Part 23 (2/2)

”The story is differently told in Virgil,” quoth Riccabocca, peeping out of the window. ”Nevertheless, the machine looks very large and suspicious; unloose Pompey.”

”Father,” said Violante, coloring, ”it is your friend, Lord L'Estrange; I hear his voice.”

”Are you sure?”

”Quite. How can I be mistaken?”

”Go, then, Giacomo; but take Pompey with thee--and give the alarm if we are deceived.”

But Violante was right; and in a few moments Lord L'Estrange was seen walking up the garden, and giving the arm to two ladies.

”Ah,” said Riccabocca, composing his dressing-robe round him, ”go, my child, and summon Jemima. Man to man; but, for Heaven's sake, woman to woman.”

Harley had brought his mother and Helen, in compliment to the ladies of his friend's household.

The proud Countess knew that she was in the presence of Adversity, and her salute to Riccabocca was only less respectful than that with which she would have rendered homage to her sovereign. But Riccabocca, always gallant to the s.e.x that he pretended to despise, was not to be outdone in ceremony; and the bow which replied to the curtsey would have edified the rising generation, and delighted such surviving relicts of the old Court breeding as may linger yet amidst the gloomy pomp of the Faubourg St. Germain. These dues paid to etiquette, the Countess briefly introduced Helen, as Miss Digby, and seated herself near the exile. In a few moments the two elder personages became quite at home with each other; and really, perhaps, Riccabocca had never, since we have known him, showed to such advantage as by the side of his polished, but somewhat formal visitor. Both had lived so little with our modern, ill-bred age! They took out their manners of a former race with a sort of pride in airing once more such fine lace and superb brocade.

Riccabocca gave truce to the shrewd but homely wisdom of his proverbs--perhaps he remembered that Lord Chesterfield denounces proverbs as vulgar;--and gaunt though his figure, and far from elegant though his dressing-robe, there was that about him which spoke undeniably of the _grand seigneur_--of one to whom a Marquis de Dangeau would have offered a _fauteuil_ by the side of the Rohans and Montmorencies.

Meanwhile, Helen and Harley seated themselves a little apart, and were both silent--the first from timidity; the second, from abstraction. At length the door opened, and Harley suddenly sprang to his feet--Violante and Jemima entered. Lady Lansmere's eyes first rested on the daughter, and she could scarcely refrain from an exclamation of admiring surprise; but then, when she caught sight of Mrs. Riccabocca's somewhat humble, yet not obsequious mien--looking a little shy, a little homely, yet still thoroughly a gentlewoman, (though of your plain rural kind of that genus)--she turned from the daughter, and with the _savoir vivre_ of the fine old school, paid her first respects to the wife; respects literally, for her manner implied respect,--but it was more kind, simple, and cordial than the respect she had shown to Riccabocca;--as the sage himself had said, here ”it was Woman to Woman.” And then she took Violante's hand in both hers, and gazed on her as if she could not resist the pleasure of contemplating so much beauty. ”My son,” she said softly, and with a half sigh--”my son in vain told me not to be surprised. This is the first time I have ever known reality exceed description!”

Violante's blush here made her still more beautiful; and as the Countess returned to Riccabocca, she stole gently to Helen's side.

”Miss Digby, my ward,” said Harley pointedly, observing that his mother had neglected her duty of presenting Helen to the ladies. He then reseated himself, and conversed with Mrs. Riccabocca; but his bright quick eye glanced ever at the two girls. They were about the same age--and youth was all that, to the superficial eye, they seemed to have in common. A greater contrast could not well be conceived; and, what is strange, both gained by it. Violante's brilliant lovelieness seemed yet more dazzling, and Helen's fair gentle face yet more winning. Neither had mixed much with girls of her own age; each took to the other at first sight. Violante, as the less shy, began the conversation.

”You are his ward--Lord L'Estrange's?”

”Yes.”

”Perhaps you came with him from Italy?”

”No, not exactly. But I have been in Italy for some years.”

”Ah! you regret--nay, I am foolish--you return to your native land. But the skies in Italy are so blue--here it seems as if nature wanted colors.”

”Lord L'Estrange says that you were very young when you left Italy; you remember it well. He, too, prefers Italy to England.”

”He! Impossible!”

”Why impossible, fair skeptic?” cried Harley, interrupting himself in the midst of a speech to Jemima.

Violante had not dreamed that she could be overheard--she was speaking low; but, though visibly embarra.s.sed, she answered distinctly--

”Because in England there is the n.o.blest career for n.o.ble minds.”

Harley was startled, and replied with a slight sigh, ”At your age I should have said as you do. But this England of ours is so crowded with n.o.ble minds, that they only jostle each other, and the career is one cloud of dust.”

”So, I have read, seems a battle to the common soldier, but not to the chief.”

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