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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jerry Junior, 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 Junior
+
+Author: Jean Webster
+
+Illustrator: Orson Lowell
+
+Release Date: January 14, 2007 [EBook #20358]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JERRY JUNIOR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Louise Pryor and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  Jerry Junior
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: "Constance studied the mountains a moment"]
+
+
+
+
+  Jerry Junior
+
+  By
+  Jean Webster
+  Author of "When Patty Went to College," etc.
+
+  With Illustrations
+  by Orson Lowell
+
+  New York
+  The Century Co.
+  1907
+
+
+
+
+  Copyright, 1907, by
+  THE CENTURY CO.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Copyright, 1906, 1907, by
+  THE CROWELL PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  _Published April_, 1907
+
+
+  THE DE VINNE PRESS
+
+
+
+
+List of Illustrations
+
+  FACING PAGE
+
+  "Constance studied the mountains a moment"      _Frontispiece_
+
+  "'Hello, Gustavo! Is that for me?'"                                   5
+
+  "The fourth girl, with gray eyes and yellow-brown hair, was
+  sitting at ease on the balustrade"                                   23
+
+  "Giuseppe still made a feint of preoccupation"                       29
+
+  "He had also shifted his position so that he might command the
+  profile of the girl"                                                 45
+
+  Beppo and the donkeys                                                67
+
+  "Constance clasped her hands in an ecstasy of admiration"            71
+
+  "Constance ahead on Fidilini, an officer marching at each side
+  of her saddle"                                                       85
+
+  "She seated herself in the deep embrasure of a window close
+  beside Tony's parapet"                                               95
+
+  "The man bowed with a gesture which made her free of the book"      119
+
+  "She turned the pages and paused at the week's entries"             133
+
+  "Constance ripped the letter open and read it aloud"                149
+
+  "Nannie caught sight of the visitors first, and came running
+  forward to meet them"                                               199
+
+  "The two mounted the steps of the jail and jerked the bell"         253
+
+  "Never before had he had such overwhelming reason to doubt his
+  senses"                                                             273
+
+
+
+
+Jerry Junior
+
+
+
+
+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
+arbor 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 court-yard was empty, as he might have foreseen, and he was
+turning with a patient sigh towards the long arbor 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?"
+
+[Illustration: "'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 tonight, and that we
+will pull out for Riva by the first boat tomorrow 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 don'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 connection
+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
+arbor.
+
+"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-color villa wif ze cypress trees and ze
+_terrazzo_ on ze lake. His daughter, la Signorina Costantina, she live
+wif him--ver' yong, 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
+ship-wrecked man meets another ship-wrecked 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 today. 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
+_citta_. 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-colored 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-colored 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 arbor 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 color the terrace is perfect, but, like the
+court-yard 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 a row 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 gray 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.
+
+[Illustration: "The fourth girl, with gray eyes and yellow-brown hair,
+was sitting at ease on the balustrade"]
+
+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 gray 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.
+
+[Illustration: "Giuseppe still made a feint of preoccupation"]
+
+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 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 humor; 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 court-yard 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?"
+
+"Tomorrow morning for the first boat."
+
+Gustavo bowed to the inevitable; and the young man passed on. He paused
+half way across the court-yard.
+
+"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
+court-yard, paused for a moment to tease the parrot, and sauntered on to
+his favorite 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. _Gia_, 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 court-yard 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.
+
+[Illustration: "He had also shifted his position so that he might
+command the profile of the girl"]
+
+"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 loving, 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
+court-yard. "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 day."
+
+"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 today."
+
+"Today, 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 connection.
+
+"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 forever 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 court yard. 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 chamber-maid 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 arbor 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 tranquility 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-colored 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
+humor 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 caffe-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 anyone 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 today, 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."
+
+[Illustration: Beppo and the donkeys]
+
+"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-colored 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 candor 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."
+
+[Illustration: "Constance clasped her hands in an ecstasy of
+admiration"]
+
+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 gray 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 tete-a-tete. 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. Someone, 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 somber 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
+favors 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.
+
+[Illustration: "Constance ahead on Fidilini, an officer marching at each
+side of her saddle."]
+
+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 endeavoring 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 marvelous view stretched invitingly; but Tony had eyes
+neither for medieval 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 tonight before he was found out, and
+leave Valedolmo tomorrow 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 centered 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."
+
+[Illustration: "She seated herself in the deep embrasure of a window
+close beside Tony's parapet"]
+
+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 clamoring 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 candor.
+
+"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 gesture.
+
+"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, he 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 god-father. 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' moch, 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 gray.
