FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194  
195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   >>  
the deuce had? "This leaves me confused, but it improves the scenery a whole lot. But who, then, has done this thing?" "To solve that we must look nearer home." "Have you any idea who did it?" he inquired anxiously. "No." "Have you another invitation?" "I tore up the only one." "That's too bad. A stationer's imprint might have helped us." "I was angry and did not think. To-morrow a dozen temporary servants will be added to the household. We shall be very busy." "Before and after," said O'Mally dryly. He wondered what she on her part had telegraphed the real princess. It was all very mystifying. "Listen!" she said. "Horses," declared O'Mally. "Two," said Pietro, with a 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, pleasurable days at the Villa Ariadne were no more. The spirit of suspicion, of unrest, of doubt now stalked abroad, peering from veiled eyes, hovering on lips. And there was a coming and going of menials, a to-and-froing of extra gardeners and carpenters, and the sound of many hammers. The ball-room and the dining-room were opened and aired, the beautiful floors polished, and the dust and cobwebs of twenty years were vanquished. In Florence there was a deal of excitement over the coming affair, for the Villa Ariadne had once been the scene of many a splendid entertainment. Men chatted about it in their cafes and the women chattered about it in their boudoirs. And there was here and there a mysterious smile, a knowing look, a shrug. There had always been a mystery regarding the Principessa di Monte Bianca; 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 are 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, into the cellars. He scrutinized every chest and closet with all the provocative slowness of a physiologist viewing under the microscope the corpuscles of some unhappy frog. The information he had received from Rome had evidently quieted his larger doubts; but these people, from the princess down to th
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194  
195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   >>  



Top keywords:

princess

 

Florence

 
coming
 

Ariadne

 
slowness
 

chattered

 
physiologist
 

boudoirs

 

larger

 
mystery

Principessa

 

provocative

 
quieted
 

knowing

 

evidently

 

mysterious

 

microscope

 

excitement

 

vanquished

 
corpuscles

cobwebs

 
twenty
 

affair

 

entertainment

 

chatted

 

viewing

 

splendid

 

people

 

doubts

 

actual


cellars

 

present

 

information

 
nobility
 
military
 

altogether

 

inquisitive

 

solemn

 

poking

 

unhappy


forbidden
 

decline

 

inspector

 

polished

 

received

 
Europe
 

closet

 

handsome

 

spendthrift

 

doubted