Olive in Italy Part 33

"Of course," he said eagerly. "Forgive me," and he hurried away to order it.

When he returned his dark face was radiant. "Do you know that is the second time you have called me by my name? You said Filippo this morning. Ah, I heard you, and I have thought of it since."

The girl hardened her heart. She realised--she had always realised that this man was dangerous. A fire consumed him. It was a fire that blazed up to destroy, no pleasant light and warmth upon the hearth of a good life, but women were apt to flutter, moth-like, into the flame of it nevertheless.

He sat down beside her and took her hand in his.

"I know I was violent this morning; I could not help myself. I am a Tor di Rocca. It would be so easy for you to make me happy--"

She listened quietly.

A waiter brought the tea and set it on a little table between them.

"You had coffee yesterday," she said. "It seems years ago."

"I have forgotten yesterday, _Incipit vita nuova_! Do you remember I came to you dressed in Dante's red _lucco_?"

"Yes, but you are not a bit like him."

She came to the point presently. "Filippo, you say you want me?"

"More than anything in this world."

Her eyes met his and held them. "Well, if you will get out of fighting M'sieur Michelin I will come to you--meet you--anywhere and at any hour after noon to-morrow."

"Ah, you make conditions."

"Of course."

"How can I get out of fighting him? The man struck me, insulted me."

"Yes," she said, "and you know why!"

"I have asked your pardon for that," he said with an effort that brought the colour into his face.

"Yes, but that is not enough. I don't choose that this unpleasantness should go any further. Write a letter to him now--we will concoct it together--and--and--I will be nice to you."

She smiled at him, and there was no shadow of fear or of regret in the blue eyes that looked towards the almost certain end.

"Well, I must be let down easily," he said unwillingly. "I am not going to lick his boots."

They sat down at the writing-table together, and she began to dictate.

"Just scribble this, and if it does you can make a fair copy afterwards.

"'DEAR MONSIEUR MICHELIN,--On reflection I understand that your conduct this morning was justifiable from your point of view, and I withdraw--'"

Filippo laid down the pen. "I shall not say that."

"Begin again then," she said patiently.

"'I have been asked to write to you by a third person whom I wish to please. She tells me that this morning's unpleasantness resulted from a misunderstanding. She says she has deceived you, and she hopes that you will forgive her. I suppose from what she has said that your hasty action was excusable, as you thought her other than she is, and I think that you may now regret it and agree with me that this need go no farther--'"

"This is better for me," he said.

"Yes." She took the pen from him and wrote under his signature: "You will be sorry to know that your child is a liar. Try to forget her existence."

"You can send it now by someone who must wait for an answer," she explained. "I shall stay here until it comes."

"Very well," he said sulkily, and he went out into the hall to confer with the porter. "An important letter, _Eccellenza_? A _vetturino_ will take it for you--"

Olive heard the opening and shutting of doors, the shrill whistle answered by harsh, raucous cries, the rattling of wheels. Filippo came back to her.

"I have done my part." Then, looking at her closely, he saw that she was very pale. "Is all you have implied and I have written true?"

"No."

"You must love him very much."

"I? Not at all, as you understand love."

The ensuing half-hour seemed long to the girl; Filippo talked desultorily, but there were intervals of silence. She was too tired to attempt to answer him, and, besides, his evident restlessness, his inattention, afforded her some acrid amus.e.m.e.nt. He was like a boy, eager in pursuit of the bird in the bush, heedless of the poor thing fluttering, dying in his hand. It was now near the dinner-hour, and people were coming into the lounge to await the sounding of the gong; from where Olive sat she could see all the entrances and exits--as in a gla.s.s darkly--in the clouded surface of a mirror that hung on the wall and reflected the white gleam of shirt fronts, the shimmer of silks, and she was quick to note that Filippo was interested in what she saw as a pink blur.

His love was as fully winged for flight as any Beast of the book of Revelations; it was swift as a sword to pierce and be withdrawn. He could not be altogether loyal for a day. Olive's heart was filled with pity for the women who had cared.

When, at last, the answer to the letter came, the Prince gave it to her to read. It was very short, a mere scrawl of scarlet ink on the brown, rough-edged paper that was one of Camille's affectations.

"My zeal was evidently misplaced and I regret its excess."

Olive was speechless; her eyes were dimmed, her throat ached with tears. How easily he believed the worst--this man who had been her friend. She rose to go, but Filippo laid a detaining hand upon her arm.

"To-morrow." He had already told her where and when to meet him, and had given her two keys.

"Are you sure you want me?" she said hurriedly. "There are so many women in your life. You remind me of the South American Republic that made--and shot--seventeen presidents in six months."

He laughed. "Do I? You remind me of an eel, or a little grey mouse trying to get out of a trap. There is no way out, my dear, unless, of course, you want me to kill your Frenchman. I am a good shot."

"I will come."

She looked for pink as she went out of the room, and saw a very pretty woman in rose-coloured tulle sitting alone and near the door.

She had given ungrudgingly, unfaltering, and there was no shadow of regret in her eyes; it was nothing to her that he should care for this other little body, for bare white shoulders and a fluff of yellow hair. He had never been more to her than a means to an end, and he was to be that now.

She took a tram from the Piazza del Popolo to the Rotonda. There was a large ironmonger's shop at the corner; she remembered having noticed it before. She went in and asked to look at some of the pistols they had in the window. Several were brought out for her to see, and she chose a small one. The young man who served her showed her how to load it and pull the trigger. He wrapped it in brown paper and made a loop in the string for her to carry it by. She thanked him.

The bells of all the churches were ringing the Ave Maria when she left the Hotel de Russie an hour ago, and it was dark when she reached her own room. The stars were bright, shining through a rift of clouds that hid the crescent moon. Olive laid the awkwardly-shaped parcel she carried down upon the table while she lit her candle. Then she got her scissors and cut the string. This was the key of a door through which she must pa.s.s. Death was the way out.

The little flame of the candle gleamed on the polished steel. It was almost a pretty thing, so smooth and shining. It was well worth the money she had paid for it; it was going to be useful, indispensable to-morrow.