. 'The reason is, that
+Lieutenant di Ferara and Captain Coroloni are going with us to-day, and
+that this hat is more becoming than the other.'
+
+'It's one reason,' Constance agreed imperturbably, 'but, as I say, I
+don't wish to burn the skin off my nose, because that is unbecoming too.
+You are ungrateful, Dad,' she added as she helped herself to honey with a
+liberal hand, 'I invited them solely on your account because you like to
+hear them talk English. Have the donkeys come?'
+
+'The donkeys are at the back door nibbling the buds off the rose bushes.'
+
+'And the driver?'
+
+'Is sitting on the kitchen doorstep drinking coffee and smiling over the
+top of his cup at Elizabetta. There are two of him.'
+
+'Two! I only ordered one.'
+
+'One is the official driver and the other is a boy whom he has brought
+along to do the work.'
+
+Constance eyed her father sharply. There was something at once guilty and
+triumphant about his expression.
+
+'What is it, Dad?' she inquired sternly. 'I suppose he has not got a sash
+and earrings.'
+
+'On the contrary, he has.'
+
+'Really? How clever of Gustavo! I hope,' she added anxiously, 'that he
+talks good Italian?'
+
+'I don't know about his Italian, but he talks uncommonly good English.'
+
+'English!' There was reproach, disgust, disillusionment, in her tone.
+'Not really, father?'
+
+'Yes, really and truly--almost as well as I do. He has lived in New York
+and he speaks English like a dream--real English--not the
+Gustavo--Lieutenant di Ferara kind. I can understand what he says.'
+
+'How simply horrible!'
+
+'Very convenient, I should say.'
+
+'If there's anything I detest, it's an Americanized Italian--and here in
+Valedolmo of all places, where you have a right to demand something
+unique and romantic and picturesque and real. It's too bad of Gustavo! I
+shall never place any faith in his judgment again. You may talk English
+to the man if you like; I shall address him in nothing but Italian.'
+
+As they rose from the table she suggested pessimistically, 'Let's go and
+look at the donkeys--I suppose they'll be horrid, scraggly, knock-kneed
+little beasts.'
+
+They turned out, however, to be unusually attractive, as donkeys go, and
+they were innocently engaged in nibbling, not rose leaves, but grass,
+under the tutelage of a barefoot boy. Constance patted their shaggy
+mouse-coloured noses, made the acquaintance of the boy, whose name was
+Beppo, and looked about for the driver proper. He rose and bowed as she
+approached. His appearance was even more violently spectacular than she
+had ordered; Gustavo had given good measure.
+
+He wore a loose white shirt--immaculately white--with a red silk
+handkerchief knotted about his throat, brown corduroy knee-breeches, and
+a red cotton sash with the hilt of a knife conspicuously protruding. His
+corduroy jacket was slung carelessly across his shoulders, his hat was
+cocked jauntily, with a red heron feather stuck in the band; last,
+perfect touch of all, in his ears--at his ears rather (a close
+examination revealed the thread)--two golden hoops flashed in the
+sunlight. His skin was dark--not too dark--just a good healthy out-door
+tan: his brows level and heavy, his gaze candour itself. He wore a tiny
+suggestion of a moustache which turned up at the corners (a suspicious
+examination of this, might have revealed the fact that it was touched up
+with burnt cork); there was no doubt but that he was a handsome fellow,
+and his attire suggested that he knew it.
+
+Constance clasped her hands in an ecstasy of admiration.
+
+'He's perfect!' she cried. 'Where on earth did Gustavo find him? Did you
+ever see anything so beautiful?' she appealed to the others. 'He looks
+like a brigand in opera bouffe.'
+
+The donkey-man reddened visibly and fumbled with his hat.
+
+'My dear,' her father warned, 'he understands English.'
+
+She continued to gaze with the open admiration one would bestow upon a
+picture or a view or a blue-ribbon horse. The man flashed her a momentary
+glance from a pair of searching grey eyes, then dropped his gaze humbly
+to the ground.
+
+'_Buon giorno_,' he said in glib Italian.
+
+Constance studied him more intently. There was something elusively
+familiar about his expression; she was sure she had seen him before.
+
+'_Buon giorno_,' she replied in Italian. 'You have lived in the United
+States?'
+
+'_Si_, signorina.'
+
+'What is your name?'
+
+'I spik Angleesh,' he observed.
+
+'I don't care if you do speak English; I prefer Italian--what is your
+name?' She repeated the question in Italian.
+
+'_Si_, signorina,' he ventured again. An anxious look had crept to his
+face and he hastily turned away and commenced carrying parcels from the
+kitchen. Constance looked after him, puzzled and suspicious. The one
+insult which she could not brook was for an Italian to fail to understand
+her when she talked Italian. As he returned and knelt to tighten the
+strap of a hamper, she caught sight of the thread that held his earring.
+She looked a second longer, and a sudden smile of illumination flashed
+to her face. She suppressed it quickly and turned away.
+
+'He seems rather slow about understanding,' she remarked to the others,
+'but I dare say he'll do.'
+
+'The poor fellow is embarrassed,' apologized her father. 'His name is
+Tony,' he added--even he had understood that much Italian.
+
+'Was there ever an Italian who had been in America whose name was not
+Tony? Why couldn't he have been Angelico or Felice or Pasquale or
+something decently picturesque?'
+
+'My dear,' Miss Hazel objected, 'I think you are hypercritical. The man
+is scarcely to blame for his name.'
+
+'I suppose not,' she agreed, 'though I should have included that in my
+order.'
+
+Further discussion was precluded by the appearance of a station-carriage
+which turned in at the gate and stopped before them. Two officers
+descended and saluted. In summer uniforms of white linen with gold
+shoulder-straps, and shining top-boots, they rivalled the donkey-man in
+decorativeness. Constance received them with flattering acclaim, while
+she noted from the corner of her eye the effect upon Tony. He had not
+counted upon this addition to the party, and was as scowling as she could
+have wished. While the officers were engaged in making their bow to the
+others, Constance casually reapproached the donkeys. Tony feigned
+immersion in the business of strapping hampers; he had no wish to be
+drawn into any Italian _tête-à-tête_. But to his relief she addressed him
+this time in English.
+
+'Are these donkeys used to mountain-climbing?'
+
+'But yes, signorina! _Sicuramente_. Zay are ver' strong, ver' good. Zat
+donk', signorina, he go all day and never one little stumble.'
+
+His English, she noted with amused appreciation, was an exact copy of
+Gustavo's; he had learned his lesson well. But she allowed not the
+slightest recognition of the fact to appear in her face.
+
+'And what are their names?' she inquired.
+
+'Dis is Fidilini, signorina, and zat one wif ze white nose is Macaroni,
+and zat ovver is Cristoforo Colombo.'
+
+Elizabetta appeared in the doorway with two rush-covered flasks, and Tony
+hurried forward to receive them. There was a complaisant set to his
+shoulders as he strode off, Constance noted delightedly; he was
+felicitating himself upon the ease with which he had fooled her. Well!
+she would give him cause before the day was over for other than
+felicitations. She stifled a laugh of prophetic triumph and sauntered
+over to Beppo.
+
+'When Tony is engaged as a guide do you always go with him?'
+
+'Not always, signorina, but Carlo has wished me to go to-day to look
+after the donkeys.'
+
+'And who is Carlo?'
+
+'He is the guide who owns them.'
+
+Beppo looked momentarily guilty; the answer had slipped out before he
+thought.
+
+'Oh, indeed! But if Tony is a guide why doesn't he have donkeys of his
+own?'
+
+'He used to, but one unfortunately fell into the lake and got drowned,
+and the other died of a sickness.'
+
+He put forth this preposterous statement with a glance as grave and
+innocent as that of a little cherub.
+
+'Is Tony a good guide?'
+
+'But yes, of the best!'
+
+There was growing anxiety in Beppo's tone. He divined suspicion behind
+these persistent inquiries, and he knew that in case Tony were dismissed,
+his own munificent pay would stop.
+
+'Do you understand any English?' she suddenly asked.
+
+He modestly repudiated any great knowledge. 'A word here, a word there; I
+learn it in school.'
+
+'I see!' She paused for a moment and then inquired casually, 'Have you
+known Tony long?'
+
+'_Si_, signorina.'
+
+'How long?'
+
+Beppo considered. Some one, clearly, must vouch for the man's
+respectability. This was not in the lesson that had been taught him, but
+he determined to branch out for himself.
+
+'He is my father, signorina.'
+
+'Really! He looks young to be your father--have you any brothers and
+sisters, Beppo?'
+
+'I have four brothers, signorina, and five sisters.' He fell back upon
+the truth with relief.
+
+'_Davvero_!'
+
+The signorina smiled upon him, a smile of such heavenly sweetness that he
+instantly joined the already crowded ranks of her admirers. She drew from
+her pocket a handful of coppers and dropped them into his grimy little
+palm.
+
+'Here, Beppo, are some soldi for the brothers and sisters. I hope that
+you will be good and obedient and _always_ tell me the truth.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+After some delay--owing to Tony's inability to balance the chafing-dish
+on Cristoforo Colombo's back--they filed from the gateway, an imposing
+cavalcade. The ladies were on foot, loftily oblivious to the fact that
+three empty saddles awaited their pleasure. Constance, a gesticulating
+officer at either hand, was vivaciously talking Italian, while Tony,
+trudging behind, listened with a sombre light in his eye. She now and
+then cast a casual glance over her shoulder, and as she caught sight of
+his gloomy face the animation of her Italian redoubled. The situation
+held for her mischief-loving soul undreamed-of possibilities; and though
+she ostensibly occupied herself with the officers, she by no means
+neglected the donkey-man.
+
+During the first few miles of the journey he earned his four francs.
+Twice he reshifted the pack because Constance thought it insecure (it was
+a disgracefully unprofessional pack; most guides would have blushed at
+the making of it); once he retraced their path some two hundred yards in
+search of a veil she thought she had dropped--it turned out that she had
+had it in her pocket all of the time. He chased Fidilini over half the
+mountainside while the others were resting, and he carried the
+chafing-dish for a couple of miles because it refused to adjust itself
+nicely to the pack. The morning ended by his being left behind with a
+balking donkey, while the others completed the last ascent that led to
+their halting-place for lunch.
+
+It was a small plateau shaded by oak trees with a broad view below them,
+and a mountain stream foaming down from the rocks above. It was owing to
+Beppo's knowledge of the mountain paths rather than Tony's which had
+guided them to this agreeable spot; though no one in the party except
+Constance appeared to have noted the fact. Tony arrived some ten minutes
+after the others, hot but victorious, driving Cristoforo Colombo before
+him. Constance welcomed his return with an off-hand nod and set him about
+preparing lunch. He and Beppo served it and repacked the hampers,
+entirely ignored by the others of the party. Poor Tony was beginning to
+realize that a donkey-man lives on a desert island in so far as any
+companionship goes. But his moment was coming. As they were about to
+start on, Constance spied high above their heads, where the stream burst
+from the rocks, a clump of starry white blossoms.
+
+'Edelweiss!' she cried. 'Oh, I must have it--it's the first I ever saw
+growing; I hadn't supposed we were high enough.' She glanced at the
+officers.
+
+The ascent was not dangerous, but it was undeniably muddy, and they both
+wore white; with very good cause they hesitated. And while they
+hesitated, the opportunity was lost. Tony sprang forward, scrambled up
+the precipice hand over hand, swung out across the stream by the aid of
+an overhanging branch, and secured the flowers. It was very gracefully
+and easily done, and a burst of applause greeted his descent. He divided
+his flowers into two equal parts, and sweeping off his hat, presented
+them with a bow, not to Constance, but to the officers, who somewhat
+sulkily passed them on. She received them with a smile; for an instant
+her eyes met Tony's, and he fell back, rewarded.
+
+The captain and lieutenant for the first time regarded the donkey-man,
+and they regarded him narrowly, red sash, earrings, stiletto and all.
+Constance caught the look and laughed.
+
+'Isn't he picturesque?' she inquired in Italian. 'The head-waiter at the
+Hotel du Lac found him for me. He has been in the United States and
+speaks English, which is a great convenience.'
+
+The two said nothing, but they looked at each other and shrugged.
+
+The donkeys were requisitioned for the rest of the journey; while Tony
+led Miss Hazel's mount, he could watch Constance ahead on Fidilini, an
+officer marching at each side of her saddle. She appeared to divide her
+favours with nice discrimination; it was not her fault if the two were
+jealous of one another. Tony could draw from that obvious fact what
+consolation there was in it.
+
+The ruined fortress, their destination, was now exactly above their
+heads. The last ascent boldly skirted the shoulder of the mountain, and
+then doubled upward in a series of serpentine coils. Below them the
+whole of Lake Garda was spread like a map. Mr. Wilder and the Englishman,
+having paused at the edge of the declivity, were endeavouring to trace
+the boundary line of Austria, and they called upon the officers for help.
+The two relinquished their post at Constance's side, while the donkeys
+kept on past them up the hill. The winding path was both stony and steep,
+and, from a donkey's standpoint, thoroughly objectionable. Fidilini was
+well in the lead, trotting sedately, when suddenly, without the slightest
+warning, he chose to revolt. Whether Constance pulled the wrong rein, or
+whether, as she affirmed, it was merely his natural badness, in any case,
+he suddenly veered from the path and took a cross cut down the rocky
+slope below them. Donkeys are fortunately sure-footed beasts; otherwise
+the two would have plunged together down the sheer face of the mountain.
+As it was it looked ghastly enough to the four men below; they shouted to
+Constance to stick on, and commenced scrambling up the slope with
+absolutely no hope of reaching her.
+
+It was Tony's chance a second time to show his agility--and this time to
+some purpose. He was a dozen yards behind and much lower down, which gave
+him a start. Leaping forward, he dropped over the precipice, a fall of
+ten feet, to a narrow ledge below. Running toward them at an angle, he
+succeeded in cutting off their flight. Before the frightened donkey could
+swerve, Tony had seized him--by the tail--and had braced himself against
+a boulder. It was not a dignified rescue, but at least it was effective;
+Fidilini came to a halt. Constance, not expecting the sudden jolt,
+toppled over sidewise, and Tony, being equally unprepared to receive her,
+the two went down together rolling over and over on the grassy slope.
+
+'My dear, are you hurt?'
+
+Mr. Wilder, quite pale with anxiety, came scrambling to her side.
+Constance sat up and laughed hysterically, while she examined a bleeding
+elbow.
+
+'N--no, not dangerously--but I think perhaps Tony is.'
+
+Tony however was at least able to run, as he was again on his feet and
+after the donkey. Captain Coroloni and her father helped Constance to her
+feet while Lieutenant di Ferara recovered a side-comb and the white sun
+hat. They all climbed down together to the path below, none the worse for
+the averted tragedy. Tony rejoined them somewhat short of breath, but
+leading a humbled Fidilini. Constance, beyond a brief glance, said
+nothing; but her father, to the poor man's intense embarrassment, shook
+him warmly by the hand with the repeated assurance that his bravery
+should not go unrewarded.
+
+They completed their journey on foot; Tony following behind, quite
+conscious that, if he had played the part of hero, he had done it with a
+lamentable lack of grace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Tony was stretched on the parapet that bordered the stone-paved platform
+of the fortress. Above him the crumbling tower rose many feet higher,
+below him a marvellous view stretched invitingly; but Tony had eyes
+neither for mediæval architecture nor picturesque scenery. He lay with
+his coat doubled under his head for a pillow, in a frowning contemplation
+of the cracked stone pavement.
+
+The four other men, after an hour or so of easy lounging under the pines
+at the base of the tower, had organized a fresh expedition to the summit
+a mile farther up. Mr. Wilder, since morning, had developed into an
+enthusiastic mountain-climber--regret might come with the morrow, but as
+yet ambition still burned high. The remainder of the party were less
+energetic. The three ladies were resting on rugs spread under the pines;
+Beppo was sleeping in the sun, his hat over his face, and the donkeys,
+securely tethered (Tony had attended to that), were innocently nibbling
+mountain herbs. There was no obvious reason why, as he lighted a
+cigarette and stretched himself on the parapet, Tony should not have
+been the most self-satisfied guide in the world. He had not only
+completed the expedition in safety, but had saved the heroine's life by
+the way; and even if the heroine did not appear as thankful as she might,
+still, her father had shown due gratitude, and, what was to the point,
+had promised a reward. That should have been enough for any reasonable
+donkey driver.
+
+But it was distinctly not enough for Tony. He was in a fine temper as he
+lay on the parapet and scowled at the pavement. Nothing was turning out
+as he had planned. He had not counted on the officers or her predilection
+for Italian. He had not counted on chasing donkeys in person while she
+stood and looked on--Beppo was to have attended to that. He had not
+counted on anything quite so absurd as his heroic capture of Fidilini.
+Since she must let the donkey run away with her, why, in the name of all
+that was romantic, could it not have occurred by moonlight? Why, when he
+caught the beast, could it not have been by the bridle instead of the
+tail? And above all, why could she not have fallen into his arms, instead
+of on top of him?
+
+The stage scenery was set for romance, but from the moment the curtain
+rose the play had persisted in being farce. However, farce or romance, it
+was all one to him so long as he could play leading-man; what he
+objected to was the minor part. The fact was clear that sash and earrings
+could never compete with uniform and sword and the Italian language. His
+mind was made up; he would withdraw to-night before he was found out, and
+leave Valedolmo to-morrow morning by the early boat. Miss Constance
+Wilder should never have the satisfaction of knowing the truth.
+
+He was engaged in framing a dignified speech to Mr. Wilder--thanking him
+for his generosity, but declining to accept a reward for what had been
+merely a matter of duty--when his reflections were cut short by the sound
+of footsteps on the stairs. They were by no means noiseless footsteps;
+there were good strong nails all over the bottom of Constance's shoes.
+The next moment she appeared in the doorway. Her eyes were centred on the
+view; she looked entirely over Tony. It was not until he rose to his feet
+that she realized his presence with a start.
+
+'Dear me, is that you, Tony? You frightened me! Don't get up; I know you
+must be tired.' This with a sweetly solicitous smile.
+
+Tony smiled too and resumed his seat; it was the first time since morning
+that she had condescended to consider his feelings. She sauntered over to
+the opposite side and stood with her back to him examining the view. Tony
+turned his back and affected to be engaged with the view in the other
+direction; he too could play at indifference.
+
+Constance finished with her view first, and crossing over, she seated
+herself in the deep embrasure of a window close beside Tony's parapet. He
+rose again at her approach, but there was no eagerness in the motion; it
+was merely the necessary deference of a donkey-driver toward his
+employer.
+
+'Oh, sit down,' she insisted, 'I want to talk to you.'
+
+He opened his eyes with a show of surprise; his hurt feelings insisted
+that all the advances should be on her part. Constance seemed in no hurry
+to begin; she removed her hat, pushed back her hair, and sat playing with
+the bunch of edelweiss which was stuck in among the roses--flattening the
+petals, rearranging the flowers with careful fingers; a touch, it seemed
+to Tony's suddenly clamouring senses, that was almost a caress. Then she
+looked up quickly and caught his gaze. She leaned forward with a laugh.
+
+'Tony,' she said, 'do you spik any language besides Angleesh?'
+
+He triumphantly concealed all sign of emotion.
+
+'_Si_, signorina, I spik my own language.'
+
+'Would you mind my asking what that language is?'
+
+He indulged in a moment's deliberation. Italian was clearly out of the
+question, and French she doubtless knew better than he--he deplored this
+polyglot education girls were receiving nowadays.
+
+He had it! He would be Hungarian. His sole fellow guest in the hotel at
+Verona the week before had been a Hungarian nobleman, who had informed
+him that the Magyar language was one of the most difficult on the face of
+the globe. There was at least little likelihood that she was acquainted
+with that.
+
+'My own language, signorina, is Magyar.'
+
+'Magyar?' She was clearly taken by surprise.
+
+'_Si_, signorina, I am Hungarian; I was born in Budapest.' He met her
+wide-opened eyes with a look of innocent candour.
+
+'Really!' She beamed upon him delightedly; he was playing up even better
+than she had hoped. 'But if you are Hungarian, what are you doing here in
+Italy, and how does it happen that your name is Antonio?'
