CHAPTER XV
A SURPRISE
JACQUELINE RALSTON was sitting alone in a quiet portion of the Princess Colonna's Italian garden, listening to the soft splashing of a fountain at no great distance away. Now and then she put her hands to her face. Why were her fingers so cold and her cheeks so warm? For Jack was no longer pale; indeed, her whole countenance was curiously flushed. No longer did she look the tall, stately goddess of a few hours before, but like a tremulous and startled girl. For Jack had just received her first proposal and could not for the life of her tell whether she had accepted or rejected it.
Captain Madden had gone away. She had sent him to find Ruth, as she did not wish to remain alone; neither did she wish him to stay with her. It was not that Jack wanted to confide what had taken place to her chaperon. Nothing was further from her intention at the present time. For Jack had not yet been able to make up her mind whether or not she cared for the man who had just told her that he loved her. And fortunately or unfortunately it was not Jacqueline Ralston's habit to ask the advice of other people about what seriously concerned herself. She must decide one way or the other, and then it would be time to tell Ruth. But suddenly she had felt very young and lonely and forlorn with an absurd disposition to cry. If only Ruth would come to her now she could say that she was tired and not feeling particularly well. It would be quite true. Tonight had been the most wonderful in her whole life; never had she dreamed of such beauty and such splendor. Yet suddenly Jack had felt a kind of homesick longing for Jim Colter and the simplicity of their old life on the ranch.
And yet Jack could not truthfully have said that she had been taken completely by surprise by Captain Madden's proposal. Ever since their meeting with him in Rome, there had been times when she had wondered if it could be possible that he was learning to care for her with more than a friendly interest. For even a girl as young and as innocent as Jack cannot be wholly blind.
Ruth had believed herself a careful chaperon. Little did she dream of the intimate talks the girl and man had had together, standing side by side in some church or gallery, looking at some special object, when the other members of their party had wandered away.
Then had come tonight! Jack had grown tired; Ruth was talking to some new acquaintances, Jean and Frieda and Olive were dancing. Captain Madden had asked that she walk into the garden with him to rest.
There were many people about and yet they had managed to find a secluded place. Jack could see a number of men and women passing near her, some of them in wonderfully beautiful costumes, others looking a trifle absurd. She closed her eyes, not wishing to see but to think!
Captain Madden had told her that he loved her. He had confessed also that he was twice her age and poor. But could Jack forget these things and care for him notwithstanding?
One wonders how the man had come to appreciate Jacqueline Ralston's nature so thoroughly in the few weeks of their acquaintance? Did he know that this appeal would be the surest way to awaken her sympathies? Jack had always a passion for doing things for other people rather than having them do for her. If she loved Captain Madden, she would gladly share all her money with him. It was stupid of her, however, not to realize that no true man could have been willing to ask all the sacrifices of her. Jack's only present problem was: "Did she care enough?" Captain Madden was older and wiser and so much better and braver! Think of all the stories he had told them in which she felt sure he must have been a hero! Although never once had he so spoken of himself! Then, too, had he not saved her life? Jack had never forgotten that moment of danger at Gibraltar, however little her rescuer had made of his part in it.
Jack sat up suddenly. Captain Madden had consented that she have a week in which to make up her mind, but had asked that his suit be kept a secret. Now some one was evidently coming toward her and there must be nothing in her face or manner to betray her.
What a picture she made at this moment Jacqueline Ralston would never know! For nowhere could there be surroundings more beautiful nor a figure which seemed so unreal and yet so ideally lovely! Surely Diana had wandered to earth from the groves of high Olympus and was resting here, waiting for her nymphs. She was sitting on a three-cornered marble bench under a group of palms, with the moonlight flooding her white dress and sending forth tiny sparks of light from the crescent of brilliants in her hair.
In surprise she lifted her head to watch the stranger approaching her. She had thought at first that it might be Captain Madden with Ruth or one of the other girls. But the man was taller, younger, more slender and was alone. Who on earth could he be? Jack rose hurriedly and took a step forward. The man was holding out both hands with an oddly familiar gesture.
"Jack," he said slowly, "don't you know me? Aren't you glad to see me? I arrived in Rome only an hour ago and came directly here. I have spoken to Jean and Ruth and now have found you."
"Frank Kent!" Jack repeated, too surprised by the young man's unexpected appearance to show any other emotion. "You have changed, but in the daylight of course I should have recognized you. It was only that I should never have dreamed of your coming to Rome without letting us know. I asked you to wait to see us until we arrived in England."
She had given both her hands to her old friend and was trying not to have her manner appear cold. Yet she could feel rather than see that Frank's face was flooding with color, just as it had so easily in those old days of their first acquaintance at the Rainbow Ranch.
