The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1897-09-09

who had gone with her brother foi
little tour to Genoa and Spez2.a. aDd
as far as Pisa. They were TO return
before February; but in the meantime
Bella might naturally feel very solitary
among all those strangers. whose man.
ners and doings she described SO well.
CHAPTER w.
The mothers instinct had been true.
Bella was not so happy as she had been
in that first flush of wonder and delight
which followed the change from Wal
worth to the Riviera. Somehow, she
knew not how. lassitude had crept
upon her. She no longer loved to
climb the hills, no longer flourished her
orange stick in sheer gladness of heart
as her light feet skipped over the rough
ground and the coarse grass on the
mountain side. The odor of rosemary
and thyme, the fresh breath OF the sea,
no longer filled her with rapture. She
thought Of Bsresford Street and her
mothers face with sick longing.
They were so far-so far away And
then she thought of Lady Ducayne,
sitting by the heaped up olive logs in
the overheated salon--thought OF that
weakened, nut cracker profile. and
those cleaning eyes, with an invincible
horror.
Visitors at the hotel had told her that
the air of Cape Ferrino was relaxing
better suited to age than to youth. TO
sickness than to health. No doubt it
was so. She was not 30 well as che had
been at Walworth; but she told herself
that she was suffering only from the
pain of separation from the dear com.
panion of her girlhood, the mother who
had been nurse, sister. friend, flatterer,
all things in this world to her. She had
shed many tears over the parting, had
spent many melancholy hour on the
marble terrace with yearning eyes look
ing westward. and with her hearts de.
sire thousand miles away.
She was sitting in her fsvorite spot.
an angle at the eastern end Of the ter
race, a quiet little nook sheltered by
orange trees when she heard couple OF
Riviera habitues talking in the garden
below. They were sitting on bench
against the wall.
She had no idea of listening to their
talk, till the sound of Lady Ducaynes
name attracted her, and then she lis
tened without any thought of wrong do.
ing. They were talking no secrets
just casually discussing an hotel ac
quaintance.
They were two elderly people whom
Bella only knew by sight. An English
clergyman who had wintered abroad for
half his lifetime stout, comfortable
well. do spinster, whose chronic
bronchitis obliged her to migrate annu
ally.
Il have met her about Italy for the
last ten years. said the lady; but have
never found out her real age"
Il put her down at hundred-not
year less" replied the parson. Her
"reminiscences all go back to the Regen.
cy. She was evidently then in her zen
ith; and have heard her say things
that showed she was in Partisan society
when the First Empire was at its best
before Josephine was divorced"
She doesn't talk much nowf" does
she.
mo; there's not much life left in her.
She is wise in keeping herself secluded.
l only wonder that old quack, her Ital-
ian doctor, didn't finish her off years
ago."
Il should think it must be the other
way, and that he keeps her alive"
My dear Miss Manders, do you think
foreign quackery ever kept anybody
alivef'
well, there she is-and she never
goes anywhere without him. He most
certainly has an unpleasant counte
nance
Unpleasant" echoed the parson, 81
don't believe the foul fiend himself can
beat him in ugliness. pity that poor
young woman who has to live between
old Lady Ducayne and that DR.. PARA
vicini."
But the old lady is good TO her com
panions."
mo doubt. She is very free with her
cash; the servants call her good Lady
Ducayne. She is withered old female
Cesus. and knows she will never get
through her money, and doesn't relish
tho idea of other people enjoying it
when she's in her coffin. People who
live to be as old as she is become slav-
ishly attached to life. dare say she's
generous to those poor girls-but she
can't make them happy. They die in
her service"
Don't say that. Mr.. Carton; know
that one poor girl died at Mentone last
spring"
''Yes, and another poor girl died in
Rome taree years ago. was there at
the time. Good Lady Ducayne left her
there in an English family. The girl
had every comfort. The old woman
was very liberal to her-but she died. !
tell you, Miss Manders, it is not good
for any young woman to live with two
such horrors as Lady Ducayne and Par
ravicini.