+
+'My movver was Italian. She name me Antonio after ze blessed Saint
+Anthony of Padua. If you lose anysing, signorina, and you say a prayer to
+Saint Anthony every day for nine days, on ze morning of ze tenth you will
+find it again.'
+
+'That is very interesting,' she said politely. 'How do you come to know
+English so well, Tony?'
+
+'We go live in Amerik' when I li'l boy.'
+
+'And you never learned Italian? I should think your mother would have
+taught it to you.'
+
+He imitated Beppo's gestures.
+
+'A word here, a word there. We spik Magyar at home.'
+
+'Talk a little Magyar, Tony. I should like to hear it.'
+
+'What shall I say, signorina?'
+
+'Oh, say anything you please.'
+
+He affected to hesitate while he rehearsed the scraps of language at his
+command. Latin--French--German--none of them any good--but, thank
+goodness, he had elected Anglo-Saxon in college; and thank goodness again
+the professor had made them learn passages by heart. He glanced up with
+an air of flattered diffidence and rendered, in a conversational
+inflection, an excerpt from the Anglo-Saxon Bible.
+
+'_Ealle gesceafta, heofonas and englas, sunnan and monan, steorran and
+eorthan, hè gesceop and geworhte on six dagum._'
+
+'It is a very beautiful language. Say some more.'
+
+He replied with glib promptness, with a passage from Beowulf--
+
+'_Hie dygel lond warigeath, wulfhleothu, windige naessas._'
+
+'What does that mean?'
+
+Tony looked embarrassed.
+
+'I don't believe you know!'
+
+'It means--_scusi_, signorina, I no like to say.'
+
+'You don't know.'
+
+'It means--you make me say, signorina,--"I sink you ver' beautiful like
+ze angels in Paradise."'
+
+'Indeed! A donkey-driver, Tony, should not say anything like that.'
+
+'But it is true.'
+
+'The more reason you should not say it.'
+
+'You asked me, signorina; I could not tell you a lie.'
+
+The signorina smiled slightly and looked away at the view; Tony seized
+the opportunity to look sidewise at her. She turned back and caught him;
+he dropped his eyes humbly to the floor.
+
+'Does Beppo speak Magyar?' she inquired.
+
+'Beppo?' There was wonder in his tone at the turn her questions were
+taking. 'I sink not, signorina.'
+
+'That must be very inconvenient. Why don't you teach it to him?'
+
+'_Si_, signorina.' He was plainly nonplussed.
+
+'Yes, he says that you are his father, and I should think----'
+
+'His father?' Tony appeared momentarily startled; then he laughed. 'He
+did not mean his real father; he mean--how you say--his godfather. I
+give to him his name when he get christened.'
+
+'Oh, I see!'
+
+Her next question was also a surprise.
+
+'Tony,' she inquired with startling suddenness, 'why do you wear
+earrings?'
+
+He reddened slightly.
+
+'Because--because--der's a girl I like ver' much, signorina; she sink
+earrings look nice. I wear zem for her.'
+
+'Oh!--But why do you fasten them on with thread?'
+
+'Because I no wear zem always. In Italia, yes; in Amerik', no. When I
+marry dis girl and go back home, zen I do as I please, now I haf to do as
+she please.'
+
+'H'm----' said Constance, ruminatingly. 'Where does this girl live,
+Tony?'
+
+'In Valedolmo, signorina.'
+
+'What does she look like?'
+
+'She look like----' His eyes searched the landscape and came back to her
+face. 'Oh, ver' beautiful, signorina. She have hair brown and gold, and
+eyes--yes, eyes! Zay are sometimes black, signorina, and sometimes grey.
+Her laugh, it sounds like the song of a nightingale.' He clasped his
+hands and rolled his eyes in a fine imitation of Gustavo. 'She is
+beautiful, signorina, beautiful as ze angels in Paradise!'
+
+'There seem to be a good many people beautiful as the angels in
+Paradise.'
+
+'She is most beautiful of all.'
+
+'What is her name?'
+
+'Costantina.' He said it softly, his eyes on her face.
+
+'Ah,' Constance rose and turned away with a shrug. Her manner suggested
+that he had gone too far.
+
+'She wash clothes at ze Hotel du Lac,' he called after her.
+
+Constance paused and glanced over her shoulder with a laugh.
+
+'Tony,' she said, 'the quality which I admire most in a donkey-driver,
+besides truthfulness and picturesqueness, is imagination.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+On the homeward journey Tony again trudged behind while the officers held
+their post at Constance's side. But Tony's spirits were still singing
+from the little encounter on the castle platform, and in spite of the
+animated Italian which floated back, he was determined to look at the
+sunny side of the adventure. It was Mr. Wilder who unconsciously supplied
+him with a second opportunity for conversation. He and the Englishman,
+being deep in a discussion involving statistics of the Italian army
+budget, called on the two officers to set them straight. Tony, at their
+order, took his place beside the saddle; Constance was not to be
+abandoned again to Fidilini's caprice. Miss Hazel and the Englishwoman
+were ambling on ahead in as matter-of-fact a fashion as if that were
+their usual mode of travel. Their donkeys were of a sedater turn of mind
+than Fidilini--a fact for which Tony offered thanks.
+
+They were by this time well over the worst part of the mountain, and the
+brief Italian twilight was already fading. Tony, with a sharp eye on the
+path ahead and a ready hand for the bridle, was attending strictly to the
+duties of a well-trained donkey-man. It was Constance again who opened
+the conversation.
+
+'Ah, Tony?'
+
+'_Si_, signorina?'
+
+'Did you ever read any Angleesh books--or do you do most of your reading
+in Magyar?'
+
+'I haf read one, two, Angleesh books.'
+
+'Did you ever read--er--_The Lightning Conductor_, for example?'
+
+'No, signorina; I haf never read heem.'
+
+'I think it would interest you. It's about a man who pretends he's a
+chauffeur in order to--to---- There are any number of books with the same
+motive; _She Stoops to Conquer_, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, _Lalla
+Rookh_, _Monsieur Beaucaire_--Oh, dozens of them! It's an old plot; it
+doesn't require the slightest originality to think of it.'
+
+'_Si_, signorina? Sank you.' Tony's tone was exactly like Gustavo's when
+he has failed to get the point, but feels that a comment is necessary.
+
+Constance laughed and allowed a silence to follow, while Tony redirected
+his attention to Fidilini's movements. His 'Yip! Yip!' was an exact
+imitation, though in a deeper guttural, of Beppo's cries before them. It
+would have taken a close observer to suspect that he had not been bred to
+the calling.
+
+'You have not always been a donkey-driver?' she inquired after an
+interval of amused scrutiny.
+
+'Not always, signorina.'
+
+'What did you do in New York?'
+
+'I play hand-organ, signorina.'
+
+Tony removed his hand from the bridle and ground 'Yankee Doodle' from an
+imaginary instrument.
+
+'I make musica, signorina, wif--wif--how do you say, monk, monka? His
+name Vittorio Emanuele. Ver' nice monk--simpatica affezionata.'
+
+'You've never been an actor?'
+
+'An actor? No, signorina.'
+
+'You should try it; I fancy you might have some talent in that
+direction.'
+
+'_Si_, signorina. Sank you.'
+
+She let the conversation drop, and Tony, after an interval of silence,
+fell to humming Santa Lucia in a very presentable baritone. The tune,
+Constance noted, was true enough, but the words were far astray.
+
+'That's a very pretty song, Tony, but you don't appear to know it.'
+
+'I no understand Italian, signorina. I just learn ze tune because
+Costantina like it.'
+
+'You do everything that Costantina wishes?'
+
+'Everysing! But if you could see her you would not wonder. She has hair
+brown and gold, and her eyes, signorina, are sometimes grey and sometimes
+black, and her laugh sounds like----'
+
+'Oh, yes, I know; you told me all that before.'
+
+'When she goes out to work in ze morning, signorina, wif the sunlight
+shining on her hair, and a smile on her lips, and a basket of clothes on
+her head---- Ah, _zen_ she is beautiful!'
+
+'When are you going to be married?'
+
+'I do not know, signorina. I have not asked her yet.'
+
+'Then how do you know she wishes to marry you?'
+
+'I do not know; I just hope.'
+
+He rolled his eyes toward the moon which was rising above the mountains
+on the other side of the lake, and with a deep sigh he fell back into
+Santa Lucia.
+
+Constance leaned forward and scanned his face.
+
+'Tony! Tell me your name.' There was an undertone of meaning, a note of
+persuasion in her voice.
+
+'Antonio, signorina.'
+
+She shook her head with a show of impatience.
+
+'Your real name--your last name.'
+
+'Yamhankeesh.'
+
+'Oh!' she laughed. 'Antonio Yamhankeesh doesn't seem to me a very musical
+combination; I don't think I ever heard anything like it before.'
+
+'It suits me, signorina.' His tone carried a suggestion of wounded
+dignity. 'Yamhankeesh has a ver' beautiful meaning in my language--"He
+who dares not, wins not."'
+
+'And that is your motto?'
+
+'_Si_, signorina.'
+
+'A very dangerous motto, Tony; it will some day get you into trouble.'
+
+They had reached the base of the mountain, and their path now broadened
+into the semblance of a road which wound through the fields, between
+fragrant hedgerows, under towering chestnut trees. All about them was the
+fragrance of the dewy, flower-scented summer night, the flash of
+fireflies, the chirp of crickets, occasionally the note of a nightingale.
+Before them out of a cluster of cypresses, rose the square graceful
+outline of the village campanile.
+
+Constance looked about with a pleased, contented sigh.
+
+'Isn't Italy beautiful, Tony?'
+
+'Yes, signorina, but I like America better.'
+
+'We have no cypresses and ruins and nightingales in America, Tony. We
+have a moon sometimes, but not that moon.'
+
+They passed from the moonlight into the shade of some overhanging
+chestnut trees. Fidilini stumbled suddenly over a break in the path and
+Tony pulled him up sharply. His hand on the bridle rested for an instant
+over hers.
+
+'Italy is beautiful--to make love in,' he whispered.
+
+She drew her hand away abruptly, and they passed out into the moonlight
+again. Ahead of them where the road branched into the highway, the others
+were waiting for Constance to catch up, the two officers looking back
+with an eager air of expectation. Tony glanced ahead and added with a
+quick frown--
+
+'But perhaps I do not need to tell you that--you may know it already?'
+
+'You are impertinent, Tony.'
+
+She pulled the donkey into a trot that left him behind.
+
+The highway was broad and they proceeded in a group, the conversation
+general and in English, Tony quite naturally having no part in it. But at
+the corners where the road to the village and the road to the villa
+separated, Fidilini obligingly turned stubborn again. His mind bent upon
+rest and supper, he insisted upon going to the village; the harder
+Constance pulled on the left rein, the more fixed was his determination
+to turn to the right.
+
+'Help! I'm being run away with again,' she called over her shoulder as
+the donkey's pace quickened into a trot.
+
+Tony, awakening to his duty, started in pursuit, while the others
+laughingly shouted directions. He did not run as determinedly as he
+might, and they had covered considerable ground before he overtook them.
+He turned Fidilini's head and they started back--at a walk.
+
+'Signorina,' said Tony, 'may I ask a question, a little impertinent?'
+
+'No, certainly not.'
+
+Silence.
+
+'Ah, Tony?' she asked presently.
+
+'_Si_, signorina?'
+
+'What is it you want to ask?'
+
+'Are you going to marry that Italian lieutenant--or perhaps the captain?'
+
+'That _is_ impertinent.'
+
+'Are you?'
+
+'You forget yourself, Tony. It is not your place to ask such a question.'
+
+'_Si_, signorina; it is my place. If it is true I cannot be your
+donkey-man any longer.'
+
+'No, it is not true, but that is no concern of yours.'
+
+'Are you going on another trip Friday--to Monte Maggiore?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'May I come with you?'
+
+His tone implied more than his words. She hesitated a moment, then
+shrugged indifferently.
+
+'Just as you please, Tony. If you don't wish to work for us any more I
+dare say we can find another man.'
+
+'It is as you please, signorina. If you wish it, I come, if you do not
+wish it, I go.'
+
+She made no answer. They joined the others and the party proceeded to the
+villa gates.
+
+Lieutenant di Ferara helped Constance dismount, while Captain Coroloni,
+with none too good a grace, held the donkey. A careful observer would
+have fancied that the lieutenant was ahead, and that both he and the
+captain knew it. Tony untied the bundles, dumped them on the kitchen
+floor, and waited respectfully, hat in hand, while Mr. Wilder searched
+his pockets for change. He counted out four lire and added a note. Tony
+pocketed the lire and returned the note, while Mr. Wilder stared his
+astonishment.
+
+'Good-bye, Tony,' Constance smiled as he turned away.
+
+'Good-bye, signorina.' There was a note of finality in his voice.
+
+'Well!' Mr. Wilder ejaculated. 'That is the first----' 'Italian' he
+started to say, but he caught the word before it was out--'donkey-driver
+I ever saw refuse money.'
+
+Lieutenant di Ferara raised his shoulders.
+
+'_Machè_! The fellow is too honest; you do well to watch him.' There was
+a world of disgust in his tone.
+
+Constance glanced after the retreating figure and laughed.
+
+'Tony!' she called.
+
+He kept on; she raised her voice.
+
+'Mr. Yamhankeesh.'
+
+He paused.
+
+'You call, signorina?'
+
+'Be sure and be here by half-past six on Friday morning; we must start
+early.'
+
+'Sank you, signorina. Good night.'
+
+'Good night, Tony.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+The Hotel du Lac may be approached in two ways. The ordinary, obvious
+way, which incoming tourists of necessity choose, is by the high road and
+the gate. But the romantic way is by water. One sees only the garden
+then, and the garden is the distinguished feature of the place; it was
+planned long before the hotel was built to adorn a marquis's pleasure
+house. There are grottos, arbours, fountains, a winding stream, and,
+stretching the length of the water front, a deep cool grove of interlaced
+plane trees. At the end of the grove, half a dozen broad stone steps dip
+down to a tiny harbour which is carpeted on the surface with lily pads.
+The steps are worn by the lapping waves of fifty years, and are grown
+over with slippery, slimy water weeds.
+
+The world was just stirring from its afternoon siesta, when the
+_Farfalla_ dropped her yellow sails and floated into the shady little
+harbour. Giuseppe prodded and pushed along the fern-grown banks until the
+keel jolted against the water-steps. He sprang ashore and steadied the
+boat while Constance alighted. She slipped on the mossy step--almost went
+under--and righted herself with a laugh that rang gaily through the
+grove.
+
+She came up the steps still smiling, shook out her fluffy pink skirts,
+straightened her rose-trimmed hat, and glanced reconnoitringly about the
+grove. One might reasonably expect, attacking the hotel as it were from
+the flank, to capture unawares any stray guest. But aside from a
+chaffinch or so and a brown and white spotted calf tied to a tree, the
+grove was empty--blatantly empty. There was a shade of disappointment in
+Constance's glance. One naturally does not like to waste one's best
+embroidered gown on a spotted calf.
+
+Then her eye suddenly brightened as it lighted on a vivid splash of
+yellow under a tree. She crossed over and picked it up--a paper-covered
+French novel; the title was _Bijou_, the author was Gyp. She turned to
+the first page. Any reasonably careful person might be expected to write
+his name in the front of a book--particularly a French book--before
+abandoning it to the mercies of a foreign hotel. But the several
+fly-leaves were immaculately innocent of all sign of ownership.
+
+So intent was she upon this examination, that she did not hear footsteps
+approaching down the long arbour that led from the house; so intent was
+the young man upon a frowning scrutiny of the path before him, that he
+did not see Constance until he had passed from the arbour into the grove.
+Then simultaneously they raised their heads and looked at each other. For
+a startled second they stared--rather guiltily--both with the air of
+having been caught. Constance recovered her poise first; she nodded--a
+nod which contained not the slightest hint of recognition--and laughed.
+
+'Oh!' she said. 'I suppose this is your book? And I am afraid you have
+caught me red-handed. You must excuse me for looking at it, but usually
+at this season only German Alpine climbers stop at the Hotel du Lac, and
+I was surprised, you know, to find that German Alpine climbers did
+anything so frivolous as reading Gyp.'
+
+The man bowed with a gesture which made her free of the book, but he
+continued his silence. Constance glanced at him again, and this time she
+allowed a flash of recognition to appear in her face.
+
+'Oh!' she re-exclaimed with a note of interested politeness, 'you are the
+young man who stumbled into Villa Rosa last Monday looking for the garden
+of the prince?'
+
+He bowed a second time, an answering flash appearing in his face.
+
+'And you are the young woman who was sitting on the wall beside a row
+of--of----'
+
+'Stockings?' She nodded. 'I trust you found the prince's garden without
+difficulty?'
+
+'Yes, thank you. Your directions were very explicit.'
+
+A slight pause followed, the young man waiting deferentially for her to
+take the lead.
+
+'You find Valedolmo interesting?' she inquired.
+
+'Interesting!' His tone was enthusiastic. 'Aside from the prince's
+garden, which contains a cedar of Lebanon and an india-rubber plant from
+South America, there is the Luini in the chapel of San Bartolomeo, and
+the statue of Garibaldi in the piazza. And then----' he waved his hand
+toward the lake, 'there is always the view.'
+
+'Yes,' she agreed, 'one can always look at the view.'
+
+Her eyes wandered to the lake, and across the lake to Monte Maggiore with
+clouds drifting about its peak. And while she obligingly studied the
+mountain, he studied the effect of the pink gown and the rose-bud hat.
+She turned back suddenly and caught him; it was a disconcerting habit of
+Constance's. He politely looked away, and she--with frank
+interest--studied him. He was bareheaded and dressed in white flannels;
+they were very becoming, she noted critically, and yet--they needed just
+a touch of colour; a red sash, for example, and earrings.
+
+'The guests of the Hotel du Lac,' she remarked, 'have a beautiful garden
+of their own. Just the mere pleasure of strolling about in it ought to
+keep them contented with Valedolmo.'
+
+'Not necessarily,' he objected. 'Think of the Garden of Eden--the most
+beautiful garden there has ever been, if report speaks true--and yet the
+mere pleasure of strolling about didn't keep Adam contented. One gets
+lonely, you know.'
+
+'Are you the only guest?'
+
+'Oh, no, there are four of us, but we're not very companionable; there's
+such a discrepancy in languages.'
+
+'And you don't speak Italian?'
+
+He shook his head.
+
+'Only English and'--he glanced at the book in her hand--'French
+indifferently well.'
+
+'I saw some one the other day who spoke Magyar--that is a beautiful
+language.'
+
+'Yes?' he returned with polite indifference. 'I don't remember ever to
+have heard it.'
+
+She laughed and glanced about. Her eyes lighted on the arbour hung with
+grape-vines and wistaria, where, far at the other end, Gustavo's figure
+was visible lounging in the yellow stucco doorway. The sight appeared to
+recall an errand to her mind. She glanced down at a pink wicker-basket
+which hung on her arm, and gathered up her skirts with a movement of
+departure.
+
+The young man hastily picked up the conversation.
+
+'It _is_ a jolly old garden,' he affirmed. 'And there's something
+pathetic about its appearing on souvenir post cards as a mere adjunct to
+a blue and yellow hotel.'
+
+She nodded sympathetically.
+
+'Built for romance and abandoned to tourists--German tourists at that!'
+
+'Oh, not entirely--we've a Russian countess just now.'
+
+'A Russian countess?' Constance turned toward him with an air of
+reawakened interest. 'Is she as young and beautiful and fascinating and
+wicked as they always are in novels?'
+
+'Oh, dear no! Seventy, if she's a day. A nice grandmotherly old soul who
+smokes cigarettes.'
+
+'Ah!' Constance smiled; there was even a trace of relief in her manner as
+she nodded to the young man and turned away. His face reflected his
+disappointment; he plainly wished to detain her, but could think of no
+expedient. The spotted calf came to his rescue. The calf had been
+watching them from the first, very much interested in the visitor; and
+now, as she approached his tree, he stretched out his neck as far as the
+tether permitted and sniffed insistently. She paused and patted him on
+the head. The calf acknowledged the caress with a grateful _moo_; there
+was a plaintive light in his liquid eyes.
