Part 24 (2/2)

”It's great sport. I'll break you in some day, if you say. You'll like it.

The mountains around here are not dangerous. We can go up and down in a day.”

”I'll go you. But, say, last night Nora chucked a bunch of daisies out of the window, and as I was nosing around in the vineyard, I came across it.

You know how a chap will absently pick a bunch of flowers apart. What do you think I found?”

”A note?”

”This.” Harrigan exhibited the emerald. ”Who sent it? Where the d.i.c.kens did it come from?”

Courtlandt took the stone and examined it carefully. ”That's not a bad stone. Uncut but polished; oriental.”

”Oriental, eh? What would you say it was worth?”

”Oh, somewhere between six and seven hundred.”

”Suffering shamrocks! A little green pebble like this?”

”Cut and flawless, at that size, it would be worth pounds instead of dollars.”

”Well, what do you think of that? Nora told me to keep it, so I guess I will.”

”Why, yes. If a man sends a thing like this anonymously, he can't possibly complain. Have it made into a stick pin.” Courtlandt returned the stone which Harrigan pocketed.

”Sometimes I wish Nora'd marry and settle down.”

”She is young. You wouldn't have quit the game at her age!”

”I should say not! But that's different. A man's business is to fight for his grub, whether in an office or in the ring. That's a part of the game.

But a woman ought to have a home, live in it three-fourths of the year, and bring up good citizens. That's what we are all here for. Molly used to stay at home, but now it's the social bug, gadding from morning until night. Ah, here's Carlos with the tea.”

Herr Rosen instantly usurped the chair next to Nora, who began to pour the tea. He had come up from the village prepared for a disagreeable half-hour. Instead of being greeted with icy glances from stormy eyes, he encountered such smiles as this adorable creature had never before bestowed upon him. He was in the clouds. That night at Cadenabbia had apparently knocked the bottom out of his dream. Women were riddles which only they themselves could solve for others. For this one woman he was perfectly ready to throw everything aside. A man lived but once; and he was a fool who would hold to tinsel in preference to such happiness as he thought he saw opening out before him. Nora saw, but she did not care.

That in order to reach another she was practising infinite cruelty on this man (whose one fault lay in that he loved her) did not appeal to her pity.

But her arrow flew wide of the target; at least, there appeared no result to her archery in malice. Not once had the intended victim looked over to where she sat. And yet she knew that he must be watching; he could not possibly avoid it and be human. And when he finally came forward to take his cup, she leaned toward Herr Rosen.

”You take two lumps?” she asked sweetly. It was only a chance shot, but she hit on the truth.

”And you remember?” excitedly.

”One lump for mine, please,” said Courtlandt, smiling.

She picked up a cube of sugar and dropped it into his cup. She had the air of one wis.h.i.+ng it were poison. The recipient of this good will, with perfect understanding, returned to the divan, where the padre and Harrigan were gravely toasting each other with Benedictine.

Nora made no mistake with either Abbott's cup or the Barone's; but the two men were filled with but one desire, to throw Herr Rosen out of the window. What had begun as a beautiful day was now becoming black and uncertain.

The Barone could control every feature save his eyes, and these openly admitted deep anger. He recollected Herr Rosen well enough. The encounter over at Cadenabbia was not the first by many. Herr Rosen! His presence in this room under that name was an insult, and he intended to call the interloper to account the very first opportunity he found.

<script>