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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Roman Singer, by F. Marion Crawford
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Roman Singer
+
+Author: F. Marion Crawford
+
+Release Date: May 14, 2004 [EBook #12346]
+[Last updated: October 20, 2015]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A ROMAN SINGER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Paul Murray, Ari J Joki and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+A ROMAN SINGER
+
+F. MARION CRAWFORD
+
+1909
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "Shut the door and double turned the lock."--Chap.
+XXI.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+I, Cornelio Grandi, who tell you these things, have a story of my own,
+of which some of you are not ignorant. You know, for one thing, that I
+was not always poor, nor always a professor of philosophy, nor a
+scribbler of pedantic articles for a living. Many of you can remember
+why I was driven to sell my patrimony, the dear castello in the
+Sabines, with the good corn-land and the vineyards in the valley, and
+the olives, too. For I am not old yet; at least, Mariuccia is older,
+as I often tell her. These are queer times. It was not any fault of
+mine. But now that Nino is growing to be a famous man in the world,
+and people are saying good things and bad about him, and many say that
+he did wrong in this matter, I think it best to tell you all the whole
+truth and what I think of it. For Nino is just like a son to me; I
+brought him up from a little child, and taught him Latin, and would
+have made a philosopher of him. What could I do? He had so much voice
+that he did not know what to do with it.
+
+His mother used to sing. What a piece of a woman she was! She had a
+voice like a man's, and when De Pretis brought his singers to the
+festa once upon a time, when I was young, he heard her far down below,
+as we walked on the terrace of the palazzo, and asked me if I would
+not let him educate that young tenor. And when I told him it was one
+of the contadine, the wife of a tenant of mine, he would not believe
+it. But I never heard her sing after Serafino--that was her
+husband--was killed at the fair in Genazzano. And one day the fevers
+took her, and so she died, leaving Nino a little baby. Then you know
+what happened to me, about that time, and how I sold Castel Serveti
+and came to live here in Rome. Nino was brought to me here. One day in
+the autumn a carrettiere from Serveti, who would sometimes stop at my
+door and leave me a basket of grapes in the vintage, or a pitcher of
+fresh oil in winter, because he never used to pay his house-rent when
+I was his landlord--but he is a good fellow, Gigi--and so he tries to
+make amends now; well, as I was saying, he came one day and gave me a
+great basket of fine grapes, and he brought Nino with him, a little
+boy of scarce six years--just to show him to me, he said.
+
+He was an ugly little boy, with a hat of no particular shape and a
+dirty face. He had great black eyes, with ink-saucers under them,
+_calamai_, as we say, just as he has now. Only the eyes are bigger
+now, and the circles deeper. But he is still sufficiently ugly. If it
+were not for his figure, which is pretty good, he could never have
+made a fortune with his voice. De Pretis says he could, but I do not
+believe it.
+
+Well, I made Gigi come in with Nino, and Mariuccia made them each a
+great slice of toasted bread and spread it with oil, and gave Gigi a
+glass of the Serveti wine, and little Nino had some with water. And
+Mariuccia begged to have the child left with her till Gigi went back
+the next day; for she is fond of children and comes from Serveti
+herself. And that is how Nino came to live with us. That old woman has
+no principles of economy, and she likes children.
+
+"What does a little creature like that eat?" said she. "A bit of
+bread, a little soup--macchè! You will never notice it, I tell you.
+And the poor thing has been living on charity. Just imagine whether
+you are not quite as able to feed him as Gigi is!" So she persuaded
+me. But at first I did it to please her, for I told her our proverb,
+which says there can be nothing so untidy about a house as children
+and chickens. He was such a dirty little boy, with only one shoe and a
+battered hat, and he was always singing at the top of his voice, and
+throwing things into the well in the cortile.
+
+Mariuccia can read a little, though I never believed it until I found
+her one day teaching Nino his letters out of the _Vite dei Santi_.
+That was probably the first time that her reading was ever of any use
+to her, and the last, for I think she knows the _Lives of the Saints_
+by heart, and she will certainly not venture to read a new book at her
+age. However, Nino very soon learned to know as much as she, and she
+will always be able to say that she laid the foundation of his
+education. He soon forgot to throw handfuls of mud into the well, and
+Mariuccia washed him, and I bought him a pair of shoes, and we made
+him look very decent. After a time he did not even remember to pull
+the cat's tail in the morning, so as to make her sing with him, as he
+said. When Mariuccia went to church she would take him with her, and
+he seemed very fond of going, so that I asked him one day if he would
+like to be a priest when he grew up, and wear beautiful robes, and
+have pretty little boys to wait on him with censers in their hands.
+
+"No," said the little urchin, stoutly, "I won't be a priest." He
+found in his pocket a roast chestnut Mariuccia had given him, and
+began to shell it.
+
+"Why are you always so fond of going to church then?" I asked.
+
+"If I were a big man," quoth he, "but really big, I would sing in
+church, like Maestro De Pretis."
+
+"What would you sing, Nino?" said I, laughing. He looked very grave,
+and got a piece of brown paper and folded it up. Then he began to beat
+time on my knees and sang out boldly, _Cornu ejus exaltabitur_.
+
+It was enough to make one laugh, for he was only seven years old, and
+ugly too. But Mariuccia, who was knitting in the hall-way, called out
+that it was just what Maestro Ercole had sung the day before at
+vespers, every syllable.
+
+I have an old piano in my sitting-room. It is a masterpiece of an
+instrument, I can tell you; for one of the legs is gone and I propped
+it up with two empty boxes, and the keys are all black except those
+that have lost the ivory--and those are green. It has also five
+pedals, disposed as a harp underneath; but none of them make any
+impression on the sound, except the middle one, which rings a bell.
+The sound-board has a crack in it somewhere, Nino says, and two of the
+notes are dumb since the great German maestro came home with my boy
+one night, and insisted on playing an accompaniment after supper. We
+had stewed chickens and a flask of Cesanese, I remember, and I knew
+something would happen to the piano. But Nino would never have any
+other, for De Pretis had a very good one; and Nino studies without
+anything--just a common tuning-fork that he carries in his pocket. But
+the old piano was the beginning of his fame. He got into the
+sitting-room one day, by himself, and found out that he could make a
+noise by striking the keys, and then he discovered that he could make
+tunes, and pick out the ones that were always ringing in his head.
+After that he could hardly be dragged away from it, so that I sent him
+to school to have some quiet in the house.
+
+He was a clever boy, and I taught him Latin and gave him our poets to
+read; and as he grew up I would have made a scholar of him, but he
+would not. At least, he was willing to learn and to read; but he was
+always singing too. Once I caught him declaiming "Arma virumque cano"
+to an air from Trovatore, and I knew he could never be a scholar then,
+though he might know a great deal. Besides, he always preferred Dante
+to Virgil, and Leopardi to Horace.
+
+One day, when he was sixteen or thereabouts, he was making a noise, as
+usual, shouting some motive or other to Mariuccia and the cat, while I
+was labouring to collect my senses over a lecture I had to prepare.
+Suddenly his voice cracked horribly and his singing ended in a sort of
+groan. It happened again once or twice, the next day, and then the
+house was quiet. I found him at night asleep over the old piano, his
+eyes all wet with tears.
+
+"What is the matter, Nino?" I asked. "It is time for youngsters like
+you to be in bed."
+
+"Ah, Messer Cornelio," he said, when he was awake, "I had better go to
+bed, as you say. I shall never sing again, for my voice is all broken
+to pieces"; and he sobbed bitterly.
+
+"The saints be praised," thought I; "I shall make a philosopher of you
+yet!"
+
+But he would not be comforted, and for several months he went about as
+if he were trying to find the moon, as we say; and though he read his
+books and made progress, he was always sad and wretched, and grew
+much thinner, so that Mariuccia said he was consuming himself, and I
+thought he must be in love. But the house was very quiet.
+
+I thought as he did, that he would never sing again, but I never
+talked to him about it, lest he should try, now that he was as quiet
+as a nightingale with its tongue cut out. But nature meant
+differently, I suppose. One day De Pretis came to see me; it must have
+been near the new year, for he never came often at that time. It was
+only a friendly recollection of the days when I had a castello and a
+church of my own at Serveti, and used to have him come from Rome to
+sing at the festa, and he came every year to see me; and his head grew
+bald as mine grew grey, so that at last he wears a black skull-cap
+everywhere, like a priest, and only takes it off when he sings the
+Gloria Patri, or at the Elevation. However, he came to see me, and
+Nino sat mutely by, as we smoked a little and drank the syrup of
+violets with water that Mariuccia brought us. It was one of her
+eternal extravagances, but somehow, though she never understood the
+value of economy, my professorship brought in more than enough for us,
+and it was not long after this that I began to buy the bit of vineyard
+out of Porta Salara, by instalments from my savings. And since then we
+have our own wine.
+
+De Pretis was talking to me about a new opera that he had heard. He
+never sang except in church, of course, but he used to go to the
+theatre of an evening; so it was quite natural that he should go to
+the piano and begin to sing a snatch of the tenor air to me,
+explaining the situation as he went along, between his singing.
+
+Nino could not sit still, and went and leaned over Sor Ercole, as we
+call the maestro, hanging on the notes, not daring to try and sing,
+for he had lost his voice, but making the words with his lips.
+
+"Dio mio!" he cried at last, "how I wish I could sing that!"
+
+"Try it," said De Pretis, laughing and half interested by the boy's
+earnest look. "Try it--I will sing it again." But Nino's face fell.
+
+"It is no use," he said. "My voice is all broken to pieces now,
+because I sang too much before."
+
+"Perhaps it will come back," said the musician kindly, seeing the
+tears in the young fellow's eyes. "See, we will try a scale." He
+struck a chord. "Now, open your mouth--so--Do-o-o-o!" He sang a long
+note. Nino could not resist any longer, whether he had any voice or
+not. He blushed red and turned away, but he opened his mouth and made
+a sound.
+
+"Do-o-o-o!" He sang like the master, but much weaker.
+
+"Not so bad; now the next, Re-e-e!" Nino followed him. And so on, up
+the scale.
+
+After a few more notes, De Pretis ceased to smile, and cried, "Go on,
+go on!" after every note, authoritatively, and in quite a different
+manner from his first kindly encouragement. Nino, who had not sung for
+months, took courage and a long breath, and went on as he was bid, his
+voice gaining volume and clearness as he sang higher. Then De Pretis
+stopped and looked at him earnestly.
+
+"You are mad," he said. "You have not lost your voice at all."
+
+"It was quite different when I used to sing before," said the boy.
+
+"Per Bacco, I should think so," said the maestro. "Your voice has
+changed. Sing something, can't you?"
+
+Nino sang a church air he had caught somewhere. I never heard such a
+voice, but it gave me a queer sensation that I liked--it was so true,
+and young, and clear. De Pretis sat open-mouthed with astonishment
+and admiration. When the boy had finished, he stood looking at the
+maestro, blushing very scarlet, and altogether ashamed of himself. The
+other did not speak.
+
+"Excuse me," said Nino, "I cannot sing. I have not sung for a long
+time. I know it is not worth anything." De Pretis recovered himself.
+
+"You do not sing," said he, "because you have not learned. But you
+can. If you will let me teach you, I will do it for nothing."
+
+"Me!" screamed Nino, "you teach _me_! Ah, if it were any use--if you
+only would!"
+
+"Any use?" repeated De Pretis half aloud, as he bit his long black
+cigar half through in his excitement. "Any use? My dear boy, do
+you know that you have a very good voice? A remarkable voice," he
+continued, carried away by his admiration, "such a voice as I have
+never heard. You can be the first tenor of your age, if you please--in
+three years you will sing anything you like, and go to London and
+Paris, and be a great man. Leave it to me."
+
+I protested that it was all nonsense, that Nino was meant for a
+scholar and not for the stage, and I was quite angry with De Pretis
+for putting such ideas into the boy's head. But it was of no use. You
+cannot argue with women and singers, and they always get their own way
+in the end. And whether I liked it or not, Nino began to go to Sor
+Ercole's house once or twice a week, and sang scales and exercises
+very patiently, and copied music in the evening, because he said he
+would not be dependent on me, since he could not follow my wishes in
+choosing a profession. De Pretis did not praise him much to his face
+after they had begun to study, but he felt sure he would succeed.
+
+"Caro Conte,"--he often calls me Count, though I am only plain
+Professore, now--"he has a voice like a trumpet and the patience of
+all the angels. He will be a great singer."
+
+"Well, it is not my fault," I used to answer; for what could I do?
+
+When you see Nino now, you cannot imagine that he was ever a dirty
+little boy from the mountains, with one shoe, and that infamous little
+hat. I think he is ugly still, though you do not think so when he is
+singing, and he has good strong limbs and broad shoulders, and carries
+himself like a soldier. Besides, he is always very well dressed,
+though he has no affectations. He does not wear his hair plastered
+into a love-lock on his forehead, like some of our dandies, nor is he
+eternally pulling a pair of monstrous white cuffs over his hands.
+Everything is very neat about him and very quiet, so that you would
+hardly think he was an artist after all; and he talks but little,
+though he can talk very well when he likes, for he has not forgotten
+his Dante nor his Leopardi. De Pretis says the reason he sings so well
+is because he has a mouth like the slit in an organ pipe, as wide as a
+letter-box at the post-office. But I think he has succeeded because he
+has great square jaws like Napoleon. People like that always succeed.
+My jaw is small, and my chin is pointed under my beard--but then, with
+the beard, no one can see it. But Mariuccia knows.
+
+Nino is a thoroughly good boy, and until a year ago he never cared for
+anything but his art; and now he cares for something, I think, a great
+deal better than art, even than art like his. But he is a singer
+still, and always will be, for he has an iron throat, and never was
+hoarse in his life. All those years when he was growing up, he never
+had a love-scrape, or owed money, or wasted his time in the caffè.
+
+"Take care," Mariuccia used to say to me, "if he ever takes a fancy to
+some girl with blue eyes and fair hair he will be perfectly crazy. Ah,
+Sor Conte, _she_ had blue eyes, and her hair was like the corn-silk.
+How many years is that, Sor Conte mio?" Mariuccia is an old witch.
+
+I am writing this story to tell you why Mariuccia is a witch, and why
+my Nino, who never so much as looked at the beauties of the generone,
+as they came with their fathers and brothers and mothers to eat
+ice-cream in the Piazza Colonna, and listen to the music of a summer's
+evening,--Nino, who stared absently at the great ladies as they rolled
+over the Pincio, in their carriages, and was whistling airs to himself
+for practice when he strolled along the Corso, instead of looking out
+for pretty faces,--Nino, the cold in all things save in music, why he
+fulfilled Mariuccia's prophecy, little by little, and became perfectly
+crazy about blue eyes and fair hair. That is what I am going to tell
+you, if you have the leisure to listen. And you ought to know it,
+because evil tongues are more plentiful than good voices in Rome,
+as elsewhere, and people are saying many spiteful things about
+him--though they clap loudly enough at the theatre when he sings.
+
+He is like a son to me, and perhaps I am reconciled, after all, to his
+not having become a philosopher. He would never have been so famous
+as he is now, and _he_ really knows so much more than Maestro De
+Pretis--in other ways than music--that he is very presentable indeed.
+What is blood, nowadays? What difference does it make to society
+whether Nino Cardegna, the tenor was the son of a vine-dresser? Or
+what does the University care for the fact that I, Cornelio Grandi, am
+the last of a race as old as the Colonnas, and quite as honourable?
+What does Mariuccia care? What does anybody care? Corpo di Bacco! if
+we begin talking of race we shall waste as much time as would make us
+all great celebrities! I am not a celebrity--I never shall be now,
+for a man must begin at that trade young. It is a profession--being
+celebrated--and it has its signal advantages. Nino will tell you so,
+and he has tried it. But one must begin young, very young! I cannot
+begin again.
+
+And then, as you all know, I never began at all. I took up life in the
+middle, and am trying hard to twist a rope of which I never held the
+other end. I feel sometimes as though it must be the life of another
+that I have taken, leaving my own unfinished, for I was never meant to
+be a professor. That is the way of it; and if I am sad and inclined to
+melancholy humours, it is because I miss my old self, and he seems to
+have left me without even a kindly word at parting. I was fond of my
+old self, but I did not respect him much. And my present self I
+respect, without fondness. Is that metaphysics? Who knows? It is
+vanity in either case, and the vanity of self-respect is perhaps a
+more dangerous thing than the vanity of self-love, though you may call
+it pride if you like, or give it any other high-sounding title. But
+the heart of the vain man is lighter than the heart of the proud.
+Probably Nino has always had much self-respect, but I doubt if it has
+made him very happy--until lately. True, he has genius, and does what
+he must by nature do or die, whereas I have not even talent, and I
+make myself do for a living what I can never do well. What does it
+serve, to make comparisons? I could never have been like Nino, though
+I believe half my pleasure of late has been in fancying how I should
+feel in his place, and living through his triumphs by my imagination.
+Nino began at the very beginning, and when all his capital was one
+shoe and a ragged hat, and certainly not more than a third of a shirt,
+he said he would be a great singer; and he is, though he is scarcely
+of age yet. I wish it had been something else than a singer, but since
+he is the first already, it was worth while. He would have been great
+in anything, though, for he has such a square jaw, and he looks so
+fierce when anything needs to be overcome. Our forefathers must have
+looked like that, with their broad eagle noses and iron mouths. They
+began at the beginning, too, and they went to the very end. I wish
+Nino had been a general, or a statesman, or a cardinal, or all three
+like Richelieu.
+
+But you want to hear of Nino, and you can pass on your ways, all of
+you, without hearing my reflections and small-talk about goodness,
+and success, and the like. Moreover, since I respect myself now, I
+must not find so much fault with my own doings, or you will say that
+I am in my dotage. And, truly, Nino Cardegna is a better man, for all
+his peasant blood, than I ever was; a better lover, and perhaps a
+better hater. There is his guitar, that he always leaves here, and it
+reminds me of him and his ways. Fourteen years he lived here with me,
+from child to boy and from boy to man, and now he is gone, never to
+live here any more. The end of it will be that I shall go and live
+with him, and Mariuccia will take her cat and her knitting, and her
+_Lives of the Saints_ back to Serveti, to end her life in peace,
+where there are no professors and no singers. For Mariuccia is older
+than I am, and she will die before me. At all events, she will take
+her tongue with her, and ruin herself at her convenience without
+ruining me. I wonder what life would be without Mariuccia? Would
+anybody darn my stockings, or save the peel of the mandarins to make
+cordial? I certainly would not have the mandarins if she were
+gone--it is a luxury. No, I would not have them. But then, there
+would be no cordial, and I should have to buy new stockings every
+year or two. No, the mandarins cost less than the stockings--and--well,
+I suppose I am fond of Mariuccia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+It was really not so long ago--only one year. The sirocco was blowing
+up and down the streets, and about the corners, with its sickening
+blast, making us all feel like dead people, and hiding away the sun
+from us. It is no use trying to do anything when it blows sirocco, at
+least for us who are born here. But I had been persuaded to go with
+Nino to the house of Sor Ercole to hear my boy sing the opera he had
+last studied, and so I put my cloak over my shoulders, and wrapped its
+folds over my breast, and covered my mouth, and we went out. For it
+was a cold sirocco, bringing showers of tepid rain from the south, and
+the drops seemed to chill themselves as they fell. One moment you are
+in danger of being too cold, and the next minute the perspiration
+stands on your forehead, and you are oppressed with a moist heat. Like
+the prophet, when it blows a real sirocco you feel as if you were
+poured out like water, and all your bones were out of joint.
+Foreigners do not feel it until they have lived with us a few years,
+but Romans are like dead men when the wind is in that quarter.
+
+I went to the maestro's house and sat for two hours listening to the
+singing. Nino sang very creditably, I thought, but I allow that I
+was not as attentive as I might have been, for I was chilled and
+uncomfortable. Nevertheless, I tried to be very appreciative, and I
+complimented the boy on the great progress he had made. When I thought
+of it, it struck me that I had never heard anybody sing like that
+before; but still there was something lacking; I thought it sounded a
+little unreal, and I said to myself that he would get admiration, but
+never any sympathy. So clear, so true, so rich it was, but wanting a
+ring to it, the little thrill that goes to the heart. He sings very
+differently now.
+
+Maestro Ercole De Pretis lives in the Via Paola, close to the Ponte
+Sant' Angelo, in a most decent little house--that is, of course, on a
+floor of a house, as we all do. But De Pretis is well-to-do, and he
+has a marble door plate, engraved in black with his name, and two
+sitting-rooms. They are not very large rooms, it is true, but in
+one of them he gives his lessons, and the grand piano fills it up
+entirely, so that you can only sit on the little black horsehair sofa
+at the end, and it is very hard to get past the piano on either side.
+Ercole is as broad as he is long, and takes snuff when he is not
+smoking. But it never hurts his voice.
+
+It was Sunday, I remember, for he had to sing in St. Peter's in the
+afternoon; and it was so near, we walked over with him. Nino had never
+lost his love for church music, though he had made up his mind that it
+was a much finer thing to be a primo tenore assoluto at the Apollo
+Theatre than to sing in the Pope's choir for thirty scudi a month. We
+walked along over the bridge, and through the Borgo Nuovo, and across
+the Piazza Rusticucci, and then we skirted the colonnade on the left,
+and entered the church by the sacristy, leaving De Pretis there to put
+on his purple cassock and his white cotta. Then we went into the
+Capella del Coro to wait for the vespers.
+
+All sorts of people go to St. Peter's on Sunday afternoon, but they
+are mostly foreigners, and bring strange little folding chairs, and
+arrange themselves to listen to the music as though it were a concert.
+Now and then one of the young gentlemen-in-waiting from the Vatican
+strolls in and says his prayers, and there is an old woman, very
+ragged and miserable, who has haunted the chapel of the choir for many
+years, and sits with perfect unconcern, telling her beads at the foot
+of the great reading-desk that stands out in the middle and is never
+used. Great ladies crowd in through the gate when Raimondi's hymn is
+to be sung, and disreputable artists make sketches surreptitiously
+during the benediction, without the slightest pretence at any devotion
+that I can see. The lights shine out more brightly as the day wanes,
+and the incense curls up as the little boys swing the censers, and the
+priests and canons chant, and the choir answers from the organ loft;
+and the crowd looks on, some saying their prayers, some pretending to,
+and some looking about for the friend or lover they have come to meet.
+
+That evening when we went over together I found myself pushed against
+a tall man with an immense gray moustache standing out across his face
+like the horns of a beetle. He looked down on me from time to time,
+and when I apologised for crowding him his face flushed a little, and
+he tried to bow as well as he could in the press, and said something
+with a German accent which seemed to be courteous. But I was separated
+from Nino by him. Maestro Ercole sang, and all the others, turn and
+turn about, and so at last it came to the benediction. The tall old
+foreigner stood erect and unbending, but most of the people around him
+kneeled. As the crowd sank down I saw that on the other side of him
+sat a lady on a small folding stool, her feet crossed one over the
+other, and her hands folded on her knees. She was dressed entirely in
+black, and her fair face stood out wonderfully clear and bright
+against the darkness. Truly she looked more like an angel than a
+woman, though perhaps you will think she is not so beautiful after
+all, for she is so unlike our Roman ladies. She has a delicate nose,
+full of sentiment, and pointed a little downward for pride; she has
+deep blue eyes, wide apart and dreamy, and a little shaded by brows
+that are quite level and even, with a straight pencilling over them,
+that looks really as if it were painted. Her lips are very red and
+gentle, and her face is very white, so that the little ringlet that
+has escaped control looks like a gold tracery on a white marble
+ground.
+
+And there she sat with the last light from the tall windows and the
+first from the great wax candles shining on her, while all around
+seemed dark by contrast. She looked like an angel; and quite as cold,
+perhaps most of you would say. Diamonds are cold things, too, but they
+shine in the dark; whereas a bit of glass just lets the light through
+it, even if it is coloured red and green and put in a church window,
+and looks ever so much warmer than the diamond.
+
+But though I saw her beauty and the light of her face, all in a
+moment, as though it had been a dream, I saw Nino, too; for I had
+missed him, and had supposed he had gone to the organ loft with De
+Pretis. But now, as the people kneeled to the benediction, imagine a
+little what he did; he just dropped on his knees with his face to the
+white lady, and his back to the procession; it was really disgraceful,
+and if it had been lighter I am sure everyone would have noticed it.
+At all events, there he knelt, not three feet from the lady, looking
+at her as if his heart would break. But I do not believe she saw him,
+for she never looked his way. Afterwards everybody got up again, and
+we hurried to get out of the Chapel; but I noticed that the tall old
+foreigner gave his arm to the beautiful lady, and when they had pushed
+their way through the gate that leads into the body of the church,
+they did not go away but stood aside for the crowd to pass. Nino
+said he would wait for De Pretis, and immediately turned his whole
+attention to the foreign girl, hiding himself in the shadow and never
+taking his eyes from her.
+
+I never saw Nino look at a woman before as though she interested him
+in the least, or I would not have been surprised now to see him lost
+in admiration of the fair girl. I was close to him and could see his
+face, and it had a new expression on it that I did not know. The
+people were almost gone and the lights were being extinguished when De
+Pretis came round the corner, looking for us. But I was astonished to
+see him bow low to the foreigner and the young lady, and then stop and
+enter into conversation with them. They spoke quite audibly, and it
+was about a lesson that the young lady had missed. She spoke like a
+Roman, but the old gentleman made himself understood in a series of
+stiff phrases, which he fired out of his mouth like discharges of
+musketry.
+
+"Who are they?" whispered Nino to me, breathless with excitement and
+trembling from head to foot. "Who are they, and how does the maestro
+know them?"
+
+"Eh, caro mio, what am I to know?" I answered indifferently. "They are
+some foreigners, some pupil of De Pretis, and her father. How should I
+know?"
+
+"She is a Roman," said Nino between his teeth. "I have heard
+foreigners talk. The old man is a foreigner, but she--she is Roman,"
+he repeated with certainty.
+
+"Eh," said I, "for my part she may be Chinese. The stars will not fall
+on that account." You see, I thought he had seen her before, and I
+wanted to exasperate him by my indifference so that he should tell me;
+but he would not, and indeed I found out afterwards that he had
+really never seen her before.
+
+Presently the lady and gentleman went away, and we called De Pretis,
+for he could not see us in the gloom. Nino became very confidential
+and linked an arm in his as we went away.
+
+"Who are they, caro maestro, these enchanting people?" inquired the
+boy when they had gone a few steps, and I was walking by Nino's side,
+and we were all three nearing the door.
+
+"Foreigners--my foreigners," returned the singer proudly, as he took a
+colossal pinch of snuff. He seemed to say that he in his profession
+was constantly thrown with people like that, whereas I--oh, I, of
+course, was always occupied with students and poor devils who had no
+voice, nothing but brains.
+
+"But she," objected Nino,--"she is Roman, I am sure of it."
+
+"Eh," said Ercole, "you know how it is. These foreigners marry and
+come here and live, and their children are born here; and they grow up
+and call themselves Romans, as proudly as you please. But they are not
+really Italians, any more than the Shah of Persia." The maestro smiled
+a pitying smile. He is a Roman of Rome, and his great nose scorns
+pretenders. In his view Piedmontese, Tuscans, and Neapolitans are as
+much foreigners as the Germans or the English. More so, for he likes
+the Germans and tolerates the English, but he can call an enemy by no
+worse name than "Napoletano" or "Piemontese."
+
+"Then they live here?" cried Nino in delight.
+
+"Surely."
+
+"In fine, maestro mio, who are they?"
+
+"What a diavolo of a boy! Dio mio!" and Ercole laughed under his big
+moustache, which is black still. But he is bald, all the same, and
+wears a skull-cap.
+
+"Diavolo as much as you please, but I will know," said Nino sullenly.
+
+"Oh bene! Now do not disquiet yourself, Nino--I will tell you all
+about them. She is a pupil of mine, and I go to their house in the
+Corso and give her lessons."
+
+"And then?" asked Nino impatiently.
+
+"Who goes slowly goes surely," said the maestro sententiously; and he
+stopped to light a cigar as black and twisted as his moustache. Then
+he continued, standing still in the middle of the piazza to talk at
+his ease, for it had stopped raining and the air was moist and sultry,
+"They are Prussians, you must know. The old man is a colonel, retired,
+pensioned, everything you like, wounded at Königgratz by the
+Austrians. His wife was delicate, and he brought her to live here long
+before he left the service, and the signorina was born here. He has
+told me about it, and he taught me to pronounce the name Königgratz,
+so--Conigherazzo," said the maestro proudly, "and that is how I know."
+
+"Capperi! What a mouthful," said I.
+
+"You may well say that, Sor Conte, but singing teaches us all
+languages. You would have found it of great use in your studies." I
+pictured to myself a quarter of an hour of Schopenhauer, with a piano
+accompaniment and some one beating time.
+
+"But their name, their name I want to know," objected Nino, as he
+stepped aside and flattened himself against the pillar to let a
+carriage pass. As luck would have it, the old officer and his daughter
+were in that very cab, and Nino could just make them out by the
+evening twilight. He took off his hat, of course, but I am quite sure
+they did not see him.
+
+"Well, their name is prettier than Conigherazzo," said Ercole. "It is
+Lira--Erre Gheraffe fonne Lira." (Herr Graf von Lira, I suppose he
+meant. And he has the impudence to assert that singing has taught him
+to pronounce German.) "And that means," he continued, "Il Conte di
+Lira, as we should say."
+
+"Ah! what a divine appellation!" exclaimed Nino enthusiastically,
+pulling his hat over his eyes to meditate upon the name at his
+leisure.
+
+"And her name is Edvigia," volunteered the maestro. That is the
+Italian for Hedwig, or Hadwig, you know. But we should shorten it and
+call her Gigia just as though she were Luisa. Nino does not think it
+so pretty. Nino was silent. Perhaps he was always shy of repeating the
+familiar name of the first woman he had ever loved. Imagine! At twenty
+he had never been in love! It is incredible to me,--and one of our own
+people, too, born at Serveti.
+
+Meanwhile the maestro's cigar had gone out, and he lit it with a
+blazing sulphur match before he continued; and we all walked on again.
+I remember it all very distinctly, because it was the beginning
+of Nino's madness. Especially I call to mind his expression of
+indifference when Ercole began to descant upon the worldly possessions
+of the Lira household. It seemed to me that if Nino so seriously cast
+his eyes on the Contessina Edvigia, he might at least have looked
+pleased to hear she was so rich; or he might have looked disappointed,
+if he thought that her position was an obstacle in his way. But he did
+not care about it at all, and walked straight on, humming a little
+tune through his nose with his mouth shut, for he does everything to a
+tune.
+
+"They are certainly gran' signor," Ercole said. "They live on the
+first floor of the Palazzo Carmandola,--you know, in the Corso--and
+they have a carriage, and keep two men in livery, just like a Roman
+prince. Besides, the count once sent me a bottle of wine at Christmas.
+It was as weak as water, and tasted like the solfatara of Tivoli, but
+it came from his own vineyard in Germany, and was at least fifty years
+old. If he has a vineyard, he has a castello, of course. And if he has
+a castello, he is a gran' signor,--eh? what do you think, Sor Conte?
+You know about such things."
+
+"I did once, maestro mio. It is very likely."
+
+"And as for the wine being sour, it was because it was so old. I am
+sure the Germans cannot make wine well. They are not used to drinking
+it good, or they would not drink so much when they come here." We were
+crossing the bridge, and nearing Ercole's house.
+
+"Maestro," said Nino, suddenly. He had not spoken for some time, and
+he had finished his tune.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Is not to-morrow our day for studying?"
+
+"Diavolo! I gave you two hours to-day. Have you forgotten?"
+
+"Ah,--it is true. But give me a lesson to-morrow, like a good maestro
+as you are. I will sing like an angel if you will give me a lesson
+to-morrow."
+
+"Well, if you like to come at seven in the morning, and if you promise
+to sing nothing but solfeggi of Bordogni for an hour, and not to
+strain your voice, or put too much vinegar in your salad at supper, I
+will think about it. Does that please you? Conte, don't let him eat
+too much vinegar."
+
+"I will do all that if I may come," said Nino readily, though he would
+rather not sing at all, at most times, than sing Bordogni, De Pretis
+tells me.
+
+"Meglio cosi,--so much the better. Good-night, Sor Conte. Good-night,
+Nino." And so he turned down the Via Paola, and Nino and I went our
+way. I stopped to buy a cigar at the little tobacco shop just opposite
+the Tordinona Theatre. They used to be only a baiocco apiece, and I
+could get one at a time. But now they are two for three baiocchi; and
+so I have to get two always, because there are no half baiocchi any
+more--nothing but centimes. That is one of the sources of my
+extravagance. Mariuccia says I am miserly; she was born poor, and
+never had to learn the principles of economy.
+
+"Nino mio," I said, as we went along, "you really make me laugh."
+
+"Which is to say--" He was humming a tune again, and was cross because
+I interrupted him.
+
+"You are in love. Do not deny it. You are already planning how you can
+make the acquaintance of the foreign contessa. You are a fool. Go
+home, and get Mariuccia to give you some syrup of tamarind to cool
+your blood."
+
+"Well? Now tell me, were you never in love with anyone yourself?" he
+asked, by way of answer; and I could see the fierce look come into his
+eyes in the dark as he said it.
+
+"Altro,--that is why I laugh at you. When I was your age I had been in
+love twenty times. But I never fell in love at first sight--and with a
+doll; really a wax doll, you know, like the Madonna in the presepio
+that they set up at the Ara Coeli, at Epiphany."
+
+"A doll!" he cried. "Who is a doll, if you please?" We stopped at the
+corner of the street to argue it out.
+
+"Do you think she is really alive?" I asked, laughing. Nino disdained
+to answer me, but he looked savagely from under the brim of his hat.
+"Look here," I continued, "women like that are only made to be looked
+at. They never love, for they have no hearts. It is lucky if they
+have souls, like Christians."
+
+"I will tell you what I think," said he stoutly; "she is an angel."
+
+"Oh! is that all? Did you ever hear of an angel being married?"
+
+"You shall hear of it, Sor Cornelio, and before long. I swear to you,
+here, that I will marry the Contessina di Lira--if that is her
+name--before two years are out. Ah, you do not believe me. Very well.
+I have nothing more to say."
+
+"My dear son," said I,--for he is a son to me,--"you are talking
+nonsense. How can anybody in your position hope to marry a great lady,
+who is an heiress? Is it not true that it is all stuff and nonsense?"
+
+"No, it is not true," cried Nino, setting his square jaw like a bit
+and speaking through his teeth. "I am ugly, you say; I am dark, and I
+have no position, or wealth, or anything of the kind. I am the son of
+a peasant and of a peasant's wife. I am anything you please, but I
+will marry her if I say I will. Do you think it is for nothing that
+you have taught me the language of Dante, of Petrarca, of Silvio
+Pellico? Do you think it is for nothing that Heaven has given me my
+voice? Do not the angels love music, and cannot I make as good songs
+as they? Or do you think that because I am bred a singer my hand is
+not as strong as a fine gentleman's--contadino as I am? I will--I will
+and I will, Basta!"
+
+I never saw him look like that before. He had folded his arms, and he
+nodded his head a little at each repetition of the word, looking at me
+so hard, as we stood under the gas lamp in the street, that I was
+obliged to turn my eyes away. He stared me out of countenance--he, a
+peasant boy! Then we walked on.
+
+"And as for her being a wax doll, as you call her," he continued
+after a little time, "that is nonsense, if you want the word to be
+used. Truly, a doll! And the next minute you compare her to the
+Madonna! I am sure she has a heart as big as this," and he stretched
+out his hands into the air. "I can see it in her eyes. Ah, what eyes!"
+
+I saw it was no use arguing on that tack, and I felt quite sure that
+he would forget all about it, though he looked so determined, and
+talked so grandly about his will.
+
+"Nino," I said, "I am older than you." I said this to impress him, of
+course, for I am not really so very old.
+
+"Diamini!" he cried impertinently, "I believe it!"
+
+"Well, well, do not be impatient. I have seen something in my time,
+and I tell you those foreign women are not like ours, a whit. I fell
+in love, once, with a northern fairy,--she was not German, but she
+came from Lombardy, you see,--and that is the reason why I lost
+Serveti and all the rest."
+
+"But I have no Serveti to lose," objected Nino.
+
+"You have a career as a musician to lose. It is not much of a career
+to be stamping about with a lot of figuranti and scene-shifters, and
+screaming yourself hoarse every night." I was angry because he laughed
+at my age. "But it is a career, after all, that you have chosen for
+yourself. If you get mixed up in an intrigue now, you may ruin
+yourself. I hope you will."
+
+"Grazie! And then?"
+
+"Eh, it might not be such a bad thing after all. For if you could be
+induced to give up the stage--"
+
+"I--_I_ give up singing?" he cried, indignantly.
+
+"Oh, such things happen, you know. If you were to give it up, as I was
+saying, you might then possibly use your mind. A mind is a much
+better thing than a throat, after all."
+
+"Ebbene! talk as much as you please, for, of course, you have the
+right, for you have brought me up, and you have certainly opposed my
+singing enough to quiet your conscience. But, dear professor, I will
+do all that I say, and if you will give me a little help in this
+matter, you will not repent it."
+
+"Help? Dio mio! What do you take me for? As if I could help you, or
+would! I suppose you want money to make yourself a dandy, a piano, to
+go and stand at the corner of the Piazza Colonna and ogle her as she
+goes by! In truth! You have fine projects."
+
+"No," said Nino quietly, "I do not want any money or anything else at
+present, thank you. And do not be angry, but come into the caffè and
+drink some lemonade; and I will invite you to it, for I have been paid
+for my last copying that I sent in yesterday." He put his arm in mine,
+and we went in. There is no resisting Nino when he is affectionate.
+But I would not let him pay for the lemonade. I paid for it myself.
+What extravagance!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Now I ought to tell you that many things in this story were only told
+me quite lately, for at first I would not help Nino at all, thinking
+it was but a foolish fancy of his boy's heart and would soon pass. I
+have tried to gather and to order all the different incidents into one
+harmonious whole, so that you can follow the story; and you must not
+wonder that I can describe some things that I did not see, and that I
+know how some of the people felt; for Nino and I have talked over the
+whole matter very often, and the baroness came here and told me her
+share, though I wonder how she could talk so plainly of what must have
+given her so much pain. But it was very kind of her to come; and she
+sat over there in the old green arm-chair by the glass case that has
+the artificial flowers under it, and the sugar lamb that the padre
+curato gave Nino when he made his first communion at Easter. However,
+it is not time to speak of the baroness yet, but I cannot forget her.
+
+Nino was very amusing when he began to love the young countess, and
+the very first morning--the day after we had been to St. Peter's--he
+went out at half-past six, though it was only just sunrise, for we
+were in October. I knew very well that he was going for his extra
+lesson with De Pretis, but I had nothing to say about it, and I only
+recommended him to cover himself well, for the sirocco had passed and
+it was a bright morning, with a clear tramontana wind blowing fresh
+from the north. I can always tell when it is a tramontana wind before
+I open my window, for Mariuccia makes such a clattering with the
+coffee-pot in the kitchen, and the goldfinch in the sitting-room sings
+very loud; which he never does if it is cloudy. Nino, then, went off
+to Maestro Ercole's house for his singing, and this is what happened
+there.
+
+De Pretis knew perfectly well that Nino had only asked for the extra
+lesson in order to get a chance of talking about the Contessina di
+Lira, and so, to tease him, as soon as he appeared, the maestro made a
+great bustle about singing scales, and insisted on beginning at once.
+Moreover, he pretended to be in a bad humour; and that is always
+pretence with him.
+
+"Ah, my little tenor," he began; "you want a lesson at seven in the
+morning, do you? That is the time when all the washerwomen sing at the
+fountain! Well, you shall have a lesson, and by the body of Bacchus it
+shall be a real lesson! Now, then! Andiamo--Do-o-o!" and he roared out
+a great note that made the room shake, and a man who was selling
+cabbage in the street stopped his hand-cart and mimicked him for five
+minutes.
+
+"But I am out of breath, maestro," protested Nino, who wanted to talk.
+
+"Out of breath? A singer is never out of breath. Absurd! What would
+you do if you got out of breath, say, in the last act of _Lucia_,
+so--Bell'alma ado--?? Then your breath ends, eh? Will you stay with
+the 'adored soul' between your teeth? A fine singer you will make!
+Andiamo! Do-o-o!"
+
+Nino saw he must begin, and he set up a shout, much against his will,
+so that the cabbage-vendor chimed in, making so much noise that the
+old woman who lives opposite opened her window and emptied a great
+dustpan full of potato peelings and refuse leaves of lettuce right on
+his head. And then there was a great noise. But the maestro paid no
+attention, and went on with the scale, hardly giving Nino time to
+breathe. Nino, who stood behind De Pretis while he sang, saw the copy
+of Bordogni's solfeggi lying on a chair, and managed to slip it under
+a pile of music near by, singing so lustily all the while that the
+maestro never looked round.
+
+When he got to the end of the scale Ercole began hunting for the
+music, and as he could not find it, Nino asked him questions.
+
+"Can she sing,--this contessina of yours, maestro?" De Pretis was
+overturning everything in his search.
+
+"An apoplexy on those solfeggi and on the man who made them!" he
+cried. "Sing, did you say? Yes, a great deal better than you ever
+will. Why can you not look for your music, instead of chattering?"
+Nino began to look where he knew it was not.
+
+"By the by, do you give her lessons every day?" asked the boy.
+
+"Every day? Am I crazy, to ruin people's voices like that?"
+
+"Caro maestro, what is the matter with you this morning? You have
+forgotten to say your prayers!"
+
+"You are a donkey, Nino; here he is, this blessed Bordogni,--now
+come."
+
+"Sor Ercole mio," said Nino in despair, "I must really know something
+about this angel, before I sing at all." Ercole sat down on the piano
+stool, and puffed up his cheeks, and heaved a tremendous sigh, to show
+how utterly bored he was by his pupil. Then he took a large pinch of
+snuff, and sighed again.
+
+"What demon have you got into your head?" he asked, at length.
+
+"What angel, you mean," answered Nino, delighted at having forced the
+maestro to a parley. "I am in love with her--crazy about her," he
+cried, running his fingers through his curly hair, "and you must help
+me to see her. You can easily take me to her house to sing duets as
+part of her lesson. I tell you I have not slept a wink all night for
+thinking of her, and unless I see her I shall never sleep again as
+long as I live. Ah!" he cried, putting his hands on Ercole's
+shoulders, "you do not know what it is to be in love! How everything
+one touches is fire, and the sky is like lead, and one minute you are
+cold and one minute you are hot, and you may turn and turn on your
+pillow all night and never sleep, and you want to curse everybody you
+see, or to embrace them, it makes no difference--anything to express
+the--"
+
+"Devil! and may he carry you off!" interrupted Ercole, laughing. But
+his manner changed. "Poor fellow," he said presently, "it appears to
+me you are in love."
+
+"It appears to you, does it? 'Appears'--a beautiful word, in faith. I
+can tell you it appears to me so, too. Ah! it 'appears' to you--very
+good indeed!" And Nino waxed wroth.
+
+"I will give you some advice, Ninetto mio. Do not fall in love with
+anyone. It always ends badly."
+
+"You come late with your counsel, Sor Ercole. In truth, a very good
+piece of advice when a man is fifty, and married, and wears a
+skull-cap. When I wear a skull-cap and take snuff I will follow your
+instructions." He walked up and down the room, grinding his teeth, and
+clapping his hands together. Ercole rose and stopped him.
+
+"Let us talk seriously," he said.
+
+"With all my heart; as seriously as you please."
+
+"You have only seen this signorina once."
+
+"Once!" cried Nino,--"as if once were not--"
+
+"Diavolo; let me speak. You have only seen her once. She is noble, an
+heiress, a great lady--worse than all, a foreigner; as beautiful as a
+statue, if you please, but twice as cold. She has a father who knows
+the proprieties, a piece of iron, I tell you, who would kill you just
+as he would drink a glass of wine, with the greatest indifference, if
+he suspected you lifted your eyes to his daughter."
+
+"I do not believe your calumnies," said Nino still hotly, "She is not
+cold, and if I can see her she will listen to me. I am sure of it."
+
+"We will speak of that by and by. You--what are you? Nothing but a
+singer, who has not even appeared before the public, without a baiocco
+in the world or anything else but your voice. You are not even
+handsome."
+
+"What difference does that make to a woman of heart?" retorted Nino
+angrily. "Let me only speak to her--"
+
+"A thousand devils!" exclaimed De Pretis impatiently; "what good will
+you do by speaking to her? Are you Dante, or Petrarca, or a
+preacher--what are you? Do you think you can have a great lady's hand
+for the asking? Do you flatter yourself that you are so eloquent that
+nobody can withstand you?"
+
+"Yes," said Nino, boldly. "If I could only speak to her--"
+
+"Then in heaven's name, go and speak to her. Get a new hat and a pair
+of lavender gloves, and walk about the Villa Borghese until you meet
+her, and then throw yourself on your knees and kiss her feet, and the
+dust from her shoes; and say you are dying for her, and will she be
+good enough to walk as far as Santa Maria del Popolo and be married to
+you! That is all; you see it is nothing you ask--a mere politeness on
+her part--oh, nothing, nothing." And De Pretis rubbed his hands and
+smiled, and seeing that Nino did not answer, he blew his nose with his
+great blue cotton handkerchief.
+
+"You have no heart at all, maestro," said Nino at last. "Let us sing."
+
+They worked hard at Bordogni for half an hour, and Nino did not open
+his mouth except to produce the notes. But as his blood was up from
+the preceding interview he took great pains, and Ercole, who makes him
+sing all the solfeggi he can from a sense of duty, himself wearied of
+the ridiculous old-fashioned runs and intervals.
+
+"Bene," he said; "let us sing a piece now, and then you will have done
+enough." He put an opera on the piano, and Nino lifted up his voice
+and sang, only too glad to give his heart passage to his lips. Ercole
+screwed up his eyes with a queer smile he has when he is pleased.
+
+"Capperi!" he ejaculated, when Nino had done.
+
+"What has happened?" asked the latter.
+
+"I cannot tell you what has happened," said Ercole, "but I will tell
+you that you had better always sing like that, and you will be
+applauded. Why have you never sung that piece in that way before?"
+
+"I do not know. Perhaps it is because I am unhappy."
+
+"Very well, never dare to be happy again, if you mean to succeed. You
+can make a statue shed tears if you please." Ercole took a pinch of
+snuff, and turned round to look out of the window. Nino leaned on the
+piano, drumming with his fingers and looking at the back of the
+maestro's head. The first rays of the sun just fell into the room and
+gilded the red brick floor.
+
+"Then instead of buying lavender kid gloves," said Nino at last, his
+face relaxing a little, "and going to the Villa Borghese, you advise
+me to borrow a guitar and sing to my statue? Is that it?"
+
+"Che Diana! I did not say that!" said Ercole, still facing the window
+and finishing his pinch of snuff with a certain satisfaction. "But if
+you want the guitar, take it--there it lies. I will not answer for
+what you do with it." His voice sounded kindly, for he was so much
+pleased. Then he made Nino sing again, a little love song of Tosti,
+who writes for the heart and sings so much better without a voice than
+all your stage tenors put together. And the maestro looked long at
+Nino when he had done, but he did not say anything. Nino put on his
+hat gloomily enough, and prepared to go.
+
+"I will take the guitar, if you will lend it to me," he said.
+
+"Yes, if you like, and I will give you a handkerchief to wrap it up
+with," said De Pretis, absently, but he did not get up from his seat.
+He was watching Nino, and he seemed to be thinking. Just as the boy
+was going with the instrument under his arm he called him back.
+
+"Ebbene?" said Nino, with his hand on the lock of the door.
+
+"I will make you a song to sing to your guitar," said Ercole.
+
+"You?"
+
+"Yes--but without music. Look here, Nino--sit down. What a hurry you
+are in. I was young myself, once upon time."
+
+"Once upon a time! Fairy stories--once upon a time there was a king,
+and so on." Nino was not to be easily pacified.
+
+"Well, perhaps it is a fairy tale, but it is in the future. I have an
+idea."
+
+"Oh, is that all? But it is the first time. I understand."
+
+Listen. Have you read Dante?"
+
+"I know the _Vita Nuova_ by heart, and some of the _Commedia_. But how
+the diavolo does Dante enter into this question?"
+
+"And Silvio Pellico, and a little literature?" continued Ercole, not
+heeding the comment.
+
+"Yes, after a fashion. And you? Do you know them?"
+
+"Che c'entro io?" cried Ercole, impatiently; "what do I want to know
+such things for? But I have heard of them."
+
+"I congratulate you," replied Nino, ironically.
+
+"Have patience. You are no longer an artist. You are a professor of
+literature."
+
+"I--a professor of literature? What nonsense are you talking?"
+
+"You are a great stupid donkey, Nino. Supposing I obtain for you an
+engagement to read literature with the Contessina di Lira, will you
+not be a professor? If you prefer singing--" But Nino comprehended in
+a flash the whole scope of the proposal, and threw his arm round
+Ercole's neck and embraced him.
+
+"What a mind! Oh, maestro mio, I will die for you! Command me, and
+I will do anything for you; I will run errands for you, black
+your boots, anything--" he cried in the ecstasy of delight that
+overmastered him.
+
+"Piano, piano," objected the maestro, disengaging himself from his
+pupil's embrace. "It is not done yet. There is much, much to think of
+first." Nino retreated, a little disconcerted at not finding his
+enthusiasm returned, but radiant still.
+
+"Calm yourself," said Ercole, smiling. "If you do this thing you must
+act a part. You must manage to conceal your occupation entirely. You
+must look as solemn as an undertaker and be a real professor. They
+will ultimately find you out, and throw you out of the window, and
+dismiss me for recommending you. But that is nothing."
+
+"No," said Nino, "that is of no importance." And he ran his fingers
+through his hair, and looked delighted.
+
+"You shall know all about it this evening, or to-morrow--"
+
+"This evening, Sor Ercole, this evening, or I shall die. Stay, let me
+go to the house with you, when you give your lesson, and wait for you
+at the door."
+
+"Pumpkin-head! I will have nothing to do with you," said De Pretis.
+
+"Ah, I will be as quiet as you please. I will be like a lamb, and wait
+until this evening."
+
+"If you will really be quiet, I will do what you wish. Come to me
+this evening about the Ave Maria--or a little earlier. Yes, come at
+twenty-three hours. In October that is about five o'clock, by French
+time.
+
+"And I may take the guitar?" said Nino, as he rose to go.
+
+"With all my heart. But do not spoil everything by singing to her, and
+betraying yourself."
+
+So Nino thanked the maestro enthusiastically and went away, humming a
+tune, as he now and again struck the strings of the guitar that he
+carried under his arm, to be sure it was there.
+
+Do not think that because De Pretis suddenly changed his mind, and
+even proposed to Nino a plan for making the acquaintance of the young
+countess, he is a man to veer about like a weather-cock, nor yet a bad
+man, willing to help a boy to do mischief. That is not at all like
+Ercole de Pretis. He has since told me he was much astonished at the
+way Nino sang the love song at his lesson; and he was instantly
+convinced that in order to be a great artist Nino must be in love
+always. Besides, the maestro is as liberal in his views of life as he
+is conservative in his ideas about government. Nino is everything the
+most straight-laced father could wish him to be, and as he was then
+within a few months of making his first appearance on the stage, De
+Pretis, who understands those things, could very well foresee the
+success he has had. Now De Pretis is essentially a man of the people,
+and I am not; therefore he saw no objection in the way of a match
+between a great singer and a noble damigelia. But had I known what was
+going on, I would have stopped the whole affair at that point, for I
+am not so weak as Mariuccia seems to think. I do not mean now that
+everything is settled I would wish it undone. Heaven forbid! But I
+would have stopped it then, for it is a most incongruous thing, a
+peasant boy making love to a countess.
+
+Nino, however, has one great fault, and that is his reticence. It is
+true, he never does anything he would not like me, or all the world,
+to know. But I would like to know, all the same. It is a habit I have
+fallen into, from having to watch that old woman, for fear she should
+be too extravagant. All that time he never said anything, and I
+supposed he had forgotten all about the contessina, for I did not
+chance to see De Pretis; and when I did he talked of nothing but
+Nino's _début_ and the arrangements that were to be made. So that I
+knew nothing about it, though I was pleased to see him reading so
+much. He took a sudden fancy for literature, and read when he was not
+singing, and even made me borrow Ambrosoli, in several volumes, from a
+friend. He read every word of it, and talked very intelligently about
+it too. I never thought there was any reason.
+
+But De Pretis thinks differently. He believes that a man may be the
+son of a ciociaro--a fellow who ties his legs up in rags and thongs,
+and lives on goats' milk in the mountains--and that if he has brains
+enough, or talent enough, he may marry any woman he likes without ever
+thinking whether she is noble or not. De Pretis must be old-fashioned,
+for I am sure I do not think in that way, and I know a hundred times
+as much as he--a hundred times.
+
+I suppose it must have been the very day when Nino had been to De
+Pretis in the morning that he had instructions to go to the house of
+Count von Lira on the morrow; for I remember very well that Nino acted
+strangely in the evening, singing and making a noise for a few
+minutes, and then burying himself in a book. However that may be, it
+was very soon afterwards that he went to the Palazzo Carmandola,
+dressed in his best clothes, he tells me, in order to make a
+favourable impression on the count. The latter had spoken to De Pretis
+about the lessons in literature, to which he attached great
+importance, and the maestro had turned the idea to account for his
+pupil. But Nino did not expect to see the young contessa on this first
+day, or at least he did not hope he would be able to speak to her. And
+so it turned out.
+
+The footman, who had a red waistcoat, and opened the door with
+authority, as if ready to close it again on the smallest provocation,
+did not frighten Nino at all, though he eyed him suspiciously enough,
+and after ascertaining his business departed to announce him to the
+count. Meanwhile, Nino, who was very much excited at the idea of being
+under the same roof with the object of his adoration, set himself down
+on one of the carved chests that surrounded the hall. The green baize
+door at the other end swung noiselessly on its hinges, closing itself
+behind the servant, and the boy was left alone. He might well be
+frightened, if not at the imposing appearance of the footman, at
+least at the task he had undertaken. But a boy like Nino is afraid of
+nothing when he is in love, and he simply looked about him, realising
+that he was without doubt in the house of a gran' signor, and from
+time to time brushing a particle of dust from his clothes, or trying
+to smooth his curly black hair, which he had caused to be clipped a
+little for the occasion; a very needless expense, for he looks better
+with his hair long.
+
+Before many moments the servant returned, and with some condescension
+said that the count awaited him. Nino would rather have faced the
+mayor, or the king himself, than Graf von Lira, though he was not at
+all frightened--he was only very much excited, and he strove to calm
+himself, as he was ushered through the apartments to the small
+sitting-room where he was expected.
+
+Graf von Lira, as I have already told you, is a foreigner of rank, who
+had been a Prussian colonel, and was wounded in the war of 1866. He is
+very tall, very thin, and very grey, with wooden features and a huge
+moustache that stands out like the beaks on the colonna rostrata. His
+eyes are small and very far apart, and fix themselves with terrible
+severity when he speaks, even if he is only saying "good-morning." His
+nails are very long and most carefully kept, and though he is so lame
+that he could not move a step without the help of his stick, he is
+still an upright and military figure. I remember well how he looked,
+for he came to see me under peculiar circumstances, many months after
+the time of which I am now speaking; and, besides, I had stood next to
+him for an hour in the chapel of the choir in St. Peter's.
+
+He speaks Italian intelligibly, but with the strangest German
+constructions, and he rolls the letter _r_ curiously in his throat.
+But he is an intelligent man for a soldier, though he thinks talent is
+a matter of education, and education a matter of drill. He is the most
+ceremonious man I ever saw; and Nino says he rose from his chair to
+meet him, and would not sit down again until Nino was seated.