+
+'Poor thing--he's lonely!' She turned to the young man and spoke with an
+accent of reproach. 'The four guests of the Hotel du Lac don't show him
+enough attention.'
+
+The young man shrugged.
+
+'We're tired of calves. It's only a matter of a day or so before he'll be
+breaded and fried and served Milanese fashion with a sauce of tomato and
+garlic.'
+
+Constance shook her head sympathetically; though whether her sympathy was
+for the calf or the partakers of table d'hôte was not quite clear.
+
+'I know,' she agreed. 'I've been a guest at the Hotel du Lac myself--it's
+a tragedy to be born a calf in Italy!'
+
+She nodded and turned; it was evident this time that she was really
+going. He took a hasty step forward.
+
+'Oh, I say, please don't go! Stay and talk to me--just a little while.
+That calf isn't half so lonely as I am.'
+
+'I should like to, but really I mustn't. Elizabetta is waiting for me to
+bring her some eggs. We are planning a trip up the Maggiore to-morrow,
+and we have to have a cake to take with us. Elizabetta made one this
+morning, but she forgot to put in the baking powder. Italian cooks are
+not used to making cakes; they are much better at'--her eyes fell on the
+calf--'veal and such things.'
+
+He folded his arms with an air of desperation.
+
+'I'm an American--one of your own countrymen; if you had a grain of
+charity in your nature you would let the cake go.'
+
+She shook her head relentlessly.
+
+'Five days at Valedolmo! You would not believe the straits I've been
+driven to in search of amusement.'
+
+'Yes?' There was a touch of curiosity in her tone. 'What for example?'
+
+'I am teaching Gustavo how to play tennis.'
+
+'Oh!' she said. 'How does he do?'
+
+'Broken three windows and a flower-pot and lost four balls.'
+
+She laughed and turned away; and then as an idea occurred to her, she
+turned back and fixed her eyes sympathetically on his face.
+
+'I suppose Valedolmo is stupid for a man; but why don't you try
+mountain-climbing? Everybody finds that diverting. There's a guide here
+who speaks English--really comprehensible English. He's engaged for
+to-morrow, but after that I dare say he'll be free. Gustavo can tell you
+about him.'
+
+She nodded and smiled and turned down the arbour.
+
+The young man stood where she left him, with folded arms, watching her
+pink gown as it receded down the long sun-flecked alley hung with purple
+and green. He waited until it had been swallowed up in the yellow
+doorway; then he fetched a deep breath and strolled to the water-wall.
+After a few moments' prophetic contemplation of the mountain across the
+lake, he threw back his head with a quick amused laugh, and got out a
+cigarette and lighted it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+As Constance emerged at the other end of the arbour, Gustavo, who had
+been nodding on the bench beside the door, sprang to his feet,
+consternation in his attitude.
+
+'Signorina!' he stammered. 'You come from ze garden?'
+
+She nodded in her usual off-hand manner and handed him the basket.
+
+'Eggs, Gustavo--two dozen if you can spare them. I am sorry always to be
+wanting so many, but'--she sighed--'eggs are so breakable!'
+
+Gustavo rolled his eyes to heaven in silent thanksgiving. She had not, it
+was evident, run across the American, and the cat was still safely in the
+bag; but how much longer it could be kept there the saints alone knew. He
+was feeling--very properly--guilty in regard to this latest escapade; but
+what can a defenceless waiter do in the hands of an impetuous young
+American whose pockets are stuffed with silver lire and five-franc notes?
+
+'Two dozen? Certainly, signorina. _Subitissimo_!' He took the basket and
+hurried to the kitchen.
+
+Constance occupied the interval with the polyglot parrot of the
+courtyard. The parrot, since she had last conversed with him, had
+acquired several new expressions in the English tongue. As Gustavo
+reappeared with the eggs, she confronted him sternly.
+
+'Have you been teaching this bird English? I am surprised!'
+
+'No, signorina. It was--it was----' Gustavo mopped his brow. 'He jus'
+pick it up.'
+
+'I'm sorry that the Hotel du Lac has _guests_ that use such language;
+it's very shocking.'
+
+'_Si_, signorina.'
+
+'By the way, Gustavo, how does it happen that that young American man
+who left last week is still here?'
+
+Gustavo nearly dropped the eggs.
+
+'I just saw him in the garden with a book--I am sure it was the same
+young man. What is he doing all this time in Valedolmo?'
+
+Gustavo's eyes roved wildly until they lighted on the tennis-court.
+
+'He--he stay, signorina, to play lawn-tennis wif me, but he go
+to-morrow.'
+
+'Oh, he is going to-morrow?--What's his name, Gustavo?'
+
+She put the question indifferently while she stooped to pet a
+tortoise-shell cat that was curled asleep on the bench.
+
+'His name?' Gustavo's face cleared. 'I get ze raygeester; you read heem
+yourself.'
+
+He darted into the bureau and returned with a black book.
+
+'_Ecco_, signorina!' spreading it on the table before her.
+
+His alacrity should have aroused her suspicions; but she was too intent
+on the matter in hand. She turned the pages and paused at the week's
+entries; Rudolph Ziegelmann und Frau, Berlin; and just beneath, in bold
+black letters that stretched from margin to margin, Abraham Lincoln,
+U.S.A.
+
+Gustavo hovered above, anxiously watching her face; he had been told that
+this would make everything right, that Abraham Lincoln was an
+exceedingly respectable name. Constance's expression did not change. She
+looked at the writing for fully three minutes, then she opened her purse
+and looked inside. She laid the money for the eggs in a pile on the
+table, and took out an extra lira which she held in her hand.
+
+'Gustavo,' she asked, 'do you think that you _could_ tell me the truth?'
+
+'Signorina!' he said reproachfully.
+
+'How did that name get there?'
+
+'He write it heemself!'
+
+'Yes, I dare say he did--but it doesn't happen to be his name. Oh, I'm
+not blind; I can see plainly enough that he has scratched out his own
+name underneath.'
+
+Gustavo leaned forward and affected to examine the page. 'It was a li'l'
+blot, signorina; he scratch heem out.'
+
+'Gustavo!' Her tone was despairing. 'Are you incapable of telling the
+truth? That young man's name is no more Abraham Lincoln than Victor
+Emmanuel II. When did he write that, and why?'
+
+Gustavo's eyes were on the lira; he broke down and told the truth.
+
+'Yesterday night, signorina. He say, "Ze next time zat Signorina
+Americana who is beautiful as ze angels come to zis hotel she look in ze
+raygeester, an' I haf it feex ready."'
+
+'Oh, he said that, did he?'
+
+'_Si_, signorina.'
+
+'And his real name that comes on his letters?'
+
+'Jayreem Ailyar, signorina.'
+
+'Say it again, Gustavo.' She cocked her head.
+
+He gathered himself together for a supreme effort. He rolled his r's; he
+shouted until the courtyard reverberated.
+
+'Meestair-r Jay-r-reem Ailyar-r!'
+
+Constance shook her head.
+
+'Sounds like Hungarian--at least the way you pronounce it. But anyway
+it's of no consequence; I merely asked out of idle curiosity. And
+Gustavo'--she still held the lira--'if he asks you if I looked in this
+register, what are you going to say?'
+
+'I say, "No, Meestair Ailyar, she stay all ze time in ze courtyard
+talking wif ze parrot, and she was ver' moch shocked at his Angleesh."'
+
+'Ah!' Constance smiled and laid the lira on the table. 'Gustavo,' she
+said, 'I hope, for the sake of your immortal soul, that you go often to
+confession.'
+
+The eggs were not heavy, but Gustavo insisted upon carrying them; he was
+determined to see her safely aboard the _Farfalla_, with no further
+accidents possible. That she had not identified the young man of the
+garden with the donkey-driver of yesterday was clear--though how such
+blindness was possible, was not clear. Probably she had only caught a
+glimpse of his back at a distance; in any case he thanked a merciful
+Providence and decided to risk no further chance. As they neared the end
+of the arbour, Gustavo was talking--shouting fairly; their approach was
+heralded.
+
+They turned into the grove. To Gustavo's horror the most conspicuous
+object in it was this same reckless young man, seated on the water-wall
+nonchalantly smoking a cigarette. The young man rose and bowed; Constance
+nodded carelessly, while Gustavo behind her back made frantic signs for
+him to flee, to escape while still there was time. The young man
+telegraphed back by the same sign language that there was no danger; she
+didn't suspect the truth. And to Gustavo's amazement, he fell in beside
+them and strolled over to the water-steps. His recklessness was catching;
+Gustavo suddenly determined upon a bold stroke himself.
+
+'Signorina,' he asked, 'zat man I send, zat donk'-driver--you like heem?'
+
+'Tony?' Her manner was indifferent. 'Oh, he does well enough; he seems
+honest and truthful, though a little stupid.'
+
+Gustavo and the young man exchanged glances.
+
+'And, Gustavo,' she turned to him with a sweetly serious air that
+admitted no manner of doubt but that she was in earnest. 'I told this
+young man that in case he cared to do any mountain climbing, you would
+find him the same guide. It would be very useful for him to have one who
+speaks English.'
+
+Gustavo bowed in mute acquiescence. He could find no adequate words for
+the situation.
+
+The boat drew alongside and Constance stepped in, but she did not sit
+down. Her attention was attracted by two washer-women who had come
+clattering on to the little rustic bridge that spanned the stream above
+the water-steps. The women, their baskets of linen on their heads, had
+paused to watch the embarkation.
+
+'Ah, Gustavo,' Constance asked over her shoulder, 'is there a
+washer-woman here at the Hotel du Lac named Costantina?'
+
+'_Si_, signorina, zat is Costantina standing on ze bridge wif ze yellow
+handkerchief on her head.'
+
+Constance looked at Costantina, and nodded and smiled. Then she laughed
+out loud, a beautiful rippling, joyous laugh that rang through the grove
+and silenced the chaffinches.
+
+Perhaps once upon a time Costantina was beautiful--beautiful as the
+angels--but if so, it was long, long ago. Now she was old and fat, with a
+hawk nose and a double chin and one tooth left in the middle of the
+front. But if she were not beautiful, she was at least a cheerful old
+soul, and, though she could not possibly know the reason, she echoed the
+signorina's laugh until she nearly shook the clean clothes into the
+water.
+
+Constance settled herself among the cushions and glanced back toward the
+terrace.
+
+'Good afternoon,' she nodded politely to the young man.
+
+He bowed with his hand on his heart.
+
+'_Addio_, Gustavo.'
+
+He bowed until his napkin swept the ground.
+
+'_Addio_, Costantina,' she waved her hand toward her namesake.
+
+The washer-woman laughed again, and her earrings flashed in the sunlight.
+
+Giuseppe raised the yellow sail; they caught the breeze, and the
+_Farfalla_ floated away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Half-past six on Friday morning, and Constance appeared on the terrace;
+Constance in fluffy, billowy, lacy white with a spray of oleander in her
+belt--the last costume in the world in which one would start on a
+mountain climb. She cast a glance in passing toward the gateway and the
+stretch of road visible beyond, but both were empty, and seating herself
+on the parapet, she turned her attention to the lake. The breeze that
+blew from the farther shore brought fresh Alpine odours of flowers and
+pine trees. Constance sniffed it eagerly as she gazed across toward the
+purple outline of Monte Maggiore. The serenity of her smile gradually
+gave place to doubt; she turned and glanced back toward the house,
+visibly changing her mind.
+
+But before the change was finished, the quiet of the morning was broken
+by a clatter of tiny scrambling obstinate hoofs and a series of
+ejaculations, both Latin and English. She glanced toward the gate, where
+Fidilini was visible, plainly determined not to come in. Constance
+laughed expectantly and turned back to the water, her eyes intent on the
+fishing-smacks that were putting out from the little _marino_. The sounds
+of coercion increased; a command floated down the driveway in the English
+tongue. It sounded like: 'You twist his tail, Beppo, while I pull.'
+
+Apparently it was understood in spite of Beppo's slight knowledge of the
+language. An eloquent silence followed; then an outraged grunt on the
+part of Fidilini, and the cavalcade advanced with a rush to the kitchen
+door. Tony left Beppo and the donkeys, and crossed the terrace alone. His
+bow swept the ground in the deferential manner of Gustavo, but his glance
+was far bolder than a donkey-driver's should have been. She noted the
+fact and tossed him a nod of marked condescension. A silence followed,
+during which Constance studied the lake; when she turned back, she found
+Tony arranging a spray of oleander that had dropped from her belt in the
+band of his hat. She viewed this performance in silent disfavour. Having
+finished to his satisfaction, he tossed the hat aside and seated himself
+on the balustrade. Her frown became visible. Tony sprang to his feet with
+an air of anxiety.
+
+'_Scusi_, signorina. I have not meant to be presumptious. Perhaps it is
+not fitting that any one below the rank of lieutenant should sit in your
+presence?'
+
+'It will not be very long, Tony, before you are discharged for
+impertinence.'
+
+'Ah, signorina, do not say that! If it is your wish I will kneel when I
+address you. My family, signorina, are poor; they need the four francs
+which you so munificently pay.'
+
+'You told me that you were an orphan; that you had no family.'
+
+'I mean the family which I hope to have. Costantina has extravagant
+tastes, and coral earrings cost two-fifty a pair.'
+
+Constance laughed and assumed a more lenient air. She made a slight
+gesture which might be interpreted as an invitation to sit down; and Tony
+accepted it.
+
+'By the way, Tony, how do you talk to Costantina, since she speaks no
+English and you no Italian?'
+
+'We have no need of either Italian or English; the language of love,
+signorina, is universal.'
+
+'Oh!' she laughed again. 'I was at the Hotel du Lac yesterday; I saw
+Costantina.'
+
+'You saw Costantina!--Ah, signorina, is she not beautiful? Ze mos'
+beautiful in all ze world? But ver' unkind, signorina. Yes, she laugh at
+me; she smile at ozzer men, at soldiers wif uniforms.' He sighed
+profoundly. 'But I love her just ze same, always from ze first moment I
+see her. It was wash-day, signorina, by ze lac. I climb over ze wall and
+talk wif her, but she make fun of me--ver' unkind. I go away ver' sad. No
+use, I say, she like dose soldiers best. But I see her again; I hear her
+laugh--it sound like angels singing--I say, no, I can not go away; I stay
+here and make her love me. Yes, I do everysing she ask--but everysing! I
+wear earrings; I make myself into a fool just to please zat Costantina.'
+
+He leaned forward and looked into her eyes. A slow red flush crept over
+Constance's face, and she turned her head away and looked across the
+water.
+
+Mr. Wilder, in full Alpine regalia, stepped out upon the terrace and
+viewed the beauty of the morning with a prophetic eye. Miss Hazel
+followed in his wake; she wore a lavender dimity. And suddenly it
+occurred to Tony's slow moving masculine perception that neither
+lavender dimity nor white muslin were fabrics fit for mountain climbing.
+
+Constance slipped down from her parapet and hurried to meet them.
+
+'Good morning, Aunt Hazel. Morning, Dad! You look beautiful! There's
+nothing so becoming to a man as knickerbockers--especially if he's a
+little stout.--You're late,' she added with a touch of severity.
+'Breakfast has been waiting half an hour and Tony fifteen minutes.'
+
+She turned back toward the donkey-man, who was standing, hat in hand,
+respectfully waiting orders. 'Oh, Tony, I forgot to tell you; we shall
+not need Beppo and the donkeys to-day. You and my father are going
+alone.'
+
+'You no want to climb Monte Maggiore--ver' beautiful mountain.' There was
+disappointment, reproach, rebellion in his tone.
+
+'We have made inquiries and my aunt thinks it too long a trip. Without
+the donkeys you can cross by boat, and that cuts off three miles.'
+
+'As you please, signorina.' He turned away.
+
+Constance looked after him with a shade of remorse. When this plan of
+sending her father and Tony alone had occurred to her as she sailed
+homeward yesterday from the Hotel du Lac, it had seemed a humorous and
+fitting retribution. The young man had been just a trifle too sure of
+her interest; the episode of the hotel register must not go unpunished.
+But--it was a beautiful morning, a long empty day stretched before her,
+and Monte Maggiore looked alluring; there was no pursuit, for the moment,
+which she enjoyed as much as donkey-riding. Oh yes, she was spiting
+herself as well as Tony; but considering the circumstances the sacrifice
+seemed necessary.
+
+When the _Farfalla_ drifted up ready to take the mountain-climbers, Miss
+Hazel suggested (Constance possessed to a large degree the diplomatic
+faculty of making other people propose what she herself had decided on)
+that she and her niece cross with them. Tony was sulky, and Constance
+could not forgo the pleasure of baiting him further.
+
+They put in at the village, on their way, for the morning mail; Mr.
+Wilder wished his paper, even at the risk of not beginning the ascent
+before the sun was high. Giuseppe brought back from the post, among other
+matters, a letter for Constance. The address was in a dashing, angular
+hand that pretty thoroughly covered the envelope. Had she not been so
+intent on the writing herself, she would have noted Tony's astonished
+stare as he passed it to her.
+
+'Why!' she exclaimed, 'here's a letter from Nannie Hilliard, postmarked
+Lucerne.'
+
+'Lucerne!' Miss Hazel echoed her surprise. 'I thought they were to be in
+England for the summer?'
+
+'They were--the last I heard.' Constance ripped the letter open and read
+it aloud.
+
+     'DEAR CONSTANCE: You'll doubtless be surprised to hear from us in
+     Switzerland instead of in England, and to learn further, that in
+     the course of a week, we shall arrive at Valedolmo _en route_ for
+     the Dolomites. Jerry Junior at the last moment decided to come with
+     us, and you know what a _man_ is when it comes to European travel.
+     Instead of taking two months comfortably to England, as Aunt Kate
+     and I had planned, we did the whole of the British Isles in ten
+     days, and Holland and France at the same breathless rate.
+
+     'Jerry says he holds the record for the Louvre; he struck a
+     six-mile pace at the entrance, and by looking neither to the right
+     nor the left he did the whole building in forty-three minutes.
+
+     'You can imagine the exhausted state Aunt Kate and I are in after
+     travelling five weeks with him. We simply struck in Switzerland and
+     sent him on to Italy alone. I had hoped he would meet us in
+     Valedolmo, but we have been detained here longer than we expected,
+     and now he's rushed off again--where to, goodness only knows; we
+     don't.
+
+     'Anyway, Aunt Kate and I shall land in Valedolmo about the end of
+     the week. I am dying to see you; I have some beautiful news that's
+     too complicated to write. We've engaged rooms at the Hotel du
+     Lac--I hope it's decent; it's the only place starred in Baedeker.
+
+     'Aunt Kate wishes to be remembered to your father and Miss Hazel.
+
+                                             'Yours ever,
+                                                 'NAN HILLIARD.
+
+     'P.S.--I'm awfully sorry not to bring Jerry; I know you'd adore
+     him.'
+
+She returned the letter to its envelope and looked up.
+
+'Now isn't that abominable?' she demanded.
+
+'Abominable!' Miss Hazel was scandalized. 'My dear, I think it's
+delightful.'
+
+'Oh, yes--I mean about Jerry Junior; I've been trying for six years to
+get hold of that man.'
+
+Tony behind them made a sudden movement that let out nearly a yard of
+rope, and the _Farfalla_ listed heavily to starboard.
+
+'Tony!' Constance threw over her shoulder. 'Don't you know enough to sit
+still when you are holding the sheet?'
+
+'_Scusi_,' he murmured. The sulky look had vanished from his face; he
+wore an expression of alert attention.
+
+'Of course we shall have them at the villa,' said Miss Hazel. 'And we
+shall have to get some new dishes. Elizabetta has already broken so many
+plates that she has to stop and wash them between courses.'
+
+Constance looked dreamily across the lake; she appeared to be thinking.
+'I wonder,' she inquired finally, 'if Jerry Junior knew we were here in
+Valedolmo?'
+
+Her father emerged from the columns of his paper.
+
+'Of course he knew it, and having heard what a dangerous young person you
+were, he said to himself, "I'd better keep out."'
