IX
She stood in the path, beside a sun-dial, from which she appeared to betaking the time of day, a crumbling ancient thing of grey stone, greenand brown with mosses; and she was smiling pleasantly to herself thewhile, all unaware of the couple who watched her from above. She wore alight-coloured garden-frock, and was bare-headed, as one belonging tothe place. She was young--two or three and twenty, by her aspect: young,slender, of an excellent height, and, I hope you would have agreed, abeautiful countenance. She studied the sun-dial, and smiled; and whatwith her dark eyes and softly chiselled features, the pale rose in hercheeks and the deeper rose of her mouth, with her hair too, almost blackin shadow, but where the sun touched it turning to sombre red,--yes, Ithink you would have agreed that she was beautiful. Lady Blanchemain, atany rate, found her so.
"She's quite lovely," she declared. "Her face is exquisite--sosensitive, so spiritual; so distinguished, so aristocratic. And so_clever_," she added, after a suspension.
"Mm!" said John, his forehead wrinkled, as if something were puzzlinghim.
"She has a figure--she holds herself well," said Lady Blanchemain.
"Mm!" said John.
"I suppose," said she, "you're too much a mere man to be able toappreciate her frock? It's the work of a dressmaker who knows herbusiness. And that lilac muslin (that's so fashionable now) really does,in the open air, with the country for background, show to immenseadvantage. Come--out with it. Tell me all about her. Who _is_ she?"
"That's just what I'm up a tree to think," said John. "I can't imagine.How long has she been there? From what direction did she come?"
"Don't try to hoodwink me any longer," remonstrated the lady,unbelieving.
"I've never in my life set eyes on her before," he solemnly averred.
She scrutinized him sharply.
"Hand on heart?" she doubted.
And he, supporting her scrutiny without flinching, answered, "Hand onheart."
"Well, then," concluded she, with a laugh, "it looks as if I were evenmore of an old witch than I boasted--and my thumbs pricked to somepurpose. Here's the lady of the piece already arrived. There, she'sgoing away. How well she walks! Have after her--have after her quick,and begin your courtship."
The smiling young woman, her lilac dress softly bright in the sun, wasmoving slowly down the garden path, towards the cloisters; and now sheentered them, and disappeared. But John, instead of "having after her,"remained at his counsellor's side, and watched.
"She came from that low doorway, beyond there at the right, where thetwo cypresses are; and she came at the very climax of my vaticination,"said her ladyship. "Without a hat, you'll hardly dispute it's probableshe's staying in the house."
"No--it certainly would seem so," said John. "I'm all up a tree."
"The garden looks rather dreary and empty, now that she has left,doesn't it?" she asked. "Yet it looked jolly enough before her advent.And see--the lizards (there are four of them, aren't there?) thatwhisked away from the dial at her approach, have come back. Well, _your_work's cut out. I suppose it wouldn't be possible for you to give a poorwoman a dish of tea?"
"I was on the very point of proposing it," said John. "May I conduct youto my quarters?"
PART SECOND
My Friend Prospero Page 7