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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Title Market, by Emily Post
+
+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: The Title Market
+
+Author: Emily Post
+
+Illustrator: J. H. Gardner Soper
+
+Release Date: February 5, 2006 [EBook #17680]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TITLE MARKET ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Brian Janes, Emmy and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    _THE TITLE MARKET_
+
+    _By_
+    _Emily Post_
+
+    _Author of "The Flight of a Moth,"_
+    _"Woven in the Tapestry," etc._
+
+    _With Illustrations by_
+    _J. H. Gardner Soper_
+
+    _New York_
+    _Dodd, Mead and Company_
+    _1909_
+
+    Copyright, 1909, by
+    THE RIDGWAY COMPANY
+
+    Copyright, 1909, by
+    DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
+
+    Published, September, 1909
+
+[Illustration:
+
+          "'WE OF ITALY,' HE WAS SAYING, 'LIVE, ENDURE, DIE,
+                  IF NEED BE--ALWAYS FOR THE SAME
+                      REASON--WOMAN AND LOVE!'"
+
+(Page 65)]
+
+
+               As though you did not know each page,
+                     each paragraph, each word;
+          as though for months and months the Sanseveros,
+            Nina, John, and all the rest, had not been
+                     your daily companions--
+                      MADRE MIA,
+                    this book is dedicated
+                           to you.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                                   PAGE
+
+    I PRINCE SANSEVERO DIMINISHES THE FORTUNES OF HIS HOUSE   1
+
+   II THE PRINCESS PLANS TO RECEIVE THE AMERICAN HEIRESS     14
+
+  III NINA                                                   25
+
+   IV THE DUKE SCORPA MAKES A DEAL                           42
+
+    V DON GIOVANNI ARRIVES                                   48
+
+   VI LOVE, AND A GARDEN                                     64
+
+  VII ROME                                                   72
+
+ VIII OPENING DAY AT THE TITLE MARKET                        86
+
+   IX A DOOR IS OPENED THAT GIOVANNI PREFERS TO KEEP CLOSED  97
+
+    X MR. RANDOLPH SENDS FOR JOHN DERBY                     107
+
+   XI ROME GOES TO THE OPERA                                116
+
+  XII A BALL AT COURT                                       136
+
+ XIII CORONETS FOR SALE                                     142
+
+  XIV APPLES OF SODOM                                       157
+
+   XV AN OPPOSITION BOOTH IS SET UP IN THE MARKET PLACE     163
+
+  XVI A MENACE                                              173
+
+ XVII NINA DUSTS BEHIND THE COUNTER                         192
+
+XVIII FAVORITA DRIVES A BARGAIN                             214
+
+  XIX A CHALLENGE, AND AN ANSWER                            221
+
+   XX HIS EMINENCE, THE ARCHBISHOP OF VENCATA               236
+
+  XXI THE SULPHUR MINES                                     246
+
+ XXII BEFORE DAYLIGHT                                       257
+
+XXIII THE SPIDER'S WEB                                      269
+
+ XXIV WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE                                289
+
+  XXV "THY PEOPLE SHALL BE MY PEOPLE--"                     308
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"'WE OF ITALY,' HE WAS SAYING, 'LIVE, ENDURE, DIE, IF NEED
+BE--ALWAYS FOR THE SAME REASON--WOMEN AND LOVE!'"
+Page 65                                                 _Frontispiece_
+
+"AS SHE SPOKE, A DOOR OPENED OPPOSITE, AND THE PRINCE CAME
+IN"                                                      Facing page 4
+
+"FOR THE SPACE OF A SECOND SHE FACED THE AUDIENCE, STANDING
+STILL AND RIGID"                                                   134
+
+"NINA LOOKED AT HIM--'I WONDER IF YOU WOULD BE AMUSED IF
+YOU KNEW WHY I LAUGHED'"                                           184
+
+"HIS LIPS FRAMED 'GOOD-BY' AND HERS ANSWERED, BOTH SMILED
+BRIGHTLY--AND THAT WAS THE PARTING"                                232
+
+"'YOU ARE AMERICANO, ARE YOU NOT? YOUR LAND HAS DONE MUCH
+FOR MY PEOPLE!'"                                                   239
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+PRINCE SANSEVERO DIMINISHES THE FORTUNES OF HIS HOUSE
+
+
+Her excellency the Princess Sansevero sat up in bed. Reaching quickly
+across the great width of mattress, she pulled the bell-rope twice,
+then, shivering, slid back under the warmth of the covers. She drew them
+close up over her shoulders, so far that only a heavy mass of golden
+hair remained visible above the old crimson brocade of which the
+counterpane was made. The room was still darkened so that the objects in
+it were barely discernible, but presently one of the high, carved doors
+opened and a maid entered, carrying a breakfast tray. Setting the tray
+down, she crossed quickly to the windows and drew back the curtains.
