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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5310.txt b/5310.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..279d70b --- /dev/null +++ b/5310.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3605 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Point of View, by Elinor Glyn + +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: The Point of View + +Author: Elinor Glyn + +Posting Date: August 5, 2012 [EBook #5310] +Release Date: March, 2004 +First Posted: June 29, 2002 +Last Updated: August 13, 2005 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POINT OF VIEW *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + +The Author's Press Series of the Works of Elinor Glyn + + +THE POINT OF VIEW + + +ELINOR GLYN + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The restaurant of the Grand Hotel in Rome was filling up. People were +dining rather late--it was the end of May and the entertainments were +lessening, so they could dawdle over their repasts and smoke their +cigarettes in peace. + +Stella Rawson came in with her uncle and aunt, Canon and the Honorable +Mrs. Ebley, and they took their seats in a secluded corner. They looked +a little out of place--and felt it--amid this more or less gay company. +But the drains of the Grand Hotel were known to be beyond question, +and, coming to Rome so late in the season, the Reverend Canon Ebley +felt it was wiser to risk the contamination of the over-worldly-minded +than a possible attack of typhoid fever. The belief in a divine +protection did not give him or his lady wife that serenity it might +have done, and they traveled fearfully, taking with them their own +jaeger sheets among other precautions. + +They realized they must put up with the restaurant for meals, but at +least the women folk should not pander to the customs of the place and +wear evening dress. Their subdued black gowns were fastened to the +throat. Stella Rawson felt absolutely excited--she was twenty-one years +old, but this was the first time she had ever dined in a fashionable +restaurant, and it almost seemed like something deliciously wrong. + +Life in the Cathedral Close where they lived in England was not highly +exhilarating, and when its duties were over it contained only mild +gossip and endless tea-parties and garden-parties by way of recreation. + +Canon and the Honorable Mrs. Ebley were fairly rich people. The Uncle +Erasmus' call to the church had been answered from inclination--not +necessity. His heart was in his work. He was a good man and did his +duty according to the width of the lights in which he had been brought +up. + +Mrs. Ebley did more than her duty--and had often too much momentum, +which now and then upset other people's apple carts. + +She had, in fact, been the moving spirit in the bringing about of her +niece Stella's engagement to the Bishop's junior chaplain, a young +gentleman of aesthetic aspirations and eight hundred a year of his own. + +Stella herself had never been enthusiastic about the affair. As a man, +Eustace Medlicott said absolutely nothing at all to her--though to be +sure she was quite unaware that he was inadequate in this respect. No +man had meant anything different up to this period of her life. She had +seen so few of them she was no judge. + +Eustace Medlicott had higher collars than the other curates, and +intoned in a wonderfully melodious voice in the cathedral. And quite a +number of the young ladies of Exminster, including the Bishop's second +daughter, had been setting their caps at him from the moment of his +arrival, so that when, by the maneuvers of Aunt Caroline Ebley, Stella +found him proposing to her, she somehow allowed herself to murmur some +sort of consent. + +Then it seemed quite stimulating to have a ring and to be congratulated +upon being engaged. And the few weeks that followed while the thing was +fresh and new had passed quite pleasantly. It was only when about a +month had gone by that a gradual and growing weariness seemed to be +falling upon her. + +To be the wife of an aesthetic high church curate, who fasted severely +during Lent and had rigid views upon most subjects, began to grow into +a picture which held out less and less charm for her. + +But Aunt Caroline was firm--and the habit of twenty-one years of +obedience held. + +Perhaps Fate was looking on in sympathy with her unrest. In any case, +it appeared like the jade's hand and not chance which made Uncle +Erasmus decide to take his holiday early in the year and to decide to +spend it abroad--not in Scotland or Wales as was his custom. + +Stella, he said, should see the eternal city and Florence before +settling down in the autumn to her new existence. + +Miss Rawson actually jumped with joy--and the knowledge that Eustace +Medlicott would be unable to accompany them, but might join them later +on, did not damp her enthusiasm. + +Every bit of the journey was a pleasure, from the moment they landed on +French soil. They had come straight through to Rome from Paris, where +they had spent a week at a small hotel; because of the lateness of the +year they must get to their southern point first of all and return +northward in a more leisurely manner. + +And now anyone who is reading this story can picture this respectable +English family and understand their status and antecedents, so we can +very well get back to them seated in the agreeable restaurant of the +Grand Hotel at Rome--beginning to partake of a modest dinner. + +Mrs. Ebley (I had almost written the Reverend Mrs. Ebley!) was secretly +enjoying herself--she had that feeling that she was in a place where +she ought not to be--through no fault of her own--and so was free to +make the most of it, and certainly these well-dressed people were very +interesting to glance at between mouthfuls of a particularly +well-cooked fish. + +Stella was thrilling all over and her soft brown eyes were sparkling +and her dazzlingly pink and white complexion glowing with health and +excitement, so that even in the Exminster confection of black grenadine +she was an agreeable morsel for the male eye to dwell upon. + +There were the usual company there: the younger diplomats from the +Embassies; a sprinkling of trim Italian officers in their pretty +uniforms; French and Austrian ladies; as well as the attractive-looking +native and American representatives of the elite of Roman society. + +The tables began to fill up before the Ebleys had finished their fish, +and numbers of the parties seemed to know one another and nod and +exchange words en passant. + +But there was one table laid for a single person which remained empty +until the entrees were being handed, and Stella, with her fresh +interest in the whole scene, wondered for whom it was reserved. + +He came in presently--and he really merits a descriptive paragraph all +to himself. + +He was a very tall man and well made, with broad shoulders and a small +head. His evening clothes, though beautifully pressed, with that look +which only a thoroughly good valet knows how to stamp upon his master's +habiliments as a daily occurrence, were of foreign cut and hand, and +his shirt, unstarched, was of the finest pleated cambric. + +These trifles, however, were not what rendered him remarkable, but that +his light brown hair was worn parted in the middle and waved back a la +vierge with a rather saintly expression, and was apparently just cut +off in a straight line at the back. This was quite peculiar-looking +enough--and in conjunction with a young, silky beard, trimmed into a +sharp point with the look of an archaic Greek statue, he presented a +type not easily forgotten. The features were regular and his eyes were +singularly calm and wise and blue. + +It seemed incredible that such an almost grotesque arrangement of +coiffure should adorn the head of a man in modern evening dress. It +should have been on some Byzantine saint. However, there he was, and +entirely unconcerned at the effect he was producing. + +The waiters, who probably knew his name and station, precipitated +themselves forward to serve him, and with leisurely mien he ordered a +recherche dinner and a pint of champagne. + +Stella Rawson was much interested and so were her uncle and aunt. + +"What a very strange-looking person," Mrs. Ebley said. "Of what nation +can he be? Erasmus, have you observed him?" + +Canon Ebley put on his pince-nez and gave the newcomer the benefit of a +keen scrutiny. + +"I could not say with certainty, my dear. A northerner evidently--but +whether Swedish or Danish it would be difficult to determine," he +announced. + +"He does not appear to know he is funny-looking," Stella Rawson said, +timidly. "Do you notice, Aunt Caroline, he does not look about him at +all, he has never glanced in any direction; it is as if he were alone +in the room." + +"A very proper behavior," the Aunt Caroline replied severely, "but he +cannot be an Englishman--no Englishman would enter a public place, +having made himself remarkable like that, and then be able to sit there +unaware of it; I am glad to say our young men have some sense of +convention. You cannot imagine Eustace Medlicott perfectly indifferent +to the remarks he would provoke if he were tricked out so." + +Stella felt a sudden sympathy for the foreigner. She had heard so +ceaselessly of her fiance's perfections! + +"Perhaps they wear the hair like that in his country," she returned, +with as much spirit as she dared to show. "And he may think we all look +funny, as we think he does. Only he seems to be much better mannered +than we are, because he is quite sure of himself and quite unconscious +or indifferent about our opinion." + +Both her aunt and uncle looked at her with slightly shocked +surprise--and she saw it at once and reddened a little. + +But this incident caused the remarkable looking foreigner to +crystallize in interest for her, especially when, in raising his glass +of champagne, she saw that on his wrist there was a bracelet of +platinum with a small watch set with very fine diamonds. She could +hardly have been more surprised if he had worn a ring in his nose, so +unaccustomed was she to any type but that of the curates and young +gentlemen of Exminster. + +Canon and Mrs. Ebley finished their dinner in disdainful silence and +sailed from the room with chilling glances, but as Stella Rawson +followed them demurely she raised her soft eyes when she came to the +object of her relatives' contempt, and met his serene blue ones--and +for some reason thrilled wildly. + +There was a remarkable and powerful magnetism in his glance; it was as +if a breath of some other world touched her, she seemed to see into +possibilities she had never dreamed about. She resented being drawn +into a far corner on the right hand of the hall, and there handed an +English paper to read for half an hour before being told to go to bed. +She was perfectly conscious that she was longing for the stranger to +come out of the restaurant, that she might see him again. + +But it was not until she was obediently following her aunt's black +broche train to the lift up the steps again that the tall man passed +them in the corridor. He never even glanced in their direction, and +went on as though the space were untenanted--but had hardly got beyond, +when he turned suddenly, and walked rapidly to the lift door, passing +them again. So that the four entered it presently, and were taken up +together. + +Stella Rawson was very close to the remarkable looking creature. And +again a wild nameless attraction crept over her. She noticed his skin +was faintly browned with the sun, but was otherwise as fine as a +child's--finer than most children's. And now she could see that three +most wonderful pearls were his shirt-studs. + +He got out on the second floor, one beneath them, and said, "Pardon," +as he passed, but not as a French word, nor yet as if it were English. + +During these few seconds Stella was quite aware that he had never +apparently looked at her. + +"I call such an appearance sacrilegious," Mrs. Ebley said. "A man has +no right to imitate one of the blessed apostles in these modern days; +it is very bad taste." + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Stella Rawson woke the next day with some sense of rebellion. There +came with the rest of her post a letter from her betrothed. And +although it was just such a letter as any nice girl engaged of her own +free will to the Bishop's junior chaplain ought to have been glad to +receive, Stella found herself pouting and criticizing every sentence. + +"I do wish Eustace would not talk such cant," she said to herself. +"Even in this he is unable to be natural--and I am sure I shall not +feel a thing like he describes when I stand in St. Peter's. I believe I +would rather go into the Pantheon. I seem to be tired of everything I +ought to like to-day!" And still rebellious she got up and was taken by +her uncle and aunt to the Vatican--and was allowed to linger only in +the parts which interested them. + +"I never have had a taste for sculpture," Mrs. Ebley said. "People may +call it what names they please, but I consider it immoral and indecent." + +"A wonder to me," the Uncle Erasmus joined in, "that a prelate--even a +prelate of Rome--should have countenanced the housing of all these +unclothed marbles in his own private palace." + +Stella Rawson stopped for a second in front of an archaic Apollo of no +great merit--because it reminded her of the unknown; and she wished +with all her might something new and swift and rushing might come into +her humdrum life. + +After luncheon, for which they returned to the hotel, she wearily went +over to the writing-table in the corner of the hall to answer her +lover's chaste effusion--and saw that the low armchair beside the +escritoire was tenanted by a pair of long legs with singularly fine +silk socks showing upon singularly fine ankles--and a pair of strong +slender hands held a newspaper in front of the rest of the body, +concealing it all and the face. It was the English TIMES, which, as +everybody knows, could hide Gargantua himself. + +She began her letter--and not a rustle disturbed her peace. + +"Dearest Eustace," she had written, "we have arrived in Rome--" and +then she stopped, and fixed her eyes blankly upon the column of births, +marriages, and deaths. She was staring at it with sightless eyes, when +the paper was slowly lowered and over its top the blue orbs of the +stranger looked into hers. + +Her pretty color became the hue of a bright pink rose. "Mademoiselle," +a very deep voice said in English, "is not this world full of bores and +tiresome duties; have you the courage to defy them all for a few +minutes--and talk to me instead?" + +"Monsieur!" Miss Rawson burst out, and half rose from her seat. Then +she sat down again--the unknown had not stirred a muscle. + +"Good," he murmured. "One has to be courageous to do what is +unconventional, even if it is not wrong. I am not desirous of hurting +or insulting you--I felt we might have something to say to each +other--is it so--tell me, am I right?" + +"I do not know," whispered Stella lamely. She was so taken aback at the +preposterous fact that a stranger should have addressed her at all, +even in a manner of indifference and respect, that she knew not what to +do. + +"I observed you last night," he went on. "I am accustomed to judge of +character rapidly--it is a habit I have acquired during my travels in +foreign lands--when I cannot use the standard of my own. You are weary +of a number of things, and you do not know anything at all about life, +and you are hedged round with those who will see that you never learn +its meaning. Tell me--what do you think of Rome--it contains things and +aspects which afford food for reflection, is it not so?" + +"We have only been to the Vatican as yet," Stella answered timidly--she +was still much perturbed at the whole incident, but now that she had +begun she determined she might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, +and she was conscious that there was a strong attraction in the mild +blue eyes of the stranger. His manner had a complete repose and absence +of self-consciousness, which usually is only to be found in the people +of race--in any nation. + +"You were taken to the Sistine Chapel, of course," he went on, "and to +the loggia and Bramant's staircase? You saw some statues, too, perhaps?" + +"My uncle and aunt do not care much for sculpture," Miss Rawson said, +now regaining her composure, "but I like it--even better than pictures." + +The stranger kept his steady eyes fixed upon her face all the time. + +"I have a nymph in my house at home," he returned. "She came originally +from Rome; she is not Greek and she is very like you, the same droop of +head--I remarked it immediately--I am superstitious--I suppose you +would call what I mean by that word--and I knew directly that some day +you, too, would mean things to me. That is why I spoke--do you feel it, +too?" + +Stella Rawson quivered. The incredible situation paralyzed her. +She--the Aunt Caroline's niece, and engaged to Eustace Medlicott, the +Bishop's junior chaplain, to be listening to a grotesque-looking +foreigner making subtle speeches of an insinuating character, and, far +from feeling scandalized and repulsed, to be conscious that she was +thrilled and interested--it was hardly to be believed! + +"Will you tell me from where you come?" she asked with sweet +bashfulness, raising two eyes as soft as brown velvet. "You speak +English so very well--one cannot guess." + +"I am a Russian," he said simply. "I come from near Moscow--and my name +is Sasha Roumovski, Count Roumovski. Yours, I am aware, is Rawson, but +I would like to know how you are called--Mary, perhaps? That is +English." + +"No, my name is not Mary," she answered, and froze a little--but the +Russian's eyes continued to gaze at her with the same mild frankness +which disarmed any resentment. She felt they were as calm as deep pools +of blue water--they filled her with a sense of confidence and +security--which she could not account for in any way. + +Her color deepened--something in his peaceful expectancy seemed to +compel her to answer his late question. + +"My Christian name is Stella," she said, rather quickly, then added +nervously: "I am engaged to Mr. Eustace Medlicott, an English +clergyman--we are going to be married in September next." + +"And this is May," was all Count Roumovski replied; then, for the first +time since he had addressed her, he turned his eyes from her face, +while the faintest smile played round his well-cut mouth. + +"A number of things can happen in four months. Are you looking forward +to your life as the wife of a priest--but I understand it is different +in England to in my country--there I could not recommend the situation +to you." + +Stella found absolutely no answer to this. She only felt a sudden, wild +longing to cry out that the idea of being a curate's wife--even the +Bishop's junior young gentleman with eight hundred a year of his +own--had never appeared a thrilling picture, and was now causing her a +feeling of loathing. She thought she ought to talk no longer to this +stranger, and half rose from her seat. + +He put out a protesting hand, both had been clasped idly over the Times +until then without a movement. + +"No--do--not go--I have disturbed you--I am sorry," he pleaded. +"Listen, there is a great reception at your Embassy to-morrow +night--for one of our Royal Family who is here. You will go, perhaps. +If so, I will do so also, although I dislike parties--and there I will +be presented to you with ceremony--it will appease that English +convention in you, and after that I shall say to you a number of +things--but I prefer to sit here and speak behind the Times." + +At this instant he raised the paper, and appeared again the stranger +almost entirely hidden from view. And Stella saw that her Uncle Erasmus +was rapidly approaching her with an envelope in his hand. She seized +her pen again and continued her broken sentence to Eustace--her +betrothed. Canon Ebley viewed the Times and its holder with suspicion +for an instant, but its stillness reassured him, and he addressed his +niece. + +"Very civil of the Embassy to send us a card for the reception +to-morrow night, Stella; I am glad we wrote names when we arrived. Your +Aunt Caroline bids you accept, as her spectacles are upstairs." + +Miss Rawson did as she was bid, and her uncle waited, fidgeting with +his feet. He wished the stranger to put down the Times, which he wanted +himself--or, at all events, remove his long legs and hidden body from +such a near proximity to his niece; they could not say a word that he +could not overhear, Canon Ebley mused. + +However, the unknown remained where he was, and turned a page of the +paper with great deliberation. + +"Your aunt will be ready to go out again now," the Uncle Erasmus +announced, as Stella placed her acceptance in the envelope. "You had +better go up and put your hat on, my dear." + +The Times rustled slightly--and Stella replied a little hurriedly: "I +was just finishing a letter, uncle, then I will come." + +"Very well," said Canon Ebley, not altogether pleased, as he walked +away with the note. + +The newspaper was lowered a few inches again, and the wise blue eyes +beneath the saintly parted hair twinkled with irresistible laughter, +and the deep voice said: + +"He would greatly disapprove of our having conversed--the uncle--is it +not so? How long are you going to stay in Rome?" + +Stella smiled, too--she could not help it. + +"A week--ten days, perhaps," she answered, and then rapidly addressed +an envelope to the Rev. Eustace Medlicott. + +"Perhaps, in that case, I can afford to wait until to-morrow night; +unless it amuses you, as it does me, to circumvent people," Count +Roumovski said. "We are all masters of our own lives, you know, once we +have ceased to be children--it is only convention which persuades us to +submit to others' authority." + +Stella looked up startled. Was this indeed true? And was it simply +convention which had forced her into an engagement with Eustace +Medlicott, and now forced her to go up and put on her hat and accompany +her uncle and aunt to see the Lateran, when she would have preferred to +remain where she was and discuss abstract matters with this remarkable +stranger. + +"The notion surprises you, one sees," Count Roumovski went on, "but it +is true--" + +"I suppose it is," said Stella lamely. + +"I submit to no authority--I mean, as to the controlling of my actions +and wishes. We must all submit to the laws of our country, to do so is +the only way to obtain complete personal freedom." + +"That sounds like a paradox," said Stella. + +"I have just been thinking," he went on, without noticing the +interruption, "it would be most agreeable to take a drive in my +automobile late this after-noon, when your guardians have returned and +are resting. If you feel you would care to come I will wait in this +hall from five to six. You need not take the least notice of me, you +can walk past, out of the hotel, then turn to the left, and there in +the square, where there are a few trees, you will see a large blue +motor waiting. You will get straight in, and I will come and join you. +Not anyone will see or notice you--because of the trees, one cannot +observe from the windows. My chauffeur will be prepared, and I will +return you safely to the same place in an hour." + +Stella's brown eyes grew larger and larger. Some magnetic spell seemed +to be dominating her, the idea was preposterous, and yet to agree to it +was the strongest temptation she had ever had in all her life. She was +filled with a wild longing to live, to do what she pleased, to be free +to enjoy this excitement before her wings should be clipped, and her +outlook all gray and humdrum. + +"I do not know if they will rest--I cannot say--I--" she blurted out +tremblingly. + +The stranger had put down the Times, and was gazing into her face with +a look almost of tenderness. + +"There is no need to answer now," he said softly. "If fate means us to +be happy, she will arrange it--I think you will come." + +Miss Rawson started to her feet, and absently put her letter to her +fiance--which contained merely the sentence that they had arrived in +Rome--into its envelope and fastened it up. + +"I must go now--good-bye," she said. + +"It is not good-bye," the Russian answered gravely. "By six o'clock, we +shall be driving in the Borghese Gardens and hearing the nightingales +sing." + +As Stella walked to the lift with a tumultuously beating heart, she +asked herself what all this could possibly mean, and why she was not +angry--and why this stranger--whose appearance outraged all her ideas +as to what an English gentleman should look like--had yet the power to +fascinate her completely. Of course, she would not go for a drive with +him--and yet, what would be the harm? After September she would never +have a chance like this again. There would be only Eustace Medlicott +and parish duties--yes--if fate made it possible, she would go! + +And she went on to her room with exhilarating sense of adventure +coursing through her veins. + +"I have found out the name of the peculiar-looking foreigner who sat +near us last night," Canon Ebley said, as they drove to the Lateran in +a little Roman Victoria, "it is Count Roumovski; I asked the hall +porter--reprehensible curiosity I fear you will think, my dear +Caroline, but there is something unaccountably interesting about him, +as you must admit, although you disapprove of his appearance." + +"I think it is quite dreadful," Mrs. Ebley sniffed, "and I hear from +Martha that he has no less than two valets, and a suite of princely +rooms and motor cars, and the whole passage on the second floor is +filled with his trunks." + +Martha had been Mrs. Ebley's maid for twenty-five years, and as Stella +well knew was fairly accurate in her recounting of the information she +picked up. This luridly extravagant picture, however, did not appal +her. And she found herself constantly dwelling upon it and the stranger +all the time she followed her relations about in the gorgeous church. + +Fate did not seem to be going to smile upon the drive project, +however--for Mrs. Ebley, far from appearing tired, actually proposed +tea in the hall when they got in--and there sat for at least half an +hour, while Stella saw Count Roumovski come in and sit down and +leisurely begin a cigarette, as he glanced at an Italian paper. He was +so intensely still, always peace seemed to breathe from his atmosphere, +but the very sight of him appeared to exasperate the Aunt Caroline more +and more. + +"I wonder that man is not ashamed to be seen in a respectable place," +she snapped, "with his long hair and his bracelet--such effeminacy is +perfectly disgusting, Erasmus." + +"I really cannot help it, my dear," Canon Ebley replied, irritably, +"and I rather like his face." + +"Erasmus!" was all Mrs. Ebley could say, and prepared to return to her +room. Dinner would be at a quarter to eight, she told Stella at her +door, and recommended an hour's quiet reading up of the guide-book +while resting to her niece. + +It was quarter after six before Miss Rawson descended the stairs to the +hall again. She had deliberately made up her mind--she would go and +drive with the count. She would live and amuse herself, if it was only +for this once in her life, come what might of it! And since he would be +presented with all respectable ceremony at the English Embassy the +following night, it could not matter a bit--and if it did--! Well, she +did not care! + +He was sitting there as immovable as before, and she thrilled as she +crossed the hall. She was so excited and frightened that she could +almost have turned back when she reached the street, but there, +standing by the trees, was a large blue motor car, and as she advanced +the chauffeur stepped forward and opened the door, and she got in--and +before she had time to realize what she had done, Count Roumovski had +joined her and sat down by her side. + +"You have no wrap," he said. "I thought you would not have, so I had +prepared this," and he indicated a man's gray Russian, +unremarkable-looking cloak, which, however, proved to be lined with +fine sable, "and here, also, is a veil. If you will please me by +putting them on, we can then have the auto open and no one will +recognize you--even should we meet your uncle and aunt; that is fun, is +it not?" + +Stella had thrown every consideration to the winds, except the +determination to enjoy herself. Years of rebellion at the boredom of +her existence seemed to be urging her on. So she meekly slipped into +the cloak, and wrapped the veil right over her hat, and they started. +Her heart was thumping so with excitement she could not have spoken for +a moment. + +But as they went rapidly on through the crowded streets, her +companion's respectful silence reassured her. There seemed to be some +rapport between them, she was conscious of a feeling that he understood +her thoughts, and was not misjudging her. + +"You are like a little frightened bird," he said presently. "And there +is nothing to cause you the least fear. We shall soon come to the +lovely gardens, and watch the lowering sun make its beautiful effects +in the trees, and we shall hear the nightingales throbbing out love +songs--the world is full of rest and peace--when we have had enough +passion and strife and want its change--but you do not know anything of +it, and this simple drive is causing you tumults and emotions--is it +not so?" + +"Yes," said Stella, with a feeling that she had burnt all her ships. + +"It is because you have never been allowed to be YOU, I suppose," he +went on softly. "So doing a natural and simple thing seems +frightful--because it would seem so to the rigid aunt. Now, I have been +ME ever since I was born--I have done just what seemed best to me. Do +you suppose I am not aware that the way my hair is cut is a shock to +most civilized persons; and that you English would strongly disapprove +of my watch and my many other things. But I like them myself--it is no +trouble for one of my valets to draw a straight line with a pair of +scissors--and if I must look at the time, I prefer to look at something +beautiful. I am entirely uninfluenced by the thoughts or opinions of +any people--they do not exist for me except in so far as they interest +me and are instructive or amusing. I never permit myself to be bored +for an instant." + +"How good that must be," Stella ventured to say--her courage was +returning. + +"Civilized human beings turn existence into a prison," he went on, +meditatively, "and loaded themselves with shackles, because some +convention prevents their doing what would give them innocent pleasure. +If I had been under the dominion of these things we should not now be +enjoying this delightful drive--at least, it is delightful to me--to be +thus near you and alone out of doors." + +Stella did not speak, she was altogether too full of emotion to trust +herself to words just yet. They had turned into the Corso by now, and, +as ever, it appeared as though it were a holiday, so thronged with +pedestrians was the whole thoroughfare. Count Roumovski seemed quite +unconcerned, but Miss Rawson shrank back into her corner, a new fear in +her heart. + +"Do not be so nervous," her companion said gently. "I always calculate +the chances before I suggest another person's risking anything for me. +They are a million to one that anyone could recognize you in that veil +and that cloak; believe me, although I am not of your country, I am at +least a gentleman, and would not have persuaded you to come if there +had been any danger of complications for you." + +Stella clasped her hands convulsively--and he drew a little nearer her. + +"Do put all agitating ideas out of your mind," he said, his blue eyes, +with their benign expression, seeking hers and compelling them at last +to look at him. "Do you understand that it is foolish to spoil what we +have by useless tremors. You are here with me--for the next hour--shall +we not try to be happy?" + +"Yes," murmured Miss Rawson, and allowed herself to be magnetized into +calmness. + +"When we have passed the Piazza del Popolo and the entrance to the +Pincio, I will have the car opened; then we can see all the charming +young green, and I will tell you of what these gardens were long ago, +and you shall see them with new eyes." + +Stella, by some sort of magic, seemed to have recovered her +self-possession as his eyes looked into hers, and she chatted to him +naturally, and the next half hour passed like some fairy tale. His +deep, quiet voice took her into realms of fancy that her imagination +had never even dreamed about. His cultivation was immense, and the Rome +of the Caesars appeared to be as familiar to him as that of 1911. + +The great beauty of the Borghese Gardens was at its height at the end +of the day, the nightingales throbbed from the bushes, and the air was +full of the fresh, exquisite scents of the late spring, as the day grew +toward evening and all nature seemed full of beauty and peace. It can +easily be imagined what this drive meant, then, to a fine, sensitive +young woman, whose every instinct of youth and freedom and life had +been crushed into undeveloped nothingness by years of gray convention +in an old-fashioned English cathedral town. + +Stella Rawson forgot that she and this Russian were strangers, and she +talked to him unrestrainedly, showing glimpses of her inner self that +she had not known she possessed. It was certainly heaven, she thought, +this drive, and worth all the Aunt Caroline's frowns. + +Count Roumovski never said a word of love to her: he treated her with +perfect courtesy and infinite respect, but when at last they were +turning back again, he permitted himself once more to gaze deeply into +her eyes, and Stella knew for the first time in her existence that some +silences are more dangerous than words. + +"You do not care at all now for the good clergy-man you are affianced +to," he said. "No--do not be angry-I am not asking a question, I am +stating a fact--when lives have been hedged and controlled and retenu +like yours has been, even the feelings lose character, and you cannot +be sure of them--but the day is approaching when you will see clearly +and--feel much." + +"I am sure it is getting very late," said Stella Rawson, and with +difficulty she turned her eyes away and looked over the green world. + +Count Roumovski laughed softly, as if to himself. And they were silent +until they came to the entrance gates again, when the chauffeur stopped +and shut the car. + +"We have at least snatched some moments of pleasure, have we not?" the +owner whispered, "and we have hurt no one. Will you trust me again when +I propose something which sounds to you wild?" + +"Perhaps I will," Stella murmured rather low. + +"When I was hunting lions in Africa I learned to keep my intelligence +awake," he said calmly, "it is an advantage to me now in +civilization--nothing is impossible if one only keeps cool. If one +becomes agitated one instantly connects oneself with all other currents +of agitation, and one can no longer act with prudence or sense." + +"I think I have always been very foolish," admitted Stella, looking +down. "I seem to see everything differently now." + +"What we are all striving after is happiness," Count Roumovski said. +"Only we will not admit it, and nearly always spoil our own chances by +drifting, and allowing outside things to influence us. If you could see +the vast plains of snow in my country and the deep forests--with never +a human being for miles and miles, you would understand how nature +grows to talk to one--and how small the littlenesses of the world +appear." Then they were silent again, and it was not until they were +rushing up the Via Nazionale and in a moment or two would have reached +their destination, that Count Roumovski said: + +"Stella--that means star--it is a beautiful name--I can believe you +could be a star to shine upon any man's dark night--because you have a +pure spirit, although it has been muffled by circumstances for all +these years." + +Then the automobile drew up by the trees, at perhaps two hundred yards +from the hotel, near the baths of Diocletian. + +"If you will get out here, it will be best," Count Roumovski told her +respectfully, "and walk along on the inner side. I will then drive to +the door of the hotel, as usual." + +"Thank you, and good-bye," said Stella, and began untying the veil--he +helped her at once, and in doing so his hand touched her soft pink +cheek. She thrilled with a new kind of mad enjoyment, the like of which +she had never felt, and then controlled herself and stamped it out. + +"It has been a very great pleasure to me," he said, and nothing more; +no "good-bye" or "au revoir" or anything, and he drew into the far +corner as she got out of the car, letting the chauffeur help her. Nor +did he look her way as he drove on. And Stella walked leisurely back to +the hotel, wondering in her heart at the meaning of things. + +No one noticed her entrance, and she was able to begin to dress for +dinner without even Martha being aware that she had been absent. But as +she descended in the lift with her uncle and aunt it seemed as if the +whole world and life itself were changed since the same time the night +before. + +And when they were entering the restaurant a telegram was put into +Canon Ebley's hand--it was from the Rev. Eustace Medlicott, sent from +Turin, saying he would join them in Rome the following evening. + +"Eustace has been preparing this delightful surprise--I knew of it," +the Aunt Caroline said, with conscious pride, "but I would not tell +you, Stella, dear, in case something might prevent it. I feared to +disappoint you." + +"Thank you, aunt," Miss Rawson said without too much enthusiasm, and +took her seat where she could see the solitary occupant of a small +table, surrounded by the obsequious waiters, already sipping his +champagne. + +He had not looked up as they passed. Nor did he appear once to glance +in their direction. His whole manner was full of the same reflective +calm as the night before. And, for some unaccountable reason, Stella +Rawson's heart sank down lower and lower, until at the end of the +repast she looked pale and tired out. + +Eustace, her betrothed, would be there on the morrow, and such things +as drives in motor cars with strange Russian counts were only dreams +and not realities, she now felt. