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Page 9
Stella Rawson forgot that she and this Russian were strangers, and
she talked to him unrestrainedly, showing glimpses of her inner
self that she had not known she possessed. It was certainly
heaven, she thought, this drive, and worth all the Aunt Caroline's
frowns.
Count Roumovski never said a word of love to her: he treated her
with perfect courtesy and infinite respect, but when at last they
were turning back again, he permitted himself once more to gaze
deeply into her eyes, and Stella knew for the first time in her
existence that some silences are more dangerous than words.
"You do not care at all now for the good clergy-man you are
affianced to," he said. "No--do not be angry-I am not asking a
question, I am stating a fact--when lives have been hedged and
controlled and retenu like yours has been, even the feelings lose
character, and you cannot be sure of them--but the day is
approaching when you will see clearly and--feel much."
"I am sure it is getting very late," said Stella Rawson, and with
difficulty she turned her eyes away and looked over the green
world.
Count Roumovski laughed softly, as if to himself. And they were
silent until they came to the entrance gates again, when the
chauffeur stopped and shut the car.
"We have at least snatched some moments of pleasure, have we not?"
the owner whispered, "and we have hurt no one. Will you trust me
again when I propose something which sounds to you wild?"
"Perhaps I will," Stella murmured rather low.
"When I was hunting lions in Africa I learned to keep my
intelligence awake," he said calmly, "it is an advantage to me now
in civilization--nothing is impossible if one only keeps cool. If
one becomes agitated one instantly connects oneself with all other
currents of agitation, and one can no longer act with prudence or
sense."
"I think I have always been very foolish," admitted Stella,
looking down. "I seem to see everything differently now."
"What we are all striving after is happiness," Count Roumovski
said. "Only we will not admit it, and nearly always spoil our own
chances by drifting, and allowing outside things to influence us.
If you could see the vast plains of snow in my country and the
deep forests--with never a human being for miles and miles, you
would understand how nature grows to talk to one--and how small
the littlenesses of the world appear." Then they were silent
again, and it was not until they were rushing up the Via Nazionale
and in a moment or two would have reached their destination, that
Count Roumovski said:
"Stella--that means star--it is a beautiful name--I can believe
you could be a star to shine upon any man's dark night--because
you have a pure spirit, although it has been muffled by
circumstances for all these years."
Then the automobile drew up by the trees, at perhaps two hundred
yards from the hotel, near the baths of Diocletian.
"If you will get out here, it will be best," Count Roumovski told
her respectfully, "and walk along on the inner side. I will then
drive to the door of the hotel, as usual."
"Thank you, and good-bye," said Stella, and began untying the
veil--he helped her at once, and in doing so his hand touched her
soft pink cheek. She thrilled with a new kind of mad enjoyment,
the like of which she had never felt, and then controlled herself
and stamped it out.
"It has been a very great pleasure to me," he said, and nothing
more; no "good-bye" or "au revoir" or anything, and he drew into
the far corner as she got out of the car, letting the chauffeur
help her. Nor did he look her way as he drove on. And Stella
walked leisurely back to the hotel, wondering in her heart at the
meaning of things.
No one noticed her entrance, and she was able to begin to dress
for dinner without even Martha being aware that she had been
absent. But as she descended in the lift with her uncle and aunt
it seemed as if the whole world and life itself were changed since
the same time the night before.
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