(1941) Up at the Villa Read Online Free PDF Page B

older than
yourself. How old are you? Thirty at the outside. You're not a fish. One only has to look at your mouth and the warmth of your
eyes, and at the lines of your body, to know that you're a passionate and
sensual woman. Oh, I know you had a rotten break. But at your age one recovers
from those things; you'll fall in love again. D'you think you can ignore your sexual instincts? That beautiful body of yours is made for
love; it won't allow you to deny it. You're too young to shut the door on life.’
    `You disgust me, Rowley. You talk as though bed were its
aim and end.’
    `Have you never had a lover?’
    `Never.’
    `Many men besides your husband must have loved you.’
    `I don't know. Some have said they did. You can't think
how little they meant to me. I can't say I've resisted temptation; I've never
been tempted.’
    `Oh, how can you waste your youth and beauty? They last
so short a time. What's the good of riches if one does nothing with them?
You're a kind woman and a generous one. Haven't you ever the desire to give of
your riches?' Mary was silent for an instant.
    `Shall I tell you something? I’m afraid you'll think me
even more foolish than you do.’
    `Very possibly. But tell me all
the same.’
    `I should be a fool if I didn't know I was prettier than
most women. It's true that sometimes I felt that I had something to give that
might mean a great deal to the person I gave it to. Does that sound frightfully
conceited?’
    `No. It's the plain truth.’
    `I've had a lot of time to myself lately and I dare say
I've wasted too much of it on idle thoughts. If ever I'd taken a lover it
wouldn't have been a man like you. My poor Rowley, you're the last man I would
ever have had an affair with. But I've sometimes thought that if I ever ran
across someone who was poor, alone and unhappy, who'd never had any pleasure in
life, who'd never known any of the good things money can buy - and if I could
give him a unique experience, an hour of absolute happiness, something that
he'd never dreamt of and that would never be repeated, then I'd give him gladly
everything I had to give.’
    `I never heard such a crazy idea in my life!’
    ` cried Rowley.
    `Well, now you know,' she answered brightly.
    `So get out and let me drive home.’
    `Will you be all right alone?’
    `Of course.’
    `Then good night. Many your
Empire-builder and be damned to you.’

     

     
    4
    M A R Y drove through the streets of Florence, along the
road by which she had come, and then up the hill on the top of which was the
villa. The hill was steep and wound sharply with horse-shoe turns. About
half-way up was a little semicircular terrace, with a tall, very old cypress
and a parapet in front, from which one got a view of the cathedral and the
towers of Florence. Tempted by the beauty of the night Mary stopped the car and
got out. She walked to the edge and looked over. The sight that met her eyes,
the valley flooded with the full moon under the vastness of the cloudless sky,
was so lovely that it wrung her heart with a throb of pain. Suddenly she was
aware that a man was standing in the shadow of the cypress. She saw the gleam
of his cigarette. He came towards her. She was a trifle startled, but had no
intention of showing it. He took off his hat.
    `Excuse me, are you not the lady who was so generous in
the restaurant?' he said.
    `I should like to thank you.’
    She recognized him.
    `You are the violinist.’
    He no longer wore that absurd Neapolitan costume, but
nondescript clothes which looked threadbare and dingy. He spoke English well
enough but with a foreign accent.
    `I owed my landlady for my board and lodging. The people
I live with are very good to me, but they are poor and they aced the money. Now
I shall be able to pay them.’
    `What are you doing here?’ asked Mary.
    `It is on my way home. I stopped to look at the view.’
    `Do you live near here, then?’
    `I live in one of the cottages just before