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<h2 class='c007'>XXIII</h2></div> <div class='c005'> <ANTIMG class='drop-capi' src='images/i-p268.jpg' width-obs='150' alt='' /></div> After luncheon Miss Holmes put her arm through Catalina’s. “Come into my room and talk to me a little while,” she murmured. “I am so tired of all these men.” Catalina had stiffened at the contact, but pride made her yield at once. She turned with a smile in her eyes, and the other girl exclaimed, impulsively, “You are the most beautiful thing I ever saw in my life!” “Oh!” said Catalina, melting; but it was characteristic that she merely accepted the tribute as her due and did not return it in kind. The two girls presented an edifying spectacle for the eyes of puzzled man as they walked off, arm in arm; moreover, at the finish of an hour’s chat in Miss Holmes’s 269cool little room they were very good friends, for women may hate each other as rivals but like each other as human creatures of the same sex. They have so many feminine interests in common, that man often dips over the horizon of memory while the mind is alive with the small and normal, only to resume his sway when it is vacant again. Miss Holmes, sitting on the floor, her hands clasped about her knees, proved to be much like any other girl, and entertained Catalina with lively anecdotes of her experience in Europe. Unconsciously she revealed much that evoked Catalina’s sympathies. She made her own clothes, and it was evident that her life was harried by small economies whose names Catalina barely knew. She was a piece of respectable driftwood in Europe anchored to a still more respectable sister, and the more remarkable that she still was able to suggest a young woman of the leisure class. “Of course I must marry,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “Unfortunately, the only man I ever wanted to marry is a prince without a cent—you meet scions of 270all the nobility in pensions; but that, of course, means that they are as poor as you are. I suppose that you—independent as you are—won’t marry for ages?” “I have no intention of marrying at present,” replied Catalina, without the flicker of an eyelash. “Lucky you! I haven’t either, for that matter, although my prince threatens to descend upon me; and if he does—” She lifted her shoulders again. “Women are idiots when they fall in love. Marriages ought to be made by the state according to fitness. How do you like my scheme for to-night?” she added, abruptly. “It is a stroke of genius. Fancy having a dance in the Alhambra by moonlight to carry away as a memory! Are you fond of dancing?” “I adore it. It is the one thing I can do to perfection. I have actually been proposed to half a dozen times on the strength of my dancing.” Catalina turned cold. “What an odd reason for proposing! A man cannot dance with his wife.” 271“Well, you see, a man’s head sometimes swims with his feet. Given a man who is fond of dancing and he is apt to think a woman perfection who dances to perfection.” Catalina rose abruptly. “I must go upstairs and rest for to-night. I have been on the go since daybreak. Thank you for asking me to your pretty room,” she added, with the charming courtesy she had at command. “You have what the French call the gift of installation, and this looks as if you had always lived here. I can’t even keep my room tidy.” “You have always had servants to keep it tidy for you,” said the other, with her quick, sweet smile. She shook Catalina’s hand warmly. “Come in often,” she said, and there was no doubting her sincerity. “And put on your most becoming gown to-night. It will be a pleasure to look at you.” But although she was attracted to Catalina, and admired her beauty with the eye of the connoisseur, she had made up her mind to marry Over. Her love for the worthy but impoverished prince who had followed her about Europe for half a year 272was a fiction of the moment, but Over had carried her off her feet. She had met scions of the continental aristocracies by the score, but it was her first adventure with an Englishman of the higher class who looked as if he would love with difficulty and make love with ardor. She had held his attention during the morning immediately in the wake of many sensations quickened by Catalina, and it is possible that some of their exuberance may have overflowed to her. She recalled that his eyes had sparkled and melted and dwelt ardently upon her own, that his tones had been laden with meaning more than once, that he had uttered many spontaneously complimentary things. She looked upon Catalina as a lovely and somewhat clever child who could have no chance in the ring with herself, but she had taken pains to make certain that her young affections were not involved. She might have hesitated before breaking an engagement. It must be added that she cared not at all if Over were rich or poor. An English aristocrat, handsome, charming, a guardsman—her heart ached with the romance of it. <div class='chapter'> 273 <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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