Mary Hastings Bradley

“ Barry Elder looked startled at that earnest little whisper and his eyes met hers unguarded a full minute, then a whimsical smile touched his lips to softness.
"I'm afraid you have a tender heart, Maria Angelina Santonini," he said. "You want all the world to have nice wholesome cake, beautifully frosted—don't you?"
Her gravity refused his banter. "Not all the world. Only those for whom realities matter. Only those—those like you, Signor—who could feel pain and disillusionment."
"In God's green earth, what do you know of disillusionment, child?" ”

“ Maria Angelina implored with quivering lips.
"Of course we can do that. Only you've got to stick to that story like grim death—no making any little break about climbing the mountain top and things like that, you know."
"You may trust me," said Maria fervently.
"Leave it to your Uncle Dudley," Johnny reassured him. "But, look here, Barry, do you want me to die on your doorstep?" he demanded, his hunger returning as his agitation subsided.
"Oh, sit down, Johnny, and I'll bring you something," said Barry at last. "You had better keep your eye on the trail to see if any one else is coming along. ”

“ Deadly pale, except for that scarlet stain across her cheek, her eyes blazing, there was something so mortally honest in the indignant anger that possessed her that Johnny Byrd unconsciously fell back a step, and Barry Elder stood aside, his own gaze lit with concern and wonder.
"I am despising you for a coward and a flirter," said Maria Angelina in a low but exceedingly penetrative voice, and so intense was her command of the situation that neither man found humor, then, in the misused word. ”

“ A great wave of mortification surged over Maria Angelina, bearing a medley of images, of thoughts, of old hopes—like the wash from some sinking ship. What a fool of hope she had been! How vain and silly and credulous! . . . She had dreamed of this man, sung to the thought of him—quickened to absurd expectancy at every stir of the wheels. . . . And then she had pictured him at the seashore, beneath the spell of that gold-haired siren—and here he was, quite near and free—utterly unremembering! ”

“ Maria Angelina looked up through her lashes in quick gayety.
"It is my first day, Signor!"
"Your first American—Ah, but on the boat! There must have been young men on that boat, American young men?"
"On that boat? Signor!" Maria Angelina laughed mischievously. "One reads of such in novels—yes? But as to that boat, it was a floating nunnery."
"Oh, come now," he protested amusedly, "there must have been some men!"
"Some men, yes—a ship's officer, some married ones, a grandfather or two—but nothing young and nothing American." ”

“ She was herself, too, not some strange, diaphanous image conjured out of tulle and gauze, she was her own true flesh-and-blood self, living in a dream that was true.
She looked away from the mountains and smiled up at Johnny Byrd very much as the young princess in the fairy tale must have smiled at the all-conquering prince, and Johnny Byrd's blue eyes grew bluer and brighter and his voice dropped into intimate possessiveness. ”

“ Ruth said with a smile of inner amusement.
But whatever cryptic signal she flashed slipped unseen from Maria Angelina's vision. Johnny Byrd was nice, but it was a gay, cheery, everyday sort of niceness, she thought, with none of the quicksilver charm of the young man at the dinner dance. . . . And she was unimpressed by Johnny's money. She took the millionaires in America as for granted as fish in the sea. ”

“ And remember that but few of your ideas of America may be true. Americans are not all the types you have read of or the tourists you have met. You must expect a great difference. . . . I should be strange, myself, now in America."
Maria's quick sensitiveness divined a note of secret yearning.
"Yes, Mamma," she said obediently, tightening her clasp upon her mother's hands.
"You must be on guard against mistakes, Maria Angelina," said the other insistently—as if she had not said that a dozen times before! "Because American girls do things it may be not be wise for you to do. ”

“ Advancing shyly among the young girls, filled with divided wonder at their self-possession and their extreme décolletage, Ri-Ri gazed at the glass timidly, determinedly, fatefully, as one approaches an oracle, and out from the glittering surface was flung back to her a radiant image of reassurance—a vision of a slim figure in filmiest white, slender arms and shoulders bare, dark hair not braided now, but piled high upon her head—a revelation of a nape of neck as young and kissable as a baby's and yet an addition of bewildering years to her immaturity. ”

“ She hoped, remembering Cousin Jim's remark, that he would not put too much Harvard in.
She got to her feet—with wincing reluctance for every muscle in her small person made its lameness felt, and she limped when she began to walk. The rejected pile of clothing had disappeared from her side, but the fringed moccasins were left, and very humbly she drew them on. Her stockings were not those in which a Santonini desires to be discovered!
Uncertainly she moved towards the door, her stiffly dried white skirt rattling at each move. ”

“ Maria Angelina was bewildered. Distinctly she had understood, from the Leila Grey conversation, that Bobby Martin was a very eligible young man and yet here was her cousin flouting any financial congratulation.
Hesitantly, "Is his father—in a good business?" she offered, and won from Ruth more merriment as inexplicable as her speech.
"He's in Steel," she murmured, which was no enlightenment to Maria.
She ventured to more familiar ground.
"He is very handsome."
To her astonishment Ruth snorted. . . . Now Lucia always bridled consciously when one praised Paolo Tosti. ”