+
+Sunlight flooded the black and white marble of the floor, and brought
+out in sharp detail the splendor of the apartment. The rich colors of
+the frescoed walls, the mellow crimson damask upholstering, might have
+suggested warmth and comfort, had not a little cloud of white vapor
+floating before the maid's lips proclaimed the temperature.
+
+She was a stocky peasant woman, this maid, with good red color in her
+cheeks, but she wore a dress of heavy woolen material and a cardigan
+jacket over that. Her thick felt slippers pattered briskly over the
+stone floor as she went to a clothes-press, carved and beautifully
+inlaid, took out a drab-colored woolen wrapper trimmed with common red
+fox fur, and, picking up the tray again, mounted the dais of the huge
+carved bed.
+
+"If Excellency will make haste, the coffee is good and very hot."
+
+The covers were pushed down just a little, and the princess peered out.
+
+"What sort of a day have we, Marie? Isn't it very cold?"
+
+"Oh, no! It is a beautiful day. But Excellency will say that the coffee
+is cold unless it is soon taken."
+
+So again the Princess Sansevero sat up in bed. Her maid placed the
+coffee tray before her, and wrapped her quickly in the dressing-gown.
+The plain woolen wrapper had looked ugly enough in the maid's hands, but
+its drab color and fox fur so toned in with the red-gold hair and creamy
+skin of its wearer that an artist, could he have beheld the picture,
+would have been filled with delight. It would not in the least have
+mattered to him that there was a chip in the cup into which she poured
+her coffee, nor that the linen napkin was darned in three places. The
+silver breakfast service belonged to a time when such things were
+chiseled only for great personages and by master craftsmen. That it was
+battered through several centuries of constant handling rather enhanced
+than diminished its value. Of the same antiquity was the bed--seven
+feet wide, its four posts elaborately carved with fruits and flowers,
+and with cupids grouped in the corners of the framework supporting a
+dome of crimson damask that matched the hangings. What difference could
+it make to the artist that the springless mattress was as hard as a
+rock, and lumpy as a ploughed field? With painted walls and vaulted
+ceilings that were the apotheosis of luxury, what did it matter that the
+raw chill from their stone surface penetrated to the very marrow of her
+Exalted Excellency's bones? Unfortunately, however, it was she who had
+to occupy the apartment and to her it did matter very much, for her
+American blood never had grown used to the chill of unheated rooms.
+
+"I think I can heat the bathroom sufficiently for Excellency's bath,"
+ventured the maid.
+
+The princess shivered at the mere suggestion. She knew only too well the
+feeling of the water in a room that was like an unheated cellar in the
+rainy season of late autumn. "No, no!" she exclaimed, "fill me the
+little tub, in my sitting-room."
+
+[Illustration: "AS SHE SPOKE, A DOOR OPENED OPPOSITE THE ONE THROUGH
+WHICH THE MAID HAD ENTERED, AND THE PRINCE CAME IN"]
+
+As she spoke, a door opened opposite the one through which the maid had
+entered, and the prince came in. A fresh color glowed under his olive
+skin, his hair was brushed until it was as polished as his nails; also
+he was shaved, but here his toilet for the day ended. The open "V" of
+his dressing-gown (his was made of a costly material, quite in contrast
+to the one his wife wore) showed his throat; bare ankles were visible
+above his slippers. With the raillery of a boy he cried:
+
+"Can it really be possible that you are cold! No wonder they call yours
+the nation of ice water! I know that is what you have in your veins!"
+With a spring he threw himself full length across the bed.
+
+"Sandro, be careful! See what you are doing! You have spilled the
+coffee."
+
+"Oh, that's nothing!" he said gaily; "it will wash out."
+
+"On the contrary, it is a great deal. It makes unnecessary laundry and
+uses up the linen--we can't get any more, you know."
+
+At once his gay humor changed to sulkiness. "_Va bene, va bene!_ let us
+drop that subject."
+
+Immediately the princess softened, as though she had unthinkingly hurt
+him, "I did not mean it as a complaint; but you know, dear, we do have
+to be careful."
