The Lady Paramount

by Henry Harland

  XXV

  Susanna, Miss Sandus, a white peacock, and six ring-doves were takingrefreshments in the garden, in the shade of an oleander-tree. Therewere cakes, figs, and lemonade, grains of dried maize, and plenty ofgood succulent hemp-seed. The ring-doves liked the hemp-seed and themaize, but the white peacock seemed to prefer sponge-cake soaked inlemonade.

  "I know a literary man who once taught a peacock to eat sponge-cakesoaked in absinthe," Miss Sandus remarked, on a key of reminiscence.

  "Really? An unprincipled French literary man, I suppose?" wasSusanna's natural inference.

  "No, that's the funny part of it," said Miss Sandus. "He is an eminentand highly respectable English literary man, and the father of a familyinto the bargain. I dare n't give his name, lest he might have the lawof me."

  "He ought to have been ashamed of himself," Susanna said. "What becameof the poor peacock? Did it descend to a drunkard's grave?"

  "That's a long story," said Miss Sandus. "When you 're married andcome to stay with me in Kensington, I 'll ask the literary man todinner. Perhaps he 'll give you his account of the affair. Ah, here's your ambassador returned," she exclaimed all at once, as FatherAngelo, his beads swinging beside him, appeared advancing down thepathway.

  "Well, Father----?" Susanna questioned, looking at him with eyes thatwere dark and anxious.

  "Your cousin is a very headstrong person," said Father Angelo. "Herefuses to accept your offer. He swept it aside like a whirlwind."

  "Ah,--who told you he would?" crowed Miss Sandus.

  "He is here to speak with you in person. He is waiting in the loggia,"said Father Angelo.

  Susanna leaned back in her chair. She had turned very pale.

  "I think I am going to faint," she said.

  "For mercy's sake, _don't_," Miss Sandus implored her, starting.

  "I won't," Susanna promised, drawing a deep breath. "But you willadmit I have some provocation. Must I--must I see him?"

  "_Must_ you?" cried Miss Sandus. "Are n't you _dying_ to see him?"

  "Yes," Susanna confessed, with a flutter of laughter. "I 'm dying tosee him. But I 'm so _afraid_."

  "I 'll disappear," said Miss Sandus, rising. "Then the good Father canbring him to you."

  "Oh, don't--don't leave me," Susanna begged, stretching out her hand.

  "My dear!" laughed Miss Sandus, and she tripped off towards the Palace.

  "Well, Father," Susanna said, after a pause, "will you show him theway?"

  The loggia, as Father Angelo called it, where he had left Anthony,while he went to announce his arrival, was the same long open colonnadein which, that morning, Susanna had had her conference withCommendatore Fregi. It was arranged as a sort of out-of-doorsliving-room. There were rugs on the marble pavement, and chairs andtables; and on the tables, besides vases with flowers, and otherthings, there were a good many books.

  Absently, mechanically, (as one will when one is waiting in a strangeplace where books are within reach), Anthony picked a book up. It wasan old, small book, in tree-calf, stamped, in the midst of muchelaborate gold tooling, with the Valdeschi arms and coronet.Half-consciously examining it, he became aware presently that it was avolume of the poems of Ronsard. And then somehow it fell open, at apage that was marked by the insertion of an empty envelope.

  The envelope caught Anthony's eye, and held it; and that was scarcelyto be wondered at, for, in his own unmistakable handwriting, it wasaddressed to Madame Torrebianca, at the New Manor, Craford, England,and its upper corner bore an uncancelled twenty-five centime Italianpostage-stamp.

  On the page the envelope marked was printed the sonnet, "Voicy le Bois."

  What happened at this moment in Anthony's head and heart? Many thingsmust have become rather violently and painfully clear to him; manythings must have changed their aspect, and adjusted themselves in newcombinations. Many things that had seemed trifling or meaningless musthave assumed significance and importance. No doubt he was shaken bymany tumultuous thoughts and feelings. But outwardly he appearedalmost unmoved. He returned the book to the table, and began to walkbackwards and forwards, his head bowed a little, as one considering.Sometimes he would give a brief low laugh. Sometimes he would look up,frown, and vaguely shake his fist. Once, shaking his fist, hemuttered, "Oh, that Adrian!" And once, with a delighted chuckle, "ByJove, how awfully she 'll be dished!"

  Then Father Angelo came back.