“ Maria Angelina shuddered and cast impish eyes at heaven.
"Honestly?" Johnny demanded. "Do you mean to tell me you've never walked between dances with young men?"
"I tell you that I have never even danced with a young man until——" She flashed away from that memory. "Until I came to America. I am not yet in Italian society. I have never been presented. It is not yet my time."
"But—but don't the sub debs have any good times over there? Don't you have dances of your own? Don't you meet fellows? Don't you know anybody?" Johnny demanded with increasing amazement at each new shake of her head. ”

“ But Maria Angelina had a tongue.
"But yes—for the better fish are yet uncaught," she retorted with a flash of the eyes toward the young man, and Paolo, all ardor as he was for Lucia's olive and rose, shot a glance of tickled humor at her impudence.
He promised himself some merry passes with the little sister-in-law.
Lucia resented the glances.
"Wait your turn, little one," she scoffed. [Pg 11] "You will be in pinafores until our poor Julietta is wed," and she laughed, unkindly. ”

“ She was white—that was the skin from Mamma—and now she wondered if it were truly a charm. Certainly Lucia preferred her own olive tints.
And her eyes were so big and dark, like caverns in her face, and her lips were mere scarlet threads. The beauties she had seen were warm-colored, high-bosomed, full-lipped.
Her distrust extended even to her coronet of black braids.
Her uncertain youth had no vision of the purity and pride of that braid-bound head, of the brilliance of the dark eyes against the satin skin, of the troubling glamour of the red little [Pg 10] mouth. ”

“ She sat demurely, not daring to raise her lashes before the scrutiny she felt must be beating upon her, until her cousins returned, warm-faced and breathless.
"You'll learn all this as soon as you get to the Lodge," Cousin Jim prophesied, in consolation.
Maria Angelina smiled absently, her big eyes brilliant. Unconsciously she was wondering what dancing could mean to these elders of hers. . . . Dancing was the stir of youth . . . the carnival of the blood . . . the beat of expectancy and excitement. . . .
"Why, there's Barry Elder!" Cousin Jane gave a quick cry of pleasure. ”

“ Ri-Ri, listen to me. You're absolutely wrong in the head. Be sensible. Have a heart. I'm going to get some rest."
"It does not matter what you say or what you intend. You do not need to reassure me that you will not kiss me, Signor. That will not happen again." Maria Angelina's voice was like ice. ”

“ No cuckoo clocks in those vague sweeps below.
"Can we not go down a little bit?" said Maria Angelina gently. "Farther down again [Pg 122] we might find the right path. . . . Up here—I think we are on the wrong mountain."
Turning, Johnny looked about. Ahead of him were overhanging slabs of rock.
Irresolution vanished. "That's the top now," he declared. "We are just coming up the wrong side, that's all. I'll say it's wrong—but here we are. I'll bet the others are up there now—lapping up that food. Come on, Ri-Ri, we haven't far now to go." ”

“ She must find some one—the right some one——
She dropped beside her trunk of pretty things in a passion of frightened tears.
But the night swung her back to triumph again.
For although she could not golf, and her hands could not wield a tennis racket, Maria Angelina could play a guitar and she could sing to it like the angels she had been named for. And the young people at the Lodge had a way of gathering in the dark upon the wide steps and strumming chords and warbling [Pg 65] strange strains about intimate emotions. And as Maria Angelina's voice rose with the rest her gift was discovered. ”

“ Perhaps he doesn't care to run after her any more. He may not be as keen about Leila Grey as you women think."
Maria Angelina's involuntary glance at Mrs. Blair caught the superior assurance of her smile.
"My dear Jim! He was simply mad about her. That last leave, before he went to France, he only went places to meet her."
"Well, he may have got over it. Men do," argued Cousin Jim stubbornly.
"Yes," echoed Maria Angelina's beating heart in hope, "men do!"
Cousin Jane laughed. "Men don't get over Leila Grey—not if Leila Grey wants to keep them." ”

“ He was very sweet and thoughtful, that Barry Elder.
Valiantly she attacked that tangled hair of [Pg 209] hers, reducing it to the old submissive braids which she coroneted about her head, fastening them with twigs as best she could, and then she washed deliciously in that cold, running stream. It must be wonderful, she felt, to be a man and to live like this. One could forget the world in such a place. . . .
Sandy dashed upon her, scattering the gathering darkness of her thoughts, and she yielded to the young impulse to splash and romp with him before returning with him to the cabin. ”

“ Wilderness Lodge, Cousin Jane had said, was a simple little place in the mountains, not a hotel but rather a club house where only certain people could go, and Maria Angelina had pictured a white stucco pension-hotel set against some background like the bare, bright hills of Italy. ”