+
+"The signore is the professor of Italian literature recommended to
+me by Signor De Pretis?" inquired the colonel in iron tones, as he
+scrutinised Nino.
+
+"Yes, Signor Conte," was the answer.
+
+"You are a singularly young man to be a professor." Nino trembled.
+"And how have you the education obtained in order the obligations and
+not-to-be-avoided responsibilities of this worthy-of-all-honour career
+to meet?"
+
+"I went to school here, Signor Conte, and the Professor Grandi, in
+whose house I always have lived, has taught me everything else I
+know."
+
+"What do you know?" inquired the count, so suddenly that Nino was
+taken off his guard. He did not know what to answer. The count looked
+very stern and pulled his moustaches. "You have not here come,"
+he continued, seeing that Nino made no answer, "without knowing
+something. Evident is it, that, although a man young be, if he nothing
+knows, he cannot a professor be."
+
+"You speak justly, Signor Conte," Nino answered at last, "and I do
+know some things. I know the _Commedia_ of Alighieri, and Petrarca,
+and I have read the _Gerusalemme Liberata_ with Professor Grandi, and
+I can repeat all of the _Vita Nuova_ by heart, and some of the--"
+
+"For the present that is enough," said the count. "If you nothing
+better to do have, will you so kind be as to begin?"
+
+"Begin?" said Nino, not understanding.
+
+"Yes, signore; it would unsuitable be if I my daughter to the hands of
+a man committed unacquainted with the matter he to teach her proposes.
+I desire to be satisfied that you all these things really know."
+
+"Do I understand, Signor Conte, that you wish me to repeat to you some
+of the things I know by heart?"
+
+"You have me understood," said the count severely, "I have all the
+books bought of which you speak. You will repeat, and I will in the
+book follow. Then shall we know each other much better."
+
+Nino was not a little astonished at this mode of procedure, and
+wondered how far his memory would serve him in such an unexpected
+examination.
+
+"It will take a long time to ascertain in this way--" he began.
+
+"This," said the count coldly, as he opened a volume of Dante, "is the
+celestial play by Signor Alighieri. If you anything know, you will it
+repeat."
+
+Nino resigned himself and began repeating the first canto of the
+"Inferno." When he had finished it he paused.
+
+"Forwards," said the count, without any change of manner.
+
+"More?" inquired Nino.
+
+"March!" said the old gentleman in military tone, and the boy went on
+with the second canto.
+
+"Apparently know you the beginning." The count opened the book at
+random in another place. "The thirtieth canto of 'Purgatory.' You will
+now it repeat."
+
+"Ah!" cried Nino, "that is where Dante meets Beatrice."
+
+"My hitherto not-by-any-means-extensive, but always
+from-the-conscience-undertaken reading, reaches not so far.
+You will it repeat. So shall we know." Nino passed his hand 
+inside his collar as though to free his throat, and began again,
+losing all consciousness of his tormentor in his own enjoyment
+of the verse.
+
+"When was the Signor Alighieri born?" inquired Graf von Lira, very
+suddenly, as though to catch him.
+
+"May 1265, in Florence," answered the other, as quickly.
+
+"I said when, not where. I know he was in Florence born. When _and_
+where died he?" The question was asked fiercely.
+
+"Fourteenth of September 1321, at Ravenna."
+
+"I think really you something of Signor Alighieri know," said the
+count, and shut up the volume of the poet and the dictionary of dates
+he had been obliged to consult to verify Nino's answers. "We will
+proceed."
+
+Nino is fortunately one of those people whose faculties serve them
+best at their utmost need, and during the three hours--three blessed
+hours--that Graf von Lira kept him under his eye, asking questions and
+forcing him to repeat all manner of things, he acquitted himself
+fairly well.
+
+"I have now myself satisfied that you something know," said the count,
+in his snappish military fashion, and he shut the last book, and never
+from that day referred in any manner to Nino's extent of knowledge,
+taking it for granted that he had made an exhaustive investigation.
+"And now," he continued, "I desire you to engage for the reading of
+literature with my daughter, upon the usual terms." Nino was so much
+pleased that he almost lost his self-control, but a moment restored
+his reflection.
+
+"I am honoured--" he began.
+
+"You are not honoured at all," interrupted the count, coldly. "What
+are the usual terms?"
+
+"Three or four francs a lesson," suggested Nino.
+
+"Three or four francs are not the usual terms. I have inquiries made.
+Five francs are the usual terms. Three times in the week, at eleven.
+You will on the morrow begin. Allow me to offer you some cigars." And
+he ended the interview.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+In a sunny room overlooking the great courtyard of the Palazzo
+Carmandola, Nino sat down to give Hedwig von Lira her first lesson in
+Italian literature. He had not the remotest idea what the lesson would
+be like, for in spite of the tolerably wide acquaintance with the
+subject which he owed to my care and my efforts to make a scholar of
+him, he knew nothing about teaching. Nevertheless, as his pupil spoke
+the language fluently, though with the occasional use of words of low
+origin, like all foreigners who have grown up in Rome and have learned
+to speak from their servants, he anticipated little difficulty. He
+felt quite sure of being able to interpret the hard places, and he had
+learned from me to know the best and finest passages in a number of
+authors.
+
+But imagine the feelings of a boy of twenty, perfectly in love,
+without having the smallest right to be, suddenly placed by the side
+of the object of his adoration, and told to teach her all he
+knows--with her father in the next room and the door open between! I
+have always thought it was a proof of Nino's determined character,
+that he should have got over this first lesson without accident.
+
+Hedwig von Lira, the contessina, as we always call her, is just Nino's
+age, but she seemed much younger, as the children of the North always
+do. I have told you what she was like to look at, and you will not
+wonder that I called her a statue. She looked as cold as a statue,
+just as I said, and so I should hardly describe her as beautiful. But
+then I am not a sculptor, nor do I know anything about those arts,
+though I can tell a good work when I see it. I do not wish to appear
+prejudiced, and so I will not say anything more about it. I like life
+in living things, and sculptors may, if it please them, adore straight
+noses, and level brows, and mouths that no one could possibly eat
+with. I do not care in the least, and if you say that I once thought
+differently, I answer that I do not wish to change your opinion, but
+that I will change my own as often as I please. Moreover, if you say
+that the contessina did not act like a statue in the sequel, I will
+argue that if you put marble in the fire it will take longer to heat
+and longer to cool than clay; only clay is made to be put into the
+fire, and marble is not. Is not that a cunning answer?
+
+The contessina is a foreigner in every way, although she was born
+under our sun. They have all sorts of talents, these people, but so
+little ingenuity in using them that they never accomplish anything. It
+seems to amuse them to learn to do a great many things, although they
+must know from the beginning that they can never excel in any one of
+them. I dare say the contessina plays on the piano very creditably,
+for even Nino says she plays well; but is it of any use to her?
+
+Nino very soon found out that she meant to read literature very
+seriously, and, what is more, she meant to read it in her own way. She
+was as different from her father as possible in everything else, but
+in a despotic determination to do exactly as she liked, she resembled
+him. Nino was glad that he was not called upon to use his own
+judgment, and there he sat, content to look at her, twisting his hands
+together below the table to concentrate his attention and master
+himself; and he read just what she told him to read, expounding the
+words and phrases she could not understand. I dare say that with his
+hair well brushed, and his best coat, and his eyes on the book, he
+looked as proper as you please. But if the high-born young lady had
+returned the glances he could not refrain from bending upon her now
+and then, she would have seen a lover, if she could see at all.
+
+She did not see. The haughty Prussian damsel hardly noticed the man,
+for she was absorbed by the professor. Her small ears were all
+attention, and her slender fingers made notes with a common pencil, so
+that Nino wondered at the contrast between the dazzling white hand and
+the smooth, black, varnished instrument of writing. He took no account
+of time that day, and was startled by the sound of the mid-day gun and
+the angry clashing of the bells. The contessina looked up suddenly and
+met his eyes, but it was the boy that blushed.
+
+"Would you mind finishing the canto?" she asked. "There are only ten
+lines more--" Mind! Nino flushed with pleasure.
+
+"Anzi--by all means," he cried. "My time is yours, signorina."
+
+When they had done he rose, and his face was sad and pale again. He
+hated to go, but he was only a teacher, and at his first lesson, too.
+She also rose, and waited for him to leave the room. He could not hold
+his tongue.
+
+"Signorina--" he stammered, and checked himself. She looked at him, to
+listen, but his heart smote him when he had thus arrested her attention.
+What could he say as he stood bowing? It was sufficiently stupid, what
+he said.
+
+"I shall have the honour of returning to-morrow, the day after
+to-morrow, I would say."
+
+"Yes," said she, "I believe that is the arrangement. Good-morning,
+Signor Professore." The title of professor rang strangely in his ear.
+Was there the slightest tinge of irony in her voice? Was she laughing
+at his boyish looks? Ugh! the thought tingled. He bowed himself out.
+
+That was the first lesson, and the second was like it, I suppose, and
+a great many others about which I knew nothing, for I was always
+occupied in the middle of the day, and did not ask where he went. It
+seemed to me that he was becoming a great dandy, but as he never asked
+me for any money from the day he learnt to copy music I never put any
+questions. He certainly had a new coat before Christmas, and gloves,
+and very nice boots, that made me smile when I thought of the day when
+he arrived, with only one shoe--and it had a hole in it as big as half
+his foot. But now he grew to be so careful of his appearance that
+Mariuccia began to call him the "signorino." De Pretis said he was
+making great progress, and so I was contented, though I always thought
+it was a sacrifice for him to be a singer.
+
+Of course, as he went three times a week to the Palazzo Carmandola, he
+began to be used to the society of the contessina. I never understood
+how he succeeded in keeping up the comedy of being a professor. A real
+Roman would have discovered him in a week. But foreigners are
+different. If they are satisfied they pay their money and ask no
+questions. Besides, he studied all the time, saying that if he ever
+lost his voice he would turn man of letters; which sounded so prudent
+that I had nothing to say. Once, we were walking in the Corso, and the
+contessina with her father passed in the carriage. Nino raised his
+hat, but they did not see him, for there is always a crowd in the
+Corso.
+
+"Tell me," he cried, excitedly, as they went by, "is it not true that
+she is beautiful?"
+
+"A piece of marble, my son," said I, suspecting nothing; and I turned
+into a tobacconist's to buy a cigar.
+
+One day--Nino says it was in November--the contessina began asking him
+questions about the Pantheon, it was in the middle of the lesson, and
+he wondered at her stopping to talk. But you may imagine whether he
+was glad or not to have an opportunity of speaking about something
+besides Dante.
+
+"Yes, signorina," he answered, "Professor Grandi says it was built for
+public baths; but, of course, we all think it was a temple."
+
+"Were you ever there at night?" asked she, indifferently, and the sun
+through the window so played with her golden hair that Nino wondered
+how she could ever think of night at all.
+
+"At night, signorina? No indeed! What should I go there at night to
+do, in the dark! I was never there at night."
+
+"I will go there at night," she said briefly.
+
+"Ah--you would have it lit up with torches, as they do the Coliseum?"
+
+"No. Is there no moon in Italy, professore?"
+
+"The moon, there is. But there is such a little hole in the top of the
+Rotonda"--that is our Roman name for the Pantheon--"that it would be
+very dark."
+
+"Precisely," said she. "I will go there at night, and see the moon
+shining through the hole in the dome."
+
+"Eh," cried Nino laughing, "you will see the moon better outside in
+the piazza. Why should you go inside, where you can see so little of
+it?"
+
+"I will go," replied the contessina. "The Italians have no sense of
+the beautiful--the mysterious." Her eyes grew dreamy as she tried to
+call up the picture she had never seen.
+
+"Perhaps," said Nino humbly. "But," he added, suddenly brightening at
+the thought, "it is very easy, if you would like to go. I will arrange
+it. Will you allow me?"
+
+"Yes, arrange it. Let us go on with our lesson."
+
+I would like to tell you all about it; how Nino saw the sacristan
+of the Pantheon that evening, and ascertained from his little
+almanac--which has all kinds of wonderful astrological predictions, as
+well as the calendar--when it would be full moon. And perhaps what
+Nino said to the sacristan, and what the sacristan said to Nino, might
+be amusing. I am very fond of these little things, and fond of talking
+too. For since it is talking that distinguishes us from other animals,
+I do not see why I should not make the most of it. But you who are
+listening to me have seen very little of the Contessina Hedwig as yet,
+and unless I quickly tell you more, you will wonder how all the
+curious things that happened to her could possibly have grown out of
+the attempt of a little singer like Nino to make her acquaintance.
+Well, Nino is a great singer now, of course, but he was little once;
+and when he palmed himself off on the old count for an Italian master
+without my knowledge, nobody had ever heard of him at all.
+
+Therefore since I must satisfy your curiosity before anything else,
+and not dwell too long on the details--the dear, commonplace
+details--I will simply say that Nino succeeded without difficulty in
+arranging with the sacristan of the Pantheon to allow a party of
+foreigners to visit the building at the full moon, at midnight. I have
+no doubt he even expended a franc with the little man, who is very old
+and dirty, and keeps chickens in the vestibule--but no details!
+
+Oh the appointed night Nino, wrapped in that old cloak of mine (which
+is very warm, though it is threadbare), accompanied the party to the
+temple, or church, or whatever you like to call it. The party were
+simply the count and his daughter, an Austrian gentleman of their
+acquaintance, and the dear baroness--that sympathetic woman who broke
+so many hearts and cared not at all for the chatter of the people.
+Everyone has seen her, with her slim, graceful ways, and her face that
+was like a mulatto peach for darkness and fineness, and her dark eyes
+and tiger-lily look. They say she lived entirely on sweetmeats and
+coffee, and it is no wonder she was so sweet and so dark. She called
+me "count"--which is very foolish now, but if I were going to fall in
+love, I would have loved her. I would not love a statue. As for the
+Austrian gentleman, it is not of any importance to describe him.
+
+These four people Nino conducted to the little entrance at the back of
+the Pantheon, and the sacristan struck a light to show them the way to
+the door of the church. Then he put out his taper, and let them do as
+they pleased.
+
+Conceive if you can the darkness of Egypt, the darkness that can be
+felt, impaled and stabbed through its whole thickness by one mighty
+moonbeam, clear and clean and cold, from the top to the bottom. All
+around, in the circle of the outer black, lie the great dead in their
+tombs, whispering to each other of deeds that shook the world;
+whispering in a language all their own as yet--the language of the
+life to come--the language of a stillness so dread and deep that the
+very silence clashes against it, and makes dull, muffled beatings
+in ears that strain to catch the dead men's talk: the shadow of
+immortality falling through the shadow of death, and bursting back
+upon its heavenward course from the depth of the abyss; climbing
+again upon its silver self to the sky above, leaving behind the horror
+of the deep.
+
+So in that lonely place at midnight falls the moon upon the floor, and
+through the mystic shaft of rays ascend and descend the souls of the
+dead. Hedwig stood out alone upon the white circle on the pavement
+beneath the dome, and looked up as though she could see the angels
+coming and going. And, as she looked, the heavy lace veil that covered
+her head fell back softly, as though a spirit wooed her and would fain
+look on something fairer than he, and purer. The whiteness clung to
+her face, and each separate wave of hair was like spun silver. And she
+looked steadfastly up. For a moment she stood, and the hushed air
+trembled about her. Then the silence caught the tremor, and quivered,
+and a thrill of sound hovered and spread its wings, and sailed forth
+from the night.
+
+"Spirto gentil dei sogni miei--"
+
+Ah, Signorina Edvigia, you know that voice now, but you did not know
+it then. How your heart stopped, and beat, and stopped again, when you
+first heard that man sing out his whole heartful--you in the light and
+he in the dark! And his soul shot out to you upon the sounds, and
+died fitfully, as the magic notes dashed their soft wings against
+the vaulted roof above you, and took new life again and throbbed
+heavenward in broad, passionate waves, till your breath came thick and
+your blood ran fiercely--ay, even your cold northern blood--in very
+triumph that a voice could so move you. A voice in the dark. For a
+full minute after it ceased you stood there, and the others, wherever
+they might be in the shadow, scarcely breathed.
+
+That was how Hedwig first heard Nino sing. When at last she recovered
+herself enough to ask aloud the name of the singer, Nino had moved
+quite close to her.
+
+"It is a relation of mine, signorina, a young fellow who is going to
+be an artist. I asked him as a favour to come here and sing to you
+to-night. I thought it might please you."
+
+"A relation of yours!" exclaimed the contessina. And the others
+approached so that they all made a group in the disc of moonlight.
+"Just think, my dear baroness, this wonderful voice is a relation of
+Signor Cardegna, my excellent Italian master!" There was a little
+murmur of admiration; then the old count spoke.
+
+"Signore," said he, rolling in his gutturals, "it is my duty to very
+much thank you. You will now, if you please, me the honour do, me to
+your all-the-talents-possible-possessing relation to present." Nino
+had foreseen the contingency and disappeared into the dark. Presently
+he returned.
+
+"I am so sorry, Signor Conte," he said. "The sacristan tells me that
+when my cousin had finished he hurried away, saying he was afraid of
+taking some ill if he remained here where it is so damp. I will tell
+him how much you appreciated him."
+
+"Curious is it," remarked the count. "I heard him not going off."
+
+"He stood in the doorway of the sacristy, by the high altar, Signor
+Conte."
+
+"In that case is it different."
+
+"I am sorry," said Nino. "The signorina was so unkind as to say,
+lately, that we Italians have no sense of the beautiful, the
+mysterious--"
+
+"I take it back," said Hedwig, gravely, still standing in the
+moonlight. "Your cousin has a very great power over the beautiful."
+
+"And the mysterious," added the baroness, who had not spoken, "for his
+departure without showing himself has left me the impression of a
+sweet dream. Give me your arm, Professore Cardegna. I will not stay
+here any longer, now that the dream is over." Nino sprang to her side
+politely, though, to tell the truth, she did not attract him at first
+sight. He freed one arm from the old cloak, and reflected that she
+could not tell in the dark how very shabby it was.
+
+"You give lessons to the Signora von Lira?" she asked, leading him
+quickly away from the party.
+
+"Yes--in Italian literature, signora."
+
+"Ah--she tells me great things of you. Could you not spare me an hour
+or two in the week, professore?"
+
+Here was a new complication. Nino had certainly not contemplated
+setting up for an Italian teacher to all the world when he undertook
+to give lessons to Hedwig.
+
+"Signora--" he began, in a protesting voice.
+
+"You will do it to oblige me, I am sure," she said, eagerly, and her
+slight hand just pressed upon his arm a little. Nino had found time to
+reflect that this lady was intimate with Hedwig, and that he might
+possibly gain an opportunity of seeing the girl he loved if he
+accepted the offer.
+
+"Whenever it pleases you, signora," he said at length.
+
+"Can you come to me to-morrow at eleven?" she asked.
+
+"At twelve, if you please, signora, or half past. Eleven is the
+contessina's hour to-morrow."
+
+"At half-past twelve, then, to-morrow," said she, and she gave him her
+address, as they went out into the street. "Stop," she added, "where
+do you live?"
+
+"Number twenty-seven Santa Catarina dei Funari," he answered,
+wondering why she asked. The rest of the party came out, and Nino
+bowed to the ground, as he bid the contessina good-night.
+
+He was glad to be free of that pressure on his arm, and he was glad to
+be alone, to wander through the streets under the moonlight, and to
+think over what he had done.
+
+"There is no risk of my being discovered," he said to himself,
+confidently. "The story of the near relation was well imagined, and
+besides, it is true. Am I not my own nearest relation? I certainly
+have no others that I know of. And this baroness--what can she want of
+me? She speaks Italian like a Spanish cow, and indeed she needs a
+professor badly enough. But why should she take a fancy for me as a
+teacher. Ah! those eyes! Not the baroness'. Edvigia--Edvigia di
+Lira--Edvigia Ca--Cardegna! Why not?" He stopped to think, and looked
+long at the moonbeams playing on the waters of the fountain. "Why not?
+But the baroness--may the diavolo fly away with her! What should I
+do--I indeed! with a pack of baronesses? I will go to bed and
+dream--not of a baroness! Macchè, never a baroness in my dreams, with
+eyes like a snake, and who cannot speak three words properly in the
+only language under the sun worth speaking! Not I--I will dream of
+Edvigia di Lira--she is the spirit of my dreams. Spirto gentil--" and
+away he went, humming the air from the "Favorita" in the top of his
+head, as is his wont.
+
+The next day the contessina could talk of nothing during her lesson
+but the unknown singer who had made the night so beautiful for her,
+and Nino flushed red under his dark skin and ran his fingers wildly
+through his curly hair, with pleasure. But he set his square jaw, that
+means so much, and explained to his pupil how hard it would be for her
+to hear him again. For his friend, he said, was soon to make his
+appearance on the stage, and of course he could not be heard singing
+before that. And as the young lady insisted, Nino grew silent, and
+remarked that the lesson was not progressing. Thereupon Hedwig
+blushed--the first time he had ever seen her blush--and did not
+approach the subject again.
+
+After that he went to the house of the baroness, where he was
+evidently expected, for the servant asked his name and immediately
+ushered him into her presence. She was one of those lithe, dark women
+of good race, that are to be met with all over the world, and she has
+broken many a heart. But she was not like a snake at all, as Nino had
+thought at first. She was simply a very fine lady who did exactly what
+she pleased, and if she did not always act rightly, yet I think she
+rarely acted unkindly. After all, the buon Dio has not made us all
+paragons of domestic virtue. Men break their hearts for so very
+little, and, unless they are ruined, they melt the pieces at the next
+flame and join them together again like bits of sealing wax.
+
+The baroness sat before a piano in a boudoir, where there was not very
+much light. Every part of the room was crowded with fans, ferns,
+palms, Oriental carpets and cushions, books, porcelain, majolica, and
+pictures. You could hardly move without touching some ornament, and
+the heavy curtains softened the sunshine, and a small open fire of
+wood helped the warmth. There was also an odour of Russian tobacco.
+The baroness smiled and turned on the piano seat.
+
+"Ah, professore! You come just in time," said she. "I am trying to
+sing such a pretty song to myself, and I cannot pronounce the words.
+Come and teach me." Nino contrasted the whole air of this luxurious
+retreat with the prim, soldierly order that reigned in the count's
+establishment.
+
+"Indeed, signora, I come to teach you whatever I can. Here I am. I
+cannot sing, but I will stand beside you and prompt the words."
+
+Nino is not a shy boy at all, and he assumed the duties required of
+him immediately. He stood by her side, and she just nodded and began
+to sing a little song that stood on the desk of the piano. She did not
+sing out of tune, but she made wrong notes and pronounced horribly.
+
+"Pronounce the words for me," she repeated every now and then.
+
+"But pronouncing in singing is different from speaking," he objected
+at last, and, fairly forgetting himself and losing patience, he began
+softly to sing the words over. Little by little, as the song pleased
+him, he lost all memory of where he was, and stood beside her singing
+just as he would have done to De Pretis, from the sheet, with all
+the accuracy and skill that were in him. At the end, he suddenly
+remembered how foolish he was. But, after all, he had not sung to the
+power of his voice, and she might not recognise in him the singer of
+last night. The baroness looked up with a light laugh.
+
+"I have found you out," she cried, clapping her hands. "I have found
+you out!"
+
+"What, signora?"
+
+"You are the tenor of the Pantheon--that is all. I knew it. Are you
+so sorry that I have found you out?" she asked, for Nino turned very
+white, and his eyes flashed at the thought of the folly he had
+committed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Nino was thoroughly frightened, for he knew that discovery portended
+the loss of everything most dear to him. No more lessons with Hedwig,
+no more parties to the Pantheon, no more peace, no more anything. He
+wrung his fingers together and breathed hard.
+
+"Ah, signora!" he found voice to exclaim, "I am sure you cannot
+believe it possible--"
+
+"Why not, Signor Cardegna?" asked the baroness, looking up at him from
+under her half-closed lids with a mocking glance. "Why not? Did you
+not tell me where you lived? And does not the whole neighbourhood know
+that you are no other than Giovanni Cardegna, commonly called Nino,
+who is to make his _début_ in the Carnival season?"
+
+"Dio mio!" ejaculated Nino in a hoarse voice, realising that he was
+entirely found out, and that nothing could save him. He paced the room
+in an agony of despair, and his square face was as white as a sheet.
+The baroness sat watching him with a smile on her lips, amused at the
+tempest she had created, and pretending to know much more than she
+did. She thought it not impossible that Nino, who was certainly poor,
+might be supporting himself by teaching Italian while studying for the
+stage, and she inwardly admired his sense and twofold talent if that
+were really the case. But she was willing to torment him a little,
+seeing that she had the power.
+
+"Signor Cardegna"--she called him in her soft voice. He turned
+quickly, and stood facing her, his arms crossed.
+
+"You look like Napoleon at Waterloo, when you stand like that," she
+laughed. He made no answer, waiting to see what she would do with her
+victory. "It seems that you are sorry I have discovered you," she
+added presently, looking down at her hands.
+
+"Is that all?" he said, with a bitter sneer on his pale young face.
+
+"Then, since you are sorry, you must have a reason for concealment,"
+she went on, as though reflecting on the situation. It was deftly
+done, and Nino took heart.
+
+"Signora," he said, in a trembling voice, "it is natural that a man
+should wish to live. I give lessons now, until I have appeared in
+public, to support myself."
+
+"Ah, I begin to understand," said the baroness. In reality she began
+to doubt, reflecting that if this were the whole truth Nino would be
+too proud--or any other Italian--to say it so plainly. She was subtle,
+the baroness!
+
+"And do you suppose," he continued, "that if once the Conte de Lira
+had an idea that I was to be a public singer he would employ me as a
+teacher for his daughter?"
+
+"No, but others might," she objected.
+
+"But not the count--" Nino bit his lip, fearing he had betrayed
+himself.
+
+"Nor the contessina," laughed the baroness, completing the sentence.
+He saw at a glance what she suspected, and instead of keeping cool
+grew angry.
+
+"I came here, Signora Baronessa, not to be cross-examined, but to
+teach you Italian. Since you do not desire to study, I will say
+good-morning." He took his hat and moved proudly to the door.
+
+"Come here," she said, not raising her voice, but still commanding. He
+turned, hesitated, and came back. He thought her voice was changed.
+She rose and swept her silken morning-gown between the chairs and
+tables till she reached a deep divan on the other side of the room.
+There she sat down.
+
+"Come and sit beside me," she said, kindly, and he obeyed in silence.
+
+"Do you know what would have happened," she continued, when he was
+seated, "if you had left me just now? I would have gone to the Graf
+von Lira and told him that you were not a fit person to teach his
+daughter; that you are a singer, and not a professor at all; and that
+you have assumed this disguise for the sake of seeing his daughter."
+But I do not believe that she would have done it.
+
+"That would have been a betrayal," said Nino fiercely, looking away
+from her. She laughed lightly.
+
+"Is it not natural," she asked, "that I should make inquiries about my
+Italian teacher before I begin lessons with him? And if I find he is
+not what he pretends to be should I not warn my intimate friends?" She
+spoke so reasonably that he was fain to acknowledge that she was
+right.
+
+"It is just," he said, sullenly. "But you have been very quick to make
+your inquiries, as you call them."
+
+"The time was short, since you were to come this morning."
+
+"That is true," he answered. He moved uneasily. "And now, signora,
+will you be kind enough to tell me what you intend to do with me!"
+
+"Certainly, since you are more reasonable. You see I treat you
+altogether as an artist, and not at all as an Italian master. A great
+artist may idle away a morning in a woman's boudoir; a simple teacher
+of languages must be more industrious."
+
+"But I am not a great artist," said Nino, whose vanity--we all have
+it--began to flutter a little.
+
+"You will be one before long, and one of the greatest. You are a boy
+yet, my little tenor," said she, looking at him with her dark eyes,
+"and I might almost be your mother. How old are you, Signor Nino?"
+
+"I was twenty on my last birthday," he answered, blushing.
+
+"You see! I am thirty--at least," she added, with a short laugh.
+
+"Well, signora, what of that?" said Nino, half amused. "I wish I were
+thirty myself."
+
+"I am glad you are not," said she. "Now listen. You are completely in
+my power, do you understand? Yes. And you are apparently very much in
+love with my young friend, the Contessina di Lira"--Nino sprang to his
+feet, his face white again, but with rage this time.
+
+"Signora," he cried, "this is too much! It is insufferable!
+Good-morning," and he made as though he would go.
+
+"Very well," said the baroness; "then I will go to the Graf and
+explain who you are. Ah--you are calm again in a moment? Sit down. Now
+I have discovered you, and I have a right to you, do you see? It is
+fortunate for you that I like you."
+
+"You! You like me? In truth, you act as though you did! Besides, you
+are a stranger, Signora Baronessa, and a great lady. I never saw you
+till yesterday." But he resumed his seat.
+
+"Good," said she. "Is not the Signorina Edvigia a great lady, and was
+there never a day when she was a stranger too?"
+
+"I do not understand your caprices, signora. In fine, what do you want
+of me?"
+
+"It is not necessary that you should understand me," answered the
+dark-eyed baroness. "Do you think I would hurt you--or rather your
+voice?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"You know very well that I would not; and as for my caprices, as you
+call them, do you think it is a caprice to love music? No, of course
+not. And who loves music loves musicians; at least," she added, with a
+most enchanting smile, "enough to wish to have them near one. That is
+all. I want you to come here often and sing to me. Will you come and
+sing to me, my little tenor?"
+
+Nino would not have been human had he not felt the flattery through
+the sting. And I always say that singers are the vainest kind of
+people.
+
+"It is very like singing in a cage," he said, in protest. Nevertheless,
+he knew he must submit; for, however narrow his experience might be,
+this woman's smile and winning grace, even when she said the hardest
+things, told him that she would have her own way. He had the sense to
+understand, too, that whatever her plans might be, their object was to
+bring him near to herself, a reflection which was extremely soothing
+to his vanity.
+
+"If you will come and sing to me--only to me, of course, for I would
+not ask you to compromise your _début_--but if you will come and sing
+to me, we shall be very good friends. Does it seem to you such a
+terrible penance to sing to me in my solitude?"
+
+"It is never a penance to sing," said Nino simply. A shade of
+annoyance crossed the baroness' face.
+
+"Provided," she said, "it entails nothing. Well, we will not talk
+about the terms."
+
+They say women sometimes fall in love with a voice: _vox et proeterea
+nihil_, as the poet has it. I do not know whether that is what
+happened to the baroness at first, but it has always seemed strange to
+me that she should have given herself so much trouble to secure Nino,
+unless she had a very strong fancy for him. I, for my part, think that
+when a lady of her condition takes such a sudden caprice into her
+head, she thinks it necessary to maltreat the poor man a little at
+first, just to satisfy her conscience, and to be able to say later
+that she did not encourage him. I have had some experience, as
+everybody is aware, and so I may speak boldly. On the other hand, a
+man like Nino, when he is in love, is absolutely blind to other women.
+There is only one idea in his soul that has any life, and everyone
+outside that idea is only so much landscape; they are no better for
+him--the other women--than a museum of wax dolls.
+
+The baroness, as you have seen, had Nino in her power, and there was
+nothing for it but submission; he came and went at her bidding, and
+often she would send for him when he least expected it. He would do as
+she commanded, somewhat sullenly and with a bad grace, but obediently,
+for all that; she had his destiny in her hands, and could in a moment
+frustrate all his hopes. But, of course, she knew that if she betrayed
+him to the count, Nino would be lost to her also, since he came to her
+only in order to maintain his relations with Hedwig.
+
+Meanwhile the blue-eyed maiden of the North waxed fitful. Sometimes
+two or three lessons would pass in severe study. Nino, who always took
+care to know the passages they were reading, so that he might look at
+her instead of at his book, had instituted an arrangement by which
+they sat opposite each other at a small table. He would watch her
+every movement and look, and carry away a series of photographs of
+her,--a whole row, like the little books of Roman views they sell in
+the streets, strung together on a strip of paper,--and these views of
+her lasted with him for two whole days, until he saw her again. But
+sometimes he would catch a glimpse of her in the interval driving with
+her father.
+
+There were other days when Hedwig could not be induced to study, but
+would overwhelm Nino with questions about his wonderful cousin who
+sang, so that he longed with his whole soul to tell her it was he
+himself who had sung. She saw his reluctance to speak about it, and
+she blushed when she mentioned the night at the Pantheon; but for her
+life she could not help talking of the pleasure she had had. Her
+blushes seemed like the promise of spring roses to her lover, who
+drank of the air of her presence till that subtle ether ran like fire
+through his veins. He was nothing to her, he could see; but the singer
+of the Pantheon engrossed her thoughts and brought the hot blood to
+her cheek. The beam of moonlight had pierced the soft virgin darkness
+of her sleeping soul, and found a heart so cold and spotless that even
+a moon ray was warm by comparison. And the voice that sang "Spirto
+gentil dei sogni miei" had itself become by memory the gentle spirit
+of her own dreams. She is so full of imagination, this statue of
+Nino's, that she heard the notes echoing after her by day and night,
+till she thought she must go mad unless she could hear the reality
+again. As the great solemn statue of Egyptian Memnon murmurs sweet,
+soft sounds to its mighty self at sunrise, a musical whisper in the
+desert, so the pure white marble of Nino's living statue vibrated with
+strange harmonies all the day long.
+
+One night, as Nino walked homeward with De Pretis, who had come to
+supper with us, he induced the maestro to go out of his way at least
+half a mile, to pass the Palazzo Carmandola. It was a still night,
+not over-cold for December, and there were neither stars nor moon.
+As they passed the great house Nino saw a light in Hedwig's
+sitting-room--the room where he gave her the lessons. It was late,
+and she must be alone. On a sudden he stopped.
+
+"What is the matter?" asked De Pretis.
+
+For all answer, Nino, standing in the dark street below, lifted up his
+voice and sang the first notes of the air he always associated with
+his beautiful contessina. Before he had sung a dozen bars the window
+opened, and the girl's figure could be seen, black against the light
+within. He went on for a few notes, and then ceased suddenly.
+
+"Let us go," he said in a low voice to Ercole; and they went away,
+leaving the contessina listening in the stillness to the echo of their
+feet. A Roman girl would not have done that; she would have sat
+quietly inside, and never have shown herself. But foreigners are so
+impulsive!
+
+Nino never heard the last of those few notes, any more than the
+contessina, literally speaking, ever heard the end of the song.
+
+"Your cousin, about whom you make so much mystery, passed under my
+window last night," said the young lady the next day, with the usual
+display of carnation in her cheeks at the mention of him.
+
+"Indeed, signorina?" said Nino, calmly, for he expected the remark.
+"And since you have never seen him, pray how did you know it was he?"
+
+"How should one know?" she asked, scornfully. "There are not two such
+voices as his in Italy. He sang."
+
+"He sang?" cried Nino, with an affectation of alarm. "I must tell the
+maestro not to let him sing in the open air; he will lose his voice."
+
+"Who is his master?" asked Hedwig, suddenly.
+
+"I cannot remember the name just now," said Nino, looking away. "But
+I will find out, if you wish." He was afraid of putting De Pretis to
+any inconvenience by saying that the young singer was his pupil.
+"However," he continued, "you will hear him sing as often as you
+please, after he makes his _début_ next month." He sighed when he
+thought that it would all so soon be over. For how could he disguise
+himself any longer, when he should be singing in public every night?
+But Hedwig clapped her hands.
+
+"So soon?" she cried. "Then there will be an end of the mystery."
+
+"Yes," said Nino, gravely "there will be an end of the mystery."
+
+"At least you can tell me his name, now that we shall all know it."
+
+"Oh, his name--his name is Cardegna, like mine. He is my cousin, you
+know." And they went on with the lesson. But something of the kind
+occurred almost every time he came, so that he felt quite sure that,
+however indifferent he might be in her eyes, the singer, the Nino of
+whom she knew nothing, interested her deeply.
+
+Meanwhile he was obliged to go very often to the baroness' scented
+boudoir, which smelled of incense and other Eastern perfumes, whenever
+it did not smell of cigarettes; and there he sang little songs, and
+submitted patiently to her demands for more and more music. She would
+sit by the piano and watch him as he sang, wondering whether he were
+handsome or ugly, with his square face and broad throat and the black
+circles round his eyes. He had a fascination for her, as being
+something utterly new to her.
+
+One day she stood and looked over the music as he sang, almost
+touching him, and his hair was so curly and soft to look at that she
+was seized with a desire to stroke it, as Mariuccia strokes the old
+gray cat for hours together. The action was quite involuntary, and her
+fingers rested only a moment on his head.
+
+"It is so curly," she said, half playfully, half apologetically. But
+Nino started as though he had been stung, and his dark face grew pale.
+A girl could not have seemed more hurt at a strange man's touch.
+
+"Signora!" he cried, springing to his feet. The baroness, who is as
+dark as he, blushed almost red, partly because she was angry, and
+partly because she was ashamed.
+
+"What a boy you are!" she said, carelessly enough, and turned away to
+the window, pushing back one heavy curtain with her delicate hand, as
+if she would look out.
+
+"Pardon me, signora, I am not a boy," said Nino, speaking to the back
+of her head as he stood behind her. "It is time we understood each
+other better. I love like a man and I hate like a man. I love someone
+very, much."
+
+"Fortunate contessina!" laughed the baroness, mockingly, without
+turning round.
+
+"It does not concern you, signora, to know whom I love, nor, if you
+know, to speak of her. I ask you a simple question. If you loved a man
+with your whole soul and heart, would you allow another man to stand
+beside you and stroke your hair, and say it was curly?" The baroness
+burst out laughing. "Do not laugh," he continued. "Remember that I am
+in your power only so long as it pleases me to submit to you. Do not
+abuse your advantage, or I will be capable of creating for myself
+situations quite as satisfactory as that of Italian master to the
+Signorina di Lira."
+
+"What do you mean?" she asked, turning suddenly upon him. "I suppose
+you would tell me that you will make advantages for yourself which
+you will abuse against me? What do you mean?"
+
+"I do not mean that. I mean only that I may not wish to give lessons
+to the contessina much longer." By this time the baroness had
+recovered her equanimity; and as she would have been sorry to lose
+Nino, who was a source of infinite pleasure and amusement to her, she
+decided to pacify him instead of teasing him any more.
+
+"Is it not very foolish for us to quarrel about your curly hair?" said
+she. "We have been such good friends always." It might have been three
+weeks, her "always."
+
+"I think it is," answered Nino, gravely. "But do not stroke my hair
+again, Signora Baronessa, or I shall be angry." He was quite serious,
+if you believe it, though he was only twenty. He forthwith sat down to
+the piano again and sang on. The baroness sat very silent and scarcely
+looked at him; but she held her hands clasped on her knee, and seemed
+to be thinking. After a time Nino stopped singing and sat silent also,
+absently turning over the sheets of music. It was warm in the room,
+and the sounds from the street were muffled and far away.
+
+"Signor Nino," said the lady at last, in a different voice, "I am
+married."
+
+"Yes, signora," he replied, wondering what would come next.
+
+"It would be very foolish of me to care for you."
+
+"It would also be very wicked," he said, calmly; for he is well
+grounded in religion. The baroness stared at him in some surprise, but
+seeing he was perfectly serious, she went on.
+
+"Precisely, as you say, very wicked. That being the case, I have
+decided not to care for you any more--I mean not to care for you at
+all. I have made up my mind to be your friend."
+
+"I am much obliged to your ladyship," he answered, without moving a
+muscle. For you see, he did not believe her.
+
+"Now tell me, then, Signor Nino, are you in earnest in what you are
+doing? Do you really set your heart on doing this thing?"
+
+"What?" asked Nino, annoyed at the persistence of the woman.
+
+"Why need you be afraid to understand me? Can you not forgive me? Can
+you not believe in me that I will be your friend? I have always
+dreamed of being the friend of a great artist. Let me be yours, and
+believe me, the thing you have in your heart shall be done."
+
+"I would like to hope so," he said. But he smiled incredulously. "I
+can only say that if you can accomplish what it is in my heart to do,
+I will go through fire and water at your bidding; and if you are not
+mocking me, I am very grateful for the offer. But if you please,
+signora, we will not speak any more of this at present. I may be a
+great artist some day. Sometimes I feel sure that I shall. But now I
+am simply Giovanni Cardegna, teacher of literature; and the highest
+favour you can confer on me is not to deprive me of my means of
+support by revealing to the Conte di Lira my other occupation. I may
+fail hopelessly at the outset of my artistic career, and in that case
+I shall certainly remain a teacher of language."
+
+"Very well," said the baroness, in a subdued voice; for, in spite of
+her will and wilfulness, this square-faced boy of mine was more than a
+match for her. "Very well, you will believe me another day, and now I
+will ask you to go, for I am tired."
+
+I cannot be interrupted by your silly questions about the exact way in
+which things happened. I must tell this story in my own way or not at
+all; and I am sacrificing a great deal to your taste in cutting out
+all the little things that I really most enjoy telling. Whether you
+are astonished at the conduct of the baroness, after a three weeks'
+acquaintance, or not, I care not a fig. It is just the way it
+happened, and I daresay she was really madly in love with Nino. If I
+had been Nino I should have been in love with her. But I would like
+you to admire my boy's audacity, and to review the situation, before I
+go on to speak of that important event in his life, his first
+appearance on the boards of the opera. At the time of his _début_ he
+was still disguised as a teacher of Italian to the young contessina.
+She thought him interesting and intelligent, but that was all. Her
+thoughts were entirely, though secretly, engrossed by the mysterious
+singer whom she had heard twice but had not seen as far as she knew.
+Nino, on the other hand, loved her to desperation, and would have
+acted like a madman had he been deprived of his privilege of speaking
+to her three times a week. He loved her with the same earnest
+determination to win her that he had shown for years in the study of
+his art, and with all the rest of his nature besides, which is saying
+much--not to mention his soul, of which he thinks a great deal more
+than I do.
+
+Besides this, the baroness had apparently fallen in love with him, had
+made him her intimate, and flattered him in a way to turn his head.
+Then she seemed to have thought better of her passion, and had
+promised him her friendship,--a promise which he himself considered of
+no importance whatever. As for the old Conte de Lira, he read the
+German newspapers, and cared for none of these things. De Pretis took
+an extra pinch of his good snuff, when he thought that his liberal
+ideas might yet be realised, and a man from the people marry a great
+lady by fairly winning her. Do not, after this, complain that I have
+left you in the dark, or that you do not know how it happened. It is
+as clear as water, and it was about four months from the time Nino saw
+Hedwig in St. Peter's to the time when he first sang in public.
+
+Christmas passed by,--thank heaven the municipality has driven away
+those most detestable pifferari who played on their discordant
+bagpipes at every corner for a fortnight, and nearly drove me
+crazy,--and the Befana, as we call the Epiphany in Rome, was gone,
+with its gay racket, and the night fair in the Piazza Navona, and the
+days for Nino's first appearance drew near. I never knew anything
+about the business arrangements for the _début_, since De Pretis
+settled all that with Jacovacci, the impresario; but I know that there
+were many rehearsals, and that I was obliged to stand security to the
+theatrical tailor, together with De Pretis, in order that Nino might
+have his dress made. As for the cowl in the last act, De Pretis has a
+brother who is a monk, and between them they put together a very
+decent friar's costume; and Mariuccia had a good piece of rope which
+Nino used for a girdle.
+
+"What does it matter?" he said, with much good sense. "For if I sing
+well, they will not look at my monk's hood; and if I sing badly, I may
+be dressed like the Holy Father and they will hiss me just the same.
+But in the beginning I must look like a courtier, and be dressed like
+one."
+
+"I suppose so," said I; "but I wish you had taken to philosophy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+I shall never forget the day of Nino's first appearance. You may
+imagine whether we were in a state of excitement or not, after all
+these years of studying and waiting. There was much more trouble and
+worry than if he had written a great book, and was just to publish it,
+and receive the homage of all the learning and talent in Europe; which
+is the kind of _début_ I had hoped he would make in life, instead
+of putting on a foolish dress and stamping about on a stage, and
+squalling love songs to a packed house, making pantomime with his
+hands, and altogether behaving like an idiot,--a crowd of people ready
+to hiss him at the slightest indication of weakness, or to carry him
+on their shoulders if they fancied his voice to their taste.
+
+No wonder Nino was sad and depressed all day, and when he tried his
+voice in the afternoon thought it was less clear than usual, and
+stared at himself in the looking-glass, wondering whether he were not
+too ugly altogether, as I always told him. To tell the truth, he was
+not so ugly as he had been; for the months with the contessina had
+refined him singularly, and perhaps he had caught a certain grace of
+manner from the baroness. He had grown more silent too, and seemed
+always preoccupied, as well he might be: but he had concealed his
+affair with the Lira family from me until that day, and I supposed him
+anxious about his appearance.
+
+Early in the morning came De Pretis, and suggested that it would be
+better for Nino to take a walk and breathe the fresh air a little; so
+I bade him go, and I did not see him again until the afternoon. De
+Pretis said that the only cause for anxiety was from stage fright, and
+went away taking snuff and flourishing his immense cotton
+handkerchief. I thought a man must be a fool to work for years in
+order to sing, and then, when he had learned to do it quite well, to
+be afraid of showing what he knew. I did not think Nino would be
+frightened.
+
+Of course there was a final rehearsal at eleven, and Nino put off the
+hour of the lesson with the contessina to three in the afternoon, by
+some excuse or other. He must have felt very much pressed for time,
+having to give her a lesson on the very day of his coming out; and
+besides, he knew very well that it might be the last of his days with
+her, and that a great deal would depend on the way he bore himself at
+his trial. He sang badly, or thought he did, at the rehearsal, and
+grew more and more depressed and grave as the day advanced. He came
+out of the little stage door of the Apollo theatre at Tor di Nona, and
+his eyes fell upon the broad bills and posters announcing the first
+appearance of "Giovanni Cardegna, the most distinguished pupil of the
+Maestro Ercole de Pretis, in Donizetti's opera the 'Favorita.'" His
+heart sank at the sight of his own name, and he turned towards the
+Bridge of Sant' Angelo to get away from it. He was the last to leave
+the theatre, and De Pretis was with him.
+
+At that moment he saw Hedwig von Lira sitting in an open carriage in
+front of the box office. De Pretis bowed low; she smiled; and Nino
+took off his hat, but would not go near her, escaping in the opposite
+direction. He thought she looked somewhat surprised, but his only idea
+was to get away, lest she should call him and put some awkward
+question.
+
+An hour and a half later he entered her sitting-room. There she sat,
+as usual, with her books, awaiting him perhaps for the last time, a
+fair, girlish figure with gold hair, but oh, so cold!--it makes me
+shiver to think of how she used to look. Possibly there was a
+dreaminess about her blue eyes that made up for her manner; but how
+Nino could love her I cannot understand. It must have been like making
+love to a pillar of ice.
+
+"I am much indebted to you for allowing me to come at this hour,
+signorina," he said, as he bowed.
+
+"Ah, professore, it looks almost as though it were you yourself who
+were to make your _début_" said she, laughing and leaning back in her
+chair. "Your name is on every corner in Rome, and I saw you coming out
+of a side door of the theatre this morning." Nino trembled, but
+reflected that if she had suspected anything she would not have made
+so light of it.
+
+"The fact is, signorina, my cousin is so nervous that he begged me
+earnestly to be present at the rehearsal this morning; and as it is
+the great event of his life, I could not easily refuse him. I presume
+you are going to hear him, since I saw your carriage at the theatre."
+
+"Yes. At the last minute my father wanted to change our box for one
+nearer the stage, and so we went ourselves. The baroness--you know,
+the lady who went with us to the Pantheon--is going with us to-night."
+It was the first time Hedwig had mentioned her, and it was evident
+that Nino's intimacy with the baroness had been kept a secret. How
+long would it be so? Mechanically he proceeded with the lesson,
+thinking mournfully that he should never give her another. But Hedwig
+was more animated than he had ever seen her, and often stopped to ask
+questions about the coming performance. It was evident that she was
+entirely absorbed with the thought of at last hearing to its fullest
+extent the voice that had haunted her dreams; most of all, with the
+anticipation of what this wonderful singer would be like. Dwelling on
+the echo of his singing for months had roused her interest and
+curiosity to such a pitch that she could hardly be quiet a moment, or
+think calmly of what she was to enjoy; and yet she looked so very cold
+and indifferent at most times. But Nino had noticed all this, and
+rejoiced at it; young as he was, however, he understood that the
+discovery she was about to make would be a shock that would certainly
+produce some palpable result, when she should see him from her box in
+the theatre. He trembled for the consequences.
+
+The lesson was over all too soon, and Nino lingered a moment to see
+whether the very last drops of his cup of happiness might not still be
+sweet. He did not know when he should see her again, to speak with
+her; and though he determined it should not be long, the future seemed
+very uncertain, and he would look on her loveliness while he might.
+
+"I hope you will like my cousin's singing," he said, rather timidly.
+
+"If he sings as he has sung before he is the greatest artist living,"
+she said calmly, as though no one would dispute it. "But I am curious
+to see him as well as to hear him."
+
+"He is not handsome," said Nino, smiling a little. "In fact, there is
+a family resemblance; he is said to look like me."
+
+"Why did you not tell me that before?" she asked quickly, and fixed
+her blue eyes on Nino's face as though she wished to photograph the
+features in her mind.
+
+"I did not suppose the signorina would think twice about a singer's
+appearance," said Nino quietly. Hedwig blushed and turned away,
+busying herself with her books. At that moment Graf von Lira entered
+from the next room. Nino bowed.
+
+"Curious is it," said the count, "that you and the
+about-to-make-his- appearance tenor should the same name have."
+
+"He is a near relation, Signor Conte,--the same whom you heard sing in
+the Pantheon. I hope you will like his voice."
+
+"That is what we shall see, Signor Professore," answered the other
+severely. He had a curious way of bowing, as though he were made only
+in two pieces, from his waist to his heels, and from his waist to the
+crown of his head. Nino went his way sadly, and wondering how Hedwig
+would look when she should recognise him from her box in the theatre
+that very evening.
+
+It is a terrible and a heart-tearing thing to part from the woman one
+loves. That is nothing new, you say. Everyone knows that, perhaps so,
+though I think not. Only those can know it who have experienced it,
+and for them no explanations are in any way at all necessary. The mere
+word "parting" calls up such an infinity of sorrow that it is better
+to draw a veil over the sad thing and bury it out of sight and put
+upon it the seal on which is graven "No Hope."
+
+Moreover, when a man only supposes, as Nino did, that he is leaving
+the woman he loves, or is about to leave her, until he can devise some
+new plan for seeing her, the case is not so very serious.
+Nevertheless, Nino, who is of a very tender constitution of the
+affections, suffered certain pangs which are always hard to bear, and
+as he walked slowly down the street he hung his head low, and did not
+look like a man who could possibly be successful in anything he might
+undertake that day. Yet it was the most important day of his life, and
+had it not been that he had left Hedwig with little hope of ever
+giving her another lesson, he would have been so happy that the whole
+air would have seemed dancing with sunbeams and angels and flowers. I
+think that when a man loves he cares very little for what he does.
+The greatest success is indifferent to him, and he cares not at all
+for failure in the ordinary undertakings of life. These are my
+reflections, and they are worth something, because I once loved very
+much myself, and was parted from her I loved many times before the
+last parting.
+
+It was on this day that Nino came to me and told me all the history of
+the past months, of which I knew nothing; but, as you know all about
+it, I need not tell you what the conversation was like, until he had
+finished. Then I told him he was the prince and chief of donkeys,
+which was no more than the truth, as everybody will allow. He only
+spread out his palms and shrugged his shoulders, putting his head on
+one side, as though to say he could not help it.
+
+"Is it perhaps my fault that you are a little donkey?" I asked; for
+you may imagine whether I was angry or not.
+
+"Certainly not, Sor Cornelio," he said. "It is entirely my own doing;
+but I do not see that I am a donkey."
+
+"Blood of Bacchus!" I ejaculated, holding up my hands. "He does not
+believe he is a great stupid!" But Nino was not angry at all. He
+busied himself a little with his costume, which was laid out on the
+piano, with the sword and the tinsel collar and all the rest of it.
+
+"I am in love," he said. "What would you have?"
+
+"I would have you put a little giudizio, just a grain of judgment and
+common sense, into your love affairs. Why, you go about it as though
+it were the most innocent thing in the world to disguise yourself, and
+present yourself as a professor in a nobleman's house, in order to
+make love to his daughter! You, to make love to a noble damigella, a
+young countess, with a fortune! Go back to Serveti, and marry the
+first contadina girl you meet, it is much more fitting, if you must
+needs marry at all. I repeat it, you are an ignorant donkey!"
+
+"Eh!" cried Nino, perfectly unmoved, "if I am ignorant, it is not for
+lack of your teaching; and as for being the beast of burden to which
+you refer, I have heard it said that you were once in love yourself.
+Meanwhile, I have told you this, because there will perhaps be
+trouble, and I did not intend you to be surprised."
+
+"Surprised?" said I. "I would not be surprised at anything you might
+fancy doing now. No, I would not dream of being surprised!"
+
+"So much the better," answered Nino, imperturbably. He looked sad and
+weary, though, and as I am a prudent man I put my anger away to cool
+for a little while, and indulged in a cigar until it should be time to
+go to the theatre; for of course I went with him, and Mariuccia too,
+to help him with his dress. Poor old Mariuccia! she had dressed him
+when he was a ragged little boy, and she was determined to put the
+finishing touches to his appearance now that he was about to be a
+great man, she said. His dressing-room was a narrow little place,
+sufficiently ill lighted, and there was barely space to turn round.
+Mariuccia, who had brought the cat and had her pocket full of roasted
+chestnuts, sat outside on a chair until he was ready for her; and I am
+sure that if she had spent her life in the profession of adorning
+players she could not have used her fingers more deftly in the
+arrangement of the collar and sword. Nino had a fancy to wear a
+moustache and a pointed beard through the first part of the opera;
+saying that a courtier always had hair on his face, but that he would
+naturally shave if he turned monk. I represented to him that it was
+needless expense, since he must deposit the value of the false beard
+with the theatre barber, who lives opposite; and it was twenty-three
+francs. Besides, he would look like a different man--two separate
+characters.
+
+"I do not care a cabbage for that," said Nino. If they cannot
+recognise me with their ears, they need not trouble themselves to
+recognise me at all."
+
+"It is a fact that their ears are quite long enough," said Mariuccia.
+
+"Hush, Mariuccia!" I said. "The Roman public is the most intelligent
+public in the world." And at this she grumbled.
+
+But I knew well enough why he wanted to wear the beard. He had a fancy
+to put off the evil moment as long as possible, so that Hedwig might
+not recognise him till the last act,--a foolish fancy, in truth, for a
+woman's eyes are not like a man's; and though Hedwig had never thought
+twice about Nino's personality, she had not sat opposite him three
+times a week for nearly four months without knowing all his looks and
+gestures. It is an absurd idea, too, to attempt to fence with time,
+when a thing must come in the course of an hour or two. What is it,
+after all, the small delay you can produce? The click of a few more
+seconds in the clock-work, before the hammer smites its angry warning
+on the bell, and leaves echoes of pain writhing through the poor
+bronze, that is Time. As for Eternity, it is a question of the
+calculus, and does not enter into a singer's first appearance, nor
+into the recognition of a lover. If it did, I would give you an
+eloquent dissertation upon it, so that you would yawn and take snuff,
+and wish me carried off by the diavolo to some place where I might
+lecture on the infinite without fear of being interrupted, or of
+keeping sinners like you unnecessarily long awake. There will be no
+hurry then. Poor old diavolo! he must have a dull time of it amongst
+all those heretics. Perhaps he has a little variety, for they say he
+has written up on his door, "Ici l'on parle français," since Monsieur
+de Voltaire died. But I must go on, or you will never be any wiser
+than you are now, which is not saying overmuch.