+
+But the prince stared moodily at his finger-nails.
+
+She began a new topic cheerfully. "I hope to get a letter from Nina
+to-day; there has been time for an answer."
+
+Sansevero had been quite interested in the idea of a possible visit from
+Nina Randolph, his wife's niece, a much exploited American heiress. But
+now he paid no attention. He still stared at his nails. The princess
+scrutinized his face as though in the habit of reading its expression,
+and at last she said gently:
+
+"What have you in mind, dear? Tell me--come, out with it, I see quite
+well there is something."
+
+For answer he sat up, took a cigarette from his pocket, put it between
+his lips, searched in both pockets for a match, and, failing to find
+one, sat with the unlighted cigarette between his lips, sulkier than
+ever.
+
+He felt her looking at him, and swayed his shoulders exactly as though
+some one were trying to hold him. "Really, Leonora," he burst out, "this
+question of money all the time is far from pleasant!"
+
+A helpless, frightened look came into her face. It grew suddenly
+pinched; instinctively she put her hand over her heart.
+
+"I have not mentioned money." She made an effort to speak lightly, but
+there was a vibration in the tone. Then, as though gathering her
+strength together, she made a direct demand:
+
+"Alessandro, tell me at once, what have you done?"
+
+For a moment he looked defiant, then shrugged his shoulders. "Well,
+since you will know----" he sprang from the bed, pulled a letter out of
+his pocket, and, quite as a small boy hands over the note that his
+teacher has caught him passing in school, he tossed her the envelope,
+and left the room.
+
+Her fingers trembled a little in unfolding the paper; and she breathed
+quickly as she read. For some time she sat staring at the few lines of
+writing before her. Then suddenly thrusting her feet into fur slippers,
+she ran into the next room. "Sandro," she said, "come into my
+sitting-room; I must speak with you."
+
+He followed her through her bedroom into an apartment much smaller and,
+unlike the other two rooms, quite warm. Just now, all the articles of a
+woman's toilet were spread out on a table upon which a dressing-mirror
+had been placed; and close beside a brazier of glowing coals was a
+portable English tub; the water for the bath was heating in the kitchen.
+
+Seeing that there was no means of avoiding the inevitable, he said
+doggedly: "I thought to make, of course, or I would not have gone into
+the scheme." Then something in her face held him, and at the same time
+his impulsive boyishness--a little dramatic, perhaps, but only so much
+as is consistent with his race--carried him into a new mood.
+
+"Leonora, I suppose I am in the wrong--indeed I am sure I am utterly at
+fault; but help me. Don't you see, _carissima_, this time I did not
+_wager_--it was a business venture!"
+
+In the midst of her distress she could not help but smile at the
+absurdity.
+
+"Scorpa is doing it all," he continued--"not I. You know what a clever
+business man _he_ is! He assured me that it was a rare chance--the
+opportunity of a lifetime. It was because I wanted so to restore to you
+what my gambling had cost, that I agreed. I did not think it possible to
+lose. But help me this once; believe me, I do know, and with shame,
+that were it not for my accursed ill luck we should be living in luxury
+now. But just this once--you will help me, won't you?"
+
+His wife seated herself in a big armchair, and looked at him wearily,
+running her fingers through the heavy waves of her hair. She had
+beautiful hands--beautiful because they seemed part of her expression;
+capable hands with nothing helpless in her use of them; the kind that a
+sick person dreams of as belonging to an ideal nurse; gentle and smooth,
+but quick and firm.
+
+"It is not a question of willingness, Sandro." Her voice was as smooth
+and strong, as flexible, as her hands. "You know everything we have just
+as well as I. I never kept anything from you, and what we have is ours
+jointly--as much yours as mine. I have, as you know, only two jewels of
+value left, and they would not bring half the amount of this debt."
+
+"Leonora, no! you have sold too many already; I cannot ask such a thing
+again."
+
+His wife's smile was more sad than tears; it was not that she was making
+up her mind for some one necessary sacrifice--it was a smile of absolute
+helplessness. "If only I might believe you! We now have nothing but what
+is held in trust for me. I am not reproaching you--what is gone is gone.
+But Sandro! where will it end?"
+
+The maid knocked and entered with two pails of hot water, which she
+poured into the tub. She spread a bath towel over a chair, moved another
+chair near, put out various articles of clothing, and left the room
+again.
+
+The princess threw off her slippers, and tried the temperature of the
+water with her toes.