+
+'I wish I knew. It would make the score against him considerably
+heavier.'
+
+'So there is already a score? I hadn't supposed that the game had begun.'
+
+She nodded.
+
+'Six years ago--but he doesn't know it. Yes, Dad,' her tone was
+melodramatic, 'for six years I've been waiting for Jerry Junior and
+planning my revenge. And now, when I have him almost in my grasp, he
+eludes me again!'
+
+'Dear me!' Mr. Wilder ejaculated. 'What did the young man do?'
+
+Had Constance turned she would have found Tony's face an interesting
+study. But she knew well enough without looking at him that he was
+listening to the conversation, and she determined to give him something
+to listen to. It was a salutary thing for Tony to be kept in mind of the
+fact that there were other men in the world.
+
+She sighed.
+
+'He was the first man I ever loved, father, and he spurned me. Do you
+remember that Christmas when I was in boarding-school and you were called
+South on business? I wanted to visit Nancy Long, but you wouldn't let me
+because you didn't like her father; and you got Mrs. Jerymn Hilliard whom
+I had never set eyes on to invite me there? I didn't want to go, and you
+said I must, and was perfectly horrid about it?--you remember that?'
+
+Mr. Wilder grunted.
+
+'Yes, I see you do. And you remember how, with my usual sweetness, I
+finally gave way? Well, Dad, you never knew the reason. The Yale Glee
+Club came to Westfield that year just before the holidays began, and Miss
+Jane let everybody go to the concert whose deportment had been above
+eighty--that of course included me.
+
+'Well, we all went, and we all fell in love--in a body--with a sophomore
+who played the banjo and sang negro songs. He had lovely dark
+gazelle-like eyes, and he sang funny songs without smiling. The whole
+school raved about him all the way home; we cut his picture out of the
+programme and pasted in the front of our watches. His name, father'--she
+paused dramatically--'was Jerymn Hilliard Junior!'
+
+'I sat up half the night writing diplomatic letters to you and Mrs.
+Hilliard; and the next day when it got around that I was actually going
+to visit in his house--well, I was the most popular girl in school. I was
+sixteen years old then; I wore sailor suits and my hair was braided down
+my back. Probably I did look young; and then Nannie, whom I was
+supposedly visiting, was only fifteen. There were a lot of cousins in the
+house besides all the little Hilliards, and what do you think? They made
+the children eat in the school-room! I never saw him until Christmas
+night; then when we were introduced, he shook my hand in a listless sort
+of way, said "How d'y' do?" and forgot all about me. He went off with the
+Glee Club the next day, and I only saw him once more.
+
+'We were playing blind man's buff in the school-room; I had just been
+caught by the hair. It hurt and I was squealing. Everybody else was
+clapping and laughing, when suddenly the door burst open and there stood
+Jerry Junior! He looked straight at me and growled----
+
+'"What are you kids making such an infernal racket about?"'
+
+She shut her eyes.
+
+'Aunt Hazel, Dad, just think. He was my first love. His picture was at
+that moment in a locket around my neck. And he called me a _kid_!'
+
+'And you've never seen him since?' Miss Hazel's smile expressed amused
+indulgence.
+
+Constance shook her head.
+
+'He's always been away when I've visited Nan--and for six years I've been
+waiting.' She straightened up with an air of determination. 'But now, if
+he's on the continent of Europe, I'll get him!'
+
+'And what shall you do with him?' her father mildly inquired.
+
+'Do with him? I'll make him take it back; I'll make him eat that word
+kid!'
+
+'H'm!' said her father. 'I hope you'll get him; he might act as an
+antidote to some of these officers.'
+
+They had run in under the shadow of the mountain and the keel grated on
+the shore. Constance raised her eyes and studied the towering crag above
+their heads; when she lowered them again, her gaze for an instant met
+Tony's. There was a new light in his eyes--amusement, triumph, something
+entirely baffling. He gave her the intangible feeling of having at last
+got the mastery of the situation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+The sun was setting behind Monte Maggiore, the fishing smacks were coming
+home, Luigi had long since carried the tea things into the house; but
+still the two callers lingered on the terrace of Villa Rosa. It was
+Lieutenant di Ferara's place to go first since he had come first, and
+Captain Coroloni doggedly held his post until such time as his junior
+officer should see fit to take himself off. The captain knew, as well as
+every one else at the officers' mess, that in the end the lieutenant
+would be the favoured man; for he was a son of Count Guido di Ferara, of
+Turin, and titles are at a premium in the American market. But still the
+marriage contract was not signed yet, and the fact remained that the
+captain had come last; accordingly he waited.
+
+They had been there fully two hours, and poor Miss Hazel was worn with
+the strain. She sat nervously on the edge of her chair, and leaned
+forward with clasped hands listening intently. It required very keen
+attention to keep the run of either the captain's or the lieutenant's
+English. A few days before she had laughed at what seemed to be a funny
+story, and had later learned that it was an announcement of the death of
+the lieutenant's grandmother. To-day she confined her answers to
+inarticulate murmurs which might be interpreted as either assents or
+negations as the case required.
+
+Constance, however, was buoyantly at her ease; she loved nothing better
+than the excitement of a difficult situation. As she bridged over pauses,
+and unobtrusively translated from the officer's English into real
+English, she at the same time kept a watchful eye on the water. She had
+her own reasons for wishing to detain the callers until her father's
+return.
+
+Presently she saw, across the lake, a yellow sailboat float out from the
+shadow of Monte Maggiore and head in a long tack toward Villa Rosa. With
+this she gave up the task of keeping the conversation general; and
+abandoning Captain Coroloni to her aunt, she strolled over to the terrace
+parapet with Lieutenant di Ferara at her side. The picture they made was
+a charming colour scheme. Constance wore white, the lieutenant pale blue;
+an oleander tree beside them showed a cloud of pink blossoms, while
+behind them for a background appeared the rose of the villa wall and the
+deep green of cypresses against a sunset sky. The picture was
+particularly effective as seen from the point of view of an approaching
+boat.
+
+Constance broke off a spray of oleander, and while she listened to the
+lieutenant's recountal of a practice march, she picked up his hat from
+the balustrade and idly arranged the flowers in the vizor. He bent toward
+her and said something; she responded with a laugh. They were both too
+occupied to notice that the boat had floated close in shore, until the
+flap of the falling sail announced its presence. Constance glanced up
+with a start. She caught her father's eye fixed anxiously upon her;
+whatever Gustavo and the officers' mess of the tenth cavalry might think,
+he had not the slightest wish in the world to see his daughter the
+Contessa di Ferara. Tony's face also wore an expression; he was sober,
+disgusted, disdainful; there was a glint of anger and determination in
+his eye. Constance hurried to the water-steps to greet her father. Of
+Tony she took no manner of notice; if a man elects to be a donkey-driver,
+he must swallow the insults that go with the part.
+
+The officers, observing that Luigi was hovering about the doorway waiting
+to announce dinner, waived the question of precedence and made their
+adieus. While Mr. Wilder and Miss Hazel were intent on the captain's
+laboured farewell speech, the lieutenant crossed to Constance, who still
+stood at the head of the water-steps. He murmured something in Italian as
+he bowed over her hand and raised it to his lips. Constance blushed very
+becomingly as she drew her hand away; she was aware, if the officer was
+not, that Tony was standing beside them looking on. But as he raised his
+eyes, he too became aware of it; the man's expression was more than
+impertinent. The lieutenant stepped to his side and said something low
+and rapid, something which should have made a right-minded donkey-driver
+touch his hat and slink off. But Tony held his ground with a laugh which
+was more impertinent than the stare had been. The lieutenant's face
+flushed angrily, and his hand half instinctively went to his sword.
+Constance stepped forward.
+
+'Tony! I shall have no further need of your services. You may go.'
+
+Tony suddenly came to his senses.
+
+'I--beg your pardon, Miss Wilder,' he stammered.
+
+'I shall not want you again; please go.' She turned her back and joined
+the others.
+
+The two officers with final salutes took themselves off. Miss Hazel
+hurried indoors to make ready for dinner; Mr. Wilder followed in her
+wake, muttering something about finding the change to pay Tony. Constance
+stood where they left her, staring at the pavement with hotly burning
+cheeks.
+
+'Miss Wilder!' Tony crossed to her side; his manner was humble--actually
+humble--the usual mocking undertone in his voice was missing. 'Really I'm
+awfully sorry to have caused you annoyance; it was unpardonable.'
+
+Constance turned toward him.
+
+'Yes, Tony, I think it was. Your position does not give you the right to
+insult my guests.'
+
+Tony stiffened slightly.
+
+'I acknowledge that I insulted him, and I'm sorry. But he insulted me,
+for the matter of that. I didn't like the way he looked at me, any more
+than he liked the way I looked at him.'
+
+'There is a certain deference, Tony, which an officer in the Royal
+Italian Army has a right to expect from a donkey-driver.'
+
+Tony shrugged.
+
+'It is a difficult position to hold, Miss Wilder. A donkey-driver, I
+find, plays the same accommodating rôle as the family watch-dog. You pat
+him when you choose; you kick him when you choose; and he is supposed to
+swallow both attentions with equal grace.'
+
+'You should have chosen another profession.'
+
+'Naturally, I was not flattered to find that your real reason for staying
+at home to-day, was that you were expecting more entertaining callers.'
+
+'Is there any use in discussing it further? I am not going to climb any
+more mountains, and I shall not, as I told you, need a donkey-man again.'
+
+'Then I'm discharged?'
+
+'If you wish to put it so. You must see for yourself that the play has
+gone far enough. However, it has been amusing, and we will at least part
+friends.'
+
+She held out her hand; it was a mark of definite dismissal rather than a
+token of friendly forgiveness.
+
+Tony bowed over her hand in perfect mimicry of the lieutenant's manner.
+'Signorina, _addio_!' He gravely raised it to his lips.
+
+She snatched her hand away quickly and without glancing at him turned
+toward the house. He let her cross half the terrace, then he called
+softly--
+
+'Signorina!'
+
+She kept on without pausing. He took a quick step after.
+
+'Signorina, a moment!'
+
+She half turned.
+
+'Well?'
+
+'I beg of you--one little favour. There are two American ladies expected
+at the Hotel du Lac and I thought--perhaps--would you mind writing me a
+letter of recommendation?'
+
+Constance turned back without a word and walked into the house.
+
+Mr. Wilder's conversation at dinner that night was of the day's excursion
+and Tony. He was elated, enthusiastic, glowing. Mountain-climbing was the
+most interesting pursuit in the world; he would begin to-morrow and
+exhaust the Alps. And as for Tony--his intelligence, his discretion, his
+cleverness--there never had been such a guide. Constance listened
+silently, her eyes on her plate. At another time it might have occurred
+to her that her father's enthusiasm was excessive, but to-night she was
+occupied with her thoughts, and she had no reason in the world to
+suspect him of guile. She decided, however, to postpone the announcement
+of Tony's dismissal; to-morrow mountain-climbing might look less
+alluring.
+
+Dinner over, Mr. Wilder, with a tired if satisfied sigh, dropped into a
+chair to finish his reading of the London _Times_. He no longer skimmed
+his paper lightly as in the days when papers were to be had hot at any
+hour. He read it carefully, painstakingly, from the first advertisement
+to the last obituary; and he laid it down in the end with a disappointed
+sigh that there were not more residential properties for hire, that the
+day's death list was so meagre.
+
+Miss Hazel settled herself to her knitting. She was making a rainbow
+shawl of seven colours and an intricate pattern, and she had to count her
+stitches; conversation was impossible. Constance, vaguely restless,
+picked up a book and laid it down, and finally sauntered out to the
+terrace with no thought in the world but to see the moon rise over the
+mountains.
+
+As she approached the parapet she became aware that some one was lounging
+on the water-steps smoking a cigarette. The smoker rose politely but
+ventured no remark.
+
+'Is that you, Giuseppe?' she asked in Italian.
+
+'No, signorina. It is I--Tony. I am waiting for orders.'
+
+'For orders!' There was astonishment as well as indignation in her tone.
+'I thought I made it clear----'
+
+'That I was discharged? Yes, signorina. But I have been so fortunate as
+to find another place. The Signor Papa has engage me. I go wif him; we
+climb all ze mountain around.' He waved his hand largely to comprise the
+whole landscape. 'I sink perhaps it is better so--for the Signor Papa and
+me to go alone. Mountain-climbing is too hard; zere is too much fatigue,
+signorina, for you.'
+
+He bowed humbly and deferentially, and retired to the steps and his
+cigarette.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Half-past six on the following morning found Constance and her father
+rising from the breakfast table, and Tony turning in at the gate.
+Constance's nod of greeting was barely perceptible, and her father's eye
+contained a twinkle as he watched her. Tony studied her mountain-climbing
+costume with an air of concern.
+
+'You go wif us, signorina?' His expression was blended of surprise and
+disapproval, but in spite of himself his tone was triumphant. 'You say to
+me yesterday you no want to climb any more mountain.'
+
+'I have changed my mind.'
+
+'But zis mountain to-day too long, too high. You get tired, signorina.
+Perhaps anozzer day we take li'l' baby mountain, zen you can go.'
+
+'I am going to-day.'
+
+'It is not possible, signorina. I have not brought ze donk'.'
+
+'Oh, I'm going to walk.'
+
+'As you please, signorina.'
+
+He sighed patiently. Then he looked up and caught her eye. They both
+laughed.
+
+'Signorina,' he whispered, 'I ver' happy to-day. Zat Costantina she more
+kind. Yesterday ver' unkind; I go home ver' sad. But to-day I sink----'
+
+'Yes?'
+
+'I sink after all maybe she like me li'l' bit.'
+
+Giuseppe rowed the three climbers a mile or so down the lake and set them
+ashore at the base of their mountain. They started up gaily and had
+accomplished half their journey before they thought of being tired. Tony
+surpassed himself; if he had been entertaining the day before he was
+doubly so now. His spirits were bubbling over and contagious. He and
+Constance acted like two children out of school. They ran races and
+talked to the peasants in the wayside cottages. They drove a herd of
+goats for half a mile while the goatherd strolled behind and smoked
+Tony's cigarettes. Constance took a water-jar from a little girl they
+met coming from the fountain and endeavoured to balance it on her own
+head, with the result that she nearly drowned both herself and the child.
+
+They finally stopped for luncheon in a grove of chestnut trees with sheep
+nibbling on the hill-side below them and a shepherd boy somewhere out of
+sight playing on a mouth organ. It should have been a flute, but they
+were in a forgiving mood. Constance this time did her share of the work.
+She and Tony together spread the cloth and made the coffee while her
+father fanned himself and looked on. If Mr. Wilder had any unusual
+thoughts in regard to the donkey-man, they were at least not reflected in
+his face.
+
+When they had finished their meal Tony spread his coat under a tree.
+
+'Signorina,' he said, 'perhaps you li'l' tired? Look, I make nice place
+to sleep. You lie down and rest while ze Signor Papa and me, we have
+li'l' smoke. Zen after one, two hours I come call you.'
+
+Constance very willingly accepted the suggestion. They had walked five
+uphill miles since morning. It was two hours later that she opened her
+eyes to find Tony bending over her. She sat up and regarded him sternly.
+He had the grace to blush.
+
+'Tony, did you kiss my hand?'
+
+'_Scusi_, signorina. I ver' sorry to wake you, but it is tree o'clock and
+ze Signor Papa he say we must start just now or we nevair get to ze
+top.'
+
+'Answer my question.'
+
+'Signorina, I cannot tell to you a lie. It is true, I forget I am just
+poor donkey-man. I play li'l' game. You sleeping beauty; I am ze prince.
+I come to wake you. Just _one_ kiss I drop on your hand--one ver' little
+kiss, signorina.'
+
+Constance assumed an air of indignant reproof, but in the midst of it she
+laughed.
+
+'I wish you wouldn't be so funny, Tony; I can't scold you as much as you
+deserve. But I am angry just the same, and if anything like that ever
+happens again I shall be very _very_ angry.'
+
+'Signorina, I would not make you very _very_ angry for anysing. As long
+as I live nosing like zat shall happen again. No, nevair, I promise.'
+
+They plunged into a pine wood and climbed for another two hours, the
+summit always vanishing before them like a mirage. At the end of that
+time they were apparently no nearer their goal than when they had
+started. They had followed first one path, then another, until they had
+lost all sense of direction, and finally when they came to a place where
+three paths diverged, they had to acknowledge themselves definitely lost.
+Mr. Wilder elected one path, Tony another, and Constance sat down on a
+rock.
+
+'I'm not going any farther,' she observed.
+
+'You can't stay here all night,' said her father.
+
+'Well, I can't walk over this mountain all night. We don't get anywhere;
+we merely move in circles. I don't think much of the guide you engaged.
+He doesn't know his way.'
+
+'He wasn't engaged to know his way,' Tony retorted. 'He was engaged to
+wear earrings and sing Santa Lucia.'
+
+Constance continued to sit on her rock while Tony went forward on a
+reconnoitring expedition. He returned in ten minutes with the information
+that there was a shepherd's hut not very far off with a shepherd inside
+who would like to be friendly. If the signorina would deign to ask some
+questions in the Italian language which she spoke so fluently, they could
+doubtless obtain directions as to the way home.
+
+They found the shepherd, the shepherdess and four little shepherds eating
+their evening polenta in an earth-floored room, with half a dozen
+chickens and the family pig gathered about them in an expectant group.
+They rose politely and invited the travellers to enter. It was an event
+in their simple lives when foreigners presented themselves at the door.
+
+Constance commenced amenities by announcing that she had been walking on
+the mountain since sunrise and was starving. Did they by chance have any
+fresh milk?
+
+'Starving! _Madonna mia_, how dreadful!' Madame held up her hands. But
+yes, to be sure they had fresh milk. They kept four cows. That was their
+business--turning milk into cheese and selling it on market day in the
+village. Also they had some fresh mountain strawberries which Beppo had
+gathered that morning--perhaps they too might be pleasing to the
+signorina?
+
+Constance nodded affirmatively, and added, with her eyes on the pig, that
+it might be pleasanter to eat outside where they could look at the view.
+She became quite gay again over what she termed their afternoon
+tea-party, and her father had to remind her most insistently that if they
+wished to get down before darkness overtook them they must start at once.
+An Italian twilight is short. They paid for the food and presented a lira
+apiece to the children, leaving them silhouetted against the sky in a
+bobbing row shouting musical farewells.
+
+Their host led them through the woods and out on to the brow of the
+mountain in order to start them down by the right path. He regretted that
+he could not go all the way, but the sheep had still to be brought in for
+the night. At the parting he was garrulous with directions.
+
+The easiest way to get home now would be straight down the mountain to
+Grotta del Monte--he pointed out the brown-tiled roofs of a village far
+below them--there they could find donkeys or an ox-cart to take them
+back. It was nine kilometres to Valedolmo. They had come quite out of
+their way; if they had taken the right path in the morning they would
+have reached the top, where the view was magnificent--truly magnificent.
+It was a pity to miss it. Perhaps some other day they would like to come
+again and he himself would be pleased to guide them. He shook hands and
+wished them a pleasant journey. They would best hurry a trifle, he added,
+for darkness came fast, and when one got caught on the mountain at
+night--he shrugged his shoulders and looked at Tony--one needed a guide
+who knew his business.
+
+They had walked for ten minutes when they heard some one shouting behind
+and found a young man calling to them to wait. He caught up with them and
+breathlessly explained.
+
+Pasquale had told him that they were foreigners from America who were
+climbing the mountain for diversion and who had lost their way. He was
+going down to the village himself and would be pleased to guide them.
+
+He fell into step beside Constance and commenced asking questions, while
+Tony, as the path was narrow, perforce fell behind. Occasionally
+Constance translated, but usually she laughed without translating, and
+Tony, for the twentieth time, found himself hating the Italian language.
+
+The young man's question's were refreshingly ingenuous. He was curious
+about America, since he was thinking, he said, of becoming an American
+himself some day. He knew a man once who had gone to America to live and
+had made a fortune there--but yes, a large fortune--ten thousand lire in
+four years. Perhaps the signorina knew him--Giuseppe Motta; he lived in
+Buenos Aires. And what did it look like--America? How was it different
+from Italy?