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Next morning it fell about that Stella Rawson was allowed to go into +the Musso Nazionale in the Diocletian baths, accompanied only by +Martha, her uncle and aunt having decided they would take a rest and +write their English letters. The museum was so near, a mere hundred +yards, there could be no impropriety in their niece's going there with +Martha, even in an exhibition year in Rome. + +Stella was still suffering from a nameless sense of depression. +Eustace's train would get in at about five o'clock, and he would +accompany them to the Embassy. A cousin of her own and Aunt Caroline's +was one of the secretaries, and had already been written to about the +invitation. So that even if Count Roumovski should be presented to her, +and make the whole thing proper and correct, she would have no chance +of any conversation. The brilliant sunlight felt incongruous and hurt +her, and she was glad to enter the shady ancient baths. She had glanced +furtively to right and left in the hotel as she came through the hall, +but saw no one who resembled the Russian, and they had walked so +quickly through the vestibule she had not remarked a tall figure coming +from the staircase, nor had seen him give some rapid order to a +respectful servant who was waiting about, and who instantly followed +them: but if she had looked up as she paid for the two tickets at the +barrier of the museum, she would have seen this same lean man turn +swiftly round and retreat in the direction of the hotel. + +Martha was sulky and comatose on this very warm morning; she took no +interest in sculpture. "Them naked creatures," she called any +masterpiece undraped--and she resented being dragged out by Miss +Stella, who always had fancies for art. + +They walked round the cloisters first, a voyage of discovery to Miss +Rawson, who looked a slim enough nymph herself in her lilac cambric +frock and demure gray hat shading her big brown eyes. + +Then suddenly, from across the garden in the center, she became aware +that an archaic Apollo clad in modern dress had entered upon the scene, +and the blood rushed to her cheeks, and her heart beat. + +Martha puffed with the heat and exercise, and glanced with longing eyes +at a comfortable stone bench in the shade. + +"Would you like to rest here, Martha, you old dear?" Miss Rawson said. +"There is not a creature about, and I will walk round and join you from +the other side." + +The Aunt Caroline's elderly maid easily agreed to this. It was true +there did not seem to be anyone adventurous-looking, and Miss Stella +would be more or less under her eye--and she was thoroughly tired with +traveling and what not. So Stella found herself happily unchaperoned, +except by Baedecker, as she strolled on. + +The Russian had disappeared from view, the bushes and vases in the +center of the garden plot gave only occasional chances to see people at +a distance. + +But when Stella had entered the Ludovici collection she perceived him +to the right, gazing at the statue of the beautiful Mars. + +He turned instantly, as though some one told him she was near--and his +calm eyes took in the fact that she was alone. The small room was empty +but for the two, and he addressed her as he removed his hat. + +"Good morning, mademoiselle," he said gravely. "Mars is a strong +attraction. I knew I should presently find you here--so when I caught +sight of your spiritual outline across the garden, I came and--waited." + +"He is most splendid-looking, is he not," Stella returned, trying to +suppress the sudden tingle of pleasure that was thrilling her, "and +look how much character there is in his hands." + +"Shall we go and study the others, or shall we find a bench in the +garden and sit down and talk?" Count Roumovski asked serenely, and then +smiled to himself as he noticed his companion's apprehensive glance in +the direction where, far away, Martha dozed in peace. + +"It would be nice out of doors--but--" and Stella faltered. + +"Do not let us be deprived of pleasure by any buts--there is one out +there who will warn us when your maid wakes. See--" and he advanced +toward the entrance door, "there is a bench by that rose tree where we +can be comparatively alone." + +Stella struggled no more with herself. After all, it was her last +chance--Eustace Medlicott's train got in at five o'clock! + +She had a sense of security, too, the complete serenity of her +companion inspired confidence. She almost felt she would not care if +Aunt Caroline herself slept instead of the elderly maid. + +There was some slight change in Count Roumovski's manner to-day--he +kept his eyes fixed upon her face, and the things he said were less +abstract and more personal. After an entrancing half hour she felt she +had seen vivid pictures of his land and his home. But he was a great +traveler it appeared, and had not been there often in later years. + +"It is so agreeable to let the body move from place to place, and +remain in a peaceful aloofness of the spirit all the time," he said at +last. "To watch all the rushing currents which dominate human beings +when they do not know how to manipulate them. If they did, the +millennium would come,--but, meanwhile, it is reserved for the few who +have learned them to enjoy this present plane we are on." + +"You mean you can control events and shape your life as you please, +then?" Stella asked surprised, while she raised her sweet shy eyes to +his inquiringly. "I wish I knew how!" + +"Shall I try to teach you, mademoiselle?" he said. + +"Yes, indeed." + +"Then you must not look down all the time, even though the +contemplation of your long eyelashes gives me a pleasure--I would +prefer the eyes themselves--the eyes are the indication of what is +passing in the soul, and I would study this moving panorama." + +Stella's color deepened, but she met his blue orbs without +flinching--so he went on: + +"I had the fortune to be born a Russian, which has given me time to +study these things. My country does not require my work beyond my being +a faithful servant of my Emperor. Since I am not a soldier, I can do as +I choose. But you in England are now in a seething caldron, and it +would be difficult, no doubt, for you to spend the hours +required--although the national temperament would lend itself to all +things calm if it were directed." + +"But for myself," Stella demanded, "I am not a man, and need not +interest myself in the nation's affairs--how can I grow to guide my +own--as you seem to do?" + +"Never permit yourself to be ruffled by anything to commence with," +Count Roumovski began gravely, while the pupils of his eyes appeared to +grow larger. "Whatever mood you are in, you connect yourself with the +cosmic current of that mood--you become in touch, so to speak, with all +the other people who are under its dominion, and so it gains strength +because unity is strength. If you can understand that as a basic +principle, you can see that it is only a question of controlling +yourself and directing your moods with those currents whose +augmentation can bring you good. You must never be negative and drift. +You can be drawn in any adverse way if you do." + +"I think I understand," said Stella, greatly interested. + +"Then you must use your critical faculties and make selections of what +is best--and you must encourage common sense and distrust altruism. +Sanity is the thing to aim at." + +"Yes." + +"The view of the world has become so distorted upon almost every point +which started in good, that nothing but a cultivation of our individual +critical faculties can enable us to see the truth--and nine-tenths of +civilized humanity have no real opinion of their own at all--they +simply echo those of others." + +"I feel that is true," said Stella, thinking of her own case. + +"It is not because a thing is bad or good that it succeeds--merely how +much strength we put into the desire for it," he went on. + +"But surely we must believe that good will win over evil," and the +brown eyes looked almost troubled, and his softened as he looked at her. + +"The very fact of believing that would make it come to pass by all +these psychic laws. Whatever we really believe we draw," he said almost +tenderly. + +"Then, if I were to believe all the difficulties and uncertainties +would be made straight and just go on calmly, I should be happy, should +I?" she asked, and there was an unconscious pathos in her voice which +touched him deeply. + +"Certainly," he answered. "You have not had a fair chance--probably you +have never been allowed to do a single thing of your own accord--have +you?" + +"N--no," said Stella. + +"In the beginning, were you engaged to this good clergyman of your own +wish?" and his eyes searched her face. + +She stiffened immediately, the training of years took offense, and she +answered rather stiffly: + +"I do not think you have the right to ask me such a question, Count +Roumovski." + +He was entirely unabashed--he stroked his pointed silky beard for a +moment, then he said calmly: + +"Yes--I have, you agreed that I should teach you how to shape your life +as you pleased, you must remember. It is rather essential that I should +know the truth of this matter before I can go further--you must see +that." + +"We can avoid the subject." + +"It would be Hamlet without Hamlet, then," he smiled. "One could draw +up no scheme of rules and exercises, unless one has some idea of how +far the individual was responsible for the present state of things. If +it was your wish in the beginning, or if you were coerced makes all the +difference." + +Stella was silent--only she nervously plucked an offending rose which +grew upon a bush beside them: she pulled its petals off and kept her +eyes lowered, and Sasha Roumovski smiled a wise smile. + +"You have unconsciously answered me," he said, "and your agitation +proves that not only are you aware that you did not become engaged of +your own wish, but that you are afraid to face the fact and admit that +its aspect appals you. You must remember, in your country, where, I +understand, divorce is not tres bien vu, especially among the clergy, +the affair is for life, and the joy or the gall of it could be +infinite." + +She raised two beseeching eyes to his face at last. + +"Oh, do not let us talk about it," she pleaded. "It is so warm and +pleasant here--I want to be happy." + +He looked at her for a while with penetrating eyes, then he said gently: + +"It is a man's province to take care of a woman," and his attractive +voice filled with a new cadence. "I see you are in need of direction. +Leave all to me--and forget there is any one else in the world for the +moment but our two selves. Did you know that I thought you looked +particularly sweet last night, but rather pale?" + +"You never looked at me at all," said Stella before she was aware of +it, and then blushed crimson at the inference of her speech. He would +be able to understand perfectly that she must have been observing him +all the time to be conscious of this. + +A gleam of gladness came into his eyes. + +"I would like to watch you always openly, if I might," he whispered. +"Your little face is like a flower in its delicate tints, and your eyes +are true and tender and asking so many questions of life,--and +sometimes they are veiled and misty, and then they look wise and +courageous. I am beginning to know all their changes." + +"Then, in that case, monotony will set in," Stella was almost arch--the +day was so glorious! + +"I am not afraid of that," he said. "I always know what I want and what +is worth while. I do not value my three matchless pearls the less +because I know their every iridescence--on the contrary, I grow more +fond of them and wear them every night in preference to any others." + +They were silent for a moment after this. He was examining her minutely +with his wise, calm eyes. He was noting the sensitive curve of the +pretty full lips, the tender droop of the set of her head, the gracious +charm of her little regular features, and the intelligence of her broad +brow. With all her simplicity, she looked no fool or weakling. And to +think that the narrow code of those who surrounded her should force +this sweet young creature into the gray walls of a prison house, when +she became the English clergyman's wife; it was too revolting to him. +Count Roumovski suddenly made up his mind, trained to instantaneous +decision by his bent of studies, and sure and decided in its action. +And if Stella had looked up then she would have seen a keen gleam in +the peaceful blue of his eyes. He drew her on to talk of her home and +her tastes--she loved many things he did, he found--and she was so +eager to hear and to learn their meaning. He grew to feel a sort of +pride and the pleasure of a teacher when directing an extremely +intelligent child. There were no barriers of stupidity into whatever +regions the subjects might wander. They spent an hour of pure joy +investigating each other's thoughts. And both knew they were growing +more than friends. + +Then Stella rose suddenly to her feet. A clock struck twelve. + +"You said one must not be negative and drift," she announced demurely, +"so I am being decided and must now go to Martha again." + +"Ivan has not warned us that she is thinking of stirring," Count +Roumovski said. "I told him to, and he will let us know in plenty of +time; you surely do not breakfast until half-past twelve, do you?" + +"Ivan?--who is Ivan?" Stella asked. + +"He is a servant of mine who does what he is bid," her companion +answered. "To have peace to enjoy oneself one must calculate and +arrange for events. Had we only trusted to the probability of your +maid's sleeping, I should have had to be on the lookout, and my +uneasiness would have communicated itself to you, and we should have +had no happy hour--but I made a certainty of safety--and unconsciously +you trusted me to know, and so we have been content." + +Stella was thrilled. So he had taken all this trouble. He must be a +good deal interested in her, then; and feeling sure of this, womanlike, +she immediately took advantage of it to insist upon leaving him. + +"Very well," he said, when he could not dissuade her. "To-night the +wheel of fortune will revolve for us all, and it remains to be seen who +will draw a prize and who a blank." + +Then he walked by her side to where they saw the quiet servant +standing, a motionless sentinel, and here Count Roumovski bowed and +turned on his heel, while Stella advanced to the bench on which the +comfortable Martha slept. + +This latter was full of defence when she awoke. She had not closed an +eye, but thought Miss Stella was enjoying "them statues" better without +her, which was indeed true, if she had guessed! + +Miss Rawson ate very little luncheon--the Russian did not appear--and +immediately after it she was taken as a treat to see the Borghese +Gardens by her uncle and aunt! It behooved her not to be tired by more +sightseeing, since her betrothed would arrive when they returned for +tea, and would expect her to be bright and on the alert to please him, +Aunt Caroline felt. As for Stella, as that moment approached it seemed +to her that the end of all joy had come. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +The Rev. Eustace Medlicott, when the stains of travel had been removed +from his thin person, came down to tea in the hall of the Grand Hotel +with a distinct misgiving in his heart. He did not approve of it as a +place of residence for his betrothed. Another and equally well-drained +hostelry might have been found for the party he thought, where such +evidences of worldly occupations and amusements would not so forcibly +strike the eye. Music with one's meals savored of paganism. He was +still very emaciated with his Lenten fast. It took him until July, +generally, to pick up again; and he was tired with his journey. Stella +was not there to greet him, only the Aunt Caroline, and he felt a sense +of injury creeping over him. She might have been in time. Nancy +Ruggles, the Bishop's second daughter, had given him tea and ministered +to his wants in a spirit of solicitous devotion every day since the +Ebleys had left Exminster, but Nancy's hair was not full of sunlight, +nor did her complexion suggest cream and roses. Things which, to be +sure, the Rev. Eustace Medlicott felt he ought not to dwell upon; they +were fleshly lusts and should be discouraged. + +He had been convinced that celibacy was the only road to salvation for +a priest, until Stella Rawson's fair young charms had unconsciously +undermined this conviction. But even if he had been able to arrange his +conscience to his liking upon the vital point, he felt he must fight +bravely against allowing himself or his betrothed to get any pleasure +out of the affair. It was better to marry than to burn, he had St. +Paul's authority for this--but when he felt emotion toward Stella +because of her loveliness, he was afterward very uncomfortable in his +thoughts, and it took him at least an hour to throw dust in his own +eyes in regard to the nature of his desire for her, which he determined +to think was only of the spirit. Love, for him, was no god to be +exalted, but a too strong beast to be resisted, and every one of his +rites were to be succumbed to shamefacedly and under protest. Thus did +he criticize the scheme of his Creator like many another before him. + +He sat now in the hall of the Grand Hotel at Rome feeling ill at ease +and expressed some mild disapproval of the surroundings to Mrs. Ebley, +who fired up at once. She was secretly enjoying herself extremely, and +allowed the drains to assume gigantic proportions in her reasons for +their choice of abode. So there was nothing more to be said, and +Stella, looking rather pale, presently came down the steps from the +corridor where their lift was situated, and joined the group in the far +corner of the large hall. + +She was so slender and fresh and graceful, and, even in the week's +sight-seeing in Paris, she seemed to have picked up a new air, though +she wore the same gray Sunday dress her fiance was accustomed to see at +home--it appeared to be put on differently, and she had altered the +doing of her hair. There was no doubt about it, his future wife was a +most delectable-looking creature, but these tendencies toward adornment +of the person which he observed must be checked at once. + +They shook hands with decorous cordiality, and Stella sat down demurely +in the vacant chair. She felt as cold as ice toward him, and looked it +more or less. It made Mr. Medlicott nervous, although she answered +gently enough when he addressed her. Inwardly she was trying to +overcome the growing revulsion she was experiencing. Tricks of speech, +movements of hands--even the way Eustace's hair grew--were all +irritating her. She only longed to contradict every word the poor man +said, and she felt wretched and unjust and at war with herself and +fate. At last things almost came to a point when he moved his chair so +that he should be close to her and a little apart from the others, and +whispered with an air of absolute proprietorship: + +"My little Stella has changed her sweetly modest way of hairdressing. I +hardly think the new style is suitable to my retiring dove." + +"Why, it is only parted in the middle and brushed back into a simple +knot," Miss Rawson retorted, with sparkling eyes. "How can you be so +ridiculous, Eustace--it is merely because it is becoming and more in +the fashion that you object, there is nothing the least remarkable in +the style itself." + +Mr. Medlicott's thin lips grew into a straight line. + +"It is that very point--the suggestion of fashion that I object to--the +wife of a clergyman cannot be too careful not to make herself +attractive or remarkable in any way," he said sententiously, his +obstinate chin a little forward. + +"But I am not a clergyman's wife yet," said Stella with some feeling, +"and can surely enjoy a few things of my age until I am--and doing my +hair how I please is one of them." + +Mr. Medlicott shrugged his shoulders, he refused to continue this +unseemly altercation with his betrothed. He would force her to see +reason when once she should be his wife, until then he might have to +waive his authority, but should show her by his manner that she had +offended him, and judging from the attitudes of the adoring spinsters +he had left at Exminster that should be punishment enough. + +He turned to the Aunt Caroline now and addressed her exclusively and +Stella rebelliously moved her seat back a few inches and looked across +the room; and at that moment the tall, odd-looking Russian came in, and +retired to a seat far on the other side, exactly opposite them. Here he +ordered a hock and seltzer with perfect unconcern, and smoked his +cigarette. Miss Rawson could hardly bear it. + +"There is that extraordinary man again, Stella," Mrs. Ebley turned to +her and said. "I thought he had gone as he was not at luncheon to-day. +I am sure your fiance will agree with me that such an appearance is +sacrilegious--he must know he looks like a saint--and I am quite sure, +from what I have heard from Martha, he is not one at all. He lives in +the greatest luxury, Eustace," she continued, turning to the Rev. Mr. +Medlicott, "and probably does no good to anyone in the world." + +"How can you suppose that, Aunt Caroline," Stella answered with some +spirit, "it is surely very uncharitable to judge of people by their +appearances and--and what Martha repeats to you." + +Mrs. Ebley gasped--never in her whole life had her niece spoken to her +in this tone. She to be rebuked! It was unspeakable. She could only +glare behind her glasses. What had come to the girl in the last two +days--if this manner was the result of travel, far better to have +stayed at home! + +Here Canon Ebley joined in, hoping to bring peace: + +"You have told Eustace what is in store for him to-night, have you not, +Caroline, my dear?" he asked. "We have to put on our best and take our +ladies to the Embassy to a rout, Eustace," he went on, genially. "There +are a Russian Grand Duke and Duchess passing through, it appears, who +are going to be entertained." + +"There will be no dancing, I suppose," said Mr. Medlicott primly, +"because, if so, I am sorry, but I cannot accompany you--it is not that +I disapprove of dancing for others," he hastened to add, "but I do not +care to watch it myself. And I do not think it wise for Stella to grow +to care for it, either." + +"It is merely a reception," Mrs. Ebley said, "and it will be a very +interesting sight." + +Stella sat silent; she was overcome with the whole situation; and her +fiance grew more distasteful to her every moment--how had she ever been +persuaded to be engaged to such a person!--while the attraction of the +strange-looking Russian seemed to increase. In spite of the grotesque +hair and unusual beard, there was an air of great distinction about +him. His complete unconsciousness and calm were so remarkable. You +might take him for an eccentric person, but certainly a gentleman, and +with an extraordinary magnetism, she felt. When once you had talked to +him, he seemed to cast a spell over you. But, beyond this, she only +knew that she was growing more unhappy every moment, and that by her +side one man represented everything that was tied and bound in +sentiment and feeling and existence, and that across the hall another +opened the windows of her reason and imagination, and exhorted her to +be free, and herself. + +Presently she could bear it no more. She got up rather suddenly, and, +saying she was very tired and had letters to write, she left them and +went toward the lift. + +"Stella is not at all like herself," Mr. Medlicott said, when she had +disappeared from view. "I trust she is not sickening with Roman fever." + +Meanwhile, Miss Rawson had reached her room and pulled her writing case +in front of her. There were one or two girl friends who ought to be +written to, but the sheets remained blank--and in about ten minutes +there was a gentle knock at the door, and, on opening it, she saw Count +Roumovski's discreet-looking servant, who handed her a note +respectfully, and then went on his way without a word. + +How agreeable it must be to have well-trained servants to do one's +bidding like that! she thought, and then went back eagerly to her +window to read the missive. It had no beginning or date, and was just a +few lines. + +I have observed the whole situation, and judged of the character of +your fiance. I know how you feel. Do not be depressed--remain calm and +trust me, circumstances can always be directed in the hands of a strong +man. I will have the honor to be presented to you and to your family +soon after you arrive at the Embassy to-night. All is well. + +There was no signature, and the writing was rather large and unlike any +she had seen before. + +Suddenly her feeling of unrest left her, and a lightness of heart took +its place. She was living, at all events, and the horizon was not all +gray. It seemed almost delightful to be putting on a real evening dress +presently, even though it was a rather homely white thing with a pink +sash, and to be going down to the restaurant in it with Aunt Caroline +in front in her best black velvet and point lace. + +That lady's desire to be in time at the party alone determined her to +this breach of the rules--and there were Eustace and Uncle Erasmus in +their stiff clerical evening coats awaiting them in the +corridor--while, as luck would have it, the lift stopped at the second +floor to admit the Russian. He got in with his usual air of being +unaware that he was not alone--though Stella could feel that he was +touching her hand--perhaps unconsciously. He seemed to radiate some +kind of joy for her always, and the pink grew to that of a June rose in +her cheeks, and her brown eyes shone like two stars. + +"That was the man you spoke of in the hall, Mrs. Ebley, was it not?" +Eustace Medlicott's intoning voice said, as they went along to the +restaurant. "He certainly is a most remarkable person to look at +close--but I do not dislike his face, it has noble lines." + +"Really, how condescending of you!" Stella almost said aloud. But the +Aunt Caroline answered serenely: + +"Perhaps I am prejudiced, Eustace, but want of convention always shocks +me to such a degree that I cannot appreciate anything else." + +Stella almost enjoyed her dinner, she was so excited with the prospect +of some unknown coming events, and she had the satisfaction of +observing that once Count Roumovski actually turned his head in their +direction and met her eyes. His were full of a whimsical smile for the +instant he looked, and then he relapsed into his habitual indifference. + +The crowd had begun to thicken when they got to the Embassy, and they +waited among them for the Royalties' arrival; Stella looking at +everything with fresh, interested eyes. When this ceremony was over +people began to disperse about the large rooms, and Miss Rawson was +conscious that her strange secret acquaintance was in conversation with +the Grand Duke and Duchess; she had not seen him come in. The Aunt +Caroline noticed this, too, and drew her attention to the fact. + +"Look, Stella, that dreadful man is talking to Royalty!" she said. "I +suppose he must be a gentleman, after all--one never can tell with +foreigners, as their titles mean nothing, and half of them are assumed. +Your Uncle Carford had a valet once who afterward was arrested for +posing as a Polish count." + +"I should think anyone could see this man was a gentleman, Aunt +Caroline," Stella answered, "even without his talking to Royalties." + +They were soon joined by the secretary cousin, who was charmed to +welcome so pretty a relation to Rome, and was profuse in his apologies +for not having been able to do more than leave cards upon them as yet. + +"We should so like to know the names of the celebrities," Mrs. Ebley +said, "especially can you tell us about the very curious-looking person +now conversing with her Imperial Highness; he is at our hotel." + +"That--Oh! that is by far the most interesting man here--it is the +famous Count Roumovski. He is a most celebrated traveler; he has been +all over the world and Africa and Asia in unaccessible places. He is a +fabulously rich Russian--a real Muscovite from near Moscow, and he does +everything and anything he pleases; he gives enormous sums for the +encouragement of science. He is immensely intelligent--he lunched at +the Embassy to-day." + +"Really!" said the Aunt Caroline, somewhat impressed. "His appearance +is greatly against him." + +"Oh, do you think so?" said the cousin. "I think it adds to his +attraction, it is such superlative audacity. No Englishman would have +the nerve to cut his hair like that." + +"I should hope not," said Mrs. Ebley severely, and dropped the subject. + +"To think of this charming rosebud of a girl going to marry Eustace +Medlicott--insufferable, conceited prig, I remember him at Oxford," the +cousin was musing to himself. "Lord Carford is an old stick-in-the-mud, +or he would have prevented that. She is his own niece, and one can see +by her frock that the poor child never even goes to London." + +At this moment they saw the Russian Count putting his heels together +and bowing himself out of the circle of his Royalties; and straight as +a dart he came over to where their group was standing, and whispered in +the cousin's--Mr. Deanwood's ear--who then asked if he might present +Count Roumovski to the Aunt Caroline and the rest. + +When this ceremony was over Mrs. Ebley found herself conversing with +her whilom object of contempt, and coming gradually under the influence +of his wonderful charm, while Stella stood there trembling with the +wildest excitement she had yet known. The words of Eustace, her +betrothed, talking to her, carried no meaning to her brain, her whole +intelligence was strung up to catch what the others were saying. + +With great dexterity the Russian presently made the conversation +general, and drew her into it, and then he said with composure that the +Gardens were illuminated--and, as it was such a very hot night, would +mademoiselle like to take a turn that way, to have some refreshment? At +the same moment, Mr. Deanwood gave Mrs. Ebley his arm, and they all +moved forward--followed by Canon Ebley and the Rev. Eustace Medlicott, +with no great joy upon his face. + +Stella, meanwhile, felt herself being drawn rapidly ahead, and so +maneuvered that in a moment or two they had completely lost sight of +the rest of the relations, and were practically alone in a crowd. + +"At last!" Count Roumovski whispered, "even I, who am generally calm, +was beginning to feel I should rush over, throw prudence to the winds +and--" then he stopped abruptly, and Stella felt her heart thump in her +throat, while her little hand on his arm was pressed against his side. + +They made the pretense of taking some refreshment at the buffet, and +then went toward the open doors of the garden. The part all round the +house was illuminated, and numbers of people strolled about, the night +was deliciously warm. Count Roumovski seemed to know the paths, for he +drew his companion to a seat just beyond the radius of the lights, and +they sat down upon a bench under a giant tree. He had not spoken a +word, but now he leaned back and deliberately looked into her eyes, +while his voice, with vibrations of feeling in it which thrilled +Stella, whispered in her ear: + +"It cannot go on, of course--you agree with me about that, do you not?" + +"What cannot go on?" she asked, to gain time to recover her composure. + +"This situation," he answered. "I am sure now that I love you--and I +want to teach you a number of things, first in importance being that +you shall love me." + +"Oh, you must not say this," Stella protested feebly. + +"Yes, I must, and you will listen to me, little star." + +He drew nearer to her, and the amazing power of propinquity began to +assert itself. She felt as if the force to resist him were leaving her, +she was trembling all over with delicious thrills. + +"I made up my mind almost immediately I saw you, sweet child," he went +on, "that you were what I have been waiting for all my life. You are +good and true--and balanced--or you will be that when I have made your +love education. Stella, look at me with those soft eyes, and tell me +that I mean something to you already, and that the worthy Mr. Medlicott +does not exist any more." + +"I--I--but I have only known you for two days," Stella answered +confusedly: she was so full of emotion that she dared not trust herself +further. + +"Does time count, then, so much with conventional people?" he demanded. +"For me it has no significance in relation to feeling. If you would +only look at me instead of down at those small hands, then you would +not be able to tell me these foolish things!" + +This was so true that Stella could not deny it, her breath came rather +fast; it was the supreme moment her life had yet known. + +"You are frightened because the training of your education still holds +you and not nature. Your acquired opinion tells you you are engaged to +another man, and ought not to listen to me." + +"Of course I ought not to," she murmured. + +"Of course you ought--how else can you come to any conclusion if you do +not hear my arguments--sweet, foolish one!" + +She did look at him now with two startled eyes. + +"Listen attentively, darling pupil, and sweet love," he said. He was +leaning with one arm on the back of the bench supporting his head on +his hand, turned quite toward her, who sat with clasped nervous fingers +clutching her fan. His other hand lay idly on his knee, his whole +attitude was very still. The soft lights were just enough for him to +see distinctly her small face and shining hair; his own face was in +shadow, but she could feel the magnetism of his eyes penetrating +through her very being. + +"You were coerced by those in charge of you," he went on in a level +voice of argument, which yet broke into notes of tenderness, "you were +influenced into becoming engaged to this man who is ridiculously +unsuited to you. You, so full of life and boundless joy! You, who will +learn all of love's meaning presently, and what it makes of existence, +and what God meant by giving it to us mortals. You are intended by +nature to be a complete woman if you did but know it--but such a life, +tied to that half fish man, would atrophy all that is finest in your +character. You would grow really into what they are trying to make you +appear--after years of hopelessness and suffering. Do you not feel all +this, little star, tell me?" + +"Yes," Stella answered, "it is true--I have seemed to feel the cords +and the shackles pulling at me often, but never that they were +unbearable until I--spoke with you--and you put new thoughts into my +head." + +"I did well, then. And because of a silly convention you would ruin all +your life by going on with these ways--it is unthinkable!" and his deep +voice vibrated with feeling. "It is a mistake, that is all, and can be +rectified,--if you were already married to this man I would not plead +so, because then you would have crossed the Rubicon, and assumed +responsibilities which you would have to accept or suffer the +consequences. But this preliminary bond can be broken without hurt to +either side. A man of the good clergyman's type will not suffer in his +emotions at the loss of you--he suffices unto himself for those; his +vanity will be wounded--that is all. And surely it is better that +should gall for a little than that you should spoil your life. Sweet +flower, realize yourself these things--that sunny hair and that +beautiful skin and those velvet eyes were made for the joy and glory of +a man--not for temptations to a strict priest, who would resent their +power as a sin every time he felt himself influenced by their charm. +Gods above! he would not know what to do with you, heart of me!" + +Stella was thrilling with exquisite emotion, but the influence of her +strict and narrow bringing up could not be quite overcome in these few +moments. She longed to be convinced, and yet some altruistic sentiment +made her feel still some qualms and misgivings. If she should be +causing Eustace great pain by breaking her engagement; if it were very +wrong to go against her uncle and aunt--especially her Aunt Caroline, +her own mother's sister. She clasped her little hands nervously, and +looked up in this strong man's face with pathetic, pleading intensity. + +"Oh, please tell me, what ought I to do, then--what is right?" she +implored. "And because I want so much to believe you, I fear it must be +wrong to do so." + +He leaned nearer to her and spoke earnestly. His stillness was almost +ominous, it gave the impression of such immense self-control, and his +voice was as those bass notes of the priests of St. Isaac's in his own +northern land. + +"Dear, honest little girl," he said tenderly, "I worship your goodness. +And I know you will presently see the truth. Love is of God and is +imperious, and because she loves him is the only reason why a woman +should give her life to a man. Quite apart from the law, which +proclaims that each individual must be the arbiter of his own fate, and +not succumb to the wishes of others, it would be an ethical sin for you +to marry the worthy Mr. Medlicott--not loving him. Surely, you can see +this." + +"Yes--yes, it would be dreadful," she murmured, "but Aunt Caroline--she +caused me to accept him--I mean, she wanted me to so much. I never +really felt anything for him myself, and lately--ever since the +beginning, in fact, I have been getting more and more indifferent to +him." + +"Then, surely, it is plain that you must be free of him, darling. Throw +all the responsibility upon me, if you will. I promise to take every +care of you. And I want you only to promise you will follow each step +that I explain to you--" then he broke off, and the seriousness of his +tone changed to one of caressing tenderness. "But first I must know for +certain, little star, shall I be able to teach you to love me--as I +shall love you?" + +"Yes," was all Stella could utter, and then, gaining more voice, she +went on, "I did not know--I could not guess what that would mean--to +love--but--" + +He answered her with fond triumph: + +"Now you are beginning to understand, darling child--that is enough for +me to know for the present. In your country, a man asks a woman to +marry him: he says, 'Will you marry me?'--is it not so? of course, I +need not say that to you, because you know that is what I mean. When +these wearisome thongs are off your wrists you will belong to me, and +come with me into my country and be part of my life." + +"Ah!" whispered Stella, the picture seemed one of heaven, that was all. + +"You must have freedom to assert your individuality, Stella," he +continued. "I can but show you the way and give you a new point of +view, but I will never try to rule you and drag you to mine. I will +never put any chains upon you but those of love. Do they sound as if +they would be too heavy, dearest?" + +"I think not," she said very low. "I feel as though I were looking into +a beautiful garden from the top of an ugly, barren, cold mountain. I +shall like to come down and go in among the unknown flowers." + +"It will be so glorious for us," he said exultantly, "because we have +still all the interesting things to find out about each other,--" And +then, her sweet face so very near him, the temptation to caress her +became too intense; he quivered and changed his position, clasping his +hands. + +"Darling," he said hoarsely, "we must soon go back to the company, +because, although I count always upon my will to make my actions obey +it, still I can hardly prevent myself from seizing you in my arms and +kissing your tender lips--and that I must not do--as yet." + +Stella drew herself together, the temptation was convulsing her also, +though she did not guess it. She looked up into his blue eyes there in +the shadow, and saw the deep reverence in them, and she understood and +loved him with her soul. + +He did not so much as touch her dress; indeed, now that he had won his +fight, he moved a little further from her--and resumed his calm voice: + +"The first thing we shall do is to stroll back through the people and +find the aunt--I will then leave you with her, and soon it will be time +to go home. Do not make much conversation with any of them +to-night--leave everything to me. I will see the Rev. Mr. Medlicott +when we return to the hotel. Whatever they say to you to-morrow, remain +firm in your simple determination to break your engagement. Argue with +them not at all. I will see your uncle in the morning and demand your +hand; they will be shocked, horrified, scandalized--we will make no +explanations. If they refuse their consent, then you must be brave, and +the day after to-morrow you must come to my sister. She will have +arrived by then; she was in Paris, and I telegraphed for her to join me +immediately; the Princess Urazov she is called. She will receive you +with affection, and you will stay with her until the formalities can be +arranged, when we shall be married, and--but I cannot permit myself to +think of the joy of that--for the moment." + +Stella's eyes, with trust and love, were now gazing into his, and he +rose abruptly to his feet. + +"You may, when you are alone, again think that it is heartless to go +quite contrary to your relations like this, because they have brought +you up, but remember that marriage is an act which can mean almost life +or death to a woman, and that no human beings have any right to coerce +you in this matter. You are of age and so am I, and we are only +answerable to God and to the laws of our countries, not to individuals." + +"I will try to think of it like that," said Stella, greatly moved, and +then, with almost childish irrelevance, which touched him deeply, she +asked, "What must I call you, please?" + +"Oh, you sweetest star!" he exclaimed, "do not tempt me too strongly--I +love you wildly and I want to fold you in my arms--and explain +everything with your little head here on my breast--but I must +not--must not yet. Call me Sasha--say it now that I may hear its sound +in your tender voice--and we must fly, fly back to the lights--or I +cannot answer for myself." + +She whispered it softly, and a shiver ran through all his tall +frame--and he said, with tender masterfulness: + +"Say, 'Sasha, I love,'" and this she did, also--and then he almost +brusquely placed her hand upon his arm, and led her among the people, +and so to her frowning relations, and then he bowed a correct +good-night. