Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-06-01
Have you another invitation ?"

print might have helped us.
Il was angry and did not think. To
morrow dozen temporary servants
will be added to the household. We
shall be very busy"
Before and after" said O'Mally
dryly. He wondered what sne vi uer
part had telegraphed the real princess
1t was all very mystifying.
.'Listen!" she said.
Horses" declared O'Mally.
Two" said Pietro, with hand to
his ear.
La Signorina's color deepened.
"Our friends" laughed O'Mally;
come up to see if we are still out of
jail
The dreamy, plessurable days at the
Villa Ariadne were no more. The
spirit Of suspicion, Of unrest, of doubt
now stalked abroad, peering from veil
ed eyes, lowering on lips. And there
was a coming and going of menials,
to-and-froing of extra gardeners and
carpenters, and thci sound of many
hammers The ballroom and the din
ing-room were opened and aired, the
beautiful floors polished. and the dust
and cobwebs of twenty years were
vanquished.
In Florence there was deal Of ex-
element over the coming affair, for
the Villa Ariadne had once been the
scene of many a splendid entertain
ment. Men chartered about it in their
cafes and the women chartered about
it in their boudoirs. And there was
here and there mysterious smile,
knowing look, a shrug. There had al
ways been mystery regarding the
Principessa di Monte Blanca; many
doubted her actual existence. But the
prince was known all over Europe as
a handsome spendthrift. And the fact
that at this precise moment he was
quartered with the eighth corps in
Florence added largely to the zest of
speculation Oh, the nobility and the
military, which ara one and the same
thing, would be present at the ball;
they were altogether too inquisitive to
decline.
Daily the inspector of seals made
his solemn round poking into the
forbidden chambers, into the lofts, in
to the cellars. He scrutinized every
chest and closet with all the provoca-
tive slowness of a hypsiologist viewing
under the microscope the corpuscles
of some unhappy frog. The informa-
ton he had received from Rome had
evidently quieted his larger doubts;
but these people, from the princess
down to the impossible concierge, were
new species to him, we'll. worth
watching. An American princess; this
accounted for much He had even
looked up the two Americans who rode
up from Florence every day; but he
found that they were outside the pale
of his suspicious; one of them was
millionaire, known to the Italian am
bassador in the United States; so he
dismissed them as negligible guam
titles. He had some petty conflicts
with Pietro: but Pietro was also
Tuscan, which explains why the in
spector never obtained any disable in
formation from this quarter.
Hillard and Merrihew eyed these
noisy preparations broodingly. To the
one it was the beginning OF the end:
this woman, so brilliant, so charming,
so lovely and human, could never be
his. WE'LL indeed, he understood now
why Mrs. Sanford had warned him;
he understood now what. the great
mistake was. Had fate sent her under
his window only for this? Bitterness
charged his heart and often passed his
lips And this other man, who, what,
and where was he all this time?
He was always at her heels now,
saving her care here, doing a service
there, but speaking no more of his
love. She understood and was grateful.
II,
gave it to him. and he was sure that
her hand touched his with pity, though
she would not meet his eyes.
And so Merrihew found but little
difficulty in picking up the thread OF
his romance.
AS for O'Mally, he spent most of his
leisure studying timetables.
At four o'clock on the afternoon OF
the day before the ball, now that the
noise had subsidized and the servants
were in their quarters, La Signorina
went into the gardens alone. An hour
earlier she had seen Hillard mount
and ride away, the last time but
once. There seemed to bear down
upon her that oppression which one
experiences in a nightmare, of being
dDle 10 lly So nigh, W luLl HldulS anu
yet to move slowly, always pursued
by terror Strive as she would, she
could not throw off this sense. After
all, it was a nightmare, from the day
she landed in New York UP to this
very moment. But how to wake
Verify, she was mad. Would any SAFE
person do what she had done ana vas
yet about to do? She might have liv
ed quietly and peacefully till the enc
of her days But no! And all hel
vows were like dried reeds in a TEN
pest, broken and beaten. Even now
there was a single avenue of escape
but she knew that she could not prof
| by it and leave these unfortunate de
relicts to shift for themselves. 1t was
not fair that they should be made tt
suffer for her mad caprices. She mus
play it out boldly to the final line
come evil or not. 8 s Love! She
laughed brokenly and struck her hands
in suppressed fury. A fitting Gilman
this, All the world was mad and she
was the maddest in it.
Some one was coming along tht
path. She wheeled impatiently. Sh'
wanted to be alone. And of all mel