+
+I am not going to give you a description of the "Favorita," which you
+may hear a dozen times a year at the theatre, for more or less
+money--but it is only a franc if you stand; quite enough, too. I went
+upon the stage before it began, and peeped through the curtain to see
+what kind of an audience there was. It is an old curtain, and there is
+a hole in it on the right-hand side, which De Pretis says was made by
+a foreign tenor some years ago between the acts; and Jacovacci, the
+impresario, tried to make him pay five francs to have it repaired, but
+did not get the money. It is a better hole than the one in the middle,
+which is so far from both sides of the house that you cannot see the
+people well. So I looked through, and there, sure enough, in a box
+very near to the stage, sat the Contessina di Lira and the baroness,
+whom I had never seen before, but recognised from Nino's description;
+and behind them sat the count himself, with his great gray moustaches
+and a white cravat. They made me think of the time when I used to go
+to the theatre myself and sit in a box, and applaud or hiss, just as I
+pleased. Dio mio! what changes in this world!
+
+I recognised also a great many of our noble ladies, with jewels and
+other ornaments, and it seemed to me that some of them were much more
+beautiful than the German contessina whom Nino had elected to worship,
+though she was well enough, to be sure, in white silk and white fur,
+with her little gold cross at her throat. To think that a statue like
+that, brought up with all the proprieties, should have such a strange
+chapter of life! But my eye began to smart from peering through the
+little hole, and just then a rough-looking fellow connected with the
+stage reminded me that, whatever relation I might be to the primo
+tenore, I was not dressed to appear in the first act; then the
+audience began to stamp and groan because the performance did not
+begin, and I went away again to tell Nino that he had a packed house.
+I found De Pretis giving him blackberry syrup, which he had brought
+in a bottle, and entreating him to have courage. Indeed, it seemed
+to me that Nino had the more courage of the two; for De Pretis
+laughed and cried and blew his nose, and took snuff with his great
+fat fingers, and acted altogether like a poor fool; while Nino sat on
+a rush-bottomed chair and watched Mariuccia, who was stroking the old
+cat and nibbling roasted chestnuts, declaring all the while that Nino
+was the most beautiful object she had ever seen. Then the bass and the
+baritone came together and spoke cheering words to Nino, and invited
+him to supper afterwards; but he thanked them kindly, and told them
+that he was expected at home, and would go with them after the next
+performance--if there ever were a "next." He thought he might fail at
+the last minute.
+
+Nino had judged more rightly than I when he supposed that his beard
+and moustaches would disguise him from Hedwig during the first two
+acts. She recognised the wondrous voice, and she saw the strong
+resemblance he had spoken of. Once or twice as he looked toward her,
+it seemed indeed that the eyes must be his, with their deep circles
+and serious gaze. But it was absurd to suppose it anything more than a
+resemblance. As the opera advanced, it became evident that Nino was
+making a success. Then in the second act it was clear that the success
+was growing to be an ovation, and the ovation a furore, in which the
+house became entirely demoralised, and vouchsafed to listen only so
+long as Nino was singing--screaming with delight before he had
+finished what he had to sing in each scene. People sent their servants
+away in hot haste to buy flowers wherever they could, and he came back
+to his dressing-room, from the second act, carrying bouquets by the
+dozen, small bunches and big, such as people had been able to get or
+had brought with them. His eyes shone like the coals in Mariuccia's
+scaldino, as he entered, and he was pale through his paint. He could
+hardly speak for joy; but, as old habits return unconsciously at great
+moments in a man's life, he took the cat on his knee and pulled its
+tail.
+
+"Sing thou also, little beast," he said, gravely; and he pulled the
+tail till the cat squeaked a little, and he was satisfied.
+
+"Bene!" he cried; "and now for the tonsure and the frock." So
+Mariuccia was turned out into the passage while he changed his dress.
+De Pretis came back a moment later and tried to help him, but he was
+so much overcome that he could only shed tears and give a last word of
+advice for the next act.
+
+"You must not sing it too loud, Nino mio," he said.
+
+"Diavolo!" said Nino. "I should think not!"
+
+"But you must not squeak it out in a little wee false voice, as small
+as this"; the maestro held up his thumb and finger, with a pinch of
+snuff between them.
+
+"Bah? Sor Ercole, do you take me for a soprano?" cried the boy,
+laughing, as he washed off the paint and the gum where the beard had
+stuck. Presently he got into his frock, which, as I told you, was a
+real one, provided by Ercole's brother, the Franciscan--quite quietly,
+of course, for it would seem a dreadful thing to use a real monk's
+frock in an opera. Then we fastened the rope round his waist, and
+smoothed his curly hair a little to give him a more pious aspect. He
+looked as white as a pillow when the paint was gone.
+
+"Tell me a little, my father," said old Mariuccia, mocking him, "do
+you fast on Sundays, that you look so pale?" Whereat Nino struck an
+attitude, and began singing a love song to the ancient woman. Indeed,
+she was joking about the fast, for she had expended my substance of
+late in fattening Nino, as she called it, for his appearance, and
+there was to be broiled chickens for supper that very night. He was
+only pale because he was in love. As for me, I made up my mind to
+stand in the slides, so that I could see the contessina; for Nino had
+whispered to me that she had not yet recognised him, though she stared
+hard across the footlights. Therefore I took up a good position on the
+left of the stage, facing the Lira box, which was on the right.
+
+The curtain went up, and Nino stood there, looking like a real monk,
+with a book in his hand and his eyes cast down, as he began to walk
+slowly along. I saw Hedwig von Lira's gaze rest on his square, pale
+face at least one whole minute. Then she gave a strange little cry, so
+that many people in the house looked towards her; and she leaned far
+back in the shadow of the deep box, while the reflected glare of the
+footlights just shone faintly on her features, making them look more
+like marble than ever. The baroness was smiling to herself, amused at
+her companion's surprise, and the old count stared stolidly for a
+moment or two, and then turned suddenly to his daughter.
+
+"Very curious is it," he was probably saying, "that this tenor should
+so much your Italian professor resemble." I could almost see his gray
+eyes sparkle angrily across the theatre. But as I looked, a sound
+rose on the heated air, the like of which I have never known. To tell
+the truth, I had not heard the first two acts, for I did not suppose
+there was any great difference between Nino's singing on the stage and
+his singing at home, and I still wished he might have chosen some
+other profession. But when I heard this I yielded, at least for the
+time, and I am not sure that my eyes were as clear as usual.
+
+"Spirto gentil dei sogni miei"--the long sweet notes sighed themselves
+to death on his lips, falling and rising magically like a mystic angel
+song, and swaying their melody out into the world of lights and
+listeners; so pathetic, so heart-breaking, so laden with death and
+with love, that it was as though all the sorrowing souls in our poor
+Rome breathed in one soft sigh together. Only a poor monk dying of
+love in a monastery, tenderly and truly loving to the bitter end. Dio
+mio! there are perhaps many such. But a monk like this, with a face
+like a conqueror, set square in its whiteness, and yet so wretched to
+see in his poor patched frock and his bare feet; a monk, too, not
+acting love, but really and truly ready to die for a beautiful woman
+not thirty feet from him in the house; above all, a monk with a voice
+that speaks like the clarion call of the day of judgment in its wrath,
+and murmurs more plaintively and sadly in sorrow than ever the poor
+Peri sighed at the gates of Paradise--such a monk, what could he not
+make people feel?
+
+The great crowd of men and women sat utterly stilled and intent till
+he had sung the very last note. Not a sound was heard to offend the
+sorrow that spoke from the boy's lips. Then all those people seemed to
+draw three long breaths of wonder--a pause, a thrilling tremor in the
+air, and then there burst to the roof such a roar of cries, such a
+huge thunder of hands and voices, that the whole house seemed to rock
+with it, and even in the street outside they say the noise was
+deafening.
+
+Alone on the stage stood Nino, his eyes fixed on Hedwig von Lira in
+her box. I think that she alone of all that multitude made no sound,
+but only gripped the edge of the balcony hard in her white hands, and
+leaned far forward with straining eyes and beating heart to satisfy
+her wonder. She knew well enough, now, that there was no mistake. The
+humble little Professor Cardegna, who had patiently explained Dante
+and Leopardi to her for months, bowing to the ground in her presence,
+and apologising when he corrected her mistakes, as though his whole
+life was to be devoted to teaching foreigners his language; the
+decently clad young man, who was always pale, and sometimes pathetic
+when he spoke of himself, was no other than Giovanni Cardegna the
+tenor, singing aloud to earth and heaven with his glorious great
+voice--a man on the threshold of a European fame, such as falls only
+to the lot of a singer or a conqueror. More, he was the singer of her
+dreams, who had for months filled her thoughts with music and her
+heart with a strange longing, being until now a voice Only. There he
+stood looking straight at her,--she was not mistaken,--as though to
+say, "I have done it for you, and for you only." A woman must be more
+than marble to feel no pride in the intimate knowledge that a great
+public triumph has been gained solely for her sake. She must be colder
+than ice if she cannot see her power when a conqueror loves her.
+
+The marble had felt the fire, and the ice was in the flame at last.
+Nino, with his determination to be loved, had put his statue into a
+very fiery furnace, and in the young innocence of his heart had
+prepared such a surprise for his lady as might have turned the head of
+a hardened woman of the world, let alone an imaginative German girl,
+with a taste for romance--or without; it matters little. All Germans
+are full of imagination, and that is the reason they know so much. For
+they not only know all that is known by other people, but also all
+that they themselves imagine, which nobody else can possibly know. And
+if you do not believe this, you had better read the works of one
+Fichte, a philosopher.
+
+I need not tell you any more about Nino's first appearance. It was one
+of those really phenomenal successes that seem to cling to certain
+people through life. He was very happy and very silent when it was
+over; and we were the last to leave the theatre, for we feared the
+enthusiasm of the crowd. So we waited till everyone had gone, and then
+marched home together, for it was a fine night. I walked on one side
+of Nino and De Pretis on the other, all of us carrying as many flowers
+as we could; Mariuccia came behind, with the cat under her shawl. I
+did not discover until we reached home why she had brought the beast.
+Then she explained that, as there was so much food in the kitchen in
+anticipation of our supper, she had been afraid to leave the cat alone
+in the house, lest we should find nothing left to eat when we
+returned. This was sufficiently prudent for a scatter-brained old
+spendthrift like Mariuccia.
+
+That was a merry supper, and De Pretis became highly dramatic when we
+got to the second flask.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+On the day following Nino's _début_, Maestro Ercole de Pretis found
+himself in hot water, and the choristers at St. Peter's noticed that
+his skull-cap was awry, and that he sang out of tune; and once he
+tried to take a pinch of snuff when there was only three bars' rest in
+the music, so that instead of singing C sharp he sneezed very loud.
+Then all the other singers giggled, and said, "Salute!"--which we
+always say to a person who sneezes--quite audibly.
+
+It was not that Ercole had heard anything from the Graf von Lira as
+yet; but he expected to hear, and did not relish the prospect. Indeed,
+how could the Prussian gentleman fail to resent what the maestro had
+done in introducing to him a singer disguised as a teacher? It
+chanced, also, that the contessina took a singing lesson that very day
+in the afternoon, and it was clear that the reaping of his evil deeds
+was not far off. His conscience did not trouble him at all, it is
+true, for I have told you that he has liberal ideas about the right
+of marriage; but his vanity was sorely afflicted at the idea of
+abandoning such a very noble and creditable pupil as the Contessina di
+Lira. He applauded himself for furthering Nino's wild schemes, and he
+blamed himself for being so reckless about his own interests. Every
+moment he expected a formal notice from the count to discontinue the
+lessons. But still it did not come, and at the appointed hour Ercole's
+wife helped him to put on his thick winter coat, and wrapped his
+comforter about his neck, and pulled his big hat over his eyes--for
+the weather was threatening, and sent him trudging off to the Palazzo
+Carmandola.
+
+Though Ercole is stout of heart, and has broad shoulders to bear such
+burdens as fall to his lot, he lingered long on the way, for his
+presentiments were gloomy; and at the great door of the Palazzo he
+even stopped to inquire of the porter whether the contessina had been
+seen to go out yet, half hoping that she would thus save him the
+mortification of an interview. But it turned out otherwise: the
+contessina was at home, and De Pretis was expected, as usual, to give
+the lesson. Slowly he climbed the great staircase, and was admitted.
+
+"Good-day, Sor Maestro," said the liveried footman, who knew him well.
+"The Signor Conte desires to speak with you to-day before you go to
+the signorina."
+
+The maestro's heart sank, and he gripped hard the roll of music in his
+hand as he followed the servant to the count's cabinet. There was to
+be a scene of explanation after all.
+
+The count was seated in his great arm-chair, in a cloud of tobacco
+smoke, reading a Prussian military journal. His stick leaned against
+the table by his side, in painful contrast with the glittering cavalry
+sabres crossed upon the dark red wall opposite. The tall windows
+looked out on the piazza, and it was raining, or just beginning to
+rain. The great inkstand on the table was made to represent a
+howitzer, and the count looked as though he were ready to fire it
+point blank at any intruder. There was an air of disciplined luxury in
+the room that spoke of a rich old soldier who fed his fancy with
+tit-bits from a stirring past. De Pretis felt very uncomfortable, but
+the nobleman rose to greet him, as he rose to greet everything above
+the rank of a servant, making himself steady with his stick. When De
+Pretis was seated he sat down also. The rain pattered against the
+window.
+
+"Signor De Pretis," began the count, in tones as hard as chilled
+steel, "you are an honourable man." There was something interrogative
+in his voice.
+
+"I hope so," answered the maestro modestly; "like other Christians, I
+have a soul--"
+
+"You will your soul take care of in your leisure moments," interrupted
+the count. "At present you have no leisure."
+
+"As you command, Signor Conte."
+
+"I was yesterday evening at the theatre. The professor you recommended
+for my daughter is with the new tenor one person." De Pretis spread
+out his hands and bowed, as if to deprecate any share in the
+transaction. The count continued, "You are of the profession, Signor
+De Pretis. Evidently, you of this were aware."
+
+"It is true," assented Ercole, not knowing what to say.
+
+"Of course it is true. I am therefore to hear your explanation
+disposed." His grey eyes fastened sternly on the maestro. But the
+latter was prepared, for he had long foreseen that the count would one
+day be disposed to hear an explanation, as he expressed it.
+
+"It is quite true," repeated De Pretis. "The young man was very poor,
+and desired to support himself while he was studying music. He was
+well fitted to teach our literature, and I recommended him. I hope
+that, in consideration of his poverty, and because he turned out a
+very good teacher, you will forgive me, Signor Conte."
+
+"This talented singer I greatly applaud," answered the count stiffly.
+"As a with-the-capacity-and-learning-requisite-for-teaching-endowed
+young man deserves he also some commendation. Also will I remember
+his laudable-and-not-lacking independence character. Nevertheless,
+unfitting would it be should I pay the first tenor of the opera five
+francs an hour to teach my daughter Italian literature." De Pretis
+breathed more freely.
+
+"Then you will forgive me, Signor Conte, for endeavouring to promote
+the efforts of this worthy young man in supporting himself?"
+
+"Signor De Pretis," said the count, with a certain quaint geniality,
+"I have my precautions observed. I examined Signor Cardegna in Italian
+literature in my own person, and him proficient found. Had I found him
+to be ignorant, and had I his talents as an operatic singer later
+discovered, I would you out of that window have projected." De Pretis
+was alarmed, for the old count looked as though he would have carried
+out the threat. "As it is," he concluded, "you are an honourable man,
+and I wish you good-morning. Lady Hedwig awaits you as usual." He rose
+courteously, leaning on his stick, and De Pretis bowed himself out.
+
+He expected that the contessina would immediately begin talking of
+Nino, but he was mistaken; she never once referred to the opera or the
+singer, and except that she looked pale and transparent, and sang with
+a trifle less interest in her music than usual, there was nothing
+noticeable in her manner. Indeed, she had every reason to be silent.
+
+Early that morning Nino received by messenger a pretty little note,
+written in execrable Italian, begging him to come and breakfast with
+the baroness at twelve, as she much desired to speak with him after
+his stupendous triumph of the previous night.
+
+Nino is a very good boy, but he is mortal, and after the excitement of
+the evening he thought nothing could be pleasanter than to spend a few
+hours in that scented boudoir, among the palms and the beautiful
+objects and the perfumes, talking with a woman who professed herself
+ready to help him in his love affair. We have no perfumes or cushions
+or pretty things at number twenty-seven Santa Catarina dei Funari,
+though everything is very bright and neat and most proper, and the cat
+is kept in the kitchen, for the most part. So it is no wonder that he
+should have preferred to spend the morning with the baroness.
+
+She was half lying, half sitting, in a deep arm-chair, when Nino
+entered; and she was reading a book. When she saw him she dropped the
+volume on her knee, and looked up at him from under her lids, without
+speaking. She must have been a bewitching figure. Nino advanced toward
+her, bowing low, so that his dark curling hair shaded his face.
+
+"Good-day, signora," said he softly, as though fearing to hurt the
+quiet air. "I trust I do not interrupt you?"
+
+"You never interrupt me, Nino," she said, "except--except when you go
+away."
+
+"You are very good, signora."
+
+"For heaven's sake, no pretty speeches," said she, with a little
+laugh.
+
+"It seems to me," said Nino, seating himself, "that it was you who
+made the pretty speech, and I who thanked you for it." There was a
+pause.
+
+"How do you feel!" asked the baroness at last, turning her head to
+him.
+
+"Grazie--I am well," he answered, smiling.
+
+"Oh, I do not mean that,--you are always well. But how do you enjoy
+your first triumph?"
+
+"I think," said Nino, "that a real artist ought to have the capacity
+to enjoy a success at the moment, and the good sense to blame his
+vanity for enjoying it after it is passed."
+
+"How old are you, Nino?"
+
+"Did I never tell you?" he asked innocently. "I shall be twenty-one
+soon."
+
+"You talk as though you were forty, at least."
+
+"Heaven save us!" quoth Nino.
+
+"But really, are you not immensely flattered at the reception you
+had?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You did not look at all interested in the public at the time," said
+she, "and that Roman nose of yours very nearly turned up in disdain of
+the applause, I thought. I wonder what you were thinking of all the
+while."
+
+"Can you wonder, baronessa?" She knew what he meant, and there was a
+little look of annoyance in her face when she answered.
+
+"Ah, well, of course not, since _she_ was there." Her ladyship rose,
+and taking a stick of Eastern pastil from a majolica dish in a corner
+made Nino light it from a wax taper.
+
+"I want the smell of the sandal-wood this morning," said she; "I have
+a headache." She was enchanting to look at as she bent her
+softly-shaded face over the flame to watch the burning perfume. She
+looked like a beautiful lithe sorceress making a love spell,--perhaps
+for her own use. Nino turned from her. He did not like to allow the
+one image he loved to be even for a moment disturbed by the one he
+loved not, however beautiful. She moved away, leaving the pastil on
+the dish. Suddenly she paused, and turned back to look at him.
+
+"Why did you come to-day?" she asked.
+
+"Because you desired it," answered Nino, in some astonishment.
+
+"You need not have come," she said, bending down to lean on the back
+of a silken chair. She folded her hands and looked at him as he stood
+not three paces away. "Do you not know what has happened?" she asked,
+with a smile that was a little sad.
+
+"I do not understand," said Nino simply. He was facing the entrance to
+the room, and saw the curtains parted by the servant. The baroness had
+her back to the door, and did not hear.
+
+"Do you not know," she continued, "that you are free now? Your
+appearance in public has put an end to it all. You are not tied to me
+any longer,--unless you wish it."
+
+As she spoke these words Nino turned white, for under the heavy
+curtain, lifted to admit her, stood Hedwig von Lira, like a statue,
+transfixed and immovable from what she had heard. The baroness noticed
+Nino's look, and springing back to her height from the chair on which
+she had been leaning, faced the door.
+
+"My dearest Hedwig!" she cried, with a magnificent readiness. "I am so
+very glad you have come. I did not expect you in the least. Do take
+off your hat, and stay to breakfast. Ah, forgive me; this is Professor
+Cardegna. But you know him? Yes; now that I think, we all went to the
+Pantheon together." Nino bowed low, and Hedwig bent her head.
+
+"Yes," said the young girl coldly. "Professor Cardegna gives me
+lessons."
+
+"Why, of course; how _bête_ I am! I was just telling him that, since
+he has been successful, and is enrolled among the great artists, it is
+a pity he is no longer tied to giving Italian lessons,--tied to coming
+here three times a week to teach me literature." Hedwig smiled a
+strange icy smile, and sat down by the window. Nino was still utterly
+astonished, but he would not allow the baroness's quibble to go
+entirely uncontradicted.
+
+"In truth," he said, "the Signora Baronessa's lessons consisted
+chiefly--"
+
+"In teaching me pronunciation," interrupted the baroness, trying to
+remove Hedwig's veil and hat, somewhat against the girl's inclination.
+"Yes, you see how it is. I know a little of singing, but I cannot
+pronounce--not in the least. Ah, these Italian vowels will be the
+death of me! But if there is anyone who can teach a poor dilettante to
+pronounce them," she added, laying the hat away on a chair, and
+pushing a footstool to Hedwig's feet, "that someone is Signor
+Cardegna."
+
+By this time Nino had recognised the propriety of temporising; that is
+to say, of letting the baroness's fib pass for what it was worth, lest
+the discussion of the subject should further offend Hedwig, whose eyes
+wandered irresolutely toward him, as though she would say something if
+he addressed her.
+
+"I hope, signorina," he said, "that it is not quite as the baroness
+says. I trust our lessons are not at an end?" He knew very well that
+they were.
+
+"I think, Signor Cardegna," said Hedwig, with more courage than would
+have been expected from such a mere child,--she is twenty, but
+Northern people are not grown up till they are thirty, at least,--"I
+think it would have been more obliging if, when I asked you so much
+about your cousin, you had acknowledged that you had no cousin, and
+that the singer was none other than yourself." She blushed, perhaps,
+but the curtain of the window hid it.
+
+"Alas, signorina," answered Nino, still standing before her, "such a
+confession would have deprived me of the pleasure--of the honour of
+giving you lessons."
+
+"And pray, Signor Cardegna," put in the baroness, "what are a few
+paltry lessons compared with the pleasure you ought to have
+experienced in satisfying the Contessina di Lira's curiosity. Really,
+you have little courtesy."
+
+Nino shrank into himself, as though he were hurt, and he gave the
+baroness a look which said worlds. She smiled at him, in joy of her
+small triumph, for Hedwig was looking at the floor again and could not
+see. But the young girl had strength in her, for all her cold looks
+and white cheek.
+
+"You can atone, Signor Cardegna," she said. Nino's face brightened.
+
+"How, signorina?" he asked.
+
+"By singing to us now," said Hedwig. The baroness looked grave, for
+she well knew what a power Nino wielded with his music.
+
+"Do not ask him," she protested. "He must be tired,--tired to death,
+with all he went through last night."
+
+"Tired?" ejaculated Nino, with some surprise. "I tired? I was never
+tired in my life of singing. I will sing as long as you will listen."
+He went to the piano. As he turned, the baroness laid her hand on
+Hedwig's affectionately, as though sympathising with something she
+supposed to be passing in the girl's mind. But Hedwig was passive,
+unless a little shudder at the first touch of the baroness's fingers
+might pass for a manifestation of feeling. Hedwig had hitherto liked
+the baroness, finding in her a woman of a certain artistic sense,
+combined with a certain originality. The girl was an absolute contrast
+to the woman, and admired in her the qualities she thought lacking in
+herself, though she possessed too much self-respect to attempt to
+acquire them by imitation. Hedwig sat like a Scandinavian fairy
+princess on the summit of a glass hill; her friend roamed through life
+like a beautiful soft-footed wild animal, rejoicing in the sense of
+being, and sometimes indulging in a little playful destruction by the
+way. The girl had heard a voice in the dark singing, and ever since
+then she had dreamed of the singer; but it never entered her mind to
+confide to the baroness her strange fancies. An undisciplined
+imagination, securely shielded from all outward disturbing causes,
+will do much with a voice in the dark,--a great deal more than such a
+woman as the baroness might imagine.
+
+I do not know enough about these blue-eyed German girls to say whether
+or not Hedwig had ever before thought of her unknown singer as an
+unknown lover. But the emotions of the previous night had shaken her
+nerves a little, and had she been older than she was she would have
+known that she loved her singer, in a distant and maidenly fashion, as
+soon as she heard the baroness speak of him as having been her
+property. And now she was angry with herself, and ashamed of feeling
+any interest in a man who was evidently tied to another woman by some
+intrigue she could not comprehend. Her coming to visit the baroness
+had been as unpremeditated as it was unexpected that morning, and she
+bitterly repented it; but being of good blood and heart, she acted as
+boldly as she could, and showed no little tact in making Nino sing,
+and thus cutting short a painful conversation. Only when the baroness
+tried to caress her and stroke her hand she shrank away, and the blood
+mantled up to her cheeks. Add to all this the womanly indignation she
+felt at having been so long deceived by Nino, and you will see that
+she was in a very vacillating frame of mind.
+
+The baroness was a subtle woman, reckless and diplomatic by turns, and
+she was not blind to the sudden repulse she met with from Hedwig,
+unspoken though it was. But she merely withdrew her hand, and sat
+thinking over the situation. What she thought, no one knows; or at
+least, we can only guess it from what she did afterwards. As for me, I
+have never blamed her at all, for she is the kind of woman I should
+have loved. In the meantime Nino carolled out one love song after
+another. He saw, however, that the situation was untenable, and after
+a while he rose to go. Strange to say, although the baroness had asked
+Nino to breakfast and the hour was now at hand, she made no effort to
+retain him. But she gave him her hand, and said many flattering and
+pleasing things, which, however, neither flattered nor pleased him. As
+for Hedwig, she bent her head a little, but said nothing, as he bowed
+before her. Nino therefore went home with a heavy heart, longing to
+explain to Hedwig why he had been tied to the baroness,--that it was
+the price of her silence and of the privilege he had enjoyed of giving
+lessons to the contessina; but knowing also that all explanation was
+out of the question for the present. When he was gone Hedwig and the
+baroness were left together.
+
+"It must have been a great surprise to you, my dear," said the elder
+lady kindly.
+
+"What?"
+
+"That your little professor should turn out a great artist in
+disguise. It was a surprise to me, too,--ah, another illusion
+destroyed. Dear child! You have still so many illusions,--beautiful,
+pure illusions. Dieu! how I envy you!" They generally talked French
+together, though the baroness knows German. Hedwig laughed bravely.
+
+"I was certainly astonished," she said. "Poor man! I suppose he did it
+to support himself. He never told me he gave you lessons too." The
+baroness smiled, but it was from genuine satisfaction this time.
+
+"I wonder at that, since he knew we were intimate, or, at least, that
+we were acquainted. Of course I would not speak of it last night,
+because I saw your father was angry."
+
+"Yes, he was angry. I suppose it was natural," said Hedwig.
+
+"Perfectly natural. And you, my dear, were you not angry too,--just a
+little?"
+
+"I? No. Why should I be angry? He was a very good teacher, for he
+knows whole volumes by heart; and he understands them too."
+
+Soon they talked of other things, and the baroness was very
+affectionate. But though Hedwig saw that her friend was kind and most
+friendly, she could not forget the words that were in the air when she
+chanced to enter, nor could she quite accept the plausible explanation
+of them which the baroness had so readily invented. For jealousy is
+the forerunner of love, and sometimes its awakener. She felt a rival
+and an enemy, and all the hereditary combativeness of her Northern
+blood was roused.
+
+Nino, who was in no small perplexity, reflected. He was not old enough
+or observant enough to have seen the breach that was about to be
+created between the baroness and Hedwig. His only thought was to clear
+himself in Hedwig's eyes from the imputation of having been tied to
+the dark woman in any way save for his love's sake. He at once began
+to hate the baroness with all the ferocity of which his heart was
+capable, and with all the calm his bold square face outwardly
+expressed. But he was forced to take some action at once, and he could
+think of nothing better to do than to consult De Pretis.
+
+To the maestro he poured out his woes and his plans. He exhibited to
+him his position toward the baroness and toward Hedwig in the clearest
+light. He conjured him to go to Hedwig and explain that the baroness
+had threatened to unmask him, and thus deprive him of his means of
+support,--he dared not put it otherwise,--unless he consented to sing
+for her and come to her as often as she pleased. To explain, to
+propitiate, to smooth,--in a word, to reinstate Nino in her good
+opinion.
+
+"Death of a dog!" exclaimed De Pretis; "you do not ask much! After you
+have allowed your lady-love, your inamorata, to catch you saying you
+are bound body and soul to another woman,--and such a woman! ye
+saints, what a beauty!--you ask me to go and set matters right! What
+the diavolo did you want to go and poke your nose into such a
+mousetrap for? Via! I am a fool to have helped you at all."
+
+"Very likely," said Nino calmly. "But meanwhile there are two of us,
+and perhaps I am the greater. You will do what I ask, maestro; is it
+not true? And it was not I who said it; it was the baroness."
+
+"The baroness--yes--and may the maledictions of the inferno overtake
+her," said De Pretis, casting up his eyes and feeling in his coat-tail
+pockets for his snuff-box. Once, when Nino was younger, he filled
+Ercole's snuff-box with soot and pepper, so that the maestro had a
+black nose and sneezed all day.
+
+What could Ercole do? It was true that he had hitherto helped Nino.
+Was he not bound to continue that assistance? I suppose so; but if the
+whole affair had ended then, and this story with it, I would not have
+cared a button. Do you suppose it amuses me to tell you this tale? Or
+that if it were not for Nino's good name I would ever have turned
+myself into a common storyteller? Bah! you do not know me. A page of
+quaternions gives me more pleasure than all this rubbish put together,
+though I am not averse to a little gossip now and then of an evening,
+if people will listen to my details and fancies. But those are just
+the things people will not listen to. Everybody wants sensation
+nowadays. What is a sensation compared with a thought? What is the
+convulsive gesticulation of a dead frog's leg compared with the
+intellect of the man who invented the galvanic battery, and thus gave
+fictitious sensation to all the countless generations of dead frogs'
+legs that have since been the objects of experiment? Or if you come
+down to so poor a thing as mere feeling, what are your feelings in
+reading about Nino's deeds compared with what he felt in doing them? I
+am not taking all this trouble to please you, but only for Nino's
+sake, who is my dear boy. You are of no more interest or importance to
+me than if you were so many dead frogs; and if I galvanise your
+sensations, as you call them, into an activity sufficient to make you
+cry or laugh, that is my own affair. You need not say "thank you" to
+me. I do not want it. Ercole will thank you, and perhaps Nino will
+thank me, but that is different.
+
+I will not tell you about the interview that Ercole had with Hedwig,
+nor how skilfully he rolled up his eyes and looked pathetic when he
+spoke of Nino's poverty and of the fine part he had played in the
+whole business. Hedwig is a woman, and the principal satisfaction she
+gathered from Ercole's explanation was the knowledge that her friend
+the baroness had lied to her in explaining those strange words she had
+overheard. She knew it, of course, by instinct; but it was a great
+relief to be told the fact by someone else, as it always is, even when
+one is not a woman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Several days passed after the _début_ without giving Nino an
+opportunity of speaking to Hedwig. He probably saw her, for he mingled
+in the crowd of dandies in the Piazza Colonna of an afternoon, hoping
+she would pass in her carriage and give him a look. Perhaps she did;
+he said nothing about it, but looked calm when he was silent and
+savage when he spoke, after the manner of passionate people. His face
+aged and grew stern in those few days, so that he seemed to change on
+a sudden from boy to man. But he went about his business, and sang at
+the theatre when he was obliged to; gathering courage to do his best
+and to display his powers from the constant success he had. The papers
+were full of his praises, saying that he was absolutely without rival
+from the very first night he sang, matchless and supreme from the
+moment he first opened his mouth, and all that kind of nonsense. I
+dare say he is now, but he could not have been really the greatest
+singer living, so soon. However, he used to bring me the newspapers
+that had notices of him, though he never appeared to care much for
+them, nor did he ever keep them himself. He said he hankered for an
+ideal which he would never attain, and I told him that if he was never
+to attain it he had better abandon the pursuit of it at once. But he
+represented to me that the ideal was confined to his imagination,
+whereas the reality had a great financial importance, since he daily
+received offers from foreign managers to sing for them, at large
+advantage to himself, and was hesitating only in order to choose the
+most convenient. This seemed sensible, and I was silent. Soon
+afterwards he presented me with a box of cigars and a very pretty
+amber mouthpiece. The cigars were real Havanas, such as I had not
+smoked for years, and must have cost a great deal.
+
+"You may not be aware, Sor Cornelio," he said one evening, as he mixed
+the oil and vinegar with the salad, at supper, "that I am now a rich
+man, or soon shall be. An agent from the London opera has offered me
+twenty thousand francs for the season in London this spring."
+
+"Twenty thousand francs!" I cried, in amazement. "You must be
+dreaming, Nino. That is just about seven times what I earn in a year
+with my professorship and my writing."
+
+"No dreams, caro mio. I have the offer in my pocket." He apparently
+cared no more about it than if he had twenty thousand roasted
+chestnuts in his pocket.
+
+"When do you leave us?" I asked, when I was somewhat recovered.
+
+"I am not sure that I will go," he answered, sprinkling some pepper on
+the lettuce.
+
+"Not sure! Body of Diana, what a fool you are!"
+
+"Perhaps," said he, and he passed me the dish. Just then Mariuccia
+came in with a bottle of wine, and we said no more about it, for
+Mariuccia is indiscreet.
+
+Nino thought nothing about his riches, because he was racking his
+brains for some good expedient whereby he might see the contessina and
+speak with her. He had ascertained from De Pretis that the count was
+not so angry as he had expected, and that Hedwig was quite satisfied
+with the explanations of the maestro. The day after the foregoing
+conversation he wrote a note to her, wherein he said that if the
+Contessina de Lira would deign to be awake at midnight that evening
+she would have a serenade from a voice she was said to admire. He had
+Mariuccia carry the letter to the Palazzo Cormandola.
+
+At half-past eleven, at least two hours after supper, Nino wrapped
+himself in my old cloak and took the guitar under his arm. Rome is not
+a very safe place for midnight pranks, and so I made him take a good
+knife in his waistbelt; for he had confided to me where he was going.
+I tried to dissuade him from the plan, saying he might catch cold; but
+he laughed at me.
+
+A serenade is an everyday affair, and in the street one voice sounds
+about as well as another. He reached the palace, and his heart sank
+when he saw Hedwig's window dark and gloomy. He did not know that she
+was seated behind it in a deep chair, wrapped in white things, and
+listening for him against the beatings of her heart. The large moon
+seemed to be spiked on the sharp spire of the church that is near her
+house, and the black shadows cut the white light as clean as with a
+knife. Nino had tuned his guitar in the other street, and stood ready,
+waiting for the clocks to strike. Presently they clanged out wildly,
+as though they had been waked from their midnight sleep, and were
+angry; one clock answering the other, and one convent bell following
+another in the call to prayers. For two full minutes the whole air was
+crazy with ringing, and then it was all still. Nino struck a single
+chord. Hedwig almost thought he might hear her heart beating all the
+way down the street.
+
+"Ah, del mio dolce ardor bramato ogetto," he sang,--an old air in one
+of Gluck's operas that our Italian musicians say was composed by
+Alessandro Stradella, the poor murdered singer. It must be a very good
+air, for it pleases me; and I am not easily pleased with music of any
+kind. As for Hedwig, she pressed her ear to the glass of the window
+that she might not lose any note. But she would not open nor give any
+sign. Nino was not so easily discouraged, for he remembered that once
+before she had opened her window for a few bars he had begun to sing.
+He played a few chords, and breathed out the "Salve, dimora casta e
+pura," from _Faust_, high and soft and clear. There is a point in that
+song, near to the end, where the words say, "Reveal to me the maiden,"
+and where the music goes away to the highest note that anyone can
+possibly sing. It always appears quite easy for Nino, and he does not
+squeak like a dying pig as all the other tenors do on that note. He
+was looking up as he sang it, wondering whether it would have any
+effect. Apparently Hedwig lost her head completely, for she gently
+opened the casement and looked out at the moonlight opposite, over the
+carved stone mullions of her window. The song ended, he hesitated
+whether to go or to sing again. She was evidently looking towards him;
+but he was in the light, for the moon had risen higher, and she, on
+the other side of the street, was in the dark.
+
+"Signorina!" he called softly. No answer. "Signorina!" he said again,
+coming across the empty street and standing under the window, which
+might have been thirty feet from the ground.
+
+"Hush!" came a whisper from above.
+
+"I thank you with all my soul for listening to me," he said, in a low
+voice. "I am innocent of that of which you suspect me. I love you, ah,
+I love you!" But at this she left the window very quickly. She did
+not close it, however, and Nino stood long, straining his eyes for a
+glimpse of the white face that had been there. He sighed, and,
+striking a chord, sang out boldly the old air from the _Trovatore_,
+"Ah, che la morte ognora è tarda nel venir." Every blind fiddler in
+the streets plays it, though he would be sufficiently scared if death
+came any the quicker for his fiddling. But old and worn as it is it
+has a strain of passion in it, and Nino threw more fire and voice into
+the ring of it than ever did famous old Boccardè, when he sang it at
+the first performance of the opera, thirty and odd years ago. As he
+played the chords after the first strophe, the voice from above
+whispered again:
+
+"Hush! for Heaven's sake!" Just that, and something fell at his feet,
+with a soft little padded sound on the pavement. He stooped to pick it
+up, and found a single rose; and at that instant the window closed
+sharply. Therefore he kissed the rose and hid it, and presently he
+strode down the street, finishing his song as he went, but only
+humming it, for the joy had taken his voice away. I heard him let
+himself in and go to bed, and he told me about it in the morning. That
+is how I know.
+
+Since the day after the _début_ Nino had not seen the baroness. He did
+not speak of her, and I am sure he wished she were at the very bottom
+of the Tiber. But on the morning after the serenade he received a note
+from her, which was so full of protestations of friendship and so
+delicately couched that he looked grave, and reflected that it was his
+duty to be courteous, and to answer such a call as that. She begged
+him earnestly to come at one o'clock; she was suffering from headache,
+she said, and was very weak. Had Nino loved Hedwig a whit the less he
+would not have gone. But he felt himself strong enough to face
+anything and everything, and therefore he determined to go.
+
+He found her, indeed, with the manner of a person who is ill, but not
+with the appearance. She was lying on a huge couch, pushed to the
+fireside, and there were furs about her. A striped scarf of rich
+Eastern silk was round her throat, and she held in her hand a new
+novel, of which she carelessly cut the pages with a broad-hafted
+Persian knife. But there was colour in her dark cheek, and a sort of
+angry fire in her eyes. Nino thought the clean steel in her hand
+looked as though it might be used for something besides cutting
+leaves, if the fancy took her.
+
+"So at last you have honoured me with a visit, signore," she said, not
+desisting from her occupation. Nino came to her, and she put out her
+hand. He touched it, but could not bear to hold it, for it burned him.
+
+"You used to honour my hand differently from that," she half
+whispered. Nino sat himself down a little way from her, blushing
+slightly. It was not at what she had said, but at the thought that he
+should ever have kissed her fingers.
+
+"Signora," he replied, "there are customs, chivalrous and gentle in
+themselves, and worthy for all men to practise. But from the moment a
+custom begins to mean what it should not, it ought to be abandoned.
+You will forgive me if I no longer kiss your hand."
+
+"How cold you are!--how formal! What should it mean?"
+
+"It is better to say too little than too much," he answered.
+
+"Bah!" she cried, with a bitter little laugh. "Words are silver, but
+silence--is very often nothing but silver-plated brass. Put a little
+more wood on the fire; you make me cold." Nino obeyed.
+
+"How literal you are!" said the baroness petulantly. "There is fire
+enough on the hearth."
+
+"Apparently, signora, you are pleased to be enigmatical," said Nino.
+
+"I will be pleased to be anything I please," she answered, and looked
+at him rather fiercely. "I wanted you to drive away my headache, and
+you only make it worse."
+
+"I am sorry, signora. I will leave you at once. Permit me to wish you
+a very good-morning." He took his hat and went towards the door.
+Before he reached the heavy curtain, she was at his side with a rush
+like a falcon on the wing, her eyes burning darkly between anger and
+love.
+
+"Nino!" She laid hold of his arm, and looked into his face.
+
+"Signora," he protested coldly, and drew back.
+
+"You will not leave me so?"
+
+"As you wish, signora. I desire to oblige you."
+
+"Oh, how cold you are!" she cried, leaving his arm, and sinking into a
+chair by the door, while he stood with his hand on the curtain. She
+hid her eyes. "Nino, Nino! You will break my heart!" she sobbed; and a
+tear, perhaps more of anger than of sorrow, burst through her fingers,
+and coursed down her cheek.
+
+Few men can bear to see a woman shed tears. Nino's nature rose up in
+his throat, and bade him console her. But between him and her was a
+fair, bright image that forbade him to move hand or foot.
+
+"Signora," he said, with all the calm he could command, "if I were
+conscious of having by word or deed of mine given you cause to speak
+thus, I would humbly implore your forgiveness. But my heart does not
+accuse me. I beg you to allow me to take leave of you. I will go
+away, and you shall have no further cause to think of me." He moved
+again, and lifted the curtain. But she was like a panther, so quick
+and beautiful. Ah, how I could have loved that woman! She held him,
+and would not let him go, her smooth fingers fastening round his
+wrists like springs.
+
+"Please to let me go," he said, between his teeth, with rising anger.
+
+"No! I will not let you!" she cried fiercely, tightening her grasp on
+him. Then the angry fire in her tearful eyes seemed suddenly to melt
+into a soft flame, and the colour came faster to her cheeks. "Ah, how
+can you let me so disgrace myself! how can you see me fallen so low as
+to use the strength of my hands, and yet have no pity? Nino, Nino, do
+not kill me!"
+
+"Indeed, it would be the better for you if I should," he answered
+bitterly, but without attempting to free his wrists from the strong,
+soft grip.
+
+"But you will," she murmured, passionately. "You are killing me by
+leaving me. Can you not see it?" Her voice melted away in the tearful
+cadence. But Nino stood gazing at her as stonily as though he were the
+Sphinx. How could he have the heart? I cannot tell. Long she looked
+into his eyes, silently; but she might as well have tried to animate a
+piece of iron, so stern and hard he was. Suddenly, with a strong
+convulsive movement, she flung his hands from her.
+
+"Go!" she cried hoarsely. "Go to that wax doll you love, and see
+whether she will love you, or care whether you leave her or not! Go,
+go, go! Go to her!" She had sprung far back from him, and now pointed
+to the door, drawn to her full height and blazing in her wrath.
+
+"I would advise you, madam, to speak with proper respect of any lady
+with whom you choose to couple my name." His lips opened and shut
+mechanically, and he trembled from head to foot.
+
+"Respect!" She laughed wildly. "Respect for a mere child whom you
+happen to fancy! Respect, indeed, for anything you choose to do!
+I--I--respect Hedwig von Lira? Ha! ha!" and she rested her hand on the
+table behind her, as she laughed.
+
+"Be silent, madam," said Nino, and he moved a step nearer, and stood
+with folded arms.
+
+"Ah! You would silence me now, would you? You would rather not hear me
+speak of your midnight serenades, and your sweet letters dropped from
+the window of her room at your feet?" But her rage overturned itself,
+and with a strange cry she fell into a deep chair, and wept bitterly,
+burying her face in her two hands. "Miserable woman that I am!" she
+sobbed, and her whole lithe body was convulsed.
+
+"You are indeed," said Nino, and he turned once more to go. But as he
+turned, the servant threw back the curtain.
+
+"The Signor Conte di Lira," he announced, in distinct tones. For a
+moment there was a dead silence, during which, in spite of his
+astonishment at the sudden appearance of the count, Nino had time to
+reflect that the baroness had caused him to be watched during the
+previous night. It might well be, and the mistake she made in
+supposing the thing Hedwig had dropped to be a letter told him that
+her spy had not ventured very near.
+
+The tall count came forward under the raised curtains, limping and
+helping himself with his stick. His face was as gray and wooden as
+ever, but his moustaches had an irritated, crimped look that Nino did
+not like. The count barely nodded to the young man as he stood aside
+to let the old gentleman pass; his eyes turned mechanically to where
+the baroness sat. She was a woman who had no need to simulate passion
+in any shape, and it must have cost her a terrible effort to control
+the paroxysm of anger and shame and grief that had overcome her. There
+was something unnatural and terrifying in her sudden calm, as she
+forced herself to rise and greet her visitor.
+
+"I fear I come out of season," he said, apologetically, as he bent
+over her hand.
+
+"On the contrary," she answered; "but forgive me if I speak one word
+to Professor Cardegna." She went to where Nino was standing.
+
+"Go into that room," she said, in a very low voice, glancing towards a
+curtained door opposite the windows, "and wait till he goes. You may
+listen if you choose." She spoke authoritatively.
+
+"I will not," answered Nino, in a determined whisper.
+
+"You will not?" Her eyes flashed again. He shook his head.
+
+"Count von Lira," she said aloud, turning to him, "do you know this
+young man?" She spoke in Italian, and Von Lira answered in the same
+language; but as what he said was not exactly humorous, I will spare
+you the strange construction of his sentences.
+
+"Perfectly," he answered. "It is precisely concerning this young man
+that I desire to speak with you." The count remained standing because
+the baroness had not told him to be seated.
+
+"That is fortunate," replied the baroness, "for I wish to inform you
+that he is a villain, a wretch, a miserable fellow!" Her anger was
+rising again, but she struggled to control it. When Nino realised what
+she said he came forward and stood near the count, facing the
+baroness, his arms folded on his breast, as though to challenge
+accusation. The count raised his eyebrows.
+
+"I am aware that he concealed his real profession so long as he gave
+my daughter lessons. That, however, has been satisfactorily explained,
+though I regret it. Pray inform me why you designate him as a
+villain." Nino felt a thrill of sympathy for this man whom he had so
+long deceived.
+
+"This man, sir," said she, in measured tones, "this low-born singer,
+who has palmed himself off on us as a respectable instructor in
+language, has the audacity to love your daughter. For the sake of
+pressing his odious suit he has wormed himself into your house as into
+mine; he has sung beneath your daughter's window, and she has dropped
+letters to him,--love-letters, do you understand? And now,"--her voice
+rose more shrill and uncontrollable at every word, as she saw Lira's
+face turn white, and her anger gave desperate utterance to the
+lie,--"and now he has the effrontery to come to me--to me--to me of
+all women--and to confess his abominable passion for that pure angel,
+imploring me to assist him in bringing destruction upon her and you.
+Oh, it is execrable, it is vile, it is hellish!" She pressed her hands
+to her temples as she stood, and glared at the two men. The count was
+a strong man, easily petulant, but hard to move to real anger. Though
+his face was white and his right hand clutched his crutch-stick, he
+still kept the mastery of himself.
+
+"Is what you tell me true, madam?" he asked in a strange voice.
+
+"Before God, it is true!" she cried, desperately.
+
+The old man looked at her for one moment, and then, as though he had
+been twenty years younger, he made at Nino, brandishing his stick to
+strike. But Nino is strong and young, and he is almost a Roman. He
+foresaw the count's action, and his right hand stole to the table and
+grasped the clean, murderous knife; the baroness had used it so
+innocently to cut the leaves of her book half an hour before. With one
+wrench he had disarmed the elder man, forced him back upon a lounge,
+and set the razor edge of his weapon against the count's throat.
+
+"If you speak one word, or try to strike me, I will cut off your
+head," he said quietly, bringing his cold, marble face close down to
+the old man's eyes. There was something so deathly in his voice, in
+spite of its quiet sound, that the count thought his hour was come,
+brave man as he was. The baroness tottered back against the opposite
+wall, and stood staring at the two, dishevelled and horrified.
+
+"This woman," said Nino, still holding the cold thing against the
+flesh, "lies in part, and in part tells the truth I love your
+daughter, it is true." The poor old man quivered beneath Nino's
+weight, and his eyes rolled wildly, searching for some means of
+escape. But it was of no use. "I love her, and have sung beneath her
+window; but I never had a written word from her in my life, and I
+neither told this woman of my love nor asked her assistance. She
+guessed it at the first; she guessed the reason of my disguise, and
+she herself offered to help me. You may speak now. Ask her." Nino
+relaxed his hold, and stood off, still grasping the knife. The old
+count breathed, shook himself and passed his handkerchief over his
+face before he spoke. The baroness stood as though she were petrified.
+
+"Thunder weather, you are a devilish young man!" said Von Lira, still
+panting. Then he suddenly recovered his dignity. "You have caused me
+to assault this young man by what you told me," he said, struggling to
+his feet. "He defended himself, and might have killed me, had he
+chosen. Be good enough to tell me whether he has spoken the truth or
+you."
+
+"He has spoken--the truth," answered the baroness, staring vacantly
+about her. Her fright had taken from her even the faculty of lying.
+Her voice was low, but she articulated the words distinctly. Then,
+suddenly, she threw up her hands, with a short quick scream, and fell
+forward, senseless, on the floor. Nino looked at the count, and
+dropped his knife on a table. The count looked at Nino.
+
+"Sir," said the old gentleman, "I forgive you for resisting my
+assault. I do not forgive you for presuming to love my daughter, and I
+will find means to remind you of the scandal you have brought on my
+house." He drew himself up to his full height. Nino handed him his
+crutch-stick civilly.
+
+"Signor Conte," he said simply, but with all his natural courtesy, "I
+am sorry for this affair, to which you forced me,--or rather the
+Signora Baronessa forced us both. I have acted foolishly, perhaps, but
+I am in love. And permit me to assure you, sir, that I will yet marry
+the Signorina di Lira, if she consents to marry me."
+
+"By the name of Heaven," swore the old count, "if she wants to marry a
+singer, she shall." He limped to the door in sullen anger, and went
+out. Nino turned to the prostrate figure of the poor baroness. The
+continued strain on her nerves had broken her down, and she lay on the
+floor in a dead faint. Nino put a cushion from the lounge under her
+head, and rang the bell. The servant appeared instantly.
+
+"Bring water quickly!" he cried. "The signora has fainted." He stood
+looking at the senseless figure of the woman, as she lay across the
+rich Persian rugs that covered the floor.
+
+"Why did you not bring salts, cologne, her maid--run, I tell you!" he
+said to the man, who brought the glass of water on a gilded tray. He
+had forgotten that the fellow could not be expected to have any sense.
+When her people came at last, he had sprinkled her face, and she had
+unconsciously swallowed enough of the water to have some effect in
+reviving her. She began to open her eyes, and her fingers moved
+nervously. Nino found his hat, and, casting one glance around the room
+that had just witnessed such strange doings, passed through the door
+and went out. The baroness was left with her servants. Poor woman! She
+did very wrong, perhaps, but anybody would have loved her--except
+Nino. She must have been terribly shaken, one would have thought, and
+she ought to have gone to lie down, and should have sent for the
+doctor to bleed her. But she did nothing of the kind.
+
+She came to see me. I was alone in the house, late in the afternoon,
+when the sun was just gilding the tops of the houses. I heard the
+door-bell ring, and I went to answer it myself. There stood the
+beautiful baroness, alone, with all her dark soft things around her,
+as pale as death, and her eyes swollen sadly with weeping. Nino had
+come home and told me something about the scene in the morning, and I
+can tell you I gave him a piece of my mind about his follies.
+
+"Does Professor Cornelio Grandi live here?" she asked, in a low, sad
+voice.
+
+"I am he, signora," I answered. "Will you please to come in?" And so
+she came into our little sitting-room, and sat over there in the old
+green arm-chair. I shall never forget it as long as I live.
+
+I cannot tell you all she said in that brief half-hour, for it pains
+me to think of it. She spoke as though I were her confessor, so humbly
+and quietly,--as though it had all happened ten years ago. There is
+no stubbornness in those tiger women when once they break down.
+
+She said she was going away; that she had done my boy a great wrong,
+and wished to make such reparation as she could, by telling me, at
+least, the truth. She did not scruple to say that she had loved him,
+nor that she had done everything in her power to keep him; though he
+had never so much as looked at her, she added, pathetically. She
+wished to have me know exactly how it happened, no matter what I might
+think of her.
+
+"You are a nobleman, count," she said to me at last, "and I can trust
+you as one of my own people, I am sure. Yes, I know: you have been
+unfortunate, and are now a professor. But that does not change the
+blood. I can trust you. You need not tell him I came, unless you wish
+it. I shall never see him again. I am glad to have been here, to see
+where he lives." She rose, and moved to go. I confess that the tears
+were in my eyes. There was a pile of music on the old piano. There was
+a loose leaf on the top, with his name written on it. She took it in
+her hand, and looked inquiringly at me out of her sad eyes. I knew she
+wanted to take it, and I nodded.
+
+"I shall never see him again, you know." Her voice was gentle and
+weak, and she hastened to the door; so that almost before I knew it
+she was gone. The sun had left the red-tiled roofs opposite, and the
+goldfinch was silent in his cage. So I sat down in the chair where she
+had rested, and folded my hands, and thought, as I am always thinking
+ever since, how I could have loved such a woman as that; so
+passionate, so beautiful, so piteously sorry for what she had done
+that was wrong. Ah me! for the years that are gone away so cruelly,
+for the days so desperately dead! Give me but one of those golden
+days, and I would make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.
+
+A greater man than I said that,--a man over the seas, with a great
+soul, who wrote in a foreign tongue, but spoke a language germane to
+all human speech. But even he cannot bring back one of those dear
+days. I would give much to have that one day back, when she came and
+told me all her woes. But that is impossible.
+
+When they came to wake her in the morning--the very morning after
+that--she was dead in her bed; the colour gone for ever from those
+velvet cheeks, the fire quenched out of those passionate eyes, past
+power of love or hate to rekindle. _Requiescat in pace_, and may God
+give her eternal rest and forgiveness for all her sins. Poor,
+beautiful, erring woman!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+At nine o'clock on the morning of the baroness' death, as Nino was busy
+singing scales, there was a ring at the door, and presently Mariuccia
+came running in as fast as her poor old legs could carry her, and
+whiter than a pillow-case, to say that there was a man at the door
+with two gendarmes, asking for Nino; and before I could question her
+the three men walked unbidden into the room, demanding which was
+Giovanni Cardegna, the singer. Nino started, and then said quietly
+that he was the man. I have had dealings with these people, and I know
+what is best to be done. They were inclined to be rough and very
+peremptory. I confess I was frightened; but I think I am more cunning
+when I am a little afraid.
+
+"Mariuccia," I said, as she stood trembling in the door-way, waiting
+to see what would happen, "fetch a flask of that old wine, and serve
+these gentlemen,--and a few chestnuts, if you have some. Be seated,
+signori," I said to them, "and take one of these cigars. My boy is a
+singer, and you would not hurt his voice by taking him out so early on
+this raw morning. Sit down, Nino, and ask these gentlemen what they
+desire." They all sat down, somewhat sullenly, and the gendarmes'
+sabres clanked on the brick floor.
+
+"What do you wish from me?" asked Nino, who was not much moved after
+the first surprise.
+
+"We regret to say," answered the man in plain clothes, "that we are
+here to arrest you."
+
+"May I inquire on what charge?" I asked. "But first let me fill
+your glasses. Dry throats make surly answers, as the proverb says."
+They drank. It chanced that the wine was good, being from my own
+vineyard,--my little vineyard that I bought outside of Porta
+Salara,--and the men were cold and wet, for it was raining.
+
+"Well," said the man who had spoken before,--he was clean-shaved and
+fat, and he smacked his lips over the wine,--"It is not our way to
+answer questions. But since you are so civil, I will tell you that you
+are arrested on suspicion of having poisoned that Russian baroness,
+with the long name, at whose house you have been so intimate."
+
+"Poisoned? The baroness poisoned? Is she very ill, then?" asked Nino,
+in great alarm.
+
+"She is dead," said the fat mat, wiping his mouth and twisting the
+empty glass in his hand.
+
+"Dead!" cried Nino and I together.
+
+"Dead--yes; as dead as St. Peter," he answered, irreverently. "Your
+wine is good, Signor Professore. Yes, I will take another glass--and
+my men, too. Yes, she was found dead this morning, lying in her bed.
