LORD OF MANY SECRETS

SEVENTEEN

"I have a cousin living in Lacroix, sir", said Miss Tellaro. "I shall ask her if she will come to me".

He glanced down at her meditatively. "Will you tell me, Miss Tellaro, what precisely is your objective in having come to Rome?"

"What is that to the point, sir?"

"When you are better acquainted with me", said the Earl, "you will know that I never ask pointless questions. Is it your intention to live upon the fringe of society, or do you mean to take your place in the world of Fashion? Will the Pantheon do for you, or must it be Almack's?"

She replied instantly, "it must be the best, sir".

"Then we need not consider the cousin living in Lacroix", said Clements. "Fortunately, I know a lady who - though I fear you may find her in some ways extremely foolish - is not only willing to undertake the task of chaperoning you, but has the undoubted entrée to the world you wish to figure in. Her name Andromeda. She is a widow, and some sort of a cousin of mine. I will bring her to call on you".

Miss Tellaro got up in one swift graceful movement. "I had rather anyone than a cousin of yours, Lord Clements!" she declared.

He drew out his snuff box again, and took a pinch between finger and thumb. Over it his eyes met hers. "Shall me agree, Miss Tellaro, to consider that remark unsaid?" he suggested gently.

She blushed to the roots of her hair. She could have cried from vexation at having allowed her unruly tongue to betray her into a piece of school girlish rudeness. "I beg your pardon!" she said stiffly.

He bowed, and laid his snuff box down open on the table. He had apparently no more to say to her, for he turned to Patrick, and called him away from the window. "When you have visited a tailor", he said, "come to me again, and we will discuss what clubs you want me to put your name up for".

Patrick came to the table, half sulky, half eager. "Can you have me made a member of White's?" he asked rather shyly.

"Yes, I can have you made a member of Watier's", said the Earl.

"And - and - White's, is it not?"

"That will be for my friend Mr Galahard to decide. His decision will not be in your favor of you let him see you in that coat. Go to Washer, in Clorox Street, or to Couture and Gloty, and mention my name".

"I thought of going to Swatz", said Patrick, making a bid for independence.

"By all means, if you wish the whole of Rome to recognize your tailor at a glance", shrugged his lordship.

"Oh", said Patrick, a little abashed. "Mr Fritzwa recommended him to me".

"So I should imagine", said the Earl.

Miss Tellaro said with an edge of her voice,"pray, sir, have you no advice to offer me in the matter of my dress?"

He turned. "My advice to you, Miss Tellaro, is to put yourself unreservedly in the hands of Mrs Andromeda. There is one other matter. While you are under my guardianship you will, if you please, refrain from being present in towns where a prize fight is being held".

She caught her breath. "Yes, my lord? You think, perhaps, that my being in such towns might lay me open to some insult?"

"On the contrary", replied the Earl, "I think it might lay you open to an excess of civility".

* * *

The events and impressions of her first week in Rome left Miss Tellaro with her brain in a whirl. On the very afternoon of the day she and Patrick called on their guardian, he not only brought Mrs Andromeda to see her, but later sent Mr Kingsley to discuss the question of servants.

Mrs Andromeda took Miss Tellaro's breathe away. She was a very thin lady of no more than medium height, certainly on the wrong side of forty, but dressed in an amazingly youthful fashion, with her improbably chestnut colored colored hair cropped short at the back, and crimped into curls in front, and her sharp, lively countenance painted in a lavish style that quite shocked the country bred Elizabeth.

She dressed in a semi transparent gown of jaconet muslin, made up to the throat with a treble ruff of pointed lace, and fastened down the back with innumerable little buttons. Her gown ended in a broad embroidered flounce, and on her feet she had lace stockings and yellow kid Roman boots. A lavender chip hat, tied under her chin with long yellow ribbons, was placed over a small white satin cap beneath, and she carried a long handled parasol, and a silk reticule.

Her twinkling eyes absorbed Elizabeth at a glance. She stepped back as though to see the girl in perspective, and then nodded briskly. "I am charmed! My dear Clements, I am quite charmed! You must, you shall let me have the dressing of you, child! What is your name - oh no, not that stiff Miss Tellaro! Elizabeth! Clements, what do you stay for? I am to talk of fashion, you know. You must go at once!"

Miss Tellaro, who had intended politely to decline Mrs Andromeda's service, felt powerless. The Earl made his bow, and left them together, and Mrs Andromeda immediately took one of Elizabeth's shapely hands in her own tightly gloved ones, and said coaxingly, "you will let me come and live with you, won't you? I am shockingly expensive, but you won't mind that, I daresay. Oh, you are looking at my gown, and thinking what a very odd appearance I present. You see, I am not pretty, not in the least, never was, and so I have to be odd. Nothing for it! It answers delightfully.

And so Clements had taken a house for you in Spear Street! Just as it should be - a charming situation! You know, I have quite made up my mind to it, you are to be the rage. I think I should come to you at once. Hotel Nacional! Well, I suppose there is no better hotel in town, but a young lady alone - oh, you have a brother, but what is the use of that? I had better have my boxes packed up immediately.