“ And again Maria Angelina felt the inrush of fear, the overwhelming timidity of inexperience held at bay by pride alone . . . again she knew the tormenting question which she had confronted in that dim old glass at the Palazzo Santonini on the day when she had heard of the adventure before her.
She asked it that night of a different glass, the big, built-in mirror of the dressing-room at the Martins given over to the ladies—a mirror that was a dissolving kaleidoscope of color and [Pg 90] motion, of bright silks, bare shoulders and white arms, of pink cheeks, red lips and shining hair. ”

“ Blair pronounced and obediently Maria's small hands rose and removed the overshadowing whiteness from the dark little head with its coronet of heavy braids.
She did not raise her eyes to see Barry Elder's sudden flash of astonishment. Shyly she slipped within his clasp and let him swing her out into the circle of dancers.
Maria Angelina could waltz, indeed. She was fairy-footed, and for some moments Barry Elder was content to dance without speaking; then he bent his head closer to those dark braids.
[Pg 33] "So I am the first young man you have met in America?" ”

“ Blair told him with a twinkling glance at Maria Angelina's lovely little face.
"One of Jane's youngsters," he added, explanatorily to her. "She always has a lot around—she says they are the companions her son would have had if she'd had one."
Then, before Maria Angelina's polite but bewildered attention, he said more comprehensibly, "You'll find Jane a lot younger than Ruth . . . Barry's a clever chap—special work on one of the papers. Was in the aviation. Did a play that fluked last year. Too much Harvard in it, I expect. But a clever chap, very clever. Like him," he added decisively. ”

“ Nothing more—between young people of good family. Not that young people of good families make a practice of being lost," he supplemented, his eyes dancing in spite of himself at Maria Angelina's deepening amaze, "but when anything like that happens—as it has before this in the Adirondacks—people don't start an ugly scan [Pg 224] dal. They may talk a little of course, but it won't do you any real harm. . . . And it wouldn't be quite nice for Johnny to go rushing about offering you marriage. The occasion doesn't demand it in the least." ”

“ Elder, the Signorina Santonini."
"Welcome to the city, Signorina," said the young man, with a quick, bright smile, stooping to gaze under the huge, white hat. He had odd eyes, not large, but vivid hazel, with yellow lights in them.
"How do you like New York? What do you think of America? What is your opinion of prohibition and the uniformity of divorce laws? ”

“ Maria Angelina explained with becoming pride.
"And is your mother of a very old——"
"My mother is American—the cousin of Mrs. Blair. But Mamma has never been back in America—she is too devoted to us, is Mamma, and she has so much to look after for Papa. Papa is charming but he does not manage."
"That makes complications," said Barry gravely.
"And Francisco, my brother, is just like him. He is always running bills, now that he is in the army. And he was so brave in the war that Mamma cannot bear to be cross. ”

“ I am but a year and three months younger than Ruth."
"She's a kid," grinned Johnny.
"The Signor Bob Martin does not think so!"
"The Signor Bob Martin is nuts on that particular kid. And he's a kid himself."
"And do you think that you are——?"
"Sure. We're all kids together. Why not? I like it," declared young Byrd.
But Maria Angelina was not appeased. She had half glimpsed that indefinite irresponsibility of these strangers which treated youth as a toy, an experiment [Pg 82] . . . .
"And is the Signorina Leila Grey," said she suddenly, "is she, also, a kid?"
Roundly Johnny opened his eyes. ”

“ She found a green smother of forest, an ocean of greenness with emerald crests rising higher and higher like giant waves, and at the end of the long motor trip the Lodge at last disclosed itself as a low, dark, rambling building, set in a clearing behind a blue bend of sudden river.
And built of logs! Did people of position live yet in logs in America? demanded the girl's secret astonishment as the motor whirled [Pg 48] across the rustic bridge and stopped before the wide steps of a veranda full of people. ”

“ He looked at Maria Angelina in a thoughtful silence, then he turned to Johnny Byrd.
"I don't think you know how serious a business this is in Italy," he told him. "You know, there where a girl cannot even see a man alone——"
"Well, we don't need to cable it to Italy, do we?" Johnny demanded in disgust. "It isn't going to spill any beans here. But it would look fine, wouldn't it, if I came back to the Lodge yelling to marry her?"
"Right you are. That is it, Signorina," Barry Elder agreed very promptly. "That's the way it would look in America. Being lost is an unpleasant accident. ”

“ It isn't just a pose. . . . Do you imagine," said Ruth, suddenly lapsing into a little Old World sentiment herself, "that she's gone on some one in Italy and they sent her over to forget him? That might account——"
"Lucy's letter didn't sound like it. She was very emphatic about Maria Angelina's knowing nothing of the world or young men. I rather gathered," Mrs. Blair made out, "that the family had a plain daughter to marry off and wanted the pretty one in ambush for a while—they take care of those things, you know." ”