+You were there yesterday, Signor Cardegna, and her servant says he saw
+you giving her something in a glass of water." He drank a long draught
+from his glass. "You would have done better to give her some of this
+wine, my friend. She would certainly be alive to-day." But Nino was
+dark and thoughtful. He must have been pained and terribly shocked at
+the sudden news, of course, but he did not admire her as I did.
+
+"Of course this thing will soon be over," he said at last. "I am very
+much grieved to hear of the lady's death, but it is absurd to suppose
+that I was concerned in it, however it happened. She fainted suddenly
+in the morning when I was there, and I gave her some water to drink,
+but there was nothing in it." He clasped his hands on his knee, and
+looked much distressed.
+
+"It is quite possible that you poisoned her," remarked the fat man,
+with annoying indifference. "The servant says he overheard high words
+between you--"
+
+"He overheard?" cried Nino, springing to his feet. "Cursed beast, to
+listen at the door!" He began to walk about excitedly, "How long is
+this affair to keep me?" he asked, suddenly; "I have to sing
+to-night--and that poor lady lying there dead--oh, I cannot!"
+
+"Perhaps you will not be detained more than a couple of hours," said
+the fat man. "And perhaps you will be detained until the Day of
+Judgment," he added, with a sly wink at the gendarmes, who laughed
+obsequiously. "By this afternoon, the doctors will know of what she
+died; and if there was no poison, and she died a natural death, you
+can go to the theatre and sing, if you have the stomach. I would, I am
+sure. You see, she is a great lady, and the people of her embassy are
+causing everything to be done very quickly. If you had poisoned that
+old lady who brought us this famous wine a minute ago, you might have
+had to wait till next year, innocent or guilty." It struck me that the
+wine was producing its effect.
+
+"Very well," said Nino, resolutely; "let us go. You will see that I am
+perfectly ready, although the news has shaken me much; and so you will
+permit me to walk quietly with you, without attracting any attention?"
+
+"Oh, we would not think of incommoding you," said the fat man. "The
+orders were expressly to give you every convenience, and we have
+a private carriage below. Signor Grandi, we thank you for your
+civility. Good-morning--a thousand excuses." He bowed, and the
+gendarmes rose to their feet, refreshed and ruddy with the good wine.
+Of course I knew I could not accompany them, and I was too much
+frightened to have been of any use. Poor Mariuccia was crying in the
+kitchen.
+
+"Send word to Jacovacci, the manager, if you do not hear by twelve
+o'clock," Nino called back from the landing, and the door closed
+behind them all. I was left alone, sad and frightened, and I felt very
+old--much older than I am.
+
+It was tragic. Mechanically I sank into the old green arm-chair, where
+she had sat but yesterday evening--she whom I had seen but twice, once
+in the theatre and once here, but of whom I had heard so much. And she
+was dead, so soon. If Nino could only have heard her last words and
+seen her last look he would have been more hurt when he heard of her
+sudden death. But he is of stone, that man, save for his love and his
+art. He seems to have no room left for sympathy with human ills, nor
+even for fear on his own account. Fear!--how I hate the word! Nino
+did not seem frightened at all when they took him away. But as for
+me--well, it was not for myself this time, at least. That is some
+comfort. I think one may be afraid for other people.
+
+Mariuccia was so much disturbed that I was obliged to go myself to
+get De Pretis, who gave up all his lessons that day and came to give
+me his advice. He looked grave and spoke very little, but he is a
+broad-shouldered, genial man, and very comforting. He insisted on
+going himself at once to see Nino, to give him all the help he could.
+He would not hear of my going, for he said I ought to be bled and have
+some tea of mallows to calm me. And when I offered him a cigar from
+the box of good ones Nino had given me he took six or seven, and put
+them in his pocket without saying a word. But I did not grudge them to
+him; for though he is very ridiculous, with his skull-cap and his
+snuff-box, he is a leal man, as we say, who stands by his friends and
+snaps his fingers at the devil.
+
+I cannot describe to you the anxiety I felt through all that day. I
+could not eat, nor drink, nor write. I could not smoke, and when I
+tried to go to sleep that cat--an apoplexy on her!--climbed up on my
+shoulder and clawed my hair, Mariuccia sat moaning in the kitchen and
+could not cook at all, so that I was half starved.
+
+At three o'clock De Pretis came back.
+
+"Courage, conte mio!" he cried; and I knew it was all right. "Courage!
+Nino is at liberty again, and says he will sing to-night to show them
+he is not a clay doll, to be broken by a little knocking about. Ah,
+what a glorious boy Nino is!"
+
+"But where is he!" I asked, when I could find voice to speak, for I
+was all trembling.
+
+"He is gone for a good walk, to freshen his nerves, poverino. I wonder
+he has any strength left. For Heaven's sake, give me a match that I
+may light my cigar, and then I will tell you all about it. Thank you.
+And I will sit down comfortably--so. Now you must know that the
+baroness--_requiescat_!--was not poisoned by Nino, or by anyone else."
+
+"Of course not! Go on."
+
+"Piano--slow and sure. They had a terrific scene yesterday. You know?
+Yes. Then she went out and tired herself, poor soul, so that when she
+got home she had an attack of the nerves. Now these foreigners, who
+are a pack of silly people, do not have themselves bled and drink
+malva water as we do when we get a fit of anger. But they take opium;
+that is, a thing they call chloral. God knows what it is made of, but
+it puts them to sleep, like opium. When the doctors came to look at
+the poor lady they saw at once what was the matter, and called the
+maid. The maid said her mistress certainly had some green stuff in a
+little bottle which she often used to take; and when they inquired
+further they heard that the baroness had poured out much more than
+usual the night before, while the maid was combing her hair, for she
+seemed terribly excited and restless. So they got the bottle and found
+it nearly empty. Then the doctors said, 'At what time was this young
+man who is now arrested seen to give her the glass of water?' The
+man-servant said it was about two in the afternoon. So the doctors
+knew that if Nino had given her the chloral she could not have gone
+out afterwards, and have been awake at eleven in the evening when her
+maid was with her, and yet have been hurt by what he gave her. And so,
+as Jacovacci was raising a thousand devils in every corner of Rome
+because they had arrested his principal singer on false pretences, and
+was threatening to bring suits against everybody, including the
+Russian embassy, the doctors, and the Government, if Nino did not
+appear in _Faust_ to-night, according to his agreement, the result was
+that, half an hour ago, Nino was conducted out of the police precincts
+with ten thousand apologies, and put into the arms of Jacovacci, who
+wept for joy, and carried him off to a late breakfast at Morteo's. And
+then I came here. But I made Nino promise to take a good walk for his
+digestion, since the weather has changed. For a breakfast at three in
+the afternoon may be called late, even in Rome. And that reminds me to
+ask you for a drop of wine; for I am still fasting, and this talking
+is worse for the throat than a dozen high masses."
+
+Mariuccia had been listening at the door, as usual, and she
+immediately began crying for joy; for she is a weak-minded old thing,
+and dotes on Nino. I was very glad myself, I can tell you; but I
+could not understand how Nino could have the heart to sing, or should
+lack heart so much as to be fit for it. Before the evening he came
+home, silent and thoughtful. I asked him whether he were not glad to
+be free so easily.
+
+"That is not a very intelligent question for a philosopher like you to
+ask," he answered. "Of course I am glad of my liberty; any man would
+be. But I feel that I am as much the cause of that poor lady's death
+as though I had killed her with my own hands. I shall never forgive
+myself."
+
+"Diana!" I cried, "it is a horrible tragedy; but it seems to me that
+you could not help it if she chose to love you."
+
+"Hush!" said he, so sternly that he frightened me. "She is dead. God
+give her soul rest. Let us not talk of what she did."
+
+"But," I objected, "if you feel so strongly about it, how can you sing
+at the opera to-night?"
+
+"There are plenty of reasons why I should sing. In the first place, I
+owe it to my engagement with Jacovacci. He has taken endless trouble
+to have me cleared at once, and I will not disappoint him. Besides, I
+have not lost my voice, and might be half ruined by breaking contract
+so early. Then, the afternoon papers are full of the whole affair,
+some right and some wrong, and I am bound to show the Contessina di
+Lira that this unfortunate accident does not touch my heart, however
+sorry I may be. If I did not appear all Rome would say it was because
+I was heart-broken. If she does not go to the theatre, she will at
+least hear of it. Therefore I will sing." It was very reasonable of
+him to think so.
+
+"Have any of the papers got hold of the story of your giving lessons?"
+
+"No, I think not; and there is no mention of the Lira family."
+
+"So much the better."
+
+Hedwig did not go to the opera. Of course she was quite right. However
+she might feel about the baroness, it would have been in the worst
+possible taste to go to the opera the very day after her death. That
+is the way society puts it. It is bad taste; they never say it is
+heartless, or unkind, or brutal. It is simply bad taste. Nino sang, on
+the whole, better than if she had been there, for he put his whole
+soul in his art and won fresh laurels. When it was over he was
+besieged by the agent of the London manager to come to some agreement.
+
+"I cannot tell yet," he said. "I will tell you soon." He was not
+willing to leave Rome--that was the truth of the matter. He thought of
+nothing, day or night, but of how he might see Hedwig, and his heart
+writhed in his breast when it seemed more and more impossible. He
+dared not risk compromising her by another serenade, as he felt sure
+that it had been some servant of the count who had betrayed him to the
+baroness. At last he hit upon a plan. The funeral of the baroness was
+to take place on the afternoon of the next day. He felt sure that the
+Graf von Lira would go to it, and he was equally certain that Hedwig
+would not. It chanced to be the hour at which De Pretis went to the
+Palazzo to give her the singing lesson.
+
+"I suppose it is a barbarous thing for me to do," he said to himself,
+"but I cannot help it. Love first, and tragedy afterwards."
+
+In the afternoon, therefore, he sallied out, and went boldly to the
+Palazzo Carmandola. He inquired of the porter whether the Signor Conte
+had gone out, and just as he had expected, so he found it. Old Lira
+had left the house ten minutes earlier, to go to the funeral. Nino
+ran up the stairs and rang the bell. The footman opened the door, and
+Nino quickly slipped a five-franc note into his hand, which he had no
+difficulty in finding. On asking if the signorina were at home, the
+footman nodded, and added that Professor De Pretis was with her, but
+she would doubtless see Professor Cardegna as well. And so it turned
+out. He was ushered into the great drawing-room, where the piano was.
+Hedwig came forward a few steps from where she had been standing
+beside De Pretis, and Nino bowed low before her. She had on a long
+dark dress, and no ornament whatever, save her beautiful bright hair,
+so that her face was like a jewel set in gold and velvet. But, when I
+think of it, such a combination would seem absurdly vulgar by the side
+of Hedwig von Lira. She was so pale and exquisite and sad that Nino
+could hardly look at her. He remembered that there were violets,
+rarest of flowers in Rome in January, in her belt.
+
+To tell the truth, Nino had expected to find her stern and cold,
+whereas she was only very quiet and sorrowful.
+
+"Will you forgive me, signorina, for this rashness?" he asked, in a
+low voice.
+
+"In that I receive you I forgive you, sir," she said. He glanced
+toward De Pretis, who seemed absorbed in some music at the piano and
+was playing over bits of an accompaniment. She understood, and moved
+slowly to a window at the other end of the great room, standing among
+the curtains. He placed himself in the embrasure. She looked at him
+long and earnestly, as if finally reconciling the singer with the man
+she had known so long. She found him changed, as I had, in a short
+time. His face was sterner and thinner and whiter than before, and
+there were traces of thought in the deep shadows beneath his eyes.
+Quietly observing him, she saw how perfectly simple and exquisitely
+careful was his dress, and how his hands bespoke that attention which
+only a gentleman gives to the details of his person. She saw that, if
+he were not handsome, he was in the last degree striking to the eye,
+in spite of all his simplicity, and that he would not lose by being
+contrasted with all the dandies and courtiers in Rome. As she looked,
+she saw his lip quiver slightly, the only sign of emotion he ever
+gives, unless he loses his head altogether, and storms, as he
+sometimes does.
+
+"Signorina," he began, "I have come to tell you a story; will you
+listen to it?"
+
+"Tell it me," said she, still looking in his face.
+
+"There was once a solitary castle in the mountains, with battlement
+and moat both high and broad. Far up in a lonely turret dwelt a rare
+maiden, of such surpassing beauty and fairness that the peasants
+thought she was not mortal, but an angel from heaven, resting in that
+tower from the doing of good deeds. She had flowers up there in her
+chamber, and the seeds of flowers; and as the seasons passed by, she
+took from her store the dry germs, and planted them one after another
+in a little earth on the window-sill. And the sun shone on them and
+they grew, and she breathed upon them and they were sweet. But they
+withered and bore no offspring, and fell away, so that year by year
+her store became diminished. At last there was but one little paper
+bag of seed left, and upon the cover was written in a strange
+character, 'This is the Seed of the Thorn of the World.' But the
+beautiful maiden was sad when she saw this, for she said 'All my
+flowers have been sweet, and now I have but this thing left, which is
+a thorn!' And she opened the paper and looked inside, and saw one poor
+little seed all black and shrivelled. Through that day she pondered
+what to do with it, and was very unhappy. At night she said to
+herself, 'I will not plant this one; I will throw it away rather than
+plant it.' And she went to the window, and tore the paper, and threw
+out the little seed into the darkness."
+
+"Poor little thing!" said Hedwig. She was listening intently.
+
+"She threw it out, and as it fell, all the air was full of music, sad
+and sweet, so that she wondered greatly. The next day she looked out
+of the window, and saw, between the moat and the castle wall, a new
+plant growing. It looked black and uninviting, but it had come up so
+fast that it had already laid hold on the rough gray stones. At the
+falling of the night it reached far up towards the turret, a great
+sharp-pointed vine, with only here and there a miserable leaf on it.
+'I am sorry I threw it out,' said the maiden. 'It is the Thorn of the
+World, and the people who pass will think it defaces my castle.' But
+when it was dark again the air was full of music. The maiden went to
+the window, for she could not sleep, and she called out, asking who
+it was that sang. Then a sweet, low voice came up to her from the
+moat. 'I am the Thorn,' it said, 'I sing in the dark, for I am
+growing.'--'Sing on, Thorn,' said she, 'and grow if you will.' But in
+the morning when she awoke, her window was darkened, for the Thorn had
+grown to be a mighty tree, and its topmost shoots were black against
+the sky. She wondered whether this uncouth plant would bear anything
+but music. So she spoke to it.
+
+"'Thorn,' she said, 'why have you no flowers?'
+
+"'I am the Thorn of the World,' it answered, 'and I can bear no
+flowers until the hand that planted me has tended me, and pruned me,
+and shaped me to be its own. If you had planted me like the rest, it
+would have been easy for you. But you planted me unwillingly, down
+below you by the moat, and I have had far to climb.'
+
+"'But my hands are so delicate,' said the maiden. 'You will hurt me,
+I am sure.'
+
+"'Yours is the only hand in the world that I will not hurt,' said the
+voice, so tenderly and softly and sadly that the gentle fingers went
+out to touch the plant and see if it were real. And touching it they
+clung there, for they had no harm of it. Would you know, my lady, what
+happened then?"
+
+"Yes, yes--tell me!" cried Hedwig, whose imagination was fascinated by
+the tale.
+
+"As her hands rested on the spiked branches, a gentle trembling went
+through the Thorn, and in a moment there burst out such a blooming and
+blossoming as the maiden had never seen. Every prick became a rose,
+and they were so many that the light of the day was tinged with them,
+and their sweetness was like the breath of paradise. But below her
+window the Thorn was as black and forbidding as ever, for only the
+maiden's presence could make its flowers bloom. But she smelled the
+flowers, and pressed many of them to her cheek.
+
+"'I thought you were only a Thorn,' she said, softly.
+
+"'Nay, fairest maiden,' answered the glorious voice of the bursting
+blossom, 'I am the Rose of the World for ever, since you have touched
+me.'
+
+"That is my story, signorina. Have I wearied you?"
+
+Hedwig had unconsciously moved nearer to him as he was speaking, for
+he never raised his voice, and she hung on his words. There was colour
+in her face, and her breath came quickly through her parted lips. She
+had never looked so beautiful.
+
+"Wearied me, signore? Ah no; it is a gentle tale of yours."
+
+"It is a true tale--in part," said he.
+
+"In part? I do not understand--" But the colour was warmer in her
+cheek, and she turned her face half away, as though looking out.
+
+"I will tell you," he replied, coming closer, on the side from which
+she turned. "Here is the window. You are the maiden. The thorn--it is
+my love for you"; he dropped his voice to a whisper "You planted it
+carelessly, far below you in the dark. In the dark it has grown and
+sung to you, and grown again, until now it stands in your own castle
+window. Will you not touch it and make its flowers bloom for you?" He
+spoke fervently. She had turned her face quite from him now, and was
+resting her forehead against one hand that leaned upon the heavy frame
+of the casement. The other hand hung down by her side toward him, fair
+as a lily against her dark gown. Nino touched it, then took it. He
+could see the blush spread to her white throat, and fade again.
+Between the half-falling curtain and the great window he bent his knee
+and pressed her fingers to his lips. She made as though she would
+withdraw her hand, and then left it in his. Her glance stole to him as
+he kneeled there, and he felt it on him, so that he looked up. She
+seemed to raise him with her fingers, and her eyes held his and drew
+them; he stood up, and, still holding her hand, his face was near to
+hers. Closer and closer yet, as by a spell, each gazing searchingly
+into the other's glance, till their eyes could see no more for
+closeness, and their lips met in life's first virgin kiss,--in the
+glory and strength of a two-fold purity, each to each.
+
+Far off at the other end of the room De Pretis struck a chord on the
+piano. They started at the sound.
+
+"When?" whispered Nino, hurriedly.
+
+"At midnight, under my window," she answered, quickly, not thinking of
+anything better in her haste. "I will tell you then. You must go; my
+father will soon be here. No, not again," she protested. But he drew
+her to him, and said good-bye in his own manner. She lingered an
+instant, and tore herself away. De Pretis was playing loudly. Nino had
+to pass near him to go out, and the maestro nodded carelessly as he
+went by.
+
+"Excuse me, maestro," said Hedwig, as Nino bowed himself out; "it was
+a question of arranging certain lessons."
+
+"Do not mention it," said he, indifferently; "my time is yours,
+signorina. Shall we go through with this solfeggio once more?"
+
+The good maestro did not seem greatly disturbed by the interruption.
+Hedwig wondered, dreamily, whether he had understood. It all seemed
+like a dream. The notes were upside down in her sight, and her voice
+sought strange minor keys unconsciously, as she vainly tried to
+concentrate her attention upon what she was doing.
+
+"Signorina," said Ercole at last, "what you sing is very pretty, but
+it is not exactly what is written here. I fear you are tired."
+
+"Perhaps so," said she. "Let us not sing any more to-day." Ercole shut
+up the music and rose. She gave him her hand, a thing she had never
+done before; and it was unconscious now, as everything she did seemed
+to be. There is a point when dreaming gets the mastery and appears
+infinitely more real than the things we touch.
+
+Nino, meanwhile, had descended the steps, expecting every moment to
+meet the count. As he went down the street a closed carriage drove by
+with the Lira liveries. The old count was in it, but Nino stepped into
+the shadow of a doorway to let the equipage pass, and was not seen.
+The wooden face of the old nobleman almost betrayed something akin to
+emotion. He was returning from the funeral, and it had pained him;
+for he had liked the wild baroness in a fatherly, reproving way. But
+the sight of him sent a home thrust to Nino's heart.
+
+"Her death is on my soul for ever," he muttered between his set teeth.
+Poor innocent boy, it was not his fault if she had loved him so much.
+Women have done things for great singers that they have not done for
+martyrs or heroes. It seems so certain that the voice that sings so
+tenderly is speaking to them individually. Music is such a fleeting,
+passionate thing that a woman takes it all to herself; how could he
+sing like that for anyone else? And yet there is always someone for
+whom he does really pour out his heart, and all the rest are the dolls
+of life, to be looked at and admired for their dress and complexion,
+and to laugh at when the fancy takes him to laugh; but not to love.
+
+At midnight Nino was at his post, but he waited long and patiently for
+a sign. It was past two, and he was thinking it hopeless to wait
+longer, when his quick ear caught the sound of a window moving on its
+hinges, and a moment later something fell at his feet with a sharp,
+metallic click. The night was dark and cloudy, so that the waning moon
+gave little light. He picked up the thing and found a small pocket
+handkerchief wrapped about a minute pair of scissors, apparently to
+give it weight. He expected a letter, and groped on the damp pavement
+with his hands. Then he struck a match, shaded it from the breeze with
+his hand, and saw that the handkerchief was stained with ink, and that
+the stains were letters, roughly printed to make them distinct. He
+hurried away to the light of a street lamp to read the strange
+missive.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+He went to the light and spread out the handkerchief. It was a small
+thing, of almost transparent stuff, with a plain "H.L." and a crown in
+the corner. The steel pen had torn the delicate fibres here and there.
+
+"They know you have been here. I am watched. Keep away from the house
+till you hear."
+
+That was all the message, but it told worlds. He knew from it that the
+count was informed of his visit, and he tortured himself by trying to
+imagine what the angry old man would do. His heart sank like a stone
+in his breast when he thought of Hedwig, so imprisoned, guarded, made
+a martyr of, for his folly. He groaned aloud when he understood that
+it was in the power of her father to take her away suddenly and leave
+no trace of their destination, and he cursed his haste and impetuosity
+in having shown himself inside the house. But with all this weight of
+trouble upon him, he felt the strength and indomitable determination
+within him which come only to a man who loves, when he knows he is
+loved again. He kissed the little handkerchief, and even the scissors
+she had used to weight it with, and he put them in his breast. But he
+stood irresolute, leaning against the lamppost, as a man will who is
+trying to force his thoughts to overtake events, trying to shape out
+of the present. Suddenly he was aware of a tall figure in a fur coat
+standing near him on the sidewalk. He would have turned to go, but
+something about the stranger's appearance struck him so oddly that he
+stayed where he was and watched him.
+
+The tall man searched for something in his pockets, and finally
+produced a cigarette, which he leisurely lighted with a wax match. As
+he did so his eyes fell upon Nino. The stranger was tall and very
+thin. He wore a pointed beard and a heavy moustache, which seemed
+almost dazzlingly white, as were the few locks that appeared, neatly
+brushed over his temples, beneath his opera hat. His sanguine
+complexion, however, had all the freshness of youth, and his eyes
+sparkled merrily, as though amused at the spectacle of his nose, which
+was immense, curved, and polished, like an eagle's beak. He wore
+perfectly-fitting kid gloves, and the collar of his fur wrapper,
+falling a little open, showed that he was in evening dress.
+
+It was so late--past two o'clock--that Nino had not expected anything
+more than a policeman or some homeless wanderer, when he raised his
+eyes to look on the stranger. He was fascinated by the strange
+presence of the aged dandy, for such he seemed to be, and returned his
+gaze boldly. He was still more astonished, however, when the old
+gentleman came close to him, and raised his hat, displaying, as he did
+so, a very high and narrow forehead, crowned with a mass of smooth
+white hair. There was both grace and authority in the courteous
+gesture, and Nino thought the old gentleman moved with an ease that
+matched his youthful complexion rather than his hoary locks.
+
+"Signor Cardegna, the distinguished artist, if I mistake not?" said
+the stranger, with a peculiar foreign accent, the like of which Nino
+had never heard. He also raised his hat, extremely surprised that a
+chance passer-by should know him. He had not yet learned what it is to
+be famous. But he was far from pleased at being addressed in his
+present mood.
+
+"The same, signore," he replied coldly. "How can I serve you?"
+
+"You can serve the world you so well adorn better than by exposing
+your noble voice to the midnight damps and chills of this infernal--I
+would say, eternal--city," answered the other. "Forgive me. I am, not
+unnaturally, concerned at the prospect of loosing even a small portion
+of the pleasure you know how to give to me and to many others."
+
+"I thank you for your flattery," said Nino, drawing his cloak about
+him, "but it appears to me that my throat is my own, and whatever
+voice there may be in it. Are you a physician, signore? And pray why
+do you tell me that Rome is an infernal city?"
+
+"I have had some experience of Rome, Signor Cardegna," returned the
+foreigner, with a peculiar smile, "and I hate no place so bitterly in
+all this world--save one. And as for my being a physician, I am an old
+man, a very singularly old man in fact, and I know something of the
+art of healing."
+
+"When I need healing, as you call it," said Nino, rather scornfully,
+"I will inquire for you. Do you desire to continue this interview amid
+the 'damps and chills of our 'infernal city'? If not, I will wish you
+good-evening."
+
+"By no means," said the other, not in the least repulsed by Nino's
+coldness. "I will accommpany you a little way, if you will allow me."
+Nino stared hard at the stranger, wondering what could induce him to
+take so much interest in a singer. Then he nodded gravely and turned
+toward his home, inwardly hoping that his aggressive acquaintance
+lived in the opposite direction. But he was mistaken. The tall man
+blew a quantity of smoke through his nose and walked by his side. He
+strode over the pavement with a long, elastic step.
+
+"I live not far from here," he said, when they had gone a few steps,
+"and if the Signor Cardegna will accept of a glass of old wine and a
+good cigar I shall feel highly honoured." Somehow an invitation of
+this kind was the last thing Nino had expected or desired, least of
+all from a talkative stranger who seemed determined to make his
+acquaintance.
+
+"I thank you, signore," he answered, "but I have supped, and I do not
+smoke."
+
+"Ah--I forgot. You are a singer, and must of course be careful. That
+is perhaps the reason why you wander about the streets when the nights
+are dark and damp. But I can offer you something more attractive than
+liquor and tobacco. A great violinist lives with me,--a queer,
+nocturnal bird,--and if you will come he will be enchanted to play for
+you. I assure you he is a very-good musician, the like of which you
+will hardly hear nowadays. He does not play in public any longer, from
+some odd fancy of his."
+
+Nino hesitated. Of all instruments he loved the violin best, and in
+Rome he had had but little opportunity of hearing it well played.
+Concerts were the rarest of luxuries to him, and violinists in Rome
+are rarer still.
+
+"What is his name, signore?" he asked, unbending a little.
+
+"You must guess that when you hear him," said the old gentleman,
+with a short laugh. "But I give you my word of honour he is a
+great musician. Will you come, or must I offer you still further
+attractions?"
+
+"What might they be?" asked Nino.
+
+"Nay; will you come for what I offer you? If the music is not good,
+you may go away again." Still Nino hesitated. Sorrowful and fearful of
+the future as he was, his love gnawing cruelly at his heart, he would
+have given the whole world for a strain of rare music if only he were
+not forced to make it himself. Then it struck him that this might be
+some pitfall. I would not have gone.
+
+"Sir," he said at last, "if you meditate any foul play, I would advise
+you to retract your invitation. I will come, and I am well armed." He
+had my long knife about him somewhere. It is one of my precautions.
+But the stranger laughed long and loud at the suggestion, so that his
+voice woke queer echoes in the silent street. Nino did not understand
+why he should laugh so much, but he found his knife under his cloak,
+and made sure it was loose in its leathern sheath. Presently the
+stranger stopped before the large door of an old palazzo,--every house
+is a palazzo that has an entrance for carriages, and let himself in
+with a key. There was a lantern on the stone pavement inside, and
+seeing a light, Nino followed him boldly. The old gentleman took the
+lantern and led the way up the stairs, apologising for the distance
+and the darkness. At last they stopped, and, entering another door,
+found themselves in the stranger's apartment.
+
+"A cardinal lives downstairs," said he, as he turned up the light of a
+couple of large lamps that burned dimly in the room they had reached.
+"The secretary of a very holy order has his office on the other side
+of my landing, and altogether this is a very religious atmosphere.
+Pray take off your cloak; the room is warm."
+
+Nino looked about him. He had expected to be ushered into some
+princely dwelling, for he had judged his interlocutor to be some rich
+and eccentric noble, unless he were an erratic scamp. He was somewhat
+taken aback by the spectacle that met his eyes. The furniture was
+scant, and all in the style of the last century. The dust lay half an
+inch thick on the old gilded ornaments and chandeliers. A great
+pier-glass was cracked from corner to corner, and the metallic backing
+seemed to be scaling off behind. There were two or three open valises
+on the marble floor, which latter, however, seemed to have been lately
+swept. A square table was in the centre, also free from dust, and a
+few high-backed leathern chairs, studded with brass nails, were ranged
+about it. On the table stood one of the lamps, and the other was
+placed on a marble column in a corner, that once must have supported a
+bust, or something of the kind. Old curtains, moth-eaten and ragged
+with age, but of a rich material, covered the windows. Nino glanced at
+the open trunks on the floor, and saw that they contained a quantity
+of wearing apparel and the like. He guessed that his acquaintance had
+lately arrived.
+
+"I do not often inhabit this den," said the old gentleman, who had
+divested himself of his furs, and now showed his thin figure arrayed
+in the extreme of full dress. A couple of decorations hung at his
+button-hole. "I seldom come here, and on my return, the other day, I
+found that the man I had left in charge was dead, with, all his
+family, and the place has gone to ruin. That is always my luck," he
+added, with a little laugh.
+
+"I should think he must have been dead some time," said Nino, looking
+about him. "There is a great deal of dust here."
+
+"Yes, as you say, it is some years," returned his acquaintance, still
+laughing. He seemed a merry old soul, fifty years younger than his
+looks. He produced from a case a bottle of wine and two silver cups,
+and placed them on the table.
+
+"But where is your friend, the violinist?" inquired Nino, who was
+beginning to be impatient; for except that the place was dusty and
+old, there was nothing about it sufficiently interesting to take his
+thoughts from the subject nearest his heart.
+
+"I will introduce him to you," said the other, going to one of the
+valises and taking out a violin case, which he laid on the table and
+proceeded to open. The instrument was apparently of great age, small
+and well shaped. The stranger took it up and began to tune it.
+
+"Do you mean to say that you are yourself the violinist?" he asked, in
+astonishment. But the stranger vouchsafed no answer, as he steadied
+the fiddle with his bearded chin and turned the pegs with his left
+hand, adjusting the strings.
+
+Then, suddenly and without any preluding, he began to make music, and
+from the first note Nino sat enthralled and fascinated, losing himself
+in the wild sport of the tones. The old man's face became ashy white
+as he played, and his white hair appeared to stand away from his head.
+The long, thin fingers of his left hand chased each other in pairs
+and singly along the delicate strings, while the bow glanced in
+the lamplight as it dashed like lightning across the instrument, or
+remained almost stationary, quivering in his magic hold as quickly as
+the wings of the humming-bird strike the summer air. Sometimes he
+seemed to be tearing the heart from the old violin; sometimes it
+seemed to murmur soft things in his old ear, as though the imprisoned
+spirit of the music were pleading to be free on the wings of sound:
+sweet as love that is strong as death; feverish and murderous as
+jealousy that is as cruel as the grave; sobbing great sobs of a
+terrible death-song, and screaming in the outrageous frenzy of a
+furious foe; wailing thin cries of misery, too exhausted for strong
+grief; dancing again in horrid madness, as the devils dance over some
+fresh sinner they have gotten themselves for torture; and then at
+last, as the strings bent to the commanding bow, finding the triumph
+of a glorious rest in great, broad chords, splendid in depth and royal
+harmony, grand, enormous, and massive as the united choirs of heaven.
+
+Nino was beside himself, leaning far over the table, straining eyes
+and ears to understand the wonderful music that made him drunk
+with its strength. As the tones ceased he sank back in his chair,
+exhausted by the tremendous effort of his senses. Instantly the old
+man recovered his former appearance. With his hand he smoothed his
+thick white hair; the fresh colour came back to his cheeks; and
+as he tenderly laid his violin on the table, he was again the
+exquisitely-dressed and courtly gentleman who had spoken to Nino in
+the street. The musician disappeared, and the man of the world
+returned. He poured wine into the plain silver cups, and invited Nino
+to drink; but the boy pushed the goblet away, and his strange host
+drank alone.
+
+"You asked me for the musician's name," he said, with a merry twinkle
+in his eye, from which every trace of artistic inspiration had faded;
+"can you guess it now?" Nino seemed tongue-tied still, but he made an
+effort.
+
+"I have heard of Paganini," he said, "but he died years ago."
+
+"Yes, he is dead, poor fellow! I am not Paganini."
+
+"I am at a loss, then," said Nino, dreamily, "I do not know the names
+of many violinists, but you must be so famous that I ought to know
+yours."
+
+"No; how should you? I will tell you. I am Benoni, the Jew." The tall
+man's eyes twinkled more brightly than ever. Nino stared at him, and
+saw that he was certainly of a pronounced Jewish type. His brown eyes
+were long and oriental in shape, and his nose was unmistakably
+Semitic.
+
+"I am sorry to seem so ignorant," said Nino, blushing, "but I do not
+know the name. I perceive, however, that you are indeed a very great
+musician,--the greatest I ever heard." The compliment was perfectly
+sincere, and Benoni's face beamed with pleasure. He evidently liked
+praise.
+
+"It is not extraordinary," he said smiling. "In the course of a very
+long life it has been my only solace, and if I have some skill it is
+the result of constant study. I began life very humbly."
+
+"So did I," said Nino, thoughtfully, "and I am not far from the
+humbleness yet."
+
+"Tell me," said Benoni, with a show of interest, "where you come from,
+and why you are a singer."
+
+"I was a peasant's child, an orphan, and the good God gave me a voice.
+That is all I know about it. A kind-hearted gentleman, who once owned
+the estate where I was born, brought me up, and wanted to make a
+philosopher of me. But I wanted to sing, and so I did."
+
+"Do you always do the things you want to do?" asked the other, "You
+look as though you might. You look like Napoleon--that man always
+interested me. That is why I asked you to come and see me. I have
+heard you sing, and you are a great artist--an additional reason. All
+artists should be brothers. Do you not think so?"
+
+"Indeed, I know very few good ones," said Nino simply; "and even among
+them I would like to choose before claiming relationship--personally.
+But Art is a great mother, and we are all her children."
+
+"More especially we who began life so poorly, and love Art because she
+loves us." Benoni seated himself on the arm of one of the old chairs,
+and looked down across the worm-eaten table at the young singer. "We,"
+he continued, "who have been wretchedly poor know better than others
+that Art is real, true, and enduring; medicine in sickness and food in
+famine; wings to the feet of youth and a staff for the steps of old
+age. Do you think I exaggerate, or do you feel as I do?" He paused for
+an answer, and poured more wine into his goblet.
+
+"Oh, you know I feel as you do!" cried Nino, with rising enthusiasm.
+
+"Very good; you are a genuine artist. What you have not felt yet you
+will feel hereafter. You have not suffered yet."
+
+"You do not know about me," said Nino in a low voice. "I am suffering
+now."
+
+Benoni smiled. "Do you call that suffering? Well, it is perhaps very
+real to you, though I do not know what it is. But Art will help you
+through it all, as it has helped me."
+
+"What were you?" asked Nino. "You say you were poor."
+
+"Yes. I was a shoemaker, and a poor one at that. I have worn out more
+shoes than I ever made. But I was brought up to it for many years."
+
+"You did not study music from a child, then?"
+
+"No. But I always loved it; and I used to play in the evenings when I
+had been cobbling all day long."
+
+"And one day you found out you were a great artist and became famous.
+I see! What a strange beginning!" cried Nino.
+
+"Not exactly that. It took a long time. I was obliged to leave my
+home, for other reasons, and then I played from door to door, and from
+town to town, for whatever coppers were thrown to me. I had never
+heard any good music, and so I played the things that came into my
+head. By and bye people would make me stay with them awhile, for my
+music sake. But I never stayed long."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I cannot tell you now," said Benoni, looking grave and almost sad:
+"it is a very long story. I have travelled a great deal, preferring a
+life of adventure. But of late money has grown to be so important a
+thing that I have given a series of great concerts, and have become
+rich enough to play for my own pleasure. Besides, though I travel so
+much, I like society, and I know many people everywhere. To-night, for
+instance, though I have been in Rome only a week, I have been to a
+dinner party, to the theatre, to a reception, and to a ball. Everybody
+invites me as soon as I arrive. I am very popular,--and yet I am a
+Jew," he added, laughing in an odd way.
+
+"But you are a merry Jew," said Nino, laughing too, "besides being a
+great genius. I do not wonder people invite you."
+
+"It is better to be merry than sad," replied Benoni. "In the course of
+a long life I have found out that."
+
+"You do not look so very old," said Nino. "How old are you?"
+
+"That is a rude question," said his host, laughing. "But I will
+improvise a piece of music for you." He took his violin, and stood up
+before the broken pier-glass. Then he laid the bow over the strings
+and struck a chord. "What is that?" he asked, sustaining the sound.
+
+"The common chord of A minor," answered Nino immediately.
+
+"You have a good ear," said Benoni, still playing the same notes, so
+that the constant monotony of them buzzed like a vexatious insect in
+Nino's hearing. Still the old man sawed the bow over the same strings
+without change. On and on, the same everlasting chord, till Nino
+thought he must go mad.
+
+"It is intolerable; for the love of heaven, stop!" he cried, pushing
+back his chair and beginning to pace the room. Benoni only smiled, and
+went on as unchangingly as ever. Nino could bear it no longer, being
+very sensitive about sounds, and he made for the door.
+
+"You cannot get out,--I have the key in my pocket," said Benoni,
+without stopping.
+
+Then Nino became nearly frantic, and made at the Jew to wrest the
+instrument from his hands. But Benoni was agile, and eluded him, still
+playing vigorously the one chord, till Nino cried aloud, and sank in a
+chair, entirely overcome by the torture, that seemed boring its way
+into his brain like a corkscrew.
+
+"This," said Benoni, the bow still sawing the strings, "is life
+without laughter. Now let us laugh a little, and see the effect."
+
+It was indeed wonderful. With his instrument he imitated the sound of
+a laughing voice, high up above the monotonous chord: softly at first,
+as though far in the distance; then louder and nearer, the sustaining
+notes of the minor falling away one after the other and losing
+themselves, as the merriment gained ground on the sadness; till
+finally, with a burst of life and vitality of which it would be
+impossible to convey any idea, the whole body of mirth broke into a
+wild tarantella movement, so vivid and elastic and noisy that it
+seemed to Nino that he saw the very feet of the dancers, and heard the
+jolly din of the tambourine and the clattering, clappering click of
+the castanets.
+
+"That," said Benoni, suddenly stopping, "is life with laughter, be it
+ever so sad and monotonous before. Which do you prefer?"
+
+"You are the greatest artist in the world!" cried Nino,
+enthusiastically; "but I should have been a raving madman if you had
+played that chord any longer."
+
+"Of course," said Benoni, "and I should have gone mad if I had not
+laughed. Poor Schumann, you know, died insane because he fancied he
+always heard one note droning in his ears."
+
+"I can understand that," said Nino. "But it is late, and I must be
+going home. Forgive my rudeness and reluctance to come with you. I was
+moody and unhappy. You have given me more pleasure than I can tell
+you."
+
+"It will seem little enough to-morrow, I dare say," replied Benoni.
+"That is the way with pleasures. But you should get them all the same,
+when you can, and grasp them as tightly as a drowning man grasps a
+straw. Pleasures and money, money and pleasures."
+
+Nino did not understand the tone in which his host made this last
+remark. He had learned different doctrines from me.
+
+"Why do you speak so selfishly, after showing that you can give
+pleasure so freely, and telling me that we are all brothers?" he
+asked.
+
+"If you are not in a hurry, I will explain to you that money is the
+only thing in this world worth having," said Benoni, drinking another
+cup of the wine, which appeared to have no effect whatever on his
+brain.
+
+"Well?" said Nino, curious to hear what he had to say.
+
+"In the first place, you will allow that from the noblest moral
+standpoint a man's highest aim should be to do good to his
+fellow-creatures? Yes, you allow that. And to do the greatest possible
+good to the greatest possible number? Yes, you allow that also. Then,
+I say, other things being alike, a good man will do the greatest
+possible amount of good in the world when he has the greatest possible
+amount of money. The more money, the more good; the less money, the
+less good. Of course money is only the means to the end, but nothing
+tangible in the world can ever be anything else. All art is only a
+means to the exciting of still more perfect images in the brain; all
+crime is a means to the satisfaction of passion, or avarice, which is
+itself a king-passion; all good itself is a means to the attainment of
+heaven. Everything is bad or good in the world except art, which is a
+thing separate, though having good and bad results. But the attainment
+of heaven is the best object to keep in view. To that end, do the most
+good; and to do it, get the most money. Therefore, as a means, money
+is the only thing in the world worth having, since you can most
+benefit humanity by it, and consequently be the most sure of going to
+heaven when you die. Is that clear?"
+
+"Perfectly," said Nino, "provided a man is himself good."
+
+"It is very reprehensible to be bad," said Benoni, with a smile.
+
+"What a ridiculous truism!" said Nino, laughing outright.
+
+"Very likely," said the other. "But I never heard any preacher, in any
+country, tell his congregation anything else. And people always listen
+with attention. In countries where rain is entirely unknown, it is not
+a truism to say that 'when it rains it is damp.' On the contrary, in
+such countries that statement would be regarded as requiring
+demonstration, and once demonstrated, it would be treasured and taught
+as an interesting scientific fact. Now it is precisely the same with
+congregations of men. They were never bad, and never can be; in fact,
+they doubt, in their dear innocent hearts, whether they know what a
+real sin is. Consequently, they listen with interest to the statement
+that sin is bad, and promise themselves that if ever that piece of
+information should be unexpectedly needed by any of their friends,
+they will remember it."
+
+"You are a satirist, Signor Benoni," said Nino.
+
+"Anything you like," returned the other, "I have been called worse
+names than that in my time. So much for heaven and the prospect of it.
+But a gentleman has arisen in a foreign country who says that there is
+no heaven, anywhere, and that no one does good except in the pursuit
+of pleasure here or hereafter. But as his hereafter is nowhere,
+disregard it in the argument, and say that man should only do, or
+actually does, everything solely for the sake of pleasure here; say
+that pleasure is good, so long as it does not interfere with the
+pleasures of others, and good is pleasure. Money may help a man to
+more of it, but pleasure is the thing. Well, then, my young brother
+artist, what did I say?--'money and pleasure, pleasure and money.' The
+means are there; and as, of course, you are good, like everybody else,
+and desire pleasure, you will get to heaven hereafter, if there is
+such a place; and if not, you will get the next thing to it, which is
+a paradise on earth." Having reached the climax, Signor Benoni lit a
+cigarette, and laughed his own peculiar laugh.
+
+Nino shuddered involuntarily at the hideous sophistry. For Nino is a
+good boy, and believes very much in heaven, as well as in a couple of
+other places. Benoni's quick brown eyes saw the movement, and
+understood it, for he laughed longer yet, and louder.
+
+"Why do you laugh like that? I see nothing to laugh at. It is very
+bitter and bad to hear all this that you say. I would rather hear your
+music. You are badly off, whether you believe in heaven or not. For if
+you do, you are not likely to get there; and if you do not believe in
+it, you are a heretic, and will be burned for ever and ever."
+
+"Not so badly answered, for an artist; and in a few words, too," said
+Benoni, approvingly. "But, my dear boy, the trouble is that I shall
+not get to heaven either way, for it is my great misfortune to be
+already condemned to everlasting flames."
+
+"No one is that," said Nino, gravely.
+
+"There are some exceptions, you know," said Benoni.
+
+"Well," answered the young man thoughtfully, "of course there is the
+Wandering Jew, and such tales, but nobody believes in him."
+
+"Good-night," said Benoni. "I am tired and most go to bed."
+
+Nino found his way out alone, but carefully noted the position of the
+palazzo before he went home through the deserted streets. It was four
+in the morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+Early in the morning after Nino's visit to Signor Benoni, De Pretis
+came to my house, wringing his hands and making a great trouble and
+noise. I had not yet seen Nino, who was sound asleep, though I could
+not imagine why he did not wake. But De Pretis was in such a temper
+that he shook the room and everything in it, as he stamped about the
+brick floor. It was not long before he had told me the cause of his
+trouble. He had just received a formal note from the Graf von Lira,
+inclosing the amount due to him for lessons, and dispensing with his
+services for the future.
+
+Of course this was the result of the visit Nino had so rashly made; it
+all came out afterwards, and I will not now go through the details
+that De Pretis poured out, when we only half knew the truth. The
+count's servant who admitted Nino had pocketed the five francs as
+quietly as you please; and the moment the count returned he told him
+how Nino had come and had stayed three-quarters of an hour just as if
+it were an everyday affair. The count, being a proud old man, did not
+encourage him to make further confidences, but sent him about his
+business. He determined to make a prisoner of his daughter until he
+could remove her from Rome. He accordingly confined her in the little
+suite of apartments that were her own, and set an old soldier, whom he
+had brought from Germany, as a body-servant, to keep watch at the
+outer door. He did not condescend to explain even to Hedwig the cause
+of his conduct, and she, poor girl, was as proud as he, and would not
+ask why she was shut up, lest the answer should be a storm of abuse
+against Nino. She cared not at all how her father had found out her
+secret, so long as he knew it, and she guessed that submission would
+be the best policy.
+
+Meanwhile, active preparations were made for an immediate departure.
+The count informed his friends that he was going to pass Lent in
+Paris, on account of his daughter's health, which was very poor, and
+in two days everything was ready. They would leave on the following
+morning. In the evening the count entered his daughter's apartments,
+after causing himself to be formally announced by a servant, and
+briefly informed her that they would start for Paris on the following
+morning. Her maid had been engaged in the meantime in packing her
+effects, not knowing whither her mistress was going. Hedwig received
+the announcement in silence, but her father saw that she was deadly
+white and her eyes heavy from weeping. I have anticipated this much to
+make things clearer. It was on the first morning of Hedwig's
+confinement that De Pretis came to our house.
+
+Nino was soon waked by the maestro's noise, and came to the door of
+his chamber, which opens into the little sitting-room, to inquire what
+the matter might be. Nino asked if the maestro were peddling cabbages,
+that he should scream so loudly.
+
+"Cabbages, indeed! cabbage yourself, silly boy!" cried Ercole, shaking
+his fist at Nino's head, just visible through the crack of the door.
+"A pretty mess you have made with your ridiculous love affair! Here am
+I--"
+
+"I see you are," retorted Nino; "and do not call any affair of mine
+ridiculous, or I will throw you out of the window. Wait a moment!"
+With that he slammed his door in the maestro's face, and went on with
+his dressing. For a few minutes De Pretis raved at his ease, venting
+his wrath on me. Then Nino came out.
+
+"Now, then," said he, preparing for a tussle, "what is the matter, my
+dear maestro?" but Ercole had expended most of his fury already.
+
+"The matter!" he grumbled. "The matter is that I have lost an
+excellent pupil through you. Count Lira says he does not require my
+services any longer, and the man who brought the note says they are
+going away."
+
+"Diavolo!" said Nino, running his fingers through his curly black
+hair, "it is indeed serious. Where are they going?"
+
+"How should I know?" asked De Pretis angrily. "I care much more about
+losing the lesson than about where they are going. I shall not follow
+them, I promise you. I cannot take the basilica of St. Peter about
+with me in my pocket, can I?"
+
+And so he was angry at first, and at length he was pacified, and
+finally he advised Nino to discover immediately where the count and
+his daughter were going; and if it were to any great capital, to
+endeavour to make a contract to sing there. Lent came early that year,
+and Nino was free at the end of Carnival,--not many days longer to
+wait. This was the plan that had instantly formed itself in Nino's
+brain. De Pretis is really a most obliging man, but one cannot wonder
+that he should be annoyed at the result of Nino's four months'
+courtship under such great difficulties, when it seemed that all their
+efforts had led only to the sudden departure of his lady-love. As for
+me, I advised Nino to let the whole matter drop then and there. I told
+him he would soon get over his foolish passion, and that a statue
+like Hedwig could never suffer anything, since she could never feel.
+But he glared at me, and did as he liked, just as he always has done.
+
+The message on the handkerchief that Nino had received the night
+before warned him to keep away from the Palazzo Carmandola. Nino
+reflected that this warning was probably due to Hedwig's anxiety for
+his personal safety, and he resolved to risk anything rather than
+remain in ignorance of her destination. It must be a case of giving
+some signal. But this evening he had to sing at the theatre, and,
+therefore, without more ado, he left us, and went to bed again, where
+he stayed until twelve o'clock. Then he went to rehearsal, arriving an
+hour behind time, at least, a matter which he treated with the coolest
+indifference. After that he got a pound of small shot, and amused
+himself with throwing a few at a time at the kitchen window from the
+little court at the back of our house, where the well is. It seemed a
+strangely childish amusement for a great singer.
+
+Having sung successfully through his opera that night, he had supper
+with us, as usual, and then went out. Of course he told me afterwards
+what he did. He went to his old post under the windows of the Palazzo
+Carmandola, and as soon as all was dark he began to throw small shot
+up at Hedwig's window. He now profited by his practice in the
+afternoon, for he made the panes rattle with the little bits of lead,
+several times. At last he was rewarded. Very slowly the window opened,
+and Hedwig's voice spoke in a low tone:
+
+"Is it you?"
+
+"Ah, dear one! Can you ask?" began Nino.
+
+"Hush! I am still locked up. We are going away,--I cannot tell where."
+
+"When, dearest love?"
+
+"I cannot tell. What _shall_ we do?" very tearfully. "I will follow
+you immediately; only let me know when and where."
+
+"If you do not hear by some other means, come here to-morrow night. I
+hear steps. Go at once."
+
+"Good-night, dearest," he murmured; but the window was already closed,
+and the fresh breeze that springs up after one o'clock blew from the
+air the remembrance of the loving speech that had passed upon it.
+
+On the following night he was at his post, and again threw the shot
+against the pane for a signal. After a long time Hedwig opened the
+window very cautiously.
+
+"Quick!" she whispered down to him, "go! They are all awake," and she
+dropped something heavy and white. Perhaps she added some word, but
+Nino would not tell me, and never would read me the letter. But it
+contained the news that Hedwig and her father were to leave Rome for
+Paris on the following morning; and ever since that night Nino has
+worn upon his little finger a plain gold ring,--I cannot tell why, and
+he says he found it.
+
+The next day he ascertained from the porter of the Palazzo Carmandola
+that the count and contessina, with their servants, had actually left
+Rome that morning for Paris. From that moment he was sad as death, and
+went about his business heavily, being possessed of but one idea,
+namely, to sign an engagement to sing in Paris as soon as possible. In
+that wicked city the opera continues through Lent, and after some
+haggling, in which De Pretis insisted on obtaining for Nino the most
+advantageous terms, the contract was made out and signed.
+
+I see very well that unless I hurry myself I shall never reach the
+most important part of this story, which is after all the only part
+worth telling. I am sure I do not know how I can ever tell it so
+quickly, but I will do my best, and you must have a little patience;
+for though I am not old, I am not young, and Nino's departure for
+Paris was a great shock to me, so that I do not like to remember it,
+and the very thought of it sickens me. If you have ever had any
+education, you must have seen an experiment in which a mouse is put in
+a glass jar, and all the air is drawn away with a pump, so that the
+poor little beast languishes and rolls pitifully on its side, gasping
+and wheezing with its tiny lungs for the least whiff of air. That is
+just how I felt when Nino went away. It seemed as though I could not
+breathe in the house or in the streets, and the little rooms at home
+were so quiet that one might hear a pin fall, and the cat purring
+through the closed doors. Nino left at the beginning of the last ten
+days of Carnival, when the opera closed, so that it was soon Lent; and
+everything is quieter then.
+
+But before he left us there was noise enough and bustle of
+preparation, and I did not think I should miss him; for he always was
+making music, or walking about, or doing something to disturb me just
+at the very moment when I was most busy with my books. Mariuccia,
+indeed, would ask me from time to time what I should do when Nino was
+gone, as if she could foretell what I was to feel. I suppose she knew
+I was used to him, after fourteen years of it, and would be inclined
+to black humours for want of his voice. But she could not know just
+what Nino is to me, nor how I look on him as my own boy. These
+peasants are quick-witted and foolish; they guess a great many things
+better than I could, and then reason on them like idiots.
+
+Nino himself was glad to go. I could see his face grow brighter as the
+time approached; and though he appeared to be more successful than
+ever in his singing, I am sure that he cared nothing for the applause
+he got, and thought only of singing as well as he could for the love
+of it. But when it came to the parting we were left alone.
+
+"Messer Cornelio," he said, looking at me affectionately, "I have
+something to say to you to-night before I go away."
+
+"Speak, then, my dear boy," I answered, "for no one hears us."
+
+"You have been very good to me. A father could not have loved me
+better, and such a father as I had could not have done a thousandth
+part what you have done for me. I am going out into the world for a
+time, but my home is here,--or rather, where my home is will always be
+yours. You have been my father, and I will be your son; and it is time
+you should give up your professorship. No, not that you are at all
+old; I do not mean that."
+
+"No, indeed," said I, "I should think not."
+
+"It would be much more proper if you retired into an elegant leisure,
+so that you might write as many books as you desire without wearing
+yourself out in teaching those students every day. Would you not like
+to go back to Serveti?"
+
+"Serveti!--ah, beautiful, lost Serveti, with its castle and good
+vine-lands!"
+
+"You shall have it again before long, my father," he said. He had
+never called me father before, the dear boy! I suppose it was because
+he was going away. But Serveti again? The thing was impossible, and I
+said so.
+
+"It is not impossible," he answered, placidly. "Successful singers
+make enough money in a year to buy Serveti. A year is soon passed. But
+now let us go to the station, or I shall not be in time for the
+train."
+
+"God bless you, Nino mio," I said, as I saw him off. It seemed to me
+that I saw two or three Ninos. But the train rolled away and took
+them all from me,--the ragged little child who first came to me, the
+strong-limbed, dark-eyed boy with his scales and trills and
+enthusiasm, and the full-grown man with the face like the great
+emperor, mightily triumphing in his art and daring in his love. They
+were all gone in a moment, and I was left alone on the platform of the
+station, a very sorrowful and weak old man. Well, I will not think
+about that day.
+
+The first I heard of Nino was by a letter he wrote me from Paris, a
+fortnight after he had left me. It was characteristic of him, being
+full of eager questions about home and De Pretis and Mariuccia and
+Rome. Two things struck me in his writing. In the first place, he made
+no mention of the count or Hedwig, which led me to suppose that he was
+recovering from his passion, as boys do when they travel. And
+secondly, he had so much to say about me that he forgot all about his
+engagement, and never even mentioned the theatre. On looking carefully
+through the letter again I found he had written across the top the
+words, "Rehearsals satisfactory." That was all.
+
+It was not long after the letter came, however, that I was very much
+frightened by receiving a telegram, which must have cost several
+francs to send all that distance. By this he told me that he had no
+clue to the whereabouts of the Liras, and he implored me to make
+inquiries and discover where they had gone. He added that he had
+appeared in _Faust_ successfully. Of course he would succeed. If a
+singer can please the Romans, he can please anybody. But it seemed to
+me that if he had received a very especially flattering reception he
+would have said so. I went to see De Pretis, whom I found at home over
+his dinner. We put our heads together and debated how we might
+discover the Paris address of the Graf von Lira. In a great city like
+that it was no wonder Nino could not find them; but De Pretis hoped
+that some of his pupils might be in correspondence with the
+contessina, and would be willing to give the requisite directions for
+reaching her. But days passed, and a letter came from Nino written
+immediately after sending the telegram, and still we had accomplished
+nothing. The letter merely amplified the telegraphic message.
+
+"It is no use," I said to De Pretis. "And besides, it is much better
+that he should forget all about it."
+
+"You do not know that boy," said the maestro, taking snuff. And he was
+quite right, as it turned out.
