He looked from her to Felix, and back again, continually, with his restless, keen dark eyes. He thought for the fiftieth time what a pair they would have made. He wondered that Felix did not seem more broken, more miserable than he did. But he knew the young man's strength and pride, and concluded that he intended to put a bold front upon the matter. He who knew him so well could see that he was laboring under some kind of suppressed excitement; and he could see, also, that Rona's emotions were on the very brink of being too much for her. She avoided the eye of Felix, who sat facing her; but her varying color and expression, the quivering of her mouth, the absent manner in which she replied to his mild small talk, convinced the good man that her anxiety to behold her lover safe and well was extreme. All the drive he was striving anxiously to give her a hint; but in vain. She had almost the mien of one being driven to execution, to whom the things of the world were all past; and Vronsky ended by thinking it unkind and unmanly of Felix to be so openly reproachful, almost resentful, in his manner towards her.
When they arrived at Nicolashof the old butler told them that the Governor was out, and the ladies and Mr. Vanston in the garden. They were shown into the drawing-room, and Felix went out into the garden, telling the old man that he would find the ladies and bring them in.
This seemed to give Vronsky his opportunity. Before the defaulting lover appeared, he must give the girl a hint—he must not let her meet him entirely unprepared for his defection.
But for a while, although the minutes were few, he could not speak. His throat felt hot and dry, and as though there were a lump in it.
Rona, all unintentionally, came to his rescue, by going to a table and taking up a photograph of Nadia that stood upon it. "Is this Miss—is it the Governor's daughter?" she asked.
"It is. She is attractive, you think—eh? What you call very pretty?"
His quaint accent made the girl smile. "She is beautiful," she replied, as if grudgingly.
"Her attraction is of the kind that some men find too much—not to be resisted," he said, hurriedly. "I know but one who gave not a thought to her. That was my poor, good Felix. His heart was filled with another—with the image of you, mademoiselle. But his brother——" he came and stood before Veronica, almost menacingly, "His brother—yes, it is right that you should know it. His brother has fallen—in—love with Nadia Stepanovna. You say that, hein? Fall-in-love?"
Veronica smiled a little sadly. "No such luck," was the thought in her heart. "Yes, that is what we say; but it cannot be what Mr. Vanston has done," she said, gently. "He is engaged to me, and he has loved me for two years and more. Besides, we English are not—not like that. We have our feelings under control. Particularly English gentlemen, such as Mr. Vanston."
She was really amused. The girl whose picture she held, beautiful as she undoubtedly was, was hardly Denzil's style. She gazed upon the sumptuous face, the pouting, childish mouth, the foreign suggestion given by the drop earrings, the somewhat extravagant arrangement of the hair. It was, however, quite likely that, Nadia being the only girl of her class within a thousand miles, she should seem to Vronsky to be quite irresistible. "I think you are mistaken, Mr. Vronsky," she said, very gently. The absolute incredulity expressed by her face and her voice staggered him.