+
+"I think, Sandro, we had better give up Rome," she said. "The money
+saved for that will pay the greater part of the debt. It is the only way
+I can see. But go now; I want to take my bath. We can talk more by and
+by." She smiled quite brightly, and the prince, emboldened by her
+cheerfulness, would have taken her in his arms. But she turned away, her
+hand involuntarily put up as a barrier between herself and the kiss that
+at the moment she shrank from. He took the hand instead and pressed it
+to his lips.
+
+When he had gone, she bathed quickly, partially dressed herself, and
+called her maid to do her hair. Sitting before the improvised
+dressing-table, she glanced in the mirror, and her reflection caught and
+held her attention a long moment. A curious, half-wistful, half-pathetic
+expression crept into her eyes as the realization came to her sharply
+that she was fading. There were lines and shadows and pallor that ought
+not to be in the face of a woman of thirty-five. She smoothed the
+vertical lines in her forehead, and then let her hands remain over her
+face, while behind their cool smoothness her mind resumed its
+troublesome thoughts.
+
+It was not like meeting some new difficulty for which the strength is
+fresh; it was struggling again with emotions that have repeatedly
+exhausted one's endurance. Just as she had every hope that her husband
+was cured of the gambler's fever, here he was down again with an even
+more dangerous form of it. The man who knowingly risks is bad enough;
+but the man who cannot see that he risks, and cannot understand how he
+has lost is the hardest victim to cure. All of her capital was gone
+except a small property which her brother-in-law, J. B. Randolph, held
+for her in trust and on the income of which they now lived. Ten years
+before she had had considerable money, enough for them to live not only
+in comfort but in luxury. A large amount had been sunk in a Sicilian
+sulphur mine, and to this investment she had given her consent, not yet
+realizing her husband's lack of judgment. But aside from this, cards and
+horse races and trips to Monaco had limited their living in luxury to a
+periodic pleasure of three or four months. Now in order to open the
+palace in Rome, they had to practise the most rigid economics the other
+eight or nine months in their villa in the country.
+
+Yet in spite of all, her compassion went out to Sandro. He was so gay,
+so boy-like, that he acquired ascendancy over her sympathies in spite of
+her judgment. And by the time her maid had coiled her great golden waves
+of hair and helped her into a short, heavy skirt, a pair of stout boots,
+a plain shirt-waist, and a rough, short coat and cap, her feeling of
+resentment against him had passed. She drew on a pair of dogskin gloves,
+and went out.
+
+In the stables she found the prince helping to harness a pony.
+
+"Are you going to drive to the village?" she asked as cheerfully as
+though there had been no topic of distress.
+
+"Yes; will you come with me?" he returned eagerly. She nodded her assent
+and as they started down the road they talked easily of various things.
+It was the prince who finally came back to the topic that was uppermost
+in their minds. He looked at her tenderly as he said:
+
+"You do believe, my darling, don't you, that to have brought this
+additional trouble to you breaks my heart? I have taken everything from
+you--given you nothing in return. Yet--I do love you."
+
+"Oh, _va bene, va bene, caro mio_; we will talk no more about it. Do you
+really agree to stay in the country all winter and give up Rome?"
+
+"Of course," he said, with the best grace in the world. "It is all far
+too easy for me--but for you!--Ah, Leonora, no admiration, no new
+interest! no amusement! a year of your beauty wasted on only me."
+
+"Be still; you know very well that I care nothing for all that. It is
+always this horrible fear of your leaping before you look. Sandro,
+Sandro! can you really see that one more plunge--and we are done? Now
+we can give up our savings, and the jewels; another time--don't let
+there ever be another time!"
+
+He looked up the road and down; there was not even a peasant in sight.
+He put his arm about her and drew her to him. "Look at me, Leonora! On
+the name of my family and on that which I hold most sacred in the world
+I swear it: you will never again have to suffer from such a cause."
+
+She inclined toward his kiss, and love dominated the sadness in her
+eyes. Who could be angry with him--impulsive, affectionate, warm-hearted
+child of the Sun, or Italy--since both are the same.
+
+A turn in the road, around a high wall topped with orange trees, brought
+them into the little town and the village life. A couple of ragged
+urchins sitting before the door of one of the cave-like structures that
+are called dwellings, grinned as the princess looked at them. An older
+girl bobbed a courtesy and pulled one of the children to her feet,
+bidding her do the same. The men uncovered their heads, as the noble
+padrones passed.