+
+Constance described the sky-scrapers in New York.
+
+His wonder was intense. A building twenty stories high! _Dio mio_! He
+should hate to mount himself up all those stairs. Were the buildings like
+that in the country too? Did the shepherds live in houses twenty stories
+high?
+
+'Oh no,' she laughed. 'In the country the houses are just like these,
+only they are made of wood instead of stone.'
+
+'Of wood?' He opened his eyes. 'But, signorina, do they never burn?'
+
+He had another question to ask. He had been told--though of course he did
+not believe it--that the Indians in America had red skins.
+
+Constance nodded yes. His eyes opened wider.
+
+'Truly red like your coat?' with a glance at her scarlet golf jacket.
+
+'Not quite,' she admitted.
+
+'But how it must be diverting,' he sighed, 'to travel the world over and
+see different things.' He fell silent and trudged on beside her, the
+wanderlust in his eyes.
+
+It was almost dark when they reached the big arched gateway that led into
+the village. Here their ways parted and they paused for farewell.
+
+'Signorina,' the young man said suddenly, 'take me with you back to
+America. I will prune your olive trees, I will tend your vines. You can
+leave me in charge when you go on your travels.'
+
+She shook her head with a laugh.
+
+'But I have no vines; I have no olive trees. You would be homesick for
+Italy.'
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+'Then good-bye. You, signorina, will go around the world and see many
+sights, while I, for travel, shall ride on a donkey to Valedolmo.'
+
+He shook hands all around and with the grace of a prince accepted two of
+Tony's cigarettes. His parting speech showed him a fatalist.
+
+'What will be, will be. There is a girl----' he waved his hand vaguely in
+the direction of the village. 'If I go to America then I cannot stay
+behind and marry Maria. So perhaps it is planned for the best. You will
+find me, signorina, when next you come to Italy, still digging the ground
+in Grotta del Monte.'
+
+As he swung away Tony glanced after him with a suggestion of malice, then
+he transferred his gaze to the empty gateway.
+
+'I see no one else with whom you can talk Italian. Perhaps for ten
+minutes you will deign to speak English with me?'
+
+'I am too tired to talk,' she threw over her shoulder as she followed her
+father through the gate.
+
+They plunged into a tangle of tortuous paved streets, the houses pressing
+each other as closely as if there were not all the outside world to
+spread in. Grotta del Monte is built on a slope and its streets are in
+reality long narrow flights of stairs all converging in the little
+piazza. The moon was not yet up, and aside from an occasional flickering
+light before a madonna's shrine, the way was black.
+
+'Signorina, take my arm. I'm afraid maybe you fall.'
+
+Tony's voice was humbly persuasive. Constance laughed and laid her hand
+lightly on his arm. Tony dropped his own hand over hers and held her
+firmly. Neither spoke until they came to the piazza.
+
+'Signorina,' he whispered, 'you make me ver' happy to-night.'
+
+She drew her hand away.
+
+'I'm tired, Tony. I'm not quite myself.'
+
+'No, signorina, yesterday I sink maybe you not yourself, but to-day you
+ver' good, ver' kind--jus' your own self ze way you ought to be.'
+
+The piazza, after the dark, narrow streets that led to it, seemed
+bubbling with life. The day's work was finished and the evening's play
+had begun. In the centre, where a fountain splashed into a broad bowl,
+groups of women and girls with copper water-jars were laughing and
+gossiping as they waited their turns. One side of the square was flanked
+by the imposing façade of a church with the village saint on a pedestal
+in front; the other side, by a cheerfully inviting osteria with tables
+and chairs set into the street and a glimpse inside of a blazing hearth
+and copper kettles.
+
+Mr. Wilder headed in a straight line for the nearest chair and dropped
+into it with an expression of permanence. Constance followed, and they
+held a colloquy with a bowing host. He was vague as to the finding of
+carriage or donkeys, but if they would accommodate themselves until after
+supper there would be a diligence along which would take them back to
+Valedolmo.
+
+'How soon will the diligence arrive?' asked Constance.
+
+The man spread out his hands.
+
+'It is due in three-quarters of an hour, but it may be early and it may
+be late. It arrives when God and the driver wills.'
+
+'In that case,' she laughed, 'we will accommodate ourselves until after
+supper--and we have appetites! Please bring everything you have.'
+
+They supped on _minestra_ and _fritto misto_ washed down with the red
+wine of Grotta del Monte, which, their host assured them, was famous
+through all the country. He could not believe that they had never heard
+of it in Valedolmo. People sent for it from far off, even from Verona.
+
+They finished their supper and the famous wine, but there was still no
+diligence. The village also had finished its supper and was drifting in
+family groups into the piazza. The moon was just showing above the
+house-tops, and its light, combined with the blazing braziers before the
+cook-shops, made the square a patchwork of brilliant high-lights and
+black shadows from deep-cut doorways. Constance sat up alertly and
+watched the people crowding past. Across from the inn an itinerant show
+had established itself on a rudely improvised stage, with two flaring
+torches which threw their light half across the piazza, and turned the
+spray of the fountain into an iridescent shower. The gaiety of the scene
+was contagious. Constance rose insistently.
+
+'Come, Dad; let's go over and see what they're doing.'
+
+'No, thank you, my dear. I prefer my chair.'
+
+'Oh, Dad, you're so phlegmatic!'
+
+'But I thought you were tired.'
+
+'I'm not any more; I want to see the play.--You come then, Tony.'
+
+Tony rose with an elaborate sigh.
+
+'As you please, signorina,' he murmured obediently. An onlooker would
+have thought Constance cruel in dragging him away from his well-earned
+rest.
+
+They made their way across the piazza and mounted the church steps behind
+the crowd where they could look across obliquely to the little stage. A
+clown was dancing to the music of a hurdy-gurdy, while a woman in a
+tawdry pink satin evening gown beat an accompaniment on a drum. It was a
+very poor play with very poor players, and yet it represented to these
+people of Grotta del Monte something of life, of the big outside world
+which they in their little village would never see. Their upturned faces
+touched by the moonlight and the flare of the torches contained a look of
+wondering eagerness--the same look that had been in the eyes of the young
+peasant when he had begged to be taken to America.
+
+The two stood back in the shadow of the doorway watching the people with
+the same interest that the people were expending on the stage. A child
+had been lifted to the base of the saint's pedestal in order to see, and
+in the excitement of a duel between two clowns he suddenly lost his
+balance and toppled off. His mother snatched him up quickly and
+commenced covering the hurt arm with kisses to make it well.
+
+Constance laughed.
+
+'Isn't it queer,' she asked, 'to think how different these people are
+from us and yet how exactly the same. Their way of living is absolutely
+foreign, but their feelings are just like yours and mine.'
+
+He touched her arm and called her attention to a man and a girl on the
+step below them. It was the young peasant again who had guided them down
+the mountain, but who now had eyes for no one but Maria. She leaned
+toward him to see the stage and his arm was around her. Their interest in
+the play was purely a pretence, and both of them knew it.
+
+Tony laughed softly and echoed her words.
+
+'Yes, their feelings are just like yours and mine.'
+
+He slipped his arm around her.
+
+Constance drew back quickly.
+
+'I think,' she remarked, 'that the diligence has come.'
+
+'Oh, hang the diligence!' Tony growled. 'Why couldn't it have been five
+minutes late?'
+
+They returned to the inn to find Mr. Wilder already on the front seat,
+and obligingly holding the reins, while the driver occupied himself with
+a glass of the famous wine. The diligence was a roomy affair of four
+seats and three horses. Behind the driver were three Italians
+gesticulating violently over local politics; a new _sindaco_ was
+imminent. Behind these were three black-hooded nuns covertly interested
+in the woman in the pink evening gown. And behind the three, occupying
+the exact centre of the rear seat, was a fourth nun with the portly
+bearing of a Mother Superior. She was very comfortable as she was, and
+did not propose to move. Constance climbed up on one side of her and Tony
+on the other.
+
+'We are well chaperoned,' he grumbled, as they jolted out of the piazza.
+'I always did think that the Church interfered too much with the rights
+of individuals.'
+
+Constance, in a spirit of friendly expansiveness, proceeded to pick up an
+acquaintance with the nuns, and the four black heads were presently
+bobbing in unison, while Tony, in gloomy isolation at his end of the
+seat, folded his arms and stared at the road. The driver had passed
+through many villages that day and had drunk many glasses of famous wine;
+he cracked his whip and sang as he drove. They rattled in and out of
+stone-paved villages, along open stretches of moonlit road, past villas
+and olive groves. Children screamed after them, dogs barked, Constance
+and her four nuns were very vivacious, and Tony's gloom deepened with
+every mile.
+
+They had covered three-quarters of the distance when the diligence was
+brought to a halt before a high stone wall and a solid barred gate. The
+nuns came back to the present with an excited cackling. Who would believe
+they had reached the convent so soon! They made their adieus and
+ponderously descended, their departure accelerated by Tony who had become
+of a sudden alertly helpful. As they started again he slid along into the
+Mother Superior's empty seat.
+
+'What were we saying when the diligence interrupted?' he inquired.
+
+'I don't remember, Tony, but I don't want to talk any more; I'm tired.'
+
+'You tired, signorina? Lay your head on my shoulder and go to sleep.'
+
+'Tony, _please_ behave yourself. I'm simply too tired to make you do it.'
+
+He reached over and took her hand. She did not try to withdraw it for
+two--three minutes; then she shot him a sidewise glance. 'Tony,' she
+said, 'don't you think you are forgetting your place?'
+
+'No, signorina, I am just learning it.'
+
+'Let go my hand.'
+
+He gazed pensively at the moon and hummed Santa Lucia under his breath.
+
+'Tony! I shall be angry with you.'
+
+'I shall be ver' sorry for zat, signorina. I do not wish to make you
+angry, but I sink--perhaps you get over it.'
+
+'You are behaving abominably to-day, Tony. I shall never stay alone with
+you again.'
+
+'Signorina, look at zat moon up dere. Is it not ver' bright? When I look
+at zat moon I have always beautiful toughts about how much I love
+Costantina.'
+
+An interval followed during which neither spoke. The driver's song was
+growing louder and the horses were galloping. The diligence suddenly
+rounded a curved cliff on two wheels. Constance lurched against him; he
+caught her and held her. Her lips were very near his; he kissed her
+softly.
+
+She moved to the far end of the seat and faced him with flushed cheeks.
+'I thought you were a gentleman!'
+
+'I used to be, signorina; now I am only poor donkey-man.'
+
+'I shall never speak to you again. You can climb as many mountains as you
+wish with my father, but you can't have anything more to do with me.'
+
+'_Scusi_, signorina. I--I did not mean to. It was just an accident,
+signorina.'
+
+Constance turned her back and stared at the road.
+
+'It was not my fault. Truly it was not my fault. I did not wish to kiss
+you--no nevair. But I could not help it. You put your head too close.'
+
+She raised her eyes and studied the mountain-top.
+
+'Signorina, why you treat me so cruel?'
+
+Her back was inflexible.
+
+'I am desolate. If you forgive me zis once I will nevair again do a sing
+so wicked. Nevair, nevair, nevair.'
+
+Constance continued her inspection of the mountain-top. Tony leaned
+forward until he could see her face.
+
+'Signorina,' he whispered, 'jus' give me one li'l' smile to show me you
+are not angry for ever.'
+
+The stage had stopped and Mr. Wilder was climbing down, but Constance's
+gaze was still fixed on the sky, and Tony's eyes were on her.
+
+'What's the matter, Constance, have you gone to sleep? Aren't you going
+to get out?'
+
+She came back with a start.
+
+'Are we here already?'
+
+There was a suspicion of regret in her tone which did not escape Tony.
+
+At the Villa Rosa gates he wished them a humbly deferential good night,
+but with a smile hovering about the corners of his mouth. Constance made
+no response. As he strode off, however, she turned her head and looked
+after him. He turned too and caught her. He waved his hand with a laugh,
+and took up his way, whistling Santa Lucia in double time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+Three days passed in which Mr. Wilder and Tony industriously climbed, and
+in which nothing of consequence passed between Constance and Tony. If she
+happened to be about when the expeditions either started or came to an
+end (and for one reason or another she usually was) she ignored him
+entirely; and he ignored her, except for an occasional mockingly
+deferential bow. He appeared to extract as much pleasure from the
+excursions as Mr. Wilder, and he asked for no extra compensation by the
+way.
+
+It was Tuesday again, just a week and a day since the young American had
+dropped over the wall of Villa Rosa asking for the garden of the prince.
+Tony and Mr. Wilder were off on a trip; Miss Hazel and Constance on the
+point of sitting down to afternoon tea--there were no guests to-day--when
+the gardener from the Hotel du Lac appeared with a message from Nannie
+Hilliard. She and her aunt had arrived half an hour before, which was a
+good two days earlier than they were due. Constance read the note with a
+clouded brow and silently passed it to Miss Hazel. The news was not so
+entirely welcome as under other circumstances it would have been. Nannie
+Hilliard was both perspicacious and fascinating, and Constance foresaw
+that her presence would tangle further the already tangled plot of the
+little comedy which was unfolding itself at Villa Rosa. But Miss Hazel,
+divining nothing of comedies or plots, was thrown into a pleasant flutter
+by the news. Guests were a luxury which occurred but seldom in the quiet
+monotony of Valedolmo.
+
+'We must call on them at once and bring them back to the house.'
+
+'I suppose we must.' Constance agreed with an uncordial sigh.
+
+Fifteen minutes later they were on their way to the Hotel du Lac, while
+Elizabetta, on her knees in the villa guest-room, was vigorously
+scrubbing the mosaic floor.
+
+Gustavo hurried out to meet them. He was plainly in a flutter; something
+had occurred to upset the usual suavity of his manners.
+
+'_Si_, signorina, in ze garden--ze two American ladies--having tea. And
+you are acquaint wif ze family; all ze time you are acquaint wif zem, and
+you never tell me!' There was mystification and reproach in his tone.
+Constance eyed him with a degree of mystification on her side.
+
+'I am acquainted with a number of families that I have never told you
+about,' she observed.
+
+'_Scusi_, signorina,' he stammered; and immediately, 'Tony, zat
+donk'-man, what you do wif him?'
+
+'Oh, he and my father are climbing Monte Brione to-day.'
+
+'What time zay come home?'
+
+'About seven o'clock, I fancy.
+
+'Ze signora and ze signorina--zay come two days before zay are expect.'
+And he was clearly aggrieved by the fact.
+
+Constance's mystification increased; she saw not the slightest connexion.
+
+'I suppose, Gustavo, you can find them something to eat even if they did
+come two days before they were expected?'
+
+The two turned toward the arbour, but Constance paused for a moment and
+glanced back with a shade of mischief in her eye.
+
+'By the way, Gustavo, that young man who taught the parrot English has
+gone?'
+
+Gustavo rolled his eyes to the sky and back to her face. She understood
+nothing; was there ever a muddle like this?
+
+'_Si_, signorina,' he murmured confusedly, 'ze yong man is gone.'
+
+Nannie caught sight of the visitors first, and with a start which nearly
+upset the tea table, came running forward to meet them; while her aunt,
+Mrs. Eustace, followed more placidly. Nannie was a big wholesome outdoor
+girl of a purely American type. She waited for no greetings; she had news
+to impart.
+
+'Constance, Miss Hazel! I'm so glad to see you--what do you think? I'm
+engaged!'
+
+Miss Hazel murmured incoherent congratulations, and tried not to look as
+shocked as she felt. In her day, no lady would have made so delicate an
+announcement in any such off-hand manner as this. Constance received it
+in the spirit in which it was given.
+
+'Who's the man?' she inquired, as she shook hands with Mrs. Eustace.
+
+'You don't know him--Harry Eastman, a friend of Jerry's. Jerry doesn't
+know it yet, and I had to confide in some one. Oh, it's no secret; Harry
+cabled home--he wanted to get it announced so I couldn't change my mind.
+You see he only had a three weeks' vacation; he took a fast boat, landed
+at Cherbourg, followed us the whole length of France, and caught us in
+Lucerne just after Jerry had gone. I couldn't refuse him after he'd taken
+such a lot of trouble. That's what detained us: we had expected to come a
+week ago. And now----' by a rapid change of expression she became
+tragic.--'We've lost Jerry Junior!'
+
+'Lost Jerry Junior!' Constance's tone was interested. 'What has become of
+him?'
+
+'We haven't an idea. He's been spirited off--vanished from the earth and
+left no trace. Really, we're beginning to be afraid he's been captured by
+brigands. That head waiter, that Gustavo, knows where he is, but we can't
+get a word out of him. He tells a different story every ten minutes. I
+looked in the register to see if by chance he'd left an address there,
+and what do you think I found?'
+
+'Oh!' said Constance; there was a world of illumination in her tone.
+'What did you find?' she asked, hastily suppressing every emotion but
+polite curiosity.
+
+'"Abraham Lincoln" in Jerry's hand-writing!'
+
+'Really!' Constance dimpled irrepressibly. 'You are sure Jerry wrote it?'
+
+'It was his writing; and I showed it to Gustavo, and what do you think he
+said?'
+
+Constance shook her head.
+
+'He said that Jerry had forgotten to register, that that was written by a
+Hungarian nobleman who was here last week--imagine a Hungarian nobleman
+named Abraham Lincoln!'
+
+Constance dropped into one of the little iron chairs and bowed her head
+on the back and laughed.
+
+'Perhaps you can explain?' There was a touch of sharpness in Nannie's
+tone.
+
+'Don't ever ask me to explain anything Gustavo says; the man is not to be
+believed under oath.'
+
+'But what's become of Jerry?'
+
+'Oh, he'll turn up.' Constance's tone was comforting. 'Aunt Hazel,' she
+called. Miss Hazel and Mrs. Eustace, their heads together over the tea
+table, were busily making up three months' dropped news. 'Do you
+remember the young man I told you about who popped into our garden last
+week? That was Jerry Junior!'
+
+'Then you've seen him?' said Nannie.
+
+Constance related the episode of the broken wall--the sequel she omitted.
+'I hadn't seen him for six years,' she added apologetically, 'and I
+didn't recognize him. Of course if I'd dreamed----'
+
+Nannie groaned.
+
+'And I thought I'd planned it so beautifully!'
+
+'Planned what?'
+
+'I suppose I might as well tell you since it's come to nothing. We
+hoped--that is, you see--I've been so worried for fear Jerry----' She
+took a breath and began again. 'You know, Constance, when it comes to
+getting married, a man has no more sense than a two-year child. So I
+determined to pick out a wife for Jerry, myself, one I would like to have
+for a sister. I've done it three times and he simply wouldn't look at
+them; you can't imagine how stubborn he is. But when I found we were
+coming to Valedolmo, I said to myself, now this is my opportunity; I will
+have him marry Connie Wilder.'
+
+'You might have asked my permission.'
+
+'Oh, well, Jerry's a dear; next to Harry you couldn't find any one nicer.
+But I knew the only way was not to let him suspect. I thought, you see,
+that you were still staying at the hotel; I didn't know you'd taken a
+villa, so I planned for him to come to meet us three days before we
+really expected to get here. I thought in the meantime, being stranded
+together in a little hotel, you'd surely get acquainted--Jerry's very
+resourceful that way--and with all this beautiful Italian scenery about,
+and nothing to do----'
+
+'I see!' Constance's tone was somewhat dry.
+
+'But nothing happened as I had planned. You weren't here, he was bored to
+death, and I was detained longer than I meant. We got the most pathetic
+letter from him the second day, saying there was no one but the head
+waiter to talk to, nothing but an india-rubber tree to look at, and if we
+didn't come immediately, he'd do the Dolomites without us. Then finally,
+just as we were on the point of leaving, he sent a telegram saying:
+"Don't come. Am climbing mountains. Stay there till you hear from me."
+But being already packed, we came, and this is what we find----' She
+waved her hand over the empty grove.
+
+'It serves you right; you shouldn't deceive people.'
+
+'It was for Jerry's good--and yours too. But what shall we do? He doesn't
+know we're here and he has left no address.'
+
+'Come out to the villa and visit us till he comes to search for you.'
