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Caroline arose and absolutely fled from the man she loved. He did not attempt to detain her, but walked away slowly, half offended but more resolved on making her his wife than ever. Not far from the glen, loitering up and down a secluded forest-path, Caroline met Lady Clara, and, by her side, the young man whom she had met that night at Olympia's supper party.
On the morning when Caroline's illness was made public, some young men were seated in the window of a club-house, and one of them threw down the Times with an impatient movement. "So we are not to have this new singer again to-morrow night or the next," he said. "Here is Olympia's name in the bills, while the other is ill with something on the brain or nerves."
Some say she is an American; others, that she is Olympia's own daughter, to whom all names are alike; but, then, where was the woman Olympia born? Now and then a word drops from the pretty lips which is purely American; but then she has been all over the world, and has gathered something from all nations, so that one can never make a true guess about her."
In any event, we could lessen the hardships of prison life." "Oh, you would have to minister to a mind diseased, if such a fate should befall me!" Vincent cried, sentimentally; with a glance into Olympia's eyes, which met his at the moment. Both blushed; and Olympia, to relieve the embarrassment, said, decisively: "Mamma is right.
Besides, she had nothing absolutely wrong to tell, for some of the first young noblemen in England came to Olympia's little entertainments; and when Eliza heard their names announced she had not a word to say, having lived long enough to attain a reverence for titles.
She was trembling still, and every few moments a burst of bitter sobs broke from her. Three women were standing by her own maid, Eliza, upon whose sympathetic face tears were trembling; Margaret, her sister; and, most conspicuous of all, Olympia's French maid, who bent over the poor girl, with a bottle of perfume in each hand, with which she insisted on assuaging the unhappy girl's anguish.
The founder of the town was a man of taste; and he set a fashion which, being followed for a few years in this country of abundant rains, has given Olympia's streets shade trees by the hundred which would make it famous were it an Eastern place.
What was he, what could he ever be, to her? A nobleman of the realm, and the Olympia's daughter! He came down the bank and seated himself by her side. "Caroline, have you no welcome to give me?" She looked at him with a gleam of excitement in the sadness of her eyes. "You know who I am, and I, alas! know that you are Lord Hilton," she said, with a touch of pathetic pride. "How can I welcome you?"
"I know what the disease is your mother is suffering from." She couldn't resist prolonging the consequence of her mission. All women have the dramatic instinct. All love to intensify the unexpected. But Olympia's listless manner and touching desolation spurred her on.
When Dora had duly repented of her silly suggestion, Aunt Olympia's natural curiosity to hear everything prevailed over her momentary caprice of ill-humor, and she was permitted to recite the wedding in all its details even to Mrs. Musgrave's silk gown and the pretty little bridesmaids' dresses.
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