+
+Suddenly Nino wrote from London. He had made an arrangement, he said,
+by which he was allowed to sing there for three nights only. The two
+managers had settled it between them, being friends. He wrote very
+despondently, saying that although he had been far more fortunate in
+his appearances than he had expected, he was in despair at not having
+found the contessina, and had accepted the arrangement which took him
+to London because he had hopes of finding her there. On the day which
+brought me this letter I had a visitor. Nino had been gone nearly a
+month. It was in the afternoon, towards sunset, and I was sitting in
+the old green arm-chair watching the goldfinch in his cage, and
+thinking sadly of the poor dear baroness, and of my boy, and of many
+things. The bell rang and Mariuccia brought me a card in her thick
+fingers which were black from peeling potatoes, so that the mark of
+her thumb came off on the white pasteboard. The name on the card was
+"Baron Ahasuerus Benoni," and there was no address. I told her to show
+the signore into the sitting-room, and he was not long in coming. I
+immediately recognised the man Nino had described, with his unearthly
+freshness of complexion, his eagle nose, and his snow-white hair. I
+rose to greet him.
+
+"Signor Grandi," he said, "I trust you will pardon my intrusion. I am
+much interested in your boy, the great tenor."
+
+"Sir," I replied, "the visit of a gentleman is never an intrusion.
+Permit me to offer you a chair." He sat down, and crossed one thin leg
+over the other. He was dressed in the height of the fashion; he wore
+patent-leather shoes, and carried a light ebony cane with a silver
+head. His hat was perfectly new, and so smoothly brushed that it
+reflected a circular image of the objects in the room. But he had a
+certain dignity that saved his foppery from seeming ridiculous.
+
+"You are very kind," he answered. "Perhaps you would like to hear some
+news of Signor Cardegna,--your boy, for he is nothing else."
+
+"Indeed" I said, "I should be very glad. Has he written to you,
+baron?"
+
+"Oh, no! We are not intimate enough for that. But I ran on to Paris
+the other day, and heard him three or four times, and had him to
+supper at Bignon's. He is a great genius, your boy, and has won all
+hearts."
+
+"That is a compliment of weight from so distinguished a musician as
+yourself," I answered; for, as you know, Nino had told me all about
+his playing. Indeed, the description was his, which is the reason why
+it is so enthusiastic.
+
+"Yes," said Benoni, "I am a great traveller, and often go to Paris for
+a day or two. I know everyone there. Cardegna had a perfect ovation.
+All the women sent him flowers, and all the men asked him to dinner."
+
+"Pardon my curiosity," I interrupted, "but as you know everyone in
+Paris, could you inform me whether Count von Lira and his daughter are
+there at present? He is a retired Prussian officer." Benoni stretched
+out one of his long arms and ran his fingers along the keys of the
+piano without striking them. He could just reach so far from where he
+sat. He gave no sign of intelligence, and I felt sure that Nino had
+not questioned him.
+
+"I know them very well," he said, presently, "but I thought they were
+here."
+
+"No, they left suddenly for Paris a month ago."
+
+"I can very easily find out for you," said Benoni, his bright eyes
+turning on me with a searching look. "I can find out from Lira's
+banker, who is probably also mine. What is the matter with that young
+man? He is as sad as Don Quixote."
+
+"Nino? He is probably in love," I said, rather indiscreetly.
+
+"In love? Then of course he is in love with Mademoiselle de Lira, and
+has gone to Paris to find her, and cannot. That is why you ask me." I
+was so much astonished at the quickness of his guesswork that I
+stared, open-mouthed.
+
+"He must have told you!" I exclaimed at last.
+
+"Nothing of the kind. In the course of a long life I have learned to
+put two and two together, that is all. He is in love, he is your boy,
+and you are looking for a certain young lady. It is as clear as day."
+But in reality he had guessed the secret long before.
+
+"Very well," said I, humbly, but doubting him, all the same, "I can
+only admire your perspicacity. But I would be greatly obliged if you
+would find out where they are, those good people. You seem to be a
+friend of my boy's, baron. Help him, and he will be grateful to you.
+It is not such a very terrible thing that a great artist should love a
+noble's daughter, after all, though I used to think so." Benoni
+laughed, that strange laugh which Nino had described,--a laugh that
+seemed to belong to another age.
+
+"You amuse me with your prejudices about nobility," he said, and his
+brown eyes flashed and twinkled again. "The idea of talking about
+nobility in this age! You might as well talk of the domestic economy
+of the Garden of Eden."
+
+"But you are yourself a noble--a baron," I objected.
+
+"Oh, I am anything you please," said Benoni. "Some idiot made a baron
+of me the other day because I lent him money and he could not pay it.
+But I have some right to it, after all, for I am a Jew. The only real
+nobles are Welshmen and Jews. You cannot call anything so ridiculously
+recent as the European upper classes a nobility. Now I go straight
+back to the creation of the world, like all my countrymen. The
+Hibernians get a factitious reputation for antiquity by saying that
+Eve married an Irishman after Adam died, and that is about as much
+claim as your European nobles have to respectability. Bah! I know
+their beginnings, very small indeed."
+
+"You also seem to have strong prejudices on the subject," said I, not
+wishing to contradict a guest in my house.
+
+"So strong that it amounts to having no prejudices at all. Your boy
+wants to marry a noble damosel. In Heaven's name let him do it. Let us
+manage it amongst us. Love is a grand thing. I have loved several
+women all their lives. Do not look surprised. I am a very old man;
+they have all died, and at present I am not in love with anybody. I
+suppose it cannot last long, however. I loved a woman once on a
+time"--Benoni paused. He seemed to be on the verge of a soliloquy, and
+his strange, bright face, which seemed illuminated always with a
+deathless vitality, became dreamy and looked older. But he
+recollected himself and rose to go. His eye caught sight of the guitar
+that hung on the wall.
+
+"Ah," he cried suddenly, "music is better than love, for it lasts; let
+us make music." He dropped his hat and stick and seized the
+instrument. In an instant it was tuned and he began to perform the
+most extraordinary feats of agility with his fingers that I ever
+beheld. Some of it was very beautiful, and some of it very sad and
+wild, but I understood Nino's enthusiasm. I could have listened to the
+old guitar in his hands for hours together,--I, who care little for
+music; and I watched his face. He stalked about the room with the
+thing in his hands, in a sort of wild frenzy of execution. His
+features grew ashy pale, and his smooth white hair stood out wildly
+from his head. He looked, then, more than a hundred years old, and
+there was a sadness and a horror about him that would have made the
+stones cry aloud for pity. I could not believe he was the same man. At
+last he was tired, and stopped.
+
+"You are a great artist, baron," I said. "Your music seems to affect
+you much."
+
+"Ah, yes, it makes me feel like other men for the time," said he, in a
+low voice. "Did you know that Paganini always practised on the guitar?
+It is true. Well, I will find out about the Liras for you in a day or
+two, before I leave Rome again."
+
+I thanked him and he took his leave.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Benoni had made an impression on me that nothing could efface. His
+tall thin figure and bright eyes got into my dreams and haunted me, so
+that I thought my nerves were affected. For several days I could think
+of nothing else, and at last had myself bled, and took some cooling
+barley-water, and gave up eating salad at night, but without any
+perceptible effect.
+
+Nino wrote often, and seemed very much excited about the disappearance
+of the contessina, but what could I do? I asked everyone I knew, and
+nobody had heard of them, so that at last I quite gave it over, and
+wrote to tell him so. A week passed, then a fortnight, and I had heard
+nothing from Benoni. Nino wrote again, enclosing a letter addressed to
+the Contessina di Lira, which he implored me to convey to her, if I
+loved him. He said he was certain that she had never left Italy. Some
+instinct seemed to tell him so, and she was evidently in neither
+London nor Paris, for he had made every inquiry, and had even been to
+the police about it. Two days after this, Benoni came. He looked
+exactly as he did the first time I saw him.
+
+"I have news," he said, briefly, and sat down in the arm-chair,
+striking the dust from his boot with his little cane.
+
+"News of the Graf?" I inquired.
+
+"Yes. I have found out something. They never left Italy at all, it
+seems. I am rather mystified, and I hate mystification. The old man is
+a fool; all old men are fools, excepting myself. Will you smoke? No?
+Allow me, then. It is a modern invention, but a very good one." He lit
+a cigarette. "I wish your Liras were in Tophet," he continued,
+presently. "How can people have the bad taste to hide? It only makes
+ingenious persons the more determined to find them." He seemed
+talkative, and as I was so sad and lonely I encouraged him by a little
+stimulus of doubt. I wish I had doubted him sooner, and differently.
+
+"What is the use?" I asked. "We shall never find them."
+
+"'Never' is a great word,'" said Benoni. "You do not know what it
+means. I do. But as for finding them, you shall see. In the first
+place, I have talked with their banker. He says the count gave the
+strictest orders to have his address kept a secret. But, being one of
+my people he allowed himself to make an accidental allusion which gave
+me a clue to what I wanted. They are hidden somewhere in the
+mountains."
+
+"Diavolo! among the brigands: they will not be very well treated,"
+said I.
+
+"The old man will be careful. He will keep clear of danger. The only
+thing is to find them."
+
+"And what then?" I asked.
+
+"That depends on the most illustrious Signor Cardegna," said Benoni,
+smiling. "He only asked you to find them. He probably did not
+anticipate that I would help you."
+
+It did not appear to me that Benoni had helped me much, after all. You
+might as well look for a needle in a haystack as try to find anyone
+who goes to the Italian mountains. The baron offered no further
+advice, and sat calmly smoking and looking at me. I felt uneasy,
+opposite him. He was a mysterious person, and I thought him disguised.
+It was really not possible that, with his youthful manner, his hair
+should be naturally so white, or that he should be so old as he
+seemed. I asked him the question we always find it interesting to ask
+foreigners, hoping to lead him into conversation.
+
+"How do you like our Rome, Baron Benoni?"
+
+"Rome? I loathe and detest it," he said, with a smile. "There is only
+one place in the whole world that I hate more."
+
+"What place is that?" I asked, remembering that he had made the same
+remark to Nino before.
+
+"Jerusalem," he answered, and the smile faded on his face. I thought I
+guessed the reason of his dislike in his religious views. But I am
+very liberal about those things.
+
+"I think I understand you," I said; "you are a Hebrew, and the
+prevailing form of religion is disagreeable to you."
+
+"No, it is not exactly that,--and yet, perhaps, it is." He seemed to
+be pondering on the reason of his dislike.
+
+"But why do you visit these places if they do not please you?"
+
+"I come here because I have so many agreeable acquaintances. I never
+go to Jerusalem. I also come here from time to time to take a bath.
+The water of the Trevi has a peculiarly rejuvenating effect upon me,
+and something impels me to bathe in it."
+
+"Do you mean in the fountain? Ah, foreigners say that if you drink the
+water by moonlight you will return to Rome."
+
+"Foreigners are all weak-minded fools. I like that word. The human
+race ought to be called fools generically, as distinguished from the
+more intelligent animals. If you went to England you would be as great
+a fool as any Englishman that comes here and drinks Trevi water by
+moonlight. But I assure you I do nothing so vulgar as to patronise the
+fountain, any more than I would patronise Mazzarino's church, hard by.
+I go to the source, the spring, the well where it rises."
+
+"Ah, I know the place well," I said. "It is near to Serveti."
+
+"Serveti? Is that not in the vicinity of Horace's villa?"
+
+"You know the country well, I see," said I, sadly.
+
+"I know most things," answered the Jew, with complacency. "You would
+find it hard to hit upon anything I do not know. Yes, I am a vain man,
+it is true, but I am very frank and open about it. Look at my
+complexion. Did you ever see anything like it? It is Trevi water that
+does it." I thought such excessive vanity very unbecoming in a man of
+his years, but I could not help looking amused. It was so odd to hear
+the old fellow descanting on his attractions. He actually took a small
+mirror from his pocket and looked at himself in most evident
+admiration.
+
+"I really believe," he said at length, pocketing the little
+looking-glass, "that a woman might love me still. What do you say?"
+
+"Doubtless," I answered politely, although I was beginning to be
+annoyed, "a woman might love you at first sight. But it would be more
+dignified for you not to love her."
+
+"Dignity!" He laughed long and loud, a cutting laugh, like the
+breaking of glass. "There is another of your phrases. Excuse my
+amusement, Signor Grandi, but the idea of dignity always makes me
+smile." He called that thing a smile! "It is in everybody's
+mouth,--the dignity of the State, the dignity of the king, the dignity
+of woman, the dignity of father, mother, schoolmaster, soldier. Psh!
+an apoplexy, as you say, on all the dignities you can enumerate. There
+is more dignity in a poor patient ass toiling along a rough road under
+a brutal burden that in the entire human race put together, from Adam
+to myself. The conception of dignity is notional, most entirely. I
+never see a poor wretch of a general, or king, or any such animal,
+adorned in his toggery of dignity without laughing at him, and his
+dignity again leads him to suppose that my smile is the result of the
+pleasurable sensations his experience excites in me. Nature has
+dignity at times; some animals have it; but man, never. What man
+mistakes for it in himself is his vanity,--a vanity much more
+pernicious than mine, because it deceives its possessor, who is also
+wholly possessed by it, and is its slave. I have had a great many
+illusions in my life, Signor Grandi."
+
+"One would say, baron, that you had parted with them."
+
+"Yes, and that is my chief vanity,--the vanity of vanities which I
+prefer to all the others. It is only a man of no imagination who has
+no vanity. He cannot imagine himself any better than he is. A creative
+genius makes for his own person a 'self' which he thinks he is, or
+desires other people to believe him to be. It makes little difference
+whether he succeeds or not, so long as he flatters himself he does. He
+complacently takes all his images from the other animals, or from
+natural objects and phenomena, depicting himself bold as an eagle,
+brave as a lion, strong as an ox, patient as an ass, vain as a
+popinjay, talkative as a parrot, wily as a serpent, gentle as a dove,
+cunning as a fox, surly as a bear; his glance is lightning, his voice
+thunder, his heart stone, his hands are iron, his conscience a hell,
+his sinews of steel, and his love like fire. In short, he is like
+anything alive or dead, except a man, saving when he is mad. Then he
+is a fool. Only man can be a fool. It distinguishes him from the
+higher animals."
+
+I cannot describe the unutterable scorn that blazed in his eyes as
+Benoni poured out the vials of his wrath on the unlucky human race.
+With my views, we were not likely to agree in this matter.
+
+"Who are you?" I asked. "What right can you possibly have to abuse us
+all in such particularly strong terms? Do you ever make proselytes to
+your philosophy?"
+
+"No," said he, answering my last question, and recovering his serenity
+with that strange quickness of transition I had remarked when he had
+made music during his previous visit. "No, they all die before I have
+taught them anything."
+
+"That does not surprise me, baron," said I. He laughed a little.
+
+"Well, perhaps it would surprise you even less if you knew me better,"
+he replied. "But really, I came here to talk about Cardegna and not to
+chatter about that contemptible creature, man, who is not worth a
+moment's notice, I assure you. I believe I can find these people, and
+I confess it would amuse me to see the old man's face when we walk in
+upon him. I must be absent for a few days on business in Austria, and
+shall return immediately, for I have not taken my bath yet that I
+spoke of. Now, if it is agreeable to you, I would propose that we go
+to the hills, on my return, and prosecute our search together; writing
+to Nino in the meantime to come here as soon as he has finished his
+engagement in Paris. If he comes quickly, he may go with us; if not,
+he can join us. At all events, we can have a very enjoyable tour among
+the natives, who are charming people, quite like animals, as you ought
+to know."
+
+I think I must be a very suspicious person. Circumstances have made me
+so, and perhaps my suspicions are very generally wrong. It may be. At
+all events I did suspect the rich and dandified old baron of desiring
+to have a laugh by putting Nino into some absurd situation. He had
+such strange views, or, at least, he talked so oddly, that I did not
+believe half he said. It is not possible that anybody should seriously
+hold the opinions he professed.
+
+When he was gone I sat alone, pondering on this situation, which was
+like a very difficult problem in a nightmare, that could not or would
+not look sensible, do what I would. It chanced that I got a letter
+from Nino that evening, and I confess I was reluctant to open it,
+fearing that he would reproach me with not having taken more pains to
+help him. I felt as though, before opening the envelope, I should like
+to go back a fortnight and put forth all my strength to find the
+contessina, and gain a comforting sense of duty performed. If I had
+only done my best how easy it would have been to face a whole sheet of
+complaints! Meanwhile the letter was come, and I had done nothing
+worth mentioning. I looked at the back of it, and my conscience smote
+me; but it had to be accomplished, and at last I tore the cover off
+and read.
+
+Poor Nino! He said he was ill with anxiety, and feared it would injure
+his voice. He said that to break his engagement and come back to
+Rome would be ruin to him. He must face it out, or take the legal
+consequences of a breach of contract, which are overwhelming to a
+young artist. He detailed all the efforts he had made to find Hedwig,
+pursuing every little sign and clue that seemed to present itself; all
+to no purpose. The longer he thought of it, the more certain he was
+that Hedwig was not in Paris or London. She might be anywhere else in
+the whole world, but she was certainly not in either of those cities.
+Of that he was convinced. He felt like a man who had pursued a
+beautiful image to the foot of a precipitous cliff; the rock had
+opened and swallowed up his dream, leaving him standing alone in
+hopeless despair; and a great deal more poetic nonsense of that kind.
+
+I do not believe I had ever realised what he so truly felt for Hedwig
+until I sat at my table with his letter before me, overcome with the
+sense of my own weakness in not having effectually checked this mad
+passion at its rise; or, since it had grown so masterfully, of my
+wretched procrastination in not having taken my staff in my hand and
+gone out into the world to find the woman my boy loved and bring her
+to him. By this time, I thought, I should have found her. I could not
+bear to think of his being ill, suffering, heart-broken,--ruined, if
+he lost his voice by an illness,--merely because I had not had the
+strength to do the best thing for him. Poor Nino, I thought, you shall
+never say again that Cornelio Grandi has not done what was in his
+power to make you happy.
+
+"That baron! an apoplexy on him! has illuded me with his promises of
+help," I said to myself. "He has no more intention of helping me or
+Nino than he has of carrying off the basilica of St. Peter. Courage,
+Cornelio! thou must gird up thy loins, and take a little money in thy
+scrip, and find Hedwig von Lira."
+
+All that night I lay awake, trying to think how I might accomplish
+this end; wondering to which point of the compass I should turn, and,
+above all, reflecting that I must make great sacrifices. But my boy
+must have what he wanted, since he was consuming himself, as we say,
+in longing, for it. It seemed to me no time for counting the cost,
+when every day might bring upon him a serious illness. If he could
+only know that I was acting, he would allow his spirits to revive and
+take courage.
+
+In the watches of the night I thought over my resources, which,
+indeed, were meagre enough; for I am a very poor man. It was necessary
+to take a great deal of money, for once away from Rome no one could
+tell when I might return. My salary as professor is paid to me
+quarterly, and it was yet some weeks to the time when it was due. I
+had only a few francs remaining,--not more than enough to pay my rent
+and to feed Mariuccia and me. I had paid at Christmas the last
+instalment due on my vineyard out of Porta Salara, and though I owed
+no man anything I had no money, and no prospect of any for some time.
+And yet I could not leave home on a long journey without at least two
+hundred scudi in my pocket. A scudo is a dollar, and a dollar has five
+francs, so that I wanted a thousand francs. You see, in spite of the
+baron's hint about the mountains, I thought I might have to travel all
+over Italy before I satisfied Nino.
+
+A thousand francs is a great deal of money,--it is a Peru, as we say.
+I had not the first sou toward it. I thought a long time. I wondered
+if the old piano were worth anything; whether anybody would give me
+money for my manuscripts, the results of patient years of labour and
+study; my old gold scarf pin, my seal ring, and even my silver watch,
+which keeps really very good time,--what were they worth? But it would
+not be much, not the tenth part of what I wanted. I was in despair,
+and I tried to sleep. Then a thought came to me.
+
+"I am a donkey," I said. "There is the vineyard itself,--my little
+vineyard beyond Porta Salara. It is mine and is worth half as much
+again as I need." And I slept quietly till morning.
+
+It is true, and I am sure it is natural, that in the daylight my
+resolution looked a little differently to me than it did in the quiet
+night. I had toiled and scraped a great deal more than you know to buy
+that small piece of land, and it seemed much more my own than all
+Serveti had ever been in my better days. Then I shut myself up in my
+room and read Nino's letter over again, though it pained me very much;
+for I needed courage. And when I had read it, I took some papers in my
+pocket, and put on my hat and my old cloak, which Nino will never want
+any more now for his midnight serenades, and I went out to sell my
+little vineyard.
+
+"It is for my boy," I said, to give myself some comfort.
+
+But it is one thing to want to buy, and it is quite another thing to
+want to sell. All day I went from one man to another with my
+papers,--all the agents who deal in those things; but they only said
+they thought it might be sold in time; it would take many days, and
+perhaps weeks.
+
+"But I want to sell it to-day," I explained.
+
+"We are very sorry," said they, with a shrug of the shoulders; and
+they showed me the door.
+
+I was extremely down-hearted, and though I could not sell my piece of
+land I spent three sous in buying two cigars to smoke, and I walked
+about the Piazza Colonna in the sun; I would not go home to dinner
+until I had decided what to do. There was only one man I had not
+tried, and he was the man who had sold it to me. Of course I knew
+people who do this business, for I had had enough trouble to learn
+their ways when I had to sell Serveti, years ago. But this one man I
+had not tried yet, because I knew that he would drive a cruel bargain
+with me when he saw I wanted the money. But at last I went to him and
+told him just what my wishes were.
+
+"Well," he said, "it is a very bad time for selling land. But to
+oblige you, because you are a customer, I will give you eight hundred
+francs for your little place. That is really much more than I can
+afford."
+
+"Eight hundred francs!" I exclaimed, in despair. "But I have paid you
+nearly twice as much for it in the last three years! What do you take
+me for? To sell such a gem of a vineyard for eight hundred francs? If
+you offer me thirteen hundred I will discuss the matter with you."
+
+"I have known you a long time, Signor Grandi, and you are an honest
+man. I am sure you do not wish to deceive me. I will give you eight
+hundred and fifty."
+
+Deceive him, indeed! The very man who had received fifteen hundred
+from me said I deceived him when I asked thirteen hundred for the same
+piece of land! But I needed it very much, and so, bargaining and
+wrangling, I got one thousand and seventy-five francs in bank-notes;
+and I took care they should all be good ones too. It was a poor price,
+I know, but I could do no better, and I went home happy. But I dared
+not tell Mariuccia. She is only my servant, to be sure, but she would
+have torn me in pieces.
+
+Then I wrote to the authorities at the university to say that I was
+obliged to leave Rome suddenly, and would of course not claim my
+salary during my absence. But I added that I hoped they would not
+permanently supplant me. If they did I knew I should be ruined. Then I
+told Mariuccia that I was going away for some days to the country, and
+I left her the money to pay the rent, and her wages, and a little
+more, so that she might be provided for if I were detained very long.
+I went out again and telegraphed to Nino to say I was going at once in
+search of the Liras, and begging him to come home as soon as he should
+have finished his engagement.
+
+To tell the truth, Mariuccia was very curious to know where I was
+going, and asked me many questions, which I had some trouble in
+answering. But at last it was night again, and the old woman went to
+bed and left me. Then I went on tiptoe to the kitchen, and found a
+skein of thread and two needles, and set to work.
+
+I knew the country whither I was going very well, and it was necessary
+to hide the money I had in some ingenious way. So I took two
+waistcoats--one of them was quite good still,--and I sewed them
+together, and basted the bank-notes between them. It was a clumsy
+piece of tailoring, though it took me so many hours to do it. But I
+had put the larger waistcoat outside very cunningly, so that when I
+had put on the two, you could not see that there was anything beneath
+the outer one. I think I was very clever to do this without a woman to
+help me. Then I looked to my boots, and chose my oldest clothes,--and
+you may guess, from what you know of me, how old they were,--and I
+made a little bundle that I could carry in my hand, with a change of
+linen, and the like. These things I made ready before I went to bed,
+and I slept with the two waistcoats and the thousand francs under my
+pillow, though I suppose nobody would have chosen that particular
+night for robbing me.
+
+All these preparations had occupied me so much that I had not found
+any time to grieve over my poor little vineyard that I had sold; and,
+besides, I was thinking all the while of Nino, and how glad he would
+be to know that I was really searching for Hedwig. But when I thought
+of the vines, it hurt me; and I think it is only long after the deed
+that it seems more blessed to give than to receive.
+
+But at last I slept, as tired folk will, leaving care to the morrow;
+and when I awoke it was daybreak, and Mariuccia was clattering angrily
+with the tin coffee-pot outside. It was a bright morning, and the
+goldfinch sang, and I could hear him scattering the millet seed about
+his cage while I dressed. And then the parting grew very near, and I
+drank my coffee silently, wondering how soon it would be over, and
+wishing that the old woman would go out and let me have my house
+alone. But she would not, and, to my surprise, she made very little
+worry or trouble, making a great show of being busy. When I was quite
+ready she insisted on putting a handful of roasted chestnuts into my
+pocket, and she said she would pray for me. The fact is, she thought,
+foolish old creature, as she is, that I was old and in poor health,
+and she had often teased me to go into the country for a few days, so
+that she was not ill pleased that I should seem to take her advice.
+She stood looking after me as I trudged along the street, with my
+bundle and my good stick in my right hand, and a lighted cigar in my
+left.
+
+I had made up my mind that I ought first to try the direction hinted
+at by the baron, since I had absolutely no other clue to the
+whereabouts of the Count von Lira and his daughter. I therefore got
+into the old stage that still runs to Palestrina and the neighbouring
+towns, for it is almost as quick as going by rail, and much cheaper;
+and half-an-hour later we rumbled out of the Porta San Lorenzo, and I
+had entered upon the strange journey to find Hedwig von Lira,
+concerning which frivolous people have laughed so unkindly. And you
+may call me a foolish old man if you like. I did it for my boy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+I went to Palestrina because all foreigners go there, and are to be
+heard of from other parts of the mountains in that place. It was a
+long and tiresome journey; the jolting stage-coach shook me very much.
+There was a stout woman inside, with a baby that squealed; there
+was a very dirty old country curate, who looked as though he had not
+shaved for a week, or changed his collar for a month. But he talked
+intelligently, though he talked too much, and he helped to pass the
+time until I was weary of him. We jolted along over the dusty roads,
+and were at least thankful that it was not yet hot.
+
+In the evening we reached Palestrina, and stopped before the inn in
+the market-place, as tired and dusty as might be. The woman went one
+way, and the priest the other, and I was left alone. I soon found the
+fat old host, and engaged a room for the night. He was talkative and
+curious, and sat by my side when he had prepared my supper in the
+dingy dining-room downstairs. I felt quite sure that he would be able
+to tell me what I wanted, or at least to give me a hint from hearsay.
+But he at once began to talk of last year, and how much better his
+business had been then than it was now, as country landlords
+invariably do.
+
+It was to no purpose that I questioned him about the people that had
+passed during the fortnight, the month, the two months back; it was
+clear that no one of the importance of my friends had been heard of.
+At last I was tired, and he lit a wax candle, which he would carefully
+charge in the bill afterwards, at double its natural price, and he
+showed me the way to my room. It was a very decent little room, with
+white curtains and a good bed and a table,--everything I could desire.
+A storm had come up since I had been at my supper, and it seemed a
+comfortable thing to go to bed, although I was disappointed at having
+got no news.
+
+But when I had blown out my candle, determining to expostulate with
+the host in the morning if he attempted to make me pay for a whole
+one, I lay thinking of what I should do; and, turning on my side, I
+observed that a narrow crack of the door admitted rays of light into
+the darkness of my chamber. Now I am very sensitive to draughts and
+inclined to take cold, and the idea that there was a door open
+troubled me, so that at last I made up my mind to get up and close it.
+As I rose to my feet, I perceived that it was not the door by which I
+had entered; and so, before shutting it, I called out, supposing there
+might be someone in the next room.
+
+"Excuse me," I said, loudly, "I will shut this door." But there was no
+reply.
+
+Curiosity is perhaps a vice, but it is a natural one. Instead of
+pulling the door to its place, I pushed it a little, knocking with
+my knuckles at the same time. But as no one answered, I pushed it
+further, and put in my head. It was a disagreeable thing I saw.
+
+The room was like mine in every way, save that the bed was moved to
+the middle of the open space, and there were two candles on two
+tables. On the bed lay a dead man. I felt what we call a brivido,--a
+shiver like an ague.
+
+It was the body of an old man, with a face like yellow wax, and a
+singularly unpleasant expression even in death. His emaciated hands
+were crossed on his breast, and held a small black crucifix. The
+candles stood, one at the head and one at the foot, on little tables.
+I entered the room and looked long at the dead old man. I thought it
+strange that there should be no one to watch him, but I am not afraid
+of dead men after the first shudder is past. It was a ghastly sight
+enough, however, and the candles shed a glaring yellowish light over
+it all.
+
+"Poor wretch!" I said to myself, and went back to my room, closing the
+door carefully behind me.
+
+At first I thought of rousing the host, and explaining to him my
+objections to being left almost in the same room with a corpse. But I
+reflected that it would be foolish to seem afraid of it, when I was
+really not at all timid, and so I went to bed and slept until dawn.
+But when I went downstairs I found the innkeeper, and gave him a piece
+of my mind.
+
+"What sort of an inn do you keep? What manners are these?" I cried
+angrily. "What diavolo put into your pumpkin head to give me a
+sepulchre for a room?"
+
+He seemed much disturbed at what I said, and broke out into a thousand
+apologies. But I was not to be so easily pacified.
+
+"Do you think," I demanded, "that I will ever come here again, or
+advise any of my friends to come here? It is insufferable. I will
+write to the police--" But at this he began to shed tears and to wring
+his hands, saying it was not his fault.
+
+"You see, signore, it was my wife who made me arrange it so. Oh! these
+women--the devil has made them all! It was her father--the old dead
+man you saw. He died yesterday morning--may he rest!--and we will
+bury him to-day. You see everyone knows that unless a dead man is
+watched by someone from another town his soul will not rest in peace.
+My wife's father was a jettatore; he had the evil eye, and people knew
+it for miles around, so I could not persuade anyone from the other
+villages to sit by him and watch his body, though I sent everywhere
+all day yesterday. At last that wife of mine--maledictions on her
+folly!--said, 'It is my father, after all, and his soul must rest, at
+any price. If you put a traveller in the next room, and leave the door
+open, it will be the same thing; and so he will be in peace.' That is
+the way it happened, signore," he continued, after wiping away his
+tears; "you see I could not help it at all. But if you will overlook
+it, I will not make any charges for your stay. My wife shall pay me.
+She has poultry by the hundred. I will pay myself with her chickens."
+
+"Very good," said I, well pleased at having got so cheap a lodging.
+"But I am a just man, and I will pay for what I have eaten and drunk,
+and you can take the night's lodging out of your wife's chickens, as
+you say." So we were both satisfied.[Footnote: This incident actually
+occurred, precisely as related.]
+
+The storm of the night had passed away, leaving everything wet and the
+air cool and fresh. I wrapped my cloak about me and went into the
+market-place to see if I could pick up any news. It was already late
+for the country, and there were few people about. Here and there, in
+the streets, a wine-cart was halting on its way to Rome, while the
+rough carter went through the usual arrangement of exchanging some of
+his employer's wine for food for himself, filling up the barrel with
+good pure water that never hurt anyone. I wandered about, though I
+could not expect to see any face that I knew; it is so many years
+since I lived at Serveti that even were the carters from my old place
+I should have forgotten how they looked. Suddenly, at the corner of a
+dirty street, where there was a little blue and white shrine to the
+Madonna, I stumbled against a burly fellow with a gray beard carrying
+a bit of salt codfish in one hand and a cake of corn bread in the
+other, eating as he went.
+
+"Gigi!" I cried, in delight, when I recognised the old carrettiere who
+used to bring me grapes and wine, and still does when the fancy takes
+him.
+
+"Dio mio! Signor Conte!" he cried, with his mouth full, and holding
+up the bread and fish with his two hands, in astonishment. When he
+recovered himself he instantly offered to share his meal with me, as
+the poorest wretch in Italy will offer his crust to the greatest
+prince, out of politeness. "Vuol favorire?" he said, smiling.
+
+I thanked him and declined, as you may imagine. Then I asked him how
+he came to be in Palestrina; and he told me that he was often there in
+the winter, as his sister had married a vine-dresser of the place,
+of whom he bought wine occasionally. Very well-to-do people, he
+explained, eagerly, proud of his prosperous relations.
+
+We clambered along through the rough street together, and I asked him
+what was the news from Serveti and from that part of the country,
+well knowing that if he had heard of any rich foreigners in that
+neighbourhood he would at once tell me of it. But I had not much hope.
+He talked about the prospects of the vines, and such things, for some
+time, and I listened patiently.
+
+"By the by," he said at last, "there is a gran signore who is gone
+to live in Fillettino,--a crazy man, they say, with a beautiful
+daughter, but really beautiful, as an angel."
+
+I was so much surprised that I made a loud exclamation.
+
+"What is the matter?" asked Gigi.
+
+"It is nothing, Gigi," I answered, for I was afraid lest he should
+betray my secret, if I let him guess it. "It is nothing. I struck my
+foot against a stone. But you were telling about a foreigner who is
+gone to live somewhere. Fillettino? Where is that?"
+
+"Oh, the place of the diavolo! I do not wonder you do not know, conte,
+for gentlemen never go there. It is in the Abruzzi, beyond Trevi. Did
+you ever hear of the Serra di Sant' Antonio, where so many people have
+been killed?"
+
+"Diana! I should think so! In the old days--"
+
+"Bene," said Gigi, "Fillettino is there, at the beginning of the
+pass."
+
+"Tell me, Gigi mio," I said, "are you not very thirsty?" The way to
+the heart of the wine carter lies through a pint measure. Gigi was
+thirsty, as I supposed, and we sat down in the porch of my inn, and
+the host brought a stoup of his best wine and set it before us.
+
+"I would like to hear about the crazy foreigner who is gone to live in
+the hills among the brigand," I said, when he had wet his throat.
+
+"What I know I will tell you, Signor Conte," he answered, filling his
+pipe with bits that he broke off a cigar. "But I know very little. He
+must be a foreigner, because he goes to such a place; and he is
+certainly crazy, for he shuts his daughter in the old castle, and
+watches her as though she was made of wax, like the flowers you have
+in Rome under glass."
+
+"How long have they been there, these queer folks?" I asked.
+
+"What do I know? It may be a month or two. A man told me, who had come
+that way from Fucino, and that is all I know."
+
+"Do people often travel that way, Gigi?"
+
+"Not often, indeed," he answered, with a grin. "They are not very
+civil, the people of those parts." Gigi made a gesture, or a series of
+gestures. He put up his hands as though firing a gun. Then he opened
+his right hand and closed it, with a kind of insinuating twirl of the
+fingers, which means "to steal." Lastly he put his hand over his eyes,
+and looked through his fingers as though they were bars, which means
+"prison." From this I inferred that the inhabitants of Fillettino were
+addicted to murder, robbery, and other pastimes, for which they
+sometimes got into trouble. The place he spoke of is about thirty
+miles, or something more, from Palestrina, and I began planning how I
+should get there as cheaply as possible. I had never been there, and
+wondered what kind of a habitation the count had found; for I knew it
+must be the roughest sort of mountain town, with some dilapidated
+castle or other overhanging it. But the count was rich, and he had
+doubtless made himself very comfortable. I sat in silence while Gigi
+finished his wine and chatted about his affairs between the whiffs of
+his pipe.
+
+"Gigi," I said at last, "I want to buy a donkey."
+
+"Eh, your excellency can be accommodated: and a saddle, too, if you
+wish."
+
+"I think I could ride without a saddle," I said, for I thought it a
+needless piece of extravagance.
+
+"Madonna mia!" he cried. "The Signor Conte ride bareback on a donkey!
+They would laugh at you. But my brother-in-law can sell you a beast
+this very day, and for a mere song."
+
+"Let us go and see the beast," I said. I felt a little ashamed of
+having wished to ride without a saddle. But as I had sold all I had,
+I wanted to make the money last as long as possible; or at least I
+would spend as little as I could, and take something back, if I ever
+went home at all. We had not far to go, and Gigi opened a door in
+the street, and showed me a stable, in which something moved in the
+darkness. Presently he led out an animal and began to descant upon its
+merits.
+
+"Did you ever see a more beautiful donkey?" asked Gigi, admiringly.
+"It looks like a horse!" It was a little ass, with sad eyes, and ears
+as long as its tail. It was also very thin, and had the hair rubbed
+off its back from carrying burdens. But it had no sore places, and did
+not seem lame.
+
+"He is full of fire," said Gigi, poking the donkey in the ribs to
+excite a show of animation. "You should see him gallop uphill with my
+brother on his back, and a good load into the bargain. Brrrr! Stand
+still, will you!" he cried, holding tight by the halter, though the
+animal did not seem anxious to run away.
+
+"And then," said Gigi, "he eats nothing,--positively nothing."
+
+"He does not look as though he had eaten much of late," I said.
+
+"Oh, my brother-in-law is as good to him as though he were a
+Christian. He gives him corn bread and fish, just like his own
+children. But this ass prefers straw."
+
+"A frugal ass," I said, and we began to bargain. I will not tell you
+what I gave Gigi's brother-in-law for the beast, because you would
+laugh. And I bought an old saddle, too. It was really necessary, but
+it was a dear bargain, though it was cheaper than hiring; for I sold
+the donkey and the saddle again, and got back something.
+
+It is a wild country enough that lies behind the mountains towards the
+sources of the Aniene,--the river that makes the falls at Tivoli.
+You could not half understand how in these times, under the new
+government, and almost within a long day's ride from Rome, such things
+could take place as I am about to tell you of, unless I explained to
+you how very primitive that country is which lies to the south-east of
+the capital, and which we generally call the Abruzzi. The district is
+wholly mountainous, and though there are no very great elevations
+there are very ragged gorges and steep precipices, and now and then an
+inaccessible bit of forest far up among the rocks, which no man has
+ever thought of cutting down. It would be quite impossible to remove
+the timber. The people are mostly shepherds in the higher regions,
+where there are no vines, and when opportunity offers they will waylay
+the unwary traveller and rob him, and even murder him, without
+thinking very much about it. In the old days the boundary between the
+Papal States and the kingdom of Naples ran through these mountains,
+and the contrabbandieri--the smugglers of all sorts of wares--used to
+cross from one dominion to the other by circuitous paths and steep
+ways of which only a few had knowledge. The better known of these
+passes were defended by soldiers and police, but there have been
+bloody fights fought, within a few years, between the law and its
+breakers. Foreigners never penetrate into the recesses of these hills,
+and even the English guide-books, which are said to contain an account
+of everything that the Buon Dio ever made, compiled from notes taken
+at the time of the creation, make no mention of places which surpass
+in beauty all the rest of Italy put together.
+
+No railroad or other modern innovation penetrates into those Arcadian
+regions, where the goatherd plays upon his pipe all the day long,
+the picture of peace and innocence, or prowls in the passes with a
+murderous long gun, if there are foreigners in the air. The women toil
+at carrying their scant supply of drinking-water from great distances
+during a part of the day, and in the evening they spin industriously
+by their firesides or upon their doorsteps, as the season will have
+it. It is an old life, the same to-day as a thousand years ago, and
+perhaps as it will be a thousand years hence. The men are great
+travellers, and go to Rome in the winter to sell their cheese, or to
+milk a flock of goats in the street at daybreak, selling the foaming
+canful for a sou. But their visits to the city do not civilise them;
+the outing only broadens the horizon of their views in regard to
+foreigners, and makes them more ambitious to secure one, and see what
+he is like, and cut off his ears, and get his money. Do not suppose
+that the shepherd of the Abruzzi lies all day on the rocks in the sun,
+waiting for the foreign gentleman to come within reach. He might wait
+a long time. Climbing has strengthened the muscles of his legs into so
+much steel, and a party of herdsmen have been known to come down from
+the Serra to the plains around Velletri, and to return to their
+inaccessible mountains, after doing daring deeds of violence, in
+twenty-four hours from the time of starting, covering at least from
+eighty to ninety miles by the way. They are extraordinary fellows, as
+active as tigers, and fabulously strong, though they are never very
+big.
+
+This country begins behind the range of Sabine mountains seen from
+Rome across the Campagna, and the wild character of it increases as
+you go towards the south-east.
+
+Since I have told you this much I need not weary you with further
+descriptions. I do not like descriptions, and it is only when Nino
+gives me his impressions that I write them, in order that you may
+know how beautiful things impress him, and the better judge of his
+character.
+
+I do not think that Gigi really cheated me so very badly about the
+donkey. Of course I do not believe the story of his carrying the
+brother-in-law and the heavy load uphill at a gallop; but I am thin
+and not very heavy, and the little ass carried me well enough through
+the valleys, and when we came to a steep place I would get off and
+walk, so as not to tire him too much. If he liked to crop a thistle or
+a blade of grass, I would stop a moment, for I thought he would grow
+fatter in that way, and I should not lose so much when I sold him
+again. But he never grew very fat.
+
+Twice I slept by the way before I reached the end of my journey,--once
+at Olevano and once at Trevi; for the road from Olevano to Trevi is
+long, and some parts are very rough, especially at first. I could tell
+you just how every stone on the road looks--Rojate, the narrow pass
+beyond, and then the long valley with the vines; then the road turns
+away and rises as you go along the plateau of Arcinazzo, which is
+hollow beneath, and you can hear the echoes as you tread; then at the
+end of that the desperate old inn, called by the shepherds the Madre
+dei Briganti,--the mother of brigands,--smoke-blackened within and
+without, standing alone on the desolate heath; farther on, a broad
+bend of the valley to the left, and you see Trevi rising before you,
+crowned with an ancient castle, and overlooking the stream that
+becomes the Aniene afterwards; from Trevi through a rising valley
+that grows narrower at every step, and finally seems to end abruptly,
+as indeed it does, in a dense forest far up the pass. And just below
+the woods lies the town of Fillettino, where the road ends; for there
+is a road which leads to Tivoli, but does not communicate with
+Olevano, whence I had come.
+
+Of course I had made an occasional inquiry by the way, when I could do
+so without making people too curious. When anyone asked me where I was
+going, I would say I was bound for Fucino, to buy beans for seed at
+the wonderful model farm that Torlonia has made by draining the old
+lake. And then I would ask about the road; and sometimes I was told
+there was a strange foreigner at Fillettino, who made everybody wonder
+about him by his peculiar mode of life. Therefore, when I at last saw
+the town, I was quite sure that the count was there, and I got off my
+little donkey, and let him drink in the stream, while I myself drank a
+little higher up. The road was dusty, and my donkey and I were
+thirsty.
+
+I thought of all I would do, as I sat on the stone by the water
+and the beast cropped the wretched grass, and soon I came to the
+conclusion that I did not know in the least what I should do. I had
+unexpectedly found what I wanted, very soon, and I was thankful enough
+to have been so lucky. But I had not the first conception of what
+course I was to pursue when once I had made sure of the count.
+Besides, it was barely possible that it was not he, after all, but
+another foreigner, with another daughter. The thought frightened me,
+but I drove it away. If it were really old Lira who had chosen this
+retreat in which to imprison his daughter and himself, I asked myself
+whether I could do anything save send word to Nino as soon as
+possible.
+
+I felt like a sort of Don Quixote, suddenly chilled into the prosaic
+requirements of common sense. Perhaps if Hedwig had been my Dulcinea,
+instead of Nino's, the crazy fit would have lasted, and I would have
+attempted to scale the castle wall and carry off the prize by force.
+There is no telling what a sober old professor of philosophy may not
+do when he is crazy. But meanwhile I was sane. Graf von Lira had a
+right to live anywhere he pleased with his daughter, and the fact that
+I had discovered the spot where he pleased to live did not constitute
+an introduction. Or finally, if I got access to the old count, what
+had I to say to him? Ought I to make a formal request for Nino? I
+looked at my old clothes and almost smiled.
+
+But the weather was cold, though the roads were dusty; so I mounted my
+ass and jogged along, meditating deeply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+Fillettino is a trifle cleaner than most towns of the same kind.
+Perhaps it rains more often, and there are fewer people. Considering
+that its vicinity has been the scene of robbery, murder, and all
+manner of adventurous crime from time immemorial, I had expected to
+find it a villainous place. It is nothing of the kind. There is a
+decent appearance about it that is surprising; and though the houses
+are old and brown and poor, I did not see pigs in many rooms, nor did
+the little children beg of me, as they beg of everyone elsewhere. The
+absence of the pigs struck me particularly, for in the Sabine towns
+they live in common with the family, and go out only in the daytime to
+pick up what they can get.
+
+I went to the apothecary--there is always an apothecary in these
+places--and inquired for a lodging. Before very long I had secured a
+room, and it seemed that the people were accustomed to travellers, for
+it was surprisingly clean. The bed was so high that I could touch the
+ceiling when I sat on it, and the walls were covered with ornaments,
+such as glazed earthenware saints, each with a little basin for holy
+water, some old engravings of other saints, a few paper roses from the
+last fair, and a weather-beaten game-pouch of leather. The window
+looked out over a kind of square, where a great quantity of water ran
+into a row of masonry tanks out of a number of iron pipes projecting
+from an overhanging rock. Above the rock was the castle, the place I
+had come to see, towering up against the darkening sky.
+
+It is such a strange place that I ought to describe it to you, or you
+will not understand the things that happened there. There is a great
+rock, as I said, rising above the town, and upon this is built the
+feudal stronghold, so that the walls of the building do not begin less
+than forty feet from the street level. The height of the whole castle
+consequently seems enormous. The walls, for the most part, follow the
+lines of the gray rock, irregularly, as chance would have it, and the
+result is a three-cornered pile, having a high square tower at one
+angle, where also the building recedes some yards from the edge of
+the cliff, leaving on that side a broad terrace guarded by a stone
+parapet. On another side of the great isolated boulder a narrow
+roadway heads up a steep incline, impracticable for carriages but
+passable for four-footed beasts; and this path gives access to the
+castle through a heavy gate opening upon a small court within. But the
+rock itself has been turned to account, and there are chambers within
+it which formerly served as prisons, opening to the right and left of
+a narrow staircase, hewn out of the stone, and leading from the foot
+of the tower to the street below, upon which it opens through a low
+square door, set in the rock and studded with heavy iron rails.
+
+Below the castle hangs the town, and behind it rises the valley,
+thickly wooded with giant beech-trees. Of course I learned the details
+of the interior little by little, and I gathered also some interesting
+facts regarding the history of Fillettino, which are not in any way
+necessary to my story. The first thing I did was to find out what
+means of communication there were with Rome. There was a postal
+service twice a week, and I was told that Count von Lira, whose name
+was no secret in the village, sent messengers very often to Subiaco.
+The post left that very day, and I wrote to Nino to tell him that I
+had found his friends in villeggiatura at Fillettino, advising him to
+come as soon as he could, and recruit his health and his spirits.
+
+I learned, further, from the woman who rented me my lodging, that
+there were other people in the castle besides the count and his
+daughter. At least, she had seen a tall gentleman on the terrace with
+them during the last two days; and it was not true that the count kept
+Hedwig a prisoner. On the contrary, they rode out together almost
+every day, and yesterday the tall gentleman had gone with them. The
+woman also went into many details; telling me how much money the count
+had spent in a fortnight, bringing furniture and a real piano and
+immense loads of baskets, which the porters were told contained glass
+and crockery, and must be carefully handled. It was clear that the
+count was settled for some time. He had probably taken the old place
+for a year, by a lease from the Roman family to whom Fillettino and
+the neighbouring estates belong. He would spend the spring and the
+summer there, at least.
+
+Being anxious to see who the tall gentleman might be, of whom my
+landlady had spoken, I posted myself in the street, at the foot of the
+inclined bridle-path, leading to the castle gate. I walked up and down
+for two hours, about the time I supposed they would all ride, hoping
+to catch a glimpse of the party. Neither the count nor his daughter
+knew me by sight, I was sure, and I felt quite safe. It was a long
+time to wait, but at last they appeared, and I confess that I nearly
+fell down against the wall when I saw them.
+
+There they were on their horses, moving cautiously down the narrow
+way above me. First came the count, sitting in his saddle as though
+he were at the head of his old regiment, his great gray moustaches
+standing out fiercely from his severe wooden face. Then came Hedwig,
+whom I had not seen for a long time, looking as white and sorrowful
+as the angel of death, in a close black dress, or habit, so that her
+golden hair was all the colour there was to be seen about her.
+
+But the third rider,--there was no mistaking that thin, erect figure,
+dressed in the affectation of youth; those fresh pink cheeks, with the
+snowy moustache, and the thick white hair showing beneath the jaunty
+hat; the eagle nose and the bright eyes. Baron Benoni, and no other.
+
+My first instinct was to hide myself; but before I could retreat
+Benoni recognised me, even with my old clothes. Perhaps they are not
+so much older than the others, compared with his fashionable garments.
+He made no sign as the three rode by; only I could see by his eyes,
+that were fixed angrily upon me, that he knew me, and did not wish to
+show it. As for myself I stood stock still in amazement.
+
+I had supposed that Benoni had really gone to Austria, as he had told
+me he was about to do. I had thought him ignorant of the count's
+retreat, save for the hint which had so luckily led me straight to the
+mark. I had imagined him to be but a chance acquaintance of the Lira
+family, having little or no personal interest in their doings.
+Nevertheless, I had suspected him, as I have told you. Everything
+pointed to a deception on his part. He had evidently gone immediately
+from Rome to Fillettino. He must be intimate with the count, or the
+latter would not have invited him to share a retreat seemingly
+intended to be kept a secret. He also, I thought, must have some very
+strong reason for consenting to bury himself in the mountains in
+company with a father and daughter who could hardly be supposed to be
+on good terms with each other.
+
+But again, why had he seemed so ready to help me and to forward
+Nino's suit? Why had he given me the smallest clue to the count's
+whereabouts? Now I am not a strong man in action, but I am a very
+cunning reasoner. I remembered the man, and the outrageous opinions
+he had expressed, both to Nino and to me. Then I understood my
+suspicions. It would be folly to expect such a man to have any real
+sympathy or sense of friendship for anyone. He had amused himself by
+promising to come back and go with me on my search, perhaps to make a
+laughing-stock of me, or even of my boy, by telling the story to the
+Liras afterwards. He had entertained no idea that I would go alone, or
+that, if I went, I could be successful. He had made a mistake, and was
+very angry; his eyes told me that. Then I made a bold resolution. I
+would see him and ask him what he intended to do; in short, why he had
+deceived me.
+
+There would probably be no difficulty in the way of obtaining an
+interview, I was not known to the others of the party, and Benoni
+would scarcely refuse to receive me. I thought he would excuse
+himself, with ready cynicism, and pretend to continue his offers of
+friendship and assistance. I confess I regretted that I was so humbly
+clad, in all my old clothes; but after all, I was travelling, you
+know.
+
+It was a bold resolution, I think, and I revolved the situation in my
+mind during two days, thinking over what I should say. But with all my
+thought I only found that everything must depend on Benoni's answer to
+my own question--"Why?"
+
+On the third day, I made myself look as fine as I could, and though my
+heart beat loudly as I mounted the bridle-path, I put on a bold look
+and rang the bell. It was a clanging thing, that seemed to creak on a
+hinge, as I pulled the stout string from outside. A man appeared, and
+on my inquiry said I might wait in the porch behind the great wooden
+gate, while he delivered my message to his excellency the baron. It
+seemed to take a long time, and I sat on a stone bench, eying the
+courtyard curiously from beneath the archway. It was sunny and clean,
+with an old well in the middle, but I could see nothing save a few
+windows opening upon it. At last the man returned and said that I
+might come with him.
+
+I found Benoni, clad in a gorgeous dressing-gown, stalking up and down
+a large vaulted apartment, in which there were a few new arm-chairs, a
+table covered with books, and a quantity of ancient furniture that
+looked unsteady and fragile, although it had been carefully dusted. A
+plain green baize carpet covered about half the floor, and the
+remainder was of red brick. The morning sun streamed in through tall
+windows, and played in a rainbow-like effulgence on the baron's
+many-coloured dressing-gown, as he paused in his walk to greet me.
+
+"Well, my friend," said Benoni, gaily, "how in the name of the devil
+did you get here?" I thought I had been right; he was going to play at
+being my friend again.
+
+"Very easily, by the help of your little hint," I replied, and I
+seated myself, for I felt that I was master of the situation.
+
+"Ah, if I had suspected you of being so intelligent, I would not have
+given you any hint at all. You see I have not been to Austria on
+business, but am here in this good old flesh of mine, such as it is."
+
+"Consequently--" I began, and then stopped. I suddenly felt that
+Benoni had turned the tables upon me, I could not tell how.
+
+"Consequently," said he, continuing my sentence, "when I told you that
+I was going to Austria I was lying."
+
+"The frankness of the statement obliges me to believe that you are now
+telling the truth," I answered, angrily. I felt uneasy. Benoni laughed
+in his peculiar way.
+
+"Precisely," he continued again, "I was lying. I generally do, for so
+long as I am believed I deceive people; and when they find me out,
+they are confused between truth and lying, so that they do not know
+what to believe at all. By the by, I am wandering, I am sorry to see
+you here. I hope you understand that." He looked at me with the most
+cheerful expression. I believe I was beginning to be angry at his
+insulting calmness. I did not answer him.
+
+"Signor Grandi," he said in a moment, seeing I was silent, "I am
+enchanted to see you, if you prefer that I should be. But may I
+imagine if I can do anything more for you, now that you have heard
+from my own lips that I am a liar? I say it again,--I like the
+word,--I am a liar, and I wish I were a better one. What can I do for
+you?"
+
+"Tell me why you have acted this comedy," said I, recollecting at the
+right moment the gist of my reflections during the past two days.
+
+"Why? To please myself, good sir; for the sovereign; pleasure of
+myself."
+
+"I would surmise," I retorted tartly, "that it could not have been for
+the pleasure of anyone else."
+
+"Perhaps you mean, because no one else could be base enough to take
+pleasure in what amuses me?" I nodded savagely at his question. "Very
+good. Knowing this of me, do you further surmise that I should be so
+simple as to tell you how I propose to amuse myself in the future?"
+I recognised the truth of this, and I saw myself checkmated at the
+outset. I therefore smiled, and endeavoured to seem completely
+satisfied, hoping that his vanity would betray him into some hint of
+the future. He seemed to have before taken pleasure in misleading me
+with a fragment of truth, supposing that I could not make use of it.
+I would endeavour to lead him into such a trap again.
+
+"It is a beautiful country, is it not?" I remarked, going to the
+window before which he stood, and looking out. "You must enjoy it
+greatly, after the turmoil of society." You see, I was once as gay as
+any of them, in the old days; and so I made the reflection that seemed
+natural to his case, wondering how he would answer.
+
+"It is indeed a very passable landscape," he said, indifferently.
+"With horses and a charming companion one may kill a little time here,
+and find a satisfaction in killing it." I noticed the slip, by which
+he spoke of a single companion instead of two.
+
+"Yes," I replied, "the count is said to be a most agreeable man."
+
+He paused a moment, and the hesitation seemed to show that the count
+was not the companion he had in his mind.
+
+"Oh, certainly," he said at length, "the count is very agreeable, and
+his daughter is the paragon of all the virtues and accomplishments."
+There was something a little disparaging in his tone as he made the
+last remark, which seemed to me a clumsy device to throw me off the
+scent, if scent there were. Considering his surpassing personal
+vanity, of which I had received an ocular demonstration when he
+visited me in Rome, I fancied that if there were nothing more serious
+in his thoughts he would have given me to understand that Hedwig found
+him entirely irresistible. Since he was able to control his vanity,
+there must be a reason for it.
+
+"I should think that the contessina must be charmed at having so
+brilliant a companion as yourself in her solitude," I said, feeling my
+way to the point.
