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"He knew that, as you tell me; and, knowing it, he asked Tallie; hoping that with her installed for a long visit my stay might be prevented. Do not let us hide from each other, my Karen. We have hidden too long and it is the beginning of the end if we may not say to each other what we see." Sitting with downcast eyes, Karen was silent, struggling perhaps with new realisations.
Talcott a vista of memories ending with the picture of a child in the same attitude, a child as idle and as autocratic. "Thank you, Tallie," Madame von Marwitz said, wearily but kindly, when the stockings were changed. Mrs. Talcott drew a chair in front of the sofa, seated herself and clasped her hands at her waist. "I've come for a talk, Mercedes," she said.
"That is well," said Madame von Marwitz with quiet satisfaction. "That is well. I cannot think of Tallie as ill. She is never ill. It is perhaps the peaceful, happy life she leads povera that preserves her. And the air, the wonderful air of our Cornwall. I fixed on Cornwall for the sake of Tallie, in great part; I sought for a truly halcyon spot where that faithful one might end her days in joy.
"You are sitting here, alone, my child?" she said, laying her hand, but for a moment only, on Karen's shoulder. Karen had resumed her seat, and Tante moved away at once to take up a vase of flowers from the mantelpiece, smell the flowers, and set it back. "Where is Tallie?" "Still in the garden, I think. I worked with her this morning and before tea. Since tea I have had a walk."
"A rabbit, you think? And a rabbit, too, is prolific. No; for the rabbit has not the sharpness, not the pointed nose, the anxious, eager look is not so the mother, indeed. Rat it is, my Karen; and rat with a golden heart. How do you find Tallie? She has been with you all the morning? You have not talked with Tallie of our calamities?" "Oh, no, Tante."
Her simile amused her and she suddenly laughed. "You have somewhat the vision of a lizard, Tallie. You scrutinize the cracks and the fissures, but of the mountain itself you are unaware. I have cracks and fissures, no doubt, like all the rest of our sad humanity; but, bon Dieu! I am a mountain, and you, Tallie," she went on, laughing softly, "are a lizard on the mountain. As for Mr.
"Only, my child, that after the quiet life there, the solitude that she loves and that I chose for her sake, the pure sea air and the life among her flowers, London, I fear, would much weary and fatigue her. Tallie is getting old. We must not forget that Tallie is very old. This illness warns us. It does not seem to me a good plan. It was your plan, Karen?"
Karen could go to her almost directly after dinner, as soon as coffee had been served; for on the first occasion when she rose, saying that she would have her coffee with Mrs. Talcott, Tante said with some sharpness after a hesitation: "No; you will have your coffee here. Tallie does not have coffee." Groping her way, Karen seemed to touch strange forms.
Leaning her elbows on the desk and her face on her hands, she wept; the tears trickled between her fingers. But in a very little while the storm passed. She straightened herself, found her lace-edged handkerchief and dried her eyes and cheeks; then, taking a long breath, she drew forward a pad of paper. "I am a fool, am I not, Tallie," she remarked. "And you are wise; a traitor, yet wise.
It was without any elation and yet without any regret that she said in her mild voice: "Do you want me to come back with you, Mercedes?" "Will you?" Madame von Marwitz asked in a low voice. "Why, yes, of course I'll come if you want me, Mercedes," said Mrs. Talcott. Madame von Marwitz now opened her door. "Thank you, Tallie," she said. "You look pretty tired," Mrs.
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