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +No one could have been more surprised than the Reverend Eustace +Medlicott at the behavior of his betrothed. Far from showing any +contrition for her unseemly absence upon the arm of a perfect stranger, +and a foreigner to boot, Stella had returned to the fold of her +relations' group with a demure and radiant face, and when Eustace had +ventured some querulous reproaches, she had cut him short by saying she +had done as she wished and did not intend to listen to any remarks +about it. + +"You will have to learn more humbleness of mind, my dear child," he +retorted sternly. "I cannot allow you to reply to your future husband +in this independent tone." + +"I shall just answer as I please," said Stella, and felt almost +inclined to laugh, he looked so cross and amazed. Then she turned and +talked to the cousin, Mr. Deanwood, and took no further notice of him. + +Mr. Medlicott burned with annoyance. Stella would really have to be +careful or he would not go on with the match--he had no intention of +taking to wife a woman who would defy him--there was Nancy Ruggles +ready to be his slave--and others besides her. And his career could be +just as well assisted by the Bishop's daughter as by Canon Ebley's +niece, even though her uncle was a crotchety and unknown Lord, patron +of two fat livings. But Stella, with a rebellious little curl loosened +on her snowy neck and a rebellious pout upon her cherry lips, was so +very alluring a creature to call one's own, the desire of the flesh, +which he called by any other name, fought hard with his insulted +spirit, though to give in would be too ignominious; she must say she +was sorry first, and then he could find it in his heart to forgive her. +But the opportunity to show this magnanimity was not vouchsafed to him +by fate--for other people were introduced to the party by Mr. Deanwood, +and he did not exchange a word alone with his erring fiancee until she +said a cold good-night in the hall of the Grand Hotel. + +"Stella, remain for a moment, I wish to speak to you," he said in the +voice in which he was accustomed to read the burial service. + +But she feigned not to hear and followed her Aunt Caroline's black +velvet train on to the lift and at that same moment a discreet-looking +foreign servant came up and handed him a note. + +He read it in surprise--who could be sending him a note at a quarter +past twelve at night? + +Dear Sir [it ran], + +I shall be greatly obliged if you can spare to me half an hour before +retiring to your rest to converse upon a matter of importance. I had +the honor of making your acquaintance to-night at your Embassy. If you +will grant me this favor I will wait upon you immediately in the hall, +or, if you prefer, my sitting-room; my servant could conduct you here, +and we shall have the advantage of being entirely undisturbed. I +remain, sir, Yours truly. + +SASHA ROUMOVSKI. + +Eustace Medlicott gasped with astonishment. This Russian gentleman was +evidently in need of his ministrations and perhaps advice. He would go +to his room, certainly, there were still some people in the hall having +late coffee and refreshment after the theater. + +He indicated by a condescending movement that he was ready to follow +the waiting servant, and soon found himself being shown into Count +Roumovski's sitting-room. It was luxuriously appointed and represented +every appearance of manly comfort. There were quantities of books and +papers about and the smell of excellent cigars, and put carelessly +aside were various objets d'art which antique dealers had evidently +sent for his grand seigneur's approval. + +Count Roumovski was standing by the mantelpiece and looked very tall +and commanding in his evening dress. + +"It is most good of you to come," he said, while he indicated a big +arm-chair for his visitor to sit in--he did not offer to shake hands. +"It was certainly my duty to have called upon you, my only apology for +getting you to ascend here is that the subject I wish to converse with +you is too serious for both of us to admit of interruptions." + +"Indeed," said Mr. Medlicott, pompously--growing more surprised each +moment. "And may I ask the nature of your trouble?" + +Count Roumovski did not change his position by the mantelpiece and he +kept still as a bronze statue as he spoke in a courteous tone: + +"It is not a trouble at all," he began, gravely, "on the contrary, it +is a great joy and honor for me. I will state the facts immediately. I +understand that for a short while you have been engaged to be married +to Miss Stella Rawson, the niece of the respected English clergyman, +the Reverend Ebley--" + +"Pardon me," interrupted Mr. Medlicott acidly, "but I do not see how my +private affairs can interest you, sir, I cannot--" + +But the host in turn interrupted him. + +"If you will be so good as to listen patiently, you will find that this +matter is of vital importance--may I proceed?" + +Mr. Medlicott bowed; what more could he do? Count Roumovski went on: + +"I understand that Miss Rawson never showed very strong affection for +you or great desire for this union--so what I have to ask now is, if +you, as a gentleman, will release her from her promise to you and set +her free." + +"Upon my word, sir, this is too much," Mr. Medlicott exclaimed, +starting to his feet, "by what authority do you say these preposterous +things? You were only introduced to Miss Rawson and myself to-night. +You must be mad!" + +"No, I am quite sane. And I say them upon the best authority," Count +Roumovski continued, "because I love Miss Rawson myself, and I am +deeply honored by believing that in return she loves me--not you at +all. Therefore, it is common sense to ask you to release her, and let +her be happy with the person she prefers--is it not so?" + +Eustace Medlicott had grown white with anger and astonishment as he +listened, and now broke in hotly, forgetful of his intoning voice or +anything but his outraged dignity. + +"When have you had the opportunity to try and undermine the faith of my +betrothed, may I ask? Supposing you are saying this seriously and not +as some ill-timed jest." + +Count Roumovski lifted his eyebrows a little and looked almost with +pity at his adversary. "We are not talking in the heroic manner," he +replied, unmoved by the other's taunt, "we are, I presume, two fairly +intelligent men discussing this affair together--there has been no +question of undermining. Miss Rawson and myself found we understood +each other very soon after we first met. Surely, you must realize, sir, +that love cannot be commanded, it will not come or go at one's bidding. +These ridiculous bonds of convention, holding to a promise given when +the spirit to keep it is no longer there, can ruin people's lives." + +Mr. Medlicott drew himself up, he was not quite so tall as the Russian, +but of no mean height, and his intense, ascetic face, emaciated to +extreme leanness, now reddened with passion, while the veins stood out +upon his high, narrow forehead. He was always very irritable when +crossed, and his obstinate nature was strongly combative. + +"You forget, sir," he said angrily, "you are insulting my honor." + +"Not the least in the world--you do not understand the point," Count +Roumovski returned calmly. "Listen for a minute--and I will explain. If +Miss Rawson were already your wife I should be, and you would have the +right to try and kill me, did your calling permit of that satisfaction +of gentlemen, because there is a psychological and physiological reason +involved in that case, producing the instinct in man which he is not +perhaps conscious of, that he wishes to be sure his wife's legitimate +offspring are his own--out of this instinct, civilization has built up +the idea of a man's honor--which you can see has a basic principle of +sense and justice." + +Mr. Medlicott with difficulty restrained himself from interrupting and +the Russian went on. + +"The situation of betrothed is altogether different: in it there have +merely been promises exchanged, promises, for the most part, which no +man or woman can honestly engage with any certainty to keep, because +feeling toward the other is not within his or her control--both are +promising upon a sentiment, not a reality." + +"I totally disagree with you," Eustace Medlicott answered angrily, +"when men and women make promises to one another they should have wills +strong enough to keep them." + +"For what sensible reason?" Count Roumovski asked. "In a case where the +happiness of both is involved, and where no damage has been incurred by +either--" + +Mr. Medlicott clasped his hands convulsively but he did not reply--so +the Russian went on: + +"Surely, you must see that a woman should be free to marry--that is, to +give herself and her power to become a mother where she loves--not to +be forced to bestow these sacred gifts when her spirit is +unwilling--just because she has made the initial mistake of affiancing +herself to a man, often through others' influence, who she discovers +afterward is distasteful to her. Cannot you realize that it is wise for +himself as well as for her that this man release her, before a life of +long misery begins for them both?" + +Mr. Medlicott never analyzed reasons, and never listened to other +people's logic, and if he had any of his own he was too angry to use +it. He was simply conscious now that a foreigner had insulted him and +appeared to have stolen the affections of his betrothed, and his sacred +calling precluded all physical retaliation--which, at the moment, was +the only kind that would have given him any satisfaction. He prepared +to stalk furiously from the room after he should receive an answer to +an all-important question. + +"The whole thing is disgraceful," he said, "and I shall inform Miss +Rawson's uncle and aunt of your highly insulting words to me, that they +may guard her from further importunity upon your part. But I should +like to know, in fairness, how far you are stating you have been able +to persuade my fiancee to agree to your view?" + +"I am sorry you should have become so heated and angry," Count +Roumovski returned, "because it stops all sensible discussion. I deeply +regret having been forced to inflict pain upon you, but if you would +give yourself time to think calmly you would see that, however +unfortunate the fact may be for you of Miss Rawson's affections having +become fixed on me--these things are no one's fault and beyond human +control--Miss Rawson has left the breaking off of her engagement to you +in my hands, and has decided that she desires to marry me, as I desire +to marry her, as soon as she is free." + +"I refuse to listen to another word," Mr. Medlicott flashed, "and I +warn you, sir, that I will give no such freedom at your bidding--on the +contrary, I shall have my marriage with Miss Rawson solemnized +immediately, and try, if there is a word of truth in your preposterous +assertion that she loves you, to bring her back to a proper sense of +her duty to me and to God, repressing her earthly longings by +discipline and self-denial, the only true methods for the saving of her +soul. And I and her natural guardians, her uncle and her aunt, will +take care that you never see her again." + +Count Roumovski raised his eyebrows once more and prepared to light a +cigar. + +"It is a pity you will not discuss this peacefully, sir," he said, "or +apparently even think about it yourself with common sense. If you would +do so, you would begin by asking yourself what God gave certain human +beings certain attributes for," he blew a few whiffs of smoke, "whether +to be wasted and crushed out by the intolerance of others,--or whether +to be tended and grow to the highest, as flowers grow with light and +air and water." + +"What has that got to do with the case?" asked Mr. Medlicott, tapping +his foot uneasily. + +"Everything," went on the Russian, mildly, "you, I believe, are a +priest, and therefore should be better able to expound your Deity's +meaning than I, a layman--but you have evidently not the same point of +view--mine is always to look at the facts of a case denuded of +prejudice--because the truth is the thing to aim at--" + +"You would suggest that I am not aiming at the truth," the clergyman +interrupted, trembling now with anger, so that he fiercely grasped the +back of a high chair, "your words are preposterous, sir." + +"Not at all," Count Roumovski continued. "Look frankly at things; you +have just announced that you would constitute yourself judge of what is +for Miss Rawson's salvation." + +"Leave her name out, I insist," the other put in hotly. + +"To be concrete, unfortunately, I cannot do so," the Russian said. "I +must speak of this lady we are both interested in--pray, try to listen +to me calmly, sir, for we are here for the settling of a matter which +concerns the happiness of our three lives." + +"I do not admit for a moment that you have the right to speak at all," +Mr. Medlicott returned, but his adversary went on quietly. + +"You must have remarked that Miss Rawson possesses beauty of form, +sweet and tender flesh, soft coloring, and a look of health and warmth +and life. All these charms tend to create in man a passionate physical +love. That is cause and effect. For the sake of the present argument we +will, for the moment, leave out all more important questions of the +soul and things mental and spiritual. Well, who gave her these +attributes? Did you or I--or even her parents, consciously? Or did the +Supreme Being, whom you call God, endow her so? Admitted that He +did--have you, then, or anyone else, the right to crush out the result +of His endowment in a woman; crush her joy of them, force her into a +life where their possession is looked upon as a temptation? Seek to +marry her--remember that marriage physically means being certainly +actuated to do so by their attraction--and yet believing that you sin +each time you allow them to influence you." Count Roumovski's level +voice took on a note of deep emotion and his blue eyes gleamed. "Why, +the degradation is horrible to think of, sir, if you will face the +truth--and this is the fate to which you would condemn this young and +tender girl for your own selfishness, knowing she does not love you." + +Eustace Medlicott walked up and down rapidly for a moment; he then +picked up a book and threw it aside again in agitation. He was very +pale now. + +"I refuse to have the woman I have decided to marry snatched from me by +any of your sophistries," he said breathlessly. "I am better able than +you to save her soul, and she owes me honor and obedience--it is most +unseemly to even mention the aspects you have done in a bond which is a +sacrament of holy church and should be only approached in a spiritual +frame of mind, not a carnal one." + +"You are talking pure nonsense, sir," returned Count Roumovski sternly. +"If that were the case the wording of your English marriage service +would be different. First and foremost, marriage is a contract between +two people to live together in union of body and to procreate children, +which is the law of God and nature. Men added arrangement and endowment +of property, and the church added spiritual sacrament. But God and +nature invented the vital thing. If it were not so, it would have been +possible for the spiritually minded, of which company you infer +yourself to be, to live with a woman on terms of brother and sister, +and never let the senses speak at all. There would then have been no +necessity for the ceremony of marriage for priests with your views." + +Eustace Medlicott shook with passion and emotion as he answered +furiously: "You would turn the question into one of whether a priest +should marry or not. It is a question which has agitated me all my +life, and which I have only lately been able to come to a conclusion +upon. I refuse to let you disturb me in it." + +"I had not thought of doing so," Count Roumovski returned tranquilly. +"You and your views and your destiny do not interest me, I must own, +except in so far as they interfere with myself and the woman I love. +You have proved yourself to be just a warped atom of the great +creation, incapable of anything but ignoble narrowness. You cannot even +examine your own emotions honestly and probe their meaning or you would +realize no man should marry, be he priest or layman, if he looks upon +the joys of physical love as base and his succumbing to them a proof of +the power of the beast in himself. Because he then lives under +continual degradation of soul by acting against his conscience." + +Mr. Medlicott was now silent, almost choking with perturbation. So +Count Roumovski went on: + +"The wise man faces the facts of nature. Looks straight to find God's +meaning in them, and then tries to exalt and ennoble them to their +loftiest good. He does not, in his puny impotence, quarrel with the +all-powerful Creator and try to stamp out that with which He thought +fit to endow human beings." + +"Your words convey a flagrant denial of original sin, and I cannot +listen to such an argument," Mr. Medlicott flashed, his anger now at +white heat. "You would do away with a whole principle of the Christian +religion." + +"No; I would only do away with a faulty interpretation which man +grafted upon it," Count Roumovski answered. + +Then the two men glared straight into each other's eyes for a moment, +and Eustace Medlicott quailed beneath the magnetic force of the +Russian's blue ones--he turned away abruptly. He was too intolerant of +character and too disturbed now to permit himself to hear more of these +reasonings. He could but resort to protest and let his wrath rise to +assist him. + +"It cannot benefit either Miss Rawson or ourselves to continue this +unseemly controversy over her," he said in a raucous voice. "I have +told you I will give no freedom upon your request--and I have warned +you of my action. Now I shall go," and he took three steps toward the +door. + +But Count Roumovski's next words arrested him a moment; his tone was no +longer one of suave, detached calmness, but sharp and decisive, and his +bearing was instinct with strength and determination. + +"Since we are coming to warnings," he said, "we drop the velvet glove. +The discourtesy to a lady conveyed in your words obliges me to use my +own way without further consulting you for assisting her wishes. I will +again thank you for coming up here and will have the honor to wish you +goodnight." With which he opened the door politely and bowed his +visitor out. + +And when he was alone Count Roumovski sat down by the open window and +puffed his cigar meditatively for some minutes, smiling quietly to +himself as he mused: + +"Poor, stupid fellow! If people could only be honest enough with +themselves to have a sensible point of view! It is all so simple if +they would get down to the reason of things without all this false +sentiment. Of what use to chain the body of a woman to one man if her +spirit is with another? Of what use to talk of offended honor with +high-sounding words when, if one were truthful, one would own it was +offended vanity? Of what use for this narrow, foolish clergyman to +protest and bombast and rave, underneath he is actuated by mostly human +motives in his desire to marry my Stella? When will the world learn to +be natural and see the truth? Love of the soul is the divine part of +the business, but it cannot exist without love of the body. As well ask +a man to live upon bread without water." + +Then he moved to his writing table and composed rapidly a letter to his +beloved in which he recounted to her the result of the interview and +the threats of her late fiance, and the humor in which he had quitted +the room, and from that she might judge of what she must reasonably +expect. He advised her, as he was unaware of how far the English +authority of a guardian might go, to feign some fatigue and keep her +room next day and on no account whatever to be persuaded to leave Rome +or the hotel. He told her that in the morning he would endeavor to see +her uncle and aunt, but if they refused this interview, he would write +and ask formally for her hand, and if his request were treated with +scorn, then she must be prepared to slip away with him to the Excelsior +Hotel and be consigned to the care of the Princess Urazov, his sister, +who would have arrived from Paris. The business part of the epistle +over, he allowed himself half a page of love sentences--which caused +Miss Rawson exquisite delight when she read them some moments later. + +She had not gone to bed directly, she was too excited and full of new +emotions to be thinking of sleep, and when she heard Ivan's gentle tap +at her door she crept to it and whispered without opening it: + +"Who is there?" + +A low voice answered: "Une lettre pour mademoiselle." And the epistle +was slipped into the little box for letters on the door. She went back +to her wide window and looked out on the darkness after she had read +it. She saw there would be trouble ahead, she knew Eustace Medlicott's +obstinate spirit very well, and also the rigid convention of Aunt +Caroline--but to what lengths they would go she formulated no guess. + +It all seemed so secure and happy and calm now with such a man to lean +upon as Sasha Roumovski. Nothing need ruffle or frighten her ever any +more. And then she read the love sentences again and thrilled and +quivered there in the warm, soft night. Sasha Roumovski's influence +over her had grown so strong that not a questioning speculation as to +the step she meant to take any longer entered her head. She felt she +knew at last what love's meaning truly was, and nothing else mattered +in the world--which, indeed, was the truth! + +Meanwhile, the Reverend Eustace Medlicott, burning with fury, had +stalked to his room, and there tried to think of what he had better do. +He feared it was too late to communicate with Canon and Mrs. +Ebley--they would have retired to bed, and Stella, also. Here his +thoughts were brought up with violent suddenness. Was she quite safe? +Heavens above! and he turned quite cold--foreigners might be capable of +any outrage--but presently he dismissed this fear. People always locked +their doors in hotels, and Stella, though she had apparently shown +herself sadly unworthy of his regard, was a thoroughly well brought-up +young woman, and would not be likely to bandy words in the night with +any young man. But on the morrow he would insist upon their all leaving +the hotel and Rome itself--no more chances of her communicating with +this hateful Russian count should be risked. + +As the Ebley party had only arrived three days ago in the city, it was +clearly impossible that the affair could have gone far, and as he had +heard of their sightseeing and knew Mrs. Ebley would be extremely +unlikely to allow Stella out of her sight in any case, he could not +imagine how his fiancee and the Russian could have found a chance to +speak--and even a foreigner could not persuade a woman into this course +of action in half an hour's talk at the Embassy! The whole thing must +be the ravings of a madman, nothing more, and Stella herself would be +the first to explain that point on the morrow. + +But even this comforting thought could not quite calm him--there +remained disquieting recollections of certain forcible arguments he had +been obliged to listen to against his will which had hit some part of +his inner consciousness usually impregnably protected by his +self-conceit. And it was an hour or two before he was able to drink his +barley water and retire to rest, which he felt he badly needed after +his long journey and uncomfortably exciting evening. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +The sun was blazing gloriously next day, the whole air was full of +freshness and spring and youth. An ideal one for lovers, and not at all +the atmosphere for anger and strife. But these facts did not enter into +the consideration of three of the people, at least, connected with our +little comedy. + +Eustace Medlicott woke more full of wrath than he had been the night +before, and, the moment he was dressed, proceeded to make havoc with +the peace of the Reverend Canon and Mrs. Ebley. He sent up an urgent +summons that they would see him immediately. Having no sitting-room, he +suggested the reading-room, which would be empty at this hour. + +The Aunt Caroline had experienced some misgivings herself at the +Embassy about her niece's absence with the foreign count, who had risen +to this distinctive appellation in her mind from "that dreadful man," +but she had felt it more prudent not to comment upon her apprehensions +to her niece. Eustace evidently had discovered further cause of +resentment and feminine curiosity assisted her to dress with greater +rapidity than usual. + +The pair entered the room with grave faces and took two uncomfortable +chairs. + +The Reverend Mr. Medlicott remained standing, and soon, from his +commanding position, let them hear his version of the hated foreigner's +communications. They were duly horrified and surprised and then Mrs. +Ebley bridled a little--after all, it was the behavior of her own niece +upon which aspersion was being cast. + +"I am certain, Eustace, the man must be mad--I assure you, Stella has +not been for an instant absent from me, except yesterday morning she +went to the Thermes Museum with Martha, whom you know has proved by +twenty-five years of faithful service that she can be completely +trusted, therefore the girl cannot have had any opportunity of +conversing with this stranger until last night. It would be only fair +to question her first--" + +"My wife is quite right," Canon Ebley agreed. "We should listen to no +more until Stella is here to defend herself. Let us send a message for +her to descend at once." + +He went and rang the bell as he spoke, and the summons to Miss Rawson +was dispatched. Then the three somewhat uncomfortably tried to exchange +platitudes upon indifferent subjects until the waiter returned. + +Mademoiselle was very fatigued and was not yet up! Such an unheard of +thing petrified them all with astonishment. Stella to be still in bed, +at half past nine in the morning! The child must be ill!--or it was +distinct rebellion. Mrs. Ebley prepared to go and investigate matters +when another waiter entered with a note for Canon Ebley, and stood +aside to receive the answer. + +"Dear, dear!" said that gentleman to his wife, "I have not my glasses +with me, I came down in such a hurry. Will you read it to me?" + +But Mrs. Ebley was in a like plight, so they were obliged to enlist the +services of Eustace Medlicott. + +He knew the writing directly he glanced at it and every move of his +body stiffened with renewed anger. And it is to be feared he said to +himself, "it is from that cursed man." + +He read it aloud, and it was the briefest and most courteous note +asking for the honor of an interview at whatever time would be most +agreeable to Canon Ebley. The nature of the business to be discussed at +it was not stated. + +"I strongly advise you not to see the scoundrel," Mr. Medlicott said +vehemently. "It is far better that we should all leave Rome immediately +and avoid any chance of scandal." + +"Before we can decide anything," Mrs. Ebley said decisively, "I must +speak with my niece. If she is quite ignorant of this foreigner's +ravings, then there will be no necessity to alter our trip--we can +merely move to another hotel. The whole thing is most unpleasant and +irritating and has quite upset me." + +Stella, upstairs in her cosy bed, had meanwhile received another note +from her lover. Full of tenderness and encouragement, it made her feel +as bold as a young lioness and ready to brave any attack. That her aunt +had not been to see why she was not dressed already was filling her +with surprise, and after the waiter had brought the message she guessed +the reason why. + +A firm tap to the door presently and her Aunt Caroline's voice saying +sternly. "It is I, Stella, please let me in at once." + +Miss Rawson got out of bed, unlocked the door and bounded back again, +and a figure of dignified displeasure sailed into the room. + +"Are you ill, my dear?" Mrs. Ebley asked, in a stern voice. "It is +otherwise very strange that you should not be dressed at this hour--it +is a quarter to ten o'clock." + +"No, I am not exactly ill, Aunt Caroline," Stella answered gently, "but +I was very tired, and as I was making up my mind what I should say in +my letter to Eustace to break off my engagement--I preferred not to +come down until I had done so." + +The Aunt Caroline could not believe her ears. She was obliged to sit +down. Her emotion made her knees tremble. It was true then--something +had been going on under her very eyes and she had not perceived it--the +deceit and perfidy of human nature had always been a shock to her-- + +"You wish to break your engagement, Stella," she said, as soon as she +could steady her voice. "But you cannot possibly do so scandalous a +thing--and for what reason, pray?" + +"I find I do not love Eustace," Stella answered calmly, although her +heart now began to beat rapidly. "I know I never have loved him; it was +only because I thought it would please you and Uncle Erasmus that I +ever became engaged to him, and now that I know what love is--I mean +now that the time is getting nearer, I feel that I cannot go through +with it." + +"There is something underneath all this, Stella," Mrs. Ebley said +icily. "You cannot deceive me. You have been led astray, girl--it is +wiser to confess at once and I will try to pardon you." + +Stella's spirit rose--she raised her head proudly, then she remembered +her lover's counsel to have no arguments whatsoever, and so she curbed +her heated words and continued gently: + +"I have not been led astray, Aunt Caroline, and there is nothing to +pardon. I am twenty-one years old now and surely can judge for myself +whether or no I wish to marry a man--and I have decided I do not intend +to marry Eustace Medlicott. I almost feel I detest him." + +Mrs. Ebley was petrified with anger and astonishment. + +"I am sorry to tell you I cannot believe you, Stella," she said, "your +fiance had a most unpleasant shock last night. The foreign person, +Count Roumovski, who was presented to us at the Embassy, insulted him +greatly, and told him that you had agreed to marry him as soon as +Eustace should set you free! I almost blush to repeat to you this +shocking story which we had considered the ravings of a madman, but the +time has come when we must have some plain speaking." + +"It has indeed," Stella agreed, her wrath rising, then went on +respectfully, "but I must refuse to discuss anything about Count +Roumovski at present. Please believe me that I do not wish to annoy +you, dear Aunt Caroline. I only wish to do what is right, and I know it +is right to break off my engagement with Eustace Medlicott." + +Mrs. Ebley felt her anger augmenting to boiling point, but nothing, she +could say had any effect upon her niece, who remained extremely +respectful and gentle, but perfectly firm. Mrs. Ebley could not get her +to tell her anything about her acquaintance with this dreadful +foreigner. She became silent after she had refused point blank to +discuss him. At last the baffled and exasperated older lady got up and +fired her last shot. + +"Words cannot express my pain and disgust at your conduct, Stella," she +said. "Putting aside all the awful suspicions I have about this +Russian, you will lay up for yourself a lifelong regret in outraging +all decency by refusing to marry that good and pure young clergyman, +Eustace Medlicott." + +"I have done nothing wrong, Aunt Caroline, please do not go away angry +with me," Stella pleaded. "When Count Roumovski asks Uncle Erasmus' and +your consent to his marrying me--then I will tell you everything about +him,--but now I do not wish to. Please forgive me for causing you +pain--we shall all be very happy soon, and surely I have a right to my +life like any other person." + +Mrs. Ebley would not bandy further words; their points of view were too +different. + +"I regret that I am obliged to request you to keep your room and have +no communication with anyone whatever until I can consult with your +uncle and Eustace as to what is the best thing to do with you. That we +shall leave Rome immediately you may be prepared for." + +Stella here burst into tears. She had an affection for her aunt, who +had always been kind to her in a hard, cold way, and she was deeply +grieved at their estrangement, but there were forces in life which she +knew now mattered more than any aunts in the world. + +Mrs. Ebley did not relent at the sound of the sobbing, but left the +room, closing the door firmly after her. And a few minutes afterward +Martha was let in by the chambermaid without knocking and sat down +grimly by the window and began to knit. + +Then Stella's tears turned to resentment. To be insulted so! To have a +servant sent to watch her was more than she would bear. But as she +turned in bed she felt her lover's note touch her and like a magic wand +a thrill of comfort rushed through her. After all, he would settle +things for her--and meanwhile she would close her eyes and pretend to +sleep. So with her precious love letter clasped tight in her hand under +the clothes she turned her face to the wall and shut her eyes. + +Meanwhile, Canon Ebley and the Reverend Eustace Medlicott were spending +a very disagreeable time in the reading-room. Relieved of Mrs. Ebley's +presence, Eustace had recounted more fully the interview he had had +with Sasha Roumovski the night before. He was not a very accurate +person and apt to color everything with his own prejudice, so Canon +Ebley did not obtain a very clear idea of the Russian's arguments. They +seemed to him to be very unorthodox and carnal and reprehensible from +all points. But it was evident they were dealing with a clever and +dangerous character and Stella must be rescued from such a person's +influence and married off to her lawful fiance at once. + +"We could have the ceremony here, Eustace, in three weeks' time, or we +could go back to England immediately, for until our niece is your wife +I am sure her aunt and myself will not feel easy about her." + +"Nor I either," Mr. Medlicott returned, and at that moment the Aunt +Caroline entered the room and gradually disclosed the awful truth she +had arrived at from Miss Rawson's admissions. + +"That dreadful foreigner must be told at once we refuse to have any +communication with him and Stella shall be kept locked in her room +until we can leave Rome," Mrs. Ebley said sternly. "I could not have +believed my own sister's child could have behaved so disgracefully." + +"Dear, dear," said Canon Ebley, "but we must get at the facts of when +she has been able to see this Russian. It is impossible that the +present state of things could have arisen from merely last night at the +Embassy." + +At this stage of the proceedings, it being a public room, Count +Roumovski entered it serenely and, coming toward the group, made a +stiff bow to each in turn. + +"I believe you have received my letter, sir," he said, addressing Canon +Ebley, "but, as I have had no reply, I ventured to present myself +without further delay--" + +"We do not wish for any communication from you," Eustace Medlicott +hastened to announce before either of the others could speak. "I have +informed Canon and Mrs. Ebley of your disgraceful conduct and that is +sufficient. We shall discuss nothing further." + +"I was not addressing you, sir," Count Roumovski returned mildly. "My +business with you terminated last night." And he turned his shoulders +to the irate junior chaplain and looked Canon Ebley straight in the +face. "I am here to ask for the hand of your niece, Miss Rawson, as she +is now free from other engagements, and with her full consent I desire +to make her my wife." + +"Come, Erasmus," Mrs. Ebley said with icy dignity. "Let us go up to our +apartment and if this person annoys us further we can complain to the +manager of the hotel," then, with an annihilating glance, she took her +husband's arm and drew him toward the door. + +"As you will, madame," and the Russian gentleman bowed with respectful +serenity. "It would have been more sensible to have taken my request +otherwise, but it is, after all, quite immaterial. I will wish you a +good-day," and he bowed again as Canon Ebley and his outraged spouse +sailed from the room--and, with an exclamation of suppressed fury, +Eustace Medlicott followed in their wake. + +Then Count Roumovski laughed softly to himself and, sitting down at a +writing-table, wrote a letter to his beloved. His whole plan of life +was simple and direct. He had done what he considered was necessary in +the affair, he had behaved with perfect openness and honor in his +demand, and if these people could not see the thing from a common sense +point of view, they were no longer to be considered. He would take the +law into his own hands. + +When he had finished his note he went straight up in the lift to the +corridor where Stella's room was and there saw in the distance her +raging and discomfited late betrothed evidently keeping watch and ward. +Count Roumovski did not hesitate a second; he advanced to the door and +knocked firmly on the panel, slipping his letter through the little +slide for such things before Mr. Medlicott could bound forward and +prevent him. + +"A letter for you, mademoiselle, from me, Sasha Roumovski," he said in +French in a loud enough voice for the occupant of the room to hear, and +then he stood still for a second, as both men heard Stella jump from +her bed and rush to the door to take the missive before Martha from the +place at the window could intercept it. + +"Do not dare to touch that, Martha," they heard her voice say +haughtily, and then she called out, "Sasha, I have it safe and I will +do exactly as you direct." + +Count Roumovski looked at Eustace Medlicott, who stood as a +spread-eagle in front of the door--and then, smiling, went calmly on +his way. + +The Reverend Mr. Medlicott shook with burning rage. He was being made +to look ridiculous and he was absolutely impotent to retaliate in any +way. He would bring scandal upon them all if waiters and other guests +saw him guarding Miss Rawson's actual door, and he could not sit +outside like a valet; the whole thing was unspeakably maddening, and +murderous thoughts flooded his brain. + +"Give me that letter this minute, Stella," he said in an almost +inarticulate voice through the keyhole, he was so shaken with passion. +"Open the door and let Martha hand it to me. You are disgracing us all." + +"It is you who are doing that, Eustace," Stella said from beyond the +panel, lifting the slide that her voice might be heard distinctly. "You +have no authority over me at all. I told Aunt Caroline I did not intend +to continue my engagement with you--but even if I had not decided to +break it off, this conduct of yours would now be sufficient reason. How +dare you all treat me as though I were a naughty child or insane!" + +"Because you are both," Mr. Medlicott returned, "and must be controlled +and compelled into a proper behavior." + +Stella was silent--she would not be so undignified as to parley +further. She got back into bed, taking not the slightest notice of the +maid, and then proceeded to read her letter. + +Her lover had explained in it the situation and advised her to dress at +once, and then if menaced in any way to ring the bell. Ivan would be +waiting outside to obey her slightest orders, and to warn his master if +any fresh moves were made, so that when the waiter or chambermaid came +in answer to her summons she might be sure of extra help at hand. Then +she was to walk out and down into the hall, where he, Sasha, would be +watching for her and ready to take her to the Excelsior Hotel, where +that same evening would arrive the Princess Urazov. "But if they do not +molest you, dearest," he wrote, "do not leave your room until seven +o'clock, because I wish my sister to be in the hall ready to receive +you that your family can see that I only desire to do everything right." + +And as she finished reading, Stella got up and told Martha to prepare +her things. + +"I have no orders from Mrs. Ebley for that, Miss Stella," the woman +answered sullenly. "I do wonder what has come over everybody. I never +was in such an uncomfortable position in my life." + +Stella made no answer, but proceeded to dress herself, and then sat +down to read again the letters she had received in the last twenty-four +hours. + +If her family, who knew her, could treat her in this abominable way, +when she had committed no fault except the very human one of desiring +to be the arbiter of her own fate, she surely owed no further obedience +to them. So she waited calmly for a fresh turn of events. + +Her luncheon was brought up on a tray by the waiter, and some for +Martha also, and the two ate in silence, until Stella suddenly burst +into a merry peal of laughter, it was so grotesquely comic! A grown up +English girl in these days locked in her room with a dragon duenna +gaoler! + +"Martha, isn't it too funny, the whole thing!" she said, between her +gurgles. "Can't you laugh, you old goose! and to think how sorry you +will be, you were so horrid, when I am gone, because, of course, you +know you cannot keep me once I make up my mind to go." + +"Mrs. Ebley said I was to have no conversation with you, Miss," Martha +said, glumly, at which Stella laughed afresh. + +Meanwhile Count Roumovski had made all arrangements at the Excelsior +Hotel, and after lunch sat quietly in the hall awaiting his beloved. +Mrs. Ebley had felt too upset to go down to the restaurant, so the two +clergymen were there alone, and glanced wrathfully at the imperturbable +face of Count Roumovski seated at his usual table, with his air of +detached aloofness and perfect calm. They, on the contrary, were so +boiling with rage that they knew not what they ate. + +After lunch it had been decided that the party should leave the Grand +and take the five o'clock train to Florence, and their preparations +were made. + +Mrs. Ebley had herself been laboriously packing so as not to take +Martha from her post, and orders were whispered to that faithful +Abigail through Stella's letter slide to pack Miss Rawson's things at +once. + +Stella watched these preparations serenely, and gave Martha directions +as to what to put on the top. Then when all was finished and she had +donned her hat, she rang the electric bell for the waiter, and when he +knocked at the door she calmly bade him enter, which, of course, he was +able to do with his key, and she told him in French, which Martha did +not understand, to send the porters there immediately, and have her +luggage consigned to the care of the servant who would be waiting in +the passage. This person would give orders for its destination. The +waiter bowed obsequiously. Had he not been already heavily tipped by +this intelligent Ivan, and instructed instantly to obey the orders of +mademoiselle? + +"It is much better I am before them," Stella thought to herself, while +Martha looked on in rageful bafflement. + +"The porters will come up and take the trunks outside, Martha," Miss +Rawson said. "You can give them what orders aunt told you to." + +Such was her supreme confidence in the methods of her lover that she +felt sure once Ivan was apprised of the fact by the waiter that the +trunks would be consigned to him it would not matter what Martha said +to the porters! So she calmly sat down by the window and folded her +hands, while the elderly maid fumed with the uncertainty of what she +ought to do. And in a few moments the men appeared, and smilingly +seemed to understand the gestures and English orders of Martha to take +the trunks to the door of Madam Ebley, number 325, round the corner of +the passage and on the opposite side. + +They nodded their heads wisely and carried the box out, shutting the +door after them, and then there was silence for a while; and Stella +half-dozed in her chair, it was so warm and peaceful by the window and +she had had so little sleep in the night. + +An hour passed, and at four o'clock the Aunt Caroline appeared. Her +face was grim. Had Stella been an outcast in deed and word she could +not have looked more disdainful. + +"You must come down with me now, Stella," she said, "we are ready to go +to the station. I will remain with you here until Martha gets her hat." + +Stella rose to her feet and before the astonished lady could speak +more, she had swiftly passed her and gained the door, which she threw +open, and, like a fawn, rushed down the passage toward the staircase +entrance side of the hotel, and by the time her slowly moving aunt had +emerged from the room she had turned the corner and was out of sight. + +Fortunately, she met no one on the stairs except one astonished page, +and arrived in the outer corridor breathless with excitement and +emotion. + +Count Roumovski saw her through the door of the hall, and hastened to +meet her. + +"There is not a moment to be lost," she said, as he got to her side. + +"Go to the place you went before under the trees," he whispered +hurriedly in return. "The automobile is there, and I will follow +presently." So she went. + +Her knees would hardly support her, she trembled so, until she was safe +in the big blue motor, which moved off at once. For an awful moment a +hideous sense of terror overcame her, making her cold. What lay in +front of her? What new fate?