+
+"With me? I am an old man. Children of that age detest old men." I
+thought his manner constrained, and it was unlike him not to laugh as
+he made the speech. The conviction grew upon me that Hedwig was the
+object of his visit. Moreover, I became persuaded that he was but a
+poor sort of villain, for he was impulsive, as villains should never
+be. We leaned over the stone sill of the window, which he had opened
+during the conversation. There was a little trail of ants climbing up
+and down the wall at the side, and he watched them. One of the small
+creatures, heavily laden with a seed of some sort, and toiling
+painfully under the burden, had been separated from the rest, and
+clambered over the edge of the window-sill. On reaching the level
+surface it paused, as though very weary, and looked about, moving its
+tiny horns. Benoni looked at it a moment, and then with one finger he
+suddenly whisked the poor little thing into space. It hurt me to see
+it, and I knew he must be cruel, for he laughed aloud. Somehow it
+would have seemed less cruel to have brushed away the whole trail of
+insects, rather than to pitch upon this one small tired workman,
+overladen and forgotten by the rest.
+
+"Why did you do that?" I asked involuntarily.
+
+"Why? Why do I do anything? Because I please, the best of all
+reasons."
+
+"Of course; it was foolish of me to ask you. That is probably the
+cause of your presence here. You would like to hurl my boy Nino from
+the height he has reached in his love, and to satisfy your cruel
+instincts you have come here to attack the heart of an innocent girl."
+I watched him narrowly, and I have often wondered how I had the
+courage to insult him. It was a bold shot at the truth, and his look
+satisfied me that I was not very wide of the mark. To accuse a
+gray-haired old man of attempting to win the affections of a young
+girl would seem absurd enough. But if you had ever seen Benoni, you
+would understand that he was anything but old, save for his snowy
+locks. Many a boy might envy the strange activity of his thin limbs,
+the bloom and freshness of his eager face, and the fire of his eyes.
+He was impulsive, too; for instead of laughing at the absurdity of
+the thing, or at what should have been its absurdity, as a more
+accomplished villain would have done, he was palpably angry. He looked
+quickly at me and moved savagely, so that I drew back, and it was not
+till some moments later that it occurred to him that he ought to seem
+amused.
+
+"How ridiculous!" he cried at last, mastering his anger. "You are
+joking."
+
+"Oh, of course I am joking," I answered, leaving the window. "And now
+I must wish you good-morning, with many apologies for my intrusion."
+He must have been glad to be rid of me, but he politely insisted on
+showing me to the gate. Perhaps he wanted to be sure that I should not
+ask questions of the servants. As we passed through an outer hall we
+came suddenly upon Hedwig entering from the opposite direction,
+dressed in black, and looking like a beautiful shadow of pain. As I
+have told you, she did not know me. Benoni bowed to the ground as she
+went by, making some flattering speech about her appearance. She had
+started slightly on first seeing us, and then she went on without
+speaking; but there was on her face a look of such sovereign scorn and
+loathing as I never saw on the features of any living being. And more
+than scorn, for there was fear and hatred with it: so that if a glance
+could tell a whole history, there would have been no detail of her
+feeling for Benoni left to guess.
+
+This meeting produced a profound impression on me, and I saw her face
+in my dreams that night. Had anything been wanting to complete, in my
+judgment, the plan of the situation in the castle, that something was
+now supplied. The Jew had come there to get her for himself. She hated
+him for his own sake; she hated him because she was faithful to Nino;
+she hated him because he perhaps knew of her secret love for my boy.
+Poor maiden, shut up for days and weeks to come with a man she dreaded
+and scorned at once! The sight of her recalled to me that I had in my
+pocket the letter Nino had sent me for her, weeks before, and which I
+had found no means of delivering since I had been in Fillettino.
+Suddenly I was seized with a mad determination to deliver it at any
+cost. The baron bowed me out of the gate, and I paused outside when
+the ponderous door had swung on its hinges and his footsteps were
+echoing back through the court.
+
+I sat down on the parapet of the bridle-path, and with my knife cut
+some of the stitches that sewed my money between my two waistcoats. I
+took out one of the bills of a hundred francs that were concealed
+within, I found the letter Nino had sent me for Hedwig, and I once
+more rang the bell. The man who had admitted me came again, and looked
+at me in some astonishment. But I gave him no time to question me.
+
+"Here is a note for a hundred francs," I said. "Take it, and give this
+letter to the Signora Contessina. If you bring me a written answer
+here to-morrow at this hour I will give you as much more." The man was
+dumfounded for a moment, after which he clutched the money and the
+letter greedily, and hid them in his coat.
+
+"Your excellency shall be punctually obeyed," he said, with a deep
+bow, and I went away.
+
+It was recklessly extravagant of me to do this, but there was no other
+course. A small bribe would have been worse than none at all. If you
+can afford to pay largely it is better to bribe a servant than to
+trust a friend. Your friend has nothing to gain by keeping your
+secret, whereas the servant hopes for more money in the future, and
+the prospect of profit makes him as silent as the grave.
+
+I would certainly not have acted as I did had I not met Hedwig in the
+hall. But the sight of her pale face and heavy eyes went to my heart,
+and I would have given the whole of my little fortune to bring some
+gladness to her, even though I might not see it. The situation, too,
+was so novel and alarming that I felt obliged to act quickly, not
+knowing what evils delay might produce.
+
+On the following morning I went up to the gateway again and rang the
+bell. The same man appeared. He slipped a note into my hand, and I
+slipped a bill into his. But, to my surprise, he did not shut the door
+and retire.
+
+"The signorina said your excellency should read the note, and I
+should accompany you," he said; and I saw he had his hat in his hand
+as if ready to go. I tore open the note. It merely said that the
+servant was trustworthy, and would "instruct the Signor Grandi" how to
+act.
+
+"You told the contessina my name, then?" I said to the man. He had
+announced me to the baron, and consequently knew who I was. He nodded,
+closed the door behind him, and came with me. When we were in the
+street he explained that Hedwig desired to speak with me. He expounded
+the fact that there was a staircase in the rock, leading to the level
+of the town. Furthermore, he said that the old count and the baron
+occasionally drank deeply, as soldiers and adventurers will do, to
+pass the evening. The next time it occurred he, the faithful servant,
+would come to my lodging and conduct me into the castle by the
+aforesaid passage, of which he had the key.
+
+I confess I was unpleasantly alarmed at the prospect of making a
+burglarious entrance in such romantic fashion. It savoured more of the
+last century than of the quiet and eminently respectable age in which
+we live. But then, the castle of Fillettino was built hundreds of
+years ago, and it is not my fault if it has not gone to ruin, like so
+many others of its kind. The man recommended me to be always at home
+after eight o'clock in the evening in case I were wanted, and to avoid
+seeing the baron when he was abroad. He came and saw where I lived,
+and with many bows he left me.
+
+You may imagine in what anxiety I passed my time. A whole week
+elapsed, and yet I was never summoned. Every evening at seven, an hour
+before the time named, I was in my room waiting for someone who never
+came. I was so much disturbed in mind that I lost my appetite and
+thought of being bled again. But I thought it too soon, and contented
+myself with getting a little tamarind from the apothecary.
+
+One morning the apothecary, who is also the postmaster, gave me a
+letter from Nino, dated in Rome. His engagement was over, he had
+reached Rome, and he would join me immediately.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+As it often happens that, in affairs of importance, the minor events
+which lead to the ultimate result seem to occur rapidly, and almost to
+stumble over each other in their haste, it came to pass that on the
+very evening after I had got Nino's letter I was sent for by the
+contessina.
+
+When the man came to call me I was sitting in my room, from force of
+habit, though the long delay had made the possibility of the meeting
+seem shadowy. I was hoping that Nino might arrive in time to go in my
+place, for I knew that he would not be many hours behind his letter.
+He would assuredly travel as fast as he could, and if he had
+understood my directions he was not likely to go astray. But in spite
+of my hopes the summons came too soon, and I was obliged to go myself.
+
+Picture to yourselves how I looked and how I felt: a sober old
+professor, as I am, stealing out in the night, all wrapped in a cloak
+as dark and shabby as any conspirator's; armed with a good knife in
+case of accidents; with beating heart, and doubting whether I could
+use my weapon if needful; and guided to the place of tryst by the
+confidential servant of a beautiful and unhappy maiden. I have often
+laughed since then at the figure I must have cut, but I did not laugh
+at the time. It was a very serious affair.
+
+We skirted the base of the huge rock on which the castle is built, and
+reached the small, low door without meeting anyone. It was a moonlit
+night,--the Paschal moon was nearly at the full,--and the whiteness
+made each separate iron rivet in the door stand out distinct, thrown
+into relief by its own small shadow on the seamed oak. My guide
+produced a ponderous key, which screamed hoarsely in the lock under
+the pressure of his two hands, as he made it turn in the rusty wards.
+The noise frightened me, but the man laughed, and said they could not
+hear where they sat, far up in the vaulted chamber, telling long
+stories over their wine. We entered, and I had to mount a little way
+up the dark steps to give him room to close the door behind us, by
+which we were left in total darkness. I confess I was very nervous and
+frightened until he lighted a taper which he had brought and made
+enough light to show the way. The stairs were winding and steep, but
+perfectly dry, and when he had passed me I followed him, feeling that
+at all events the door behind was closed, and there was someone
+between me and any danger ahead.
+
+The man paused in front of me, and when I had rounded the corner of
+the winding steps I saw that a brighter light than ours shone from a
+small doorway opening directly upon the stair. In another moment I was
+in the presence of Hedwig von Lira. The man retired and left us.
+
+She stood, dressed in black, against the rough stone; the strong light
+of a gorgeous gilt lamp that was placed on the floor streamed upward
+on her white face. Her eyes caught the brightness, and seemed to burn
+like deep, dark gems, though they appeared so blue in the day. She
+looked like a person tortured past endurance, so that the pain of
+the soul has taken shape, and the agony of the heart has assumed
+substance. Tears shed had hollowed the marble cheeks, and the stronger
+suffering that cannot weep had chiselled out great shadows beneath her
+brows. Her thin clasped hands seemed wringing each other into strange
+shapes of woe; and though she stood erect as a slender pillar against
+the black rock, it was rather from the courage of despair than because
+she was straight and tall by her own nature.
+
+I bent low before her, awed by the extremity of suffering I saw.
+
+"Are you Signor Grandi?" she asked, in a low and trembling voice.
+
+"Most humbly at your service, Signora Contessina," I answered. She put
+out her hand to me, and then drew it back quickly, with a timid
+nervous look as I moved to take it.
+
+"I never saw you," she said, "but I feel as though you _must_ be a
+friend--" She paused.
+
+"Indeed, signorina, I am here for that reason," said I, trying to
+speak stoutly, and so to inspire her with some courage. "Tell me how I
+can best serve you; and though I am not young and strong like Nino
+Cardegna, my boy, I am not so old but that I can do whatsoever you
+command."
+
+"Then in God's name, save me from this--" But again the sentence died
+upon her lips, and she glanced anxiously at the door. I reflected that
+if anyone came we should be caught like mice in a trap, and I made as
+though I would look out upon the stairs. But she stopped me.
+
+"I am foolishly frightened," she said. "That man is faithful, and
+will keep watch." I thought it time to discover her wishes.
+
+"Signorina," said I, "you ask me to save you. You do not say from
+what. I can at least tell you that Nino Cardegna will be here in a day
+or two--" At this sudden news she gave a little cry, and the blood
+rushed to her cheeks, in strange contrast with their deathly
+whiteness. She seemed on the point of speaking, but checked herself,
+and her eyes, that had looked me through and through a moment before,
+drooped modestly under my glance.
+
+"Is it possible?" she said at last, in a changed voice. "Yes, if he
+comes, I think the Signor Cardegna will help me."
+
+"Madam," I said, very courteously, for I guessed her embarrassment,
+"I can assure you that my boy is ready to give you his life in return
+for the kindness he received at your hands in Rome." She looked up,
+smiling through her tears, for the sudden happiness had moistened the
+drooping lids.
+
+"You are very kind, Signor Grandi. Signor Cardegna is, I believe, a
+good friend of mine. You say he will be here?"
+
+"I received a letter from him to-day, dated in Rome, in which he tells
+me that he will start immediately. He may be here to-morrow morning,"
+I answered. Hedwig had regained her composure, perhaps because she
+was reassured by my manner of speaking about Nino. I, however, was
+anxious to hear from her own lips some confirmation of my suspicions
+concerning the baron. "I have no doubt," I continued presently, "that,
+with your consent, my boy will be able to deliver you from this
+prison--" I used the word at a venture. Had Hedwig suffered less, and
+been less cruelly tormented, she would have rebuked me for the
+expression. But I recalled her to her position, and her self-control
+gave way at once.
+
+"Oh, you are right to call it a prison!" she cried. "It is as much a
+prison as this chamber hewed out of the rock, where so many a wretch
+has languished hopelessly; a prison from which I am daily taken out
+into the sweet sun, to breathe and be kept alive, and to taste how
+joyful a thing liberty must be! And every day I am brought back, and
+told that I may be free if I will consent. Consent! God of mercy!" she
+moaned, in a sudden tempest of passionate despair. "Consent ever to
+belong, body--and soul--to be touched, polluted, desecrated, by that
+inhuman monster; sold to him, to a creature without pity, whose heart
+is a toad, a venomous creeping thing--sold to him for this life, and
+to the vengeance of God hereafter; bartered, traded, and told that I
+am so vile and lost that the very price I am offered is an honour to
+me, being so much more than my value." She came toward me as she
+spoke, and the passionate, unshed tears that were in her seemed to
+choke her, so that her voice was hoarse.
+
+"And for what--for what?" she cried, wildly, seizing my arm and
+looking fiercely into my eyes. "For what, I say? Because I gave him a
+poor rose; because I let him see me once; because I loved his sweet
+voice; because--because--I love him, and will love him, and do love
+him, though I die!"
+
+The girl was in a frenzy of passion and love and hate all together,
+and did not count her words. The white heat of her tormented soul
+blazed from her pale face and illuminated every feature, though she
+was turned from the light, and she shook my arm in her grasp so that
+it pained me. The marble was burnt in the fire, and must consume
+itself to ashes. The white and calm statue was become a pillar of
+flame in the life-and-death struggle for love. I strove to speak, but
+could not, for fear and wonder tied my tongue. And indeed she gave me
+short time to think.
+
+"I tell you I love him, as he loves me," she continued, her voice
+trembling upon the rising cadence, "with all my whole being. Tell him
+so. Tell him he must save me, and that only he can: that for his sake
+I am tortured, and scorned, and disgraced, and sold; my body thrown to
+dogs, and worse than dogs; my soul given over to devils that tempt me
+to kill and be free,--by my own father, for his sake. Tell him that
+these hands he kissed are wasted with wringing small pains from each
+other, but the greater pain drives them to do worse. Tell him, good
+sir,--you are kind and love him, but not as I do,--tell him that this
+golden hair of mine has streaks of white in these terrible two months;
+that these eyes he loved are worn with weeping. Tell him--"
+
+But her voice failed her, and she staggered against the wall, hiding
+her face in her hands. A trembling breath, a struggle, a great wild
+sob: the long-sealed tears were free, and flowed fast over her hands.
+
+"Oh, no, no," she moaned, "you must not tell him that." Then choking
+down her agony she turned to me: "You will not--you cannot tell him of
+this? I am weak, ill, but I will bear everything for--for him." The
+great effort exhausted her, and I think that if I had not caught her
+she would have fallen, and she would have hurt herself very much on
+the stone floor. But she is young, and I am not very strong, and could
+not have held her up. So I knelt, letting her weight come on my
+shoulder.
+
+The fair head rested pathetically against my old coat, and I tried to
+wipe away her tears with her long golden hair; for I had not any
+handkerchief. But very soon I could not see to do it. I was crying
+myself, for the pity of it all, and my tears trickled down and fell on
+her thin hands. And so I kneeled, and she half lay and half sat upon
+the floor, with her head resting on my shoulder; I was glad then to be
+old, for I felt that I had a right to comfort her.
+
+Presently she looked up into my face, and saw that I was weeping. She
+did not speak, but found her little lace handkerchief, and pressed it
+to my eyes,--first to one, and then to the other; and the action
+brought a faint maidenly flush to her cheeks through all her own
+sorrow. A daughter could not have done it more kindly.
+
+"My child," I said at last, "be sure that your secret is safe in me.
+But there is one coming with whom it will be safer."
+
+"You are so good," she said, and her head sank once more, and nestled
+against my breast, so that I could just see the bright tresses through
+my gray beard. But in a moment she looked up again, and made as though
+she would rise; and then I helped her, and we both stood on our feet.
+
+Poor, beautiful, tormented Hedwig! I can remember it, and call up the
+whole picture to my mind. She still leaned on my arm, and looked up to
+me, her loosened hair all falling back upon her shoulders; and the
+wonderful lines of her delicate face seemed made ethereal and angelic
+by her sufferings.
+
+"My dear," I said at last, smoothing her golden hair with my hand, as
+I thought her mother would do, if she had a mother,--"my dear, your
+interview with my boy may be a short one, and you may not have an
+opportunity to meet at all for days. If it does not pain you too
+much, will you tell me just what your troubles are here? I can then
+tell him, so that you can save time when you are together." She gazed
+into my eyes for some seconds, as though to prove me, whether I were a
+true man.
+
+"I think you are right," she answered, taking courage. "I will tell
+you in two words. My father treats me as though I had committed some
+unpardonable crime, which I do not at all understand. He says my
+reputation is ruined. Surely that is not true?" She asked the question
+so innocently and simply that I smiled.
+
+"No, my dear, it is not true," I replied.
+
+"I am sure I cannot understand it," she continued; "but he says so,
+and insists that my only course is to accept what he calls the
+advantageous offer which has suddenly presented itself. He insists
+very roughly." She shuddered slightly. "He gives me no peace. It
+appears that this creature wrote to ask my father for my hand when we
+left Rome two months ago. The letter was forwarded, and my father
+began at once to tell me that I must make up my mind to the marriage.
+At first I used to be very angry; but seeing we were alone, I finally
+determined to seem indifferent, and not to answer him when he talked
+about it. Then he thought my spirit was broken, and he sent for Baron
+Benoni, who arrived a fortnight ago. Do you know him, Signor Grandi?
+You came to see him, so I suppose you do?" The same look of hatred and
+loathing came to her face that I had noticed when Benoni and I met her
+in the hall.
+
+"Yes, I know him. He is a traitor, a villain," I said earnestly.
+
+"Yes, and more than that. But he is a great banker in Russia--"
+
+"A banker?" I asked, in some astonishment.
+
+"Did you not know it? Yes; he is very rich, and has a great firm, if
+that is the name for it. But he wanders incessantly, and his partners
+take care of his affairs. My father says that I shall marry him or end
+my days here."
+
+"Unless you end his for him!" I cried, indignantly.
+
+"Hush!" said she, and trembled violently. "He is my father, you know,"
+she added, with sudden earnestness.
+
+"But you cannot consent--" I began.
+
+"Consent!" she interrupted with a bitter laugh. "I will die rather
+than consent."
+
+"I mean, you cannot consent to be shut up in this valley for ever."
+
+"If need be, I will," she said, in a low voice.
+
+"There is no need," I whispered.
+
+"You do not know my father. He is a man of iron," she answered,
+sorrowfully.
+
+"You do not know my boy. He is a man of his word," I replied.
+
+We were both silent, for we both knew very well what our words meant.
+From such a situation there could be but one escape.
+
+"I think you ought to go now," she said, at last. "If I were missed it
+would all be over. But I am sorry to let you go, you are so kind. How
+can you let me know--" She stopped, with a blush, and stooped to raise
+the lamp from the floor.
+
+"Can you not meet here to-morrow night, when they are asleep?" I
+suggested, knowing what her question would have been.
+
+"I will send the same man to you to-morrow evening, and let you know
+what is possible," she said. "And now I will show you the way out of
+my house," she added, with the first faint shadow of a smile. With the
+slight gilt lamp in her hand she went out of the little rock chamber,
+listened a moment, and began to descend the steps.
+
+"But the key?" I asked, following her light footsteps with my heavier
+tread.
+
+"It is in the door," she answered, and went on.
+
+When we reached the bottom we found it as she had said. The servant
+had left the key on the inside, and with some difficulty I turned the
+bolts. We stood for one moment in the narrow space, where the lowest
+step was set close against the door. Her eyes flashed strangely in the
+lamplight.
+
+"How easy it would be!" I said, understanding her glance. She nodded,
+and pushed me gently out into the street; and I closed the door, and
+leaned against it as she locked it.
+
+"Good-night," she said from the other side, and I put my mouth to the
+key-hole. "Good-night. Courage!" I answered. I could hear her lightly
+mounting the stone steps. It seemed wonderful to me that she should
+not be afraid to go back alone. But love makes people brave.
+
+The moon had risen higher during the time I had been within, and I
+strolled round the base of the rock, lighting a cigar as I went. The
+terrible adventure I had dreaded was now over, and I felt myself
+again. In truth, it was a curious thing to happen to a man of my years
+and my habits; but the things I had heard had so much absorbed my
+attention that, while the interview lasted, I had forgotten the
+strange manner of the meeting. I was horrified at the extent of the
+girl's misery, more felt than understood from her brief description
+and passionate outbreaks. There is no mistaking the strength of a
+suffering that wastes and consumes the mortal part of us as wax melts
+at the fire.
+
+And Benoni--the villain! He had written to ask Hedwig in marriage
+before he came to see me in Rome. There was something fiendish in his
+almost inviting me to see his triumph, and I cursed him as I kicked
+the loose stones in the road with my heavy shoes. So he was a banker,
+as well as a musician and a wanderer. Who would have thought it?
+
+"One thing is clear," I said to myself, as I went to bed: "unless
+something is done immediately, that poor girl will consume herself and
+die." And all that night her poor thin face and staring eyes were in
+my dreams; so that I woke up several times, thinking I was trying to
+comfort her, and could not. But toward dawn I felt sure that Nino was
+coming, and that all would be well.
+
+I was chatting with my old landlady the next morning, and smoking to
+pass the time, when there was suddenly a commotion in the street. That
+is to say, someone was arriving, and all the little children turned
+out in a body to run after the stranger, while the old women came to
+their doors with their knitting, and squinted under the bright
+sunlight to see what was the matter.
+
+It was Nino, of course--my own boy, riding on a stout mule, with a
+countryman by his side upon another. He was dressed in plain gray
+clothes, and wore high boots. His great felt hat drooped half across
+his face, and hid his eyes from me; but there was no mistaking the
+stern square jaw and the close even lips. I ran toward him and called
+him by name. In a moment he was off his beast, and we embraced
+tenderly.
+
+"Have you seen her?" were the first words he spoke. I nodded, and
+hurried him into the house where I lived, fearful lest some mischance
+should bring the party from the castle riding by. He sent his man with
+the mules to the inn, and when we were at last alone together he threw
+himself into a chair, and took off his hat.
+
+Nino too was changed in the two months that had passed. He had
+travelled far, had sung lustily, and had been applauded to the skies;
+and he had seen the great world. But there was more than all that in
+his face. There were lines of care and of thought that well became his
+masculine features. There was a something in his look that told of a
+set purpose, and there was a light in his dark eyes that spoke a world
+of warning to anyone who might dare to thwart him. But he seemed
+thinner, and his cheeks were as white as the paper I write on.
+
+Some men are born masters, and never once relax the authority they
+exercise on those around them. Nino has always commanded me, as he
+seems to command everybody else, in the fewest words possible. But he
+is so true and honest and brave that all who know him love him; and
+that is more than can be said for most artists. As he sat in his
+chair, hesitating what question to ask first, or waiting for me to
+speak, I thought that if Hedwig von Lira had searched the whole world
+for a man able to deliver her from her cruel father and from her hated
+lover she could have chosen no better champion than Nino Cardegna, the
+singer. Of course you all say that I am infatuated with the boy, and
+that I helped him to do a reckless thing, simply because I was blinded
+by my fondness. But I maintain, and shall ever hold, that Nino did
+right in this matter, and I am telling my story merely in order that
+honest men may judge.
+
+He sat by the window, and the sun poured through the panes upon his
+curling hair, his travelling dress, and his dusty boots. The woman of
+the house brought in some wine and water; but he only sipped the
+water, and would not touch the wine.
+
+"You are a dear, kind father to me," he said, putting out his hand
+from where he sat, "and before we talk I must tell you how much I
+thank you." Simple words, as they look on paper; but another man could
+not have said so much in an hour as his voice and look told me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+"Nino mio," I began, "I saw the contessina last night. She is in a
+very dramatic and desperate situation. But she greets you, and looks
+to you to save her from her troubles." Nino's face was calm, but his
+voice trembled a little as he answered:
+
+"Tell me quickly, please, what the troubles are."
+
+"Softly--I will tell you all about it. You must know that your friend
+Benoni is a traitor to you, and is here. Do not look astonished. He
+has made up his mind to marry the contessina, and she says she will
+die rather than take him, which is quite right of her." At the latter
+piece of news Nino sprang from his chair.
+
+"You do not seriously mean that her father is trying to make her marry
+Benoni?" he cried.
+
+"It is infamous, my dear boy; but it is true."
+
+"Infamous! I should think you could find a stronger word. How did you
+learn this?" I detailed the circumstances of our meeting on the
+previous night. While I talked Nino listened with intense interest,
+and his face changed its look from anger to pity, and from pity to
+horror. When I had finished, he was silent.
+
+"You can see for yourself," I said, "that the case is urgent."
+
+"I will take her away," said Nino, at last. "It will be very
+unpleasant for the count. He would have been wiser to allow her to
+have her own way."
+
+"Do nothing rash, Nino mio. Consider a little what the consequences
+would be if you were caught in the act of violently carrying off the
+daughter of a man as powerful as Von Lira."
+
+"Bah! You talk of his power as though we lived under the Colonnesi and
+the Orsini, instead of under a free monarchy. If I am once married to
+her, what have I to fear? Do you think the count would go to law about
+his daughter's reputation? Or do you suppose he would try to murder
+me?"
+
+"I would do both, in his place," I answered. "But perhaps you are
+right, and he will yield when he sees that he is outwitted. Think
+again, and suppose that the contessina herself objects to such a
+step."
+
+"That is a different matter. She shall do nothing save by her own free
+will. You do not imagine I would try to take her away unless she were
+willing?" He sat down again beside me, and affectionately laid one
+hand on my shoulder.
+
+"Women, Nino, are women," I remarked.
+
+"Unless they are angels," he assented.
+
+"Keep the angels for Paradise, and beware of taking them into
+consideration in this working-day world. I have often told you, my
+boy, that I am older than you."
+
+"As if I doubted that!" he laughed.
+
+"Very well. I know something about women. A hundred women will tell
+you that they are ready to flee with you; but not more than one in the
+hundred will really leave everything and follow you to the end of the
+world when the moment comes for running away. They always make a fuss
+at the last and say it is too dangerous, and you may be caught. That
+is the way of them. You will be quite ready with a ladder of ropes,
+like one of Boccaccio's men, and a roll of banknotes for the journey,
+and smelling-salts, and a cushion for the puppy dog, and a separate
+conveyance for the maid, just according to the directions she has
+given you; then, at the very last, she will perhaps say that she is
+afraid of hurting her father's feelings by leaving him without any
+warning. Be careful, Nino!"
+
+"As for that," he answered, sullenly enough, "if she will not, she
+will not; and I would not attempt to persuade her against her
+inclination. But unless you have very much exaggerated what you saw in
+her face, she will be ready at five minutes' notice. It must be very
+like hell up there in that castle, I should think."
+
+"Messer Diavolo, who rules over the house, will not let his prey
+escape him so easily as you think."
+
+"Her father?" he asked.
+
+"No; Benoni. There is no creature so relentless as an old man in
+pursuit of a young woman."
+
+"I am not afraid of Benoni."
+
+"You need not be afraid of her father," said I, laughing. "He is lame,
+and cannot run after you." I do not know why it is that we Romans
+laugh at lame people; we are sorry for them, of course, as we are for
+other cripples.
+
+"There is something more than fear in the matter," said Nino,
+seriously. "It is a great thing to have upon one's soul."
+
+"What?" I asked.
+
+"To take a daughter away from her father without his consent,--or at
+least without consulting him. I would not like to do it."
+
+"Do you mean to ask the old gentleman's consent before eloping with
+his daughter? You are a little donkey, Nino, upon my word."
+
+"Donkey, or anything else you like, but I will act like a galantuomo.
+I will see the count, and ask him once more whether he is willing to
+let his daughter marry me. If not, so much the worse; he will be
+warned."
+
+"Look here, Nino," I said, astonished at the idea. "I have taught you
+a little logic. Suppose you meant to steal a horse instead of a woman.
+Would you go to the owner of the horse, with your hat in your hand,
+and say, 'I trust your worship will not be offended if I steal this
+horse, which seems to be a good animal and pleases me'; and then would
+you expect him to allow you to steal his horse?"
+
+"Sor Cornelio, the case is not the same. Women have a right to be
+free, and to marry whom they please; but horses are slaves. However,
+as I am not a thief, I would certainly ask the man for the horse; and
+if he refused it, and I conceived that I had a right to have it, I
+would take it by force and not by stealth."
+
+"It appears to me that if you meant to get possession of what was not
+yours, you might as well get it in the easiest possible way," I
+objected. "But we need not argue the case. There is a much better
+reason why you should not consult the count."
+
+"I do not believe it," said Nino, stubbornly.
+
+"Nevertheless, it is so. The Contessina di Lira is desperately
+unhappy, and if nothing is done she may die. Young women have died of
+broken hearts before now. You have no right to endanger her life by
+risking failure. Answer me that, if you can, and I will grant you are
+a cunning sophist, but not a good lover."
+
+"There is reason in what you say now," he answered. "I had not thought
+of that desperateness of the case which you speak of. You have seen
+her." He buried his face in his hand, and seemed to be thinking.
+
+"Yes, I have seen her, and I wish you had been in my place. You would
+think differently about asking her father's leave to rescue her." From
+having been anxious to prevent anything rash, it seemed that I was now
+urging him into the very jaws of danger. I think that Hedwig's face
+was before me, as it had been in reality on the previous evening. "As
+Curione said to Caesar, delay is injurious to anyone who is fully
+prepared for action. I remember also to have read somewhere that such
+waste of time in diplomacy and palavering is the favourite resource of
+feeble and timid minds, who regard the use of dilatory and ambiguous
+measures as an evidence of the most admirable and consummate
+prudence."
+
+"Oh, you need not use so much learning with me," said Nino. "I assure
+you that I will be neither dilatory nor ambiguous. In fact, I will go
+at once, without even dusting my boots, and I will say, Give me your
+daughter, if you can; and if you cannot, I will still hope to marry
+her. He will probably say 'No,' and then I will carry her off. It
+appears to me that is simple enough."
+
+"Take my advice, Nino. Carry her off first, and ask permission
+afterwards. It is much better. The real master up there is Benoni, I
+fancy, and not the count. Benoni is a gentleman who will give you much
+trouble. If you go now to see Hedwig's father, Benoni will be present
+at the interview." Nino was silent, and sat stretching his legs before
+him, his head on his breast. "Benoni," I continued, "has made up his
+mind to succeed. He has probably taken this fancy into his head out of
+pure wickedness. Perhaps he is bored, and really wants a wife. But I
+believe he is a man who delights in cruelty, and would as lief break
+the contessina's heart by getting rid of you as by marrying her." I
+saw that he was not listening.
+
+"I have an idea," he said at last. "You are not very wise, Messer
+Cornelio, and you counsel me to be prudent and to be rash in the same
+breath."
+
+"You make very pretty compliments, Sor Nino," I answered, tartly. He
+put out his hand deprecatingly.
+
+"You are as wise as any man can be who is not in love," he said,
+looking at me with his great eyes. "But love is the best counsellor."
+
+"What is your idea?" I asked, somewhat pacified.
+
+"You say they ride together every day. Yes--very good. The contessina
+will not ride to-day, partly because she will be worn out with fatigue
+from last night's interview, and partly because she will make an
+effort to discover whether I have arrived to-day or not. You can count
+on that."
+
+"I imagine so."
+
+"Very well," he continued; "in that case, one or two things will
+happen: either the count will go out alone, or they will all stay at
+home."
+
+"Why will Benoni not go out with the count?"
+
+"Because Benoni will hope to see Hedwig alone if he stays at home, and
+the count will be very glad to give him the opportunity."
+
+"I think you are right, Nino. You are not so stupid as I thought."
+
+"In war," continued the boy, "a general gains a great advantage by
+separating his adversary's forces. If the count goes out alone, I will
+present myself to him in the road, and tell him what I want."
+
+"Now you are foolish again. You should, on the contrary, enter the
+house when the count is away, and take the signorina with you then and
+there. Before he could return you would be miles on the road to Rome."
+
+"In the first place, I tell you once and for all, Sor Cornelio," he
+said, slowly, "that such an action would be dishonourable, and I will
+not do anything of the kind. Moreover, you forget that, if I followed
+your advice, I should find Benoni at home,--the very man from whom you
+think I have everything to fear. No; I must give the count one fair
+chance." I was silent, for I saw he was determined, and yet I would
+not let him think I was satisfied.
+
+The idea of losing an advantage by giving an enemy any sort of warning
+before the attack seemed to me novel in the extreme; but I comprehended
+that Nino saw in his scheme a satisfaction to his conscience, and
+smelled in it a musty odour of forgotten knight-errantry that he had
+probably learned to love in his theatrical experiences. I had certainly
+not expected that Nino Cardegna, the peasant child, would turn out to
+be the pink of chivalry and the mirror of honour. But I could not help
+admiring his courage, and wondering if it would not play him false at
+the perilous moment. I did not half know him then, though he had been
+with me for so many years. But I was very anxious to ascertain from
+him what he meant to do, for I feared that his bold action would make
+trouble, and I had visions of the count and Benoni together taking
+sudden and summary vengeance on myself.
+
+"Nino," I said, "I have made great sacrifices to help you in finding
+these people,"--I would not tell him I had sold my vineyard to make
+preparations for a longer journey, though he has since found it
+out,--"but if you are going to do anything rash I will get on my
+little ass and ride a few miles from the village until it is over."
+Nino laughed aloud.
+
+"My dear professor," he said, "do not be afraid. I will give you
+plenty of time to get out of the way. Meanwhile, the contessina is
+certain to send the confidential servant of whom you speak to give me
+instructions. If I am not here, you ought to be, in order to receive
+the message. Now listen to me."
+
+I prepared to be attentive and to hear his scheme. I was by no means
+expecting the plan he proposed.
+
+"The count may take it into his head to ride at a different hour, if
+he rides alone," he began. "I will therefore have my mule saddled now,
+and will station my man--a countryman from Subiaco and good for any
+devilry--in some place where he can watch the entrance to the house,
+or the castle, or whatever you call this place. So soon as he sees the
+count come out he will call me. As a man can ride in only one of two
+directions in this valley, I shall have no trouble whatever in meeting
+the old gentleman, even if I cannot overtake him with my mule."
+
+"Have you any arms, Nino?"
+
+"No. I do not want weapons to face an old man in broad daylight; and
+he is too much of a soldier to attack me if I am defenceless. If the
+servant comes after I am gone, you must remember every detail of what
+he says, and you must also arrange a little matter with him. Here is
+money, as much as will keep any Roman servant quiet. The man will be
+rich before we have done with him. I will write a letter which he must
+deliver; but he must also know what he has to do.
+
+"At twelve o'clock to-night the contessina must positively be at the
+door of the staircase by which you entered yesterday. _Positively_--do
+you understand? She will then choose for herself between what she is
+suffering now and flight with me. If she chooses to fly, my mules and
+my countryman will be ready. The servant who admits me had better make
+the best of his way to Rome, with the money he has got. There will be
+difficulties in the way of getting the contessina to the staircase,
+especially as the count will be in a towering passion with me, and
+will not sleep much. But he will not have the smallest idea that I
+shall act so suddenly, and he will fancy that when once his daughter
+is safe within the walls for the night she will not think of escaping.
+I do not believe he even knows of the existence of this staircase. At
+all events, it appears, from your success in bribing the first man you
+met, that the servants are devoted to her interests and their own and
+not at all to those of her father."
+
+"I cannot conceive, Nino," said I, "why you do not put this bold plan
+into execution without seeing the count first, and making the whole
+thing so dangerous. If he takes alarm in the night he will catch you
+fast enough on his good horses before you are at Trevi."
+
+"I am determined to act as I propose," said Nino, "because it is a
+thousand times more honourable, and because I am certain that the
+contessina would not have me act otherwise. She will also see for
+herself that flight is best; for I am sure the count will make a scene
+of some kind when he comes home from meeting me. If she knows she can
+escape to-night she will not suffer from what he has to say; but she
+will understand that without the prospect of freedom she would suffer
+very much."
+
+"Where did you learn to understand women, my boy?" I asked.
+
+"I do not understand women in general," he answered, "but I
+understand very well the only woman who exists for me personally. I
+know that she is the soul of honour, and that at the same time she has
+enough common sense to perceive the circumstances of the situation."
+
+"But how will you make sure of not being overtaken?" I objected,
+making a last feeble stand against his plan.
+
+"That is simple enough. My countryman from Subiaco knows every inch of
+these hills. He says that the pass above Fillettino is impracticable
+for any animals save men, mules, and donkeys. A horse would roll down
+at every turn. My mules are the best of their kind, and there are none
+like them here. By sunrise I shall be over the Serra and well on the
+way to Ceprano, or whatever place I may choose for joining the
+railroad."
+
+"And I? Will you leave me here to be murdered by that Prussian devil?"
+I asked, in some alarm.
+
+"Why, no, padre mio. If you like, you can start for Rome at sunset, or
+as soon as I return from meeting the count; or you can get on your
+donkey and go up the pass, where we shall overtake you. Nobody will
+harm you, in your disguise, and your donkey is even more surefooted
+than my mules. It will be a bright night, too, for the moon is full."
+
+"Well, well, Nino," said I at last, "I suppose you will have your own
+way, as you always do in the world. And if it must be so, I will go up
+the pass alone, for I am not afraid at all. It would be against all
+the proprieties that you should be riding through a wild country alone
+at night with the young lady you intend to marry; and if I go with you
+there will be nothing to be said, for I am a very proper person, and
+hold a responsible position in Rome. But for charity's sake, do not
+undertake anything of this kind again--"
+
+"Again?" exclaimed Nino, in surprise. "Do you expect me to spend my
+life in getting married,--not to say in eloping?"
+
+"Well, I trust that you will have enough of it this time."
+
+"I cannot conceive that when a man has once married the woman he loves
+he should ever look at another," said Nino, gravely.
+
+"You are a most blessed fellow," I exclaimed.
+
+Nino found my writing materials, which consisted of a bad steel pen,
+some coarse ruled paper, and a wretched little saucer of ink, and
+began writing an epistle to the contessina. I watched him as he wrote,
+and I smoked a little to pass the time. As I looked at him I came to
+the conclusion that to-day, at least, he was handsome. His thick hair
+curled about his head, and his white skin was as pale and clear as
+milk. I thought that his complexion had grown less dark than it used
+to be, perhaps from being so much in the theatre at night. That takes
+the dark blood out of the cheeks. But any woman would have looked
+twice at him. Besides, there was, as there is now, a certain
+marvellous neatness and spotlessness about his dress; but for his
+dusty boots you would not have guessed he had been travelling. Poor
+Nino. When he had not a penny in the world but what he earned by
+copying music, he used to spend it all with the washerwoman, so that
+Mariuccia was often horrified, and I reproved him for the
+extravagance.
+
+At last he finished writing, and put his letter into the only envelope
+there was left. He gave it to me, and said he would go out and order
+his mules to be ready.
+
+"I may be gone all day," he said, "and I may return in a few hours. I
+cannot tell. In any case, wait for me, and give the letter and all
+instructions to the man, if he comes." Then he thanked me once more
+very affectionately, and having embraced me he went out.
+
+I watched him from the window, and he looked up and waved his hand. I
+remember it very distinctly--just how he looked. His face was paler
+than ever, his lips were close set, though they smiled, and his eyes
+were sad. He is an incomprehensible boy--he always was.
+
+I was left alone, with plenty of time for meditation, and I assure you
+my reflections were not pleasant. O love, love, what madness you drive
+us into, by day and night! Surely it is better to be a sober professor
+of philosophy than to be in love, ever so wildly, or sorrowfully, or
+happily. I do not wonder that a parcel of idiots have tried to prove
+that Dante loved philosophy and called it Beatrice. He would have been
+a sober professor, if that were true, and a happier man. But I am sure
+it is not true, for I was once in love myself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+It fell out as Nino had anticipated, and when he told me all the
+details, some time afterwards, it struck me that he had shown an
+uncommon degree of intelligence in predicting that the old count would
+ride alone that day. He had, indeed, so made his arrangements that
+even if the whole party had come out together nothing worse would have
+occurred than a postponement of the interview he sought. But he was
+destined to get what he wanted that very day, namely, an opportunity
+of speaking with Von Lira alone.
+
+It was twelve o'clock when he left me, and the mid-day bell was
+ringing from the church, while the people bustled about getting their
+food. Every old woman had a piece of corn cake, and the ragged
+children got what they could, gathering the crumbs in their mothers'
+aprons. A few rough fellows who were not away at work in the valley
+munched the maize bread with a leek and a bit of salt fish, and some
+of them had oil on it. Our mountain people eat scarcely anything else,
+unless it be a little meat on holidays, or an egg when the hens are
+laying. But they laugh and chatter over the coarse fare, and drink a
+little wine when they can get it. Just now, however, was the season
+for fasting, being the end of Holy Week, and the people made a virtue
+of necessity, and kept their eggs and their wine for Easter.
+
+When Nino went out he found his countryman, and explained to him what
+he was to do. The man saddled one of the mules and put himself on the
+watch, while Nino sat by the fire in the quaint old inn and ate some
+bread. It was the end of March when these things happened, and a
+little fire was grateful, though one could do very well without it. He
+spread his hands to the flame of the sticks, as he sat on the wooden
+settle by the old hearth, and he slowly gnawed his corn cake, as
+though a week before he had not been a great man in Paris, dining
+sumptuously with famous people. He was not thinking of that. He was
+looking in the flame for a fair face that he saw continually before
+him, day and night. He expected to wait a long time,--some hours,
+perhaps.
+
+Twenty minutes had not elapsed, however, before his man came
+breathless through the door, calling to him to come at once; for the
+solitary rider had gone out, as was expected, and at a pace that would
+soon take him out of sight. Nino threw his corn bread to a hungry dog
+that yelped as it hit him, and then fastened on it like a beast of
+prey.
+
+In the twinkling of an eye he and his man were out of the inn. As
+they ran to the place where the mule was tied to an old ring in the
+crumbling wall of a half-ruined house near to the ascent to the
+castle, the man told Nino that the fine gentleman had ridden toward
+Trevi, down the valley, Nino mounted, and hastened in the same
+direction.
+
+As he rode he reflected that it would be wiser to meet the count on
+his return, and pass him after the interview, as though going away
+from Fillettino. It would be a little harder for the mule; but such
+an animal, used to bearing enormous burdens for twelve hours at a
+stretch, could well carry Nino only a few miles of good road before
+sunset, and yet be fresh again by midnight. One of those great sleek
+mules, if good-tempered, will tire three horses, and never feel the
+worse for it. He therefore let the beast go her own pace along the
+road to Trevi, winding by the brink of the rushing torrent: sometimes
+beneath great overhanging cliffs, sometimes through bits of cultivated
+land, where the valley widens; and now and then passing under some
+beech-trees, still naked and skeleton-like in the bright March air.
+
+But Nino rode many miles, as he thought, without meeting the count,
+dangling his feet out of the stirrups, and humming snatches of song to
+himself to pass the time. He looked at his watch,--a beautiful gold
+one, given him by a very great personage in Paris,--and it was
+half-past two o'clock. Then, to avoid tiring his mule, he got off and
+sat by a tree, at a place where he could see far along the road. But
+three o'clock came, and a quarter past, and he began to fear that the
+count had gone all the way to Trevi. Indeed, Trevi could not be very
+far off, he thought. So he mounted again, and paced down the valley.
+He says that in all that time he never thought once of what he should
+say to the count when he met him, having determined in his mind once
+and for all what was to be asked; to which the only answer must be
+"yes" or "no."
+
+At last, before he reached the turn in the valley, and just as the sun
+was passing down behind the high mountains on the left, beyond the
+stream, he saw the man he had come out to meet, not a hundred yards
+away, riding toward him on his great horse, at a foot pace. It was the
+count, and he seemed lost in thought, for his head was bent on his
+breast, and the reins hung carelessly loose from his hand. He did not
+raise his eyes until he was close to Nino, who took off his hat and
+pulled up short.
+
+The old count was evidently very much surprised, for he suddenly
+straightened himself in his saddle, with a sort of jerk, and glared
+savagely at Nino; his wooden features appearing to lose colour, and
+his long moustache standing out and bristling. He also reined in his
+horse, and the pair sat on their beasts, not five yards apart, eying
+each other like a pair of duelists. Nino was the first to speak, for
+he was prepared.
+
+"Good day, Signor Conte," he said, as calmly as he could. "You have
+not forgotten me, I am sure." Lira looked more and more amazed as he
+observed the cool courtesy with which he was accosted. But his polite
+manner did not desert him even then, for he raised his hat.
+
+"Good-day," he said, briefly, and made his horse move on. He was too
+proud to put the animal to a brisker pace than a walk, lest he should
+seem to avoid an enemy. But Nino turned his mule at the same time.
+
+"Pardon the liberty, sir," he said, "but I would take advantage of
+this opportunity to have a few words with you."
+
+"It is a liberty, as you say, sir," replied Lira, stiffly, and looking
+straight before him. "But since you have met me, say what you have to
+say quickly." He talked in the same curious constructions as formerly,
+but I will spare you the grammatical vagaries.
+
+"Some time has elapsed," continued Nino, "since our unfortunate
+encounter. I have been in Paris, where I have had more than common
+success in my profession. From being a very poor teacher of Italian to
+the signorina, your daughter, I am become an exceedingly prosperous
+artist. My character is blameless and free from all stain, in spite
+of the sad business in which we were both concerned, and of which you
+knew the truth from the dead lady's own lips."
+
+"What then?" growled Lira, who had listened grimly, and was fast
+losing his temper. "What then? Do you suppose, Signor Cardegna, that
+I am still interested in your comings and goings?"
+
+"The sequel to what I have told you, sir," answered Nino, bowing
+again, and looking very grave, "is that I once more most respectfully
+and honestly ask you to give me the hand of your daughter, the
+Signorina Hedwig von Lira."
+
+The hot blood flushed the old soldier's hard features to the roots of
+his gray hair, and his voice trembled as he answered:
+
+"Do you intend to insult me, sir? If so, this quiet road is a
+favourable spot for settling the question. It shall never be said that
+an officer in the service of his majesty the King and Emperor refused
+to fight with anyone,--with his tailor, if need be." He reined his
+horse from Nino's side, and eyed him fiercely.
+
+"Signor Conte," answered Nino, calmly, "nothing could be further from
+my thoughts than to insult you, or to treat you in any way with
+disrespect. And I will not acknowledge that anything you can say can
+convey an insult to myself." Lira smiled in a sardonic fashion. "But,"
+added Nino, "if it would give you any pleasure to fight, and if you
+have weapons, I shall be happy to oblige you. It is a quiet spot, as
+you say, and it shall never be said that an Italian artist refused to
+fight a German soldier."
+
+"I have two pistols in my holsters," said Lira, with a smile. "The
+roads are not safe, and I always carry them."
+
+"Then, sir, be good enough to select one and to give me the other,
+and we will at once proceed to business."
+
+The count's manner changed. He looked grave.
+
+"I have the pistols, Signor Cardegna, but I do not desire to use them.
+Your readiness satisfies me that you are in earnest, and we will
+therefore not fight for amusement. I need not defend myself from any
+charge of unwillingness, I believe," he added, proudly.
+
+"In that case, sir," said Nino, "and since we have convinced each
+other that we are serious and desire to be courteous, let us converse
+calmly."
+
+"Have you anything more to say?" asked the count, once more allowing
+his horse to pace along the dusty road, while Nino's mule walked by
+his side.
+
+"I have this to say, Signor Conte," answered Nino: "that I shall not
+desist from desiring the honour of marrying your daughter, if you
+refuse me a hundred times. I wish to put it to you whether with youth,
+some talent,--I speak modestly,--and the prospect of a plentiful
+income, I am not as well qualified to aspire to the alliance as Baron
+Benoni, who has old age, much talent, an enormous fortune, and the
+benefit of the Jewish faith into the bargain."
+
+The count winced palpably at the mention of Benoni's religion. No
+people are more insanely prejudiced against the Hebrew race than the
+Germans. They indeed maintain that they have greater cause than
+others, but it always appears to me that they are unreasonable about
+it. Benoni chanced to be a Jew, but his peculiarities would have been
+the same had he been a Christian or an American. There is only one
+Ahasuerus Benoni in the world.
+
+"There is no question of Baron Benoni here," said the count severely,
+but hurriedly. "Your observations are beside the mark. The objections
+to the alliance, as you call it, are that you are a man of the
+people,--I do not desire to offend you,--a plebeian, in fact; you are
+also a man of uncertain fortune, like all singers: and lastly, you are
+an artist. I trust you will consider these points as a sufficient
+reason for my declining the honour you propose."
+
+"I will only say," returned Nino, "that I venture to consider your
+reasons insufficient, though I do not question your decision. Baron
+Benoni was ennobled for a loan made to a Government in difficulties;
+he was, by his own account, a shoemaker by early occupation, and a
+strolling musician--a great artist if you like--by the profession he
+adopted."
+
+"I never heard these facts," said Lira, "and I suspect that you have
+been misinformed. But I do not wish to continue the discussion of the
+subject."
+
+Nino says that after the incident of the pistols the interview passed
+without the slightest approach to ill-temper on either side. They both
+felt that if they disagreed they were prepared to settle their
+difficulties then and there, without any further ado.
+
+"Then, sir, before we part, permit me to call your attention to a
+matter which must be of importance to you," said Nino. "I refer to the
+happiness of the Signorina di Lira. In spite of your refusal of my
+offer, you will understand that the welfare of that lady must always
+be to me of the greatest importance."
+
+Lira bowed his head stiffly, and seemed inclined to speak, but changed
+his mind, and held his tongue, to see what Nino would say.
+
+"You will comprehend, I am sure," continued the latter, "that in the
+course of those months, during which I was so far honoured as to be
+of service to the contessina, I had opportunities of observing her
+remarkably gifted intelligence. I am now credibly informed that she is
+suffering from ill health. I have not seen her, nor made any attempt
+to see her, as you might have supposed, but I have an acquaintance in
+Fillettino who has seen her pass his door daily. Allow me to remark
+that a mind of such rare qualities must grow sick if driven to feed
+upon itself in solitude. I would respectfully suggest that some gayer
+residence than Fillettino would be a sovereign remedy for her
+illness."
+
+"Your tone and manner," replied the count, "forbid my resenting your
+interference. I have no reason to doubt your affection for my
+daughter, but I must request you to abandon all idea of changing my
+designs. If I choose to bring my daughter to a true sense of her
+position by somewhat rigorous methods, it is because I am aware that
+the frailty of reputation surpasses the frailty of woman. I will say
+this to your credit, sir, that if she has not disgraced herself, it
+has been in some measure because you wisely forbore from pressing your
+suit while you were received as an instructor beneath my roof. I am
+only doing my duty in trying to make her understand that her good name
+has been seriously exposed, and that the best reparation she can make
+lies in following my wishes, and accepting the honourable and
+advantageous marriage I have provided for her. I trust that this
+explanation, which I am happy to say has been conducted with the
+strictest propriety, will be final, and that you will at once desist
+from any further attempts toward persuading me to consent to a union
+that I disapprove."
+
+Lira once more stopped his horse in the road, and taking off his hat
+bowed to Nino.
+
+"And I, sir," said Nino, no less courteously, "am obliged to you for
+your clearly-expressed answer. I shall never cease to regret your
+decision, and so long as I live I shall hope that you may change your
+mind. Good-day, Signor Conte," and he bowed to his saddle.
+
+"Good-day, Signor Cardegna." So they parted: the count heading
+homeward toward Fillettino, and Nino turning back toward Trevi.
+
+By this manoeuvre he conveyed to the count's mind the impression that
+he had been to Fillettino for the day, and was returning to Trevi for
+the evening; and in reality the success of his enterprise, since
+his representations had failed, must depend upon Hedwig being
+comparatively free during the ensuing night. He determined to wait by
+the roadside until it should be dark, allowing his mule to crop
+whatever poor grass she could find at this season, and thus giving the
+count time to reach Fillettino, even at the most leisurely pace.
+
+He sat down upon the root of a tree, and allowed his mule to graze at
+liberty. It was already growing dark in the valley; for between the
+long speeches of civility the two had employed and the frequent pauses
+in the interview, the meeting had lasted the greater part of an hour.
+
+Nino says that while he waited he reviewed his past life and his
+present situation.
+
+Indeed, since he had made his first appearance in the theatre, three
+months before, events had crowded thick and fast in his life. The
+first sensation of a great public success is strange to one who has
+long been accustomed to live unnoticed and unhonoured by the world. It
+is at first incomprehensible that one should have suddenly grown to be
+an object of interest and curiosity to one's fellow-creatures, after
+having been so long a looker-on. At first a man does not realise that
+the thing he has laboured over, and studied, and worked on, can be
+actually anything remarkable. The production of the every-day task has
+long grown a habit, and the details which the artist grows to admire
+and love so earnestly have each brought with them their own reward.
+Every difficulty vanquished, every image of beauty embodied, every new
+facility of skill acquired, has been in itself a real and enduring
+satisfaction for its own sake, and for the sake of its fitness to the
+whole,--the beautiful perfect whole he has conceived.
+
+But he must necessarily forget, if he loves his work, that those who
+come after, and are to see the expression of his thought, or hear the
+mastery of his song, see or hear it all at once; so that the
+assemblage of the lesser beauties, over each of which the artist has
+had great joy, must produce a suddenly multiplied impression upon the
+understanding of the outside world, which sees first the embodiment of
+the thought, and has then the after-pleasure of appreciating the
+details. The hearer is thrilled with a sense of impassioned beauty,
+which the singer may perhaps feel when he first conceives the
+interpretation of the printed notes, but which goes over farther from
+him as he strives to approach it and realise it; and so his admiration
+for his own song is lost in dissatisfaction with the failings which
+others have not time to see.
+
+Before he is aware of the change, a singer has become famous, and all
+men are striving for a sight of him, or a hearing. There are few like
+Nino, whose head was not turned at all by the flattery and the praise,
+being occupied with other things. As he sat by the roadside, he
+thought of the many nights when the house rang with cheers and cries
+and all manner of applause; and he remembered how, each time he looked
+his audience in the face, he had searched for the one face of all
+faces that he cared to see, and had searched in vain.
+
+He seemed now to understand that it was his honest-hearted love for
+the fair northern girl that had protected him from caring for the
+outer world, and he now realised what the outer world was. He fancied
+to himself what his first three months of brilliant success might have
+been, in Rome and Paris, if he had not been bound by some strong tie
+of the heart to keep him serious and thoughtful. He thought of the
+women who had smiled upon him, and of the invitations that had
+besieged him, and of the consternation that had manifested itself when
+he declared his intention of retiring to Rome, after his brilliant
+engagement in Paris, without signing any further contract.
+
+Then came the rapid journey, the excitement, the day in Rome, the
+difficulties of finding Fillettino; and at last he was here, sitting
+by the roadside, and waiting for it to be time to carry into execution
+the bold scheme he had set before him. His conscience was at rest, for
+he now felt that he had done all that the most scrupulous honour could
+exact of him. He had returned in the midst of his success to make an
+honourable offer of marriage, and he had been refused,--because he was
+a plebeian, forsooth! And he knew also that the woman he loved was
+breaking her heart for him.
