“The customs on the jewels?” he repeated. “I saw to that myself when you entered the port. There could be no possible error. Why did she not consult me first? Who is this person?”
“A friend of Mr. Ward’s. Signor Jacobelli recommended him, I believe. He thought she might have paid too much, and offered to go over the list with her.”
“I do not care for our friend and good patron, Mr. Ward.” The Marchese’s pointed mustache rose higher. “There is something sinister about him. Ah,” as Carlota brought a tea-tray and set it beside him on a low stool, “so did your beloved grandmother always serve it in the terrace loggia. You have her way exactly, my child, and her lovely hands.”
Carlota piled cushions beside him, and lighted the lamp beneath the tea-kettle. Then she settled herself comfortably, and looked up at him as she had so often in the days he spoke of. Always it had been the Marchese who had been her confidant.
“Don’t you think that Maria is looking very tired?”
“I thought her never more attractive and charming than that evening at Mr. Ward’s.”
“But since then. I don’t think that she goes out enough,” Carlota insisted. “She is sacrificing herself too much for me. I beg her to go and she will not. She says she has nowhere to go and she knows no one here excepting yourself.”
“But, my dear child, it must not be!” exclaimed the Marchese warmly. “Of course it has been for your sake that she has secluded herself here in New York. You can see what a beauty she was in her day. Signora Roma! I have heard La Scala resound with her praises, rise to her triumph! She must not feel that she is neglected or lonely, such a woman.”
“Perhaps if you would only tell her. She needs some one who has known her at her great moments, don’t you know?”
“Certainly I know,” he reassured her. “It was quite right of you to tell me. We will have a beautiful, quiet little dinner for her to-morrow night down at the Brevoort or Lafayette, yes? Whichever she likes, and afterwards the opera. The San Remo Company is here from South America; not so wonderful as the Metropolitan, but very delightful and intimate. You persuade her for me, and then at the psychological moment, as they say over here, we will take her by storm and make her say yes.”