--and then joy and life came back. She was +going to freedom and love-away from Exminster and dreary duties--away +from Eustace Medlicott, for ever! For, of course, her uncle and aunt +would come round in time, and they could be happy again with her some +day. + +When Mrs. Ebley had collected her scattered senses and followed down +the passage only to find Stella out of sight, she was obliged to +retrace her steps and rejoin her husband and Mr. Medlicott, who were +awaiting her at the lift on the other side, the restaurant end, which +was the one they were accustomed to descend by. + +"She ran away from me, Erasmus!" the agitated lady cried, "passed me +without a word, and I suppose has gone down the stairs--if we hasten in +the lift we shall catch her yet." + +But as they frantically rang the bell and the lift boy did not come, +Eustace Medlicott, with a most unsaintly exclamation, hastened off by +that staircase and arrived in the hall to see the hated Russian calmly +smoking his cigarette and reading an English paper. + +He advanced upon him regardless of the numbers of people beginning to +assemble for tea. + +"What have you done with Miss Rawson?" he asked furiously. "She has +this moment run away from her aunt." + +"I have nothing to converse with you about," Count Roumovski returned, +with mild surprise. "And, as I see it is four o'clock, I must wish you +a good-day, as I have an appointment," with which he rose quietly +before the other could prevent him, and crossed the broad path of +carpet which separates the groups of chairs, and there was seen to +enter into earnest conversation with a Russian-looking individual who +had just entered. + +The Reverend Mr. Medlicott was nonplussed, and hurried into the front +vestibule, where he made rapid inquiries of the hall-porter. + +Yes--the young lady, he believed, had walked out of the hotel not two +minutes before. Monsieur would overtake her certainly, if he hastened. +And the frantic young man rushed from the door, through the porte +cochere, and so to the street, but all he saw in the far distance was a +retreating large, blue automobile--and this conveyed among all the rest +of the traffic no impression whatever. + +To search for Stella was hopeless; the only thing to do was to return +to the Ebleys, and with them go to the Embassy. There they could, +perhaps, get advice and help how to communicate with the police. + +But what an ignominious position for a Bishop's junior chaplain to be +placed in, a humiliation in every way! + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +When Stella found the automobile drawing up at a strange hotel's doors +her tremors broke out afresh, until she saw the face of Ivan, who, with +the porter, came forward to meet her, saying respectfully in French, +would mademoiselle be pleased to mount directly to the rooms reserved +for the Princess Urazov? And soon, without anyone questioning her, she +found herself being taken up in the lift, and finally ushered into a +charming sitting-room full of flowers. + +Here she sat down and trembled again. The wildest excitement filled her +veins. Would Sasha never come! She could not sit still, she walked from +bouquet to bouquet of roses and carnations, sniffing the scent, and at +last subsided into a big armchair, as the waiters brought in some tea. + +He thought of everything for her, then--her lover. But oh, why did he +not come! + +She had finished her tea and had begun her restless pacing again, when, +with a gentle tap, the door opened, and Count Roumovski appeared. + +"Sasha!" she cried, and advanced toward him like a frightened child. + +His usually calm blue eyes were blazing with some emotion which +disturbed her greatly, she knew not why, and his voice seemed to have +taken a tone of extra deepness, as he said: + +"Stella! My little star! And so you are really here--and my own!" + +He put his strong hands down and held on to the back of a chair, and +simple as she was she knew very well that otherwise he would have taken +her into his arms, which was where she was longing to be, if she had +known. + +"Yes, I have come," she whispered, "I have left them all--for you. Oh! +when will your sister be here?" + +"Not until six o'clock, darling," he answered, while his eyes melted +upon her with passionate love. "There is an hour yet to wait. I had +hoped you would not have been forced to leave your aunt's care until +then." + +"Oh! I am delighted to have come away," Stella answered, regaining some +of her composure. "I was shut into my room and watched by a servant. It +was awful! But do--you know what has happened now? since I left? Are +they tearing about after me, or what?" + +Count Roumovski still held on to the back of the chair, and his voice +was still deep, as he said: + +"I believe they have gone to your Embassy in a band--and much good may +they get there. You are of age, you see. Besides, I have taken care +that no one at the Grand Hotel knows where we have gone, and it will +take them quite an hour or two to telephone about and find out--and by +that time my sister will have arrived, and we can defy them." + +"Yes," said Stella, and then, nervously, "won't you have some tea?" + +He sat down, still constrainedly and clasped his hands, and womanlike, +when she saw his agitation, her own lessened, and she assumed command, +while she asked almost archly if he took cream and sugar. + +He liked neither, he said, and with the air of a little hostess she +handed him the cup. Then she smiled softly and stood quite near him. + +He drew himself together and his face looked almost stern as he took +the tea, and over Stella there crept a chill--and the gay little speech +that had been bubbling to her lips died there, and a silence fell upon +them for a few moments. Then he put down his cup and crossed to the +stiff sofa where she was, and sat down beside her. + +"Sweetheart," he said, looking deeply into her eyes, "it is a colossal +temptation, you know, to me to make love to you. But I am not going to +permit myself that happiness yet. I want to tell you all about what we +shall do presently, and see if it pleases you." He did not even take +her hand, and Stella felt rather aggrieved and wounded. "I propose that +as soon as the formalities can be got through, and the wedding can take +place, that we go straight to Paris--because you will want to get all +kinds of clothes. And it will be such a delight to me to give you +everything you wish for." + +Stella smiled shyly. It seemed suddenly to bring realities of things +before her with keen force. He would have the right to give her +everything in the world--this man whom she did not really know, but +whom she felt she loved very much. She clasped her hands and a thrill +ran through her. What, what did it all mean? The idea of her marriage +with Eustace Medlicott had always appeared as an ugly vision, an end to +everything, a curtain which was yet drawn over a view which could only +be all dusk and gray shadows, and which she would rather not +contemplate. But now the thought of going away and beginning a new +existence with Sasha Roumovski was something so glorious and delicious +that she quivered with joy at any reference to it. + +Her little movement and the clasping of her hands affected him +profoundly. He, too, quivered, but with the stern effort to control +himself. It was part of his code of honor. Not the slightest advantage +must be taken of the situation while Stella was alone and unchaperoned, +although the very fact of their propinquity and the knowledge of their +solitude were extremely exciting to him, who knew the meaning of every +emotion. He drew a little away from her, and said in a voice that +sounded cold: + +"I have seen the consul this afternoon. It will take three weeks, I am +afraid, before we can be legally married here in Rome. It seems an +eternity to me." + +"Yes," agreed Stella, and suddenly looked down. She wished intensely +that he would caress her a little--although she was unaware of the +desire. She wondered vaguely--was it then very wicked to make love, +since Sasha, too, like Eustace, seemed as if he were resisting +something with all his strength? And unconsciously she pouted her red +underlip, and Count Roumovski moved convulsively. + +"My sister's room is next to this," he said, "and yours is beyond. I +have had only roses put there, because you are like a sweet June rose." + +"Am I?" said Miss Rawson, and raised her head. She had grown extremely +excited and disappointed, and, she knew not what, only that she did not +like this new lover of hers to be sitting there constrained and aloof, +talking in a stiff voice unlike his usual easy grace. It was perfectly +ridiculous to have run away with some one with whom she was +passionately in love, if he were going to remain as cold as ice! + +She got up and took a rose from a vase and fastened it in her dress. +The whole movement and action had the unconscious coquetry of a woman's +methods to gain her end. Totally unaccustomed as Stella was to all +artifices, instinct was her teacher. + +Sasha Roumovski rose suddenly. + +"Come and sit here beside me again, heart of mine," he commanded with +imperious love, and indicated the stiff Louis XIV sofa. "I must explain +everything to you, it would seem." + +Stella had never heard this tone in his voice before; it caused her +strange delight, and she shyly took her seat at one end of the sofa, +and then, as he flung himself down beside her, she looked up at him. + +"What must you explain?" she asked. + +"First, that I love you madly, that it is sickening temptation to be +with you now every instant without holding you in my arms," and his +voice trembled, while his blue eyes glowed. "That I do not know how to +resist the wild passion which is overcoming me. I want to kiss you so +terribly, more than I have ever wanted anything in my life." + +"We-ll?" said Stella, with a quiver of exquisite joy. "And--" she had +almost spoken her thought of, "Why do you not do so, then?"--but the +burning passion she read in his made her drop her eyes. This was too +much for him. He understood perfectly, and, with a little cry, he drew +her to him, and his lips had almost touched her red, young, pouting +lips when he suddenly controlled himself and put her from him. + +"No, sweetheart," he said hoarsely, "you would never respect me any +more if I took advantage of your tenderness now. As soon--as soon as I +really may, I will teach you every shade of love and its meanings. I +will kiss those lips and unloosen that hair; I will suffocate you with +caresses and make you thrill as I shall thrill until we both forget +everything in the intoxication of bliss," and he half-closed his eyes, +and his face grew pale again with suppressed emotion. + +"Oh, I do not understand at all," Stella said, in a disappointed and +perplexed voice. "Since we are going to be married, why would it be so +very wrong for you to kiss me? I--I--" her small rueful face, with its +sweet childlike irregular curves, looked almost pathetically comic, and +Sasha leaned forward and covered his eyes with his hands. And then he +mastered himself and laughed softly. + +"Oh, you adorable one!" he said. "It is not wrong--not the least wrong. +Only presently, when you do understand, you will realize how very much +I loved you to-day." + +But Stella was still pouting--and got up restlessly and went to the +window. + +"What can they do when they get to the Embassy?" she asked. "Could they +really take me back if they found me by telephoning round?" + +"I do not think so--if you are past twenty-one." + +"I was twenty-one in April. I am not a bit afraid of them, but I do not +want to have any row." + +"When my sister has arrived you must write to your aunt, and tell where +you are and what are your intentions, then all will be finished." + +"Oh, I wish she would come, don't you?" Stella said. + +"More than I can say, darling," he answered, fervently. "You will not, +I hope, find me so incomprehensible then." + +He walked about the room once or twice, and at last paused in front of +her. + +"Stella," he whispered, while his eyes blazed again, "I cannot bear it, +little sweetheart, to stay all alone with you here. Will you forgive +me, if I leave you until Anastasia has arrived? Go and rest in your +room, darling, and I will go to the station to meet her. Ivan will +remain outside your door and you will be quite safe." + +But Stella put out her hands like a frightened baby. + +"Oh. must you leave me?" she cried, pettishly. "You are very cruel! You +make me almost wish I had not come." + +From having swum with love and passion his eyes suddenly gave forth a +flash of steel, and his voice was like ice as he answered: + +"If that is so, mademoiselle, it is not too late. I would not exact any +unwilling sacrifice. Shall I take you back again?" + +And then Stella's childishness melted and fell from her, and she became +a real woman as she looked into his stern face. + +"No--" she said, "I will not go back. I am sorry I was so uncontrolled, +but I am nervous--and I do not know exactly what I am--Sasha, please +take care of me," and she held out her hands with a piteous gesture of +asking for his protection, and moved beyond all power of further +control he folded her in his arms. + +"My darling, my darling!" he murmured, frantically kissing her hair. +But his iron will reasserted itself in a few seconds, and while he +still held her he said with more calm: + +"Little star, you must never speak to me like that again, as you did +just now, I mean. It was unreasonable and not kind, if you but knew! +And I have a very arrogant temper, I fear, although I am nearly master +of it, and shall be quite in time, I hope. We might have parted then +and spoilt both our lives. Won't you believe me that I love--I adore +you!" he went on tenderly. "I am madly longing to be for you the most +passionate lover a woman ever had. It is only for your sake and for +honor and our future happiness that I restrain myself now. You see I am +not an Englishman who can accept half-measures. Do not make it +impossible for me, sweet love!" + +His voice was almost a sob in its deep notes of pleading, and Stella +was touched. + +"Oh! you are so dear and great," she answered fondly. "I am perhaps +very wicked to have tempted you. If it would be wrong for you to kiss +me, which I cannot understand, it is--oh, it is because I love you like +that, too!" + +At this ingenuous admission, passion nearly overcame him again, and he +held her so tightly it seemed as if he must crush out her very breath. +Then he put her from him and walked toward the door. + +"I dare not stay another second," he said, in a strangled voice. "Ivan +will guard your room, and my sister will come to you soon. Do as I tell +you, beloved one, and then all will be well." + +With which he opened the door, and left her standing by the sofa +quivering with a strange joy and perplexity--and some other wild +emotion of which she had not dreamed. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +It seemed an endless time the hour that she waited in her room, and +then a knock came to the door, and Ivan's voice saying his master +desired her presence in the sitting-room at once, and she hurriedly +went there to find Count Roumovski standing by the mantelpiece looking +very grave. + +"Stella," he said, "there has been an accident to the train my sister +was to have arrived by--it is not serious, but she cannot be here now +until the early morning perhaps--unless I send the automobile to +Viterbo for her. The line is blocked by a broken-down goods train which +caused the disaster," he paused a moment, and Stella said, "Well?" +rather anxiously. + +"It will be impossible for us to remain here," he continued, "because +it may be that your relations, aided by the Embassy, will have traced +us before then, and if they should come upon us alone together, nothing +that I could say or prove could keep the situation from looking +compromising,"--he now spoke with his old calm, and Stella felt her +confidence reviving. He would certainly arrange what was best for them, +she could rely upon that. + +"What must we do then?" she asked gently, while she put her head on the +sleeve of his coat. + +"I will wrap you up in the fur cloak, darling," he said, "and you must +come in the automobile with me to meet Anastasia. Your family must not +find you again until your are in my sister's company. We ought to start +at once." + +It spoke eloquently for the impression which he had been able to create +in Stella's imagination of his integrity and reliability, for the +thought never entered her brain that it was a most unusual and even +hazardous undertaking to start out into the night in a foreign land +with a stranger she had not yet known for a week. But that was the +remarkable thing about his personality; it conveyed always an +atmosphere of trust and confidence. + +It was not long before Miss Rawson was ready, wrapped in the long gray +cloak she had worn before, and with the veil tied over her hat, and was +descending in the lift alone with Ivan--her lover having gone on by the +stairs. + +Their departure was managed with intelligence. Stella and the servant +simply walking out of the hotel and down the street to where the car +waited, and then presently Count Roumovski joined them, and they +started. + +"Ivan will remain behind to answer any questions if the reverend +clergyman and your aunt do come," he said, when they were seated in the +car in the settling sunlight. "And now, sweetheart, we can enjoy our +drive." + +Stella felt deliciously excited, all the exultation of adventure +thrilling her, and the joy of her lover's presence. She cared not where +they were going, it was all heaven. + +"We shall stop at a little restaurant for some dinner," he said, "it +will be rather bad, but we must not mind, it would not have been wise +to risk any well-known place," and soon they drew up at a small cafe on +the outskirts of Rome, where there were a few people already seated at +little tables under the trees. They were all Italians, and took no +notice of the Russian and his lady. + +It was the greatest amusement to them both, this primitive place, and +to be all alone ordering their first meal together, and Sasha Roumovski +exerted himself to charm and please her. He had recovered complete +mastery of himself, it would seem, and his manner, while tenderly +devoted, had an air of proprietorship which affected Stella exceedingly. + +They spent an enchanting half hour, as gay as two children, with all +the exquisite under-current of love in their talk; and then they got +into the motor again. + +"Let us have it open," Count Roumovski said. "The evening drive will be +divine." + +And Stella agreed. + +The road to Viterbo is far from good, one of those splendid routes +which lead from Rome which ought to be so perfect and in reality are a +mass of ruts and pitfalls for the unwary. The jolting of the car +constantly threw Stella almost into her lover's arms, who was sitting +as aloof as possible. He had gradually become nearly silent, and sat +there holding her hand under the rug, using the whole of his strong +will to suppress his rising emotion. + +The beautiful colors of the lights of evening over the Campagna; the +sense of the spring time and the knowledge that she belonged to him +heart and body and soul were madly intoxicating as they rushed through +the air. He dared not let himself caress her gently, which he might +have permitted himself to do, and he held her little hand so tightly it +was almost pain to her. + +As for Stella, she was profoundly in love. Her whole nature seemed to +be awaking and blooming with a new grace and meaning. Her soft eyes, +which glanced at him in the glowing dusk, swam with tenderness and +unconscious passion, and once she let her head rest upon his shoulder, +when a violent jerk threw her toward him, and at last he encircled her +with his arm and there they sat trembling together, she with she knew +not what, and he very well knowing, and fighting with temptation. + +Thus they spent an hour in a bliss that was growing to agony for him, +and then it grew perfectly dark, and the stars came out in myriads in +the deep blue sky, and on in front of them the headlights of the motor +made a flaming path in the night. + +And all this while he had resisted his strong desires, and never even +kissed her. + +At last human endurance came to an end, and he said to her almost +fiercely: + +"Stella, my beloved one, I cannot bear this, I can no longer answer for +myself. I shall settle you comfortably among the furs where you must +try to sleep, and I shall go outside with the chauffeur. If I were to +stay--" + +And something in the tone of his voice and in his eyes made her at last +have some dim, incomprehensible fear, and yet exaltation, and so she +did not try to dissuade him, and soon was alone endeavoring to collect +her thoughts and understand the situation. + +Thus eventually they reached Viterbo, and drew up at the station door, +when Count Roumovski seemed to have regained his usual calm as he +helped her out with tender solicitude. The passengers, they learned, +were still in the train, half a mile up the line, waiting until it was +cleared to go on to Rome. + +At last, after generous greasing of palms, permission was given for +Count Roumovski to walk on and find his sister. And Stella was put back +into the motor to await their coming. + +Her heart began to beat violently. What would she be like, this future +sister-in-law? She must be very fond of Sasha to have come from Paris +at a moment's notice like this, to do his bidding. It seemed a long +time before she heard voices, and saw in the dim light two figures +advancing from the station entrance, and then Count Roumovski opened +the door of the automobile, and Stella started forward to get out. + +"Anastasia, this is my Stella," he said, in his deep voice. "You cannot +see her plainly, but I tell you she is the sweetest little lady in the +world, and you are to hasten to love each other as much as I love you +both." + +Then in the half dark Stella stepped down and found herself embraced by +a tall woman, while a voice as deep for a feminine one as Count +Roumovski's was for a man whispered kind, nice things in the fluent +English which brother and sister both used. And a feeling of warmth and +security and happiness came over the poor child, to be in a haven of +rest at last. + +"Now we shall all pack in and get to Rome before dawn," the princess +said. "Sasha assures me the automobile will be faster than the train." + +So it was arranged, and, with Stella between them, the two Russians sat +in the commodious back seat, and this time Count Roumovski allowed +himself to encircle his beloved with his arm--and very often +surreptitiously kissed her little ear and that delicious little curl of +hair in her neck. She had taken off her hat, that its brim might not +hit the princess, and had only the soft veil wound round her head, +which loosened itself conveniently. This drive back to Rome was a time +of pure enchantment to them both. And when the first streaks of dawn +were coloring the sky they arrived at the door of the Excelsior Hotel, +where Ivan had supper ordered and awaiting them. + +The princess proved to be a handsome woman when they got into the +light, with the same short face and wide eyes as her brother. Stella +and she made immediate friends, and before they parted to try and sleep +the princess said: + +"Stella, that my brother loves you proves that you must be a very dear +girl, that is what made me come from Paris at his instantaneous +bidding. He is the most splendid character in the world, only don't +cross his wishes. You will find it is no use, for one thing," and she +laughed her deep laugh. "He always knows best." + +"I am sure he does," said Stella shyly. "I felt that at once, and so I +did not hesitate." + +Next morning, when the three were seated at a merry early breakfast in +the sitting-room discussing what should be said in Stella's letter to +her Aunt Caroline, a loud knock came to the door, and, without waiting +for a response, Canon Ebley and Stella's cousin, Mr. Deanwood, entered +the room. + +The princess rose with dignity, draping her silk morning wrapper round +her like a statue, and Stella stepped forward with outstretched hand. + +"Oh, Uncle Erasmus," she said gaily, before any of the party could +speak, "I am so glad to see you. I was just going to write to Aunt +Caroline to tell her where I am, quite safe, in case she was worried +about me. Let me introduce you to my future sister-in-law, Princess +Urazov, with whom I am staying. My fiance, Count Roumovski, you have +met before." + +Afterwards she often wondered how this emancipated spirit of daring had +ever come to her. But she felt so joyous, so full of love and +happiness, that it seemed that she could not be afraid or annoyed with +anyone in the world. + +"Stella, you are a shameless girl," Canon Ebley retorted in a horrified +voice. "I refuse to admit that you are engaged to this gentleman. Your +whole conduct has been a scandalous series of deceptions and you must +be ready to return at once with your aunt and your affianced husband. +They are following us here now." + +Then Stella used a weapon that she had more than once found effectual +with her uncle. She flung herself into his arms and clasped him round +the neck. He was a short, portly man, and from this position she began +to cajole him--while Count Roumovski looked on with amused calm, and +his sister, following his lead, remained unmoved also. + +Mr. Deanwood was the only restless person; he felt thoroughly +uncomfortable and bored to death. He hated having been dragged into +this family quarrel, and secretly sympathized with his cousin in her +revolt at the thought of being Eustace Medlicott's wife. + +"Oh, dear Uncle Erasmus!" Stella purred, from the highly perturbed +clergyman's neck, where she was burrowing her sweet head, rubbing her +peach-like cheek against his whiskered cheek. "Don't say those dreadful +things, I have not deceived anybody, I have known Count Roumovski since +the day after we came to Rome, and--and--I love him very much, and you +know I always thought Eustace a bore, and you must agree it is wicked +to marry and not to love, so it must be good to, oh!--well, to marry +the person you do love. What have you to say against it?" + +Canon Ebley tried to unclasp her arms from round his neck. He was +terribly upset. To be sure, the girl was very dear to him, and had +always been so sweet a niece, a truthful, obedient child from early +infancy. Caroline had perhaps been a little hard--he had better hear +the facts. + +"Dear me, dear me," he blurted out. "Well, well, tell me everything +about the case, and, though I cannot consent to anything, I must do you +the justice of hearing your side." + +"Won't you sit down here, sir?" Princess Urazov said, "and let my +brother and your niece tell you their story. Mr. Deanwood, we met at +Buda-Pesth two years ago--" and she turned to the young man and +indicated that he should join her in the far window embrasure, which he +did with alacrity, and from there they heard, interpolated in their +personal conversation, scraps of the arguments going on between the +three. + +Stella, assisted by her lover, told of her first talk and her drive, +and their rapidly ripening affection for each other, and the girl +looked so happy and so pleading. Then Count Roumovski took up the +thread. He explained his position, and how his view of life had always +been direct in its endeavor to see the truth and the meaning of things, +and how to him love was the only possible reason in ethical morality +for any marriage between two people. + +"It is merely a great degradation, otherwise, sir," he said earnestly. + +But here Canon Ebley was heard to protest that he could not understand +a love which had sprung into being with such violence in the space of +three days, and he felt very suspicious of its durability. + +"Oh, Uncle Erasmus, how can you say that!" Stella interrupted him. +"Why, you have often said that you yourself fell in love with Aunt +Caroline from the moment your eye lighted upon her in church--in +church, remember, you old darling!" and she nestled up against his +shoulder again. Caresses like these she was always obliged to suppress +in her austere aunt's presence; they were only to be indulged in upon +great occasions, and to gain an important end, she knew! So the rogue +smiled archly as she went on. "You could hardly wait until you were +introduced at the garden party the next day, and Aunt Caroline said you +proposed to her before the end of the week!" + +"Come, come," the cornered uncle growled, bridling, but a smile grew in +his kindly eyes. + +"There!" exclaimed Miss Rawson, triumphantly. "You cannot have another +thing to say, except that you consent and wish us happiness." + +"It is true you are of age, Stella," Canon Ebley allowed, "and if you +like to take the law into your own hands, we cannot legally prevent +you, as I have tried to explain this morning to your aunt and Eustace, +but it is all very shocking and unusual, and very disturbing. You must +remember, Count Roumovski is a foreigner, and we English people are +prejudiced. I--fear for your happiness, my dear child!" + +"You do not pay me a high compliment, sir," Count Roumovski said, but +without resentment. "Time, however, will prove whether I can take care +of your niece or no. Do you feel any fear for yourself, Stella?" + +"Not in the least," Miss Rawson said, and they clasped fond hands. "I +would go away with you, Sasha, to the ends of the earth now at once, +and never ask you a single question. And I should certainly die if I +were forced to go back to Eustace Medlicott." + +"Then I suppose there is nothing more to be said," Canon Ebley +stammered, upon which Stella again flung herself into his arms. + +"Indeed, sir--I give you my word that you will not regret this +decision," Count Roumovski said gravely. "I believe your niece and I +were made for one another." + +"We will hope so," returned Canon Ebley, who could no longer keep up a +stern resistance in the face of perfectly logical arguments and a witch +of a girl purring over him and patting his cheek. He would have given +in with a fair grace but for the awful knowledge that his stern spouse +and the irate late fiance would arrive at any moment, and reproach him +for his want of strength. + +At this juncture of the affair, Princess Urazov came forward, and said +with a gracious smile: + +"Now I think you and I should agree with each other, sir; I had just as +great cause for surprise as you had at the news of my brother's +engagement to your niece, but I know and love him so well that I did +not question the wisdom of his choice. And as you know and love your +niece, can we not agree to try and make them happy together by giving +them our blessing? After all, it is no crime for two young people to +love each other!" and she put out her hands, which Canon Ebley, who +was, after all, longing for peace, was obliged to take. Then with a +charm and dignity that he was forced to admire, she drew him to the +pair and placed his hand on their clasped hands, and her own over it. + +"See," she said, "Sasha and Stella, we both wish you all happiness and +joy--is it not so?" + +And Canon Ebley was constrained to murmur, "Yes." + +At this instant the door was opened violently, and the Aunt Caroline +followed by the Reverend Eustace Medlicott burst into the room, +brushing aside the frightened waiter, who would have prevented them; +then they stopped dead short, petrified with astonishment, and before +she could prevent herself, Stella had pealed a silvery laugh, while she +rushed forward and affectionately kissed her aunt. + +"Dear Aunt Caroline," she said. "Uncle Erasmus understands quite, and +has given us his blessing, so won't you, too?" + +But Mrs. Ebley was made of sterner stuff--she was horribly shocked, her +feelings had been bruised in their tenderest parts, the laws of +convention had been ruthlessly broken by her niece, and forgiveness was +not for her. + +She drew herself up with disgusted hauteur, while the Rev. Mr. +Medlicott stood there glaring at the party too speechless with +humiliation and pain to utter a word. + +"Erasmus," Mrs. Ebley said with scathing contempt. "I do not know how +you have let yourself countenance this disgraceful scene, but I shall +not do so. And if my niece still persists in bringing shame upon us all +I must beg you to conduct me back to our hotel--I wash my hands of her +and shall no longer own her as my sister's child, come." + +At this, Stella gave a pitiful little cry and turned tender, beseeching +eyes to her lover, and the sound of her voice touched that chord which +was fine in Eustace Medlicott's heart. He seemed suddenly to see things +as they were, and to realize that love had indeed come to his +betrothed, though not for him, so he rose above the pain this +conviction caused him and let justice have sway. + +He strode forward and joined the group. + +"You must not say that, Mrs. Ebley," he said, "since your husband seems +satisfied, there must have been some proper explanation made. You +should hear them first. But I, for my part, wish to state now, in the +presence of everyone, that if Miss Rawson can assure me she has made +this choice of her own free will, and because she loves this +gentleman--" here there was a break in the tones--"I can have nothing +further to say and will give her back her freedom and make my retreat." + +"Oh, Eustace, thank you," said Stella, gratefully holding out her hand. +"I knew I could eventually count upon your goodness. I do indeed love +Count Roumovski, and why should not we all be happy together? You will +feel with me, I am sure, that our engagement was always a mistake and +now won't you be friends?" + +She still held out her timid hand, and Mr. Medlicott took it at last +and wringing it silently turned and drew toward the door, making his +exit. + +Silence fell upon the company until he had gone and then Count +Roumovski whispered in his harassed little fiancee's ear: + +"Never mind his point of view, darling--yonder goes an English +gentleman, and since I have gained my star and he has lost his, he has +my deepest sympathy." + +Then everyone seemed to talk at once, and the Princess Urazov at last +appeared to be in some degree appeasing Mrs. Ebley. + +There is very little more to tell of this comedy of a spring holiday in +Rome. It ended with a quiet wedding and two young people going off +together in the blue automobile. + +And when Count Roumovski clasped his newly made bride in his arms, he +whispered with a tenderly sly smile: + +"At last, sweetheart, there are no barriers, and I can show you that I +am at least not as cold as ice!" + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Point of View, by Elinor Glyn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POINT OF VIEW *** + +***** This file should be named 5310.txt or 5310.