The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham - II - The World Over Read Online Free Page A

Harding dryly. “And he’ll never let Tito marry a girl who has no more money than Laura.”
    “She has about five thousand dollars a year of her own,” said Bessie. “And she’ll get that much more when her mother dies.”
    “Her mother can live for another thirty years, and five thousand a year won’t go far to keep a husband, a father, and two or three children, and restore a ruined villa with practically not a stick of furniture in it.”
    “I think the boy’s desperately in love with her.”
    “How old is he?” I asked.
    “Twenty-six.”
    A few days after this Charley, on coming back to lunch, since for once we were lunching by ourselves, told me that he had run across Mrs Clayton in the Via Tornabuoni and she had said that she and Laura were driving out that afternoon with Tito to meet his father and see the villa.
    “What d’you suppose that means?” asked Bessie.
    “My guess is that Tito is taking Laura to be inspected by his old man, and if he approves he’s going to ask her to marry him.”
    “And will he approve?”
    “Not on your life.”
    But Charley was wrong. After the two women had been shown over the house they were taken for a walk round the garden. Without exactly knowing how it had happened Mrs Clayton found herself alone in an alley with the old count. She spoke no Italian, but he had been an attache in London and his English was tolerable.
    “Your daughter is charming, Mrs Clayton,” he said. “I am not surprised that my Tito has fallen in love with her.”
    Mrs Clayton was no fool and it may be that she too had guessed why the young man had asked them to go and see the ancestral villa.
    “Young Italians are very impressionable. Laura is sensible enough not to take their attention too seriously.”
    “I was hoping she was not quite indifferent to the boy.”
    “I have no reason to believe that she likes him any more than any other of the young men who dance with her,” Mrs Clayton answered somewhat coldly. “I think I should tell you at once that my daughter has a very moderate income and she will have no more till I die.”
    “I will be frank with you. I have nothing in the world but this house and the few acres that surround it. My son could not afford to marry a penniless girl, but he is not a fortune-hunter and he loves your daughter.”
    The count had not only the grand manner, but a great deal of charm and Mrs Clayton was not insensible to it. She softened a little.
    “All that is neither here nor there. We don’t arrange our children’s marriages in America. If Tito wants to marry her, let him ask her, and if she’s prepared to marry him she’ll presumably say so.”
    “Unless I am greatly mistaken that is just what he is doing now. I hope with all my heart that he will be successful.”
    They strolled on and presently saw walking towards them the two young people hand in hand. It was not difficult to guess what had passed. Tito kissed Mrs Clayton’s hand and his father on both cheeks.
    “Mrs Clayton, Papa, Laura has consented to be my wife.”
    The engagement made something of a stir in Florentine society and a number of parties were given for the young couple. It was quite evident that Tito was very much in love, but less so that Laura was. He was good-looking, adoring, high-spirited, and gay; it was likely enough that she loved him; but she was a girl who did not display emotion and she remained what she had always been, somewhat placid, amiable, serious but friendly, and easy to talk to. I wondered to what extent she had been influenced to accept Tito’s offer by his great name, with its historical associations, and the sight of that beautiful house with its lovely view and the romantic garden.
    “Anyhow there’s no doubt about its being a love match on his side,” said Bessie Harding, when we were talking it over. “Mrs Clayton tells me that neither Tito nor his father has shown any desire to know how much Laura has.”
    “I’d bet a million dollars