+
+Constance could hear her aunt delivering the same invitation to Mrs.
+Eustace, and she perforce repeated it, though with the inward hope that
+it would be declined. She had no wish that Tony and her father should
+return from their trip to find a family party assembled on the terrace.
+The adventure was not to end with any such tame climax as that. To her
+relief they did decline, at least for the night; they could make no
+definite plans until they had heard from Jerry. Constance rose upon this
+assurance and precipitated their leave-takings; she did not wish her aunt
+to press them to change their minds.
+
+'Good-bye, Mrs. Eustace, good-bye, Nannie; we'll be around to-night to
+take you sailing--provided there's any breeze.'
+
+She nodded and dragged her aunt off; but as they were entering the arbour
+a plan for further complicating matters popped into her head, and she
+turned back to call--
+
+'You are coming to the villa to-morrow, remember, whether Jerry Junior
+turns up or not. I'll write a note and invite him too--Gustavo can give
+it to him when he comes, and you needn't bother any more about him.'
+
+They found Gustavo hovering omnivorously in the courtyard, hungering for
+news; Constance summoned him to her side.
+
+'Gustavo, I am going to send you a note to-night for Mr. Jerymn Hilliard.
+You will see that it gets to him as soon as he arrives?'
+
+'Meestair Jayreem Ailyar?' Gustavo stared.
+
+'Yes, the brother of the signorina who came to-day. He is expected
+to-morrow or perhaps the day after.'
+
+'_Scusi_, signorina. You--you acquaint wif him?'
+
+'Yes, certainly. I have known him for six years. Don't forget to deliver
+the note; it's important.'
+
+They raised their parasols and departed, while Gustavo stood in the
+gateway bowing. The motion was purely mechanical; his thoughts were
+labouring elsewhere.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+Constance occupied herself upon their return to Villa Rosa in writing the
+letter to Jerry Junior. It had occurred to her that this was an excellent
+chance to punish him, and it was the working philosophy of her life that
+a man should always be punished when opportunity presented. Tony had been
+entirely too unconcerned during the past few days; he needed a lesson.
+She spent three-quarters of an hour in composing her letter, and tore up
+two false starts before she was satisfied. It did not contain the
+slightest hint that she knew the truth, and--considered in this light--it
+was likely to have a chastening effect. The letter ran--
+
+                                             'VILLA ROSA, VALEDOLMO,
+                                                 'LAGO DI GARDA.
+
+     'DEAR JERRY JUNIOR: I hope you don't mind being called "Jerry
+     Junior," but "Mr. Hilliard" sounds so absurdly formal, when I have
+     known your sister so long and so well. We are spending the summer
+     here in Valedolmo, and Mrs. Eustace and Nannie have promised to
+     stop with us for a few days, provided you can be persuaded to pause
+     in your mad rush through Europe. Now please take pity on us--guests
+     are such unusual luxuries, and as for _men_! Besides a passing
+     tourist or so, we have had nothing but Italian officers. You can
+     climb mountains with my father--Nan says you are a climber--and we
+     can supply mountains enough to keep you occupied for a month.
+
+     'My father would write himself, only that he is climbing this
+     moment.
+
+                                             'Yours most cordially,
+                                                 'CONSTANCE WILDER.'
+
+     'P.S.--I forgot to mention that we are acquainted already, you and
+     I. We met six years ago, and you insulted me--under your own roof.
+     You called me a _kid_. I shall accept nothing but a personal
+     apology.'
+
+Having read it critically, she sealed and addressed it with malicious
+delight; it was calculated to arouse just about the emotions she would
+like to have Tony entertain. She gave the note to Giuseppe with
+instructions to place it in Gustavo's hands, and then settled herself
+gaily to await results.
+
+Giuseppe was barely out of sight when the two Alpine climbers appeared at
+the gate. Constance had been wondering how she could inform Tony that his
+aunt and sister had arrived, without unbending from the dignified silence
+of the past three days. The obvious method was to announce it to her
+father in Tony's presence, but her father slipped into the house by the
+back way without affording her an opportunity. It was Tony himself who
+solved the difficulty. Of his own accord he crossed the terrace and
+approached her side. He laid a bunch of edelweiss on the balustrade.
+
+'It's a peace offering,' he observed.
+
+She looked at him a moment without speaking. There was a new expression
+in her eyes that puzzled Tony, just as the expression in his eyes that
+morning on the water had puzzled her. She was studying him in the light
+of Jerry Junior. The likeness to the sophomore who six years before sang
+the funny songs without a smile, was so very striking, she wondered she
+could ever have overlooked it.
+
+'Thank you, Tony; it is very nice of you.' She picked up the flowers and
+smiled--with the knowledge of the letter that was waiting for him she
+could afford to be forgiving.
+
+'You discharged me, signorina; will you take me back into your service?'
+
+'I am not going to climb any more mountains; it is too fatiguing. I think
+it is better for you and my father to go alone.'
+
+'I will serve you in other ways.'
+
+Constance studied the mountains a moment. Should she tell him she knew,
+or should she keep up the pretence a little longer? Her insatiable love
+of intrigue won.
+
+'Are you sure you wish to be taken back?'
+
+'_Si_, signorina, I am very sure.'
+
+'Then perhaps you will do me a favour on your way home to-night?'
+
+'You have but to ask.'
+
+'I wish to send a message to a young American man who is staying at the
+Hotel du Lac--you may have seen him?'
+
+Tony nodded.
+
+'I have climb Monte Maggiore wif him. You recommend me; I sank you ver'
+moch. Nice man, zat yong American; ver' good, ver' simpatico.' He leaned
+forward with a sudden air of anxiety. 'Signorina, you--you like zat yong
+man?'
+
+'I have only met him twice, but--yes, I like him.'
+
+'You like him better zan me?' His anxiety deepened; he hung upon her
+word.
+
+She shook her head reassuringly.
+
+'I like you both exactly the same.'
+
+'Signorina, which you like better, zat yong American or ze Signor
+Lieutenant?'
+
+'Your questions are getting too personal, Tony.'
+
+He folded his arms and sighed.
+
+'Will you deliver my message?'
+
+'_Si_, signorina, wif pleasure.' There was not a trace of curiosity in
+his expression, nothing beyond a deferential desire to serve.
+
+'Tell him, Tony, that Miss Wilder will be at home to-morrow afternoon at
+tea-time; if he will come by the gate and present a card she will be most
+pleased to see him. She wishes him to meet an American friend, a Miss
+Hilliard, who has just arrived at the hotel this afternoon.'
+
+She watched him sharply; his expression did not alter by a shade. He
+repeated the message and then added as if by the merest chance--
+
+'Ze yong American man, signorina--you know his name?'
+
+'Yes, I know his name.' This time for the fraction of a second she
+surprised a look. 'His name'--she hesitated tantalizingly--'is Signor
+Abraham Lincoln.'
+
+'Signor Ab-ra-ham Lin-coln.' He repeated it after her as if committing it
+to memory. They gazed at each other soberly a moment; then both laughed
+and looked away.
+
+Luigi had appeared in the doorway. Seeing no one more important than Tony
+about, he found no reason for delaying the announcement of dinner.
+
+'_Il pranzo è sulla tavola, signorina._'
+
+'_Bene_!' said Constance over her shoulder. She turned back to Tony; her
+manner was kind. 'If you go to the kitchen, Tony, Elizabetta will give
+you some dinner.'
+
+'Sank you, signorina.' His manner was humble. 'Elizabetta's dinners
+consist of a plate of garlic and macaroni on the kitchen steps. I don't
+like garlic and I'm tired of macaroni; if it's just the same to you, I
+think I'll dine at home.' He held out his hand.
+
+She read his purpose in his eye and put her own hands behind her.
+
+'You won't shake hands, signorina? We are not friends?'
+
+'I learned a lesson the last time.'
+
+'You shake hands wif Lieutenant Count Carlo di Ferara.'
+
+'It is the custom in Italy.'
+
+'We are in Italy.'
+
+'Behave yourself, Tony, and run along home!'
+
+She laughed and nodded and turned away. On the steps she paused to add--
+
+'Be sure not to forget the message for Signor Abraham Lincoln. I shall be
+disappointed if he doesn't come.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+Tony returned to the Hotel du Lac, modestly, by the back way. He
+assured himself that his aunt and sister were well by means of an open
+window in the rear of the dining-room. The window was shaded by a clump
+of camellias, and he studied at his ease the back of Mrs. Eustace's
+head and Nannie's vivacious profile as she talked in fluent and
+execrable German to the two Alpinists who were, at the moment, the only
+other guests. Brotherly affection--and a humorous desire to create a
+sensation--prompted him to walk in and surprise them. But saner second
+thoughts prevailed; he decided to postpone the reunion until he should
+have changed from the picturesque costume of Tony to the soberer garb of
+Jerry Junior. He skirted the dining-room by a wide detour, and entered
+the courtyard at the side. Gustavo, who for the last hour and a half had
+been alertly watchful of four entrances at once, pounced upon him and
+drew him to a corner.
+
+'Signore,' in a conspiratorial whisper, 'zay are come, ze aunt and ze
+sister.'
+
+'I know--the Signorina Costantina told me so.'
+
+Gustavo blinked.
+
+'But, signore, she does not know it.'
+
+'Yes, she does--she saw 'em herself.'
+
+'I mean, signore, she does not know zat you are ze brover?'
+
+'Oh, no, she doesn't know that.'
+
+'But she tell me zat she is acquaint wif ze brover for six years.' He
+shook his head hopelessly.
+
+'That's all right.' Tony patted his shoulder reassuringly. 'When she knew
+me I used to have yellow hair, but I thought it made me look too girlish,
+so I had it dyed black. She didn't recognize me.'
+
+Gustavo accepted the explanation with a side-glance at the hair.
+
+'Now, pay attention.' Tony's tone was slow and distinct.
+
+'I am going upstairs to change my clothes. Then I will slip out the back
+way with a suit-case, and go down the road and meet the omnibus as it
+comes back from the boat landing. You keep my aunt and sister in the
+courtyard talking to the parrot or something until the omnibus arrives.
+Then when I get out, you come forward with your politest bow and ask me
+if I want a room. I'll attend to the rest--do you understand?'
+
+Gustavo nodded with glistening eyes. He had always felt stirring within
+him powers for diplomacy, for finesse, and he rose to the occasion
+magnificently.
+
+Tony turned away and went bounding upstairs two steps at a time,
+chuckling as he went. He, too, was developing an undreamed of appetite
+for intrigue, and his capacity in that direction was expanding to meet
+it. He had covered the first flight, when Gustavo suddenly remembered the
+letter and bounded after.
+
+'Signore! I beg of you to wait one moment. Here is a letter from ze
+signorina; it is come while you are away.'
+
+Tony read the address with a start of surprise.
+
+'Then she knows!' There was regret, disillusionment, in his tone.
+
+It was Gustavo's turn to furnish enlightenment.
+
+'But no, signore, she do not comprehend. She sink Meestair Jayreem Ailyar
+is ze brover who is not arrive. She leave it for him when he come.'
+
+'Ah!' Tony ripped it open and read it through with a chuckle. He read it
+a second time and his face grew grave. He thrust it into his pocket and
+strode away without a word for Gustavo. Gustavo looked after him
+reproachfully. As a head waiter, he naturally did not expect to read the
+letters of guests; but as a fellow conspirator, he felt that he was
+entitled to at least a general knowledge of all matters bearing on the
+conspiracy. He turned back downstairs with a disappointed droop to his
+shoulders.
+
+Tony closed his door and walked to the window, where he stood staring at
+the roof of Villa Rosa. He drew the letter from his pocket and read it
+for the third time slowly, thoughtfully, very, very soberly. The reason
+was clear; she was tired of Tony and was looking ahead for fresh worlds
+to conquer. Jerry Junior was to come next.
+
+He understood why she had been so complaisant to-day. She wished the
+curtain to go down on the comedy note. To-morrow, the nameless young
+American, the 'Abraham Lincoln' of the register, would call--by the
+gate--would be received graciously, introduced in his proper person to
+the guests; the story of the donkey-man would be recounted and laughed
+over, and he would be politely asked when he was planning to resume his
+travels. This would be the end of the episode. To Constance, it had been
+merely an amusing farce about which she could boast when she returned to
+America. In her vivacious style it would make a story, just as her first
+meeting with Jerry Junior had made a story. But as for the play itself,
+for _him_, she cared nothing. Tony the man had made no impression. He
+must pass on and give place to Jerry Junior.
+
+A flush crept over Tony's face and his mouth took a straighter line as he
+continued to gaze down on the roof of Villa Rosa. His reflections were
+presently interrupted by a knock. He turned and threw the door open with
+a fling.
+
+'Well?' he inquired.
+
+Gustavo took a step backward.
+
+'_Scusi_, signore, but zay are eating ze dessart and in five--ten minutes
+ze omnibus will arrive.'
+
+'The omnibus?' Tony stared. 'Oh!' he laughed shortly. 'I was just joking,
+Gustavo.'
+
+Gustavo bowed and turned down the corridor; there was a look on Tony's
+face that did not encourage confidences. He had not gone half a dozen
+steps, however, when the door opened again and Tony called him back.
+
+'I am going away to-morrow morning--by the first boat this time--and you
+mustn't let my aunt and sister know. I will write two letters and you are
+to take them down to the steward of the boat that leaves to-night. Ask
+him to put on Austrian stamps and mail them at Riva, so they'll get back
+here to-morrow. Do you understand?'
+
+Gustavo nodded and backed away. His disappointment this time was too keen
+for words. He saw stretching before him a future like the past,
+monotonously bereft of plots and masquerades.
+
+Tony, having hit on a plan, sat down and put it into instant execution.
+Opening his Baedeker, he turned to Riva and picked out the first hotel
+that was mentioned. Then he wrote two letters, both short and to the
+point; he indulged in none of Constance's vacillations, and yet in their
+way his letters also were masterpieces of illusion. The first was
+addressed to Miss Constance Wilder at Villa Rosa. It ran--
+
+                                             'HOTEL SOLE D'ORO,
+                                                 'RIVA, AUSTRIA.
+
+     'DEAR MISS WILDER: Nothing would give me greater pleasure than
+     spending a few days in Valedolmo, but unfortunately I am pressed
+     for time, and am engaged to start Thursday morning with some
+     friends on a trip through the Dolomites.
+
+     'Trusting that I may have the pleasure of making your acquaintance
+     at some future date,
+
+                                             'Yours truly,
+                                                 'JERYMN HILLIARD, JR.'
+
+The second letter was addressed to his sister, but he trusted to luck
+that Constance would see it. It ran--
+
+                                             'HOTEL SOLE D'ORO,
+                                                 'RIVA, AUSTRIA.
+
+     'DEAR NAN: Who in thunder is Constance Wilder? She wants us to stop
+     and make a visit in Valedolmo. I wouldn't step into that infernal
+     town, not if the king himself invited me--it's the deadest hole on
+     the face of the earth. You can stay if you like and I'll go on
+     through the Dolomites alone. There's an American family stopping
+     here who are also planning the trip--a stunning girl; I know you'd
+     like her.
+
+     'Of course the travelling will be pretty rough. Perhaps you and
+     Aunt Kate would rather visit your friends and meet me later in
+     Munich. If you decide to take the trip, you will have to come on
+     down to Riva as soon as you get this letter, as we're planning to
+     pull out Thursday morning.
+
+     'Sorry to hurry you, but you know my vacation doesn't last for
+     ever.
+
+     'Love to Aunt Kate and yourself,
+
+                                             'Yours ever,
+                                                 'JERRY.'
+
+He turned the letters over to Gustavo with a five-franc note, leaving
+Gustavo to decide with his own conscience whether the money was intended
+for himself or the steward of the _Regina Margarita_. This accomplished,
+he slipped out unobtrusively and took the road toward Villa Rosa.
+
+He strode along with his hands in his pockets and his eyes on the path
+until he nearly bumped his nose against the villa gate-post. Then he
+stopped and thought. He had no mind to be ushered to the terrace, where
+he would have to dissemble some excuse for his visit before Miss Hazel
+and Mr. Wilder. His business to-night was with Constance, and Constance
+alone. He turned and skirted the villa wall, determined on reconnoitring
+first. There was a place in the wall--he knew well--where the stones were
+missing, and a view was obtainable of the terrace and parapet.
+
+He reached the place to find Lieutenant Carlo di Ferara already there.
+Now the Lieutenant's purpose was exactly as innocent as Tony's own; he
+merely wished to assure himself that Captain Coroloni was not before him.
+It was considered a joke at the tenth cavalry mess to detail one or the
+other of the officers to call on the Americans at the same time that
+Lieutenant di Ferara called. He was not spying on the family, merely on
+his meddling brother officers.
+
+Tony of course could know nothing of this, and as his eyes fell upon the
+lieutenant, there was apparent in their depths a large measure of
+contempt. A lieutenant in the Royal Italian Cavalry can afford to be
+generous in many things, but he cannot afford to swallow contempt from a
+donkey-driver. The signorina was not present this time; there was no
+reason why he should not punish the fellow. He dropped his hand on Tony's
+shoulder--on his collar to be exact--and whirled him about. The action
+was accompanied by some vigorous colloquial Italian--the gist of it being
+that Tony was to mind his own business and mend his manners. The
+lieutenant had a muscular arm, and Tony turned. But Tony had not played
+quarterback four years for nothing; he tackled low, and the next moment
+the lieutenant was rolling down the bank of a dried stream that stretched
+at their feet. No one likes to roll down a dusty stony bank, much less an
+officer in immaculate uniform on the eve of paying a formal call upon
+ladies. He picked himself up and looked at Tony; he was quite beyond
+speech.
+
+Tony looked back and smiled. He swept off his hat with a deferential bow.
+'_Scusi_,' he murmured, and jumped over the wall into the grounds of
+Villa Rosa.
+
+The lieutenant gasped. If anything could have been more insultingly
+inadequate to the situation than that one word _Scusi_, it did not at the
+moment occur to him. Jeering, blasphemy, vituperation, he might have
+excused, but this! The shock jostled him back to a thinking state.
+
+Here was no ordinary donkey-driver. The hand that had rested for a
+moment on his arm was the hand of a gentleman. The man's face was
+vaguely, elusively familiar; if the lieutenant had not seen him before,
+he had at least seen his picture. The man had pretended he could not talk
+Italian, but--_Scusi_--it came out very pat when it was needed.
+
+An idea suddenly assailed Lieutenant di Ferara. He scrambled up the bank
+and skirted the wall, almost on a run, until he reached the place where
+his horse was tied. Two minutes later he was off at a gallop, headed for
+the house of the prefect of police of Valedolmo.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+Tony jumped over the wall. He might have landed in the midst of a family
+party; but in so much luck was with him. He found the _Farfalla_ bobbing
+at the foot of the water-steps with Mr. Wilder and Miss Hazel already
+embarked. They were waiting for Constance, who had obligingly run back to
+the house to fetch the rainbow shawl (finished that afternoon) as Miss
+Hazel distrusted the Italian night breeze.
+
+Constance stepped out from the door as Tony emerged from the bushes. She
+regarded him in startled surprise; he was still in some slight disarray
+from his encounter with the lieutenant.
+
+'May I speak to you, Miss Wilder? I won't detain you but a moment.'
+
+She nodded and kept on, her heart thumping absurdly. He had received the
+letter, of course; and there would be consequences. She paused at the top
+of the water-steps.
+
+'You go on,' she called to the others, and pick me up on your way back.
+Tony wants to see me about something, and I don't like to keep Mrs.
+Eustace and Nannie waiting.'
+
+Giuseppe pushed off and Constance was left standing alone on the
+water-steps. She turned as Tony approached; there was a touch of defiance
+in her manner.
+
+'Well?'
+
+He came to her side and leaned carelessly against the parapet, his eyes
+on the _Farfalla_ as she tossed and dipped in the wash of the _Regina
+Margarita_ which was just puffing out from the village landing. Constance
+watched him, slightly taken aback; she had expected him to be angry,
+sulky, reproachful--certainly not nonchalant. When he finally brought his
+eyes from the water, his expression was mildly melancholy.
