Mr.Mallet will play us a tune, I 'll dance with Mr.Hudson, and mamma will pair off with the prince, of whom she is so fond!"And as she concluded her recommendations, she patted her bland old servitor caressingly on the shoulder.
He looked askance at Rowland; his little black eye glittered;it seemed to say, "Did n't I tell you she was a good girl!"The Cavaliere returned with zealous speed, accompanied by one of the servants of the inn, laden with a basket containing the materials of a rustic luncheon.The porter of the villa was easily induced to furnish a table and half a dozen chairs, and the repast, when set forth, was pronounced a perfect success;not so good as to fail of the proper picturesqueness, nor yet so bad as to defeat the proper function of repasts.
Christina continued to display the most charming animation, and compelled Rowland to reflect privately that, think what one might of her, the harmonious gayety of a beautiful girl was the most beautiful sight in nature.
Her good-humor was contagious.Roderick, who an hour before had been descanting on madness and suicide, commingled his laughter with hers in ardent devotion; Prince Casamassima stroked his young moustache and found a fine, cool smile for everything;his neighbor, Mrs.Light, who had Rowland on the other side, made the friendliest confidences to each of the young men, and the Cavaliere contributed to the general hilarity by the solemnity of his attention to his plate.As for Rowland, the spirit of kindly mirth prompted him to propose the health of this useful old gentleman, as the effective author of their pleasure.
A moment later he wished he had held his tongue, for although the toast was drunk with demonstrative good-will, the Cavaliere received it with various small signs of eager self-effacement which suggested to Rowland that his diminished gentility but half relished honors which had a flavor of patronage.
To perform punctiliously his mysterious duties toward the two ladies, and to elude or to baffle observation on his own merits--this seemed the Cavaliere's modest programme.
Rowland perceived that Mrs.Light, who was not always remarkable for tact, seemed to have divined his humor on this point.
She touched her glass to her lips, but offered him no compliment and immediately gave another direction to the conversation.
He had brought no guitar, so that when the feast was over there was nothing to hold the little group together.Christina wandered away with Roderick to another part of the terrace; the prince, whose smile had vanished, sat gnawing the head of his cane, near Mrs.Light, and Rowland strolled apart with the Cavaliere, to whom he wished to address a friendly word in compensation for the discomfort he had inflicted on his modesty.
The Cavaliere was a mine of information upon all Roman places and people; he told Rowland a number of curious anecdotes about the old Villa Mondragone."If history could always be taught in this fashion!" thought Rowland."It 's the ideal--strolling up and down on the very spot commemorated, hearing sympathetic anecdotes from deeply indigenous lips."At last, as they passed, Rowland observed the mournful physiognomy of Prince Casamassima, and, glancing toward the other end of the terrace, saw that Roderick and Christina had disappeared from view.The young man was sitting upright, in an attitude, apparently habitual, of ceremonious rigidity;but his lower jaw had fallen and was propped up with his cane, and his dull dark eye was fixed upon the angle of the villa which had just eclipsed Miss Light and her companion.
His features were grotesque and his expression vacuous;but there was a lurking delicacy in his face which seemed to tell you that nature had been making Casamassimas for a great many centuries, and, though she adapted her mould to circumstances, had learned to mix her material to an extraordinary fineness and to perform the whole operation with extreme smoothness.
The prince was stupid, Rowland suspected, but he imagined he was amiable, and he saw that at any rate he had the great quality of regarding himself in a thoroughly serious light.
Rowland touched his companion's arm and pointed to the melancholy nobleman.
"Why in the world does he not go after her and insist on being noticed!" he asked.
"Oh, he 's very proud!" said the Cavaliere.
"That 's all very well, but a gentleman who cultivates a passion for that young lady must be prepared to make sacrifices.""He thinks he has already made a great many.He comes of a very great family--a race of princes who for six hundred years have married none but the daughters of princes.
But he is seriously in love, and he would marry her to-morrow.""And she will not have him?"
"Ah, she is very proud, too!" The Cavaliere was silent a moment, as if he were measuring the propriety of frankness.
He seemed to have formed a high opinion of Rowland's discretion, for he presently continued: "It would be a great match, for she brings him neither a name nor a fortune--nothing but her beauty.
But the signorina will receive no favors; I know her well!
She would rather have her beauty blasted than seem to care about the marriage, and if she ever accepts the prince it will be only after he has implored her on his knees!""But she does care about it," said Rowland, "and to bring him to his knees she is working upon his jealousy by pretending to be interested in my friend Hudson.If you said more, you would say that, eh?"The Cavaliere's shrewdness exchanged a glance with Rowland's."By no means.
Miss Light is a singular girl; she has many romantic ideas.She would be quite capable of interesting herself seriously in an interesting young man, like your friend, and doing her utmost to discourage a splendid suitor, like the prince.She would act sincerely and she would go very far.
But it would be unfortunate for the young man," he added, after a pause, "for at the last she would retreat!""A singular girl, indeed!"
