CHAPTER XXXIV.

ROSE AND GOLD.

Aurora wrote to the address given her by the Duke of Sassovivo, and received an immediate reply.  The tone of her letter might be described as dutiful.  She could assume no other.  That pale face and weary voice were ever before her.  She wrote much as she might have written to Fra Antonio, though with less ease; and the reply was not calculated to change this new position in which the two stood to each other.  D’Rubiera wrote freely of his movements and plans, and of his son, but made no reference to his feelings, and did not mention the past, or any future beyond his travels.

“I trust that you will not leave me in ignorance of any contemplated change in your mode of life,” he concluded, “and that you will come to no decision on any subject of importance without giving me the privilege of offering my advice, even if you should think best not to follow it.”

The letter included a note to Mrs. Lindsay, which she answered; and her answer called forth a letter addressed to herself.  There seemed to be no reason why Aurora should write again, and, by the tacit consent of all, the correspondence fell into Mrs. Lindsay’s hands.  Sometimes Aurora did not see these letters, or saw but a part of them,—­though her friend always told her the duke’s movements and plans and read her out some message from him to herself.

Possibly the reason of this reserve lay in the fact that Mrs. Lindsay made Aurora the principal theme of her letters.  Her triumphs, her beauty, her goodness, her admirers, her acts, her sayings, even her little whims, were all recounted.

The lady was a good letter-writer.  She wrote in a simple, self-colored way a clear narrative of their life in Venice, ignoring sentiment and reflections; yet the many little incidents and phrases which she set down were like so many touches with a full brush, and gave life to what she told.

The duke remained in England but a short time.  Robertino was perfectly contented, he wrote, and better without him.  He crossed the ocean, and threw himself into the life of the New World, going east, west, north, and south, glancing at the agriculture, commerce, and manufactures of that prodigious country, which astonished him.  The magnificent strength and vitality of it all braced him, waked him up, and dispelled his miasmas.  Back to England; and, before they knew that he was there, off to Spain; and when they thought of him as in Spain, he had returned to England.

And here at length he took a brief repose.  He began to go into society, and wrote Mrs. Lindsay the names of persons he met and whom she might know.  Among those whom he saw constantly was Lady Maud Churchill, whom he pronounced exquisitely beautiful.

Mr. Edward Churchill was with them when the letters were brought, and Mrs. Lindsay read out this compliment to him.