+
+What wonder that he set his teeth, and said to himself that she should
+be his, at any price! Nino has no absurd ideas about the ridicule that
+attaches to loving a woman, and taking her if necessary. He has not
+been trained up in the heart of the wretched thing they call society,
+which ruined me long ago. What he wants he asks for, like a child, and
+if it is refused, and his good heart tells him that he has a right to
+it, he takes it like a man, or like what a man was in the old time
+before the Englishman discovered that he is an ape. Ah, my learned
+colleagues, we are not so far removed from the ancestral monkey but
+that there is serious danger of our shortly returning to that
+primitive and caudal state! And I think that my boy and the Prussian
+officer, as they sat on their beasts and bowed, and smiled, and
+offered to fight each other, or to shake hands, each desiring to
+oblige the other, like a couple of knights of the old ages, were a
+trifle farther removed from our common gorilla parentage than some of
+us.
+
+But it grew dark, and Nino caught his mule and rode slowly back to the
+town, wondering what would happen before the sun rose on the other
+side of the world. Now, lest you fail to understand wholly how the
+matter passed, I must tell you a little of what took place during the
+time that Nino was waiting for the count, and Hedwig was alone in the
+castle with Baron Benoni. The way I came to know is this: Hedwig told
+the whole story to Nino, and Nino told it to me,--but many months
+after that eventful day, which I shall always consider as one of the
+most remarkable in my life. It was Good Friday, last year, and you may
+find out the day of the month for yourselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+As Nino had guessed, the count was glad of a chance to leave his
+daughter alone with Benoni, and it was for this reason that he had
+ridden out so early. The baron's originality and extraordinary musical
+talent seemed to Lira gifts which a woman needed only to see in order
+to appreciate, and which might well make her forget his snowy locks.
+During the time of Benoni's visit the count had not yet been
+successful in throwing the pair together, for Hedwig's dislike for the
+baron made her exert her tact to the utmost in avoiding his society.
+
+It so happened that Hedwig, rising early, and breathing the sweet,
+cool air from the window of her chamber, had seen Nino ride by on his
+mule, when he arrived in the morning. He did not see her, for the
+street merely passed the corner of the great pile, and it was only by
+stretching her head far out that Hedwig could get a glimpse of it. But
+it amused her to watch the country people going by, with their mules
+and donkeys and hampers, or loads of firewood; and she would often
+lean over the window-sill for half an hour at a time gazing at the
+little stream of mountain life, and sometimes weaving small romances
+of the sturdy brown women and their active, dark-browed shepherd
+lovers. Moreover, she fully expected that Nino would arrive that day,
+and had some faint hope of seeing him go along the road. So she was
+rewarded, and the sight of the man she loved was the first breath of
+freedom.
+
+In a great house like the strange abode Lira had selected for the
+seclusion of his daughter, it constantly occurs that one person is in
+ignorance of the doings of the others; and so it was natural that when
+Hedwig heard the clatter of hoofs in the courtyard, and the echoing
+crash of the great doors as they opened and closed, she should think
+both her father and Benoni had ridden away, and would be gone for the
+morning. She would not look out, lest she should see them and be seen.
+
+I cannot tell you exactly what she felt when she saw Nino from her
+lofty window, but she was certainly glad with her whole heart. If she
+had not known of his coming from my visit the previous evening, she
+would perhaps have given way to some passionate outburst of happiness;
+but as it was, the feeling of anticipation, the sweet, false dawn of
+freedom, together with the fact that she was prepared, took from this
+first pleasure all that was overwhelming. She only felt that he had
+come, and that she would soon be saved from Benoni; she could not tell
+how, but she knew it, and smiled to herself for the first time in
+months, as she held a bit of jewelry to her slender throat before the
+glass, wondering whether she had not grown too thin and pale to please
+her lover, who had been courted by the beauties of the world since he
+had left her.
+
+She was ill, perhaps, and tired. That was why she looked pale; but she
+knew that the first day of freedom would make her as beautiful as
+ever. She spent the morning hours in her rooms; but when she heard the
+gates close she fancied herself alone in the great house, and went
+down into the sunny courtyard to breathe the air, and to give certain
+instructions to her faithful man. She sent him to my house to speak
+with me; and that was all the message he had for the present. However,
+he knew well enough what he was to do. There was a strong smell of
+banknotes in the air, and the man kept his nose up.
+
+Having despatched this important business, Hedwig set herself to walk
+up and down the paved quadrangle on the sunny side. There was a stone
+bench in a warm corner that looked inviting. She entered the house and
+brought out a book, with which she established herself to read. She
+had often longed to sit there in the afternoon and watch the sun
+creeping across the flags, pursued by the shadow, till each small bit
+of moss and blade of grass had received its daily portion of warmth.
+For though the place had been cleared and weeded, the tiny green
+things still grew in the chinks of the pavement. In the middle of the
+court was a well with a cover and yoke of old-fashioned twisted iron
+and a pulley to draw the water. The air was bright and fresh outside
+the castle, but the reverberating rays of the sun made the quiet
+courtyard warm and still.
+
+Sick with her daily torture of mind the fair, pale girl rested her, at
+last, and dreaming of liberty drew strength from the soft stillness.
+The book fell on her lap, her head leaned back against the rough
+stones of the wall, and gradually, as she watched from beneath her
+half-closed lids the play of the stealing sunlight, she fell into a
+sweet sleep.
+
+She was soon disturbed by that indescribable uneasiness that creeps
+through our dreams when we are asleep in the presence of danger. A
+weird horror possesses us, and makes the objects in the dream appear
+unnatural. Gradually the terror grows on us and thrills us, and we
+wake, with bristling hair and staring eyes, to the hideous
+consciousness of unexpected peril.
+
+Hedwig started and raised her lids, following the direction of her
+dream. She was not mistaken. Opposite her stood her arch-horror,
+Benoni. He leaned carelessly against the stone well, and his bright
+brown eyes were riveted upon her. His tall, thin figure was clad, as
+usual, in all the extreme of fashion, and one of his long, bony hands
+toyed with his watch-chain. His animated face seemed aglow with the
+pleasure of contemplation, and the sunshine lent a yellow tinge to his
+snowy hair.
+
+"An exquisite picture, indeed, countess," he said, without moving. "I
+trust your dreams were as sweet as they looked?"
+
+"They were sweet, sir," she answered coldly, after a moment's pause,
+during which she looked steadily toward him.
+
+"I regret that I should have disturbed them," he said, with a
+deferential bow; and he came and sat by her side, treading as lightly
+as a boy across the flags. Hedwig shuddered and drew her dark skirts
+about her as he sat down.
+
+"You cannot regret it more than I do," she said, in tones of ice. She
+would not take refuge in the house, for it would have seemed like an
+ignominious flight. Benoni crossed one leg over the other, and asked
+permission to smoke, which she granted by an indifferent motion of her
+fair head.
+
+"So we are left all alone to-day, countess," remarked Benoni, blowing
+rings of smoke in the quiet air.
+
+Hedwig vouchsafed no answer.
+
+"We are left alone," he repeated, seeing that she was silent, "and I
+make it hereby my business and my pleasure to amuse you."
+
+"You are good, sir. But I thank you. I need no entertainment of your
+devising."
+
+"That is eminently unfortunate," returned the baron, with his
+imperturbable smile, "for I am universally considered to be the most
+amusing of mortals,--if, indeed, I am mortal at all, which I sometimes
+doubt."
+
+"Do you reckon yourself with the gods, then?" asked Hedwig scornfully.
+"Which of them are you? Jove? Dionysus? Apollo?"
+
+"Nay, rather Phaethon, who soared too high--"
+
+"Your mythology is at fault, sir,--he drove too low; and besides, he
+was not immortal."
+
+"It is the same. He was wide of the mark, as I am. Tell me, countess,
+are your wits always so ready?"
+
+"You, at least, will always find them so," she answered, bitterly.
+
+"You are unkind. You stab my vanity, as you have pierced my heart."
+
+At this speech Hedwig raised her eyebrows and stared at him in
+silence. Any other man would have taken the chilling rebuke and left
+her. Benoni put on a sad expression.
+
+"You used not to hate me as you do now," he said.
+
+"That is true. I hated you formerly because I hated you."
+
+"And now?" asked Benoni, with a short laugh.
+
+"I hate you now because I loathe you." She uttered this singular
+saying indifferently, as being part of her daily thoughts.
+
+"You have the courage of your opinions, countess," he replied, with a
+very bitter smile.
+
+"Yes? It is only the courage a woman need have." There was a pause,
+during which Benoni puffed much smoke and stroked his white
+moustache. Hedwig turned over the leaves of her book, as though
+hinting to him to go. But he had no idea of that. A man who will not
+go because a woman loathes him will certainly not leave her for a
+hint.
+
+"Countess," he began again, at last, "will you listen to me?"
+
+"I suppose I must. I presume my father has left you here to insult me
+at your noble leisure."
+
+"Ah, countess, dear countess,"--she shrank away from him,--"you should
+know me better than to believe me capable of anything so monstrous. I
+insult you? Gracious heaven! I, who adore you; who worship the holy
+ground whereon you tread; who would preserve the precious air you have
+breathed in vessels of virgin crystal; who would give a drop of my
+blood for every word you vouchsafe me, kind or cruel,--I, who look on
+you as the only divinity in this desolate heathen world, who reverence
+you and do you daily homage, who adore you--"
+
+"You manifest your adoration in a singular manner, sir," said Hedwig,
+interrupting him with something of her father's severity.
+
+"I show it as best I can," the old scoundrel pleaded, working himself
+into a passion of words. "My life, my fortune, my name, my honour,--I
+cast them at your feet. For you I will be a hermit, a saint, dwelling
+in solitary places and doing good works; or I will brave every danger
+the narrow earth holds, by sea and land, for you. What? Am I decrepit,
+or bent, or misshapen, that my white hair should cry out against me?
+Am I hideous, or doting, or half-witted, as old men are? I am young; I
+am strong, active, enduring. I have all the gifts, for you."
+
+The baron was speaking French, and perhaps these wild praises of
+himself might pass current in a foreign language. But when Nino
+detailed the conversation to me in our good, simple Italian speech, it
+sounded so amazingly ridiculous that I nearly broke my sides with
+laughing.
+
+Hedwig laughed also, and so loudly that the foolish old man was
+disconcerted. He had succeeded in amusing her sooner than he had
+expected. As I have told you, the baron is a most impulsive person,
+though he is poisoned with evil from his head to his heart.
+
+"All women are alike," he said, and his manner suddenly changed.
+
+"I fancy," said Hedwig, recovering from her merriment, "that if you
+address them as you have addressed me you will find them very much
+alike indeed."
+
+"What good can women do in the world?" sighed Benoni, as though
+speaking with himself. "You do nothing but harm with your cold
+calculations and your bitter jests." Hedwig was silent. "Tell me," he
+continued presently, "if I speak soberly, by the card as it were, will
+you listen to me?"
+
+"Oh, I have said that I will listen to you!" cried Hedwig, losing
+patience.
+
+"Hedwig von Lira, I hereby offer you my fortune, my name, and myself.
+I ask you to marry me of your own good will and pleasure." Hedwig once
+more raised her brows.
+
+"Baron Benoni, I will not marry you, either for your fortune, your
+name, or yourself,--nor for any other consideration under heaven. And
+I will ask you not to address me by my Christian name." There was a
+long silence after this speech, and Benoni carefully lighted a second
+cigarette. Hedwig would have risen and entered the house, but she
+felt safer in the free air of the sunny court. As for Benoni, he had
+no intention of going.
+
+"I suppose you are aware, countess," he said at last, coldly eying
+her, "that your father has set his heart upon our union?"
+
+"I am aware of it."
+
+"But you are not aware of the consequences of your refusal. I am your
+only chance of freedom. Take me, and you have the world at your feet.
+Refuse me, and you will languish in this hideous place so long as your
+affectionate father pleases."
+
+"Do you know my father so little, sir," asked Hedwig very proudly, "as
+to suppose that his daughter will ever yield to force?"
+
+"It is one thing to talk of not yielding, and it is quite another to
+bear prolonged suffering with constancy," returned Benoni coolly, as
+though he were discussing a general principle instead of expounding to
+a woman the fate she had to expect if she refused to marry him. "I
+never knew anyone who did not talk bravely of resisting torture until
+it was applied. Oh, you will be weak at the end, countess, believe me.
+You are weak now; and changed, though perhaps you would be better
+pleased if I did not notice it. Yes, I smile now,--I laugh. I can
+afford to. You can be merry over me because I love you, but I can be
+merry at what you must suffer if you will not love me. Do not look so
+proud, countess. You know what follows pride, if the proverb lies
+not."
+
+During this insulting speech Hedwig had risen to her feet, and in the
+act to go she turned and looked at him in utter scorn. She could not
+comprehend the nature of a man who could so coldly threaten her. If
+ever anyone of us can fathom Benoni's strange character we may hope to
+understand that phase of it along with the rest.
+
+He seemed as indifferent to his own mistakes and follies as to the
+sufferings of others.
+
+"Sir," she said, "whatever may be the will of my father, I will not
+permit you to discuss it, still less to hold up his anger as a threat
+to scare me. You need not follow me," she added, as he rose.
+
+"I will follow you, whether you wish it or not, countess," he said,
+fiercely; and, as she flew across the court to the door he strode
+swiftly by her side, hissing his words into her ear. "I will follow
+you to tell you that I know more of you than you think, and I know how
+little right you have to be so proud. I know your lover. I know of
+your meetings, your comings and your goings--" They reached the door,
+but Benoni barred the way with his long arm, and seemed about to lay a
+hand upon her wrist, so that she shrank back against the heavy
+doorpost in an agony of horror and loathing and wounded pride. "I know
+Cardegna, and I knew the poor baroness who killed herself because he
+basely abandoned her. Ah, you never heard the truth before? I trust it
+is pleasant to you. As he left her he has left you. He will never come
+back. I saw him in Paris three weeks ago. I could tell tales not fit
+for your ears. And for him you will die in this horrible place unless
+you consent. For him you have thrown away everything,--name, fame, and
+happiness,--unless you will take all these from me. Oh, I know you
+will cry out that it is untrue; but my eyes are good, though you call
+me old! For this treacherous boy, with his curly hair, you have lost
+the only thing that makes woman human,--your reputation!" And Benoni
+laughed that horrid laugh of his, till the court rang again, as though
+there were devils in every corner, and beneath every eave and
+everywhere.
+
+People who are loud in their anger are sometimes dangerous, for it is
+genuine while it lasts. People whose anger is silent are generally
+either incapable of honest wrath or cowards. But there are some in the
+world whose passion shows itself in few words but strong ones, and
+proceeds instantly to action.
+
+Hedwig had stood back against the stone casing of the entrance, at
+first, overcome with the intensity of what she suffered. But as Benoni
+laughed she moved slowly forward till she was close to him, and only
+his outstretched arm barred the doorway.
+
+"Every word you have spoken is a lie, and you know it. Let me pass, or
+I will kill you with my hands!"
+
+The words came low and distinct to his excited ear, like the tolling
+of a passing bell. Her face must have been dreadful to see, and Benoni
+was suddenly fascinated and terrified at the concentrated anger that
+blazed in her blue eyes. His arm dropped to his side, and Hedwig
+passed proudly through the door, in all the majesty of innocence
+gathering her skirts, lest they should touch his feet or any part of
+him. She never hastened her step as she ascended the broad stairs
+within and went to her own little sitting-room, made gay with books
+and flowers and photographs from Rome. Nor was her anger followed by
+any passionate outburst of tears. She sat herself down by the window
+and looked out, letting the cool breeze from the open casement fan her
+face.
+
+Hedwig, too, had passed through a violent scene that day, and, having
+conquered, she sat down to think over it. She reflected that Benoni
+had but used the same words to her that she had daily heard from her
+father's lips. False as was their accusation, she submitted to hearing
+her father speak them, for she had no knowledge of their import, and
+only thought him cruelly hard with her. But that a stranger--above
+all, a man who aspired, or pretended to aspire, to her hand--should
+attempt to usurp the same authority of speech was beyond all human
+endurance. She felt sure that her father's anger would all be turned
+against Benoni when he heard her story.
+
+As for what her tormentor had said of Nino, she could have killed him
+for saying it, but she knew that it was a lie; for she loved Nino with
+all her heart, and no one can love wholly without trusting wholly.
+Therefore she put away the evil suggestion from herself, and loaded
+all its burden of treachery upon Benoni.
+
+How long she sat by the window, compelling her strained thoughts into
+order, no one can tell. It might have been an hour, or more, for she
+had lost the account of the hours. She was roused by a knock at the
+door of her sitting-room, and at her bidding the man entered who, for
+the trifling consideration of about a thousand francs, first and last
+made communication possible between Hedwig and myself.
+
+This man's name is Temistocle,--Themistocles, no less. All servants
+are Themistocles, or Orestes, or Joseph, just as all gardeners are
+called Antonio. Perhaps he deserves some description. He is a type,
+short, wiry, and broad-shouldered, with a cunning eye, a long hooked
+nose, and very plentiful black whiskers, surmounted by a perfectly
+bald crown. His motions are servile to the last degree, and he
+addresses everyone in authority as "excellency," on the principle that
+it is better to give too much titular homage than too little. He is as
+wily as a fox, and so long as you have money in your pocket, as
+faithful as a hound and as silent as the grave. I perceive that these
+are precisely the epithets at which the baron scoffed, saying that a
+man can be praised only by comparing him with the higher animals, or
+insulted by comparison with himself and his kind. We call a man a
+fool, an idiot, a coward, a liar, a traitor, and many other things
+applicable only to man himself. However, I will let my description
+stand, for it is a very good one; and Temistocle could be induced, for
+money, to adapt himself to almost any description, and he certainly
+had earned, at one time or another, most of the titles I have
+enumerated.
+
+He told me, months afterwards, that when he passed through the
+courtyard, on his way to Hedwig's apartment, he found Benoni seated on
+the stone bench, smoking a cigarette and gazing into space, so that he
+passed close before him without being noticed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+Temistocle closed the door, then opened it again, and looked out,
+after which he finally shut it, and seemed satisfied. He advanced with
+cautious tread to where Hedwig sat by the window.
+
+"Well? What have you done?" she inquired, without looking at him. It
+is a hard thing for a proud and noble girl to be in the power of a
+servant. The man took Nino's letter from his pocket, and handed it to
+her upon his open palm. Hedwig tried hard to take it with
+indifference, but she acknowledges that her fingers trembled and her
+heart beat fast.
+
+"I was to deliver a message to your excellency from the old
+gentleman," said Temistocle, coming close to her and bending down.
+
+"Ah!" said Hedwig, beginning to break the envelope.
+
+"Yes, excellency. He desired me to say that it was absolutely and most
+indubitably necessary that your excellency should be at the little
+door to-night at twelve o'clock. Do not fear, Signora Contessina; we
+can manage it very well."
+
+"I do not wish to know what you advise me to fear, or not to fear,"
+answered Hedwig, haughtily; for she could not bear to feel that the
+man should counsel her or encourage her.
+
+"Pardon, excellency; I thought--" began Temistocle humbly; but Hedwig
+interrupted him.
+
+"Temistocle," she said, "I have no money to give you, as I told you
+yesterday. But here is another stone, like the other. Take it, and
+arrange this matter as best you can."
+
+Temistocle took the jewel and bowed to the ground, eying curiously the
+little case from which she had taken it.
+
+"I have thought and combined everything," he said. "Your excellency
+will see that it is best you should go alone to the staircase; for, as
+we say, a mouse makes less noise than a rat. When you have descended,
+lock the door at the top behind you; and when you reach the foot of
+the staircase, keep that door open. I will have brought the old
+gentleman by that time, and you will let me in. I shall go out by the
+great gate."
+
+"Why not go with me?" inquired Hedwig.
+
+"Because, your excellency, one person is less likely to be seen than
+two. Your excellency will let me pass you. I will mount the staircase,
+unlock the upper door, and change the key to the other side. Then I
+will keep watch, and if anyone comes I will lock the door and slip
+away till he is gone."
+
+"I do not like the plan," said Hedwig. "I would rather let myself in
+from the staircase."
+
+"But suppose anyone were waiting on the inside, and saw you come
+back?"
+
+"That is true. Give me the keys, Temistocle, and a taper and some
+matches."
+
+"Your excellency is a paragon of courage," replied the servant,
+obsequiously. "Since yesterday I have carried the keys in my pocket. I
+will bring you the taper this evening."
+
+"Bring it now. I wish to be ready."
+
+Temistocle departed on the errand. When he returned Hedwig ordered him
+to give a message to her father.
+
+"When the count comes home, ask him to see me," she said. Temistocle
+bowed once more, and was gone.
+
+Yes, she would see her father, and tell him plainly what she had
+suffered from Benoni. She felt that no father, however cruel, would
+allow his daughter to be so treated, and she would detail the
+conversation to him.
+
+She had not been able to read Nino's letter, for she feared the
+servant, knowing the writing to be Italian and legible to him. Now she
+hastened to drink in its message of love. You cannot suppose that I
+know exactly what he said, but he certainly set forth at some length
+his proposal that she should leave her father, and escape with her
+lover from the bondage in which she was now held. He told her modestly
+of his success, in so far as it was necessary that she should
+understand his position. It must have been a very eloquent letter, for
+it nearly persuaded her to a step of which she had wildly dreamed,
+indeed, but which in her calmer moments she regarded as impossible.
+
+The interminable afternoon was drawing to a close, and once more she
+sat by the open window, regardless of the increasing cold. Suddenly it
+all came over her,--the tremendous importance of the step she was
+about to take, if she should take Nino at his word, and really break
+from one life into another. The long restrained tears, that had been
+bound from flowing through all Benoni's insults and her own anger,
+trickled silently down her cheek, no longer pale, but bright and
+flushed at the daring thought of freedom.
+
+At first it seemed far off, as seen in the magician's glass. She
+looked and saw herself as another person, acting a part only half
+known and half understood. But gradually her own individual soul
+entered into the figure of her imagination; her eager heart beat fast;
+she breathed and moved and acted in the future. She was descending the
+dark steps alone, listening with supernatural sense of sound for her
+lover's tread without. It came; the door opened, and she was in his
+arms,--in those strong arms that could protect her from insult and
+tyranny and cruel wooing; out in the night, on the road, in Rome,
+married, free, and made blessed for ever. On a sudden the artificial
+imagery of her labouring brain fell away, and the thought crossed her
+mind that henceforth she must be an orphan. Her father would never
+speak to her again, or ever own for his a daughter that had done such
+a deed. Like icy water poured upon a fevered body, the idea chilled
+her and woke her to reality.
+
+Did she love her father? She had loved him--yes, until she crossed his
+will. She loved him still, when she could be so horror-struck at the
+thought of incurring his lasting anger. Could she bear it? Could she
+find in her lover all that she must renounce of a father's care and a
+father's affection,--stern affection, that savoured of the
+despot,--but could she hurt him so?
+
+The image of her father seemed to take another shape, and gradually to
+assume the form and features of the one man of the world whom she
+hated, converting itself little by little into Benoni. She hid her
+face in her hands and terror staunched the tears that had flown afresh
+at the thought of orphanhood.
+
+A knock at the door. She hastily concealed the crumpled letter.
+
+"Come in!" she answered, boldly; and her father, moving mechanically,
+with his stick in his hand, entered the room. He came as he had
+dismounted from his horse, in his riding boots, and his broad felt hat
+caught by the same fingers that held the stick.
+
+"You wished to see me, Hedwig," he said, coldly, depositing his hat
+upon the table. Then, when he had slowly sat himself down in an
+arm-chair, he added, "Here I am." Hedwig had risen respectfully, and
+stood before him in the twilight. "What do you wish to say?" he asked
+in German. "You do not often honour your father by requesting his
+society."
+
+Hedwig stood one moment in silence. Her first impulse was to throw
+herself at his feet and implore him to let her marry Nino. The thought
+swept away for the time the remembrance of Benoni and of what she had
+to tell. But a second sufficed to give her the mastery of her tongue
+and memory, which women seldom lose completely, even at the most
+desperate moments.
+
+"I desired to tell you," she said, "that Baron Benoni took advantage
+of your absence to-day to insult me beyond my endurance." She looked
+boldly into her father's eyes as she spoke.
+
+"Ah!" said he, with great coolness. "Will you be good enough to light
+one of those candles on the table, and to close the window?"
+
+Hedwig obeyed in silence, and once more planted herself before him,
+her slim figure looking ghostly between the fading light of the
+departing day and the yellow flame of the candle.
+
+"You need not assume this theatrical air," said Lira, calmly. "I
+presume you mean that Baron Benoni asked you to marry him?"
+
+"Yes, that is one thing, and is an insult in itself," replied Hedwig,
+without changing her position. "I suspect that it is the principal
+thing," remarked the count. "Very good; he asked you to marry him. He
+has my full authority to do so. What then?"
+
+"You are my father," answered Hedwig, standing like a statue before
+him, "and you have the right to offer me whom you please for a
+husband, but you have no authority to allow me to be wantonly
+insulted."
+
+"I think that you are out of your mind," said the count, with
+imperturbable equanimity. "You grant that I may propose a suitor to
+you, and you call it a wanton insult when that suitor respectfully
+asks the honour of your hand, merely because he is not young enough to
+suit your romantic tastes, which have been fostered by this wretched
+southern air. It is unfortunate that my health requires me to reside
+in Italy. Had you enjoyed an orderly Prussian education, you would
+have held different views in regard to filial duty. Refuse Baron
+Benoni as often as you like. I will stay here, and so will he, I
+fancy, until you change your mind. I am not tired of this lordly
+mountain scenery, and my health improves daily. We can pass the summer
+and winter, and more summers and winters, very comfortably here. If
+there is anything you would like to have brought from Rome, inform me,
+and I will satisfy any reasonable request."
+
+"The baron has already had the audacity to inform me that you would
+keep me a prisoner until I should marry him," said Hedwig; and her
+voice trembled as she remembered how Benoni had told her so.
+
+"I doubt not that Benoni, who is a man of consummate tact, hinted
+delicately that he would not desist from pressing his suit. You, well
+knowing my determination, and carried away by your evil temper, have
+magnified into a threat what he never intended as such. Pray let me
+hear no more about these fancied insults." The old man smiled grimly
+at his keen perception.
+
+"You shall hear me, nevertheless," said Hedwig, in a low voice, coming
+close to the table and resting one hand upon it as though for support.
+
+"My daughter," said the count, "I desire you to abandon this highly
+theatrical and melodramatic tone. I am not to be imposed upon."
+
+"Baron Benoni did not confine himself to the course you describe. He
+said many things to me that I did not understand, but I comprehended
+their import. He began by making absurd speeches, at which I laughed.
+Then he asked me to marry him, as I had long known he would do as soon
+as you gave him the opportunity. I refused his offer. Then he
+insisted, saying that you, sir, had determined on this marriage, and
+would keep me a close prisoner here until the torture of the situation
+broke down my strength. I assured him that I would never yield to
+force. Then he broke out angrily, telling me to my face that I had
+lost everything--name, fame, and honour,--how, I cannot tell; but he
+said those words; and he added that I could regain my reputation only
+by consenting to marry him."
+
+The old count had listened at first with a sarcastic smile, then with
+increased attention. Finally, as Hedwig repeated the shameful insult,
+his brave old blood boiled up in his breast, and he sat gripping the
+two arms of his chair fiercely, while his gray eyes shot fire from
+beneath the shaggy brows.
+
+"Hedwig," he cried, hoarsely, "are you speaking the truth? Did he say
+those words?"
+
+"Yes, my father, and more like them. Are you surprised?" she asked
+bitterly. "You have said them yourself to me."
+
+The old man's rage rose furiously, and he struggled to his feet. He
+was stiff with riding and rheumatism, but he was too angry to sit
+still.
+
+"I? Yes, I have tried to show you what might have happened, and to
+warn you and frighten you, as you should be frightened. Yes, and I was
+right, for you shall not drag my name in the dirt. But another
+man--Benoni!" He could not speak for his wrath, and his tall figure
+moved rapidly about the room, his heart seeking expression in action.
+He looked like some forgotten creature of harm, suddenly galvanised
+into destructive life. It was well that Benoni was not within reach.
+
+Hedwig stood calmly by the table, proud in her soul that her father
+should be roused to such fury. The old man paused in his walk, came to
+her, and with his hand turned her face to the light, gazing savagely
+into her eyes.
+
+"You never told me a lie," he growled out.
+
+"Never," she said, boldly, as she faced him scornfully. He knew his
+own temper in his child, and was satisfied. The soldier's habit of
+self-control was strong in him, and the sardonic humour of his nature
+served as a garment to the thoughts he harboured.
+
+"It appears," he said, "that I am to spend the remainder of an
+honourable life in fighting with a pack of hounds. I nearly killed
+your old acquaintance, the Signor Professore Cardegna, this
+afternoon." Hedwig staggered back, and turned pale.
+
+"What! Is he wounded?" she gasped out, pressing her hand to his side.
+
+"Ha! That touches you almost as closely as Benoni's insult," he said,
+savagely. "I am glad of it. I repent me, and wish that I had killed
+him. We met on the road, and he had the impertinence to ask me for
+your hand,--I am sick of these daily proposals of marriage; and then I
+inquired if he meant to insult me."
+
+Hedwig leaned heavily on the table in an agony of suspense.
+
+"The fellow answered that if I were insulted he was ready to fight
+then and there, in the road, with my pistols. He is no coward, your
+lover,--I will say that. The end of it was that I came home and he did
+not."
+
+Hedwig sank into the chair that her father had left, and hid her face.
+
+"Oh, you have killed him!" she moaned.
+
+"No," said the count shortly; "I did not touch a hair of his head. But
+he rode away toward Trevi." Hedwig breathed again. "Are you
+satisfied?" he asked, with a hard smile, enjoying the terror he had
+excited.
+
+"Oh, how cruel you are, my father!" she said, in a broken voice.
+
+"I tell you that if I could cure you of your insane passion for this
+singer fellow, I would be as cruel as the Inquisition," retorted the
+count. "Now listen to me. You will not be troubled any longer with
+Benoni,--the beast! I will teach him a lesson of etiquette. You need
+not appear at dinner to-night. But you are not to suppose that our
+residence here is at an end. When you have made up your mind to act
+sensibly, and to forget the Signor Cardegna, you shall return to
+society, where you may select a husband of your own position and
+fortune, if you choose; or you may turn Romanist, and go into a
+convent, and devote yourself to good works and idolatry, or anything
+else. I do not pretend to care what becomes of you, so long as you
+show any decent respect for your name. But if you persist in pining
+and moaning and starving yourself, because I will not allow you to
+turn dancer and marry a strolling player, you will have to remain
+here. I am not such pleasant company when I am bored, I can tell you,
+and my enthusiasm for the beauties of nature is probably transitory."
+
+"I can bear anything if you will remove Benoni," said Hedwig, quietly,
+as she rose from her seat. But the pressure of the iron keys that she
+had hidden in her bosom gave her a strange sensation.
+
+"Never fear," said the count, taking his hat from the table. "You
+shall be amply avenged of Benoni and his foul tongue. I may not love
+my daughter, but no one shall insult her. I will have a word with him
+this evening."
+
+"I thank you for that, at least," said Hedwig, as he moved to the
+door.
+
+"Do not mention it," said he, and put his hand on the lock.
+
+A sudden impulse seized Hedwig. She ran swiftly to him, and clasped
+her hands upon his arm.
+
+"Father?" she cried, pleadingly.
+
+"What?"
+
+"Father, do you love me?" He hesitated one moment.
+
+"No," he said, sternly; "you disobey me"; and he went out in rough
+haste. The door closed behind him, and she was left standing alone.
+What could she do, poor child? For months he had tormented her and
+persecuted her, and now she had asked him plainly if she still held a
+place in his heart, and he had coldly denied it.
+
+A gentle, tender maiden, love-sick and mind-sick, yearning so
+piteously for a little mercy, or sympathy, or kindness, and treated
+like a mutinous soldier, because she loved so honestly and purely,--is
+it any wonder that her hand went to her bosom and clasped the cold,
+hard keys that promised her life and freedom? I think not. I have no
+patience with young women who allow themselves to be carried away by
+an innate bad taste and love for effect, quarrelling with the peaceful
+destiny that a kind Providence has vouchsafed them, and with an
+existence which they are too dull to make interesting to themselves or
+to anyone else; finally making a desperate and foolish dash at
+notoriety by a runaway marriage with the first scamp they can find,
+and repenting in poverty and social ostracism the romance they
+conceived in wealth and luxury. They deserve their fate. But when a
+sensitive girl is motherless, cut off from friends and pleasures,
+presented with the alternative of solitude or marriage with some
+detested man, or locked up to forget a dream which was half realised
+and very sweet, then the case is different. If she breaks her bonds,
+and flies to the only loving heart she knows, forgive her, and pray
+Heaven to have mercy on her, for she takes a fearful leap into the
+dark.
+
+Hedwig felt the keys, and took them from her dress, and pressed them
+to her cheek, and her mind was made up. She glanced at the small gilt
+clock, and saw that the hands pointed to seven. Five hours were before
+her in which to make her preparations, such as they could be.
+
+In accordance with her father's orders, given when he left her,
+Temistocle served her dinner in her sitting-room; and the uncertainty
+of the night's enterprise demanded that she should eat something,
+lest her strength should fail at the critical moment. Temistocle
+volunteered the information that her father had gone to the baron's
+apartment, and had not been seen since. She heard in silence, and bade
+the servant leave her as soon as he had ministered to her wants. Then
+she wrote a short letter to her father, telling him that she had left
+him, since he had no place for her in his heart, and that she had gone
+to the one man who seemed ready both to love and to protect her. This
+missive she folded, sealed, and laid in a prominent place upon the
+table addressed to the count.
+
+She made a small bundle,--very neatly, for she is clever with her
+fingers,--and put on a dark travelling dress, in the folds of which
+she sewed such jewels as were small and valuable and her own. She
+would take nothing that her father had given her. In all this she
+displayed perfect coolness and foresight.
+
+The castle became intensely quiet as the evening advanced. She sat
+watching the clock. At five minutes before midnight she took her
+bundle and her little shoes in her hand, blew out her candle, and
+softly left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+I need not tell you how I passed all the time from Nino's leaving me
+until he came back in the evening, just as I could see from my window
+that the full moon was touching the tower of the castle. I sat looking
+out, expecting him, and I was the most anxious professor that ever
+found himself in a ridiculous position. Temistocle had come, and you
+know what had passed between us, and how we had arranged the plan of
+the night. Most heartily did I wish myself in the little amphitheatre
+of my lecture-room at the University, instead of being pledged to this
+wild plot of my boy's invention. But there was no drawing back. I had
+been myself to the little stable next door, where I had kept my
+donkey, and visited him daily since my arrival, and I had made sure
+that I could have him at a moment's notice by putting on the cumbrous
+saddle. Moreover, I had secretly made a bundle of my effects, and had
+succeeded in taking it unobserved to the stall, and I tied it to the
+pommel. I also told my landlady that I was going away in the morning
+with the young gentleman who had visited me, and who, I said, was the
+engineer who was going to make a new road to the Serra. This was not
+quite true; but lies that hurt no one are not lies at all, as you all
+know, and the curiosity of the old woman was satisfied. I also paid
+for my lodging, and gave her a franc for herself, which pleased her
+very much. I meant to steal away about ten o'clock, or as soon as I
+had seen Nino and communicated to him the result of my interview with
+Temistocle.
+
+The hours seemed endless, in spite of my preparations, which occupied
+some time; so I went out when I had eaten my supper, and visited my
+ass, and gave him a little bread that was left, thinking it would
+strengthen him for the journey. Then I came back to my room, and
+watched. Just as the moonlight was shooting over the hill, Nino rode
+up the street. I knew him in the dusk by his broad hat, and also
+because he was humming a little tune through his nose, as he generally
+does. But he rode past my door without looking up, for he meant to put
+his mule in the stable for a rest.
+
+At last he came in, still humming, and apologised for the delay,
+saying he had stopped a few minutes at the inn to get some supper. It
+could not have been a very substantial meal that he ate in that short
+time.
+
+"What did the man say?" was his first question, as he sat down.
+
+"He said it should be managed as I desired," I answered. "Of course
+I did not mention you. Temistocle--that is his name--will come at
+midnight, and take you to the door. There you will find this
+inamorata, this lady-love of yours, for whom you are about to turn
+the world upside down."
+
+"What will you do yourself, Sor Cornelio?" he asked, smiling.
+
+"I will go now and get my donkey, and quietly ride up the valley to
+the Serra di Sant' Antonio," I said. "I am sure that the signorina
+will be more at her ease if I accompany you. I am a very proper
+person, you see."
+
+"Yes," said Nino, pensively, "you are very proper. And besides, you
+can be a witness of the civil marriage."
+
+"Diavolo!" I cried, "a marriage! I had not thought of that."
+
+"Blood of a dog!" exclaimed Nino, "what on earth did you think of?" He
+was angry all in a moment.
+
+"Piano,--do not disquiet yourself, my boy. I had not realised that the
+wedding was so near,--that is all. Of course you will be married in
+Rome, as soon as ever we get there."
+
+"We shall be married in Ceprano to-morrow night, by the sindaco, or
+the mayor, or whatever civil bishop they support in that God-forsaken
+Neopolitan town," said Nino, with great determination.
+
+"Oh, very well; manage it as you like. Only be careful that it is
+properly done, and have it registered," I added. "Meanwhile, I will
+start."
+
+"You need not go yet, caro mio; it is not nine o'clock."
+
+"How far do you think I ought to go, Nino?" I inquired. To tell the
+truth, the idea of going up the Serra alone was not so attractive in
+the evening as it had been in the morning light. I thought it would be
+very dark among those trees, and I had still a great deal of money
+sewn between my waistcoats.
+
+"Oh, you need not go so very far," said Nino. "Three or four miles
+from the town will be enough. I will wait in the street below, after
+eleven."
+
+We sat in silence for some time afterwards, and if I was thinking of
+the gloomy ride before me, I am sure that Nino was thinking of Hedwig.
+Poor fellow! I dare say he was anxious enough to see her, after being
+away for two months, and spending so many hours almost within her
+reach. He sat low in his chair, and the dismal rays of the solitary
+tallow candle cast deep shadows on his thoughtful face. Weary,
+perhaps, with waiting and with long travel, yet not sad, but very
+hopeful he looked. No fatigue could destroy the strong, manly
+expression of his features, and even in that squalid room, by the
+miserable light, dressed in his plain gray clothes, he was still the
+man of success, who could hold thousands in the suspense of listening
+to his slightest utterance. Nino is a wonderful man, and I am
+convinced that there is more in him than music, which is well enough
+when one can be as great as he, but is not all the world holds. I am
+sure that massive head of his was not hammered so square and broad by
+the great hands that forge the thunderbolts of nations, merely that he
+should be a tenor and an actor, and give pleasure to his fellow-men. I
+see there the power and the strength of a broader mastery than that
+which bends the ears of a theatre audience. One day we may see it. It
+needs the fire of hot times to fuse the elements of greatness in the
+crucible of revolution. There is not such another head in all Italy as
+Nino's that I have ever seen, and I have seen the best in Rome. He
+looked so grand, as he sat there, thinking over the future. I am not
+praising his face for its beauty; there is little enough of that, as
+women might judge. And besides, you will laugh at my ravings, and say
+that a singer is a singer, and nothing more, for all his life. Well,
+we shall see in twenty years; you will,--perhaps I shall not.
+
+"Nino," I asked, irrelevantly, following my own train of reflection,
+"have you ever thought of anything but music--and love?" He roused
+himself from his reverie, and stared at me.
+
+"How should you be able to guess my thoughts?" he asked at last.
+
+"People who have lived much together often read each other's minds.
+What were you thinking of?" Nino sighed, and hesitated a moment before
+he answered.
+
+"I was thinking," he said, "that a musician's destiny, even the
+highest, is a poor return for a woman's love."
+
+"You see: I was thinking of you, and wondering whether, after all, you
+will always be a singer."
+
+"That is singular," he answered slowly. "I was reflecting how utterly
+small my success on the stage will look to me when I have married
+Hedwig von Lira."
+
+"There is a larger stage, Nino mio, than yours."
+
+"I know it," said he, and fell back in his chair again, dreaming.
+
+I fancy that at any other time we might have fallen into conversation
+and speculated on the good old-fashioned simile which likens life to a
+comedy, or a tragedy, or a farce. But the moment was ill-chosen, and
+we were both silent, being much preoccupied with the immediate future.
+
+A little before ten I made up my mind to start. I glanced once more
+round the room to see if I had left anything. Nino was still sitting
+in his chair, his head bent, and his eyes staring at the floor.
+
+"Nino," I said, "I am going now. Here is another candle, which you
+will need before long, for these tallow things are very short."
+Indeed, the one that burned was already guttering low in the old brass
+candlestick. Nino rose and shook himself.
+
+"My dear friend," he said, taking me by both hands, "you know that I
+am grateful to you. I thank you and thank you again with all my heart.
+Yes, you ought to go now, for the time is approaching. We shall join
+you, if all goes well, by one o'clock."
+
+"But, Nino, if you do not come?"
+
+"I will come, alone, or with her. If--if I should not be with you by
+two in the morning, go on alone, and get out of the way. It will be
+because I am caught by that old Prussian devil. Good-bye." He embraced
+me affectionately, and I went out. A quarter of an hour later I was
+out of the town, picking my way, with my little donkey, over the
+desolate path that leads toward the black Serra. The clatter of the
+beast's hoofs over the stones kept time with the beatings of my heart,
+and I pressed my thin legs close to his thinner sides for company.
+
+When Nino was left alone,--and all this I know from him,--he sat again
+in the chair and meditated; and although the time of the greatest
+event in his life was very near, he was so much absorbed that he was
+startled when he looked at his watch and found that it was half-past
+eleven. He had barely time to make his preparations. His man was
+warned, but was waiting near the inn, not knowing where he was
+required, as Nino himself had not been to ascertain the position of
+the lower door, fearing lest he might be seen by Benoni. He now
+hastily extinguished the light and let himself out of the house
+without noise. He found his countryman ready with the mules, ordered
+him to come with him, and returned to the house, instructing him to
+follow and wait at a short distance from the door he would enter.
+Muffled in his cloak, he stood in the street awaiting the messenger
+from Hedwig.
+
+The crazy old clock of the church tolled the hour, and a man wrapped
+in a nondescript garment, between a cloak and an overcoat, stole along
+the moonlit street to where Nino stood, in front of my lodging.
+
+"Temistocle!" called Nino, in a low voice, as the fellow hesitated.
+
+"Excellency"--answered the man, and then drew back. "You are not the
+Signor Grandi!" he cried, in alarm.
+
+"It is the same thing," replied Nino. "Let us go."
+
+"But how is this?" objected Temistocle, seeing a new development. "It
+was the Signor Grandi whom I was to conduct." Nino was silent, but
+there was a crisp sound in the air as he took a banknote from his
+pocket-book. "Diavolo!" muttered the servant, "perhaps it may be
+right, after all." Nino gave him the note.
+
+"That is my passport," said he.
+
+"I have doubts," answered Temistocle, taking it, nevertheless, and
+examining it by the moonlight. "It has no _visa_," he added, with a
+cunning leer. Nino gave him another. Then Temistocle had no more
+doubts.
+
+"I will conduct your excellency," he said. They moved away, and
+Temistocle was so deaf that he did not hear the mules and the tramp of
+the man who led them not ten paces behind him.
+
+Passing round the rock they found themselves in the shadow; a fact
+which Nino noted with much satisfaction, for he feared lest someone
+might be keeping late hours in the castle. The mere noise of the mules
+would attract no attention in a mountain town where the country people
+start for their distant work at all hours of the day and night. They
+came to the door. Nino called softly to the man with the mules to wait
+in the shadow, and Temistocle knocked at the door. The key ground in
+the lock from within, but the hands that held it seemed weak. Nino's
+heart beat fast.
+
+"Temistocle!" cried Hedwig's trembling voice.
+
+"What is the matter, your excellency?" asked the servant through the
+keyhole, not forgetting his manners.
+
+"Oh, I cannot turn the key! What _shall_ I do?"
+
+Nino heard, and pushed the servant aside.
+
+"Courage, my dear lady," he said, aloud, that she might know his
+voice. Hedwig appeared to make a frantic effort, and a little sound of
+pain escaped her as she hurt her hands.
+
+"Oh, what _shall_ I do!" she cried, piteously. "I locked it last
+night, and now I cannot turn the key!"
+
+Nino pressed with all his weight against the door. Fortunately it was
+strong, or he would have broken it in, and it would have fallen upon
+her. But it opened outward, and was heavily bound with iron. Nino
+groaned.
+
+"Has your excellency a taper?" asked Temistocle suddenly, forcing his
+head between Nino's body and the door, in order to be heard.
+
+"Yes. I put it out."
+
+"And matches?" he asked again.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then let your excellency light the taper, and drop some of the
+burning wax on the end of the key. It will be like oil." There was a
+silence. The key was withdrawn, and a light appeared through the hole
+where it had been. Nino instantly fastened his eye to the aperture,
+hoping to catch a glimpse of Hedwig. But he could not see anything
+save two white hands trying to cover the key with wax. He withdrew his
+eye quickly, as the hands pushed the key through again.
+
+Again the lock groaned,--a little sob of effort, another trial, and
+the bolts flew back to their sockets. The prudent Temistocle, who did
+not wish to be a witness of what followed, pretended to exert gigantic
+strength in pulling the door open, and Nino, seeing him, drew back a
+moment to let him pass.
+
+"Your excellency need only knock at the upper door," he said to
+Hedwig, "and I will open. I will watch, lest anyone should enter from
+above."
+
+"You may watch till the rising of the dead," thought Nino, and Hedwig
+stood aside on the narrow step, while Temistocle went up. One instant
+more, and Nino was at her feet, kissing the hem of her dress, and
+speechless with happiness, for his tears of joy flowed fast.
+
+Tenderly Hedwig bent to him, and laid her two hands on his bare head,
+pressing down the thick and curly hair with a trembling, passionate
+motion.
+
+"Signor Cardegna, you must not kneel there,--nay, sir, I know you love
+me! Would I have come to you else? Give me your hand--now--do not kiss
+it so hard--no--Oh, Nino, my own dear Nino--"
+
+What should have followed in her gentle speech is lacking, for many
+and most sweet reasons. I need not tell you that the taper was
+extinguished, and they stood locked in each other's arms against the
+open door, with only the reflection of the moon from the houses
+opposite to illuminate their meeting.
+
+There was and is to me something divinely perfect and godlike in these
+two virgin hearts, each so new to their love, and each so true and
+spotless of all other. I am old to say sweet things of loving, but I
+cannot help it; for though I never was as they are, I have loved much
+in my time. Like our own dear Leopardi, I loved not the woman, but the
+angel which is the type of all women, and whom not finding I perished
+miserably as to my heart. But in my breast there is still the temple
+where the angel dwelt, and the shrine is very fragrant still with the
+divine scent of the heavenly roses that were about her. I think, also,
+that all those who love in this world must have such a holy place of
+worship in their hearts. Sometimes the kingdom of the soul and the
+palace of the body are all Love's, made beautiful and rich with rare
+offerings of great constancy and faith; and all the countless
+creations of transcendent genius, and all the vast aspirations of
+far-reaching power, go up in reverent order to do homage at Love's
+altar, before they come forth, like giants, to make the great world
+tremble and reel in its giddy grooves.
+
+And with another it is different. The world is not his; he is the
+world's, and all his petty doings have its gaudy stencil blotched upon
+them. Yet haply even he has a heart, and somewhere in its fruitless
+fallows stands a poor ruin, that never was of much dignity at its
+best,--poor and broken, and half choked with weeds and briers; but
+even thus the weeds are fragrant herbs, and the briers are wild roses,
+of few and misshapen petals, but sweet, nevertheless. For this ruin
+was once a shrine too, that his mean hands and sterile soul did try
+most ineffectually to build up as a shelter for all that was ever
+worthy in him.
+
+Now, therefore, I say, Love, and love truly and long,--even for ever;
+and if you can do other things well, do them; but if not, at least
+learn to do that, for it is a very gentle thing and sweet in the
+learning. Some of you laugh at me, and say, Behold, this old-fashioned
+driveller, who does not even know that love is no longer in the
+fashion! By Saint Peter, Heaven will soon be out of the fashion too,
+and Messer Satanas will rake in the just and the unjust alike, so that
+he need no longer fast on Fridays, having a more savoury larder! And
+no doubt some of you will say that hell is really so antiquated that
+it should be put in the museum at the University of Rome, for a
+curious old piece of theological furniture. Truth! it is a wonder it
+is not worn out with digesting the tough morsels it gets, when people
+like you are finally gotten rid of from this world! But it is made of
+good material, and it will last, never fear! This is not the gospel of
+peace, but it is the gospel of truth.
+
+Loving hearts and gentle souls shall rule the world some day, for all
+your pestiferous fashions; and old as I am,--I do not mean aged, but
+well on in years,--I believe in love still, and I always will. It is
+true that it was not given to me to love as Nino loves Hedwig, for
+Nino is even now a stronger, sterner man than I. His is the nature
+that can never do enough; his the hands that never tire for her;
+his the art that would surpass, for her, the stubborn bounds of
+possibility. He is never weary of striving to increase her joy of him.
+His philosophy is but that. No quibbles of "being" and "not being," or
+wretched speculations concerning the object of existence; he has found
+the true unity of unities, and he holds it fast.
+
+Meanwhile, you object that I am not proceeding with my task, and
+telling you more facts, recounting more conversations, and painting
+more descriptions. Believe me, this one fact, that to love well is to
+be all man can be, is greater than all the things men have ever
+learned and classified in dictionaries. It is, moreover, the only fact
+that has consistently withstood the ravages of time and social
+revolution; it is the wisdom that has opened, as if by magic, the
+treasures of genius, of goodness, and of all greatness, for everyone
+to see; it is the vital elixir that has made men of striplings, and
+giants of cripples, and heroes of the poor in heart though great in
+spirit. Nino is an example; for he was but a boy, yet he acted like a
+man; a gifted artist in a great city, courted by the noblest, yet he
+kept his faith.
+
+But when I have taken breath I will tell you what he and Hedwig said
+to each other at the gate, and whether at the last she went with him,
+or stayed in dismal Fillettino for her father's sake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+"Let us sit upon the step and talk," said Hedwig, gently disengaging
+herself from his arms.
+
+"The hour is advancing, and it is damp here, my love. You will be
+cold," said Nino, protesting against delay as best he could.
+
+"No; and I must talk to you." She sat down, but Nino pulled off his
+cloak and threw it round her. She motioned him to sit beside her, and
+raised the edge of the heavy mantle with her hand. "I think it is big
+enough," said she.
+
+"I think so," returned Nino; and so the pair sat side by side and hand
+in hand, wrapped in the same garment, deep in the shadow of the rocky
+doorway. "You got my letter, dearest?" asked Nino, hoping to remind
+her of his proposal.
+
+"Yes, it reached me safely. Tell me, Nino, have you thought of me in
+all this time?" she asked, in her turn; and there was the joy of the
+answer already in the question.
+
+"As the earth longs for the sun, my love, through all the dark night.
+You have never been out of my thoughts. You know that I went away to
+find you in Paris, and I went to London, too; and everywhere I sang to
+you, hoping you might be somewhere in the great audiences. But you
+never went to Paris at all. When I got Professor Grandi's letter
+saying that he had discovered you, I had but one night more to sing,
+and then I flew to you."
+
+"And now you have found me," said Hedwig, looking lovingly up to him
+through the shadow.
+
+"Yes, dear one; and I have come but just in time. You are in great
+trouble now, and I am here to save you from it all. Tell me, what is
+it all about?"
+
+"Ah, Nino dear, it is very terrible. My father declared I must marry
+Baron Benoni, or end my days here, in this dismal castle." Nino ground
+his teeth, and drew her even closer to him, so that her head rested on
+his shoulder.
+
+"Infamous wretch!" he muttered.
+
+"Hush, Nino," said Hedwig gently; "he is my father."
+
+"Oh, I mean Benoni, of course," exclaimed Nino quickly.
+
+"Yes, dear, of course you do," Hedwig responded. "But my father has
+changed his mind. He no longer wishes me to marry the Jew."
+
+"Why is that, sweetheart?"
+
+"Because Benoni was very rude to me to-day, and I told my father, who
+said he should leave the house at once."
+
+"I hope he will kill the hound!" cried Nino, with rising anger. "And I
+am glad your father has still the decency to protect you from insult."
+
+"My father is very unkind, Nino mio, but he is an officer and a
+gentleman."
+
+"Oh, I know what that means,--a gentleman! Fie on your gentleman! Do
+you love me less, Hedwig, because I am of the people?"
+
+For all answer Hedwig threw her arms round his neck, passionately.
+
+"Tell me, love, would you think better of me if I were noble?"
+
+"Ah, Nino, how most unkind! Oh, no: I love you, and for your sake I
+love the people,--the strong, brave people, whose man you are."
+
+"God bless you, dear, for that," he answered tenderly. "But say, will
+your father take you back to Rome, now that he has sent away Benoni?"
+
+"No, he will not. He swears that I shall stay here until I can forget
+you." The fair head rested again on his shoulder.
+
+"It appears to me that your most high and noble father has amazingly
+done perjury in his oath," remarked Nino, resting his hand on her
+hair, from which the thick black veil that had muffled it had slipped
+back. "What do you think, love?"
+
+"I do not know," replied Hedwig, in a low voice.
+
+"Why, dear, you have only to close this door behind you, and you may
+laugh at your prison and your jailer!"
+
+"Oh, I could not, Nino; and besides, I am weak, and cannot walk very
+far. And we should have to walk very far, you know."
+
+"You, darling? Do you think I would not and could not bear you from
+here to Rome in these arms?" As he spoke he lifted her bodily from the
+step.
+
+"Oh!" she cried, half frightened, half thrilled, "how strong you are,
+Nino!"
+
+"Not I; it is my love. But I have beasts close by, waiting even now;
+good stout mules, that will think you are only a little silver
+butterfly that has flitted down from the moon for them to carry."
+
+"Have you done that, dear?" she asked, doubtfully, while her heart
+leaped at the thought. "But my father has horses," she added, on a
+sudden, in a very anxious voice.
+
+"Never fear, my darling. No horse could scratch a foothold in the
+place where our mules are as safe as in a meadow. Come, dear heart,
+let us be going." But Hedwig hung her head, and did not stir. "What is
+it, Hedwig?" he asked, bending down to her and softly stroking her
+hair. "Are you afraid of me?"
+
+"No,--oh no! Not of you, Nino,--never of you!" She pushed her face
+close against him, very lovingly.
+
+"What then, dear? Everything is ready for us. Why should we wait?"
+
+"Is it quite right, Nino?"
+
+"Ah, yes, love, it is right,--the rightest right that ever was! How
+can such love as ours be wrong? Have I not to-day implored your father
+to relent and let us marry? I met him in the road--"
+
+"He told me, dear. It was brave of you. And he frightened me by making
+me think he had killed you. Oh, I was so frightened, you do not know!"
+
+"Cruel--" Nino checked the rising epithet. "He is your father, dear,
+and I must not speak my mind. But since he will not let you go, what
+will you do? Will you cease to love me, at his orders?"
+
+"Oh, Nino, never, never, never!"
+
+"But will you stay here, to die of solitude and slow torture?" He
+pleaded passionately.
+
+"I--I suppose so, Nino," she said, in a choking sob.
+
+"Now, by Heaven, you shall not!" He clasped her in his arms, raising
+her suddenly to her feet. Her head fell back upon his shoulder, and
+he could see her turn pale to the very lips, for his sight was
+softened to the gloom, and her eyes shone like stars of fire at him
+from beneath the half-closed lids. But the faint glory of coming
+happiness was already on her face, and he knew that the last fight was
+fought for love's mastery.
+
+"Shall we ever part again, love?" he whispered, close to her. She
+shook her head, her starry eyes still fastened on his.
+
+"Then come, my own dear one,--come," and he gently drew her with him.
+He glanced, naturally enough, at the step where they had sat, and
+something dark caught his eye just above it. Holding her hand in one
+of his, as though fearful lest she should escape him, he stooped
+quickly and snatched the thing from the stair with the other. It was
+Hedwig's little bundle.
