Then again it was here that unhappy Caroline of Brunswick, who became Queen of England in name only, kept her state as Princess of Wales, and tried to find in the calm seclusion of Como that peace denied to her in the land of her adoption. Ah, yes, the Villa Medici is connected with the lives of some great personages, but now that they all have vanished from the world's stage, whereon they played some curious parts, the Villa is turned into an hotel, and strangers from far America, and still further Australia, reside in the many chambers, and wander with delight through the enchanting gardens which Nature, aided by art, has made a paradise of beauty.
"Poor Caroline," murmured Gartney to himself, as he thought of all this, "no one has a good word to say for her, and yet, I daresay, she was a good deal better than the first gentleman in Europe. It was just as well she died, for George would never have given her any rights as queen-consort. No doubt she passed some of her happiest days here, although she always hankered after the forbidden glories of Windsor and Buckingham Palace."
His meditations were interrupted at this point by a gay laugh, and on looking up he saw Victoria Sheldon coming towards him escorted by the Master of Otterburn, who was evidently telling her some funny story, judging from the amusement his conversation seemed to afford her.
She was certainly a very pretty girl, one of those feminine beauties who strike the beholder at first sight with a sense of indescribable charm. A brilliantly tinted brunette, overflowing with exuberant vitality, she had all the intense colouring and freshness of a southern rose at that time when the cold rain draws its perfume strongly forth in the chill morning air.
Her eyes, hair, eyebrows and long lashes were dark as night; red as coral the lips, which when parted showed two rows of pearly teeth; full and soft the round of the cheeks, and a peach-like skin with a rosy glow of delicate colour under the velvety surface. She was the modern realization of that vivacious Julia whom Herrick describes so charmingly in his dainty poems. And as a matter of fact the skin of this young girl had all the brilliant colouring of the south, no doubt assimilated by her system under the sultry glow of Australian skies. Having an excellent figure, dainty hands and feet, with a perfect taste in dress, and boundless vivacity, there was no doubt that Victoria Sheldon was a feminine personality eminently attractive to the stronger sex.
As to her nature, it was quite in unison with her outward appearance--bright, sparkling, vivacious, albeit somewhat shallow, yet not without a certain veneer of surface knowledge. Eminently womanly, capricious in the extreme, witty, amusing, tireless, she had one of those attractive natures which charm everyone in a singularly magnetic fashion. Some men, eccentric in their likings, admire those semi-masculine women who have missions, support the rights of their sex on lecture platforms, emulate masculine peculiarities to the best of their abilities, and pass noisy lives in shrieking aimlessly against the tyranny of mankind. Those men who approved of such semi-masculine tendencies, certainly would not have admired the womanly characteristics of Victoria, but the connoisseur of feminine beauty, the judge of a brilliant personality, and the appreciator of a witty nature, would each see in her the realisation of an extremely difficult ideal.
The Master, young and rash, was just at that delightful age when every woman appears a goddess to the uncultured fancy of youth; judge then the effect produced upon his impressionable nature by this riant vision of strongly vitalised beauty. He did not even make an attempt at resistance in any way, but prone as god Dagon on the threshold of his temple, he fell before the powerful divinity of this young girl, and she produced on him the same effect as Phryne did on her judges when she displayed the full splendour of her charms in the Areopagus under the clear blue of Athenian skies. Mactab, severe, ascetic and self-mortifying, opposed to every form of admiration of the flesh, would have blushed for the grovelling idolatory of his quondam pupil; but no doubt the sunny climate of Italy aided in a great measure this worship of Venus, and Angus Macjean, Master of Otterburn, prostrated himself in abject worship before this outward manifestation of carnal beauty.
Eustace saw this, and was selfishly annoyed thereat, because he had taken a fancy to Otterburn, and thought that he (Otterburn) should agree with him (Eustace) in despising the sex feminine, which was foolish in the extreme on the part of such an acute observer of human nature; but then he was blinded by egotism, and that vice distorts every vision. Still he could not deny that physically she was wonderfully pretty, despite his feeling of animosity against her for coming between himself and his friend. Therefore he admired her greatly from an æsthetic point of view, while Victoria, with the keen instinct of a woman, scented an enemy and neither admired nor liked Eustace the cynic in the smallest degree.
"My dear Mr. Macjean," she said in answer to the remonstrances of Angus who wanted everyone to like his friend as much as he did himself. "Your friend is a pessimist, and I don't like that class of people; they always take a delight in analysing one's motives, which is disagreeable--to the person concerned. A flower is charming, but those who pull it to pieces in order to find out how it is made--are not. I don't like analysts--they destroy one's illusions."
This plain-spoken young lady's chaperone was enjoying an after-dinner nap; the Hon. Henry was talking Irish politics with an Irish M.P., who did not believe in Home Rule out of contradiction to the rest of his countrymen who did. So Victoria Sheldon, feeling in a most delightful humour, was chatting gaily with Otterburn, when they thus chanced on the melancholy Eustace, moralising on the mutability of human life.