"But I have to wait for another ten months," pouted Mavis.
"What is that? I--yes I, who speak, Bellaria Dondi--shall never never see the world again. Here I am shut up for ever and ever."
"Why, Nanny? I have often asked, but you never will tell?"
"I tell no one the reason why I stop here," said the woman sombrely. "I am dead to the world and to its people. For twenty years I have been dead, and it is as well that I should be thought to be dead. If they knew--if they guessed--ugh!" She looked round and shivered.
"If who knew?"
"No matter! no matter." Bellaria leaped to her feet. "All is done with and over. I was famous once, cara mia. Yes--behold in me a great singer. But you know, you know. Often have I talked to you of my greatness. And it was blotted out in a night by---- Hush! hush." She cast a scared glance over her shoulder and darted into the middle of the lawn.
"Bellaria! Bellaria!" called out Mavis, "I'll climb the beech again." But the woman did not reply. She burst out into the Shadow Song from Dinorah, and Haskins realized at once what a magnificent voice she must have had. Even now many of the notes were true, though occasionally a high one was cracked and wheezy. Spreading her black skirts, she bowed and becked and swept and danced to her shadow in the strong sunlight, while her voice fluted high and birdlike through the air. Thus singing and dancing, she re-entered the house, her dark hour over for the time being. Haskins wondered what could be her secret. Here, indeed, was a woman with a past.
But by this time Mavis had climbed the tree again, and was hurriedly persuading him to go. "Bellaria suspects nothing," she said eagerly, "and after Geary comes to-night he won't come again. But you must be careful."
"How can I be more careful than I am?" asked Gerald taking her hand.
"Come at night," she urged, "come to-morrow night when the moon is high and the fairies come out to dance. I am often in the garden on these summer nights, for Bellaria will not come out, and I hate to be mewed up in stuffy rooms. She will not think that I am meeting anyone, and then we can talk without fear of discovery. I shall lead you into the other garden through the arch."