The Happy End Part 15

"The sacred camels!" Orsi exclaimed; then: "Oh, Gheta--good!" But he fell immediately into an angry reverie. "If I dared--" he muttered.

"What has stirred you up so?"

"It's difficult to explain to any one not born in Naples. Here, you see, all is not in order, like Florence; we have had a stormy time between brigands and secret factions and foreign rulers; and certain societies sprang up, necessary once, but now--when one still exists--a source of bribery and nuisance. This letter, for example, congratulates me on the possession of a charming bride; it expresses the devotion of a hidden organization, but points out that in order to guarantee your safety in a city where the guards are admittedly insufficient it will be necessary for me to forward two thousand lire at once."

"You will, of course, ignore it."

"I will certainly send the money at once."

"What a cowardly att.i.tude!" Lavinia declared contemptuously. "You allow yourself to be blackmailed like a common criminal."

Orsi laughed, his equilibrium quickly restored.

"I warned you that a stranger could not understand," he reminded her.

"If the money weren't sent, in ten days or two weeks perhaps, there would be a little accident on the Chiaja--your carriage would be run into; you would be upset, confused, angry. There would be profuse apologies, investigation, perhaps arrests; but nothing would come of it.

If the money was still held back something a little more serious would occur. Nothing really dangerous, you understand; but finally the two thousand lire would be gladly paid over and the accidents would mysteriously cease."

"An outrage!" Lavinia a.s.serted, and Orsi nodded.

"If you had an enemy," he continued, "you could have her gown ruined in the foyer of the San Carlos; if it were a man he would be caught at his club with an uncomfortable ace in his cuff. At least so I'm a.s.sured.

I haven't had any reason to look the society up yet." He laughed prodigiously. "Even murders are ascribed to it. Careful, Cesare, or a new valet will cut your throat some fine morning and your widow walk away with a more graceful man!"

"Your jokes are so stupid." Lavinia shrugged her shoulders.

He laid the letter on the table's edge and a wandering air bore it slanting to the floor, but he promptly recovered it.

"That must go in the safe," he ended; "it is well to have a slight grasp on those gentlemen."

He rose; and a few minutes later Lavinia saw his trim brown launch, with its awning and steersman in gleaming white, rushing through the bay toward Naples.

VI

The basin from which the launch plied lay inside a seawall inclosing a small placid rectangle with a walk all about and iron benches. Steps at the back, guarded by two great Pompeian sandstone urns, and pressed by a luxuriant growth, led up to the villa. Gheta looked curiously about as she stepped from the launch and went forward with her brother-in-law.

Lavinia followed, with Gheta's maid and a porter in the rear.

Lavinia realized that her sister looked badly; in the unsparing blaze of midday the wrinkles about her eyes were apparent, and they had multiplied. Although it was past the first of June, Gheta was wearing a linen suit of last year; and--as her maid unpacked--Lavinia saw the familiar pink tulle and the lavender gown with the gold velvet b.u.t.tons.

"Your dressmaker is very late," she observed thoughtlessly.

A slow flush spread over the other's countenance; she did not reply immediately and Lavinia would have given a great deal to unsay her period.

"It isn't that," Gheta finally explained; "the family find that I am too expensive. You see, I haven't justified their hopes and they have been cutting down."

Her voice was thin, metallic; her features had sharpened like folded paper creased between the fingers.

"It's very good form here," she went on, dancing about her room. It was hardly more than a marble gallery, the peristyle choked with flowering bushes, camellias and althea and hibiscus, barely furnished, and filled with drifting perfumes and the savor of the sea. "What a shame that these things must be got at a price!"

Lavinia glanced at her sharply; until the present moment that would have expressed her own att.i.tude, but said by Gheta it seemed a little crude.

It was, anyhow, painfully obvious, and she had no intention of showing Gheta the true state of her being.

"Isn't that so of everything--worth having?" she asked, adding the latter purely as a counter.

The elder drew up her fine shoulders.

"That's very courageous of you," she admitted--"especially since everybody knew your opinion of Orsi. Heaven knows you made no effort to disguise your feeling to others."

Lavinia smiled calmly; Cesare was really very thoughtful, and she said so. Gheta replied at a sudden tangent:

"Mochales has been a great nuisance."

Lavinia was gazing through an opening in the leaves at the sparkling blue plane of the bay. She made no movement, aware of her sister's unsparing curiosity turned upon her, and only said:

"Really?"

"Spaniards are so tempestuous," Gheta continued; "he's been whispering a hundred mad schemes in my ear. He gave up an important engagement in Madrid rather than leave Florence. I have been almost stirred by him, he is so slender and handsome.

"Simply every woman--except perhaps me--is in love with him."

"There's no danger of your loving any one besides yourself."

"I saw him the day before I left; told him where I was going. Then I had to beg him not to take the same train. He said he was going to Naples, anyhow, to sail from there for Spain. He will be at the Grand Hotel and I gave him permission to see me here once."

Lavinia revolved slowly.

"Why not? He turned my head round at least twice." She moved toward the door. "Ring whenever you like," she said; "there are servants for everything."

In her room she wondered, with burning cheeks, when Abrego y Mochales would come. Her sentimental interest in him had waned a trifle during the past busy weeks; but, in spite of that, he was the great romantic attachment of her life. If he had returned her love no whispered scheme would have been too mad. What would he think of her now? But she knew instinctively that there would be no change in Mochales' att.i.tude. He was in love with Gheta; blind to the rest of the world.

She sat lost in a day-dream--how different her life would have been, married to the bull-fighter! She would have become a part of the fierce Spanish crowds at the ring, traveled to South America, seen the people heap roses, jewels, upon her idol....

Cesare Orsi stood in the doorway, smiling with oppressive good-nature.

"Lavinia," he told her, "I've done something, and now I'm in the devil of a doubt." He advanced, holding a small package, and sat on the edge of a chair, mopping his brow. "You see," he began diffidently, "that is, as you must know, at first--you were at the convent--I thought something of proposing for your sister. Thank G.o.d," he added vigorously, "I waited! Well, I didn't; although, to be completely honest, I knew that it came to be expected. I could see the surprise in your father's face. It occurred to me afterward that if I had brought Gheta any embarra.s.sment I'd like to do something in a small way, a sort of acknowledgment. And to-day I saw this," he held out the package; "it was pretty and I bought it for her at once. But now, when the moment arrives, I hesitate to give it to her. Gheta has grown so--so formal that I'm afraid of her," he laughed.

Lavinia unwrapped the paper covering from a green morocco box and, releasing the catch, saw a shimmering string of delicately pink pearls.

"Cesare!" she exclaimed. "How gorgeous!" She lifted the necklace, letting it slide cool and fine through her fingers. "It's too good of you. This has cost hundreds and hundreds. I'll keep it myself."

He laughed, shaking all over; then fell serious.

"Everything I have--all, all--is yours," he a.s.sured her. Lavinia turned away with an uncomfortable feeling of falseness. "What do you predict--will Gheta take it, understand, or will she play the frozen princess?"

"If I know Gheta, she'll take it," Lavinia promptly replied.

Orsi presented Gheta Sanviano with the necklace at dinner. She took it slowly from its box and glanced at the diamond clasp.

"Thank you, Cesare, immensely! What a shame that pink pearls so closely resemble coral! No one gives you credit for them."