Page:Angna Enters - Among the Daughters.djvu/418

 Vermillion would come this free afternoon and enfold her in his radiating smile. I wouldn't even care if he never touched me, just so long as he comes, that much I know, she thought and broke into drenching sobs the moment the door closed behind Lucy.

"Your mother must be proud of your success," Nino said at a table overlooking the Park in the dark paneled dining room.

It seemed impossible for him to penetrate the barrier she had erected since their last meeting a month past. Before the concert she had been warm and open, affectionate even, or at least not unhappy in his company. Now it was as if she were performing a duty. There was lackluster in her spirit. The incandescence had diminished in the childlike smile which had made him hope for the first time in years that he would know love again.

"You know how mothers are, they think everything you do is wonderful and are happy when there is lots of applause," she said nervously.

The Park across no longer was a fairyland to stroll in happily, hand in hand, but a prairie like that outside Congress where you could get lost.

The Marqués de Mendez y Avila smiled and raised his hand to prevent the waiter from putting ice into the water.

"It did not please you as well?"

"It's fine while it lasts but afterwards you must begin all over. It's like riding on a merry-go-round horse."

"But the world is limitless in its interests, surely one so young cannot be bored. I have seen much and am not yet world-weary. Think of what there is to see and learn and enjoy."

She smiled wryly. "If you are in show business the world is a circle around Broadway. And then, look at Figente—he's seen and done so much he hardly ever leaves his house."

"I see no resemblance between you."

They laughed, and waited as the waiter cleared and scraped.

He put four lumps of sugar into the small cup. "Spaniards are partial to sweets," he said, looking at her meaningfully.

"Are they?" she said, pretending not to understand. "I think I'll just have a cigarette if you don't mind." She pushed aside her cup, trying to think of something else to keep him from speaking of love as she didn't want to hurt him. "It's a shame I'm in such a bad mood. I thought my friend Vida was going to die, and now there 406