"Of course," said Carlton. "You could have seen her at Buda-Pesth if
you had spoken of it. She was walking up and down then. The next time
the train stops we will prowl up and down and feast our eyes upon her."
But Miss Morris had her wish gratified without that exertion. The
Hohenwalds were served in the dining-car after the other passengers had
finished, and were in consequence only to be seen when they passed by
the doors of the other compartments. But this same morning, after
luncheon, the three Princesses, instead of returning to their own car,
seated themselves in the compartment adjoining the dining-car, while
the men of their party lit their cigars and sat in a circle around them.
"I was wondering how long they could stand three men smoking in one of
the boxes they call cars," said Mrs. Downs. She was seated between
Miss Morris and Carlton, directly opposite the Hohenwalds, and so near
them that she had to speak in a whisper. To avoid doing this Miss
Morris asked Carlton for a pencil, and scribbled with it in the novel
she held on her lap. Then she passed them both back to him, and said,
aloud: "Have you read this? It has such a pretty dedication." The
dedication read, "Which is Aline?" And Carlton, taking the pencil in
his turn, made a rapid sketch of her on the fly-leaf, and wrote beneath
it: "This is she. Do you wonder I travelled four thousand miles to
see her?"
Miss Morris took the book again, and glanced at the sketch, and then at
the three Princesses, and nodded her head. "It is very beautiful," she
said, gravely, looking out at the passing landscape.
"Well, not beautiful exactly," answered Carlton, surveying the hills
critically, "but certainly very attractive. It is worth travelling a
long way to see, and I should think one would grow very fond of it."
Miss Morris tore the fly-leaf out of the book, and slipped it between
the pages. "May I keep it?" she said. Carlton nodded. "And
will you sign it?" she asked, smiling. Carlton shrugged his shoulders,
and laughed. "If you wish it," he answered.
The Princess wore a gray cheviot travelling dress, as did her sisters,
and a gray Alpine hat. She was leaning back, talking to the English
captain who accompanied them, and laughing. Carlton thought he had
never seen a woman who appealed so strongly to every taste of which he
was possessed. She seemed so sure of herself, so alert, and yet so
gracious, so easily entertained, and yet, when she turned her eyes
towards the strange, dismal landscape, so seriously intent upon its sad
beauty. The English captain dropped his head, and with the pretence of
pulling at his mustache, covered his mouth as he spoke to her. When he
had finished he gazed consciously at the roof of the car, and she kept
her eyes fixed steadily at the object towards which they had turned
when he had ceased speaking, and then, after a decent pause, turned her
eyes, as Carlton knew she would, towards him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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