+
+Before one house the little trap stopped. Immediately the door opened
+and a woman came out. She was young and handsome though the shadow of
+maternity was blue-stenciled under her eyes. She courtesied, then looked
+anxiously at the prince.
+
+"Excellency would speak with me?" she asked, "has Excellency decided?"
+
+"Yes," the prince answered, "Pedro will wed thee at the house of the
+good father--to-night at eight." At his first words she clasped her
+hands in thanksgiving, but when he continued that she was to wear no
+veil or wreath, her joy gave way to a wail.
+
+"Excellency would shame me," she sobbed, "I am a good girl and Pedro my
+husband by promise."
+
+Sansevero looked helpless for a moment and then seemed wavering. The
+woman caught at the opportunity and repeated her cry, this time to the
+princess, but there was no indecision in the latter's manner as she
+spoke now in her husband's stead.
+
+"Thou knowest, Marcella, that the veil and the wreath are only for such
+as are maidens! Say no more, I speak not of goodness, Pedro comes to the
+house of the padre--at eight. Be a faithful wife and mother, and so
+shalt thou have honor--better than by the wearing of a wreath."
+
+She put her hand on the girl's head, with a kindness that took away all
+sting from her words. And Marcella made no further protest, although as
+the pony-cart drove on, she remained weeping before the door.
+
+Sansevero himself looked dejected. "Don't you think, dear one," he
+protested, "that you were rather severe! What difference can it make
+after all, whether the poor girl wears a few leaves in her hair or a bit
+of tulle?"
+
+But the princess was inflexible. "It would not be just to the others,"
+she answered, "since we made this rule there has been a great difference
+in the village. It is almost rare now that the family arrives before
+the wedding. The question of irregularity never used trouble the girls
+at all. The only disgrace they seem able to feel is that they may not
+dress as brides; and that being the case, I think we have to be strict."
+
+"All right, wise one," said the prince as he drew up at the post-office,
+"I am sure you know best." He looked at her with such obvious
+satisfaction that two urchins standing by the road-side grinned. The
+post-master hurried out with the mail, and the princess looked through
+the letters. One with an American stamp held her attention. As she read,
+her cheeks flushed with pleasure, her eyes grew bright, a sweet and
+tender expression came into her face.
+
+"Nina is coming!" she cried. Gladness rang in her voice. "Coming for the
+whole winter--let me see, the letter is dated the fifteenth--she will
+sail this week. Oh, Sandro, I am so happy!"
+
+For a moment it would have been hard to say which looked more pleased,
+the prince or the princess. But then, as though by thought transference,
+in blank consternation each stared at the other, and exclaimed in the
+same breath, "But how about Rome?"
+
+In silence the prince turned the pony about and slowly they drove back
+up the hills.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE PRINCESS PLANS TO RECEIVE THE AMERICAN HEIRESS
+
+
+When the pony-cart arrived at the castle the princess alighted, too
+preoccupied with her own thoughts to notice that her husband drove off
+in the opposite direction from the stables. Her forehead was wrinkled
+and her head bent as she walked between the high hedges of ilex toward
+the south wing of the building. Her worry over their inability to pay
+the debt was increased by the fact that their creditor was the Duke
+Scorpa.
+
+There had been a feud between the Sanseveros and the Scorpas for over a
+century, and while the present generation tried to ignore it, the
+princess felt instinctively that like the people of Alsace Lorraine, who
+never really forgave the government that changed their nationality, the
+Scorpas never forgave the Sanseveros for lands which they claimed were
+unjustly lost in 1803, when a daughter of the house married a Sansevero
+and took a portion of the Scorpa property as her dowry. That these same
+lands were distant from either county seat, and of comparatively small
+value, in no way mitigated the Scorpa resentment, and every time they
+looked at the map and saw the triangular piece painted over from the
+Scorpa red to the Sansevero blue, there was bad feeling.
+
+When the old Prince Sansevero was alive, he and the present Duke, who
+was then a violent tempered youth, had several unfriendly encounters
+about the boundary line of this same property. All this had seemed very
+trivial to Alessandro, the present Prince, who looked upon the Duke as
+one of his best friends--but Alessandro had no perspicacity. He believed
+others to be as free from guile as himself.
+
+Reaching a small postern gate at the end of the path, the princess
+opened it by pressing a hidden spring. This led directly into the
+apartments at the end of the south wing next to the kitchen offices--the
+only ones at present in use. She went directly to her own sitting-room,
+from which the evidences of her toilet had meantime been removed.
