I think it very possible that after having kept them a
month and produced a dozen cases of malaria, Christina will be married
at midnight by an old friar, with simply the legal witnesses."
"It is true, then, that she has become a Catholic?"
"So she tells me. One day she got up in the depths of despair; at her
wit's end, I suppose, in other words, for a new sensation. Suddenly it
occurred to her that the Catholic church might after all hold the key,
might give her what she wanted! She sent for a priest; he happened to be
a clever man, and he contrived to interest her. She put on a black dress
and a black lace veil, and looking handsomer than ever she rustled into
the Catholic church. The prince, who is very devout, and who had her
heresy sorely on his conscience, was thrown into an ecstasy. May she
never have a caprice that pleases him less!"
Rowland had already asked Madame Grandoni what, to her perception, was
the present state of matters between Christina and Roderick; and he now
repeated his question with some earnestness of apprehension. "The girl
is so deucedly dramatic," he said, "that I don't know what coup de
theatre she may have in store for us.
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