"What delicious oblivion!" she said."Happy man! Stenterello"--and she pointed to his face--"wake him up!"The poodle extended a long pink tongue and began to lick Roderick's cheek.
"Why," asked Rowland, "if he is happy?"
"Oh, I want companions in misery! Besides, I want to show off my dog."Roderick roused himself, sat up, and stared.By this time Mrs.Light had approached, walking with a gentleman on each side of her.
One of these was the Cavaliere Giacosa; the other was Prince Casamassima.
"I should have liked to lie down on the grass and go to sleep,"Christina added."But it would have been unheard of.""Oh, not quite," said the Prince, in English, with a tone of great precision.
"There was already a Sleeping Beauty in the Wood!""Charming!" cried Mrs.Light."Do you hear that, my dear?""When the prince says a brilliant thing, it would be a pity to lose it," said the young girl."Your servant, sir!"And she smiled at him with a grace that might have reassured him, if he had thought her compliment ambiguous.
Roderick meanwhile had risen to his feet, and Mrs.Light began to exclaim on the oddity of their meeting and to explain that the day was so lovely that she had been charmed with the idea of spending it in the country.
And who would ever have thought of finding Mr.Mallet and Mr.Hudson sleeping under a tree!
"Oh, I beg your pardon; I was not sleeping," said Rowland.
"Don't you know that Mr.Mallet is Mr.Hudson's sheep-dog?" asked Christina.
"He was mounting guard to keep away the wolves.""To indifferent purpose, madame!" said Rowland, indicating the young girl.
"Is that the way you spend your time?" Christina demanded of Roderick.
"I never yet happened to learn what men were doing when they supposed women were not watching them but it was something vastly below their reputation.""When, pray," said Roderick, smoothing his ruffled locks, "are women not watching them?""We shall give you something better to do, at any rate.
How long have you been here? It 's an age since I have seen you.
We consider you domiciled here, and expect you to play host and entertain us."Roderick said that he could offer them nothing but to show them the great terrace, with its view; and ten minutes later the group was assembled there.Mrs.Light was extravagant in her satisfaction;Christina looked away at the Sabine mountains, in silence.
The prince stood by, frowning at the rapture of the elder lady.
"This is nothing," he said at last."My word of honor.
Have you seen the terrace at San Gaetano?""Ah, that terrace," murmured Mrs.Light, amorously."I suppose it is magnificent!""It is four hundred feet long, and paved with marble.
And the view is a thousand times more beautiful than this.
You see, far away, the blue, blue sea and the little smoke of Vesuvio!""Christina, love," cried Mrs.Light forthwith, "the prince has a terrace four hundred feet long, all paved with marble!"The Cavaliere gave a little cough and began to wipe his eye-glass.
"Stupendous!" said Christina."To go from one end to the other, the prince must have out his golden carriage."This was apparently an allusion to one of the other items of the young man's grandeur.
"You always laugh at me," said the prince."I know no more what to say!"She looked at him with a sad smile and shook her head.
"No, no, dear prince, I don't laugh at you.Heaven forbid!
You are much too serious an affair.I assure you I feel your importance.
What did you inform us was the value of the hereditary diamonds of the Princess Casamassima?""Ah, you are laughing at me yet!" said the poor young man, standing rigid and pale.
"It does n't matter," Christina went on."We have a note of it;mamma writes all those things down in a little book!""If you are laughed at, dear prince, at least it 's in company,"said Mrs.Light, caressingly; and she took his arm, as if to resist his possible displacement under the shock of her daughter's sarcasm.
But the prince looked heavy-eyed toward Rowland and Roderick, to whom the young girl was turning, as if he had much rather his lot were cast with theirs.
"Is the villa inhabited?" Christina asked, pointing to the vast melancholy structure which rises above the terrace.
"Not privately," said Roderick."It is occupied by a Jesuits'
college, for little boys."
"Can women go in?"
"I am afraid not." And Roderick began to laugh.
"Fancy the poor little devils looking up from their Latin declensions and seeing Miss Light standing there!""I should like to see the poor little devils, with their rosy cheeks and their long black gowns, and when they were pretty, I should n't scruple to kiss them.But if I can't have that amusement I must have some other.We must not stand planted on this enchanting terrace as if we were stakes driven into the earth.
We must dance, we must feast, we must do something picturesque.
Mamma has arranged, I believe, that we are to go back to Frascati to lunch at the inn.I decree that we lunch here and send the Cavaliere to the inn to get the provisions!
He can take the carriage, which is waiting below."Miss Light carried out this undertaking with unfaltering ardor.
The Cavaliere was summoned, and he stook to receive her commands hat in hand, with his eyes cast down, as if she had been a princess addressing her major-domo.She, however, laid her hand with friendly grace upon his button-hole, and called him a dear, good old Cavaliere, for being always so willing.Her spirits had risen with the occasion, and she talked irresistible nonsense.
"Bring the best they have," she said, "no matter if it ruins us!
And if the best is very bad, it will be all the more amusing.
I shall enjoy seeing Mr.Mallet try to swallow it for propriety's sake!
Mr.Hudson will say out like a man that it 's horrible stuff, and that he 'll be choked first! Be sure you bring a dish of maccaroni;the prince must have the diet of the Neapolitan nobility.
But I leave all that to you, my poor, dear Cavaliere; you know what 's good! Only be sure, above all, you bring a guitar.