+
+This room better than anything else proclaimed the manner of woman who
+occupied it. It had been arranged by one to whom comfort was of
+paramount importance, and, in spite of a certain incongruity, the whole
+effect was pleasing and harmonious. The frescoes on the walls were
+almost obliterated by age, and were partially covered by dull red stuff.
+Against this latter hung three pictures from the famous Sansevero
+collection: a Holy Family by Leonardo da Vinci, a triptych by Perugino,
+and a Madonna by Correggio. Hardly less celebrated, but sharply at odds
+with the ecclesiastical subjects of the paintings, was the mantle,
+carved in a bacchanalian procession of satyrs and nymphs--a model said
+to have been made by Niccola Pisano.
+
+The floor, of the inevitable black and white marble, was strewn with
+rugs; and in front of desk and sofa bear skins had been added as a
+double protection against the cold. The furniture was modern upholstery,
+with gay chintz slip-covers. Frilled muslin curtains were crossed over
+and draped high under outer ones of chintz. And everywhere there were
+flowers--roses, orange blossoms, and camellias; in tall jars and short,
+on every available piece of furniture. Scarcely less in evidence were
+photographs, propped against walls, ornaments, and flower jars; long,
+narrow, highly glazed European photographs with white backgrounds,
+uniformed officers, sentimentally posed engaged couples, young mothers
+in full evening dress reading to barefooted babies out of gingerly held
+picture books. There were photographs of all varieties; big ones and
+little ones, framed and unframed--the king and the queen with
+crown-surmounted settings and boldly written first names, and "_A la
+cara Eleanor_" inscribed above that of her majesty. In the other
+photographs the signatures grew in complication and length as their
+aristocratic importance diminished. Books and magazines littered the
+tables; French, Italian, and English in indiscriminate association. A
+workbasket of plain sewing lay open among the pillows on the sofa. An
+American magazine, with a paper-knife inserted between its leaves, was
+tossed beside a tooled morocco edition of Tacitus. A crucifix hung
+beneath the Correggio; a plaster model of the Discobolus stood between
+the windows.
+
+And in the midst of old and new, religious and pagan, priceless and
+insignificant, sat her Excellency, the ex-American beauty and present
+chatelaine of the great family of the princes of the Sansevero, in a
+golf skirt and walking boots, a plain starched shirtwaist and stock tie,
+adding to the wrinkles in her forehead and in the corners of her eyes by
+trying to figure out how, with forty thousand lire, she was going to pay
+a debt of sixty thousand lire and have enough left over to open the
+great palace in Rome, and realize a dream that had always been in her
+heart--to take Nina out in Roman society, to give herself the delight of
+showing Rome to Nina, and the greater delight of showing Nina to Rome.
+
+She glanced up at two photographs, the only ones on her desk. The first
+was of her husband, taken in the fancy costume of a troubadour, with the
+signature "Sandro" across the lower half, in characters symbolical of
+the song he might have sung, so gay and ascending was the handwriting.
+The other picture was of a young woman in evening dress. The face was
+bright and winning rather than pretty; the personality really chic, and
+this in spite of the fact that the girl's clothes were over-elaborate.
+Her dress was a mass of embroidery, and around her throat she wore a
+diamond collar. Diamond hairpins held the loops of waving fair
+hair--very like the princess's own--and two handsome rings were on the
+fingers of one hand. It in no way suggested the Italian idea of a young
+girl; yet there was a youthful freshness in the expression of the face,
+a girlish slimness of the figure that could not have been produced by
+touching up the negative. Under the picture was written in a clear and
+modernly square handwriting, "To my own Auntie Princess with love from
+Nina."
+
+The name "Auntie Princess" carried as much of Nina's personality to the
+mind of her aunt as the picture itself. It was the one her childish lips
+had spoken when she was told that her aunt was to marry a prince. Most
+distinct of all Eleanor Sansevero's memories of home was one of Nina
+being held up high above the crowd at the end of the pier to blow
+good-by kisses to the bride of a foreign nobleman, being carried out
+into the river whose widening water was making actual the separation
+between herself and all that till then had been her life.
