"The girl is so deucedly dramatic," he said, "that I don't know what coup de theatre she may have in store for us.Such a stroke was her turning Catholic;such a stroke would be her some day making her courtesy to a disappointed world as Princess Casamassima, married at midnight, in her bonnet.
She might do--she may do--something that would make even more starers!
I 'm prepared for anything."
"You mean that she might elope with your sculptor, eh?""I 'm prepared for anything!"
"Do you mean that he 's ready?"
"Do you think that she is?"
"They 're a precious pair! I think this.You by no means exhaust the subject when you say that Christina is dramatic.
It 's my belief that in the course of her life she will do a certain number of things from pure disinterested passion.
She 's immeasurably proud, and if that is often a fault in a virtuous person, it may be a merit in a vicious one.
She needs to think well of herself; she knows a fine character, easily, when she meets one; she hates to suffer by comparison, even though the comparison is made by herself alone;and when the estimate she may have made of herself grows vague, she needs to do something to give it definite, impressive form.
What she will do in such a case will be better or worse, according to her opportunity; but I imagine it will generally be something that will drive her mother to despair;something of the sort usually termed 'unworldly.' "Rowland, as he was taking his leave, after some further exchange of opinions, rendered Miss Light the tribute of a deeply meditative sigh."She has bothered me half to death,"he said, "but somehow I can't manage, as I ought, to hate her.
I admire her, half the time, and a good part of the rest I pity her.""I think I most pity her!" said Madame Grandoni.
This enlightened woman came the next day to call upon the two ladies from Northampton.She carried their shy affections by storm, and made them promise to drink tea with her on the evening of the morrow.
Her visit was an era in the life of poor Mrs.Hudson, who did nothing but make sudden desultory allusions to her, for the next thirty-six hours.
"To think of her being a foreigner!" she would exclaim, after much intent reflection, over her knitting; "she speaks so beautifully!"Then in a little while, "She was n't so much dressed as you might have expected.Did you notice how easy it was in the waist?
I wonder if that 's the fashion?" Or, "She 's very old to wear a hat;I should never dare to wear a hat!" Or, "Did you notice her hands?--very pretty hands for such a stout person.A great many rings, but nothing very handsome.I suppose they are hereditary." Or, "She 's certainly not handsome, but she 's very sweet-looking.I wonder why she does n't have something done to her teeth." Rowland also received a summons to Madame Grandoni's tea-drinking, and went betimes, as he had been requested.He was eagerly desirous to lend his mute applause to Mary Garland's debut in the Roman social world.The two ladies had arrived, with Roderick, silent and careless, in attendance.
Miss Blanchard was also present, escorted by Mr.Leavenworth, and the party was completed by a dozen artists of both sexes and various nationalities.
It was a friendly and easy assembly, like all Madame Grandoni's parties, and in the course of the evening there was some excellent music.
People played and sang for Madame Grandoni, on easy terms, who, elsewhere, were not to be heard for the asking.She was herself a superior musician, and singers found it a privilege to perform to her accompaniment.
Rowland talked to various persons, but for the first time in his life his attention visibly wandered; he could not keep his eyes off Mary Garland.
Madame Grandoni had said that he sometimes spoke of her as pretty and sometimes as plain; to-night, if he had had occasion to describe her appearance, he would have called her beautiful.She was dressed more than he had ever seen her; it was becoming, and gave her a deeper color and an ampler presence.Two or three persons were introduced to her who were apparently witty people, for she sat listening to them with her brilliant natural smile.Rowland, from an opposite corner, reflected that he had never varied in his appreciation of Miss Blanchard's classic contour, but that somehow, to-night, it impressed him hardly more than an effigy stamped upon a coin of low value.
Roderick could not be accused of rancor, for he had approached Mr.Leavenworth with unstudied familiarity, and, lounging against the wall, with hands in pockets, was discoursing to him with candid serenity.
Now that he had done him an impertinence, he evidently found him less intolerable.Mr.Leavenworth stood stirring his tea and silently opening and shutting his mouth, without looking at the young sculptor, like a large, drowsy dog snapping at flies.Rowland had found it disagreeable to be told Miss Blanchard would have married him for the asking, and he would have felt some embarrassment in going to speak to her if his modesty had not found incredulity so easy.
The facile side of a union with Miss Blanchard had never been present to his mind; it had struck him as a thing, in all ways, to be compassed with a great effort.He had half an hour's talk with her;a farewell talk, as it seemed to him--a farewell not to a real illusion, but to the idea that for him, in that matter, there could ever be an acceptable pis-aller.He congratulated Miss Blanchard upon her engagement, and she received his compliment with a touch of primness.
But she was always a trifle prim, even when she was quoting Mrs.Browning and George Sand, and this harmless defect did not prevent her responding on this occasion that Mr.Leavenworth had a "glorious heart."Rowland wished to manifest an extreme regard, but toward the end of the talk his zeal relaxed, and he fell a-thinking that a certain natural ease in a woman was the most delightful thing in the world.
