He was on the point of telling her of his adventure on the tower when she struck in: 

 "The Congress will put an end to all that presently." It checked Cosmo's expansiveness and he said instead: 

 "It's very possible. But last night on arriving here I experienced a curious sensation of his nearness. I went down in the evening to look at the Port." 

 "He isn't certainly very far from here. And what are your feelings about him?" 

 "Oh," he rejoined lightly, "as about everything else in the world—contradictory." 

 Madame de Montevesso rose suddenly, saying: 

 "I won't ask you, then, as to your feelings about myself." Cosmo stood up hastily. He was a little the taller of the two but their faces were nearly on a level. "I should like you to make up your mind about me before you take up your traveller's pen," continued Adèle. "Come again this evening. There will be a few people here; and, as you have said, when a few people come together just now Napoleon is always with them, an unseen presence. But you will see my father. Do you remember him at all?" 

 Cosmo assured her that he remembered the Marquis d'Armand perfectly. He was on the point of making his parting bow when Madame de Montevesso, with the two words "à l'Anglaise," put out her hand. He took it and forgot himself in the unexpected sensation of this contact. He was in no haste to release it when to his extreme surprise, with a slight movement of her eyes towards the girl at the writing table, Madame de Montevesso said: 

 "Did you ever see anything like that?" 

 Cosmo was taken completely aback. He dropped her hand. He did not know what to say, and even if it was proper for him to smile. Madame de Montevesso continued in a voice betraying no sentiment of any kind: "I can never be sure of my privacy now. Do you understand that I am her aunt? She wanders all over this palazzo very much like a domestic animal, only more observant, and she is by no means an idiot. Luckily she knows no language but Italian." 

 They had been moving slowly towards the other end of the room, but now Madame de Montevesso stopped and returned Cosmo's parting bow with a slight inclination of her head. Before passing round the screen between him and the door Cosmo glanced back. The girl on the chair had not stirred. 

 Prev. P 64/183 next