+
+It was only for a little while, she had thought at the time. She would
+go back once a year or so, surely; and Nina should come over often. But
+in the intervening fifteen years, though the Randolphs had been in
+Europe many times, they had always chosen midsummer for their trip, and
+the princess had joined her sister at some northern city or
+watering-place. This visit, therefore, was to be Nina's first glimpse
+of her aunt's home, and the princess was determined that she should not
+spend the time desolately in the country! She might come here for a
+little while--for reasons that the princess would have found hard to
+explain to herself, she did not want Nina to get a false impression. Yet
+for nothing would she have exposed her husband's failing--even to her
+own family. With the weakness of a true wife, she never dreamed that all
+her world suspected, if it did not actually know, of the great inroads
+on her fortune that his gambling had made.
+
+The princess went back to her accounts, but no amount of auditing made
+the sum they had saved any larger. A large pearl pendant that had been
+the Randolphs' wedding present to her, and a ruby that had been her
+mother's, were her only remaining possessions that could bring anything
+like the sum needed; with them and perhaps notes on her next year's
+income, they might make up the full amount. But how to sell the jewels
+was the problem. There is little demand for really fine stones in Italy,
+and besides, they might be recognized. Long before, she had sold her
+emerald earrings and had false ones put in their places. She had hated
+wearing the imitations, but she had worn the real ones constantly, she
+feared their sudden absence might be noticed.
+
+Indeed, as it was, one day out in the garden, when Scorpa was sitting
+near her, she thought she saw a knowing gleam in his eyes. Afterwards
+she tried to assure herself that it was a trick of her own
+consciousness; but she had not worn the earrings again in the
+daytime--nor ever if she knew that Scorpa was to be present.
+
+She threw down her pencil. The first thing at all events was to find out
+how much she could realize on her stones, and to do that she would have
+to go to Paris. Taking a railroad gazette out of a drawer, she looked up
+trains. Eight-thirty mornings, arriving at---- The door burst open. The
+prince, exuberant, his face wreathed in smiles, skipped, rather than
+walked, into the room. In pure joyousness he pinched her cheek.
+
+"What do you think, my dear one? It is all arranged. We can have _la
+bella_ Nina; we shall go to Rome as usual. And you, you more than
+generous, shall not sell any jewels!"
+
+His wife did not at once echo his gladness; in fact she seemed
+frightened.
+
+"What has happened? You have not made a wager and won?"
+
+He looked reproachful, almost sulky. "Leonora, unjust you are. Have I
+not promised? But I will tell you. I have arranged it all with Scorpa. I
+have let him have the Raphael--as security, practically--that is, I have
+sold it to him for a hundred thousand lire--a loan merely--and he has
+given me the privilege of buying it back at any time, with added
+interest, of course. There will be no need of paying for years. He is
+enchanted, as he has always wanted the picture, and says he only hopes I
+may never wish to take it back."
+
+"No, don't let us do that," the princess broke in, then hesitated, "I
+can't tell you how I feel about it, but--I don't trust Scorpa. It is a
+hard thing to say, but I have always believed he persuaded you into
+buying the 'Little Devil' mine, knowing it could not be worked. Of
+course, dear, that heavy loss may not have been his fault, but I'd so
+much rather never have any dealings with him. Besides, the very thing I
+wish to avoid is letting people know we must get money."
+
+"But, _cara mia_, listen: It is all so well thought out, no one will
+know. You see, we go to Rome; this picture hangs in an empty house,
+which through the winter is very damp, and bad, therefore, for the
+painting. Scorpa keeps his house open and heated; he takes care of it on
+that account. Is that not a wonderful reason?"
+
+"Whose reason was that?"
+
+"Scorpa's own!" He danced a few steps in his excess of delight.
+
+His wife arose and put her hand on his arm. "To please me, do not send
+the picture. I can sell the jewels and have false stones put in their
+places. We need not have any one know. But I don't want to remain in the
+duke's debt!"
+
+"The picture is already in his possession."
+
+"In his possession? But how?"
+
+"He drove over here just now, followed me in his motor-car, and took it
+back with him."
+
+The princess was evidently frightened. "What are his reasons?" she said
+to herself, yet audibly.
+
+Her husband looked at her, his head a little on one side, then he said
+banteringly: "My dear, you Americans are too analytical. You always look
+for a motive. Life is not of motive over here. Have you not learned that
+in all these years? We act from impulse, as the mood takes us--we have
+not the hidden thought that you are always looking for."
+
+"You speak for yourself, Sandro _mio_, but all are not like you.
+However, since the picture is gone--and since you have made that
+arrangement--let it be. I may do Scorpa injustice; he has always
+professed friendship for you--as indeed who has not?" She looked at him
+with the softened glance that one sees in a mother's face.
