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Page 14
Stella was thrilled. So he had taken all this trouble. He must be
a good deal interested in her, then; and feeling sure of this,
womanlike, she immediately took advantage of it to insist upon
leaving him.
"Very well," he said, when he could not dissuade her. "To-night
the wheel of fortune will revolve for us all, and it remains to be
seen who will draw a prize and who a blank."
Then he walked by her side to where they saw the quiet servant
standing, a motionless sentinel, and here Count Roumovski bowed
and turned on his heel, while Stella advanced to the bench on
which the comfortable Martha slept.
This latter was full of defence when she awoke. She had not closed
an eye, but thought Miss Stella was enjoying "them statues" better
without her, which was indeed true, if she had guessed!
Miss Rawson ate very little luncheon--the Russian did not appear--
and immediately after it she was taken as a treat to see the
Borghese Gardens by her uncle and aunt! It behooved her not to be
tired by more sightseeing, since her betrothed would arrive when
they returned for tea, and would expect her to be bright and on
the alert to please him, Aunt Caroline felt. As for Stella, as
that moment approached it seemed to her that the end of all joy
had come.
CHAPTER IV
The Rev. Eustace Medlicott, when the stains of travel had been
removed from his thin person, came down to tea in the hall of the
Grand Hotel with a distinct misgiving in his heart. He did not
approve of it as a place of residence for his betrothed. Another
and equally well-drained hostelry might have been found for the
party he thought, where such evidences of worldly occupations and
amusements would not so forcibly strike the eye. Music with one's
meals savored of paganism. He was still very emaciated with his
Lenten fast. It took him until July, generally, to pick up again;
and he was tired with his journey. Stella was not there to greet
him, only the Aunt Caroline, and he felt a sense of injury
creeping over him. She might have been in time. Nancy Ruggles, the
Bishop's second daughter, had given him tea and ministered to his
wants in a spirit of solicitous devotion every day since the
Ebleys had left Exminster, but Nancy's hair was not full of
sunlight, nor did her complexion suggest cream and roses. Things
which, to be sure, the Rev. Eustace Medlicott felt he ought not to
dwell upon; they were fleshly lusts and should be discouraged.
He had been convinced that celibacy was the only road to salvation
for a priest, until Stella Rawson's fair young charms had
unconsciously undermined this conviction. But even if he had been
able to arrange his conscience to his liking upon the vital point,
he felt he must fight bravely against allowing himself or his
betrothed to get any pleasure out of the affair. It was better to
marry than to burn, he had St. Paul's authority for this--but when
he felt emotion toward Stella because of her loveliness, he was
afterward very uncomfortable in his thoughts, and it took him at
least an hour to throw dust in his own eyes in regard to the
nature of his desire for her, which he determined to think was
only of the spirit. Love, for him, was no god to be exalted, but a
too strong beast to be resisted, and every one of his rites were
to be succumbed to shamefacedly and under protest. Thus did he
criticize the scheme of his Creator like many another before him.
He sat now in the hall of the Grand Hotel at Rome feeling ill at
ease and expressed some mild disapproval of the surroundings to
Mrs. Ebley, who fired up at once. She was secretly enjoying
herself extremely, and allowed the drains to assume gigantic
proportions in her reasons for their choice of abode. So there was
nothing more to be said, and Stella, looking rather pale,
presently came down the steps from the corridor where their lift
was situated, and joined the group in the far corner of the large
hall.
She was so slender and fresh and graceful, and, even in the week's
sight-seeing in Paris, she seemed to have picked up a new air,
though she wore the same gray Sunday dress her fiance was
accustomed to see at home--it appeared to be put on differently,
and she had altered the doing of her hair. There was no doubt
about it, his future wife was a most delectable-looking creature,
but these tendencies toward adornment of the person which he
observed must be checked at once.
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