The lady despatches to Hardin her acceptance of his proposal.
In preparing a letter to the Judge she gives her "fiance" every
instruction. She permits him to mail the duplicate, carefully
compared.
In a week, Count Ernesto is tossing on the billows of the Atlantic.
He is a fashionable Columbus. He is sufficiently warned to be on his
guard in conversation with the wily Hardin. Natalie is far-seeing.
Villa Rocca laughed as he embraced his future bride. "Trust an
Italian, in finesse, cara mia."
It is arranged between the two that Hardin is to have no hint of the
character, appearance, or whereabouts of the child who receives the
bounty. The letter bears the name of "Irene Duval" as the beneficiary
of the fund. A system of correspondence is devised between them. Villa
Rocca, using his Italian consul at San Francisco as a depositary,
will be sure to obtain his letters. He will write to a discreet
friend in Paris. Perhaps a spy on herself, Natalie muses.
Still she must walk hand in hand with Villa Rocca, a new sharer of
her secret. But HE dare not talk.
When these two have said their last adieux, when Natalie sums
up her lonely thoughts, she feels, with a shudder for the future,
that not a shade of tenderness clings around this coming marriage.
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