"That is a discouraging greeting after a two years' separation. I hoped you might feel more pleasure in seeing me," Frank suggested.
Jack and the young man had walked slowly forth from her retreat and were now within the glow of the yellow-shaded electric lights. Jack looked up into her companion's face. He was older and tonight seemed graver. Also he wore the expression of dignified displeasure, which Jack recalled so readily. She could almost remember this same look on his face the day she had run away to the round-up and so lost Olive and brought tremendous unhappiness upon herself and her family. Less than anybody in the world did Jacqueline Ralston desire to see Frank Kent during this particular week of her life. Yet she could not willingly hurt his feelings.
Now she laughed, looking a little more like the girl of the past.
"I didn't mean to sound ungracious, Frank. Of course I am glad to see you, for you must have had some good reason for coming to Rome just now. Otherwise I know you would have granted me my wish and waited until we got to England for our meeting. What was your reason?"
But Frank Kent did not at the present moment have to answer this question. For within a few feet of them were Captain Madden, Ruth and Olive.
And whatever of kindness Jack's reception may have lacked was made up for by Olive's enthusiasm. Forgetting her shyness for one of the occasional times in her life, she ran forward with her eyes shining and a lovely color in her cheeks. Jack thought she had never seen her friend prettier or happier.
"Oh, I am so delighted you have come, Mr. Kent—Frank," she declared. "It seems too much like old times to be formal. Ruth had just told me of your arrival and I could hardly give you time even to speak to Jack."
There could be no doubt of how much pleasure Olive's frank welcome afforded the Ranch girls' former friend. Frank Kent had always been much interested in Olive and her peculiar history from the day when his presence saved her from being taken away from Rainbow Lodge by the Indian woman Laska and her son. He had seen her develop from an apparently poorly educated, part-Indian into a gentle and charming American girl.
And now she was no longer a girl, but almost a woman.
The expression of Frank's brown eyes changed. He gazed so steadily at Olive that she blushed and then smiled.
"I have been seeing so many visions tonight I ought to be prepared for most anything," he remarked. "But I confess I am not for this transformation of Olive into a sea nymph." The young man made no effort to conceal his admiration as he held Olive's hand in his own a little longer than was necessary.
For just half an instant Jack wondered; then she brought herself sharply to task. Because of her own recent experience why should she be dwelling so much on one subject? Besides, without wishing any one to guess it, she was interested in Frank Kent's and Captain Madden's manner toward each other. Captain Madden approached to shake hands with his cousin with entire amiability, but to Jack's irritation Frank's behavior was hardly civil. The young man never had been able to disguise his real feelings (the trait is not an English one); so now he bowed coldly. Then he continued talking to Ruth and Olive, almost as though the older man were not present.
If all of Jack's friends had been doing their level best to force her into the championship of Captain Madden, they could hardly have arranged a better method. She slipped her arm through the older man's at this moment in a very pretty fashion and together they led the way back to the ball room.
It was now a good deal past midnight and Ruth decided that the time had come for saying farewell. Jean was dancing with Giovanni Colonna and Frieda with Leon. But in a few moments they were persuaded to stop, and the Ranch party found the Princess Colonna, to say good-night.
The Princess had appeared at her ball in the character of Atalanta, the maiden who could run more swiftly than any man in the world. To all her suitors she had imposed the condition that she should be the prize of the man who could conquer her in a race, and had been finally won by the youth who dropped the golden apples at her feet, which she stooped to pick up.
Jean's Princess wore a crimson robe and around her yellow hair a wreath of golden laurel leaves. In her hand she carried a golden apple.
Yet in spite of the magnificence of the scene about her, she excused herself from her guests and went with the Ranch girls to Jean's room. Jean was going home tonight with her family.
Quite like another girl, who was neither a Princess nor yet a mythological character, the Princess Colonna kissed Jean good-by.
"I do wish you could let one of your girls stay with me always," she said, when she and Ruth were parting. "I think I am often homesick for America and the old life in the west which I led as a child. Jean has made me feel almost young again."
And though Ruth and the four girls laughed at the suggestion of the Princess' needing to feel young, each one of them noticed that when one studied her face closely there were lines about her mouth and eyes.
On the way home, the five women crowded into one carriage, Jean turned to her chaperon: "I know it isn't good taste to talk about people, Ruth dear, when one has been visiting them, so please don't reproach me. But I could not help seeing while I was the Princess' guest that, without knowing it, she has been a kind of Atalanta. Only in the race for happiness the golden apple she stopped to pick up was not money. She had wealth enough, but it was a title and a great position. The Prince may be very nice. I did not learn to know him very well, but certainly he seemed more like his wife's father than her husband. How can a girl ever marry a man twice as old as she is?"