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Updated: May 31, 2025
He presently left Steinmetz and the prince engaged in a controversy with the countess as to a meeting-place at the luncheon-hour. Maggie and Catrina were at the piano. Etta was looking at a book of photographs. "A charming house, princess," said De Chauxville, in a voice that all could hear while the music happened to be soft. But Catrina's music was more remarkable for strength than for softness.
You can leave to-night and go to America." Stépan Lanovitch raised his head and looked hard into Paul's face. "You wish it?" "I think," answered Paul steadily, "that it is for Catrina's happiness." Then Lanovitch rose up and took Paul's hand in his work-stained grip. "Go, my son! It will be a great happiness to me. I will wait here," he said. Paul went straight to the door.
It was in this that Claude de Chauxville proposed to assist her. "It is preposterous that people should make others suffer and go unpunished," he said, intent on his noble purpose. Catrina's eyelids flickered, but she made no answer. The soreness of her heart had not taken the form of a definite revenge as yet. Her love for Paul was still love, but it was perilously near to hatred.
She had grown up with it, and as it was beyond doubt, so was it outside discussion. All her femininity seemed to be concentrated, all her vanity centred, on her hair. It was her one pride, perhaps her one hope. Women have been loved for their voices. Catrina's voice was musical enough, but it was deep and strong. It was passionate, tender if she wished, fascinating; but it was not lovable.
Whenever he thought that Catrina's hatred needed stimulation he mentioned Etta's name. "There are other questions in my mind," he went on, "some of which you can answer, mademoiselle, if you care to." Catrina's face expressed no great willingness to oblige. "The Charity League," said De Chauxville, looking at her keenly; "I have always had a feeling of curiosity respecting it.
With the slightest encouragement, Catrina would have told her companion all that had passed. The sympathy between women is so strong that there is usually only one man who is safe from discussion. In Catrina's case that one man was not Claude de Chauxville. But Maggie Delafield was of different material from this impressionable, impulsive Russian girl.
Something like a smile wavered for a moment beneath his waxed mustache. Catrina's fingers, supple and strong, struck in great chords the air of a gloomy march from the half-forgotten muse of some monastic composer. While she played, Claude de Chauxville proceeded with his delicate touch to play on the hidden chords of an untamed heart. "A man's privilege," he repeated musingly.
Catrina came forward and exchanged a formal bow with Etta, who took in her plainness and the faults of her dress at one contemptuous glance. She smiled with the perfect pity of a good figure for no figure at all. Paul was shaking hands with the countess. When he took Catrina's hand her fingers were icy, and twitched nervously within his grasp. The countess was already babbling to Etta in French.
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