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Page 24
"She is naturally indelicate," Mrs. Walker declared.
"Take that example this morning. How long had you known her at Vevey?"
"A couple of days."
"Fancy, then, her making it a personal matter that you should have
left the place!"
Winterbourne was silent for some moments; then he said, "I suspect,
Mrs. Walker, that you and I have lived too long at Geneva!"
And he added a request that she should inform him with what particular
design she had made him enter her carriage.
"I wished to beg you to cease your relations with Miss Miller--
not to flirt with her--to give her no further opportunity
to expose herself--to let her alone, in short."
"I'm afraid I can't do that," said Winterbourne.
"I like her extremely."
"All the more reason that you shouldn't help her to make a scandal."
"There shall be nothing scandalous in my attentions to her."
"There certainly will be in the way she takes them.
But I have said what I had on my conscience," Mrs. Walker pursued.
"If you wish to rejoin the young lady I will put you down.
Here, by the way, you have a chance."
The carriage was traversing that part of the Pincian
Garden that overhangs the wall of Rome and overlooks
the beautiful Villa Borghese. It is bordered by a
large parapet, near which there are several seats.
One of the seats at a distance was occupied by a gentleman
and a lady, toward whom Mrs. Walker gave a toss of her head.
At the same moment these persons rose and walked toward
the parapet. Winterbourne had asked the coachman to stop;
he now descended from the carriage. His companion looked
at him a moment in silence; then, while he raised his hat,
she drove majestically away. Winterbourne stood there;
he had turned his eyes toward Daisy and her cavalier.
They evidently saw no one; they were too deeply occupied
with each other. When they reached the low garden wall,
they stood a moment looking off at the great flat-topped
pine clusters of the Villa Borghese; then Giovanelli
seated himself, familiarly, upon the broad ledge of the wall.
The western sun in the opposite sky sent out a brilliant
shaft through a couple of cloud bars, whereupon Daisy's
companion took her parasol out of her hands and opened it.
She came a little nearer, and he held the parasol over her;
then, still holding it, he let it rest upon her shoulder,
so that both of their heads were hidden from Winterbourne.
This young man lingered a moment, then he began to walk.
But he walked--not toward the couple with the parasol;
toward the residence of his aunt, Mrs. Costello.
He flattered himself on the following day that there was no smiling
among the servants when he, at least, asked for Mrs. Miller at
her hotel. This lady and her daughter, however, were not at home;
and on the next day after, repeating his visit, Winterbourne again
had the misfortune not to find them. Mrs. Walker's party took place
on the evening of the third day, and, in spite of the frigidity of his
last interview with the hostess, Winterbourne was among the guests.
Mrs. Walker was one of those American ladies who, while residing abroad,
make a point, in their own phrase, of studying European society,
and she had on this occasion collected several specimens of her
diversely born fellow mortals to serve, as it were, as textbooks.
When Winterbourne arrived, Daisy Miller was not there, but in a few
moments he saw her mother come in alone, very shyly and ruefully.
Mrs. Miller's hair above her exposed-looking temples was more frizzled
than ever. As she approached Mrs. Walker, Winterbourne also drew near.
"You see, I've come all alone," said poor Mrs. Miller.
"I'm so frightened; I don't know what to do. It's the first time
I've ever been to a party alone, especially in this country.
I wanted to bring Randolph or Eugenio, or someone, but Daisy just
pushed me off by myself. I ain't used to going round alone."
"And does not your daughter intend to favor us with her society?"
demanded Mrs. Walker impressively.
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