Ainslee's Magazine, February 1913 — page 37: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE POINT OF VIEW what use to talk of offended honor with high-sounding words when, if one were truthful, one would own it was of- fended vanity? Of what use for this narrow, foolish clergyman to protest and bombast and rave? Underneath, he is actuated by mostly human motives in his desire to marry my Stella. When will the world learn to be natural and see the truth? Love of the soul is the divine part of the business, but it can- not exist without love of the body. As well ask a man to live upon bread with- out water!” Then he moved to his writing table, and composed rapidly a letter to his beloved, in which he recounted to her the result of the interview, and the threats of her late fiancé, and the hu- mor in which he had quitted the room; and from that she might judge of what she must reasonably expect. He ad- vised her, as he was unaware of how far the English authority of a guard- jan might go, to feign some fatigue, and keep her room next day, and on no account whatever to be persuaded to leave Rome or the hotel. He tald her that in the morning he would endeavor to see her uncle and aunt, but if they refused this interview he would write and ask formally for her hand, and if his request were treated with scorn, then she must be prepared to slip away with him to the Excelsior Hotel, and be consigned to the care of the Prin- cess Urazov, his sister, who would have arrived from Paris. The business part of the epistle over, he allowed himself jalf a page of love sentences, which caused Miss Rawson exquisite delight when she read them some moments later. She had not. gone to bed directly— she was too excited and full of new emotions to be thinking of sleep—and when she heard Ivan’s gentle tap at her door she crept to it, and whispered, without opening it: “Who is there?” A low voice answered: “Une lettre pour mademotselle.’ And the epistle was slipped into the little box for let- ters on the door. She went back to her wide-open window, and looked out 27 on the darkness after she had read it. She saw there would be trouble ahead. She knew Eustace Medlicott’s obstinate spirit very well, and also the rigid con- vention of Aunt Caroline; but to what lengths they would go she formulated no guess. It all seemed so secure and happy and calm now, with such a man to lean upon as Sasha Roumovski. Nothing need ruffle or frighten her ever any more. And then she read the love sen- tences again, and thrilled and quivered there in the warm, soft night. Sasha Roumovski’s influence over her had grown so strong that not a questioning speculation as to the step she meant to take any longer entered her head. She felt she knew at last what love’s mean- ing truly was, and nothing else mat- tered in the world—which, indeed, was the truth! Meanwhile, the Reverend Eustace Medlicott, burning with fury, had stalked to his room, and there tried to think of what he had better do. He feared it was too late to communicate with Canon and Mrs. Ebley; they would have retired to bed, and Stella also. Here his thoughts were brought up with violent suddenness. Was she quite safe? Heaven above!—and he turned quite cold—foreigners might be capable of any outrage. But presently he dismissed this fear; people always locked their doors in hotels, and Stella, though she had apparently shown her- self sadly unworthy of his regard, was a thoroughly well-brought-up young woman, and would not be likely to bandy words in the night with any young man. But on the morrow he would insist upon their all leaving the hotel and Rome itself. No more chances of her communicating with this hateful Russian count should be risked. As the Ebley party had only arrived three days ago in the city, it was clearly impossible that the affair could have gone far; and as he had heard of their sight-seeing, and knew Mrs. Ebley would be extremely unlikely to allow Stella out of her sight in any case, he could not imagine how his fiancée and the Russian could have found a chance CEOMMUG OOK (C@