+
+"What have you here?" he asked. "Oh, Hedwig, you said you would not
+come?" he added, half laughing, as he discovered what it was.
+
+"I was not sure that I should like you, Nino," she said, as he again
+put his arm about her. Hedwig started violently. "What is that?" she
+exclaimed, in a terrified whisper.
+
+"What, love?"
+
+"The noise! Oh, Nino, there is someone on the staircase, coming down.
+Quick,--quick! Save me, for love's sake!"
+
+But Nino had heard, too, the clumsy but rapid groping of heavy feet on
+the stairs above, far up in the winding stone steps, but momentarily
+coming nearer. Instantly he pushed Hedwig out to the street, tossing
+the bundle on the ground, withdrew the heavy key, shut the door, and
+double turned the lock from the outside, removing the key again at
+once. Nino is a man who acts suddenly and infallibly in great
+emergencies. He took Hedwig in his arms, and ran with her to where the
+mules were standing, twenty yards away.
+
+The stout countryman from Subiaco, who had spent some years in
+breaking stones out of consideration for the Government, as a general
+confession of the inaccuracy of his views regarding foreigners, was by
+no means astonished when he saw Nino appear with a woman in his arms.
+Together they seated her on one of the mules, and ran beside her, for
+there was no time for Nino to mount. They had to pass the door, and
+through all its oaken thickness they could hear the curses and
+imprecations of someone inside, and the wood and iron shook with
+repeated blows and kicks. The quick-witted muleteer saw the bundle
+lying where Nino had tossed it, and he picked it up as he ran.
+
+Both Nino and Hedwig recognised Benoni's voice, but neither spoke as
+they hurried up the street into the bright moonlight, she riding and
+Nino running as he led the other beast at a sharp trot. In five
+minutes they were out of the little town, and Nino, looking back,
+could see that the broad white way behind them was clear of all
+pursuers. Then he himself mounted, and the countryman trotted by his
+side.
+
+Nino brought his mule close to Hedwig's. She was an accomplished
+horsewoman, and had no difficulty in accommodating herself to the
+rough country saddle. Their hands met, and the mules, long accustomed
+to each other's company, moved so evenly that the gentle bond was not
+broken. But although Hedwig's fingers twined lovingly with his, and
+she often turned and looked at him from beneath her hanging veil, she
+was silent for a long time. Nino respected her mood, half guessing
+what she felt, and no sound was heard save an occasional grunt from
+the countryman as he urged the beasts, and the regular clatter of the
+hoofs on the stony road.
+
+To tell the truth, Nino was overwhelmed with anxiety; for his quick
+wits had told him that Benoni, infuriated by the check he had
+received, would lose no time in remounting the stairs, saddling a
+horse, and following them. If only they could reach the steeper part
+of the ravine they could bid defiance to any horse that ever galloped,
+for Benoni must inevitably come to grief if he attempted a pursuit
+into the desolate Serra. He saw that Hedwig had not apprehended the
+danger, when once the baron was stopped by the door, conceiving in
+her heart the impression that he was a prisoner in his own trap.
+Nevertheless, they urged the beasts onward hotly, if one may use the
+word of the long, heavy trot of a mountain mule. The sturdy countryman
+never paused or gasped for breath, keeping pace in a steady,
+determined fashion.
+
+But they need not have been disturbed, for Hedwig's guess was nearer
+the truth than Nino's reasoning. They knew it later, when Temistocle
+found them in Rome, and I may as well tell you how it happened. When
+he reached the head of the staircase, he took the key from the one
+side to the other, locked the door, as agreed, and sat down to wait
+for Hedwig's rap. He indeed suspected that it would never come, for he
+had only pretended not to see the mules; but the prospect of further
+bribes made him anxious not to lose sight of his mistress, and
+certainly not to disobey her, in case she really returned. The
+staircase opened into the foot of the tower, a broad stone chamber,
+with unglazed windows.
+
+Temistocle sat himself down to wait on an old bench that had been put
+there, and the light of the full moon made the place as bright as day.
+Now the lock on the door was rusty, like the one below, and creaked
+loudly every time it was turned. But Temistocle fancied it would not
+be heard in the great building, and felt quite safe. Sitting there, he
+nodded and fell asleep, tired with the watching.
+
+Benoni had probably passed a fiery half hour with the count. But I
+have no means of knowing what was said on either side; at all events,
+he was in the castle still, and, what is more, he was awake. When
+Hedwig opened the upper door and closed it behind her, the sound was
+distinctly audible to his quick ears, and he probably listened and
+speculated, and finally yielded to his curiosity.
+
+However that may have been, he found Temistocle asleep in the tower
+basement, saw the key in the lock, guessed whence the noise had come,
+and turned it. The movement woke Temistocle, who started to his feet,
+and recognised the tall figure of the baron just entering the door.
+Too much confused for reflection, he called aloud, and the baron
+disappeared down the stairs. Temistocle listened at the top, heard
+distinctly the shutting and locking of the lower door, and a moment
+afterwards Benoni's voice, swearing in every language at once, came
+echoing up.
+
+"They have escaped," said Temistocle to himself. "If I am not
+mistaken, I had better do the same." With that he locked the upper
+door, put the key in his pocket, and departed on tiptoe. Having his
+hat and his overcoat with him, and his money in his pocket, he
+determined to leave the baron shut up in the staircase. He softly left
+the castle by the front gate, of which he knew the tricks, and he was
+not heard of for several weeks afterwards. As for Benoni, he was
+completely caught, and probably spent the remainder of the night in
+trying to wake the inmates of the building. So you see that Nino need
+not have been so much disturbed after all.
+
+While these things were happening Nino and Hedwig got fairly away, and
+no one but a mountaineer of the district could possibly have overtaken
+them. Just as they reached the place where the valley suddenly narrows
+to a gorge, the countryman spoke. It was the first word that had been
+uttered by any of the party in an hour, so great had been their haste
+and anxiety.
+
+"I see a man with a beast," he said, shortly.
+
+"So do I," answered Nino. "I expect to meet a friend here." Then he
+turned to Hedwig. "Dear one," he said, "we are to have a companion
+now, who says he is a very proper person."
+
+"A companion?" repeated Hedwig, anxiously.
+
+"Yes. We are to have the society of no less a person than the
+Professor Cornelio Grandi, of the University of Rome. He will go with
+us, and be a witness."
+
+"Yes," said Hedwig, expecting more, "a witness--"
+
+"A witness of our marriage, dear lady; I trust to-morrow,--or to-day,
+since midnight is past." He leaned far over his saddle-bow, as the
+mules clambered up the rough place. Her hand went out to him, and he
+took it. They were so near that I could see them. He dropped the reins
+and bared his head, and so, riding, he bent himself still farther, and
+pressed his lips upon her hand: and that was all the marriage contract
+that was sealed between them. But it was enough.
+
+There I sat, upon a stone in the moonlight, just below the trees,
+waiting for them. And there I had been for two mortal hours or more,
+left to meditate upon the follies of professors in general and of
+myself in particular. I was beginning to wonder whether Nino would
+come at all, and I can tell you I was glad to see the little caravan.
+Ugh! it is an ugly place to be alone in.
+
+They rode up, and I went forward to meet them.
+
+"Nino mio," said I, "you have made me pass a terrible time here. Thank
+Heaven, you are come; and the contessina, too! Your most humble
+servant, signorina." I bowed low and Hedwig bent a little forward, but
+the moon was just behind her, and I could not see her face.
+
+"I did not think we should meet so soon, Signor Grandi. But I am very
+glad." There was a sweet shyness in the little speech that touched me.
+I am sure she was afraid that it was not yet quite right, or at least
+that there should be some other lady in the party.
+
+"Courage, Messer Cornelio," said Nino. "Mount your donkey, and let us
+be on our way."
+
+"Is not the contessina tired?" I inquired. "You might surely rest a
+little here."
+
+"Caro mio," answered Nino, "we must be safe at the top of the pass
+before we rest. We were so unfortunate as to wake his excellency the
+Baron Benoni out of some sweet dream or other, and perhaps he is not
+far behind us."
+
+An encounter with the furious Jew was not precisely attractive to me,
+and I was on my donkey before you could count a score. I suggested to
+Nino that it would be wiser if the countryman led the way through the
+woods, and I followed him. Then the contessina would be behind me,
+and Nino would bring up the rear. It occurred to me that the mules
+might outstrip my donkey if I went last, and so I might be left to
+face the attack, if any came; whereas, if I were in front, the others
+could not go any faster than I.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+The gorge rises steep and precipitous between the lofty mountains on
+both sides, and it is fortunate that we had some light from the moon,
+which was still high at two o'clock, being at the full.
+
+It is a ghastly place enough. In the days of the Papal States the
+Serra di Sant' Antonio, as it is called, was the shortest passage to
+the kingdom of Naples, and the frontier line ran across its summit. To
+pass from one dominion to the other it would be necessary to go out of
+the way some forty or fifty miles, perhaps, unless one took this
+route; and the natural consequence was that outlaws, smugglers,
+political fugitives, and all such manner of men, found it a great
+convenience. Soldiers were stationed in Fillettino and on the other
+side, to check illicit traffic and brigandage, and many were the
+fights that were fought among these giant beeches.
+
+The trees are of primeval dimensions, for no one has yet been
+enterprising enough to attempt to fell the timber. The gorge is so
+steep, and in many places so abruptly precipitous, that the logs could
+never be removed; and so they have grown undisturbed for hundreds of
+years, rotting and falling away as they stand. The beech is a lordly
+tree, with its great smooth trunk and its spreading branches, and
+though it never reaches the size of the chestnut, it is far more
+beautiful and long-lived.
+
+Here and there, at every hundred yards or so, it seemed to me, the
+countryman would touch his hat and cross himself as he clambered up
+the rocky path, and then I did likewise; for there was always some
+rude cross or rough attempt at the inscription of a name at such
+spots, which marked where a man had met his untimely end. Sometimes
+the moonbeams struggled through the branches, still bare of leaves,
+and fell on a few bold initials and a date; and sometimes we came to a
+broad ledge where no trees were, but only a couple of black sticks
+tied at right angles for a cross. It was a dismal place, and the owls
+hooted at us.
+
+Besides, it grew intensely cold towards morning, so that the
+countryman wanted to stop and make a fire to warm ourselves. Though it
+was the end of March, the ground was frozen as hard as any stone
+wherever it was free from rocks. But Nino dismounted, and insisted
+upon wrapping his cloak about Hedwig; and then he walked, for fear of
+catching cold, and the countryman mounted his mule and clambered away
+in front. In this way Hedwig and Nino lagged behind, conversing in low
+tones that sounded very soft; and when I looked round, I could see how
+he held his hand on her saddle and supported her in the rough places.
+Poor child, who would have thought she could bear such terrible work!
+But she had the blood of a soldierly old race in her veins, and would
+have struggled on silently till she died.
+
+I think it would be useless to describe every stone on the desolate
+journey, but when the morning dawned we were at the top, and we found
+the descent much easier. The rosy streaks came first, quite suddenly,
+and in a few minutes the sun was up, and the eventful night was past.
+I was never so glad to get rid of a night in my life. It is fortunate
+that I am so thin and light, for I could never have reached the
+high-road alive had I been as fat as De Pretis is; and certainly the
+little donkey would have died by the way. He was quite as thin when I
+sold him again as when I bought him, a fortnight before, in spite of
+the bread I had given him.
+
+Hedwig drew her veil close about her face as the daylight broke, for
+she would not let Nino see how pale and tired she was. But when at
+last we were in the broad, fertile valley which marks the beginning of
+the old kingdom of Naples, we reached a village where there was an
+inn, and Nino turned everyone out of the best room with a high hand,
+and had a couch of some sort spread for Hedwig. He himself walked up
+and down outside the door for five whole hours, lest she should be
+disturbed in her sleep. As for me I lay, on a bench, rolled in my
+cloak, and slept as I have not slept since I was twenty.
+
+Nino knew that the danger of pursuit was past now, and that the first
+thing necessary was to give Hedwig rest; for she was so tired that she
+could not eat, though there were very good eggs to be had, of which I
+ate three, and drank some wine, which does not compare to that on the
+Roman side.
+
+The sturdy man from Subiaco seemed like iron, for he ate sparingly and
+drank less, and went out into the village to secure a conveyance and
+to inquire the nearest way to Ceprano.
+
+But when, as I have said, Nino had guarded Hedwig's door for five
+hours he woke me from my sleep, and by that time it was about two in
+the afternoon.
+
+"Hi, Messer Cornelio! wake up!" he cried pulling my arm. And I rubbed
+my eyes.
+
+"What do you want, Nino?" I inquired.
+
+"I want to be married immediately," he replied, still pulling at my
+elbow.
+
+"Well, pumpkin-head," I said angrily, "marry, then, in Heaven's name,
+and let me sleep! I do not want to marry anybody."
+
+"But I do," retorted Nino, sitting down on the bench and laying a hand
+on my shoulder. He could still see Hedwig's door from where he sat.
+
+"In this place?" I asked. "Are you serious?"
+
+"Perfectly. This is a town of some size, and there must be a mayor
+here who marries people when they take the fancy."
+
+"Diavolo! I suppose so," I assented.
+
+"A sindaco,--there must be one, surely."
+
+"Very well, go and find him, good-for-nothing!" I exclaimed.
+
+"But I cannot go away and leave that door until she wakes," he
+objected. "Dear Messer Cornelio, you have done so much for me, and are
+so kind,--will you not go out and find the sindaco, and bring him here
+to marry us?"
+
+"Nino," I said, gravely, "the ass is a patient beast, and very
+intelligent, but there is a limit to his capabilities. So long as it
+is merely a question of doing things you cannot do, very well. But if
+it comes to this, that I must find not only the bride, but also the
+mayor and the priest, I say, with good Pius IX.,--rest his soul,--_non
+possumus_." Nino laughed. He could afford to laugh now.
+
+"Messer Cornelio, a child could tell you have been asleep. I never
+heard such a string of disconnected sentences in my life. Come, be
+kind, and get me a mayor that I may be married."
+
+"I tell you I will not," I cried, stubbornly. "Go yourself."
+
+"But I cannot leave the door. If anything should happen to her--"
+
+"Macchè! What should happen to her, pray? I will put my bench across
+the door, and sit there till you come back."
+
+"I am not quite sure--" he began.
+
+"Idiot!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Well, let us see how it looks." And with that he ousted me from my
+bench, and carried it, walking on tiptoe, to the entrance of Hedwig's
+room. Then he placed it across the door. "Now sit down," he said,
+authoritatively, but in a whisper; and I took my place in the middle
+of the long seat. He stood back and looked at me with an artistic
+squint.
+
+"You look so proper," he said, "that I am sure nobody will think of
+trying the door while you sit there. Will you remain till I come
+back?"
+
+"Like Saint Peter in his chair," I whispered, for I wanted to get rid
+of him.
+
+"Well, then, I must risk whatever may happen, and leave you here." So
+he went away. Now I ask you if this was not a ridiculous position. But
+I had discovered, in the course of my fortnight's wanderings, that I
+was really something of a philosopher in practice, and I am proud to
+say that on this occasion I smoked in absolute indifference to the
+absurdity of the thing. People came and stood at a distance in the
+passage, and eyed me curiously. But they knew I belonged to the party
+of foreigners, and doubtless they supposed it was the custom of my
+country to guard doors in that way.
+
+An hour passed, and I heard Hedwig stirring in the room. After a time
+she came close to the door and put her hand on the lock, so that it
+began to rattle, but she hesitated, and went away again. I once more
+heard her moving about. Then I heard her open the window, and at last
+she came boldly and opened the door, which turned inward. I sat like a
+rock, not knowing whether Nino would like me to turn round and look.
+
+"Signor Grandi!" she cried at last in laughing tones.
+
+"Yes, signorina!" I replied, respectfully, without moving. She
+hesitated.
+
+"What are you doing in that strange position?" she asked.
+
+"I am mounting guard," I answered. "I promised Nino that I would sit
+here till he came back." She fairly laughed now, and it was the most
+airy, silvery laugh in the world.
+
+"But why do you not look at me?"
+
+"I am not sure that Nino would let me," said I. "I promised not to
+move, and I will keep my promise."
+
+"Will you let me out?" she asked, struggling with her merriment.
+
+"By no means," I answered; "anymore than I would let anybody in."
+
+"Then we must make the best of it," said she. "But I will bring a
+chair and sit down, while you tell me the news."
+
+"Will you assume all responsibility toward Nino, signorina, if I turn
+so that I can see you?" I asked, as she sat down.
+
+"I will say that I positively ordered you to do so," she answered,
+gaily. "Now look, and tell me where Signor Cardegna is gone."
+
+I looked indeed, and it was long before I looked away. The rest, the
+freedom, and the happiness had done their work quickly, in spite of
+all the dreadful anxiety and fatigue. The fresh, transparent colour
+was in her cheeks, and her blue eyes were clear and bright. The statue
+had been through the fire, and was made a living thing, beautiful, and
+breathing, and real.
+
+"Tell me," she said, the light dancing in her eyes, "where is he
+gone?"
+
+"He is gone to find the mayor of this imposing capital," I replied.
+Hedwig suddenly blushed, and turned her glistening eyes away. She was
+beautiful so.
+
+"Are you very tired, signorina? I ought not to ask the question, for
+you look as though you had never been tired in your life."
+
+There is no saying what foolish speeches I might have made had not
+Nino returned. He was radiant, and I anticipated that he must have
+succeeded in his errand.
+
+"Ha! Messer Cornelio, is this the way you keep watch?" he cried.
+
+"I found him here," said Hedwig, shyly, "and he would not even glance
+at me until I positively insisted upon it." Nino laughed, as he would
+have laughed at most things in that moment, for sheer superfluity of
+happiness.
+
+"Signorina," he said, "would it be agreeable to you to walk for a few
+minutes after your sleep? The weather is wonderfully fine, and I am
+sure you owe it to the world to show the roses which rest has given
+you."
+
+Hedwig blushed softly, and I rose and went away, conceiving that I had
+kept watch long enough. But Nino called after me, as he moved the
+bench from the door.
+
+"Messer Cornelio, will you not come with us? Surely you need a walk
+very much, and we can ill spare your company. My lady, let me offer
+you my arm."
+
+In this manner we left the inn, a wedding procession which could not
+have been much smaller, and the singing of an old woman, who sat with
+her distaff in front of her house, was the wedding march. Nino seemed
+in no great haste, I thought, and I let them walk as they would, while
+I kept soberly in the middle of the road, a little way behind.
+
+It was not far that we had to go, however, and soon we came to a large
+brick house, with an uncommonly small door, over which hung a wooden
+shield with the arms of Italy brightly painted in green and red and
+white.
+
+Nino and Hedwig entered arm in arm, and I slunk guiltily in after
+them. Hedwig had drawn her veil, which was the only head-dress she
+had, close about her face.
+
+In a quarter of an hour the little ceremony was over, and the
+registers were signed by us all. Nino also got a stamped certificate,
+which he put very carefully in his pocket-book. I never knew what it
+cost Nino to overcome the scruples of the sindaco about marrying a
+strange couple from Rome in that outlandish place, where the peasants
+stared at us as though we had been the most unnatural curiosities, and
+even the pigs in the street jogged sullenly out of our way as though
+not recognising that we were human.
+
+At all events, the thing was done, and Hedwig von Lira became for the
+rest of her life Edvigia Cardegna. And I felt very guilty. The pair
+went down the steps of the house together in front of me, and stopped
+as they reached the street; forgetting my presence, I presume. They
+had not forgotten me so long as I was needed to be of use to them;
+but I must not complain.
+
+"We can face the world together now, my dear lady," said Nino, as he
+drew her little hand through his arm. She looked up at him, and I
+could see her side face. I shall never forget the expression. There
+was in it something I really never saw before, which made me feel as
+though I were in church; and I knew then that there was no wrong in
+helping such love as that to its fulfilment.
+
+By the activity of the man from Subiaco a curious conveyance was ready
+for us, being something between a gig and a cart, and a couple of
+strong horses were hired for the long drive. The countryman, who had
+grown rich in the last three days, offered to buy the thin little ass
+which had carried me so far and so well. He observed that he was blind
+of one eye, which I had never found out, and I do not believe it was
+true. The way he showed it was by snapping his fingers close to the
+eye in question. The donkey winked, and the countryman said that if
+the eye were good the beast would see that the noise was made by the
+fingers, and would not be frightened, and would therefore not wink.
+
+"You see," said he, "he thinks it is a whip cracking, and so he is
+afraid."
+
+"Do donkeys always wink when they are frightened?" I inquired. "It is
+very interesting."
+
+"Yes," said the countryman, "they mostly do." At all events, I was
+obliged to take the man's own price, which was little enough,--not a
+third of what I had given.
+
+The roads were good, and the long and the short of the matter, without
+any more details, is that we reached Rome very early the next
+morning, having caught the night train from Naples. Hedwig slept most
+of the time in the carriage and all the time in the train, while Nino,
+who never seemed to tire or to need sleep, sat watching her with wide,
+happy eyes. But perhaps he slept a little too, for I did, and I cannot
+answer for his wakefulness through every minute of the night.
+
+Once I asked him what he intended to do in Rome.
+
+"We will go to the hotel Costanzi," he answered, which is a
+foreigners' resort. And if she is rested enough we will come down to
+you, and see what we can do about being married properly in church by
+the old curato."
+
+"The marriage by the sindaco is perfectly legal," I remarked.
+
+"It is a legal contract, but it is not a marriage that pleases me," he
+said, gravely.
+
+"But, caro mio, without offence, your bride is a Protestant, a
+Lutheran; not to mince matters, a heretic. They will make objections."
+
+"She is an angel," said Nino, with great conviction.
+
+"But the angels neither marry nor are given in marriage," I objected,
+arguing the point to pass the time.
+
+"What do you make of it, then, Messer Cornelio?" he asked, with a
+smile.
+
+"Why, as a heretic she ought to burn, and as an angel she ought not to
+marry."
+
+"It is better to marry than to burn," retorted Nino, triumphantly.
+
+"Diavolo! Have you had St. Paul for a tutor?" I asked, for I knew the
+quotation, being fond of Greek.
+
+"I heard a preacher cite it once at the Gesù, and I thought it a good
+saying."
+
+Early in the morning we rolled into the great station of Rome, and
+took an affectionate leave of each other, with the promise that Hedwig
+and Nino would visit me in the course of the day. I saw them into a
+carriage, with Nino's small portmanteau, and Hedwig's bundle, and then
+mounted a modest omnibus that runs from the termini to St. Peter's,
+and goes very near my house.
+
+All the bells were ringing gladly, as if to welcome us, for it was
+Easter morning; and though it is not so kept as it used to be, it is
+nevertheless a great feast. Besides, the spring was at hand, and the
+acacia-trees in the great square were budding, though everything was
+still so backward in the hills. April was at hand, which the
+foreigners think is our best month; but I prefer June and July, when
+the weather is warm, and the music plays in the Piazza Colonna of an
+evening. For all that, April is a glad time, after the disagreeable
+winter.
+
+There was with me much peace on that Easter day, for I felt that my
+dear boy was safe after all his troubles. At least he was safe from
+anything that could be done to part him from Hedwig; for the civil
+laws are binding, and Hedwig was of the age when a young woman is
+legally free to marry whom she pleases. Of course old Lira might still
+make himself disagreeable, but I fancied him too much a man of the
+world to desire a scandal, when no good could follow. The one shadow
+in the future was the anger of Benoni, who would be certain to seek
+some kind of revenge for the repulse he had suffered. I was still
+ignorant of his whereabouts, not yet knowing what I knew long
+afterwards, and have told you, because otherwise you would have been
+as much in the dark as he was himself, when Temistocle cunningly
+turned the lock of the staircase door and left him to his curses and
+his meditations. I have had much secret joy in thinking what a
+wretched night he must have passed there, and how his long limbs must
+have ached with sitting about on the stones, and how hoarse he must
+have been from the dampness and the swearing.
+
+I reached home, the dear old number twenty-seven in Santa Catarina dei
+Funari, by half-past seven, or even earlier; and I was glad when I
+rang the bell on the landing, and called through the keyhole in my
+impatience.
+
+"Mariuccia, Mariuccia, come quickly! It is I!" I cried.
+
+"O Madonna mia!' I heard her exclaim, and there was a tremendous
+clatter, as she dropped the coffee-pot. She was doubtless brewing
+herself a quiet cup with my best Porto-Rico, which I do not allow her
+to use. She thought I was never coming back, the cunning old hag!
+
+"Dio mio, Signor Professore! A good Easter to you!" she cried, as I
+heard the flat pattering of her old feet inside, running to the door.
+"I thought the wolves had eaten you, padrone mio!" And at last she let
+me in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+"A tall gentleman came here late last night, Signor Professore," said
+Mariuccia, as I sat down in the old green arm-chair. "He seemed very
+angry about something, and said he must positively see you." The idea
+of Benoni flashed uneasily across my brain.
+
+"Was he the grave signore who came a few days before I left?" I asked.
+
+"Heaven preserve us!" ejaculated Mariuccia. "This one was much older,
+and seemed to be lame; for when he tried to shake his stick at me, he
+could not stand without it. He looked like one of the old Swiss guards
+at Palazzo." By which she meant the Vatican, as you know.
+
+"It must have been the count," I said, thinking aloud.
+
+"A count! A pretty sort of count, indeed, to come waking people from
+their beds in the night! He had not even a high hat like the one you
+wear when you go to the University. A count, indeed!"
+
+"Go and make me some good coffee, Mariuccia," I said, eying her
+severely to show I suspected her of having used mine; "and be careful
+to make it of my best Porto-Rico, if you have any left, without any
+chicory."
+
+"A count, indeed!" she muttered angrily as she hobbled away, not in
+the least heeding my last remark, which I believed to be withering.
+
+I had not much time for reflection that morning. My old clothes were
+in tatters, and the others looked very fine by contrast, so that when
+I had made my toilet I felt better able to show myself to the
+distinguished company I expected. I had seen so much extraordinary
+endurance in Nino and Hedwig during the last two or three days that I
+was prepared to see them appear at any moment, brushed and curled and
+ready for anything. The visit of the count, however, had seriously
+disturbed me, and I hardly knew what to look for from him. As it
+turned out, I had not long to wait.
+
+I was resting myself in the arm-chair, and smoking one of those
+infamous cigars that nearly suffocate me, just for company, and I was
+composing in my mind a letter to the authorities of the University,
+requesting that I might begin to lecture again. I did not find out
+until later that I need not have written to them at all when I went
+away, as ten days are always allowed at Easter, in any case. It is
+just like my forgetfulness, to have made such a mistake. I really only
+missed four lectures. But my composition was interrupted by the
+door-bell, and my heart sank in my breast. Mariuccia opened, and I
+knew by the sound of the stick on the bricks that the lame count had
+come to wreak his vengeance.
+
+Being much frightened, I was very polite, and bowed a great many times
+as he came toward me. It was he, looking much the same as ever, wooden
+and grizzly.
+
+"I am much honoured, sir," I began, "by seeing you here."
+
+"You are Signor Grandi?" he inquired, with a stiff bow.
+
+"The same, Signor Conte, and very much at your service," I answered,
+rubbing my hands together to give myself an air of satisfaction.
+
+"Let us not waste time," he said, severely but not roughly. "I have
+come to you on business. My daughter has disappeared with your son, or
+whatever relation the Signor Giovanni Cardegna is to you."
+
+"He is no relation, Signor Conte. He was an orphan, and I--"
+
+"It is the same," he interrupted. "You are responsible for his
+doings."
+
+I responsible! Good heavens, had I not done all in my power to prevent
+the rashness of that hot-headed boy?
+
+"Will you not sit down, sir?" I said, moving a chair for him. He took
+the seat rather reluctantly.
+
+"You do not seem much astonished at what I tell you," he remarked. "It
+is evident that you are in the plot."
+
+"Unless you will inform me of what you know, Signor Conte," I replied
+with urbanity, "I cannot see how I can be of service to you."
+
+"On the contrary," said he, "I am the person to ask questions. I wake
+up in the morning and find my daughter gone. I naturally inquire where
+she is."
+
+"Most naturally, as you say, sir. I would do the same."
+
+"And you, also very naturally, answer my questions," he continued
+severely.
+
+"In that case, sir," I replied, "I would call to your attention the
+fact that you have asked but one question,--whether I were Signor
+Grandi. I answered that in the affirmative." You see I was
+apprehensive of what he might do, and desired to gain time. But he
+began to lose his temper.
+
+"I have no patience with you Italians," he said, gruffly; "you bandy
+words and play with them as if you enjoyed it."
+
+Diavolo, thought I, he is angry at my silence. What will he be if I
+speak?
+
+"What do you wish to know, Signor Conte?" I inquired, in suave tones.
+
+"I wish to know where my daughter is. Where is she? Do you understand?
+I am asking a question now, and you cannot deny it."
+
+I was sitting in front of him, but I rose and pretended to shut the
+door, thus putting the table and the end of the piano between us,
+before I answered.
+
+"She is in Rome, Signor Conte," I said.
+
+"With Cardegna?" he asked, not betraying any emotion.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Very well. I will have them arrested at once. That is all I wanted."
+He put his crutch-stick to the floor as though about to rise. Seeing
+that his anger was not turned against me, I grew bold.
+
+"You had better not do that," I mildly observed, across the table.
+
+"And why not, sir?" he asked, quickly, hesitating whether to get upon
+his feet or to remain seated.
+
+"Because they are married already," I answered, retreating toward the
+door. But there was no need for flight. He sank back in the chair, and
+the stick fell from his hands upon the bricks with a loud rattle. Poor
+old man! I thought he was quite overcome by the news I had
+communicated. He sat staring at the window, his hands lying idly on
+his knees. I moved to come toward him, but he raised one hand and
+began to twirl his great gray moustache fiercely; whereat I resumed my
+former position of safety.
+
+"How do you know this?" he demanded on a sudden.
+
+"I was present at the civil marriage yesterday," I answered, feeling
+very much scared. He began to notice my manoeuvre.
+
+"You need not be so frightened," he said, coldly. "It would be no use
+to kill any of you now, though I would like to."
+
+"I assure you that no one ever frightened me in my own house, sir," I
+answered. I think my voice must have sounded very bold, for he did not
+laugh at me.
+
+"I suppose it is irrevocable," he said, as if to himself.
+
+"Oh, yes--perfectly irrevocable," I answered, promptly. "They are
+married, and have come back to Rome. They are at the Hotel Costanzi. I
+am sure that Nino would give you every explanation."
+
+"Who is Nino?" he asked.
+
+"Nino Cardegna, of course--"
+
+"And do you foolishly imagine that I am going to ask him to explain
+why he took upon himself to carry away my daughter?" The question was
+scornful enough.
+
+"Signor Conte," I protested, "you would do well to see them, for she
+is your daughter, after all."
+
+"She is not my daughter any longer," growled the count. "She is
+married to a singer, a tenor, an Italian with curls and lies and
+grins, as you all have. Fie!" And he pulled his moustache again.
+
+"A singer," said I, "if you like, but a great singer, and an honest
+man."
+
+"Oh, I did not come here to listen to your praises of that scoundrel!"
+he exclaimed, hotly. "I have seen enough of him to be sick of him."
+
+"I wish he were in this room to hear you call him by such names," I
+said; for I began to grow angry, as I sometimes do, and then my fear
+grows small and my heart grows big.
+
+"Ah!" said he, ironically. "And pray, what would he do to me?"
+
+"He would probably ask you again for that pistol you refused to lend
+him the other day." I thought I might as well show that I knew all
+about the meeting in the road. But Lira laughed grimly, and the idea
+of a fight seemed to please him.
+
+"I would not refuse it this time. In fact, since you mention it, I
+think I will go and offer it to him now. Do you think I should be
+justified, Master Censor?"
+
+"No," said I, coming forward and facing him. "But if you like you can
+fight me. I am your own age, and a better match." I would have fought
+him then and there, with the chairs, if he had liked.
+
+"Why should I fight you?" he inquired, in some astonishment. "You
+strike me as a very peaceable person indeed."
+
+"Diavolo! do you expect me to stand quietly and hear you call my boy a
+scoundrel? What do you take me for, signore? Do you know that I am the
+last of the Conti Grandi, and as noble as any of you, and as fit to
+fight, though my hair is gray?"
+
+"I knew, indeed, that one member of that illustrious family survived
+in Rome," he answered, gravely, "but I was not aware that you were he.
+I am glad to make your acquaintance, and I sincerely wish that you
+were the father of the young man who has married my daughter. If you
+were, I would be ready to arrange matters." He looked at me
+searchingly.
+
+"Unfortunately, I am not any relation of his," I answered. "His father
+and mother were peasants on my estate of Serveti, when it still was
+mine. They died when he was a baby, and I took care of him and
+educated him."
+
+"Yes, he is well educated," reflected the count, "for I examined him
+myself. Let us talk no more about fighting. You are quite sure that
+the marriage is legal?"
+
+"Quite certain. You can do nothing, and any attempt would be a useless
+scandal. Besides, they are so happy, you do not know."
+
+"So happy, are they? Do you think I am happy too?
+
+"A man has every reason to be so, when his daughter marries an honest
+man. It is a piece of good luck that does not happen often."
+
+"Probably from the scarcity of daughters who are willing to drive
+their fathers to distraction by their disobedience and contempt of
+authority,'" he said, savagely.
+
+"No,--from the scarcity of honest men," I said. "Nino is a very honest
+man. You may go from one end of Italy to the other and not meet one
+like him."
+
+"I sincerely hope so," growled Lira. "Otherwise Italy would be as
+wholly unredeemed and unredeemable as you pretend that some parts of
+it are now. But I will tell you, Conte Grandi, you cannot walk across
+the street, in my country, without meeting a dozen men who would
+tremble at the idea of such depravity as an elopement."
+
+"Our ideas of honesty differ, sir," I replied. "When a man loves a
+woman, I consider it honest in him to act as though he did, and not to
+go and marry another for consolation, beating her with a thick stick
+whenever he chances to think of the first. That seems to be the
+northern idea of domestic felicity." Lira laughed gruffly, supposing
+that my picture was meant for a jest. "I am glad you are amused," I
+added.
+
+"Upon my honour, sir," he replied, "you are so vastly amusing that I
+am half inclined to forgive my daughter's rashness, for the sake of
+enjoying your company. First you entrench yourself behind your
+furniture; then you propose to fight me; and now you give me the most
+original views upon love and marriage that I ever heard. Indeed I have
+cause to be amused."
+
+"I am happy to oblige you," I said, tartly, for I did not like his
+laughter. "So long as you confine your amusement to me, I am
+satisfied; but pray avoid using any objectionable language about
+Nino."
+
+"Then my only course is to avoid the subject?"
+
+"Precisely," I replied, with a good deal of dignity.
+
+"In that case I will go," he said. I was immensely relieved, for his
+presence was most unpleasant, as you may readily guess. He got upon
+his feet, and I showed him to the door, with all courtesy. I expected
+that he would say something about the future before leaving me, but I
+was mistaken. He bowed in silence, and stumped down the steps with his
+stick.
+
+I sank into my arm-chair with a great sigh of relief, for I felt that,
+for me at least, the worst was over. I had faced the infuriated
+father, and I might now face anybody with the consciousness of power.
+I always feel conscious of great power when danger is past. Once more
+I lit my cigar, and stretched myself out to take some rest. The
+constant strain on the nerves was becoming very wearing, and I knew
+very well that on the morrow I should need bleeding and mallows tea.
+Hardly was I settled and comfortable when I heard that dreadful bell
+again.
+
+"This is the day of the resurrection indeed," cried Mariuccia
+frantically from the kitchen. And she hurried to the door. But I
+cannot describe to you the screams of joy and the strange sounds,
+between laughing and crying, that her leathern throat produced when
+she found Nino and Hedwig on the landing, waiting for admission. And
+when Nino explained that he had been married, and that this beautiful
+lady with the bright eyes and the golden hair was his wife, the old
+woman fairly gave way, and sat upon a chair in an agony of amazement
+and admiration. But the pair came toward me, and I met them with a
+light heart.
+
+"Nino," said Hedwig, "we have not been nearly grateful enough to
+Signor Grandi for all he has done. I have been very selfish," she
+said, penitently turning to me.
+
+"Ah no, signora," I replied,--for she was married now, and no longer
+"signorina,"--"it is never selfish of such as you to let an old man do
+you service. You have made me very happy." And then I embraced Nino,
+and Hedwig gave me her hand, which I kissed in the old fashion.
+
+"And so this is your old home, Nino?" said Hedwig presently, looking
+about her, and touching the things in the room, as a woman will when
+she makes acquaintance with a place she has often heard of. "What a
+dear room it is! I wish we could live here!" How very soon a woman
+learns that "we" that means so much! It is never forgotten, even when
+the love that bred it is dead and cold.
+
+"Yes," I said, for Nino seemed so enraptured, as he watched her, that
+he could not speak. "And there is the old piano, with the end on the
+boxes because it has no leg, as I dare say Nino has often told you."
+
+"Nino said it was a very good piano," said she.
+
+"And indeed it is," he said, with enthusiasm. "It is out of tune now,
+perhaps, but it is the source of all my fortune." He leaned over the
+crazy instrument and seemed to caress it.
+
+"Poor old thing!" said Hedwig, compassionately. "I am sure there is
+music in it still--the sweet music of the past."
+
+"Yes," said he laughing, "it must be the music of the past, for it
+would not stand the 'music of the future,' as they call it, for five
+minutes. All the strings would break." Hedwig sat down on the chair
+that was in front of it, and her fingers went involuntarily to the
+keys, though she is no great musician.
+
+"I can play a little, you know, Nino," she said shyly, and looked up
+to his face for a response, not venturing to strike the chords. And it
+would have done you good to see how brightly Nino smiled and
+encouraged her little offer of music--he, the great artist, in whose
+life music was both sword and sceptre. But he knew that she had
+greatness also of a different kind, and he loved the small jewels in
+his crown as well as the glorious treasures of its larger wealth.
+
+"Play to me, my love," he said, not caring now whether I heard the
+sweet words or not. She blushed a little, nevertheless, and glanced at
+me; then her fingers strayed over the keys, and drew out music that
+was very soft and yet very gay. Suddenly she ceased, and leaned
+forward on the desk of the piano, looking at him.
+
+"Do you know, Nino, it was once my dream to be a great musician. If I
+had not been so rich I should have taken the profession in earnest.
+But now, you see, it is different, is it not?"
+
+"Yes, it is all different now," he answered, not knowing exactly what
+she meant, but radiantly happy, all the same.
+
+"I mean," she said, hesitating--"I mean that now that we are to be
+always together, what you do I do, and what I do you do. Do you
+understand?"
+
+"Yes, perfectly," said Nino, rather puzzled, but quite satisfied.
+
+"Ah no, dear," said she, forgetting my presence, and letting her hand
+steal into his as he stood, "you do not understand--quite. I mean that
+so long as one of us can be a great musician it is enough, and I am
+just as great as though I did it all myself."
+
+Thereupon Nino forgot himself altogether, and kissed her golden hair.
+But then he saw me looking, for it was so pretty a sight that I could
+not help it, and he remembered.
+
+"Oh!" he said in a tone of embarrassment that I had never heard
+before. Then Hedwig blushed very much too, and looked away, and Nino
+put himself between her and me, so that I might not see her.
+
+"Could you play something for me to sing, Hedwig?" he asked suddenly.
+
+"Oh, yes! I can play 'Spirto gentil,' by heart," she cried, hailing
+the idea with delight.
+
+In a moment they were both lost, and indeed so was I, in the dignity
+and beauty of the simple melody. As he began to sing, Nino bent down
+to her, and almost whispered the first words into her ear. But soon he
+stood erect, and let the music flow from his lips just as God made it.
+His voice was tired with the long watching and the dust and cold and
+heat of the journey; but, as De Pretis said when he began, he has an
+iron throat, and the weariness only made the tones soft and tender and
+thrilling, that would perhaps have been too strong for my little room.
+
+Suddenly he stopped short in the middle of a note, and gazed
+open-mouthed at the door. And I looked, too, and was horrified; and
+Hedwig, looking also, screamed and sprang back to the window,
+overturning the chair she had sat on.
+
+In the doorway stood Ahasuerus Benoni, the Jew.
+
+Mariuccia had imprudently forgotten to shut the door when Hedwig and
+Nino came, and the baron had walked in unannounced. You may imagine
+the fright I was in. But, after all, it was natural enough that after
+what had occurred he, as well as the count, should seek an interview
+with me, to obtain what information I was willing to give.
+
+There he stood in his gray clothes, tall and thin and smiling as of
+yore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+Nino is a man for great emergencies, as I have had occasion to say,
+and when he realised who the unwelcome visitor was, he acted as
+promptly as usual. With a face like marble he walked straight across
+the room to Benoni and faced him.
+
+"Baron Benoni," he said, in a low voice, "I warn you that you are most
+unwelcome here. If you attempt to say any word to my wife, or to force
+an entrance, I will make short work of you." Benoni eyed him with a
+sort of pitying curiosity as he made this speech:--
+
+"Do not fear, Signor Cardegna. I came to see Signor Grandi, and to
+ascertain from him precisely what you have voluntered to tell me. You
+cannot suppose that I have any object in interrupting the leisure of a
+great artist, or the privacy of his very felicitous domestic
+relations. I have not a great deal to say. That is, I have always a
+great deal to say about everything, but I shall at present confine
+myself to a very little."
+
+"You will be wise," said Nino, scornfully, "and you would be wiser if
+you confined yourself to nothing at all."
+
+"Patience, Signor Cardegna," protested Benoni. "You will readily
+conceive that I am a little out of breath with the stairs, for I am a
+very old man."
+
+"In that case," I said, from the other side of the room, "I may as
+well occupy your breathing time by telling you that any remarks you
+are likely to make to me have been forestalled by the Graf von Lira,
+who has been with me this morning." Benoni smiled, but both Hedwig and
+Nino looked at me in surprise.
+
+"I only wished to say," returned Benoni, "that I consider you in the
+light of an interesting phenomenon. Nay, Signor Cardegna, do not look
+so fierce. I am an old man--"
+
+"An old devil," said Nino hotly.
+
+"An old fool," said I.
+
+"An old reprobate," said Hedwig, from her corner, in deepest
+indignation.
+
+"Precisely," returned Benoni, smilingly. "Many people have been good
+enough to tell me so before. Thanks, kind friends, I believe you with
+all my heart. Meanwhile, man, devil, fool, or reprobate, I am very
+old. I am about to leave Rome for St. Petersburg, and I will take this
+last opportunity of informing you that in a very singularly long life
+I have met with only two or three such remarkable instances as this of
+yours."
+
+"Say what you wish to say, and go," said Nino, roughly.
+
+"Certainly. And whenever I have met with such an instance I have done
+my very utmost to reduce it to the common level, and to prove to
+myself that no such thing really exists. I find it a dangerous thing,
+however; for an old man in love is likely to exhibit precisely the
+agreeable and striking peculiarities you have so aptly designated."
+There was something so odd about his manner and about the things he
+said that Nino was silent, and allowed him to proceed.
+
+"The fact is," he continued, "that love is a very rare thing,
+nowadays, and is so very generally an abominable sham that I have
+often amused myself by diabolically devising plans for its
+destruction. On this occasion I very nearly came to grief myself. The
+same thing happened to me some time ago--about forty years, I should
+say,--and I perceive that it has not been forgotten. It may amuse you
+to look at this paper, which I chance to have with me. Good-morning. I
+leave for St. Petersburg at once."
+
+"I believe you are really the Wandering Jew!" cried Nino, as Benoni
+left the room.
+
+"His name was certainly Ahasuerus," Benoni replied from the outer
+door. "But it may be a coincidence, after all. Good-day." He was gone.
+
+I was the first to take up the paper he had thrown upon a chair. There
+was a passage marked with a red pencil. I read it aloud:--
+
+"... Baron Benoni, the wealthy banker of St. Petersburg, who was many
+years ago an inmate of a private lunatic asylum in Paris, is reported
+to be dangerously insane in Rome." That was all. The paper was the
+_Paris Figaro_.
+
+"Merciful Heavens!" exclaimed Hedwig, "and I was shut up with that
+madman in Fillettino!" Nino was already by her side, and in his strong
+arms she forgot Benoni, and Fillettino, and all her troubles. We were
+all silent for some time. At last Nino spoke.
+
+"Is it true that the count was here this morning?" he asked, in a
+subdued voice, for the extraordinary visit and its sequel had made him
+grave.
+
+"Quite true," I said. "He was here a long time. I would not spoil your
+pleasure by telling you of it, when you first came."
+
+"What did he--what did my father say?" asked Hedwig, presently.
+
+"My dear children," I answered, thinking I might well call them so,
+"he said a great many unpleasant things, so that I offered to fight
+him if he said any more." At this they both laid hold of me and began
+to caress me; and one smoothed my hair, and the other embraced me, so
+that I was half smothered.
+
+"Dear Signor Grandi," cried Hedwig, anxiously, "how good and brave you
+are!" She does not know what a coward I am, you see, and I hope she
+will never find out, for nothing was ever said to me that gave me half
+so much pleasure as to be called brave by her, the dear child; and if
+she never finds out she may say it again, some day. Besides, I really
+did offer to fight Lira, as I have told you.
+
+"And what is he going to do?" asked Nino, in some anxiety.
+
+"I do not know. I told him it was all legal, and that he could not
+touch you at all. I also said you were staying at the Hotel Costanzi,
+where he might find you if he wished."
+
+"Oh! Did you tell him that?" asked Hedwig.
+
+"It was quite right," said Nino. "He ought to know, of course. And
+what else did you tell him?"
+
+"Nothing especial, Nino mio. He went away in a sort of ill temper
+because I would not let him abuse you as much as he pleased."
+
+"He may abuse me and be welcome," said Nino. "He has some right to be
+angry with me. But he will think differently some day." So we chatted
+away for an hour, enjoying the rest and the peace and the sweet
+sunshine of the Easter afternoon. But this was the day of
+interruptions. There was one more visitor to come,--one more scene for
+me to tell you, and then I have done.
+
+A carriage drove down the street and seemed to stop at the door of my
+house. Nino looked idly out of the window. Suddenly he started.
+
+"Hedwig, Hedwig!" he cried, "here is your father coming back!" She
+would not look out, but stood back from the window, turning pale. If
+there was one thing she dreaded, it was a meeting with her father. All
+the old doubt as to whether she had done right seemed to come back to
+her face in a moment. But Nino turned and looked at her, and his face
+was so triumphant that she got back her courage, and, clasping his
+hand, bravely awaited what was to come.
+
+I went myself to the door, and heard Lira's slow tread on the stairs.
+Before long he appeared, and glanced up at me from the steps, which he
+climbed, one at a time, with his stick.
+
+"Is my daughter here?" he asked, as soon as he reached me; and his
+voice sounded subdued, just as Nino's did when Benoni had gone, I
+conducted him into the room. It was the strangest meeting. The proud
+old man bowed stiffly to Hedwig, as though he had never before seen
+her. They also bent their heads, and there was a silence as of death
+in the sunny room.
+
+"My daughter," said Von Lira at last, and with evident effort, "I wish
+to have a word with you. These two gentlemen--the younger of whom is
+now, as I understand it, your husband--may well hear what I wish to
+say."
+
+I moved a chair so that he might sit down, but he stood up to his full
+height, as though not deigning to be older than the rest. I watched
+Hedwig, and saw how with both hands she clung to Nino's arm, and her
+lip trembled, and her face wore the look it had when I saw her in
+Fillettino.
+
+As for Nino, his stern, square jaw was set, and his brow bent, but he
+showed no emotion, unless the darkness in his face and the heavy
+shadows beneath his eyes foretold ready anger.
+
+"I am no trained, reasoner, like Signor Grandi," said Lira, looking
+straight at Hedwig, "but I can say plainly what I mean, for all that.
+There was a good old law in Sparta, whereby disobedient children were
+put to death without mercy. Sparta was a good country,--very like
+Prussia, but less great. You know what I mean. You have cruelly
+disobeyed me,--cruelly, I say, because you have shown me that all my
+pains and kindness and discipline have been in vain. There is nothing
+so sorrowful for a good parent as to discover that he has made a
+mistake."
+
+(The canting old proser, I thought, will he never finish?)
+
+"The mistake I refer to is not in the way I have dealt with you," he
+went on, "for on that score I have nothing to reproach myself. But I
+was mistaken in supposing you loved me. You have despised all I have
+done for you."
+
+"Oh, father! How can you say that?" cried poor Hedwig, clinging closer
+to Nino.
+
+"At all events, you have acted as though you did. On the very day when
+I promised you to take signal action upon Baron Benoni you left me by
+stealth, saying in your miserable letter that you had gone to a man
+who could both love and protect you."
+
+"You did neither the one nor the other, sir," said Nino, boldly, "when
+you required of your daughter to marry such a man as Benoni."
+
+"I have just seen Benoni; I saw him also on the night you left me,
+madam,"--he looked severely at Hedwig,--"and I am reluctantly forced
+to confess that he is not sane, according to the ordinary standard of
+the mind."
+
+We had all known from the paper of the suspicion that rested on
+Benoni's sanity, yet somehow there was a little murmur in the room
+when the old count so clearly stated his opinion.
+
+"That does not, however, alter the position in the least," continued
+Lira, "for you knew nothing of this at the time I desired you to marry
+him, and I should have found it out soon enough to prevent mischief.
+Instead of trusting to my judgment you took the law into your own
+hands, like a most unnatural daughter, as you are, and disappeared in
+the night with a man whom I consider totally unfit for you, however
+superior," he added, glancing at Nino, "he may have proved himself in
+his own rank of life."
+
+Nino could not hold his tongue any longer. It seemed absurd that there
+should be a battle of words when all the realities of the affair were
+accomplished facts; but for his life he could not help speaking.
+
+"Sir," he said, addressing Lira, "I rejoice that this opportunity is
+given me of once more speaking clearly to you. Months ago, when I was
+betrayed into a piece of rash violence, for which I at once apologised
+to you, I told you under somewhat peculiar circumstances that I would
+yet marry your daughter, if she would have me. I stand here to-day
+with her by my side, my wedded wife, to tell you that I have kept my
+word, and that she is mine by her own free consent. Have you any cause
+to show why she is not my wedded wife? If so, show it. But I will not
+let you stand there and say bitter and undeserved things to this same
+wife of mine, abusing the name of father and the terms 'authority' and
+'love,' forsooth! And if you wish to take vengeance on me personally,
+do so if you can. I will not fight duels with you now, as I was ready
+to do the day before yesterday. For then--so short a time ago--I had
+but offered her my life, and so that I gave it for her I cared not how
+nor when. But now she has taken me for hers, and I have no more right
+to let you kill me than I have to kill myself, seeing that she and I
+are one. Therefore, good sir, if you have words of conciliation to
+speak, speak them; but if you would only tell her harsh and cruel
+things, I say you shall not!"
+
+As Nino uttered these hot words in good, plain Italian, they had a
+bold and honest sound of strength that was glorious to hear. A weaker
+man than the old count would have fallen into a fury of rage, and
+perhaps would have done some foolish violence. But he stood silent,
+eying his antagonist coolly, and when the words were spoken he
+answered.
+
+"Signor Cardegna," he said, "the fact that I am here ought to be to
+you the fullest demonstration that I acknowledge your marriage with my
+daughter. I have certainly no intention of prolonging a painful
+interview. When I have said that my child has disobeyed me, I have
+said all that the question holds. As for the future of you two, I have
+naturally nothing more to say about it. I cannot love a disobedient
+child, nor ever shall again. For the present, we will part; and if at
+the end of a year my daughter is happy with you, and desires to see
+me, I shall make no objection to such a meeting. I need not say that
+if she is unhappy with you my house will always be open to her, if she
+chooses to return to it."
+
+"No, sir, most emphatically, you need not say it!" cried Nino, with
+blazing eyes. Lira took no notice of him, but turned to go.
+
+Hedwig would try once more to soften him, though she knew it was
+useless.
+
+"Father," she said, in tones of passionate entreaty, "will you not say
+you wish me well? Will you not forgive me?" She sprang to him and
+would have held him back.
+
+"I wish you no ill," he answered shortly, pushing her aside, and he
+marched to the door, where he paused, bowed as stiffly as ever, and
+disappeared.
+
+It was very rude of us, perhaps, but no one accompanied him to the
+stairs. As for me, I would not have believed it possible that any
+human being could be so hard and relentlessly virtuous; and if I had
+wondered at first that Hedwig should have so easily made up her mind
+to flight, I was no longer surprised when I saw with my own eyes how
+he could treat her.
+
+I cannot, indeed, conceive how she could have borne it so long, for
+the whole character of the man came out, hard, cold, and narrow,--such
+a character as must be more hideous than any description can paint it,
+when seen in the closeness of daily conversation. But when he was gone
+the sun appeared to shine again, as he had shone all day, though it
+had sometimes seemed so dark. The storms were in that little room.
+
+As Lira went out, Nino, who had followed Hedwig closely, caught her in
+his arms, and once more her face rested on his broad breast. I sat
+down and pretended to be busy with a pile of old papers that lay near
+by on the table, but I could hear what they said. The dear children,
+they forgot all about me.
+
+"I am so sorry, dear one," said Nino soothingly.
+
+"I know you are, Nino. But it cannot be helped."
+
+"But are you sorry, too, Hedwig?" he asked, stroking her hair.
+
+"That my father is angry? Yes. I wish he were not," said she, looking
+wistfully toward the door.
+
+"No, not that," said Nino. "Sorry that you left him, I mean."
+
+"Ah, no, I am not sorry for that. Oh, Nino, dear Nino, your love is
+best." And again she hid her face.
+
+"We will go away at once, darling," he said, after a minute, during
+which I did not see what was going on. "Would you like to go away?"
+
+Hedwig moved her head to say "Yes."
+
+"We will go, then, sweetheart. Where shall it be?" asked Nino, trying
+to distract her thoughts from what had just occurred. "London? Paris?
+Vienna? I can sing anywhere now, but you must always choose, love."
+
+"Anywhere, anywhere; only always with you, Nino, till we die
+together."
+
+"Always, till we die, my beloved," he repeated. The small white hands
+stole up and clasped about his broad throat, tenderly drawing his face
+to hers, and hers to his. And it will be "always," till they die
+together, I think.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This is the story of that Roman singer whose great genius is making
+such a stir in the world. I have told it to you, because he is my own
+dear boy, as I have often said in these pages; and because people must
+not think that he did wrong to carry Hedwig von Lira away from her
+father, nor that Hedwig was so very unfilial and heartless. I know
+that they were both right, and the day will come when old Lira will
+acknowledge it. He is a hard old man, but he must have some affection
+for her; and if not, he will surely have the vanity to own so famous
+an artist as Nino for his son-in-law.
+
+I do not know how it was managed, for Hedwig was certainly a heretic
+when she left her father, though she was an angel, as Nino said. But
+before they left Rome for Vienna there was a little wedding, early in
+the morning, in our parish church, for I was there; and De Pretis, who
+was really responsible for the whole thing, got some of his best
+singers from St. Peter and St. John on the Lateran to come and sing a
+mass over the two. I think that our good Mother Church found room for
+the dear child very quickly, and that is how it happened.
+
+They are happy and glad together, those two hearts that never knew
+love save for each other, and they will be happy always. For it was
+nothing but love with them from the very first, and so it must be to
+the very last. Perhaps you will say that there is nothing in this
+story either but love. And if so, it is well; for where there is
+naught else there can surely be no sinning, or wrongdoing, or
+weakness, or meanness; nor yet anything that is not quite pure and
+undefiled.
+
+Just as I finish this writing, there comes a letter from Nino to say
+that he has taken steps about buying Serveti, and that I must go there
+in the spring with Mariuccia and make it ready for him. Dear Serveti,
+of course I will go.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Roman Singer, by F. Marion Crawford
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