"Possibly not, madam. I will not say that I am beyond the age of being fascinated or being foolish."

"Just what I mean, sir. Well, surely, in such a contingency, you 'd not require the lady to give you what you have just called a guarantee that she 'd not run away from you?"

"My trust in her would be that guarantee, madam."

"Extend the same benevolent sentiment to me, sir. _Trust_ me. I ask for no more." And she said this with a witchery of look and manner that made Mr. Stocmar feel very happy and very miserable, twice over, within the space of a single minute.

Poor Mr. Stocmar, what has become of all your caution, all your craft, and all the counsels so lately given you? Where are they now? Where is that armor of distrust in which you were to resist the barbed arrow of the enchantress? Trust her! It was not to be thought of, and yet it was exactly the very thing to be done, in spite of all thought and in defiance of all reason.

And so the "Stocmar" three-decker struck her flag, and the ensign of the fast frigate floated from her masthead!

CHAPTER XXXII. A DRIVE ROUND THE CASCINE AT FLORENCE

"Here's another note for you, Stocmar," said Paten, half peevishly, as they both sat at breakfast at the Hotel d'Italie, and the waiter entered with a letter. "That's the third from her this morning."

"The second,--only the second, on honor," said he, breaking the seal, and running his eye over the contents. "It seems she cannot see me to-day. The Heathcote family are all in grief and confusion; some smash in America has involved them in heavy loss. Trover, you may remember, was in a fright about it last night. She'll meet me, however, at the masked ball to-night, where we can confer together. She's to steal out unperceived, and I'm to recognize her by a yellow domino with a little tricolored cross on the sleeve. Don't be jealous, Ludlow, though it does look suspicious."

"Jealous! I should think not," said the other, insolently.

"Come, come, you 'll not pretend to say she is n't worth it, Ludlow, nor you 'll not affect to be indifferent to her."

"I wish to Heaven I _was_ indifferent to her; next to having never met her, it would be the best thing I know of," said he, rising, and walking the room with hurried steps. "I tell you, Stocmar, if ever there was an evil destiny, I believe that woman to be mine. I don't think I love her, I cannot say to my own heart that I do, and yet there she is, mistress of my fate, to make me or mar me, just as she pleases."

"Which means, simply, that you are madly in love with her," said Stocmar.

"No such thing; I 'd do far more to injure than to serve her this minute. If I never closed my eyes last night, it was plotting how to overreach her,--how I should wreck her whole fortune in life, and leave her as destitute as I am myself."

"The sentiment is certainly amiable," said Stocmar, smiling.

"I make no pretence to generosity about her," said Paten, sternly; "nor is it between men like you and myself fine sentiments are bandied."

"Fine sentiments are one thing, master, an unreasonable antipathy is another," said Stocmar. "And it would certainly be too hard if we were to pursue with our hatred every woman that could not love us."

"She _did_ love me once,--at least, she said so," broke in Paten.

"Be grateful, therefore, for the past. I know I'd be very much her debtor for any show of present tenderness, and give it under my hand never to bear the slightest malice whenever it pleased her to change her mind."

"By Heaven! Stocmar," cried Paten, passionately, "I begin to believe you have been playing me false all this time, telling her all about me, and only thinking of how to advance your own interests with her."

"You wrong me egregiously, then," said Stocmar, calmly. "I am ready to pledge you my word of honor that I never uttered your name, nor made a single allusion to you in any way. Will that satisfy you?"

"It ought," muttered he, gloomily; "but suspicions and distrusts spring up in a mind like mine just as weeds do in a rank soil. Don't be angry with me, old fellow."

"I 'm not angry with you, Ludlow, except in so far as you wrong yourself. Why, my dear boy, the pursuit of a foolish spite is like going after a bad debt. All the mischief you could possibly wish this poor woman could never repay _you_."

"How can _you_ know that without feeling as I feel?" retorted he, bitterly. "If I were to show you her letters," began he; and then, as if ashamed of his ignoble menace, he stopped and was silent.

"Why not think seriously of this heiress she speaks of? I saw her yesterday as she came back from riding; her carriage was awaiting her at the Piazza del Popolo, and there was actually a little crowd gathered to see her alight."

"Is she so handsome, then?" asked he, half listlessly.

"She is beautiful; I doubt if I ever saw as lovely a face or as graceful a figure."

"I 'll wager my head on't, Loo is handsomer; I 'll engage to thrust my hand into the fire if Loo's foot is not infinitely more beautiful."

"She has a wonderfully handsome foot, indeed," muttered Stocmar.

"And so you have seen it," said Paten, sarcastically. "I wish you 'd be frank with me, and say how far the flirtation went between you."

"Not half so far as I wished it, my boy. That's all the satisfaction you 'll get from me."

This was said with a certain irritation of manner that for a while imposed silence upon each.

"Have you got a cheroot?" asked Paten, after a while; and the other flung his cigar-case across the table without speaking.

"I ordered that fellow in Geneva to send me two thousand," said Paten, laughing; "but I begin to suspect he had exactly as many reasons for not executing the order."

"Marry that girl, Ludlow, and you 'll get your 'bacco, I promise you,"

said Stocmar, gayly.

"That's all easy talking, my good fellow, but these things require time, opportunity, and pursuit. Now, who's to insure me that they 'd not find out all about _me_ in the mean while? A woman does n't marry a man with as little solicitation as she waltzes with him, and people in real life don't contract matrimony as they do in the third act of a comic opera."

"Faith, as regards obstacles, I back the stage to have the worst of it," broke in Stocmar. "But whose cab is this in such tremendous haste,--Trover's? And coming up here too? What's in the wind now?"

He had but finished these words when Trover rushed into the room, his face pale as death, and his lips colorless.

"What's up?--what's the matter, man?" cried Stocmar.

"Ruin's the matter--a general smash in America--all securities discredited--bills dishonored--and universal failure."

"So much the worse for the Yankees," said Paten, lighting his cigar coolly.

A look of anger and insufferable contempt was all Trover's reply.

"Are you deep with them?" asked Stocmar, in a whisper to the banker.

"Over head and ears," muttered the other; "we have been discounting their paper freely all through the winter, till our drawers are choke-full of their acceptances, not one of which would now realize a dollar."

"How did the news come? Are you sure of its being authentic?"

"Too sure; it came in a despatch to Mrs. Morris from London. All the investments she has been making lately for the Heathcotes are clean swept away; a matter of sixty thousand pounds not worth as many penny-pieces."

"The fortune of Miss Leslie?" asked Stocmar.

"Yes; she can stand it, I fancy, but it's a heavy blow too."