"
Beverly's mind instantly reverted to the confessions of Baldos. He had
admitted the sending and receiving of messages through Franz. Try as she
would, she could not drive the thought from her mind that he was Dantan
and now came the distressing fear that his secret messages were words of
love from Iolanda. The audience lasted until late in the night, but she
was so occupied with her own thoughts that she knew of but little that
transpired.
Of one thing she was sure. She could not go to sleep that night.
CHAPTER XXI
THE ROSE
The next morning Aunt Fanny had a hard time of it. Her mistress was
petulant; there was no sunshine in the bright August day as it appeared
to her. Toward dawn, after she had counted many millions of black sheep
jumping backward over a fence, she had fallen asleep. Aunt Fanny obeyed
her usual instructions on this luckless morning. It was Beverly's rule
to be called every morning at seven o'clock. But how was her attendant
to know that the graceful young creature who had kicked the counterpane
to the foot of the bed and had mauled the pillow out of all shape, had
slept for less than thirty minutes? How was she to know that the flushed
face and frown were born in the course of a night of distressing
perplexities? She knew only that the sleeping beauty who lay before her
was the fairest creature in all the universe.
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