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/1/5310/ + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Point of View + +Author: Elinor Glyn + +Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5310] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 29, 2002] +[Date last updated: August 13, 2005] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POINT OF VIEW *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +The Author's Press Series of the Works of Elinor Glyn + + +THE POINT OF VIEW + + +ELINOR GLYN + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The restaurant of the Grand Hotel in Rome was filling up. People +were dining rather late--it was the end of May and the +entertainments were lessening, so they could dawdle over their +repasts and smoke their cigarettes in peace. + +Stella Rawson came in with her uncle and aunt, Canon and the +Honorable Mrs. Ebley, and they took their seats in a secluded +corner. They looked a little out of place--and felt it--amid this +more or less gay company. But the drains of the Grand Hotel were +known to be beyond question, and, coming to Rome so late in the +season, the Reverend Canon Ebley felt it was wiser to risk the +contamination of the over-worldly-minded than a possible attack of +typhoid fever. The belief in a divine protection did not give him +or his lady wife that serenity it might have done, and they +traveled fearfully, taking with them their own jaeger sheets among +other precautions. + +They realized they must put up with the restaurant for meals, but +at least the women folk should not pander to the customs of the +place and wear evening dress. Their subdued black gowns were +fastened to the throat. Stella Rawson felt absolutely excited--she +was twenty-one years old, but this was the first time she had ever +dined in a fashionable restaurant, and it almost seemed like +something deliciously wrong. + +Life in the Cathedral Close where they lived in England was not +highly exhilarating, and when its duties were over it contained +only mild gossip and endless tea-parties and garden-parties by way +of recreation. + +Canon and the Honorable Mrs. Ebley were fairly rich people. The +Uncle Erasmus' call to the church had been answered from +inclination--not necessity. His heart was in his work. He was a +good man and did his duty according to the width of the lights in +which he had been brought up. + +Mrs. Ebley did more than her duty--and had often too much +momentum, which now and then upset other people's apple carts. + +She had, in fact, been the moving spirit in the bringing about of +her niece Stella's engagement to the Bishop's junior chaplain, a +young gentleman of aesthetic aspirations and eight hundred a year +of his own. + +Stella herself had never been enthusiastic about the affair. As a +man, Eustace Medlicott said absolutely nothing at all to her-- +though to be sure she was quite unaware that he was inadequate in +this respect. No man had meant anything different up to this +period of her life. She had seen so few of them she was no judge. + +Eustace Medlicott had higher collars than the other curates, and +intoned in a wonderfully melodious voice in the cathedral. And +quite a number of the young ladies of Exminster, including the +Bishop's second daughter, had been setting their caps at him from +the moment of his arrival, so that when, by the maneuvers of Aunt +Caroline Ebley, Stella found him proposing to her, she somehow +allowed herself to murmur some sort of consent. + +Then it seemed quite stimulating to have a ring and to be +congratulated upon being engaged. And the few weeks that followed +while the thing was fresh and new had passed quite pleasantly. It +was only when about a month had gone by that a gradual and growing +weariness seemed to be falling upon her. + +To be the wife of an aesthetic high church curate, who fasted +severely during Lent and had rigid views upon most subjects, began +to grow into a picture which held out less and less charm for her. + +But Aunt Caroline was firm--and the habit of twenty-one years of +obedience held. + +Perhaps Fate was looking on in sympathy with her unrest. In any +case, it appeared like the jade's hand and not chance which made +Uncle Erasmus decide to take his holiday early in the year and to +decide to spend it abroad--not in Scotland or Wales as was his +custom. + +Stella, he said, should see the eternal city and Florence before +settling down in the autumn to her new existence. + +Miss Rawson actually jumped with joy--and the knowledge that +Eustace Medlicott would be unable to accompany them, but might +join them later on, did not damp her enthusiasm. + +Every bit of the journey was a pleasure, from the moment they +landed on French soil. They had come straight through to Rome from +Paris, where they had spent a week at a small hotel; because of +the lateness of the year they must get to their southern point +first of all and return northward in a more leisurely manner. + +And now anyone who is reading this story can picture this +respectable English family and understand their status and +antecedents, so we can very well get back to them seated in the +agreeable restaurant of the Grand Hotel at Rome--beginning to +partake of a modest dinner. + +Mrs. Ebley (I had almost written the Reverend Mrs. Ebley!) was +secretly enjoying herself--she had that feeling that she was in a +place where she ought not to be--through no fault of her own--and +so was free to make the most of it, and certainly these well- +dressed people were very interesting to glance at between +mouthfuls of a particularly well-cooked fish. + +Stella was thrilling all over and her soft brown eyes were +sparkling and her dazzlingly pink and white complexion glowing +with health and excitement, so that even in the Exminster +confection of black grenadine she was an agreeable morsel for the +male eye to dwell upon. + +There were the usual company there: the younger diplomats from the +Embassies; a sprinkling of trim Italian officers in their pretty +uniforms; French and Austrian ladies; as well as the attractive- +looking native and American representatives of the elite of Roman +society. + +The tables began to fill up before the Ebleys had finished their +fish, and numbers of the parties seemed to know one another and +nod and exchange words en passant. + +But there was one table laid for a single person which remained +empty until the entrees were being handed, and Stella, with her +fresh interest in the whole scene, wondered for whom it was +reserved. + +He came in presently--and he really merits a descriptive paragraph +all to himself. + +He was a very tall man and well made, with broad shoulders and a +small head. His evening clothes, though beautifully pressed, with +that look which only a thoroughly good valet knows how to stamp +upon his master's habiliments as a daily occurrence, were of +foreign cut and hand, and his shirt, unstarched, was of the finest +pleated cambric. + +These trifles, however, were not what rendered him remarkable, but +that his light brown hair was worn parted in the middle and waved +back a la vierge with a rather saintly expression, and was +apparently just cut off in a straight line at the back. This was +quite peculiar-looking enough--and in conjunction with a young, +silky beard, trimmed into a sharp point with the look of an +archaic Greek statue, he presented a type not easily forgotten. +The features were regular and his eyes were singularly calm and +wise and blue. + +It seemed incredible that such an almost grotesque arrangement of +coiffure should adorn the head of a man in modern evening dress. +It should have been on some Byzantine saint. However, there he +was, and entirely unconcerned at the effect he was producing. + +The waiters, who probably knew his name and station, precipitated +themselves forward to serve him, and with leisurely mien he +ordered a recherche dinner and a pint of champagne. + +Stella Rawson was much interested and so were her uncle and aunt. + +"What a very strange-looking person," Mrs. Ebley said. "Of what +nation can he be? Erasmus, have you observed him?" + +Canon Ebley put on his pince-nez and gave the newcomer the benefit +of a keen scrutiny. + +"I could not say with certainty, my dear. A northerner evidently-- +but whether Swedish or Danish it would be difficult to determine," +he announced. + +"He does not appear to know he is funny-looking," Stella Rawson +said, timidly. "Do you notice, Aunt Caroline, he does not look +about him at all, he has never glanced in any direction; it is as +if he were alone in the room." + +"A very proper behavior," the Aunt Caroline replied severely, "but +he cannot be an Englishman--no Englishman would enter a public +place, having made himself remarkable like that, and then be able +to sit there unaware of it; I am glad to say our young men have +some sense of convention. You cannot imagine Eustace Medlicott +perfectly indifferent to the remarks he would provoke if he were +tricked out so." + +Stella felt a sudden sympathy for the foreigner. She had heard so +ceaselessly of her fiance's perfections! + +"Perhaps they wear the hair like that in his country," she +returned, with as much spirit as she dared to show. "And he may +think we all look funny, as we think he does. Only he seems to be +much better mannered than we are, because he is quite sure of +himself and quite unconscious or indifferent about our opinion." + +Both her aunt and uncle looked at her with slightly shocked +surprise--and she saw it at once and reddened a little. + +But this incident caused the remarkable looking foreigner to +crystallize in interest for her, especially when, in raising his +glass of champagne, she saw that on his wrist there was a bracelet +of platinum with a small watch set with very fine diamonds. She +could hardly have been more surprised if he had worn a ring in his +nose, so unaccustomed was she to any type but that of the curates +and young gentlemen of Exminster. + +Canon and Mrs. Ebley finished their dinner in disdainful silence +and sailed from the room with chilling glances, but as Stella +Rawson followed them demurely she raised her soft eyes when she +came to the object of her relatives' contempt, and met his serene +blue ones--and for some reason thrilled wildly. + +There was a remarkable and powerful magnetism in his glance; it +was as if a breath of some other world touched her, she seemed to +see into possibilities she had never dreamed about. She resented +being drawn into a far corner on the right hand of the hall, and +there handed an English paper to read for half an hour before +being told to go to bed. She was perfectly conscious that she was +longing for the stranger to come out of the restaurant, that she +might see him again. + +But it was not until she was obediently following her aunt's black +broche train to the lift up the steps again that the tall man +passed them in the corridor. He never even glanced in their +direction, and went on as though the space were untenanted--but +had hardly got beyond, when he turned suddenly, and walked rapidly +to the lift door, passing them again. So that the four entered it +presently, and were taken up together. + +Stella Rawson was very close to the remarkable looking creature. +And again a wild nameless attraction crept over her. She noticed +his skin was faintly browned with the sun, but was otherwise as +fine as a child's--finer than most children's. And now she could +see that three most wonderful pearls were his shirt-studs. + +He got out on the second floor, one beneath them, and said, +"Pardon," as he passed, but not as a French word, nor yet as if it +were English. + +During these few seconds Stella was quite aware that he had never +apparently looked at her. + +"I call such an appearance sacrilegious," Mrs. Ebley said. "A man +has no right to imitate one of the blessed apostles in these +modern days; it is very bad taste." + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Stella Rawson woke the next day with some sense of rebellion. +There came with the rest of her post a letter from her betrothed. +And although it was just such a letter as any nice girl engaged of +her own free will to the Bishop's junior chaplain ought to have +been glad to receive, Stella found herself pouting and criticizing +every sentence. + +"I do wish Eustace would not talk such cant," she said to herself. +"Even in this he is unable to be natural--and I am sure I shall +not feel a thing like he describes when I stand in St. Peter's. I +believe I would rather go into the Pantheon. I seem to be tired of +everything I ought to like to-day!" And still rebellious she got +up and was taken by her uncle and aunt to the Vatican--and was +allowed to linger only in the parts which interested them. + +"I never have had a taste for sculpture," Mrs. Ebley said. "People +may call it what names they please, but I consider it immoral and +indecent." + +"A wonder to me," the Uncle Erasmus joined in, "that a prelate-- +even a prelate of Rome--should have countenanced the housing of +all these unclothed marbles in his own private palace." + +Stella Rawson stopped for a second in front of an archaic Apollo +of no great merit--because it reminded her of the unknown; and she +wished with all her might something new and swift and rushing +might come into her humdrum life. + +After luncheon, for which they returned to the hotel, she wearily +went over to the writing-table in the corner of the hall to answer +her lover's chaste effusion--and saw that the low armchair beside +the escritoire was tenanted by a pair of long legs with singularly +fine silk socks showing upon singularly fine ankles--and a pair of +strong slender hands held a newspaper in front of the rest of the +body, concealing it all and the face. It was the English TIMES, +which, as everybody knows, could hide Gargantua himself. + +She began her letter--and not a rustle disturbed her peace. + +"Dearest Eustace," she had written, "we have arrived in Rome--" +and then she stopped, and fixed her eyes blankly upon the column +of births, marriages, and deaths. She was staring at it with +sightless eyes, when the paper was slowly lowered and over its top +the blue orbs of the stranger looked into hers. + +Her pretty color became the hue of a bright pink rose. +"Mademoiselle," a very deep voice said in English, "is not this +world full of bores and tiresome duties; have you the courage to +defy them all for a few minutes--and talk to me instead?" + +"Monsieur!" Miss Rawson burst out, and half rose from her seat. +Then she sat down again--the unknown had not stirred a muscle. + +"Good," he murmured. "One has to be courageous to do what is +unconventional, even if it is not wrong. I am not desirous of +hurting or insulting you--I felt we might have something to say to +each other--is it so--tell me, am I right?" + +"I do not know," whispered Stella lamely. She was so taken aback +at the preposterous fact that a stranger should have addressed her +at all, even in a manner of indifference and respect, that she +knew not what to do. + +"I observed you last night," he went on. "I am accustomed to judge +of character rapidly--it is a habit I have acquired during my +travels in foreign lands--when I cannot use the standard of my +own. You are weary of a number of things, and you do not know +anything at all about life, and you are hedged round with those +who will see that you never learn its meaning. Tell me--what do +you think of Rome--it contains things and aspects which afford +food for reflection, is it not so?" + +"We have only been to the Vatican as yet," Stella answered +timidly--she was still much perturbed at the whole incident, but +now that she had begun she determined she might as well be hung +for a sheep as a lamb, and she was conscious that there was a +strong attraction in the mild blue eyes of the stranger. His +manner had a complete repose and absence of self-consciousness, +which usually is only to be found in the people of race--in any +nation. + +"You were taken to the Sistine Chapel, of course," he went on, +"and to the loggia and Bramant's staircase? You saw some statues, +too, perhaps?" + +"My uncle and aunt do not care much for sculpture," Miss Rawson +said, now regaining her composure, "but I like it--even better +than pictures." + +The stranger kept his steady eyes fixed upon her face all the +time. + +"I have a nymph in my house at home," he returned. "She came +originally from Rome; she is not Greek and she is very like you, +the same droop of head--I remarked it immediately--I am +superstitious--I suppose you would call what I mean by that word-- +and I knew directly that some day you, too, would mean things to +me. That is why I spoke--do you feel it, too?" + +Stella Rawson quivered. The incredible situation paralyzed her. +She--the Aunt Caroline's niece, and engaged to Eustace Medlicott, +the Bishop's junior chaplain, to be listening to a grotesque- +looking foreigner making subtle speeches of an insinuating +character, and, far from feeling scandalized and repulsed, to be +conscious that she was thrilled and interested--it was hardly to +be believed! + +"Will you tell me from where you come?" she asked with sweet +bashfulness, raising two eyes as soft as brown velvet. "You speak +English so very well--one cannot guess." + +"I am a Russian," he said simply. "I come from near Moscow--and my +name is Sasha Roumovski, Count Roumovski. Yours, I am aware, is +Rawson, but I would like to know how you are called--Mary, +perhaps? That is English." + +"No, my name is not Mary," she answered, and froze a little--but +the Russian's eyes continued to gaze at her with the same mild +frankness which disarmed any resentment. She felt they were as +calm as deep pools of blue water--they filled her with a sense of +confidence and security--which she could not account for in any +way. + +Her color deepened--something in his peaceful expectancy seemed to +compel her to answer his late question. + +"My Christian name is Stella," she said, rather quickly, then +added nervously: "I am engaged to Mr. Eustace Medlicott, an +English clergyman--we are going to be married in September next." + +"And this is May," was all Count Roumovski replied; then, for the +first time since he had addressed her, he turned his eyes from her +face, while the faintest smile played round his well-cut mouth. + +"A number of things can happen in four months. Are you looking +forward to your life as the wife of a priest--but I understand it +is different in England to in my country--there I could not +recommend the situation to you." + +Stella found absolutely no answer to this. She only felt a sudden, +wild longing to cry out that the idea of being a curate's wife-- +even the Bishop's junior young gentleman with eight hundred a year +of his own--had never appeared a thrilling picture, and was now +causing her a feeling of loathing. She thought she ought to talk +no longer to this stranger, and half rose from her seat. + +He put out a protesting hand, both had been clasped idly over the +Times until then without a movement. + +"No--do--not go--I have disturbed you--I am sorry," he pleaded. +"Listen, there is a great reception at your Embassy to-morrow +night--for one of our Royal Family who is here. You will go, +perhaps. If so, I will do so also, although I dislike parties--and +there I will be presented to you with ceremony--it will appease +that English convention in you, and after that I shall say to you +a number of things--but I prefer to sit here and speak behind the +Times." + +At this instant he raised the paper, and appeared again the +stranger almost entirely hidden from view. And Stella saw that her +Uncle Erasmus was rapidly approaching her with an envelope in his +hand. She seized her pen again and continued her broken sentence +to Eustace--her betrothed. Canon Ebley viewed the Times and its +holder with suspicion for an instant, but its stillness reassured +him, and he addressed his niece. + +"Very civil of the Embassy to send us a card for the reception to- +morrow night, Stella; I am glad we wrote names when we arrived. +Your Aunt Caroline bids you accept, as her spectacles are +upstairs." + +Miss Rawson did as she was bid, and her uncle waited, fidgeting +with his feet. He wished the stranger to put down the Times, which +he wanted himself--or, at all events, remove his long legs and +hidden body from such a near proximity to his niece; they could +not say a word that he could not overhear, Canon Ebley mused. + +However, the unknown remained where he was, and turned a page of +the paper with great deliberation. + +"Your aunt will be ready to go out again now," the Uncle Erasmus +announced, as Stella placed her acceptance in the envelope. "You +had better go up and put your hat on, my dear." + +The Times rustled slightly--and Stella replied a little hurriedly: +"I was just finishing a letter, uncle, then I will come." + +"Very well," said Canon Ebley, not altogether pleased, as he +walked away with the note. + +The newspaper was lowered a few inches again, and the wise blue +eyes beneath the saintly parted hair twinkled with irresistible +laughter, and the deep voice said: + +"He would greatly disapprove of our having conversed--the uncle-- +is it not so? How long are you going to stay in Rome?" + +Stella smiled, too--she could not help it. + +"A week--ten days, perhaps," she answered, and then rapidly +addressed an envelope to the Rev. Eustace Medlicott. + +"Perhaps, in that case, I can afford to wait until to-morrow +night; unless it amuses you, as it does me, to circumvent people," +Count Roumovski said. "We are all masters of our own lives, you +know, once we have ceased to be children--it is only convention +which persuades us to submit to others' authority." + +Stella looked up startled. Was this indeed true? And was it simply +convention which had forced her into an engagement with Eustace +Medlicott, and now forced her to go up and put on her hat and +accompany her uncle and aunt to see the Lateran, when she would +have preferred to remain where she was and discuss abstract +matters with this remarkable stranger. + +"The notion surprises you, one sees," Count Roumovski went on, +"but it is true--" + +"I suppose it is," said Stella lamely. + +"I submit to no authority--I mean, as to the controlling of my +actions and wishes. We must all submit to the laws of our country, +to do so is the only way to obtain complete personal freedom." + +"That sounds like a paradox," said Stella. + +"I have just been thinking," he went on, without noticing the +interruption, "it would be most agreeable to take a drive in my +automobile late this after-noon, when your guardians have returned +and are resting. If you feel you would care to come I will wait in +this hall from five to six. You need not take the least notice of +me, you can walk past, out of the hotel, then turn to the left, +and there in the square, where there are a few trees, you will see +a large blue motor waiting. You will get straight in, and I will +come and join you. Not anyone will see or notice you--because of +the trees, one cannot observe from the windows. My chauffeur will +be prepared, and I will return you safely to the same place in an +hour." + +Stella's brown eyes grew larger and larger. Some magnetic spell +seemed to be dominating her, the idea was preposterous, and yet to +agree to it was the strongest temptation she had ever had in all +her life. She was filled with a wild longing to live, to do what +she pleased, to be free to enjoy this excitement before her wings +should be clipped, and her outlook all gray and humdrum. + +"I do not know if they will rest--I cannot say--I--" she blurted +out tremblingly. + +The stranger had put down the Times, and was gazing into her face +with a look almost of tenderness. + +"There is no need to answer now," he said softly. "If fate means +us to be happy, she will arrange it--I think you will come." + +Miss Rawson started to her feet, and absently put her letter to +her fiance--which contained merely the sentence that they had +arrived in Rome--into its envelope and fastened it up. + +"I must go now--good-bye," she said. + +"It is not good-bye," the Russian answered gravely. "By six +o'clock, we shall be driving in the Borghese Gardens and hearing +the nightingales sing." + +As Stella walked to the lift with a tumultuously beating heart, +she asked herself what all this could possibly mean, and why she +was not angry--and why this stranger--whose appearance outraged +all her ideas as to what an English gentleman should look like-- +had yet the power to fascinate her completely. Of course, she +would not go for a drive with him--and yet, what would be the +harm? After September she would never have a chance like this +again. There would be only Eustace Medlicott and parish duties-- +yes--if fate made it possible, she would go! + +And she went on to her room with exhilarating sense of adventure +coursing through her veins. + +"I have found out the name of the peculiar-looking foreigner who +sat near us last night," Canon Ebley said, as they drove to the +Lateran in a little Roman Victoria, "it is Count Roumovski; I +asked the hall porter--reprehensible curiosity I fear you will +think, my dear Caroline, but there is something unaccountably +interesting about him, as you must admit, although you disapprove +of his appearance." + +"I think it is quite dreadful," Mrs. Ebley sniffed, "and I hear +from Martha that he has no less than two valets, and a suite of +princely rooms and motor cars, and the whole passage on the second +floor is filled with his trunks." + +Martha had been Mrs. Ebley's maid for twenty-five years, and as +Stella well knew was fairly accurate in her recounting of the +information she picked up. This luridly extravagant picture, +however, did not appal her. And she found herself constantly +dwelling upon it and the stranger all the time she followed her +relations about in the gorgeous church. + +Fate did not seem to be going to smile upon the drive project, +however--for Mrs. Ebley, far from appearing tired, actually +proposed tea in the hall when they got in--and there sat for at +least half an hour, while Stella saw Count Roumovski come in and +sit down and leisurely begin a cigarette, as he glanced at an +Italian paper. He was so intensely still, always peace seemed to +breathe from his atmosphere, but the very sight of him appeared to +exasperate the Aunt Caroline more and more. + +"I wonder that man is not ashamed to be seen in a respectable +place," she snapped, "with his long hair and his bracelet--such +effeminacy is perfectly disgusting, Erasmus." + +"I really cannot help it, my dear," Canon Ebley replied, +irritably, "and I rather like his face." + +"Erasmus!" was all Mrs. Ebley could say, and prepared to return to +her room. Dinner would be at a quarter to eight, she told Stella +at her door, and recommended an hour's quiet reading up of the +guide-book while resting to her niece. + +It was quarter after six before Miss Rawson descended the stairs +to the hall again. She had deliberately made up her mind--she +would go and drive with the count. She would live and amuse +herself, if it was only for this once in her life, come what might +of it! And since he would be presented with all respectable +ceremony at the English Embassy the following night, it could not +matter a bit--and if it did--! Well, she did not care! + +He was sitting there as immovable as before, and she thrilled as +she crossed the hall. She was so excited and frightened that she +could almost have turned back when she reached the street, but +there, standing by the trees, was a large blue motor car, and as +she advanced the chauffeur stepped forward and opened the door, +and she got in--and before she had time to realize what she had +done, Count Roumovski had joined her and sat down by her side. + +"You have no wrap," he said. "I thought you would not have, so I +had prepared this," and he indicated a man's gray Russian, +unremarkable-looking cloak, which, however, proved to be lined +with fine sable, "and here, also, is a veil. If you will please me +by putting them on, we can then have the auto open and no one will +recognize you--even should we meet your uncle and aunt; that is +fun, is it not?" + +Stella had thrown every consideration to the winds, except the +determination to enjoy herself. Years of rebellion at the boredom +of her existence seemed to be urging her on. So she meekly slipped +into the cloak, and wrapped the veil right over her hat, and they +started. Her heart was thumping so with excitement she could not +have spoken for a moment. + +But as they went rapidly on through the crowded streets, her +companion's respectful silence reassured her. There seemed to be +some rapport between them, she was conscious of a feeling that he +understood her thoughts, and was not misjudging her. + +"You are like a little frightened bird," he said presently. "And +there is nothing to cause you the least fear. We shall soon come +to the lovely gardens, and watch the lowering sun make its +beautiful effects in the trees, and we shall hear the nightingales +throbbing out love songs--the world is full of rest and peace-- +when we have had enough passion and strife and want its change-- +but you do not know anything of it, and this simple drive is +causing you tumults and emotions--is it not so?" + +"Yes," said Stella, with a feeling that she had burnt all her +ships. + +"It is because you have never been allowed to be YOU, I suppose," +he went on softly. "So doing a natural and simple thing seems +frightful--because it would seem so to the rigid aunt. Now, I have +been ME ever since I was born--I have done just what seemed best +to me. Do you suppose I am not aware that the way my hair is cut +is a shock to most civilized persons; and that you English would +strongly disapprove of my watch and my many other things. But I +like them myself--it is no trouble for one of my valets to draw a +straight line with a pair of scissors--and if I must look at the +time, I prefer to look at something beautiful. I am entirely +uninfluenced by the thoughts or opinions of any people--they do +not exist for me except in so far as they interest me and are +instructive or amusing. I never permit myself to be bored for an +instant." + +"How good that must be," Stella ventured to say--her courage was +returning. + +"Civilized human beings turn existence into a prison," he went on, +meditatively, "and loaded themselves with shackles, because some +convention prevents their doing what would give them innocent +pleasure. If I had been under the dominion of these things we +should not now be enjoying this delightful drive--at least, it is +delightful to me--to be thus near you and alone out of doors." + +Stella did not speak, she was altogether too full of emotion to +trust herself to words just yet. They had turned into the Corso by +now, and, as ever, it appeared as though it were a holiday, so +thronged with pedestrians was the whole thoroughfare. Count +Roumovski seemed quite unconcerned, but Miss Rawson shrank back +into her corner, a new fear in her heart. + +"Do not be so nervous," her companion said gently. "I always +calculate the chances before I suggest another person's risking +anything for me. They are a million to one that anyone could +recognize you in that veil and that cloak; believe me, although I +am not of your country, I am at least a gentleman, and would not +have persuaded you to come if there had been any danger of +complications for you." + +Stella clasped her hands convulsively--and he drew a little nearer +her. + +"Do put all agitating ideas out of your mind," he said, his blue +eyes, with their benign expression, seeking hers and compelling +them at last to look at him. "Do you understand that it is foolish +to spoil what we have by useless tremors. You are here with me-- +for the next hour--shall we not try to be happy?" + +"Yes," murmured Miss Rawson, and allowed herself to be magnetized +into calmness. + +"When we have passed the Piazza del Popolo and the entrance to the +Pincio, I will have the car opened; then we can see all the +charming young green, and I will tell you of what these gardens +were long ago, and you shall see them with new eyes." + +Stella, by some sort of magic, seemed to have recovered her self- +possession as his eyes looked into hers, and she chatted to him +naturally, and the next half hour passed like some fairy tale. His +deep, quiet voice took her into realms of fancy that her +imagination had never even dreamed about. His cultivation was +immense, and the Rome of the Caesars appeared to be as familiar to +him as that of 1911. + +The great beauty of the Borghese Gardens was at its height at the +end of the day, the nightingales throbbed from the bushes, and the +air was full of the fresh, exquisite scents of the late spring, as +the day grew toward evening and all nature seemed full of beauty +and peace. It can easily be imagined what this drive meant, then, +to a fine, sensitive young woman, whose every instinct of youth +and freedom and life had been crushed into undeveloped nothingness +by years of gray convention in an old-fashioned English cathedral +town. + +Stella Rawson forgot that she and this Russian were strangers, and +she talked to him unrestrainedly, showing glimpses of her inner +self that she had not known she possessed. It was certainly +heaven, she thought, this drive, and worth all the Aunt Caroline's +frowns. + +Count Roumovski never said a word of love to her: he treated her +with perfect courtesy and infinite respect, but when at last they +were turning back again, he permitted himself once more to gaze +deeply into her eyes, and Stella knew for the first time in her +existence that some silences are more dangerous than words. + +"You do not care at all now for the good clergy-man you are +affianced to," he said. "No--do not be angry-I am not asking a +question, I am stating a fact--when lives have been hedged and +controlled and retenu like yours has been, even the feelings lose +character, and you cannot be sure of them--but the day is +approaching when you will see clearly and--feel much." + +"I am sure it is getting very late," said Stella Rawson, and with +difficulty she turned her eyes away and looked over the green +world. + +Count Roumovski laughed softly, as if to himself. And they were +silent until they came to the entrance gates again, when the +chauffeur stopped and shut the car. + +"We have at least snatched some moments of pleasure, have we not?" +the owner whispered, "and we have hurt no one. Will you trust me +again when I propose something which sounds to you wild?" + +"Perhaps I will," Stella murmured rather low. + +"When I was hunting lions in Africa I learned to keep my +intelligence awake," he said calmly, "it is an advantage to me now +in civilization--nothing is impossible if one only keeps cool. If +one becomes agitated one instantly connects oneself with all other +currents of agitation, and one can no longer act with prudence or +sense." + +"I think I have always been very foolish," admitted Stella, +looking down. "I seem to see everything differently now." + +"What we are all striving after is happiness," Count Roumovski +said. "Only we will not admit it, and nearly always spoil our own +chances by drifting, and allowing outside things to influence us. +If you could see the vast plains of snow in my country and the +deep forests--with never a human being for miles and miles, you +would understand how nature grows to talk to one--and how small +the littlenesses of the world appear." Then they were silent +again, and it was not until they were rushing up the Via Nazionale +and in a moment or two would have reached their destination, that +Count Roumovski said: + +"Stella--that means star--it is a beautiful name--I can believe +you could be a star to shine upon any man's dark night--because +you have a pure spirit, although it has been muffled by +circumstances for all these years." + +Then the automobile drew up by the trees, at perhaps two hundred +yards from the hotel, near the baths of Diocletian. + +"If you will get out here, it will be best," Count Roumovski told +her respectfully, "and walk along on the inner side. I will then +drive to the door of the hotel, as usual." + +"Thank you, and good-bye," said Stella, and began untying the +veil--he helped her at once, and in doing so his hand touched her +soft pink cheek. She thrilled with a new kind of mad enjoyment, +the like of which she had never felt, and then controlled herself +and stamped it out. + +"It has been a very great pleasure to me," he said, and nothing +more; no "good-bye" or "au revoir" or anything, and he drew into +the far corner as she got out of the car, letting the chauffeur +help her. Nor did he look her way as he drove on. And Stella +walked leisurely back to the hotel, wondering in her heart at the +meaning of things. + +No one noticed her entrance, and she was able to begin to dress +for dinner without even Martha being aware that she had been +absent. But as she descended in the lift with her uncle and aunt +it seemed as if the whole world and life itself were changed since +the same time the night before. + +And when they were entering the restaurant a telegram was put into +Canon Ebley's hand--it was from the Rev. Eustace Medlicott, sent +from Turin, saying he would join them in Rome the following +evening. + +"Eustace has been preparing this delightful surprise--I knew of +it," the Aunt Caroline said, with conscious pride, "but I would +not tell you, Stella, dear, in case something might prevent it. I +feared to disappoint you." + +"Thank you, aunt," Miss Rawson said without too much enthusiasm, +and took her seat where she could see the solitary occupant of a +small table, surrounded by the obsequious waiters, already sipping +his champagne. + +He had not looked up as they passed. Nor did he appear once to +glance in their direction. His whole manner was full of the same +reflective calm as the night before. And, for some unaccountable +reason, Stella Rawson's heart sank down lower and lower, until at +the end of the repast she looked pale and tired out. + +Eustace, her betrothed, would be there on the morrow, and such +things as drives in motor cars with strange Russian counts were +only dreams and not realities, she now felt. