Part 14 (1/2)
”What a strange thing life is!” exclaimed Leonora, at last.
”Yes, it is very strange,” he answered. ”Here are we two, on the smallest provocation, swearing eternal friends.h.i.+p on the high road, as though we were going to storm a citadel, or head an Arctic expedition.
But I am really very glad, and very grateful.”
Somehow the reflection did not sound light or flippant; and to tell the truth, Leonora was thinking precisely the same thing, wondering inwardly how she could possibly have gone to such a length with a mere acquaintance. But the land of friends.h.i.+p was an untried territory for Leonora, and she seemed to find in the idea a sudden rest from a sense of danger. A friend could never be a lover,--she knew that! This was the meaning of the dream. But she answered quietly enough.
”If things are real at all,” she said, ”they are as real at one time as at another.”
”Yes,” answered Batis...o...b... ”Malakoff or Sorrento, it is all the same.”
CHAPTER X.
”You will come in?” said Leonora when they reached the gate.
”Thanks; I should like to very much,” answered Batis...o...b.., and he followed her through the gate into the garden. They pa.s.sed into the house, and Leonora received from the servant a telegram which had come when she was out. It was the one Marcantonio had dispatched when he had decided to stay a few days in Rome and to bring his sister to Sorrento.
Leonora opened it quickly and glanced over the message. It was very evident from her expression that she was annoyed and somewhat surprised.
Batis...o...b.. looked away.
”It is too bad!” she exclaimed; her companion examined the handle of his stick, as though there were something wrong with it. He was not curious, and he had very good manners. Leonora folded the dispatch and put it away.
”Let us go out again,” she said, ”it is so close indoors.”
Batis...o...b.. followed her in silence, obediently. They sat down among the orange-trees on an old stone bench. The air was still and very warm, and the lizards were taking their last peep at the sun wherever they could, climbing up the trunks of the trees and the wall of the house to catch a glimpse of him before he set.
”My husband telegraphs that he will be away some time,” said Leonora after a minute. ”He has business that keeps him, and his sister is in Rome.”
”You must be very lonely here,” remarked Batis...o...b.. in answer.
”Do you know Madame de Charleroi?” asked Leonora, taking no notice of the observation.
”Yes,” said Batis...o...b.., ”I know her. Somebody told me she was in Pegli.”
”So she was. But she had to come to Rome on business, and now my husband is going to bring her here.”
”Indeed?” exclaimed Batis...o...b... ”To pa.s.s the summer?”
”Oh no; only for a week, I suppose. Do you know? I am rather glad; I hardly know her at all, and she seems so hard to know.”
”Hard to know?” repeated Julius. ”Perhaps she is. It is always hard to know very charming women.”
”Is it?” asked Leonora, smiling at the frankness of the remark; it seemed to her that he had found it easy enough to swear friends.h.i.+p with her half an hour ago. ”Is it? Is she such a very charming woman?”
”Yes, indeed,” he answered.
”Yes to which question?”
”Both,” said Julius. ”Madame de Charleroi is charming, and it is very hard to know women of her sort well. Think how long it is since I first met you, Marchesa, and we are just beginning to know each other.”