"Oh!" she cried, "I've got lots! Here's a whole bank-note. Cannot we buy
bouillabaisse with that, Harry?"
Harry took the bank-note and perceived with astonishment that it was for
no less a sum than one hundred pounds.
"Guess Papa Faber gave you this, now, didn't he? Generous old daddy,
too. Have you seen him lately, Gipsy?"
She was a little troubled by his question.
"He came--it would be many days ago. He is going to take me back to
Italy. Why do you say he is generous? Was he not _his_ friend?"
"Do you mean your father's? Well, but we don't always give a lot of
money to the daughters of our friends--not in this country, anyway! You
ought to think yourself very lucky, Maryska!"
She did not understand that.
"He is very old," she said. "Once I thought that he looked at me as
other men do--as you do sometimes, Harry! It was when I first saw him at
Ragusa. Then it became different! He took us to Ranovica, and I saw
dreadful things. Jesus Christ, what things I saw! Oh! if you had
known--but I try to forget them now. _He_ would wish that--he never let
me speak of yesterday."
Her eyes were very wide open and shining; the expressive face spoke of
woe most piteous. And this memory of suffering affected the boy also,
destitute of sentiment as he was in a general way. He stooped suddenly
and kissed her warm lips.
"Never mind, Gipsy dear! You've got some jolly good friends, and old
Papa Faber will see you through. I know he means to, for Gabrielle told
me so. Just think of it!; one of the richest men in the world your
godfather! Aren't you in luck?"
She smiled. Money, by hook or by crook, had been Louis de Paleologue's
gospel; how could she forget it?
"He's in love with Gabrielle," she said, making no shadow of a
resistance to his kisses, but rather lifting her lips to his, "I know
it, and so does she! Why aren't you angry with them, Harry--don't you
care? Doesn't it make any difference to you?"
"Oh," he said with just a touch of hardness in his voice, "I'm not going
to be jealous of an old bounder like that. He's old enough to be her
father. Let's go and spend some of your money, Maryska. Does the doctor
say you may go?"
She made a wry grimace.
"_He_ used to say doctors were----But no, I mustn't tell you. I hate
them! How can they know what's inside us and why we feel it? Of course I
shall go! Why are you such a fool?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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