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Next morning it fell about that Stella Rawson was allowed to go +into the Musso Nazionale in the Diocletian baths, accompanied only +by Martha, her uncle and aunt having decided they would take a +rest and write their English letters. The museum was so near, a +mere hundred yards, there could be no impropriety in their niece's +going there with Martha, even in an exhibition year in Rome. + +Stella was still suffering from a nameless sense of depression. +Eustace's train would get in at about five o'clock, and he would +accompany them to the Embassy. A cousin of her own and Aunt +Caroline's was one of the secretaries, and had already been +written to about the invitation. So that even if Count Roumovski +should be presented to her, and make the whole thing proper and +correct, she would have no chance of any conversation. The +brilliant sunlight felt incongruous and hurt her, and she was glad +to enter the shady ancient baths. She had glanced furtively to +right and left in the hotel as she came through the hall, but saw +no one who resembled the Russian, and they had walked so quickly +through the vestibule she had not remarked a tall figure coming +from the staircase, nor had seen him give some rapid order to a +respectful servant who was waiting about, and who instantly +followed them: but if she had looked up as she paid for the two +tickets at the barrier of the museum, she would have seen this +same lean man turn swiftly round and retreat in the direction of +the hotel. + +Martha was sulky and comatose on this very warm morning; she took +no interest in sculpture. "Them naked creatures," she called any +masterpiece undraped--and she resented being dragged out by Miss +Stella, who always had fancies for art. + +They walked round the cloisters first, a voyage of discovery to +Miss Rawson, who looked a slim enough nymph herself in her lilac +cambric frock and demure gray hat shading her big brown eyes. + +Then suddenly, from across the garden in the center, she became +aware that an archaic Apollo clad in modern dress had entered upon +the scene, and the blood rushed to her cheeks, and her heart beat. + +Martha puffed with the heat and exercise, and glanced with longing +eyes at a comfortable stone bench in the shade. + +"Would you like to rest here, Martha, you old dear?" Miss Rawson +said. "There is not a creature about, and I will walk round and +join you from the other side." + +The Aunt Caroline's elderly maid easily agreed to this. It was +true there did not seem to be anyone adventurous-looking, and Miss +Stella would be more or less under her eye--and she was thoroughly +tired with traveling and what not. So Stella found herself happily +unchaperoned, except by Baedecker, as she strolled on. + +The Russian had disappeared from view, the bushes and vases in the +center of the garden plot gave only occasional chances to see +people at a distance. + +But when Stella had entered the Ludovici collection she perceived +him to the right, gazing at the statue of the beautiful Mars. + +He turned instantly, as though some one told him she was near--and +his calm eyes took in the fact that she was alone. The small room +was empty but for the two, and he addressed her as he removed his +hat. + +"Good morning, mademoiselle," he said gravely. "Mars is a strong +attraction. I knew I should presently find you here--so when I +caught sight of your spiritual outline across the garden, I came +and--waited." + +"He is most splendid-looking, is he not," Stella returned, trying +to suppress the sudden tingle of pleasure that was thrilling her, +"and look how much character there is in his hands." + +"Shall we go and study the others, or shall we find a bench in the +garden and sit down and talk?" Count Roumovski asked serenely, and +then smiled to himself as he noticed his companion's apprehensive +glance in the direction where, far away, Martha dozed in peace. + +"It would be nice out of doors--but--" and Stella faltered. + +"Do not let us be deprived of pleasure by any buts--there is one +out there who will warn us when your maid wakes. See--" and he +advanced toward the entrance door, "there is a bench by that rose +tree where we can be comparatively alone." + +Stella struggled no more with herself. After all, it was her last +chance--Eustace Medlicott's train got in at five o'clock! + +She had a sense of security, too, the complete serenity of her +companion inspired confidence. She almost felt she would not care +if Aunt Caroline herself slept instead of the elderly maid. + +There was some slight change in Count Roumovski's manner to-day-- +he kept his eyes fixed upon her face, and the things he said were +less abstract and more personal. After an entrancing half hour she +felt she had seen vivid pictures of his land and his home. But he +was a great traveler it appeared, and had not been there often in +later years. + +"It is so agreeable to let the body move from place to place, and +remain in a peaceful aloofness of the spirit all the time," he +said at last. "To watch all the rushing currents which dominate +human beings when they do not know how to manipulate them. If they +did, the millennium would come,--but, meanwhile, it is reserved +for the few who have learned them to enjoy this present plane we +are on." + +"You mean you can control events and shape your life as you +please, then?" Stella asked surprised, while she raised her sweet +shy eyes to his inquiringly. "I wish I knew how!" + +"Shall I try to teach you, mademoiselle?" he said. + +"Yes, indeed." + +"Then you must not look down all the time, even though the +contemplation of your long eyelashes gives me a pleasure--I would +prefer the eyes themselves--the eyes are the indication of what is +passing in the soul, and I would study this moving panorama." + +Stella's color deepened, but she met his blue orbs without +flinching--so he went on: + +"I had the fortune to be born a Russian, which has given me time +to study these things. My country does not require my work beyond +my being a faithful servant of my Emperor. Since I am not a +soldier, I can do as I choose. But you in England are now in a +seething caldron, and it would be difficult, no doubt, for you to +spend the hours required--although the national temperament would +lend itself to all things calm if it were directed." + +"But for myself," Stella demanded, "I am not a man, and need not +interest myself in the nation's affairs--how can I grow to guide +my own--as you seem to do?" + +"Never permit yourself to be ruffled by anything to commence +with," Count Roumovski began gravely, while the pupils of his eyes +appeared to grow larger. "Whatever mood you are in, you connect +yourself with the cosmic current of that mood--you become in +touch, so to speak, with all the other people who are under its +dominion, and so it gains strength because unity is strength. If +you can understand that as a basic principle, you can see that it +is only a question of controlling yourself and directing your +moods with those currents whose augmentation can bring you good. +You must never be negative and drift. You can be drawn in any +adverse way if you do." + +"I think I understand," said Stella, greatly interested. + +"Then you must use your critical faculties and make selections of +what is best--and you must encourage common sense and distrust +altruism. Sanity is the thing to aim at." + +"Yes." + +"The view of the world has become so distorted upon almost every +point which started in good, that nothing but a cultivation of our +individual critical faculties can enable us to see the truth--and +nine-tenths of civilized humanity have no real opinion of their +own at all--they simply echo those of others." + +"I feel that is true," said Stella, thinking of her own case. + +"It is not because a thing is bad or good that it succeeds--merely +how much strength we put into the desire for it," he went on. + +"But surely we must believe that good will win over evil," and the +brown eyes looked almost troubled, and his softened as he looked +at her. + +"The very fact of believing that would make it come to pass by all +these psychic laws. Whatever we really believe we draw," he said +almost tenderly. + +"Then, if I were to believe all the difficulties and uncertainties +would be made straight and just go on calmly, I should be happy, +should I?" she asked, and there was an unconscious pathos in her +voice which touched him deeply. + +"Certainly," he answered. "You have not had a fair chance-- +probably you have never been allowed to do a single thing of your +own accord--have you?" + +"N--no," said Stella. + +"In the beginning, were you engaged to this good clergyman of your +own wish?" and his eyes searched her face. + +She stiffened immediately, the training of years took offense, and +she answered rather stiffly: + +"I do not think you have the right to ask me such a question, +Count Roumovski." + +He was entirely unabashed--he stroked his pointed silky beard for +a moment, then he said calmly: + +"Yes--I have, you agreed that I should teach you how to shape your +life as you pleased, you must remember. It is rather essential +that I should know the truth of this matter before I can go +further--you must see that." + +"We can avoid the subject." + +"It would be Hamlet without Hamlet, then," he smiled. "One could +draw up no scheme of rules and exercises, unless one has some idea +of how far the individual was responsible for the present state of +things. If it was your wish in the beginning, or if you were +coerced makes all the difference." + +Stella was silent--only she nervously plucked an offending rose +which grew upon a bush beside them: she pulled its petals off and +kept her eyes lowered, and Sasha Roumovski smiled a wise smile. + +"You have unconsciously answered me," he said, "and your agitation +proves that not only are you aware that you did not become engaged +of your own wish, but that you are afraid to face the fact and +admit that its aspect appals you. You must remember, in your +country, where, I understand, divorce is not tres bien vu, +especially among the clergy, the affair is for life, and the joy +or the gall of it could be infinite." + +She raised two beseeching eyes to his face at last. + +"Oh, do not let us talk about it," she pleaded. "It is so warm and +pleasant here--I want to be happy." + +He looked at her for a while with penetrating eyes, then he said +gently: + +"It is a man's province to take care of a woman," and his +attractive voice filled with a new cadence. "I see you are in need +of direction. Leave all to me--and forget there is any one else in +the world for the moment but our two selves. Did you know that I +thought you looked particularly sweet last night, but rather +pale?" + +"You never looked at me at all," said Stella before she was aware +of it, and then blushed crimson at the inference of her speech. He +would be able to understand perfectly that she must have been +observing him all the time to be conscious of this. + +A gleam of gladness came into his eyes. + +"I would like to watch you always openly, if I might," he +whispered. "Your little face is like a flower in its delicate +tints, and your eyes are true and tender and asking so many +questions of life,--and sometimes they are veiled and misty, and +then they look wise and courageous. I am beginning to know all +their changes." + +"Then, in that case, monotony will set in," Stella was almost +arch--the day was so glorious! + +"I am not afraid of that," he said. "I always know what I want and +what is worth while. I do not value my three matchless pearls the +less because I know their every iridescence--on the contrary, I +grow more fond of them and wear them every night in preference to +any others." + +They were silent for a moment after this. He was examining her +minutely with his wise, calm eyes. He was noting the sensitive +curve of the pretty full lips, the tender droop of the set of her +head, the gracious charm of her little regular features, and the +intelligence of her broad brow. With all her simplicity, she +looked no fool or weakling. And to think that the narrow code of +those who surrounded her should force this sweet young creature +into the gray walls of a prison house, when she became the English +clergyman's wife; it was too revolting to him. Count Roumovski +suddenly made up his mind, trained to instantaneous decision by +his bent of studies, and sure and decided in its action. And if +Stella had looked up then she would have seen a keen gleam in the +peaceful blue of his eyes. He drew her on to talk of her home and +her tastes--she loved many things he did, he found--and she was so +eager to hear and to learn their meaning. He grew to feel a sort +of pride and the pleasure of a teacher when directing an extremely +intelligent child. There were no barriers of stupidity into +whatever regions the subjects might wander. They spent an hour of +pure joy investigating each other's thoughts. And both knew they +were growing more than friends. + +Then Stella rose suddenly to her feet. A clock struck twelve. + +"You said one must not be negative and drift," she announced +demurely, "so I am being decided and must now go to Martha again." + +"Ivan has not warned us that she is thinking of stirring," Count +Roumovski said. "I told him to, and he will let us know in plenty +of time; you surely do not breakfast until half-past twelve, do +you?" + +"Ivan?--who is Ivan?" Stella asked. + +"He is a servant of mine who does what he is bid," her companion +answered. "To have peace to enjoy oneself one must calculate and +arrange for events. Had we only trusted to the probability of your +maid's sleeping, I should have had to be on the lookout, and my +uneasiness would have communicated itself to you, and we should +have had no happy hour--but I made a certainty of safety--and +unconsciously you trusted me to know, and so we have been +content." + +Stella was thrilled. So he had taken all this trouble. He must be +a good deal interested in her, then; and feeling sure of this, +womanlike, she immediately took advantage of it to insist upon +leaving him. + +"Very well," he said, when he could not dissuade her. "To-night +the wheel of fortune will revolve for us all, and it remains to be +seen who will draw a prize and who a blank." + +Then he walked by her side to where they saw the quiet servant +standing, a motionless sentinel, and here Count Roumovski bowed +and turned on his heel, while Stella advanced to the bench on +which the comfortable Martha slept. + +This latter was full of defence when she awoke. She had not closed +an eye, but thought Miss Stella was enjoying "them statues" better +without her, which was indeed true, if she had guessed! + +Miss Rawson ate very little luncheon--the Russian did not appear-- +and immediately after it she was taken as a treat to see the +Borghese Gardens by her uncle and aunt! It behooved her not to be +tired by more sightseeing, since her betrothed would arrive when +they returned for tea, and would expect her to be bright and on +the alert to please him, Aunt Caroline felt. As for Stella, as +that moment approached it seemed to her that the end of all joy +had come. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +The Rev. Eustace Medlicott, when the stains of travel had been +removed from his thin person, came down to tea in the hall of the +Grand Hotel with a distinct misgiving in his heart. He did not +approve of it as a place of residence for his betrothed. Another +and equally well-drained hostelry might have been found for the +party he thought, where such evidences of worldly occupations and +amusements would not so forcibly strike the eye. Music with one's +meals savored of paganism. He was still very emaciated with his +Lenten fast. It took him until July, generally, to pick up again; +and he was tired with his journey. Stella was not there to greet +him, only the Aunt Caroline, and he felt a sense of injury +creeping over him. She might have been in time. Nancy Ruggles, the +Bishop's second daughter, had given him tea and ministered to his +wants in a spirit of solicitous devotion every day since the +Ebleys had left Exminster, but Nancy's hair was not full of +sunlight, nor did her complexion suggest cream and roses. Things +which, to be sure, the Rev. Eustace Medlicott felt he ought not to +dwell upon; they were fleshly lusts and should be discouraged. + +He had been convinced that celibacy was the only road to salvation +for a priest, until Stella Rawson's fair young charms had +unconsciously undermined this conviction. But even if he had been +able to arrange his conscience to his liking upon the vital point, +he felt he must fight bravely against allowing himself or his +betrothed to get any pleasure out of the affair. It was better to +marry than to burn, he had St. Paul's authority for this--but when +he felt emotion toward Stella because of her loveliness, he was +afterward very uncomfortable in his thoughts, and it took him at +least an hour to throw dust in his own eyes in regard to the +nature of his desire for her, which he determined to think was +only of the spirit. Love, for him, was no god to be exalted, but a +too strong beast to be resisted, and every one of his rites were +to be succumbed to shamefacedly and under protest. Thus did he +criticize the scheme of his Creator like many another before him. + +He sat now in the hall of the Grand Hotel at Rome feeling ill at +ease and expressed some mild disapproval of the surroundings to +Mrs. Ebley, who fired up at once. She was secretly enjoying +herself extremely, and allowed the drains to assume gigantic +proportions in her reasons for their choice of abode. So there was +nothing more to be said, and Stella, looking rather pale, +presently came down the steps from the corridor where their lift +was situated, and joined the group in the far corner of the large +hall. + +She was so slender and fresh and graceful, and, even in the week's +sight-seeing in Paris, she seemed to have picked up a new air, +though she wore the same gray Sunday dress her fiance was +accustomed to see at home--it appeared to be put on differently, +and she had altered the doing of her hair. There was no doubt +about it, his future wife was a most delectable-looking creature, +but these tendencies toward adornment of the person which he +observed must be checked at once. + +They shook hands with decorous cordiality, and Stella sat down +demurely in the vacant chair. She felt as cold as ice toward him, +and looked it more or less. It made Mr. Medlicott nervous, +although she answered gently enough when he addressed her. +Inwardly she was trying to overcome the growing revulsion she was +experiencing. Tricks of speech, movements of hands--even the way +Eustace's hair grew--were all irritating her. She only longed to +contradict every word the poor man said, and she felt wretched and +unjust and at war with herself and fate. At last things almost +came to a point when he moved his chair so that he should be close +to her and a little apart from the others, and whispered with an +air of absolute proprietorship: + +"My little Stella has changed her sweetly modest way of +hairdressing. I hardly think the new style is suitable to my +retiring dove." + +"Why, it is only parted in the middle and brushed back into a +simple knot," Miss Rawson retorted, with sparkling eyes. "How can +you be so ridiculous, Eustace--it is merely because it is becoming +and more in the fashion that you object, there is nothing the +least remarkable in the style itself." + +Mr. Medlicott's thin lips grew into a straight line. + +"It is that very point--the suggestion of fashion that I object +to--the wife of a clergyman cannot be too careful not to make +herself attractive or remarkable in any way," he said +sententiously, his obstinate chin a little forward. + +"But I am not a clergyman's wife yet," said Stella with some +feeling, "and can surely enjoy a few things of my age until I am-- +and doing my hair how I please is one of them." + +Mr. Medlicott shrugged his shoulders, he refused to continue this +unseemly altercation with his betrothed. He would force her to see +reason when once she should be his wife, until then he might have +to waive his authority, but should show her by his manner that she +had offended him, and judging from the attitudes of the adoring +spinsters he had left at Exminster that should be punishment +enough. + +He turned to the Aunt Caroline now and addressed her exclusively +and Stella rebelliously moved her seat back a few inches and +looked across the room; and at that moment the tall, odd-looking +Russian came in, and retired to a seat far on the other side, +exactly opposite them. Here he ordered a hock and seltzer with +perfect unconcern, and smoked his cigarette. Miss Rawson could +hardly bear it. + +"There is that extraordinary man again, Stella," Mrs. Ebley turned +to her and said. "I thought he had gone as he was not at luncheon +to-day. I am sure your fiance will agree with me that such an +appearance is sacrilegious--he must know he looks like a saint-- +and I am quite sure, from what I have heard from Martha, he is not +one at all. He lives in the greatest luxury, Eustace," she +continued, turning to the Rev. Mr. Medlicott. "and probably does +no good to anyone in the world." + +"How can you suppose that, Aunt Caroline," Stella answered with +some spirit, "it is surely very uncharitable to judge of people by +their appearances and--and what Martha repeats to you." + +Mrs. Ebley gasped--never in her whole life had her niece spoken to +her in this tone. She to be rebuked! It was unspeakable. She could +only glare behind her glasses. What had come to the girl in the +last two days--if this manner was the result of travel, far better +to have stayed at home! + +Here Canon Ebley joined in, hoping to bring peace: + +"You have told Eustace what is in store for him to-night, have you +not, Caroline, my dear?" he asked. "We have to put on our best and +take our ladies to the Embassy to a rout, Eustace," he went on, +genially. "There are a Russian Grand Duke and Duchess passing +through, it appears, who are going to be entertained." + +"There will be no dancing, I suppose," said Mr. Medlicott primly, +"because, if so, I am sorry, but I cannot accompany you--it is not +that I disapprove of dancing for others," he hastened to add, "but +I do not care to watch it myself. And I do not think it wise for +Stella to grow to care for it, either." + +"It is merely a reception," Mrs. Ebley said, "and it will be a +very interesting sight." + +Stella sat silent; she was overcome with the whole situation; and +her fiance grew more distasteful to her every moment--how had she +ever been persuaded to be engaged to such a person!--while the +attraction of the strange-looking Russian seemed to increase. In +spite of the grotesque hair and unusual beard, there was an air of +great distinction about him. His complete unconsciousness and calm +were so remarkable. You might take him for an eccentric person, +but certainly a gentleman, and with an extraordinary magnetism, +she felt. When once you had talked to him, he seemed to cast a +spell over you. But, beyond this, she only knew that she was +growing more unhappy every moment, and that by her side one man +represented everything that was tied and bound in sentiment and +feeling and existence, and that across the hall another opened the +windows of her reason and imagination, and exhorted her to be +free, and herself. + +Presently she could bear it no more. She got up rather suddenly, +and, saying she was very tired and had letters to write, she left +them and went toward the lift. + +"Stella is not at all like herself," Mr. Medlicott said, when she +had disappeared from view. "I trust she is not sickening with +Roman fever." + +Meanwhile, Miss Rawson had reached her room and pulled her writing +case in front of her. There were one or two girl friends who ought +to be written to, but the sheets remained blank--and in about ten +minutes there was a gentle knock at the door, and, on opening it, +she saw Count Roumovski's discreet-looking servant, who handed her +a note respectfully, and then went on his way without a word. + +How agreeable it must be to have well-trained servants to do one's +bidding like that! she thought, and then went back eagerly to her +window to read the missive. It had no beginning or date, and was +just a few lines. + +I have observed the whole situation, and judged of the character +of your fiance. I know how you feel. Do not be depressed--remain +calm and trust me, circumstances can always be directed in the +hands of a strong man. I will have the honor to be presented to +you and to your family soon after you arrive at the Embassy to- +night. All is well. + +There was no signature, and the writing was rather large and +unlike any she had seen before. + +Suddenly her feeling of unrest left her, and a lightness of heart +took its place. She was living, at all events, and the horizon was +not all gray. It seemed almost delightful to be putting on a real +evening dress presently, even though it was a rather homely white +thing with a pink sash, and to be going down to the restaurant in +it with Aunt Caroline in front in her best black velvet and point +lace. + +That lady's desire to be in time at the party alone determined her +to this breach of the rules--and there were Eustace and Uncle +Erasmus in their stiff clerical evening coats awaiting them in the +corridor--while, as luck would have it, the lift stopped at the +second floor to admit the Russian. He got in with his usual air of +being unaware that he was not alone--though Stella could feel that +he was touching her hand--perhaps unconsciously. He seemed to +radiate some kind of joy for her always, and the pink grew to that +of a June rose in her cheeks, and her brown eyes shone like two +stars. + +"That was the man you spoke of in the hall, Mrs. Ebley, was it +not?" Eustace Medlicott's intoning voice said, as they went along +to the restaurant. "He certainly is a most remarkable person to +look at close--but I do not dislike his face, it has noble lines." + +"Really, how condescending of you!" Stella almost said aloud. But +the Aunt Caroline answered serenely: + +"Perhaps I am prejudiced, Eustace, but want of convention always +shocks me to such a degree that I cannot appreciate anything +else." + +Stella almost enjoyed her dinner, she was so excited with the +prospect of some unknown coming events, and she had the +satisfaction of observing that once Count Roumovski actually +turned his head in their direction and met her eyes. His were full +of a whimsical smile for the instant he looked, and then he +relapsed into his habitual indifference. + +The crowd had begun to thicken when they got to the Embassy, and +they waited among them for the Royalties' arrival; Stella looking +at everything with fresh, interested eyes. When this ceremony was +over people began to disperse about the large rooms, and Miss +Rawson was conscious that her strange secret acquaintance was in +conversation with the Grand Duke and Duchess; she had not seen him +come in. The Aunt Caroline noticed this, too, and drew her +attention to the fact. + +"Look, Stella, that dreadful man is talking to Royalty!" she said. +"I suppose he must be a gentleman, after all--one never can tell +with foreigners, as their titles mean nothing, and half of them +are assumed. Your Uncle Carford had a valet once who afterward was +arrested for posing as a Polish count." + +"I should think anyone could see this man was a gentleman, Aunt +Caroline," Stella answered, "even without his talking to +Royalties." + +They were soon joined by the secretary cousin, who was charmed to +welcome so pretty a relation to Rome, and was profuse in his +apologies for not having been able to do more than leave cards +upon them as yet. + +"We should so like to know the names of the celebrities," Mrs. +Ebley said, "especially can you tell us about the very curious- +looking person now conversing with her Imperial Highness; he is at +our hotel." + +"That--Oh! that is by far the most interesting man here--it is the +famous Count Roumovski. He is a most celebrated traveler; he has +been all over the world and Africa and Asia in unaccessible +places. He is a fabulously rich Russian--a real Muscovite from +near Moscow, and he does everything and anything he pleases; he +gives enormous sums for the encouragement of science. He is +immensely intelligent--he lunched at the Embassy to-day." + +"Really!" said the Aunt Caroline, somewhat impressed. "His +appearance is greatly against him." + +"Oh, do you think so?" said the cousin. "I think it adds to his +attraction, it is such superlative audacity. No Englishman would +have the nerve to cut his hair like that." + +"I should hope not," said Mrs. Ebley severely, and dropped the +subject. + +"To think of this charming rosebud of a girl going to marry +Eustace Medlicott--insufferable, conceited prig, I remember him at +Oxford," the cousin was musing to himself. "Lord Carford is an old +stick-in-the-mud, or he would have prevented that. She is his own +niece, and one can see by her frock that the poor child never even +goes to London." + +At this moment they saw the Russian Count putting his heels +together and bowing himself out of the circle of his Royalties; +and straight as a dart he came over to where their group was +standing, and whispered in the cousin's--Mr. Deanwood's ear--who +then asked if he might present Count Roumovski to the Aunt +Caroline and the rest. + +When this ceremony was over Mrs. Ebley found herself conversing +with her whilom object of contempt, and coming gradually under the +influence of his wonderful charm, while Stella stood there +trembling with the wildest excitement she had yet known. The words +of Eustace, her betrothed, talking to her, carried no meaning to +her brain, her whole intelligence was strung up to catch what the +others were saying. + +With great dexterity the Russian presently made the conversation +general, and drew her into it, and then he said with composure +that the Gardens were illuminated--and, as it was such a very hot +night, would mademoiselle like to take a turn that way, to have +some refreshment? At the same moment, Mr. Deanwood gave Mrs. Ebley +his arm, and they all moved forward--followed by Canon Ebley and +the Rev. Eustace Medlicott, with no great joy upon his face. + +Stella, meanwhile, felt herself being drawn rapidly ahead, and so +maneuvered that in a moment or two they had completely lost sight +of the rest of the relations, and were practically alone in a +crowd. + +"At last!" Count Roumovski whispered, "even I, who am generally +calm, was beginning to feel I should rush over, throw prudence to +the winds and--" then he stopped abruptly, and Stella felt her +heart thump in her throat, while her little hand on his arm was +pressed against his side. + +They made the pretense of taking some refreshment at the buffet, +and then went toward the open doors of the garden. The part all +round the house was illuminated, and numbers of people strolled +about, the night was deliciously warm. Count Roumovski seemed to +know the paths, for he drew his companion to a seat just beyond +the radius of the lights, and they sat down upon a bench under a +giant tree. He had not spoken a word, but now he leaned back and +deliberately looked into her eyes, while his voice, with +vibrations of feeling in it which thrilled Stella, whispered in +her ear: + +"It cannot go on, of course--you agree with me about that, do you +not?" + +"What cannot go on?" she asked, to gain time to recover her +composure. + +"This situation," he answered. "I am sure now that I love you--and +I want to teach you a number of things, first in importance being +that you shall love me." + +"Oh, you must not say this," Stella protested feebly. + +"Yes, I must, and you will listen to me, little star." + +He drew nearer to her, and the amazing power of propinquity began +to assert itself. She felt as if the force to resist him were +leaving her, she was trembling all over with delicious thrills. + +"I made up my mind almost immediately I saw you, sweet child," he +went on, "that you were what I have been waiting for all my life. +You are good and true--and balanced--or you will be that when I +have made your love education. Stella, look at me with those soft +eyes, and tell me that I mean something to you already, and that +the worthy Mr. Medlicott does not exist any more." + +"I--I--but I have only known you for two days," Stella answered +confusedly: she was so full of emotion that she dared not trust +herself further. + +"Does time count, then, so much with conventional people?" he +demanded. "For me it has no significance in relation to feeling. +If you would only look at me instead of down at those small hands, +then you would not be able to tell me these foolish things!" + +This was so true that Stella could not deny it, her breath came +rather fast; it was the supreme moment her life had yet known. + +"You are frightened because the training of your education still +holds you and not nature. Your acquired opinion tells you you are +engaged to another man, and ought not to listen to me." + +"Of course I ought not to," she murmured. + +"Of course you ought--how else can you come to any conclusion if +you do not hear my arguments--sweet, foolish one!" + +She did look at him now with two startled eyes. + +"Listen attentively, darling pupil, and sweet love," he said. He +was leaning with one arm on the back of the bench supporting his +head on his hand, turned quite toward her, who sat with clasped +nervous fingers clutching her fan. His other hand lay idly on his +knee, his whole attitude was very still. The soft lights were just +enough for him to see distinctly her small face and shining hair; +his own face was in shadow, but she could feel the magnetism of +his eyes penetrating through her very being. + +"You were coerced by those in charge of you," he went on in a +level voice of argument, which yet broke into notes of tenderness, +"you were influenced into becoming engaged to this man who is +ridiculously unsuited to you. You, so full of life and boundless +joy! You, who will learn all of love's meaning presently, and what +it makes of existence, and what God meant by giving it to us +mortals. You are intended by nature to be a complete woman if you +did but know it--but such a life, tied to that half fish man, would +atrophy all that is finest in your character. You would grow really +into what they are trying to make you appear--after years of +hopelessness and suffering. Do you not feel all this, little star, +tell me?" + +"Yes," Stella answered, "it is true--I have seemed to feel the +cords and the shackles pulling at me often, but never that they +were unbearable until I--spoke with you--and you put new thoughts +into my head." + +"I did well, then. And because of a silly convention you would +ruin all your life by going on with these ways--it is +unthinkable!" and his deep voice vibrated with feeling. "It is a +mistake, that is all, and can be rectified,--if you were already +married to this man I would not plead so, because then you would +have crossed the Rubicon, and assumed responsibilities which you +would have to accept or suffer the consequences. But this +preliminary bond can be broken without hurt to either side. A man +of the good clergyman's type will not suffer in his emotions at +the loss of you--he suffices unto himself for those; his vanity +will be wounded--that is all. And surely it is better that should +gall for a little than that you should spoil your life. Sweet flower, +realize yourself these things--that sunny hair and that beautiful +skin and those velvet eyes were made for the joy and glory of a +man--not for temptations to a strict priest, who would resent +their power as a sin every time he felt himself influenced by +their charm. Gods above! he would not know what to do with you, +heart of me!" + +Stella was thrilling with exquisite emotion, but the influence of +her strict and narrow bringing up could not be quite overcome in +these few moments. She longed to be convinced, and yet some +altruistic sentiment made her feel still some qualms and +misgivings. If she should be causing Eustace great pain by +breaking her engagement; if it were very wrong to go against her +uncle and aunt--especially her Aunt Caroline, her own mother's +sister. She clasped her little hands nervously, and looked up in +this strong man's face with pathetic, pleading intensity. + +"Oh, please tell me, what ought I to do, then--what is right?" she +implored. "And because I want so much to believe you, I fear it +must be wrong to do so." + +He leaned nearer to her and spoke earnestly. His stillness was +almost ominous, it gave the impression of such immense self- +control, and his voice was as those bass notes of the priests of +St. Isaac's in his own northern land. + +"Dear, honest little girl," he said tenderly, "I worship your +goodness. And I know you will presently see the truth. Love is of +God and is imperious, and because she loves him is the only reason +why a woman should give her life to a man. Quite apart from the +law, which proclaims that each individual must be the arbiter of +his own fate, and not succumb to the wishes of others, it would be +an ethical sin for you to marry the worthy Mr. Medlicott--not +loving him. Surely, you can see this." + +"Yes--yes, it would be dreadful," she murmured, "but Aunt +Caroline--she caused me to accept him--I mean, she wanted me to so +much. I never really felt anything for him myself, and lately-- +ever since the beginning, in fact, I have been getting more and +more indifferent to him." + +"Then, surely, it is plain that you must be free of him, darling. +Throw all the responsibility upon me, if you will. I promise to +take every care of you. And I want you only to promise you will +follow each step that I explain to you--" then he broke off, and +the seriousness of his tone changed to one of caressing +tenderness. "But first I must know for certain, little star, shall +I be able to teach you to love me--as I shall love you?" + +"Yes," was all Stella could utter, and then, gaining more voice, +she went on, "I did not know--I could not guess what that would +mean--to love--but--" + +He answered her with fond triumph: + +"Now you are beginning to understand, darling child--that is +enough for me to know for the present. In your country, a man asks +a woman to marry him: he says, 'Will you marry me?'--is it not so? +of course, I need not say that to you, because you know that is +what I mean. When these wearisome thongs are off your wrists you +will belong to me, and come with me into my country and be part of +my life." + +"Ah!" whispered Stella, the picture seemed one of heaven, that was +all. + +"You must have freedom to assert your individuality, Stella," he +continued. "I can but show you the way and give you a new point of +view, but I will never try to rule you and drag you to mine. I +will never put any chains upon you but those of love. Do they +sound as if they would be too heavy, dearest?" + +"I think not," she said very low. "I feel as though I were looking +into a beautiful garden from the top of an ugly, barren, cold +mountain. I shall like to come down and go in among the unknown +flowers." + +"It will be so glorious for us," he said exultantly, "because we +have still all the interesting things to find out about each +other,--" And then, her sweet face so very near him, the +temptation to caress her became too intense; he quivered and +changed his position, clasping his hands. + +"Darling," he said hoarsely, "we must soon go back to the company, +because, although I count always upon my will to make my actions +obey it, still I can hardly prevent myself from seizing you in my +arms and kissing your tender lips--and that I must not do--as +yet." + +Stella drew herself together, the temptation was convulsing her +also, though she did not guess it. She looked up into his blue +eyes there in the shadow, and saw the deep reverence in them, and +she understood and loved him with her soul. + +He did not so much as touch her dress; indeed, now that he had won +his fight, he moved a little further from her--and resumed his +calm voice: + +"The first thing we shall do is to stroll back through the people +and find the aunt--I will then leave you with her, and soon it +will be time to go home. Do not make much conversation with any of +them to-night--leave everything to me. I will see the Rev. Mr. +Medlicott when we return to the hotel. Whatever they say to you +to-morrow, remain firm in your simple determination to break your +engagement. Argue with them not at all. I will see your uncle in +the morning and demand your hand; they will be shocked, horrified, +scandalized--we will make no explanations. If they refuse their +consent, then you must be brave, and the day after to-morrow you +must come to my sister. She will have arrived by then; she was in +Paris, and I telegraphed for her to join me immediately; the +Princess Urazov she is called. She will receive you with +affection, and you will stay with her until the formalities can be +arranged, when we shall be married, and--but I cannot permit +myself to think of the joy of that--for the moment." + +Stella's eyes, with trust and love, were now gazing into his, and +he rose abruptly to his feet. + +"You may, when you are alone, again think that it is heartless to +go quite contrary to your relations like this, because they have +brought you up, but remember that marriage is an act which can +mean almost life or death to a woman, and that no human beings +have any right to coerce you in this matter. You are of age and so +am I, and we are only answerable to God and to the laws of our +countries, not to individuals." + +"I will try to think of it like that," said Stella, greatly moved, +and then, with almost childish irrelevance, which touched him +deeply, she asked, "What must I call you, please?" + +"Oh, you sweetest star!" he exclaimed, "do not tempt me too +strongly--I love you wildly and I want to fold you in my arms--and +explain everything with your little head here on my breast--but I +must not--must not yet. Call me Sasha--say it now that I may hear +its sound in your tender voice--and we must fly, fly back to the +lights--or I cannot answer for myself." + +She whispered it softly, and a shiver ran through all his tall +frame--and he said, with tender masterfulness: + +"Say, 'Sasha, I love,'" and this she did, also--and then he almost +brusquely placed her hand upon his arm, and led her among the +people, and so to her frowning relations, and then he bowed a +correct good-night. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +No one could have been more surprised than the Reverend Eustace +Medlicott at the behavior of his betrothed. Far from showing any +contrition for her unseemly absence upon the arm of a perfect +stranger, and a foreigner to boot, Stella had returned to the fold +of her relations' group with a demure and radiant face, and when +Eustace had ventured some querulous reproaches, she had cut him +short by saying she had done as she wished and did not intend to +listen to any remarks about it. + +"You will have to learn more humbleness of mind, my dear child," +he retorted sternly. "I cannot allow you to reply to your future +husband in this independent tone." + +"I shall just answer as I please," said Stella, and felt almost +inclined to laugh, he looked so cross and amazed. Then she turned +and talked to the cousin, Mr. Deanwood, and took no further +notice of him. + +Mr. Medlicott burned with annoyance. Stella would really have to +be careful or he would not go on with the match--he had no +intention of taking to wife a woman who would defy him--there was +Nancy Ruggles ready to be his slave--and others besides her. And +his career could be just as well assisted by the Bishop's daughter +as by Canon Ebley's niece, even though her uncle was a crotchety +and unknown Lord, patron of two fat livings. But Stella, with a +rebellious little curl loosened on her snowy neck and a rebellious +pout upon her cherry lips, was so very alluring a creature to call +one's own, the desire of the flesh, which he called by any other +name, fought hard with his insulted spirit, though to give in +would be too ignominious; she must say she was sorry first, and +then he could find it in his heart to forgive her. But the +opportunity to show this magnanimity was not vouchsafed to him by +fate--for other people were introduced to the party by Mr. +Deanwood, and he did not exchange a word alone with his erring +fiancee until she said a cold good-night in the hall of the Grand +Hotel. + +"Stella, remain for a moment, I wish to speak to you," he said in +the voice in which he was accustomed to read the burial service. + +But she feigned not to hear and followed her Aunt Caroline's black +velvet train on to the lift and at that same moment a discreet- +looking foreign servant came up and handed him a note. + +He read it in surprise--who could be sending him a note at a +quarter past twelve at night? + +Dear Sir [it ran], + +I shall be greatly obliged if you can spare to me half an hour +before retiring to your rest to converse upon a matter of +importance. I had the honor of making your acquaintance to-night +at your Embassy. If you will grant me this favor I will wait upon +you immediately in the hall, or, if you prefer, my sitting-room; +my servant could conduct you here, and we shall have the advantage +of being entirely undisturbed. I remain, sir, Yours truly. + +SASHA ROUMOVSKI. + +Eustace Medlicott gasped with astonishment. This Russian gentleman +was evidently in need of his ministrations and perhaps advice. He +would go to his room, certainly, there were still some people in +the hall having late coffee and refreshment after the theater. + +He indicated by a condescending movement that he was ready to +follow the waiting servant, and soon found himself being shown +into Count Roumovski's sitting-room. It was luxuriously appointed +and represented every appearance of manly comfort. There were +quantities of books and papers about and the smell of excellent +cigars, and put carelessly aside were various objets d'art which +antique dealers had evidently sent for his grand seigneur's +approval. + +Count Roumovski was standing by the mantelpiece and looked very +tall and commanding in his evening dress. + +"It is most good of you to come," he said, while he indicated a +big arm-chair for his visitor to sit in--he did not offer to shake +hands. "It was certainly my duty to have called upon you, my only +apology for getting you to ascend here is that the subject I wish +to converse with you is too serious for both of us to admit of +interruptions." + +"Indeed," said Mr. Medlicott, pompously--growing more surprised +each moment. "And may I ask the nature of your trouble?" + +Count Roumovski did not change his position by the mantelpiece and +he kept still as a bronze statue as he spoke in a courteous tone: + +"It is not a trouble at all," he began, gravely, "on the contrary, +it is a great joy and honor for me. I will state the facts +immediately. I understand that for a short while you have been +engaged to be married to Miss Stella Rawson, the niece of the +respected English clergyman, the Reverend Ebley--" + +"Pardon me," interrupted Mr. Medlicott acidly, "but I do not see +how my private affairs can interest you, sir, I cannot--" + +But the host in turn interrupted him. + +"If you will be so good as to listen patiently, you will find that +this matter is of vital importance--may I proceed?" + +Mr. Medlicott bowed; what more could he do? Count Roumovski went +on: + +"I understand that Miss Rawson never showed very strong affection +for you or great desire for this union--so what I have to ask now +is, if you, as a gentleman, will release her from her promise to +you and set her free." + +"Upon my word, sir, this is too much," Mr. Medlicott exclaimed, +starting to his feet, "by what authority do you say these +preposterous things? You were only introduced to Miss Rawson and +myself to-night. You must be mad!" + +"No, I am quite sane. And I say them upon the best authority," +Count Roumovski continued, "because I love Miss Rawson myself, and +I am deeply honored by believing that in return she loves me--not +you at all. Therefore, it is common sense to ask you to release +her, and let her be happy with the person she prefers--is it not +so?" + +Eustace Medlicott had grown white with anger and astonishment as +he listened, and now broke in hotly, forgetful of his intoning +voice or anything but his outraged dignity. + +"When have you had the opportunity to try and undermine the faith +of my betrothed, may I ask? Supposing you are saying this +seriously and not as some ill-timed jest." + +Count Roumovski lifted his eyebrows a little and looked almost +with pity at his adversary. "We are not talking in the heroic +manner," he replied, unmoved by the other's taunt, "we are, I +presume, two fairly intelligent men discussing this affair +together--there has been no question of undermining. Miss Rawson +and myself found we understood each other very soon after we first +met. Surely, you must realize, sir, that love cannot be commanded, +it will not come or go at one's bidding. These ridiculous bonds of +convention, holding to a promise given when the spirit to keep it +is no longer there, can ruin people's lives." + +Mr. Medlicott drew himself up, he was not quite so tall as the +Russian, but of no mean height, and his intense, ascetic face, +emaciated to extreme leanness, now reddened with passion, while +the veins stood out upon his high, narrow forehead. He was always +very irritable when crossed, and his obstinate nature was strongly +combative. + +"You forget, sir," he said angrily, "you are insulting my honor." + +"Not the least in the world--you do not understand the point," +Count Roumovski returned calmly. "Listen for a minute--and I will +explain. If Miss Rawson were already your wife I should be, and +you would have the right to try and kill me, did your calling +permit of that satisfaction of gentlemen, because there is a +psychological and physiological reason involved in that case, +producing the instinct in man which he is not perhaps conscious +of, that he wishes to be sure his wife's legitimate offspring are +his own--out of this instinct, civilization has built up the idea +of a man's honor--which you can see has a basic principle of sense +and justice." + +Mr. Medlicott with difficulty restrained himself from interrupting +and the Russian went on. + +"The situation of betrothed is altogether different: in it there +have merely been promises exchanged, promises, for the most part, +which no man or woman can honestly engage with any certainty to +keep, because feeling toward the other is not within his or her +control--both are promising upon a sentiment, not a reality." + +"I totally disagree with you," Eustace Medlicott answered angrily, +"when men and women make promises to one another they should have +wills strong enough to keep them." + +"For what sensible reason?" Count Roumovski asked. "In a case +where the happiness of both is involved, and where no damage has +been incurred by either--" + +Mr. Medlicott clasped his hands convulsively but he did not reply--so +the Russian went on: + +"Surely, you must see that a woman should be free to marry--that +is, to give herself and her power to become a mother where she +loves--not to be forced to bestow these sacred gifts when her +spirit is unwilling--just because she has made the initial mistake +of affiancing herself to a man, often through others' influence, +who she discovers afterward is distasteful to her. Cannot you +realize that it is wise for himself as well as for her that this +man release her, before a life of long misery begins for them +both?" + +Mr. Medlicott never analyzed reasons, and never listened to other +people's logic, and if he had any of his own he was too angry to +use it. He was simply conscious now that a foreigner had insulted +him and appeared to have stolen the affections of his betrothed, +and his sacred calling precluded all physical retaliation--which, +at the moment, was the only kind that would have given him any +satisfaction. He prepared to stalk furiously from the room after +he should receive an answer to an all-important question. + +"The whole thing is disgraceful," he said, "and I shall inform +Miss Rawson's uncle and aunt of your highly insulting words to me, +that they may guard her from further importunity upon your part. +But I should like to know, in fairness, how far you are stating +you have been able to persuade my fiancee to agree to your view?" + +"I am sorry you should have become so heated and angry," Count +Roumovski returned, "because it stops all sensible discussion. I +deeply regret having been forced to inflict pain upon you, but if +you would give yourself time to think calmly you would see that, +however unfortunate the fact may be for you of Miss Rawson's +affections having become fixed on me--these things are no one's +fault and beyond human control--Miss Rawson has left the breaking +off of her engagement to you in my hands, and has decided that she +desires to marry me, as I desire to marry her, as soon as she is +free." + +"I refuse to listen to another word," Mr. Medlicott flashed, "and +I warn you, sir, that I will give no such freedom at your bidding--on +the contrary, I shall have my marriage with Miss Rawson +solemnized immediately, and try, if there is a word of truth in +your preposterous assertion that she loves you, to bring her back +to a proper sense of her duty to me and to God, repressing her +earthly longings by discipline and self-denial, the only true +methods for the saving of her soul. And I and her natural +guardians, her uncle and her aunt, will take care that you never +see her again." + +Count Roumovski raised his eyebrows once more and prepared to +light a cigar. + +"It is a pity you will not discuss this peacefully, sir," he said, +"or apparently even think about it yourself with common sense. If +you would do so, you would begin by asking yourself what God gave +certain human beings certain attributes for," he blew a few whiffs +of smoke, "whether to be wasted and crushed out by the intolerance +of others,--or whether to be tended and grow to the highest, as +flowers grow with light and air and water." + +"What has that got to do with the case?" asked Mr. Medlicott, +tapping his foot uneasily. + +"Everything," went on the Russian, mildly, "you, I believe, are a +priest, and therefore should be better able to expound your +Deity's meaning than I, a layman--but you have evidently not the +same point of view--mine is always to look at the facts of a case +denuded of prejudice--because the truth is the thing to aim at--" + +"You would suggest that I am not aiming at the truth," the +clergyman interrupted, trembling now with anger, so that he +fiercely grasped the back of a high chair, "your words are +preposterous, sir." + +"Not at all," Count Roumovski continued. "Look frankly at things; +you have just announced that you would constitute yourself judge +of what is for Miss Rawson's salvation." + +"Leave her name out, I insist," the other put in hotly. + +"To be concrete, unfortunately, I cannot do so," the Russian said. +"I must speak of this lady we are both interested in--pray, try to +listen to me calmly, sir, for we are here for the settling of a +matter which concerns the happiness of our three lives." + +"I do not admit for a moment that you have the right to speak at +all," Mr. Medlicott returned, but his adversary went on quietly. + +"You must have remarked that Miss Rawson possesses beauty of form, +sweet and tender flesh, soft coloring, and a look of health and +warmth and life. All these charms tend to create in man a +passionate physical love. That is cause and effect. For the sake +of the present argument we will, for the moment, leave out all +more important questions of the soul and things mental and +spiritual. Well, who gave her these attributes? Did you or I--or +even her parents, consciously? Or did the Supreme Being, whom you +call God, endow her so? Admitted that He did--have you, then, or +anyone else, the right to crush out the result of His endowment in +a woman; crush her joy of them, force her into a life where their +possession is looked upon as a temptation? Seek to marry her-- +remember that marriage physically means being certainly actuated +to do so by their attraction--and yet believing that you sin each +time you allow them to influence you." Count Roumovski's level +voice took on a note of deep emotion and his blue eyes gleamed. +"Why, the degradation is horrible to think of, sir, if you will +face the truth--and this is the fate to which you would condemn +this young and tender girl for your own selfishness, knowing she +does not love you." + +Eustace Medlicott walked up and down rapidly for a moment; he then +picked up a book and threw it aside again in agitation. He was +very pale now. + +"I refuse to have the woman I have decided to marry snatched from +me by any of your sophistries," he said breathlessly. "I am better +able than you to save her soul, and she owes me honor and +obedience--it is most unseemly to even mention the aspects you +have done in a bond which is a sacrament of holy church and should +be only approached in a spiritual frame of mind, not a carnal +one." + +"You are talking pure nonsense, sir," returned Count Roumovski +sternly. "If that were the case the wording of your English +marriage service would be different. First and foremost, marriage +is a contract between two people to live together in union of body +and to procreate children, which is the law of God and nature. Men +added arrangement and endowment of property, and the church added +spiritual sacrament. But God and nature invented the vital thing. +If it were not so, it would have been possible for the spiritually +minded, of which company you infer yourself to be, to live with a +woman on terms of brother and sister, and never let the senses +speak at all. There would then have been no necessity for the +ceremony of marriage for priests with your views." + +Eustace Medlicott shook with passion and emotion as he answered +furiously: "You would turn the question into one of whether a +priest should marry or not. It is a question which has agitated me +all my life, and which I have only lately been able to come to a +conclusion upon. I refuse to let you disturb me in it." + +"I had not thought of doing so," Count Roumovski returned +tranquilly. "You and your views and your destiny do not interest +me, I must own, except in so far as they interfere with myself and +the woman I love. You have proved yourself to be just a warped +atom of the great creation, incapable of anything but ignoble +narrowness. You cannot even examine your own emotions honestly and +probe their meaning or you would realize no man should marry, be +he priest or layman, if he looks upon the joys of physical love as +base and his succumbing to them a proof of the power of the beast +in himself. Because he then lives under continual degradation of +soul by acting against his conscience." + +Mr. Medlicott was now silent, almost choking with perturbation. So +Count Roumovski went on: + +"The wise man faces the facts of nature. Looks straight to find +God's meaning in them, and then tries to exalt and ennoble them to +their loftiest good. He does not, in his puny impotence, quarrel +with the all-powerful Creator and try to stamp out that with which +He thought fit to endow human beings." + +"Your words convey a flagrant denial of original sin, and I cannot +listen to such an argument," Mr. Medlicott flashed, his anger now +at white heat. "You would do away with a whole principle of the +Christian religion." + +"No; I would only do away with a faulty interpretation which man +grafted upon it," Count Roumovski answered. + +Then the two men glared straight into each other's eyes for a +moment, and Eustace Medlicott quailed beneath the magnetic force +of the Russian's blue ones--he turned away abruptly. He was too +intolerant of character and too disturbed now to permit himself to +hear more of these reasonings. He could but resort to protest and +let his wrath rise to assist him. + +"It cannot benefit either Miss Rawson or ourselves to continue +this unseemly controversy over her," he said in a raucous voice. +"I have told you I will give no freedom upon your request--and I +have warned you of my action. Now I shall go," and he took three +steps toward the door. + +But Count Roumovski's next words arrested him a moment; his tone +was no longer one of suave, detached calmness, but sharp and +decisive, and his bearing was instinct with strength and +determination. + +"Since we are coming to warnings," he said, "we drop the velvet +glove. The discourtesy to a lady conveyed in your words obliges me +to use my own way without further consulting you for assisting her +wishes. I will again thank you for coming up here and will have +the honor to wish you goodnight." With which he opened the door +politely and bowed his visitor out. + +And when he was alone Count Roumovski sat down by the open window +and puffed his cigar meditatively for some minutes, smiling +quietly to himself as he mused: + +"Poor, stupid fellow! If people could only be honest enough with +themselves to have a sensible point of view! It is all so simple +if they would get down to the reason of things without all this +false sentiment. Of what use to chain the body of a woman to one +man if her spirit is with another? Of what use to talk of offended +honor with high-sounding words when, if one were truthful, one +would own it was offended vanity? Of what use for this narrow, +foolish clergyman to protest and bombast and rave, underneath he +is actuated by mostly human motives in his desire to marry my +Stella? When will the world learn to be natural and see the truth? +Love of the soul is the divine part of the business, but it cannot +exist without love of the body. As well ask a man to live upon +bread without water." + +Then he moved to his writing table and composed rapidly a letter +to his beloved in which he recounted to her the result of the +interview and the threats of her late fiance, and the humor in +which he had quitted the room, and from that she might judge of +what she must reasonably expect. He advised her, as he was unaware +of how far the English authority of a guardian might go, to feign +some fatigue and keep her room next day and on no account whatever +to be persuaded to leave Rome or the hotel. He told her that in +the morning he would endeavor to see her uncle and aunt, but if +they refused this interview, he would write and ask formally for +her hand, and if his request were treated with scorn, then she +must be prepared to slip away with him to the Excelsior Hotel and +be consigned to the care of the Princess Urazov, his sister, who +would have arrived from Paris. The business part of the epistle +over, he allowed himself half a page of love sentences--which +caused Miss Rawson exquisite delight when she read them some +moments later. + +She had not gone to bed directly, she was too excited and full of +new emotions to be thinking of sleep, and when she heard Ivan's +gentle tap at her door she crept to it and whispered without +opening it: + +"Who is there?" + +A low voice answered: "Une lettre pour mademoiselle." And the +epistle was slipped into the little box for letters on the door. +She went back to her wide window and looked out on the darkness +after she had read it. She saw there would be trouble ahead, she +knew Eustace Medlicott's obstinate spirit very well, and also the +rigid convention of Aunt Caroline--but to what lengths they would +go she formulated no guess. + +It all seemed so secure and happy and calm now with such a man to +lean upon as Sasha Roumovski. Nothing need ruffle or frighten her +ever any more. And then she read the love sentences again and +thrilled and quivered there in the warm, soft night. Sasha +Roumovski's influence over her had grown so strong that not a +questioning speculation as to the step she meant to take any +longer entered her head. She felt she knew at last what love's +meaning truly was, and nothing else mattered in the world--which, +indeed, was the truth! + +Meanwhile, the Reverend Eustace Medlicott, burning with fury, had +stalked to his room, and there tried to think of what he had +better do. He feared it was too late to communicate with Canon and +Mrs. Ebley--they would have retired to bed, and Stella, also. Here +his thoughts were brought up with violent suddenness. Was she +quite safe? Heavens above! and he turned quite cold--foreigners +might be capable of any outrage--but presently he dismissed this +fear. People always locked their doors in hotels, and Stella, +though she had apparently shown herself sadly unworthy of his +regard, was a thoroughly well brought-up young woman, and would +not be likely to bandy words in the night with any young man. But +on the morrow he would insist upon their all leaving the hotel and +Rome itself--no more chances of her communicating with this +hateful Russian count should be risked. + +As the Ebley party had only arrived three days ago in the city, it +was clearly impossible that the affair could have gone far, and as +he had heard of their sightseeing and knew Mrs. Ebley would be +extremely unlikely to allow Stella out of her sight in any case, +he could not imagine how his fiancee and the Russian could have +found a chance to speak--and even a foreigner could not persuade a +woman into this course of action in half an hour's talk at the +Embassy! The whole thing must be the ravings of a madman, nothing +more, and Stella herself would be the first to explain that point +on the morrow. + +But even this comforting thought could not quite calm him--there +remained disquieting recollections of certain forcible arguments +he had been obliged to listen to against his will which had hit +some part of his inner consciousness usually impregnably protected +by his self-conceit. And it was an hour or two before he was able +to drink his barley water and retire to rest, which he felt he +badly needed after his long journey and uncomfortably exciting +evening. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +The sun was blazing gloriously next day, the whole air was full of +freshness and spring and youth. An ideal one for lovers, and not +at all the atmosphere for anger and strife. But these facts did +not enter into the consideration of three of the people, at least, +connected with our little comedy. + +Eustace Medlicott woke more full of wrath than he had been the +night before, and, the moment he was dressed, proceeded to make +havoc with the peace of the Reverend Canon and Mrs. Ebley. He sent +up an urgent summons that they would see him immediately. Having +no sitting-room, he suggested the reading-room, which would be +empty at this hour. + +The Aunt Caroline had experienced some misgivings herself at the +Embassy about her niece's absence with the foreign count, who had +risen to this distinctive appellation in her mind from "that +dreadful man," but she had felt it more prudent not to comment +upon her apprehensions to her niece. Eustace evidently had +discovered further cause of resentment and feminine curiosity +assisted her to dress with greater rapidity than usual. + +The pair entered the room with grave faces and took two +uncomfortable chairs. + +The Reverend Mr. Medlicott remained standing, and soon, from his +commanding position, let them hear his version of the hated +foreigner's communications. They were duly horrified and surprised +and then Mrs. Ebley bridled a little--after all, it was the +behavior of her own niece upon which aspersion was being cast. + +"I am certain, Eustace, the man must be mad--I assure you, Stella +has not been for an instant absent from me, except yesterday +morning she went to the Thermes Museum with Martha, whom you know +has proved by twenty-five years of faithful service that she can +be completely trusted, therefore the girl cannot have had any +opportunity of conversing with this stranger until last night. It +would be only fair to question her first--" + +"My wife is quite right," Canon Ebley agreed. "We should listen to +no more until Stella is here to defend herself. Let us send a +message for her to descend at once." + +He went and rang the bell as he spoke, and the summons to Miss +Rawson was dispatched. Then the three somewhat uncomfortably tried +to exchange platitudes upon indifferent subjects until the waiter +returned. + +Mademoiselle was very fatigued and was not yet up! Such an unheard +of thing petrified them all with astonishment. Stella to be still +in bed, at half past nine in the morning! The child must be ill!-- +or it was distinct rebellion. Mrs. Ebley prepared to go and +investigate matters when another waiter entered with a note for +Canon Ebley, and stood aside to receive the answer. + +"Dear, dear!" said that gentleman to his wife, "I have not my +glasses with me, I came down in such a hurry. Will you read it to +me?" + +But Mrs. Ebley was in a like plight, so they were obliged to +enlist the services of Eustace Medlicott. + +He knew the writing directly he glanced at it and every move of +his body stiffened with renewed anger. And it is to be feared he +said to himself, "it is from that cursed man." + +He read it aloud, and it was the briefest and most courteous note +asking for the honor of an interview at whatever time would be +most agreeable to Canon Ebley. The nature of the business to be +discussed at it was not stated. + +"I strongly advise you not to see the scoundrel," Mr. Medlicott +said vehemently. "It is far better that we should all leave Rome +immediately and avoid any chance of scandal." + +"Before we can decide anything," Mrs. Ebley said decisively, "I +must speak with my niece. If she is quite ignorant of this +foreigner's ravings, then there will be no necessity to alter our +trip--we can merely move to another hotel. The whole thing is most +unpleasant and irritating and has quite upset me." + +Stella, upstairs in her cosy bed, had meanwhile received another +note from her lover. Full of tenderness and encouragement, it made +her feel as bold as a young lioness and ready to brave any attack. +That her aunt had not been to see why she was not dressed already +was filling her with surprise, and after the waiter had brought +the message she guessed the reason why. + +A firm tap to the door presently and her Aunt Caroline's voice +saying sternly. "It is I, Stella, please let me in at once." + +Miss Rawson got out of bed, unlocked the door and bounded back +again, and a figure of dignified displeasure sailed into the room. + +"Are you ill, my dear?" Mrs. Ebley asked, in a stern voice. "It is +otherwise very strange that you should not be dressed at this +hour--it is a quarter to ten o'clock." + +"No, I am not exactly ill, Aunt Caroline," Stella answered gently, +"but I was very tired, and as I was making up my mind what I +should say in my letter to Eustace to break off my engagement--I +preferred not to come down until I had done so." + +The Aunt Caroline could not believe her ears. She was obliged to +sit down. Her emotion made her knees tremble. It was true then-- +something had been going on under her very eyes and she had not +perceived it--the deceit and perfidy of human nature had always +been a shock to her-- + +"You wish to break your engagement, Stella," she said, as soon as +she could steady her voice. "But you cannot possibly do so +scandalous a thing--and for what reason, pray?" + +"I find I do not love Eustace," Stella answered calmly, although +her heart now began to beat rapidly. "I know I never have loved +him; it was only because I thought it would please you and Uncle +Erasmus that I ever became engaged to him, and now that I know +what love is--I mean now that the time is getting nearer, I feel +that I cannot go through with it." + +"There is something underneath all this, Stella," Mrs. Ebley said +icily. "You cannot deceive me. You have been led astray, girl--it +is wiser to confess at once and I will try to pardon you." + +Stella's spirit rose--she raised her head proudly, then she +remembered her lover's counsel to have no arguments whatsoever, +and so she curbed her heated words and continued gently: + +"I have not been led astray, Aunt Caroline, and there is nothing +to pardon. I am twenty-one years old now and surely can judge for +myself whether or no I wish to marry a man--and I have decided I +do not intend to marry Eustace Medlicott. I almost feel I detest +him." + +Mrs. Ebley was petrified with anger and astonishment. + +"I am sorry to tell you I cannot believe you, Stella," she said, +"your fiance had a most unpleasant shock last night. The foreign +person, Count Roumovski, who was presented to us at the Embassy, +insulted him greatly, and told him that you had agreed to marry +him as soon as Eustace should set you free! I almost blush to +repeat to you this shocking story which we had considered the +ravings of a madman, but the time has come when we must have some +plain speaking." + +"It has indeed," Stella agreed, her wrath rising, then went on +respectfully, "but I must refuse to discuss anything about Count +Roumovski at present. Please believe me that I do not wish to +annoy you, dear Aunt Caroline. I only wish to do what is right, +and I know it is right to break off my engagement with Eustace +Medlicott." + +Mrs. Ebley felt her anger augmenting to boiling point, but +nothing, she could say had any effect upon her niece, who remained +extremely respectful and gentle, but perfectly firm. Mrs. Ebley +could not get her to tell her anything about her acquaintance with +this dreadful foreigner. She became silent after she had refused +point blank to discuss him. At last the baffled and exasperated +older lady got up and fired her last shot. + +"Words cannot express my pain and disgust at your conduct, +Stella," she said. "Putting aside all the awful suspicions I have +about this Russian, you will lay up for yourself a lifelong regret +in outraging all decency by refusing to marry that good and pure +young clergyman, Eustace Medlicott." + +"I have done nothing wrong, Aunt Caroline, please do not go away +angry with me," Stella pleaded. "When Count Roumovski asks Uncle +Erasmus' and your consent to his marrying me--then I will tell you +everything about him,--but now I do not wish to. Please forgive me +for causing you pain--we shall all be very happy soon, and surely +I have a right to my life like any other person." + +Mrs. Ebley would not bandy further words; their points of view +were too different. + +"I regret that I am obliged to request you to keep your room and +have no communication with anyone whatever until I can consult +with your uncle and Eustace as to what is the best thing to do +with you. That we shall leave Rome immediately you may be prepared +for." + +Stella here burst into tears. She had an affection for her aunt, +who had always been kind to her in a hard, cold way, and she was +deeply grieved at their estrangement, but there were forces in +life which she knew now mattered more than any aunts in the world. + +Mrs. Ebley did not relent at the sound of the sobbing, but left +the room, closing the door firmly after her. And a few minutes +afterward Martha was let in by the chambermaid without knocking +and sat down grimly by the window and began to knit. + +Then Stella's tears turned to resentment. To be insulted so! To +have a servant sent to watch her was more than she would bear. But +as she turned in bed she felt her lover's note touch her and like +a magic wand a thrill of comfort rushed through her. After all, he +would settle things for her--and meanwhile she would close her +eyes and pretend to sleep. So with her precious love letter +clasped tight in her hand under the clothes she turned her face to +the wall and shut her eyes. + +Meanwhile, Canon Ebley and the Reverend Eustace Medlicott were +spending a very disagreeable time in the reading-room. Relieved of +Mrs. Ebley's presence, Eustace had recounted more fully the +interview he had had with Sasha Roumovski the night before. He was +not a very accurate person and apt to color everything with his +own prejudice, so Canon Ebley did not obtain a very clear idea of +the Russian's arguments. They seemed to him to be very unorthodox +and carnal and reprehensible from all points. But it was evident +they were dealing with a clever and dangerous character and Stella +must be rescued from such a person's influence and married off to +her lawful fiance at once. + +"We could have the ceremony here, Eustace, in three weeks' time, +or we could go back to England immediately, for until our niece is +your wife I am sure her aunt and myself will not feel easy about +her." + +"Nor I either," Mr. Medlicott returned, and at that moment the +Aunt Caroline entered the room and gradually disclosed the awful +truth she had arrived at from Miss Rawson's admissions. + +"That dreadful foreigner must he told at once we refuse to have +any communication with him and Stella shall be kept locked in her +room until we can leave Rome," Mrs. Ebley said sternly. "I could +not have believed my own sister's child could have behaved so +disgracefully." + +"Dear, dear," said Canon Ebley, "but we must get at the facts of +when she has been able to see this Russian. It is impossible that +the present state of things could have arisen from merely last +night at the Embassy." + +At this stage of the proceedings, it being a public room, Count +Roumovski entered it serenely and, coming toward the group, made a +stiff bow to each in turn. + +"I believe you have received my letter, sir," he said, addressing +Canon Ebley, "but, as I have had no reply, I ventured to present +myself without further delay--" + +"We do not wish for any communication from you," Eustace Medlicott +hastened to announce before either of the others could speak. "I +have informed Canon and Mrs. Ebley of your disgraceful conduct and +that is sufficient. We shall discuss nothing further." + +"I was not addressing you, sir," Count Roumovski returned mildly. +"My business with you terminated last night." And he turned his +shoulders to the irate junior chaplain and looked Canon Ebley +straight in the face. "I am here to ask for the hand of your +niece, Miss Rawson, as she is now free from other engagements, and +with her full consent I desire to make her my wife." + +"Come, Erasmus," Mrs. Ebley said with icy dignity. "Let us go up +to our apartment and if this person annoys us further we can +complain to the manager of the hotel," then, with an annihilating +glance, she took her husband's arm and drew him toward the door. + +"As you will, madame," and the Russian gentleman bowed with +respectful serenity. "It would have been more sensible to have +taken my request otherwise, but it is, after all, quite +immaterial. I will wish you a good-day," and he bowed again as +Canon Ebley and his outraged spouse sailed from the room--and, +with an exclamation of suppressed fury, Eustace Medlicott followed +in their wake. + +Then Count Roumovski laughed softly to himself and, sitting down +at a writing-table, wrote a letter to his beloved. His whole plan +of life was simple and direct. He had done what he considered was +necessary in the affair, he had behaved with perfect openness and +honor in his demand, and if these people could not see the thing +from a common sense point of view, they were no longer to be +considered. He would take the law into his own hands. + +When he had finished his note he went straight up in the lift to +the corridor where Stella's room was and there saw in the distance +her raging and discomfited late betrothed evidently keeping watch +and ward. Count Roumovski did not hesitate a second; he advanced +to the door and knocked firmly on the panel, slipping his letter +through the little slide for such things before Mr. Medlicott +could bound forward and prevent him. + +"A letter for you, mademoiselle, from me, Sasha Roumovski," he +said in French in a loud enough voice for the occupant of the room +to hear, and then he stood still for a second, as both men heard +Stella jump from her bed and rush to the door to take the missive +before Martha from the place at the window could intercept it. + +"Do not dare to touch that, Martha," they heard her voice say +haughtily, and then she called out, "Sasha, I have it safe and I +will do exactly as you direct." + +Count Roumovski looked at Eustace Medlicott, who stood as a +spread-eagle in front of the door--and then, smiling, went calmly +on his way. + +The Reverend Mr. Medlicott shook with burning rage. He was being +made to look ridiculous and he was absolutely impotent to +retaliate in any way. He would bring scandal upon them all if +waiters and other guests saw him guarding Miss Rawson's actual +door, and he could not sit outside like a valet; the whole thing +was unspeakably maddening, and murderous thoughts flooded his +brain. + +"Give me that letter this minute, Stella," he said in an almost +inarticulate voice through the keyhole, he was so shaken with +passion. "Open the door and let Martha hand it to me. You are +disgracing us all." + +"It is you who are doing that, Eustace," Stella said from beyond +the panel, lifting the slide that her voice might be heard +distinctly. "You have no authority over me at all. I told Aunt +Caroline I did not intend to continue my engagement with you--but +even if I had not decided to break it off, this conduct of yours +would now be sufficient reason. How dare you all treat me as +though I were a naughty child or insane!" + +"Because you are both," Mr. Medlicott returned, "and must be +controlled and compelled into a proper behavior." + +Stella was silent--she would not be so undignified as to parley +further. She got back into bed, taking not the slightest notice of +the maid, and then proceeded to read her letter. + +Her lover had explained in it the situation and advised her to +dress at once, and then if menaced in any way to ring the bell. +Ivan would be waiting outside to obey her slightest orders, and to +warn his master if any fresh moves were made, so that when the +waiter or chambermaid came in answer to her summons she might be +sure of extra help at hand. Then she was to walk out and down into +the hall, where he, Sasha, would be watching for her and ready to +take her to the Excelsior Hotel, where that same evening would +arrive the Princess Urazov. "But if they do not molest you, +dearest," he wrote, "do not leave your room until seven o'clock, +because I wish my sister to be in the hall ready to receive you +that your family can see that I only desire to do everything +right." + +And as she finished reading, Stella got up and told Martha to +prepare her things. + +"I have no orders from Mrs. Ebley for that, Miss Stella," the +woman answered sullenly. "I do wonder what has come over +everybody. I never was in such an uncomfortable position in my +life." + +Stella made no answer, but proceeded to dress herself, and then +sat down to read again the letters she had received in the last +twenty-four hours. + +If her family, who knew her, could treat her in this abominable +way, when she had committed no fault except the very human one of +desiring to be the arbiter of her own fate, she surely owed no +further obedience to them. So she waited calmly for a fresh turn +of events. + +Her luncheon was brought up on a tray by the waiter, and some for +Martha also, and the two ate in silence, until Stella suddenly +burst into a merry peal of laughter, it was so grotesquely comic! +A grown up English girl in these days locked in her room with a +dragon duenna gaoler! + +"Martha, isn't it too funny, the whole thing!" she said, between +her gurgles. "Can't you laugh, you old goose! and to think how +sorry you will be, you were so horrid, when I am gone, because, of +course, you know you cannot keep me once I make up my mind to go." + +"Mrs. Ebley said I was to have no conversation with you, Miss," +Martha said, glumly, at which Stella laughed afresh. + +Meanwhile Count Roumovski had made all arrangements at the +Excelsior Hotel, and after lunch sat quietly in the hall awaiting +his beloved. Mrs. Ebley had felt too upset to go down to the +restaurant, so the two clergymen were there alone, and glanced +wrathfully at the imperturbable face of Count Roumovski seated at +his usual table, with his air of detached aloofness and perfect +calm. They, on the contrary, were so boiling with rage that they +knew not what they ate. + +After lunch it had been decided that the party should leave the +Grand and take the five o'clock train to Florence, and their +preparations were made. + +Mrs. Ebley had herself been laboriously packing so as not to take +Martha from her post, and orders were whispered to that faithful +Abigail through Stella's letter slide to pack Miss Rawson's things +at once. + +Stella watched these preparations serenely, and gave Martha +directions as to what to put on the top. Then when all was +finished and she had donned her hat, she rang the electric bell +for the waiter, and when he knocked at the door she calmly bade +him enter, which, of course, he was able to do with his key, and +she told him in French, which Martha did not understand, to send +the porters there immediately, and have her luggage consigned to +the care of the servant who would be waiting in the passage. This +person would give orders for its destination. The waiter bowed +obsequiously. Had he not been already heavily tipped by this +intelligent Ivan, and instructed instantly to obey the orders of +mademoiselle?" + +"It is much better I am before them," Stella thought to herself, +while Martha looked on in rageful bafflement. + +"The porters will come up and take the trunks outside, Martha," +Miss Rawson said. "You can give them what orders aunt told you +to." + +Such was her supreme confidence in the methods of her lover that +she felt sure once Ivan was apprised of the fact by the waiter +that the trunks would be consigned to him it would not matter what +Martha said to the porters! So she calmly sat down by the window +and folded her hands, while the elderly maid fumed with the +uncertainty of what she ought to do. And in a few moments the men +appeared, and smilingly seemed to understand the gestures and +English orders of Martha to take the trunks to the door of Madam +Ebley, number 325, round the corner of the passage and on the +opposite side. + +They nodded their heads wisely and carried the box out, shutting +the door after them, and then there was silence for a while; and +Stella half-dozed in her chair, it was so warm and peaceful by the +window and she had had so little sleep in the night. + +An hour passed, and at four o'clock the Aunt Caroline appeared. +Her face was grim. Had Stella been an outcast in deed and word she +could not have looked more disdainful. + +"You must come down with me now, Stella," she said, "we are ready +to go to the station. I will remain with you here until Martha +gets her hat." + +Stella rose to her feet and before the astonished lady could speak +more, she had swiftly passed her and gained the door, which she +threw open, and, like a fawn, rushed down the passage toward the +staircase entrance side of the hotel, and by the time her slowly +moving aunt had emerged from the room she had turned the corner +and was out of sight. + +Fortunately, she met no one on the stairs except one astonished +page, and arrived in the outer corridor breathless with excitement +and emotion. + +Count Roumovski saw her through the door of the hall, and hastened +to meet her. + +"There is not a moment to be lost," she said, as he got to her +side. + +"Go to the place you went before under the trees," he whispered +hurriedly in return. "The automobile is there, and I will follow +presently." So she went. + +Her knees would hardly support her, she trembled so, until she was +safe in the big blue motor, which moved off at once. For an awful +moment a hideous sense of terror overcame her, making her cold. +What lay in front of her? What new fate?