+
+'Signorina, I have come to say good-bye. It is very sad, but to-morrow, I
+too'--he waved his hand toward the steamer--'shall be a passenger.'
+
+'You are going away from Valedolmo?'
+
+He nodded.
+
+'Unfortunately, yes. I should like to stay, but'--he shrugged--'life
+isn't all play, Miss Wilder. Though one would like to be a donkey-man for
+ever, one only may be for a summer's holiday. I am your debtor for a
+unique and pleasant experience.'
+
+She studied his face without speaking. Did it mean that he had got the
+letter and was hurt, or did it perhaps mean that he had got the letter
+and did not care to appear as Jerry Junior? That he enjoyed the play so
+long as he could remain incognito and stop it where he pleased, but that
+he had no mind to let it drift into reality? Very possibly it meant--she
+flushed at the thought--that he divined Nannie's plot, and refused also
+to consider the fourth candidate.
+
+She laughed and dropped into their usual jargon.
+
+'And the young American man, Signor Abraham Lincoln, will he come
+to-morrow for tea?'
+
+'Ah, signorina, he is desolated, but it is not possible. He has received
+a letter and he must go; he has stopped too long in Valedolmo. To-morrow
+morning early, he and I togever, we sail away to Austria.'
+
+His eyes went back to the trail of smoke left by the little steamer.
+
+'And Costantina, Tony. You are leaving her behind?' It took some courage
+to put this question, but she did not flinch; she put it with a laugh
+which contained nothing but raillery.
+
+Tony sighed--a deep melodramatic sigh--and laid his hand on his heart.
+
+'Ah, signorina, zat Costantina, she has not any heart. She love one man
+one day, anozzer ze next. I go away to forget.'
+
+His eyes dropped to hers; for an instant the mocking light died out; a
+questioning wounded look took its place.
+
+She felt a quick impulse to hold out her hands, to say, 'Jerry, don't go!
+'If she only knew! Was he going because he thought that she wished to
+dismiss him, or because he wished to dismiss himself? Was it pique that
+bade him carry the play to the end, or was it merely the desire to get
+out of an awkward situation gracefully?
+
+She stood hesitating, scanning the terrace pavement with troubled eyes;
+when she raised them to his face the chance was gone. He straightened his
+shoulders with an air of finality and picked up his hat from the
+balustrade.
+
+'Some day, signorina, in New York, perhaps I play a little tune underneaf
+your window.'
+
+She nodded and smiled.
+
+'I will give the monkey a penny when he comes--good-bye.'
+
+He bowed over her hand and touched it lightly to his lips.
+
+'Signorina, _addio_!'
+
+As he strode away into the dusky lane of cypresses, she heard him
+whistling softly 'Santa Lucia.' It was the last stroke, she reflected
+angrily; he might at least have omitted that! She turned away and dropped
+down on the water-steps to wait for the _Farfalla_. The terrace, the
+lake, the beautiful Italian night, suddenly seemed deserted and empty.
+Before she knew it was coming, she had leaned her head against the
+balustrade with a deep sob. She caught herself sharply. She to sit there
+crying, while Tony went whistling on his way!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As the _Farfalla_ drifted idly over the water, Constance sat in the
+stern, her chin in her hand, moodily gazing at the shimmering path of
+moonlight. But no one appeared to notice her silence, since Nannie was
+talking enough for both. And the only thing she talked about was Jerry
+Junior, how funny and clever and charming he was, how phenomenally
+good--for a man; when she showed signs of stopping, Mr. Wilder by a
+question started her on. It seemed to Constance an interminable two hours
+before they dropped their guests in the garden of the Hotel du Lac, and
+headed again for Villa Rosa.
+
+As they approached their own water-steps it became apparent that some
+one--a man--was standing at the top in an attitude of expectancy.
+Constance's heart gave a sudden bound and the next instant sank deep. A
+babble of frenzied greetings floated out to meet them; there was no
+mistaking Gustavo. Moreover, there was no mistaking the fact that he was
+excited; his excitement was contagious even before they had learned the
+reason. He stuttered in his impatience to share the news.
+
+'Signore! _Dio mio_! A calamity has happened. Zat Tony, zat donk'-man! he
+has got hisself arrested. Zay say it is a lie, zat he is American
+citizen; he is an officer who is dessert from ze Italian army. Zay say he
+just pretend he cannot spik Italian--but it is not true. He know
+ten--leven words.'
+
+They came hurrying up the steps and surrounded him, Mr. Wilder no less
+shocked than Gustavo himself.
+
+'Arrested--as a deserter? It's an outrage!' he thundered.
+
+Constance laid her hand on Gustavo's sleeve and whirled him about.
+
+'What do you mean? I don't understand. Where is Tony?'
+
+Gustavo groaned.
+
+'In jail, signorina. Four carabinieri are come to take him away. And he
+fight--_Dio mio_! he fight like ze devil. But zay put--' he indicated
+handcuffs--'and he go.'
+
+Constance dropped down on the upper step, and leaning her head against
+the balustrade, she laughed until she was weak.
+
+Her father whirled upon her indignantly.
+
+'Constance! Haven't you any sympathy for the man? This isn't a laughing
+matter.'
+
+'I know, Dad, but it's so funny--Tony an Italian officer! He can't
+pronounce the ten--'leven words he does know right.'
+
+'Of course he can't; he doesn't know as much Italian as I do. Can't these
+fools tell an American citizen when they see one? I'll teach 'em to go
+about chucking American citizens in jail. I'll telegraph the consul in
+Milan; I'll make an international matter of it!'
+
+He fumed up and down the terrace, while Constance rose to her feet and
+followed after with a pretence at pacification.
+
+'Hush, Dad! Don't be so excitable. It was a very natural mistake for them
+to make. But if Tony is really what he says he is it will be very easily
+proved. You must be sure of your ground, though, before you act. I don't
+like to say anything against poor Tony now that he is in trouble, but I
+have always felt that there was a mystery connected with him. For all we
+know he may be a murderer or a brigand or an escaped convict in disguise.
+We only have his word, you know, that he is an American citizen.'
+
+'His word!' Mr. Wilder fairly exploded. 'Are you utterly blind? He's
+exactly as much an American citizen as I am. He's----' He stopped and
+fanned himself furiously. He had sworn never to betray Tony's secret, and
+yet, the present situation was exceptional.
+
+Constance patted him on the arm. 'There, Dad. I haven't a doubt his story
+is true. He was born in Budapest, and he's a naturalized American
+citizen. It's the duty of the United States Government to protect
+him--but it won't be difficult; I dare say he's got his naturalization
+papers with him. A word in the morning will set everything straight.'
+
+'Leave him in jail all night?'
+
+'But you can't do anything now; it's after ten o'clock; the authorities
+have gone to bed.'
+
+She turned to Gustavo; her tone was reassuring.
+
+'In the morning we'll get some American warships to bombard the jail.'
+
+'Signorina, you joke!' His tone was reproachful.
+
+She suddenly looked anxious. 'Gustavo, is the jail strong?'
+
+'Ver' strong, signorina.'
+
+'He can't escape and get over into Austria? We are very near the
+frontier, you know.'
+
+'No, signorina, it is impossible.' He shook his head hopelessly.
+
+Constance laughed and slipped her hand through her father's arm.
+
+'Come, Dad. The first thing in the morning we'll go down to the jail and
+cheer him up. There's not the slightest use in worrying any more
+to-night. It won't hurt Tony to be kept in--er--cold storage for a few
+hours--I think on the whole it will do him good!'
+
+She nodded dismissal to Gustavo, and drew her father, still muttering,
+toward the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Jerry Junior's letter of regret arrived from Riva on the early mail. In
+the light of Constance's effusively cordial invitation, the terse
+formality of his reply was little short of rude; but Constance read
+between the lines and was appeased. The writer, plainly, was angry, and
+anger was a much more becoming emotion than nonchalance. As she set out
+with her father toward the village jail, she was again buoyantly in
+command of the situation. She carried a bunch of oleanders, and the pink
+and white egg basket swung from her arm. Their way led past the gate of
+the Hotel du Lac, and Mr. Wilder, being under the impression that he was
+enjoying a very good joke all by himself, could not forgo the temptation
+of stopping to inquire if Mrs. Eustace and Nannie had heard any news of
+the prodigal. They found the two at breakfast in the courtyard, an open
+letter spread before them. Nannie received them with lamentations.
+
+'We can't come to the villa! Here's a letter from Jerry wanting us to
+start immediately for the Dolomites--did you ever know anything so
+exasperating?'
+
+She passed the letter to Constance, and then as she remembered the first
+sentence, made a hasty attempt to draw it back. It was too late;
+Constance's eyes had already pounced upon it. She read it aloud with
+gleeful malice.
+
+'"Who in thunder is Constance Wilder?"--If that's an example of the
+famous Jerry Junior's politeness, I prefer not to meet him, thank
+you.--It's worse than his last insult; I shall _never_ forgive this!' She
+glanced down the page and handed it back with a laugh; from her point of
+vantage it was naïvely transparent. From Mr. Wilder's point, however, the
+contents were inscrutable; he looked from the letter to his daughter's
+serene smile, and relapsed into a puzzled silence.
+
+'I should say, on the contrary, that he _doesn't_ want you to start
+immediately for the Dolomites,' Constance observed.
+
+'It's a girl,' Nannie groaned. 'I suspected it from the moment we got the
+telegram in Lucerne. Oh, why did I ever let that wretched boy get out of
+my sight?'
+
+'I dare say she's horrid,' Constance put in. 'One meets such frightful
+Americans travelling.'
+
+'We will go up to Riva on the afternoon boat and investigate.' It was
+Mrs. Eustace who spoke. There was an undertone in her voice which
+suggested that she was prepared to do her duty by her brother's son,
+however unpleasant that duty might be.
+
+'American girls are so grasping,' said Nannie plaintively. 'It's scarcely
+safe for an unattached man to go out alone.'
+
+Mr. Wilder leaned forward and reexamined the letter.
+
+'By the way, Miss Nannie, how did Jerry learn that you were here? His
+letter, I see, was mailed in Riva at ten o'clock last night.'
+
+Nannie examined the postmark. 'I hadn't thought of that! How could he
+have found out--unless that beast of a head waiter telegraphed? What does
+it mean?'
+
+Mr. Wilder spread out his hands and raised his shoulders. 'You've got
+me!' A gleam of illumination suddenly flashed over his face; he turned to
+his daughter with what was meant to be a carelessly off-hand manner.
+'Er--Constance, while I think of it, you didn't discharge Tony again
+yesterday, did you?'
+
+Constance opened her eyes.
+
+'Discharge Tony? Why should I do that? He isn't working for me.'
+
+'You weren't rude to him?'
+
+'Father, am I ever rude to any one?'
+
+Mr. Wilder looked at the envelope again and shook his head. 'There's
+something mighty fishy about this whole business. When you get hold of
+that brother of yours again, my dear young woman, you make him tell what
+he's been up to this week--and make him tell the truth.'
+
+'Mr. Wilder!' Nannie was reproachful. 'You don't know Jerry; he's
+incapable of telling anything but the truth.'
+
+Constance tittered.
+
+'What are you laughing at, Constance?'
+
+'Nothing--only it's so funny. Why don't you advertise for him? Lost--a
+young man, age twenty-eight, height five feet eleven, weight one hundred
+and seventy pounds, dark hair, grey eyes, slight scar over left eyebrow;
+dressed when last seen in double-breasted blue serge suit and brown
+russet shoes. Finder please return to Hotel du Lac and receive liberal
+reward.'
+
+'He isn't lost,' said Nannie. 'We know where he is perfectly; he's at the
+Hotel Sole d'Oro in Riva, and that's at the other end of the lake. We're
+going up on the afternoon boat to join him.'
+
+'Oh!' said Constance meekly.
+
+'You take my advice,' Mr. Wilder put in. 'Go up to Riva if you must--it's
+a pleasant trip--but leave your luggage here. See this young man in
+person and bring him back with you; tell him we have just as good
+mountains as he'll find in the Dolomites. If by any chance you shouldn't
+find him----'
+
+'Of course, we'll find him!' said Nannie.
+
+Constance looked troubled.
+
+'Don't go, it's quite a long trip. Write instead and give the letter to
+Gustavo; he'll give it to the boat steward who will deliver it
+personally. Then if Jerry shouldn't be there----'
+
+Nannie was losing her patience.
+
+'Shouldn't be there? But he _says_ he's there.'
+
+'Oh! yes, certainly, that ends it. Only, you know, Nannie, _I_ don't
+believe there really is any such person as Jerry Junior! I think he's a
+myth.'
+
+Gustavo had been hanging about the gate looking anxiously up the road as
+if he expected something to happen. His brow cleared suddenly as a boy on
+a bicycle appeared in the distance. The boy whirled into the court and
+dismounted; glancing dubiously from one to the other of the group, he
+finally presented his telegram to Gustavo, who passed it on to Nannie.
+She ripped it open and ran her eyes over the contents.
+
+'Can any one tell me the meaning of this? It's Italian!' She spread it on
+the table while the three bent over it in puzzled wonder.
+
+'Ceingide mai maind dunat comtu Riva stei in Valedolmo geri.'
+
+Constance was the first to grasp the meaning; she read it twice and
+laughed.
+
+'That's not Italian; it's English, only the operator has spelt it
+phonetically--I begin to believe there is a Jerry,' she added, 'no one
+could cause such a bother who didn't exist.' She picked up the slip and
+translated--
+
+     '"Changed my mind. Do not come to Riva; stay in Valedolmo--JERRY."'
+
+'I'm a clairvoyant, you see. I told you he wouldn't be there!'
+
+'But where is he?' Nannie wailed.
+
+Constance and her father glanced tentatively at each other, and were
+silent. Gustavo, who had been hanging officiously in the rear, approached
+and begged their pardon.
+
+'_Scusi_, signora, but I sink I can explain. _Ecco_! Ze telegram is dated
+from Limone--zat is a village close by here on ze ozzer side of ze lake.
+He is gone on a walking trip, ze yong man, of two--tree days wif an
+Englishman who is been in zis hotel. If he expect you so soon he would
+not go. But patience, he will come back. Oh, yes, in a little while,
+after one--two day he come back.'
+
+'What is the man talking about?' Mrs. Eustace was both indignant and
+bewildered. 'Jerry was in Riva yesterday at the Hotel Sole d'Oro. How
+can he be on a walking trip at the other end of the lake to-day?'
+
+'You don't suppose'--Nannie's voice was tragic--'that he has eloped with
+that American girl?'
+
+'Good heavens, my dear!' Mrs. Eustace appealed to Mr. Wilder. 'What are
+the laws in this dreadful country? Don't banns or something have to be
+published three weeks before the ceremony can take place?'
+
+Mr. Wilder rose hastily.
+
+'Yes, yes, dear lady. It's impossible; don't consider any such
+catastrophe for a moment. Come, Constance, I really think we ought to be
+going.--Er, you see, Mrs. Eustace, you can't believe--that is, don't let
+anything Gustavo says trouble you. With all respect for his many fine
+qualities, he has not Jerry's regard for truth. And don't bother any more
+about the boy; he will turn up in a day or so. He may have written some
+letters of explanation that you haven't got. These foreign mails----' He
+edged toward the gate.
+
+Constance followed him and then turned back.
+
+'We're on our way to the jail,' she said, 'to visit our donkey-driver,
+who has managed to get himself arrested. While we're there we can make
+inquiries if you like; it's barely possible that they might have got hold
+of Jerry on some false charge or other. These foreign jails----'
+
+'Constance!' said Nannie reproachfully.
+
+'Oh, my dear, I was only joking; of course it's impossible. Good-bye.'
+She nodded and laughed and ran after her father.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+If one must go to jail at all one could scarcely choose a more
+entertaining jail than that of Valedolmo. It occupies a structure which
+was once a palace; and its cells, planned for other purposes, are
+spacious. But its most gratifying feature, to one forcibly removed from
+social intercourse, is its outlook. The windows command the Piazza
+Garibaldi, which is the social centre of the town; it contains the
+village post, the fountain, the tobacco shop, the washing-trough, and the
+two rival cafés, the 'Independenza' and the 'Libertà.' The piazza is
+always dirty and noisy--that goes without saying--but on Wednesday
+morning at nine o'clock, it is peculiarly dirty and noisy. Wednesday is
+Valedolmo's market day, and the square is so cluttered with booths and
+hucksters and anxious buyers, that the peaceable pedestrian can scarcely
+wedge his way through. The noise moreover is deafening; above the cries
+of vendors and buyers rises a shriller chorus of bleating kids and
+squealing pigs and braying donkeys.
+
+Mr. Wilder, red in the face and short of temper, pushed through the crowd
+with little ceremony, prodding on the right with his umbrella, on the
+left with his fan, and using his elbows vigorously. Constance, serenely
+cool, followed in his wake, nodding here and there to a chance
+acquaintance, smiling on every one; the spectacle to her held always
+fresh interest. An image vendor close at her elbow insisted that she
+should buy a Madonna and Bambina for fifty centesimi, or at least a San
+Giuseppe for twenty-five. To her father's disgust she bought them both,
+and presented them to two wide-eyed children who in bashful fascination
+were dogging their footsteps.
+
+The appearance of the foreigners in the piazza caused such a ripple of
+interest, that for a moment the bargaining was suspended. When the two
+mounted the steps of the jail and jerked the bell, as many of the
+bystanders as the steps would accommodate mounted with them. Nobody
+answered the first ring, and Constance pulled again with a force which
+sent a jangle of bells echoing through the interior. After a second's
+wait--snortingly impatient on Mr. Wilder's part; he was being pressed
+close by the none too clean citizens of Valedolmo--the door was opened a
+very small crack by a frowsy jailoress. Her eye fell first upon the
+crowd, and she was disposed to close it again; but in the act she caught
+sight of the Signorina Americana dressed in white, smiling above a
+bouquet of oleanders. Her eyes widened with astonishment. It was long
+since such an apparition had presented itself at that door. She dropped a
+curtsy, and the crack widened.
+
+'Your commands, signorina?'
+
+'We, wish to come in.'
+
+'But it is against the orders. Friday is visiting-day at thirteen
+o'clock. If the signorina had a _permesso_ from the _sindaco_, why
+then----'
+
+The signorina shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. She had no
+_permesso_ and it was too much trouble to get one. Besides, the
+_sindaco's_ office didn't open till ten o'clock. She glanced down; there
+was a shining two-franc piece in her hand. Perhaps the jailoress would
+allow them to step inside away from the crowd, and she would explain?
+
+This sounded reasonable; the door opened farther and they squeezed
+through. It banged in the faces of the disappointed spectators, who
+lingered hopefully a few moments longer, and then returned to their
+bargaining. Inside the big damp stone-walled corridor Constance drew a
+deep breath and smiled upon the jailoress; the jailoress smiled back.
+Then as a preliminary skirmish, Constance presented the two-franc piece;
+and the jailoress dropped a curtsy.
+
+'We have heard that Antonio, our donkey-driver, has been arrested for
+deserting from the army and we have come to find out about it. My father,
+the signore here'--she waved her hand toward Mr. Wilder--'likes Antonio
+very much, and is quite sure that it is a mistake.'
+
+The woman's mouth hardened; she nodded with emphasis.
+
+'_Già_. We have him, the man Antonio, if that is his name. He may not be
+the deserter they search--I do not know--but if he is not the deserter he
+is something else. You should have heard him last night, signorina, when
+they brought him in. The things he said! They were in a foreign tongue; I
+did not understand, but I _felt_. Also he kicked my husband--kicked him
+quite hard so that he limps to-day. And the way he orders us about! You
+would think he were a prince in his own palace and we were his servants.
+Nothing is good enough for him. He objected to the room we gave him first
+because it smelt of the cooking. He likes butter with his bread and hot
+milk with his coffee. He cannot smoke the cigars which my husband bought
+for him, and they cost three soldi apiece. And this morning'--her voice
+rose shrilly as she approached the climax--'he called for a bath. It is
+true, signorina, a _bath_. _Dio mio_, he wished me to carry the entire
+village fountain to his room!'
+
+'Not really?' Constance opened her eyes in shocked surprise. 'But surely,
+signora, you did not do it?'