  "The Countess is in the garden. May I show you the way?" he said.

  But when they had reached the marble bridge that connects the gardenwith the Palace, "I think it will be best if you see her alone," theFather said. "Cross this bridge, and keep straight up the path beyond,and you will come to her."

  "Thank you, Father," said Anthony, and crossed the bridge.

  He crossed the marble bridge, and kept straight up the path beyond.And there, at the end of the path, in the shade of an oleander-tree,with her back towards him, stood a young woman--a young woman in apearl-grey frock, and a garden-hat, beneath which one could see thather hair was dark. Young women's backs, however, in this world, to theundiscerning eyes of men, are apt to present no immediatelyrecognizable characteristic features; and so if it had n't been forRonsard, I don't know what would have happened.

  It was very still in the garden. The birds were taking their afternoonsiesta. The breeze faintly lisped in the tree-tops. Even thesunshine, as if it were not always still, seemed stiller than its wont.

  "Oh, what--what--what will he think, what will he say, what will he do,when I turn round, and he sees who I am?" The question repeated andrepeated itself in Susanna's mind, rhythmically, to the tremulousbeating of her heart, as she heard Anthony's footsteps coming near.

  He walked quickly, but a few paces short of where she stood he halted,and for a breathing-space or two there was silence.

  Then at last, in English, in his smoothest, his most detached, his mostlanguid manner, but with an overtone of exultancy that could not besubdued, he said--

  "These ingenuous attempts at mystification are immensely entertaining;but are there to be many more of them, before you can permit our littlecomedy to reach its happy denouement?"

  "Good heavens!" thought Susanna, wildly.

  She did n't turn round, but presently her shoulders began to shake.She could n't help it. The discomfiture was hers; she had been"awfully dished" indeed. But her shoulders shook and shook with silentlaughter.

  In the end, of course, she turned.

  In her dark eyes disappointment, satisfaction, amazement, and amusementshone together.

  "How in the world did you find out?" she asked. "How _could_ you havefound out? When did you find out? How long have you known? And ifyou knew, why did you pretend not to know?"

  But Anthony, at the sight of her face, forgot everything.

  "Oh, never mind," he cried, and advanced upon her with swift strides.

  By-and-by, "Let me look at your right hand," said Susanna. "I want tosee whether you have the Valdeschi pit."

  "The Valdeschi what?" said Anthony.

  "The Valdeschi pit," said she.

  "What is that?" he asked.

  "The Valdeschi pit!" she exclaimed. "Do you mean to say that you, thehead of the family, don't know?"

  "What is it?" he asked.

  "Every true-born son or daughter of San Guido," she explained, "bearsin the palm of the hand a little pit or dint, which is the survival inhis descendants of the scar made by the thorn in the hand of San Guidohimself. See--I have it."

  She held out her hand.

  Anthony took it, bent ever it, kissed it, studied it.

  "It is a delicious hand--but I see no pit," he said.

  "_There_," said she, placing the tip of her finger upon a tinyconcavity in the rose-white flesh.

  "That?" laughed Anthony. "That is nothing but a pretty little dimple."

  "Oh, no," said she, seriously. "That is the mark of the Valdeschi. I'm sure you have it too--we all
have it. Let me see."

  She took his lean brown hand, and examined it carefully, eagerly.

  "There! I was sure!" she cried.

  She pointed to where, in a position corresponding to that of the "markof the Valdeschi" in her own hand, there was an indentation that lookedlike a half-obliterated scar.

  Presently, in the direction of the Palace, a bell began to ring, rathera deep-toned bell, like a church-bell.

  Susanna rose.

  "When you were here the other day as a mere visitor," she said, "Isuppose they did n't show you the chapel, did they?"

  "No," said Anthony.

  "They don't show it to mere visitors," she went on. "But come with menow, and you shall see it. Father Angelo is going to give Benediction.That is what the bell is ringing for."

  She led the way towards the Palace. As they were crossing the bridge,"Look," she said, and pointed to a flagstaff that sprang from thehighest pinnacle of the building. A flag was being hoisted there; andnow it fluttered forth and flew in the breeze, a red flag with a designin gold upon it.

  "The flag of the Count of Sampaolo: gules, a spine or," said Susanna."Of course you know why they are flying it now?"

  "No--?" wondered Anthony.

  "Because the Count of Sampaolo is at home," she said.

  Then they went in to Benediction.

  THE END