United States or Faroe Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I haven't been to Casa Rolandi, lest I should meet him. It was better to see you first." "You were not prepared for this news?" "His failure to return made me speculate, of course. I suppose they have met several times at Mrs. Baske's?" "That at once occurred to me, but Cecily assures me that is not so. There is a mystery. I have no idea how they saw each other privately at Pompeii on Monday.
By a sudden revulsion of mind, Mallard became aware that in the long fit of brooding just gone by he had not been occupied with Cecily at all. Busying his thoughts with Mrs. Baske, he had slipped into a train of meditation already begun on the evening in question, after the drive with her. What was Mrs. Baske's true history?
How had she come to marry the man of whom Elgar's phrases had produced such a hateful image? What was the state, in very deed, of her mind at present? What awaited her in the future? It was curious that Mrs. Baske's face was much more recoverable by his mind's eye than Cecily's. In fact, to see Miriam cost him no effort at all; equally at will, he heard the sound of her voice.
Lessingham, turning to the window, expressed her admiration of the view it afforded. "I think it is still better from Mrs. Baske's sitting-room," said Eleanor, who had been watching Cecily, and thought that she might be glad of an opportunity of private talk with Miriam. And Cecily at once availed herself of the suggestion. "Would you let me see it, Miriam?" she asked. "If it is not troublesome "
Miriam confined herself to questioning; she made no verbal comments. But occasionally she averted her face with a haughty smile. Mrs. Welland, the once-dreaded rival, had established an unassailable supremacy. From her, according to Mrs. Fletcher, proceeded most of the scandalous suggestions which had attached themselves to Mrs. Baske's name.
"These two from London are his, I should imagine. This for you is from Mrs. Lessingham, isn't it?" "Yes; I think this is the news, at last," said Eleanor, inspecting Mrs. Baske's letter, not without feminine emotion. "I'll take it to her. Shall you go over with the other?" "He'll be here after dinner; the likelihood is that I shouldn't find him."
"The San Carlo?" she asked inquiringly. "The opera." Mallard was in a strange mood. Whenever he looked ahead at Cecily, he had a miserable longing which crushed his heart down, down; in struggling against this, he felt that Mrs. Baske's proximity was an aid, but that it would be still more so if he could move her to any unusual self-revelation.
"I suppose," said Mallard, in the undertone of reflection, "the pagan associations of Naples are a great obstacle to Mrs. Baske's enjoyment of the scenery." "She admits that." "By-the-bye, what are likely to be the relations between her and Miss Doran?" "I have wondered. They seem to keep on terms of easy correspondence. But doesn't Cecily herself throw any light on that point?"
Then her hand trembled so much that she was obliged to pause. At the same moment there sounded a tap at the door, and, on Mrs. Baske's giving permission, a lady entered. This was Mrs. Spence, a cousin of the young widow; she and her husband had an apartment here in the Villa Sannazaro, and were able to devote certain rooms to the convenience of their relative during her stay at Naples.
Word Of The Day