+
+The woman blinked.
+
+'It would be impossible, signorina,' she contented herself with saying.
+
+Constance, with grave concern, translated the sum of Tony's enormities to
+her father; and turned back to the jailoress apologetically.
+
+'My father is very much grieved that the man should have caused you so
+much trouble. But he says, that if we could see him, we could persuade
+him to be more reasonable. We talk his language, and can make him
+understand.'
+
+The woman winked meaningly.
+
+'Eh--he pretends he cannot talk Italian, but he understands enough to ask
+for what he wishes. I think--and the Signor-Lieutenant who ordered his
+arrest thinks--that he is shamming.'
+
+'It was a lieutenant who ordered his arrest? Do you remember his
+name--was it Carlo di Ferara?'
+
+'It might have been.' Her face was vague.
+
+'Of the cavalry?'
+
+'_Si_, signorina, of the cavalry--and very handsome.'
+
+Constance laughed. 'Well, the plot thickens! Dad, you must come to Tony's
+hearing this afternoon, and put it tactfully to our friend the lieutenant
+that we don't like to have our donkey-man snatched away without our
+permission.' She turned back to the jailoress. 'And now, where is the
+man? We should like to speak with him.'
+
+'It is against the orders, but perhaps--I have already permitted the head
+waiter from the Hotel du Lac to carry him newspapers and cigarettes. He
+says that the man Antonio is in reality an American nobleman from New
+York, who merely plays at being a donkey-driver for diversion, and that
+unless he is set at liberty immediately a ship will come with cannon,
+but--we all know Gustavo, signorina.'
+
+Constance nodded and laughed.
+
+'You have reason! We all know Gustavo--may we go right up?'
+
+The jailoress called the jailor. They talked aside; the two-franc piece
+was produced as evidence. The jailor with a great show of caution got out
+a bunch of keys and motioned them to follow. Up two flights and down a
+long corridor with peeling frescoes on the walls--nymphs and cupids and
+garlands of roses; most incongruous decorations for a jail--at last they
+paused before a heavy oak door. Their guide tried two wrong keys, swore
+softly as each failed to turn, and finally with an exclamation of triumph
+produced the right one. He swung the door wide and stepped back with a
+bow.
+
+A large room was revealed, brick-floored and somewhat scanty as to
+furniture, but with a view--an admirable view, if one did not mind it
+being checked off into iron squares. The most conspicuous object in the
+room, however, was its occupant, as he sat, in an essentially American
+attitude, with his chair tipped back and his feet on the table. A cloud
+of tobacco smoke and a wide-spread copy of a New York paper concealed him
+from too impertinent gaze. He did not raise his head at the sound of the
+opening door, but contented himself with growling----
+
+'Confound your impudence! You might at least knock before you come in.'
+
+Constance laughed and advanced a hesitating step across the threshold.
+Tony dropped his paper and sprang to his feet, his face, assuming a shade
+of pink only less vivid than the oleanders. She shook her head
+sorrowfully.
+
+'I don't need to tell you, Tony, how shocked we are to find you in such a
+place. Our trust has been rudely shaken; we had not supposed we were
+harbouring a deserter.'
+
+Mr. Wilder stepped forward and held out his hand; there was a twinkle in
+his eye, which he struggled manfully to suppress.
+
+'Nonsense, Tony, we don't believe a word of it. You a deserter from the
+Italian army? It's preposterous! Where are your naturalization papers?'
+
+'Thank you, Mr. Wilder, but I don't happen to have my papers with me--I
+trust it won't be necessary to produce them. You see'--his glance rested
+entirely on Mr. Wilder; he studiously overlooked Constance's
+presence--'this Angelo Fresi, the fellow they are after, got into a
+quarrel over a gambling debt and struck a superior officer. To avoid
+being court-martialled he lit out; it happened a month ago in Milan and
+they've been looking for him ever since. Now last night I had the
+misfortune to tip Lieutenant Carlo di Ferara over into a ditch. The
+matter was entirely accidental, and I regretted it very much. I, of
+course, apologized. But what did the lieutenant do but take it into his
+head that I, being an assaulter of superior officers, was, by a priori
+reasoning, this Angelo Fresi in disguise. Accordingly'--he waved his hand
+around the room--'you see me here.'
+
+'It's an imposition! Depriving an American citizen of his liberty on any
+such trumped-up charge as that! I'll telegraph the consul in Milan.
+I'll----'
+
+'Oh, don't trouble. I'll get off this afternoon; they've sent for some
+one to identify me, and if he doesn't succeed, I don't see how they can
+hold me. In the meantime, I'm comfortable enough.'
+
+Mr. Wilder's eye wandered about the room. 'H'm, it isn't bad for a jail!
+Got everything you need--tobacco, papers?' What's this, New York _Sun_
+only ten days old?' He picked it up and plunged into the headlines.
+
+Constance turned from the window and glanced casually at Tony.
+
+'You didn't go to Austria after all?'
+
+'I was detained; I hope to get off to-morrow.'
+
+'Oh, before I forget it.' She removed the basket from her arm and set it
+on the table. 'Here is some lemon jelly, Tony. I couldn't remember
+whether one takes lemon jelly to prisoners or invalids--I've never known
+any prisoners before, you see. But anyway, I hope you'll like it;
+Elizabetta made it.'
+
+He bowed stiffly. 'I beg of you to convey my thanks to Elizabetta.'
+
+'Tony!' She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper and glanced
+apprehensively over her shoulder to see if the jailor were listening. 'If
+by any chance they _should_ identify you as that deserter, just get word
+to me and I will have Elizabetta bake you a veal pasty with a rope ladder
+and a file inside. I would have had her bake it this morning, only
+Wednesday is ironing-day at the villa, and she was so awfully busy----'
+
+'This is your innings,' Tony rejoined somewhat sulkily. 'I hope you'll
+get all the entertainment you can out of the situation.'
+
+'Thank you, Tony, that's kind. Of course,' she added with a plaintive
+note in her voice, 'this must be tiresome for you; but it is a pleasant
+surprise for me. I was feeling very sad last night, Tony, at the thought
+that you were going to Austria and that I should never, never see you any
+more.'
+
+'I wish I knew whether there's any truth in that statement or not!'
+
+'Any truth! I realize well, that I might search the whole world over and
+never find another donkey-man who sings such beautiful tenor, who wears
+such lovely sashes and such becoming earrings. Why, Tony'--she took a
+step nearer and her face assumed a look of consternation--'you've lost
+your earrings!'
+
+He turned his back and walked to the window, where he stood moodily
+staring at the market. Constance watched his squared shoulders dubiously
+out of the corner of her eye; then she glanced momentarily into the hall
+where the jailor was visible his face flattened against the bars of an
+open window; and from him to her father, still deep in the columns of his
+paper, oblivious to both time and place. She crossed to Tony and stood at
+his side, peering down at the scene below.
+
+'I don't suppose it will interest you,' she said in an off-hand tone, her
+eyes still intent on the crowd, 'but I got a letter this morning from a
+young man who is stopping at the Sole d'Oro in Riva--a very rude letter,
+I thought.'
+
+He whirled about.
+
+'You know!'
+
+'It struck me that the person who wrote it was in a temper and might
+afterwards be sorry for having hurt my feelings, and so'--she raised her
+eyes momentarily to his--'the invitation is still open.'
+
+'Tell me,' there was both entreaty and command in his tone, 'did you know
+the truth before you wrote that letter?'
+
+'You mean, did I know whom I was inviting? Assuredly! Do you think it
+would have been dignified to write such an informal invitation to a
+person I did not know?'
+
+She turned away quickly and laid her hand on her father's shoulder.
+
+'Come, Dad, don't you think we ought to be going? Poor Tony wants to read
+the paper himself.'
+
+Mr. Wilder came back to the jail and his companions with a start.
+
+'Oh, eh, yes, I think perhaps we ought. If they don't let you out this
+afternoon, Tony, I'll make matters lively for 'em, and if there's
+anything you need, send word by Gustavo--I'll send back later.' He fished
+in his pockets and brought up a handful of cigars. 'Here's something
+better than lemon jelly, and they're not from the tobacco shop in
+Valedolmo either.'
+
+He dropped them on the table and turned toward the door; Constance
+followed with a backward glance.
+
+'Good-bye, Tony; don't despair. Remember that it's always darkest before
+the dawn, and that whatever others think, Costantina and I believe in
+you. _We_ know that you are incapable of telling anything but the truth!'
+She had almost reached the door when she became aware of the flowers in
+her hand; she hurried back. 'Oh, I forgot! Costantina sent these with
+her--with----' She faltered; her audacity did not go quite that far.
+
+Tony reached for them. 'With what?' he insisted.
+
+She laughed; and a second later the door closed behind her. He stood
+staring at the door till he heard the key turn in the lock, then he
+looked down at the flowers in his hand. A note was tied to the stems; his
+fingers trembled as he worked with the knot.
+
+'_Caro Antonio mio_,' it commenced; he could read that. '_La sua
+Costantina_,' it ended; he could read that. But between the two was an
+elusive, tantalizing hiatus. He studied it and put it in his pocket and
+took it out and studied it again. He was still puzzling over it half an
+hour later when Gustavo came to inquire if the signore had need of
+anything.
+
+Had he need of anything! He sent Gustavo flying to the stationer's in
+search of an Italian-English dictionary.
+
+It was four o'clock in the afternoon and all the world--except
+Constance--was taking a siesta. The _Farfalla_, anchored at the foot of
+the water-steps in a blaze of sunshine, was dipping up and down in drowsy
+harmony with the lapping waves; she was for the moment abandoned,
+Giuseppe being engaged with a nap in the shade of the cypress trees at
+the end of the drive. He was so very engaged that he did not hear the
+sound of an approaching carriage, until the horse was pulled to a sudden
+halt to avoid stepping on him. Giuseppe staggered sleepily to his feet
+and rubbed his eyes. He saw a gentleman descend, a gentleman clothed as
+for a wedding, in a frock coat and a white waistcoat, in shining hat and
+pearl grey gloves and a boutonnière of oleander. Having paid the driver
+and dismissed the carriage, the gentleman fumbled in his pocket for his
+card-case. Giuseppe hurrying forward with a polite bow, stopped suddenly
+and blinked. He fancied that he must still be dreaming; he rubbed his
+eyes and stared again, but he found the second inspection more
+confounding than the first. The gentleman looked back imperturbably, no
+slightest shade of recognition in his glance, unless a gleam of amusement
+far, far down in the depths of his eye might be termed recognition. He
+extracted a card with grave deliberation and handed it to his companion.
+
+'_Voglio vedere la Signorina Costantina_,' he remarked.
+
+The tone, the foreign accent, were both reminiscent of many a friendly
+though halting conversation. Giuseppe stared again, appealingly, but the
+gentleman did not help him out; on the contrary he repeated his request
+in a slightly sharpened tone.
+
+'_Si, signore_,' Giuseppe stammered. '_Prego di verire. La signorina è
+nel giardino._'
+
+He started ahead toward the garden, looking behind at every third step to
+make sure that the gentleman was still following, that he was not merely
+a figment of his own sleepy senses. Their direction was straight toward
+the parapet where, on an historic wash-day, the signorina had sat beside
+a row of dangling stockings. She was sitting there now, dressed in white,
+the oleander tree above her head enveloping her in a glowing and fragrant
+shade. So occupied was she with a dreamy contemplation of the mountains
+across the lake that she did not hear footsteps until Giuseppe paused
+before her and presented the card. She glanced from this to the visitor,
+and extended a friendly hand.
+
+'Mr. Hilliard! Good afternoon.'
+
+There was nothing of surprise in her greeting; evidently she did not find
+the visit extraordinary. Giuseppe stared, his mouth and eyes at their
+widest, until the signorina dismissed him; then he turned and walked
+back--staggered back almost--never before not even late at night on
+Corpus Domini day, had he had such overwhelming reason to doubt his
+senses.
+
+Constance turned to the visitor, and swept him with an appreciative
+glance, her eye lingering a second on the oleander in his buttonhole.
+
+'Perhaps you can tell me, is Tony out of jail? I am so anxious to know.'
+
+He shook his head.
+
+'Found guilty and sentenced for life; you'll never see him again.'
+
+'Ah; poor Tony! I shall miss him.'
+
+'I shall miss him too; we've had very good times together.'
+
+Constance suddenly became aware that her guest was still standing; she
+moved along and made place on the wall. 'Won't you sit down? Oh, excuse
+me,' she added with an anxious glance at his clothes, 'I'm afraid you'll
+get dusty; it would be better to bring a chair.' She nodded toward the
+terrace.
+
+He sat down beside her.
+
+'I am only too honoured; the last time I came you did not invite me to
+sit on the wall.'
+
+'I am sorry if I appeared inhospitable, but you came so unexpectedly, Mr.
+Hilliard.'
+
+'Why "Mr. Hilliard"? When you wrote you called me "dear Jerry."'
+
+'That was a slip of the pen; I hope you will excuse it.'
+
+'When I wrote I called you "Miss Wilder"; that was a slip of the pen too.
+What I meant to say was, "dear Constance."'
+
+She let this pass without comment.
+
+'I have an apology to make.'
+
+'Yes?'
+
+'Once, a long time ago, I insulted you; I called you a kid. I take it
+back; I swallow the word. You were never a kid.'
+
+'Oh,' she dimpled, and then, 'I don't believe you remember a thing about
+it?'
+
+'Connie Wilder, a little girl in a blue sailor suit, and two nice fat
+braids of yellow hair dangling down her back with red bows on the
+ends--very convenient for pulling.'
+
+'You are making that up. You don't remember.'
+
+'Ah, but I do! And as for the racket you were making that afternoon, it
+was, if you will permit the expression, _infernal_. I remember it
+distinctly; I was trying to cram for a math. exam.'
+
+'It wasn't I. It was your bad little sisters and brothers and cousins.'
+
+'It was you, dear Constance. I saw you with my own eyes; I heard you with
+my own ears.'
+
+'Bobbie Hilliard was pulling my hair.'
+
+'I apologize on his behalf, and with that we will close the incident.
+There is something much more important which I wish to talk about.'
+
+'Have you seen Nannie?' She offered this hastily, not to allow a pause.
+
+'Yes, dear Constance, I have seen Nannie.'
+
+'Call me "Miss Wilder," please.'
+
+'I'll be hanged if I will! You've been calling me Tony and Jerry and
+anything else you chose ever since you knew me--and long before for the
+matter of that.'
+
+Constance waived the point.
+
+'Was she glad to see you?'
+
+'She's always glad to see me.'
+
+'Oh, don't be so provoking! Give me the particulars. Was she surprised?
+How did you explain the telegrams and letters and Gustavo's stories? I
+should think the Hotel Sole d'Oro at Riva and the walking trip with the
+Englishman must have been difficult.'
+
+'Not in the least; I told the truth.'
+
+'The truth! Not all of it?'
+
+'Every word.'
+
+'How could you?' There was reproach in her accent.
+
+'It did come hard; I'm a little out of practice.'
+
+'Did you tell her about--about me?'
+
+'I had to, Constance. When it came to the necessity of squaring all of
+Gustavo's yarns, my imagination gave out. Anyway, I had to tell her out
+of self-defence; she was so superior. She said it was just like a man to
+muddle everything up. Here I'd been ten days in the same town with the
+most charming girl in the world, and hadn't so much as discovered her
+name; whereas if _she_ had been managing it---- You see how it was; I had
+to let her know that I was quite capable of taking care of myself without
+any interference from her. I even--anticipated a trifle.'
+
+'How?'
+
+'She said she was engaged. I told her I was too.'
+
+'Indeed!' Constance's tone was remote. 'To whom?'
+
+'The most charming girl in the world.'
+
+'May I ask her name?'
+
+He laid his hand on his heart in a gesture reminiscent of Tony.
+'Costantina.'
+
+'Oh! I congratulate you.'
+
+'Thank you--I hoped you would.'
+
+She looked away gravely toward the Maggiore rising from the midst of its
+clouds. His gaze followed hers, and for three minutes there was silence.
+Then he leaned toward her.
+
+'Constance, will you marry me?'
+
+'No!'
+
+A pause of four minutes during which Constance stared steadily at the
+mountain. At the end of that time her curiosity overcame her dignity; she
+glanced at him sidewise. He was watching her with a smile, partly of
+amusement, partly of something else.
+
+'Dear Constance, haven't you had enough of play, are you never going to
+grow up? You are such a kid!'
+
+She turned back to the mountain.
+
+'I haven't known you long enough,' she threw over her shoulder.
+
+'Six years!'
+
+'One week and two days.'
+
+'Through three incarnations.'
+
+She laughed a delicious rippling laugh of surrender, and slipped her hand
+into his.
+
+'You don't deserve it, Jerry, after the fib you told your sister, but I
+think--on the whole--I will.'
+
+Neither noticed that Mr. Wilder had stepped out from the house and was
+strolling down the cypress alley in their direction. He rounded the
+corner in front of the parapet, and as his eye fell upon them, came to a
+startled halt. The young man failed to let go of her hand, and Constance
+glanced at her father with an apprehensive blush.
+
+'Here's--Tony, Dad. He's out of jail.'
+
+'I see he is.'
+
+She slipped down from the wall and brought Jerry with her.
+
+'We'd like your parental blessing, please. I'm going to marry him, but
+don't look so worried. He isn't really a donkey-man, nor a Magyar, nor
+an orphan, nor an organ-grinder, nor--any of the things he has said he
+was. He is just a plain American man and an _awful liar_!'
+
+The young man held out his hand and Mr. Wilder shook it.
+
+'Jerry,' he said, 'I don't need to tell you how pleased----'
+
+'"Jerry!"' echoed Constance. 'Father, you knew?'
+
+'Long before you did, my dear.' There was a suggestion of triumph in Mr.
+Wilder's tone.
+
+'Jerry, you told.' There was reproach, scorn, indignation in hers.
+
+Jerry spread out his hands in a gesture of repudiation.
+
+'What could I do? He asked my name the day we climbed Monte Maggiore;
+naturally, I couldn't tell him a lie.'
+
+'Then we haven't fooled anybody. How unromantic!'
+
+'Oh, yes,' said Jerry, 'we've fooled lots of people. Gustavo doesn't
+understand, and Giuseppe, you noticed, looked rather dazed. Then there's
+Lieutenant Carlo di Ferara----'
+
+'Oh!' said Constance, her face suddenly blank.
+
+'You can explain to him now,' said her father, peering through the trees.
+
+A commotion had suddenly arisen on the terrace--the rumble of wheels,
+the confused mingling of voices. Constance and Jerry looked too. They
+found the yellow omnibus of the Hotel du Lac, its roof laden with
+luggage, drawn up at the end of the driveway, and Mrs. Eustace and Nannie
+on the point of descending. The centre of the terrace was already
+occupied by Lieutenant di Ferara, who, with heels clicked together and
+white gloved hands at salute, was in the act of achieving a military bow.
+Miss Hazel fluttering from the door, in one breath welcomed the guests,
+presented the lieutenant, and ordered Giuseppe to convey the luggage
+upstairs. Then she glanced questioningly about the terrace.
+
+'I thought Constance and her father were here--Giuseppe!'
+
+Giuseppe dropped his end of a trunk and approached. Miss Hazel handed him
+the lieutenant's card. 'The signorina and the signore--in the garden, I
+think.'
+
+Giuseppe advanced upon the garden. Jerry's face, at the sight, became as
+blank as Constance's. The two cast upon each other a glance of guilty
+terror, and from this looked wildly behind for a means of escape. Their
+eyes simultaneously lighted on the break in the garden wall. Jerry sprang
+up and pulled Constance after him. On the top, she gathered her skirts
+together preparatory to jumping, then turned back for a moment toward her
+father.
+
+'Dad,' she called in a stage whisper, 'you go and meet him like a
+gentleman. Tell him you are very sorry, but your daughter is not at home
+to-day.'
+
+The two conspirators scrambled down on the other side; and Mr. Wilder,
+with a sigh, dutifully stepped forward to greet the guests.
+
+
+
+
+
+Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner, Frome and London
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jerry, by Jean Webster
+
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