+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 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 gray 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.
+
+"_Mache_! 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 highroad 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, arbors, 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 harbor 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
+harbor. 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 reconnoiteringly 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 arbor 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 arbor 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.
+
+[Illustration: "The man bowed with a gesture which made her free of the
+book"]
+
+"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 color; 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 someone 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 arbor 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'hote_, 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 tomorrow, 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
+tomorrow, but after that I dare say he'll be free. Gustavo can tell you
+about him."
+
+She nodded and smiled and turned down the arbor.
+
+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 arbor, 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 tomorrow."
+
+"Oh, he is going tomorrow?--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!"
+
+[Illustration: "She turned the pages and paused at the week's entries."]
+
+"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 arbor, 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 odors 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 disfavor. 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 anyone 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 washday, 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 forego 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.
+
+[Illustration: "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 were 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
+program 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 schoolroom! 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
+everyone else at the officer's mess, that in the end the lieutenant would
+be the favored 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. Today 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 color 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 officer's 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
+labored 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 role 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 today, 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 favor. 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 tomorrow 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 tonight 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; tomorrow 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 meager.
+
+Miss Hazel settled herself to her knitting. She was making a rain-bow
+shawl of seven colors 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 someone 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 today too long, too high. You get tired, signorina.
+Perhaps anozzer day we take li'l' baby mountain, zen you can go."
+
+"I am going today."
+
+"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 today. Zat Costantina she more
+kind. Yesterday ver' unkind; I go home ver' sad. But today 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 endeavored 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 hillside 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
+reconnoitering 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 magnificant--truly magnificant.
+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 someone 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 questions 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 skyscrapers 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 tonight."
+
+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 center, 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 facade 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 patch work 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 pretense 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 center 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 today, 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 forever."
+
+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 today--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 today."
+
+"What time zay come home?"
+
+"About seven o'clock, I fancy."
+
+"Ze signora and ze signorina--zay come two days before zay are expect."
+He was clearly aggrieved by the fact.
+
+Constance's mystification increased; she saw not the slightest
+connection.
+
+"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 arbor, 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.
+
+[Illustration: "Nannie caught sight of the visitors first, and came
+running forward to meet them"]
+
+"You don't know him--Harry Eastman, a friend of Jerry's. Jerry doesn't
+know it yet, and I had to confide in someone. 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 anyone 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 tonight to
+take you sailing--provided there's any breeze."
+
+She nodded and dragged her aunt off; but as they were entering the arbor
+a plan for further complicating matters popped into her head, and she
+turned back to call:
+
+"You are coming to the villa tomorrow, 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 tonight 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 today. He is expected
+tomorrow 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
+laboring 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 pretense 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 favor on your way home tonight?"
+
+"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
+words.
+
+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 tomorrow 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 e 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 court-yard
+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
+court-yard 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 down stairs 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 today. She wished the
+curtain to go down on the comedy note. Tomorrow, 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 tomorrow 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 tonight. Ask him
+to put on Austrian stamps and mail them at Riva, so they'll get back here
+tomorrow. 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 forever.
+
+     "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 tonight was with Constance, and Constance alone.
+He turned and skirted the villa wall, determined on reconnoitering 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 tomorrow, 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
+forever, 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
+tomorrow 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. Tomorrow
+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
+someone--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 pretense 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 exceptionable.
+
+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 war-ships 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 tonight.
+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 forego 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 naively 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 traveling."
+
+"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 post mark.
+
+"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 anyone?"
+
+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, gray eyes, slight scar over left eye brow;
+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 anyone 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 today?"
+
+"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 center of the town; it contains the
+village post, the fountain, the tobacco shop, the washing-trough, and the
+two rival cafes, the "Independenza" and the "Liberta." 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
+huxters 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 everyone; 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
+courtesy and the crack widened.
+
+"Your commands, signorina?"
+
+"We wish to come in."
+
+[Illustration: "The two mounted the steps of the jail and jerked the
+bell"]
+
+"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 courtesy.
+
+"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.
+
+"_Gia_. 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 today. 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 its
+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
+harboring 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-martialed 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 someone
+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 tomorrow."
+
+"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 be 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 gray gloves and a boutonniere 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 e
+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 a 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 honored; 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!"
+
+[Illustration: "Never before had he had such overwhelming reason to doubt
+his senses"]
+
+"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 center 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
+today."
+
+The two conspirators scrambled down on the other side; and Mr. Wilder
+with a sigh, dutifully stepped forward to greet the guests.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jerry Junior, by Jean Webster
+
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