--and then joy and life +came back. She was going to freedom and love-away from Exminster +and dreary duties--away from Eustace Medlicott, for ever! For, of +course, her uncle and aunt would come round in time, and they +could be happy again with her some day. + +When Mrs. Ebley had collected her scattered senses and followed +down the passage only to find Stella out of sight, she was obliged +to retrace her steps and rejoin her husband and Mr. Medlicott, who +were awaiting her at the lift on the other side, the restaurant +end, which was the one they were accustomed to descend by. + +"She ran away from me, Erasmus!" the agitated lady cried, "passed +me without a word, and I suppose has gone down the stairs--if we +hasten in the lift we shall catch her yet." + +But as they frantically rang the bell and the lift boy did not +come, Eustace Medlicott, with a most unsaintly exclamation, +hastened off by that staircase and arrived in the hall to see the +hated Russian calmly smoking his cigarette and reading an English +paper. + +He advanced upon him regardless of the numbers of people beginning +to assemble for tea. + +"What have you done with Miss Rawson?" he asked furiously. "She +has this moment run away from her aunt." + +"I have nothing to converse with you about," Count Roumovski +returned, with mild surprise. "And, as I see it is four o'clock, I +must wish you a good-day, as I have an appointment," with which he +rose quietly before the other could prevent him, and crossed the +broad path of carpet which separates the groups of chairs, and +there was seen to enter into earnest conversation with a Russian- +looking individual who had just entered. + +The Reverend Mr. Medlicott was nonplussed, and hurried into the +front vestibule, where he made rapid inquiries of the hall-porter. + +Yes--the young lady, he believed, had walked out of the hotel not +two minutes before. Monsieur would overtake her certainly, if he +hastened. And the frantic young man rushed from the door, through +the porte cochere, and so to the street, but all he saw in the far +distance was a retreating large, blue automobile--and this +conveyed among all the rest of the traffic no impression whatever. + +To search for Stella was hopeless; the only thing to do was to +return to the Ebleys, and with them go to the Embassy. There they +could, perhaps, get advice and help how to communicate with the +police. + +But what an ignominious position for a Bishop's junior chaplain to +be placed in, a humiliation in every way! + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +When Stella found the automobile drawing up at a strange hotel's +doors her tremors broke out afresh, until she saw the face of +Ivan, who, with the porter, came forward to meet her, saying +respectfully in French, would mademoiselle be pleased to mount +directly to the rooms reserved for the Princess Urazov? And soon, +without anyone questioning her, she found herself being taken up +in the lift, and finally ushered into a charming sitting-room full +of flowers. + +Here she sat down and trembled again. The wildest excitement +filled her veins. Would Sasha never come! She could not sit still, +she walked from bouquet to bouquet of roses and carnations, +sniffing the scent, and at last subsided into a big armchair, as +the waiters brought in some tea. + +He thought of everything for her, then--her lover. But oh, why did +he not come! + +She had finished her tea and had begun her restless pacing again, +when, with a gentle tap, the door opened, and Count Roumovski +appeared. + +"Sasha!" she cried, and advanced toward him like a frightened +child. + +His usually calm blue eyes were blazing with some emotion which +disturbed her greatly, she knew not why, and his voice seemed to +have taken a tone of extra deepness, as he said: + +"Stella! My little star! And so you are really here--and my own!" + +He put his strong hands down and held on to the back of a chair, +and simple as she was she knew very well that otherwise he would +have taken her into his arms, which was where she was longing to +be, if she had known. + +"Yes, I have come," she whispered, "I have left them all--for you. +Oh! when will your sister be here?" + +"Not until six o'clock, darling," he answered, while his eyes +melted upon her with passionate love. "There is an hour yet to +wait. I had hoped you would not have been forced to leave your +aunt's care until then." + +"Oh! I am delighted to have come away," Stella answered, regaining +some of her composure. "I was shut into my room and watched by a +servant. It was awful! But do--you know what has happened now? +since I left? Are they tearing about after me, or what?" + +Count Roumovski still held on to the back of the chair, and his +voice was still deep, as he said: + +"I believe they have gone to your Embassy in a band--and much good +may they get there. You are of age, you see. Besides, I have taken +care that no one at the Grand Hotel knows where we have gone, and +it will take them quite an hour or two to telephone about and find +out--and by that time my sister will have arrived, and we can defy +them." + +"Yes," said Stella, and then, nervously, "won't you have some +tea?" + +He sat down, still constrainedly and clasped his hands, and +womanlike, when she saw his agitation, her own lessened, and she +assumed command, while she asked almost archly if he took cream +and sugar. + +He liked neither, he said, and with the air of a little hostess +she handed him the cup. Then she smiled softly and stood quite +near him. + +He drew himself together and his face looked almost stern as he +took the tea, and over Stella there crept a chill--and the gay +little speech that had been bubbling to her lips died there, and a +silence fell upon them for a few moments. Then he put down his cup +and crossed to the stiff sofa where she was, and sat down beside +her. + +"Sweetheart," he said, looking deeply into her eyes, "it is a +colossal temptation, you know, to me to make love to you. But I am +not going to permit myself that happiness yet. I want to tell you +all about what we shall do presently, and see if it pleases you." +He did not even take her hand, and Stella felt rather aggrieved +and wounded. "I propose that as soon as the formalities can be got +through, and the wedding can take place, that we go straight to +Paris--because you will want to get all kinds of clothes. And it +will be such a delight to me to give you everything you wish for." + +Stella smiled shyly. It seemed suddenly to bring realities of +things before her with keen force. He would have the right to give +her everything in the world--this man whom she did not really +know, but whom she felt she loved very much. She clasped her hands +and a thrill ran through her. What, what did it all mean? The idea +of her marriage with Eustace Medlicott had always appeared as an +ugly vision, an end to everything, a curtain which was yet drawn +over a view which could only be all dusk and gray shadows, and +which she would rather not contemplate. But now the thought of +going away and beginning a new existence with Sasha Roumovski was +something so glorious and delicious that she quivered with joy at +any reference to it. + +Her little movement and the clasping of her hands affected him +profoundly. He, too, quivered, but with the stern effort to +control himself. It was part of his code of honor. Not the +slightest advantage must be taken of the situation while Stella +was alone and unchaperoned, although the very fact of their +propinquity and the knowledge of their solitude were extremely +exciting to him, who knew the meaning of every emotion. He drew a +little away from her, and said in a voice that sounded cold: + +"I have seen the consul this afternoon. It will take three weeks, +I am afraid, before we can be legally married here in Rome. It +seems an eternity to me." + +"Yes," agreed Stella, and suddenly looked down. She wished +intensely that he would caress her a little--although she was +unaware of the desire. She wondered vaguely--was it then very +wicked to make love, since Sasha, too, like Eustace, seemed as if +he were resisting something with all his strength? And +unconsciously she pouted her red underlip, and Count Roumovski +moved convulsively. + +"My sister's room is next to this," he said, "and yours is beyond. +I have had only roses put there, because you are like a sweet June +rose." + +"Am I?" said Miss Rawson, and raised her head. She had grown +extremely excited and disappointed, and, she knew not what, only +that she did not like this new lover of hers to be sitting there +constrained and aloof, talking in a stiff voice unlike his usual +easy grace. It was perfectly ridiculous to have run away with some +one with whom she was passionately in love, if he were going to +remain as cold as ice! + +She got up and took a rose from a vase and fastened it in her +dress. The whole movement and action had the unconscious coquetry +of a woman's methods to gain her end. Totally unaccustomed as +Stella was to all artifices, instinct was her teacher. + +Sasha Roumovski rose suddenly. + +"Come and sit here beside me again, heart of mine," he commanded +with imperious love, and indicated the stiff Louis XIV sofa. "I +must explain everything to you, it would seem." + +Stella had never heard this tone in his voice before; it caused +her strange delight, and she shyly took her seat at one end of the +sofa, and then, as he flung himself down beside her, she looked up +at him. + +"What must you explain?" she asked. + +"First, that I love you madly, that it is sickening temptation to +be with you now every instant without holding you in my arms," and +his voice trembled, while his blue eyes glowed. "That I do not +know how to resist the wild passion which is overcoming me. I want +to kiss you so terribly, more than I have ever wanted anything in +my life." + +"We-ll?" said Stella, with a quiver of exquisite joy. "And--" she +had almost spoken her thought of, "Why do you not do so, then?"-- +but the burning passion she read in his made her drop her eyes. +This was too much for him. He understood perfectly, and, with a +little cry, he drew her to him, and his lips had almost touched +her red, young, pouting lips when he suddenly controlled himself +and put her from him. + +"No, sweetheart," he said hoarsely, "you would never respect me +any more if I took advantage of your tenderness now. As soon--as +soon as I really may, I will teach you every shade of love and its +meanings. I will kiss those lips and unloosen that hair; I will +suffocate you with caresses and make you thrill as I shall thrill +until we both forget everything in the intoxication of bliss," and +he half-closed his eyes, and his face grew pale again with +suppressed emotion. + +"Oh, I do not understand at all," Stella said, in a disappointed +and perplexed voice. "Since we are going to be married, why would +it be so very wrong for you to kiss me? I--I--" her small rueful +face, with its sweet childlike irregular curves, looked almost +pathetically comic, and Sasha leaned forward and covered his eyes +with his hands. And then he mastered himself and laughed softly. + +"Oh, you adorable one!" he said. "It is not wrong--not the least +wrong. Only presently, when you do understand, you will realize +how very much I loved you to-day." + +But Stella was still pouting--and got up restlessly and went to +the window. + +"What can they do when they get to the Embassy?" she asked. "Could +they really take me back if they found me by telephoning round?" + +"I do not think so--if you are past twenty-one." + +"I was twenty-one in April. I am not a bit afraid of them, but I +do not want to have any row." + +"When my sister has arrived you must write to your aunt, and tell +where you are and what are your intentions, then all will be +finished." + +"Oh, I wish she would come, don't you?" Stella said. + +"More than I can say, darling," he answered, fervently. "You will +not, I hope, find me so incomprehensible then." + +He walked about the room once or twice, and at last paused in +front of her. + +"Stella," he whispered, while his eyes blazed again, "I cannot +bear it, little sweetheart, to stay all alone with you here. Will +you forgive me, if I leave you until Anastasia has arrived? Go and +rest in your room, darling, and I will go to the station to meet +her. Ivan will remain outside your door and you will be quite +safe." + +But Stella put out her hands like a frightened baby. + +"Oh. must you leave me?" she cried, pettishly. "You are very +cruel! You make me almost wish I had not come." + +From having swum with love and passion his eyes suddenly gave +forth a flash of steel, and his voice was like ice as he answered: + +"If that is so, mademoiselle, it is not too late. I would not +exact any unwilling sacrifice. Shall I take you back again?" + +And then Stella's childishness melted and fell from her, and she +became a real woman as she looked into his stern face. + +"No--" she said, "I will not go back. I am sorry I was so +uncontrolled, but I am nervous--and I do not know exactly what I +am--Sasha, please take care of me," and she held out her hands +with a piteous gesture of asking for his protection, and moved +beyond all power of further control he folded her in his arms. + +"My darling, my darling!" he murmured, frantically kissing her +hair. But his iron will reasserted itself in a few seconds, and +while he still held her he said with more calm: + +"Little star, you must never speak to me like that again, as you +did just now, I mean. It was unreasonable and not kind, if you but +knew! And I have a very arrogant temper, I fear, although I am +nearly master of it, and shall be quite in time, I hope. We might +have parted then and spoilt both our lives. Won't you believe me +that I love--I adore you!" he went on tenderly. "I am madly +longing to be for you the most passionate lover a woman ever had. +It is only for your sake and for honor and our future happiness +that I restrain myself now. You see I am not an Englishman who can +accept half-measures. Do not make it impossible for me, sweet +love!" + +His voice was almost a sob in its deep notes of pleading, and +Stella was touched. + +"Oh! you are so dear and great," she answered fondly. "I am +perhaps very wicked to have tempted you. If it would be wrong for +you to kiss me, which I cannot understand, it is--oh, it is +because I love you like that, too!" + +At this ingenuous admission, passion nearly overcame him again, +and he held her so tightly it seemed as if he must crush out her +very breath. Then he put her from him and walked toward the door. + +"I dare not stay another second," he said, in a strangled voice. +"Ivan will guard your room, and my sister will come to you soon. +Do as I tell you, beloved one, and then all will be well." + +With which he opened the door, and left her standing by the sofa +quivering with a strange joy and perplexity--and some other wild +emotion of which she had not dreamed. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +It seemed an endless time the hour that she waited in her room, +and then a knock came to the door, and Ivan's voice saying his +master desired her presence in the sitting-room at once, and she +hurriedly went there to find Count Roumovski standing by the +mantelpiece looking very grave. + +"Stella," he said, "there has been an accident to the train my +sister was to have arrived by--it is not serious, but she cannot +be here now until the early morning perhaps--unless I send the +automobile to Viterbo for her. The line is blocked by a broken- +down goods train which caused the disaster," he paused a moment, +and Stella said, "Well?" rather anxiously. + +"It will be impossible for us to remain here," he continued, +"because it may be that your relations, aided by the Embassy, will +have traced us before then, and if they should come upon us alone +together, nothing that I could say or prove could keep the +situation from looking compromising,"--he now spoke with his old +calm, and Stella felt her confidence reviving. He would certainly +arrange what was best for them, she could rely upon that. + +"What must we do then?" she asked gently, while she put her head +on the sleeve of his coat. + +"I will wrap you up in the fur cloak, darling," he said, "and you +must come in the automobile with me to meet Anastasia. Your family +must not find you again until your are in my sister's company. We +ought to start at once." + +It spoke eloquently for the impression which he had been able to +create in Stella's imagination of his integrity and reliability, +for the thought never entered her brain that it was a most unusual +and even hazardous undertaking to start out into the night in a +foreign land with a stranger she had not yet known for a week. But +that was the remarkable thing about his personality; it conveyed +always an atmosphere of trust and confidence. + +It was not long before Miss Rawson was ready, wrapped in the long +gray cloak she had worn before, and with the veil tied over her +hat, and was descending in the lift alone with Ivan--her lover +having gone on by the stairs. + +Their departure was managed with intelligence. Stella and the +servant simply walking out of the hotel and down the street to +where the car waited, and then presently Count Roumovski joined +them, and they started. + +"Ivan will remain behind to answer any questions if the reverend +clergyman and your aunt do come," he said, when they were seated +in the car in the settling sunlight. "And now, sweetheart, we can +enjoy our drive." + +Stella felt deliciously excited, all the exultation of adventure +thrilling her, and the joy of her lover's presence. She cared not +where they were going, it was all heaven. + +"We shall stop at a little restaurant for some dinner," he said, +"it will be rather bad, but we must not mind, it would not have +been wise to risk any well-known place," and soon they drew up at +a small cafe on the outskirts of Rome, where there were a few +people already seated at little tables under the trees. They were +all Italians, and took no notice of the Russian and his lady. + +It was the greatest amusement to them both, this primitive place, +and to be all alone ordering their first meal together, and Sasha +Roumovski exerted himself to charm and please her. He had +recovered complete mastery of himself, it would seem, and his +manner, while tenderly devoted, had an air of proprietorship which +affected Stella exceedingly. + +They spent an enchanting half hour, as gay as two children, with +all the exquisite under-current of love in their talk; and then +they got into the motor again. + +"Let us have it open," Count Roumovski said. "The evening drive +will be divine." + +And Stella agreed. + +The road to Viterbo is far from good, one of those splendid routes +which lead from Rome which ought to be so perfect and in reality +are a mass of ruts and pitfalls for the unwary. The jolting of the +car constantly threw Stella almost into her lover's arms, who was +sitting as aloof as possible. He had gradually become nearly +silent, and sat there holding her hand under the rug, using the +whole of his strong will to suppress his rising emotion. + +The beautiful colors of the lights of evening over the Campagna; +the sense of the spring time and the knowledge that she belonged +to him heart and body and soul were madly intoxicating as they +rushed through the air. He dared not let himself caress her +gently, which he might have permitted himself to do, and he held +her little hand so tightly it was almost pain to her. + +As for Stella, she was profoundly in love. Her whole nature seemed +to be awaking and blooming with a new grace and meaning. Her soft +eyes, which glanced at him in the glowing dusk, swam with +tenderness and unconscious passion, and once she let her head rest +upon his shoulder, when a violent jerk threw her toward him, and +at last he encircled her with his arm and there they sat trembling +together, she with she knew not what, and he very well knowing, +and fighting with temptation. + +Thus they spent an hour in a bliss that was growing to agony for +him, and then it grew perfectly dark, and the stars came out in +myriads in the deep blue sky, and on in front of them the +headlights of the motor made a flaming path in the night. + +And all this while he had resisted his strong desires, and never +even kissed her. + +At last human endurance came to an end, and he said to her almost +fiercely: + +"Stella, my beloved one, I cannot bear this, I can no longer +answer for myself. I shall settle you comfortably among the furs +where you must try to sleep, and I shall go outside with the +chauffeur. If I were to stay--" + +And something in the tone of his voice and in his eyes made her at +last have some dim, incomprehensible fear, and yet exaltation, and +so she did not try to dissuade him, and soon was alone endeavoring +to collect her thoughts and understand the situation. + +Thus eventually they reached Viterbo, and drew up at the station +door, when Count Roumovski seemed to have regained his usual calm +as he helped her out with tender solicitude. The passengers, they +learned, were still in the train, half a mile up the line, waiting +until it was cleared to go on to Rome. + +At last, after generous greasing of palms, permission was given +for Count Roumovski to walk on and find his sister. And Stella was +put back into the motor to await their coming. + +Her heart began to beat violently. What would she be like, this +future sister-in-law? She must be very fond of Sasha to have come +from Paris at a moment's notice like this, to do his bidding. It +seemed a long time before she heard voices, and saw in the dim +light two figures advancing from the station entrance, and then +Count Roumovski opened the door of the automobile, and Stella +started forward to get out. + +"Anastasia, this is my Stella," he said, in his deep voice. "You +cannot see her plainly, but I tell you she is the sweetest little +lady in the world, and you are to hasten to love each other as +much as I love you both." + +Then in the half dark Stella stepped down and found herself +embraced by a tall woman, while a voice as deep for a feminine one +as Count Roumovski's was for a man whispered kind, nice things in +the fluent English which brother and sister both used. And a +feeling of warmth and security and happiness came over the poor +child, to be in a haven of rest at last. + +"Now we shall all pack in and get to Rome before dawn," the +princess said. "Sasha assures me the automobile will be faster +than the train." + +So it was arranged, and, with Stella between them, the two +Russians sat in the commodious back seat, and this time Count +Roumovski allowed himself to encircle his beloved with his arm-- +and very often surreptitiously kissed her little ear and that +delicious little curl of hair in her neck. She had taken off her +hat, that its brim might not hit the princess, and had only the +soft veil wound round her head, which loosened itself +conveniently. This drive back to Rome was a time of pure +enchantment to them both. And when the first streaks of dawn were +coloring the sky they arrived at the door of the Excelsior Hotel, +where Ivan had supper ordered and awaiting them. + +The princess proved to be a handsome woman when they got into the +light, with the same short face and wide eyes as her brother. +Stella and she made immediate friends, and before they parted to +try and sleep the princess said: + +"Stella, that my brother loves you proves that you must be a very +dear girl, that is what made me come from Paris at his +instantaneous bidding. He is the most splendid character in the +world, only don't cross his wishes. You will find it is no use, +for one thing," and she laughed her deep laugh. "He always knows +best." + +"I am sure he does," said Stella shyly. "I felt that at once, and +so I did not hesitate." + +Next morning, when the three were seated at a merry early +breakfast in the sitting-room discussing what should be said in +Stella's letter to her Aunt Caroline, a loud knock came to the +door, and, without waiting for a response, Canon Ebley and +Stella's cousin, Mr. Deanwood, entered the room. + +The princess rose with dignity, draping her silk morning wrapper +round her like a statue, and Stella stepped forward with +outstretched hand. + +"Oh, Uncle Erasmus," she said gaily, before any of the party could +speak, "I am so glad to see you. I was just going to write to Aunt +Caroline to tell her where I am, quite safe, in case she was +worried about me. Let me introduce you to my future sister-in-law, +Princess Urazov, with whom I am staying. My fiance, Count +Roumovski, you have met before." + +Afterwards she often wondered how this emancipated spirit of +daring had ever come to her. But she felt so joyous, so full of +love and happiness, that it seemed that she could not be afraid or +annoyed with anyone in the world. + +"Stella, you are a shameless girl," Canon Ebley retorted in a +horrified voice. "I refuse to admit that you are engaged to this +gentleman. Your whole conduct has been a scandalous series of +deceptions and you must be ready to return at once with your aunt +and your affianced husband. They are following us here now." + +Then Stella used a weapon that she had more than once found +effectual with her uncle. She flung herself into his arms and +clasped him round the neck. He was a short, portly man, and from +this position she began to cajole him--while Count Roumovski +looked on with amused calm, and his sister, following his lead, +remained unmoved also. + +Mr. Deanwood was the only restless person; he felt thoroughly +uncomfortable and bored to death. He hated having been dragged +into this family quarrel, and secretly sympathized with his cousin +in her revolt at the thought of being Eustace Medlicott's wife. + +"Oh, dear Uncle Erasmus!" Stella purred, from the highly perturbed +clergyman's neck, where she was burrowing her sweet head, rubbing +her peach-like cheek against his whiskered cheek. "Don't say those +dreadful things, I have not deceived anybody, I have known Count +Roumovski since the day after we came to Rome, and--and--I love +him very much, and you know I always thought Eustace a bore, and +you must agree it is wicked to marry and not to love, so it must +be good to, oh!--well, to marry the person you do love. What have +you to say against it?" + +Canon Ebley tried to unclasp her arms from round his neck. He was +terribly upset. To be sure, the girl was very dear to him, and had +always been so sweet a niece, a truthful, obedient child from +early infancy. Caroline had perhaps been a little hard--he had +better hear the facts. + +"Dear me, dear me," he blurted out. "Well, well, tell me +everything about the case, and, though I cannot consent to +anything, I must do you the justice of hearing your side." + +"Won't you sit down here, sir?" Princess Urazov said, "and let my +brother and your niece tell you their story. Mr. Deanwood, we met +at Buda-Pesth two years ago--" and she turned to the young man and +indicated that he should join her in the far window embrasure, +which he did with alacrity, and from there they heard, +interpolated in their personal conversation, scraps of the +arguments going on between the three. + +Stella, assisted by her lover, told of her first talk and her +drive, and their rapidly ripening affection for each other, and +the girl looked so happy and so pleading. Then Count Roumovski +took up the thread. He explained his position, and how his view of +life had always been direct in its endeavor to see the truth and +the meaning of things, and how to him love was the only possible +reason in ethical morality for any marriage between two people. + +"It is merely a great degradation, otherwise, sir," he said +earnestly. + +But here Canon Ebley was heard to protest that he could not +understand a love which had sprung into being with such violence +in the space of three days, and he felt very suspicious of its +durability. + +"Oh, Uncle Erasmus, how can you say that!" Stella interrupted him. +"Why, you have often said that you yourself fell in love with Aunt +Caroline from the moment your eye lighted upon her in church--in +church, remember, you old darling!" and she nestled up against his +shoulder again. Caresses like these she was always obliged to +suppress in her austere aunt's presence; they were only to be +indulged in upon great occasions, and to gain an important end, +she knew! So the rogue smiled archly as she went on. "You could +hardly wait until you were introduced at the garden party the next +day, and Aunt Caroline said you proposed to her before the end of +the week!" + +"Come, come," the cornered uncle growled, bridling, but a smile +grew in his kindly eyes. + +"There!" exclaimed Miss Rawson, triumphantly. "You cannot have +another thing to say, except that you consent and wish us +happiness." + +"It is true you are of age, Stella," Canon Ebley allowed, "and if +you like to take the law into your own hands, we cannot legally +prevent you, as I have tried to explain this morning to your aunt +and Eustace, but it is all very shocking and unusual, and very +disturbing. You must remember, Count Roumovski is a foreigner, +and we English people are prejudiced. I--fear for your happiness, +my dear child!" + +"You do not pay me a high compliment, sir," Count Roumovski said, +but without resentment. "Time, however, will prove whether I can +take care of your niece or no. Do you feel any fear for yourself, +Stella?" + +"Not in the least," Miss Rawson said, and they clasped fond hands. +"I would go away with you, Sasha, to the ends of the earth now at +once, and never ask you a single question. And I should certainly +die if I were forced to go back to Eustace Medlicott." + +"Then I suppose there is nothing more to be said," Canon Ebley +stammered, upon which Stella again flung herself into his arms. + +"Indeed, sir--I give you my word that you will not regret this +decision," Count Roumovski said gravely. "I believe your niece and +I were made for one another." + +"We will hope so," returned Canon Ebley, who could no longer keep +up a stern resistance in the face of perfectly logical arguments +and a witch of a girl purring over him and patting his cheek. He +would have given in with a fair grace but for the awful knowledge +that his stern spouse and the irate late fiance would arrive at +any moment, and reproach him for his want of strength. + +At this juncture of the affair, Princess Urazov came forward, and +said with a gracious smile: + +"Now I think you and I should agree with each other, sir; I had +just as great cause for surprise as you had at the news of my +brother's engagement to your niece, but I know and love him so +well that I did not question the wisdom of his choice. And as you +know and love your niece, can we not agree to try and make them +happy together by giving them our blessing? After all, it is no +crime for two young people to love each other!" and she put out +her hands, which Canon Ebley, who was, after all, longing for +peace, was obliged to take. Then with a charm and dignity that he +was forced to admire, she drew him to the pair and placed his hand +on their clasped hands, and her own over it. + +"See," she said, "Sasha and Stella, we both wish you all happiness +and joy--is it not so?" + +And Canon Ebley was constrained to murmur, "Yes." + +At this instant the door was opened violently, and the Aunt +Caroline followed by the Reverend Eustace Medlicott burst into the +room, brushing aside the frightened waiter, who would have +prevented them; then they stopped dead short, petrified with +astonishment, and before she could prevent herself, Stella had +pealed a silvery laugh, while she rushed forward and +affectionately kissed her aunt. + +"Dear Aunt Caroline," she said. "Uncle Erasmus understands quite, +and has given us his blessing, so won't you, too?" + +But Mrs. Ebley was made of sterner stuff--she was horribly +shocked, her feelings had been bruised in their tenderest parts, +the laws of convention had been ruthlessly broken by her niece, +and forgiveness was not for her. + +She drew herself up with disgusted hauteur, while the Rev. Mr. +Medlicott stood there glaring at the party too speechless with +humiliation and pain to utter a word. + +"Erasmus," Mrs. Ebley said with scathing contempt. "I do not know +how you have let yourself countenance this disgraceful scene, but +I shall not do so. And if my niece still persists in bringing +shame upon us all I must beg you to conduct me back to our hotel-- +I wash my hands of her and shall no longer own her as my sister's +child, come" + +At this, Stella gave a pitiful little cry and turned tender, +beseeching eyes to her lover, and the sound of her voice touched +that chord which was fine in Eustace Medlicott's heart. He seemed +suddenly to see things as they were, and to realize that love had +indeed come to his betrothed, though not for him, so he rose above +the pain this conviction caused him and let justice have sway. + +He strode forward and joined the group. + +"You must not say that, Mrs. Ebley," he said, "since your husband +seems satisfied, there must have been some proper explanation +made. You should hear them first. But I, for my part, wish to +state now, in the presence of everyone, that if Miss Rawson can +assure me she has made this choice of her own free will, and +because she loves this gentleman--" here there was a break in the +tones--"I can have nothing further to say and will give her back +her freedom and make my retreat." + +"Oh, Eustace, thank you," said Stella, gratefully holding out her +hand. "I knew I could eventually count upon your goodness. I do +indeed love Count Roumovski, and why should not we all be happy +together? You will feel with me, I am sure, that our engagement +was always a mistake and now won't you be friends?" + +She still held out her timid hand, and Mr. Medlicott took it at +last and wringing it silently turned and drew toward the door, +making his exit. + +Silence fell upon the company until he had gone and then Count +Roumovski whispered in his harassed little fiancee's ear: + +"Never mind his point of view, darling--yonder goes an English +gentleman, and since I have gained my star and he has lost his, he +has my deepest sympathy." + +Then everyone seemed to talk at once, and the Princess Urazov at +last appeared to be in some degree appeasing Mrs. Ebley. + +There is very little more to tell of this comedy of a spring +holiday in Rome. It ended with a quiet wedding and two young +people going off together in the blue automobile. + +And when Count Roumovski clasped his newly made bride in his arms, +he whispered with a tenderly sly smile: + +"At last, sweetheart, there are no barriers, and I can show you +that I am at least not as cold as ice!" + +THE END + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Point of View, by Elinor Glyn + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POINT OF VIEW *** + +This file should be named tpntv10.txt or tpntv10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, tpntv11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, tpntv10a.txt + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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