“A husband! and I thought Madame a widow.”
“No; but we shall never meet again. I was very, very unhappy, and I ran away with Cara.”
“Jesus Maria! and now I see why Madame has no correspondence—no English visitors.”
“Yes, Frau Hurter, and if more Suisse visitors and Suisse letters persecute me, I shall go to another place, and find accommodation in a convent, where Cara can learn, and I can work, unmolested.”
Naturally such a move was the last thing Frau Hurter desired. She loved money, and could not endure to part with a lodger, who gave no trouble, paid extravagantly, ‘as per agreement,’ and to the day.
“Madame does not wish to be found nor disturbed? I will see to that,” declared Frau Hurter, looking forbiddingly, grim, “and let people know that she is not as they suppose, a widow. Yet Madame is too young to lead the life of a nun—all work, no companions, no pleasure.”
“I only ask to be left alone. I am much happier here than in England. My husband was not kind to me.”
Frau Hurter’s thoughts turned to her own mate; the dark-eyed Italian mason, whom the cruel cold had put to death, and alas! she realised, that she too had been cold, to that warm-hearted child of the sun. Well, she was making up for her neglect by a double devotion to their boy.
And now at last behold an English visitor for Mrs. Glyn! After many delays, broken promises, and lengthy telegrams, Mrs. Hesketh came out to Switzerland and engaged rooms at the Hôtel de Paradis—just half a mile below Les Plans. She was welcomed at Lucerne Station by Letty and her daughter; the former, unexpectedly young and unchanged,—but a little behind the fashion as to hat and costume. Cara, a well-grown girl of ten, with bright pink cheeks, and eyes the colour of a turquoise, wearing a smart embroidered frock and sash, with an air of overwhelming self-consciousness.
They lunched at the ‘Schweizerhof,’ the guests of the traveller, and to the unconcealed delight of Cara,—who had never been inside the hotel till then. She stared at everything and everyone, with sharp, observant glances, and her godmother noted her appetite for piquante sauces, and the richest sweets; also that her blue eyes were hard, with a will and definite purpose, and cast sly quick glances on herself,—as if curious to know the effect she was producing.