But Vanno
Della Robbia was not the only one who sought the services of a friend in
order to "help" Mary.
One afternoon at the end of the Nice aviation week Dick Carleton ran up
three flights of marble stairs in a huge square house on the left or
seaward side of the Boulevard d'Italie at Monte Carlo. It was a building
given up to flats, and the corridors were almost depressingly clean and
cold looking, with their white floors and stairways of crude, cheap
marble, and their white walls glittering with the washable paint called
"Ripolin." On each etage were two white doors with openwork panels of
iron over glass, which in most cases showed curtains on the other side.
The door before which Carleton stopped on the third floor had a
semi-transparent rose-coloured curtain; and just above the bell push was
neatly tacked a visiting card with the name "Reverend George Winter"
engraved upon it.
Carleton had never met the new incumbent of St. Cyprian's, but the
chaplain had lately married an American girl, Dick's cousin. This was
the first time that Carleton had found a chance to call, although he had
been staying with Schuyler for over a fortnight. He felt rather guilty
and doubtful of his reception, as a neat little Monegasque maid told him
that Madame was _chez elle_. But he need not have been anxious. As the
maid announced his name with a pronunciation all her own, a pretty girl
sprang up from a chintz-covered window seat, in a drawing-room which in
an instant took Carleton across the sea to his native land.
Pages:
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