After he had gone Angela sat for some minutes in silence thinking.
Then she went to her desk and wrote a brief note to the Comtesse as
follows:--
"Dear Sylvie: Dismiss your maid. She is in the employ of Fontenelle
and details to him all your movements. He has been here for half an
hour and tells me that he takes a long adieu of France after Sunday,
and he has promised me to LEAVE YOU TO YOURSELF. I am sure you are
glad of this. My uncle and I go to Rome next week.
"ANGELA."
She sealed and marked the envelope "private", and ringing the bell
for her man-servant requested him to deliver it himself into the
hands of the Comtesse Hermenstein. This matter dismissed from her
mind she went to a portfolio full of sketches, and turned them over
and over till she came to one dainty, small picture entitled,
"Phillida et les Roses". It was a study of a woman's nude figure set
among branching roses, and was signed "Florian Varillo". Angela
looked at it long and earnestly,--all the delicate flesh tints
contrasting with the exquisite hues of red and white roses were
delineated with wonderful delicacy and precision of touch, and there
was a nymph-like grace and modesty about the woman's form and the
drooping poise of her head, which was effective yet subtle in
suggestion.
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