“I think father might do very well with out us for a time, and then he might himself come to England,” said Rosa.
“And,” said Violante, “I know nothing—nothing but my music, but I think now—now that is over, I could learn.”
“But you would not like to go to school, Violante?”
“It does not seem possible to have what we like,” said Violante; “but it would not be like acting.”
“No, indeed!”
“And I must work somehow. And, oh, Rosa mia! how my heart would ache if father every day looked at me and grieved, and we had no money.”
“Yes, my darling, that would be hard for you. But, oh, Violante! to think that all we hoped for you should end like this!”
“I am very sorry,” said Violante, meekly; “but I think our uncle will be kind, and—we cannot help it; let us go.”
So it was Violante who spoke the common-sense consenting words and recognised the new necessity. But, indeed, since all her faculties had not been absorbed in the effort to perform an impossibility, a new self-reliance seemed to have come upon her and her unreasoning terror had disappeared. Soft and clinging she must always be, as she laid her head on Rosa’s knee and whispered: “We shall both go, Rosa mia! we shall be together.” But the strange land seemed to have no terror for her. Either she feared her father and Civita Bella more, or some strange unrecognised attraction hung over her lover’s country. Did Hope, with her wings cut, still flutter feebly at the bottom of her heart; or was it merely that a glamour still hung over English life and English people that made the novelty attractive instead of dreadful? Did she think an English school-girl less removed from Hugh Crichton than an Italian cantatrice? She thought nothing of all this, but she recognised, without an effort, that it was right to accept her uncle’s invitation. Those secret unknown currents, below our wishes, below our sense of duty, below our resolutions, can float the ship against the wind, or hold it back, spite of a fair breeze and all sails unfurled.
“If an English winter should be too cold for you?” said Rosa.