+
+Sansevero seated himself at the desk and took up the photograph of Nina.
+"When will she arrive?" he asked buoyantly; then with sudden
+inspiration, "Write to Giovanni and ask him to hurry home. If Nina
+should fancy him, what a prize!"
+
+The princess frowned. "On account of her money, you mean?"
+
+"Ah, but one must think of that! We have no children; all this goes to
+Giovanni--with Nina's immense fortune it would be very well. We could
+all live as it used to be; there are the apartments on the second floor
+in Rome, and the west wing here. I can think of nothing more fitting or
+delightful. Has she grown pretty?"
+
+"I don't know that you would call her pretty," mused the princess.
+
+"Besides _you_, my dearest, a beauty might seem plain!" His wife tried
+to look indifferent, but she was pleased, nevertheless.
+
+"Tell me, Sandro, you flatterer, but tell me honestly, am I still
+pretty? No, really? Will Nina think me the same, or will her thought be
+'How my Aunt has gone off'?"
+
+Melodramatically he seized her wrists and drew her to the window;
+placing her in the full light of the sun, he peered with mock tragedy
+into her face. "Let me see. Your hair--no, not a gray one! The gold of
+your hair at least I have not squandered--yet."
+
+"Don't, dear." She would have moved away, but he held her.
+
+"Your face is thinner, but that only shows better its beautiful bones.
+Ah, now your smile is just as delicious--but don't wrinkle your forehead
+like that; it is full of lines. So--that is better. You make the eyes
+sad sometimes; eyes should be the windows that let light into the soul;
+they should be glad and admit only sunshine." Then with one of his
+lightning transitions of mood, he added, not without a ring of emotion,
+"_Mia povera bella_."
+
+But Eleanor reached up and took his face between her hands. "As for
+you," she said, "you are always just a boy. Sometimes it is impossible
+to believe you are older than I--I think I should have been your
+mother."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+NINA
+
+
+A ponderous, glossy, red Limousine turned in under the wrought bronze
+portico of one of the palatial houses of upper Fifth Avenue. As the car
+stopped, the face of a woman of about forty appeared at its window. Her
+expression was one of fretful annoyance, as though the footman who had
+sprung off the box and hurried up the steps to ring the front doorbell
+had, in his haste, stumbled purposely. The look she gave him, as he held
+the door open for her to alight, rebuked plainly his awkward stupidity.
+
+Yet, in spite of Mrs. Randolph's petulant expression, it was evident
+that she had distinct claims to prettiness, though of the carefully
+prolonged variety. The art of the masseuse was visible in that curious
+swollen smoothness of the skin which gives an effect of spilled
+candle-wax--its lack of wrinkles never to be mistaken for the freshness
+of youth. Much also might be said of the skill with which the "original
+color" of her hair had been preserved. She was very well "done," indeed;
+every detail proclaimed expenditure of time--other people's--and
+money--her own. She trotted, rather than walked, as though bored beyond
+the measure of endurance and yet in a hurry. Following her was a slim,
+fair-haired young girl, who, leaving the footman to gather up a number
+of parcels, turned to the chauffeur. Even in giving an order, there was
+a winning grace in her lack of self-consciousness, and her voice was
+fresh in its timbre, enthusiastic in its inflection.
+
+"Henri," she said, "you had better be here at three. The steamer sails
+at four, and an hour will not give me any too much time. Have William
+come for Celeste and the steamer things at two. The Panhard will be
+best, as there is plenty of room in the tonneau." Then she ran lightly
+up the steps and into the house.
+
+The first impression of a visitor upon entering the hall might have been
+of emptiness. In contrast to the over-elaborateness characteristic of
+all too many American homes and hotels, obtruding their highly colored,
+gold-laden ornament, the Randolph house rather inclined toward an
+austerity of decoration. But after the first general impression, more
+careful observation revealed the extreme luxury of appointments and
+details. The one flaw--if one might call it such--was that every article
+in the entire house was spotlessly, perfectly brand-new. The Persian
+rugs, pinkish red in coloring and made expressly to tone in with the
+gray white marble of the hall, were direct from the looms. The banister,
+of beautiful simplicity, was as newly wrought as the stainless velvet
+with which the hand-rail was covered. From the hall opened faultlessly
+executed rooms, each correctly adhering to the "period" that had been
+selected. The library was possibly more furnished than the rest of the
+house; but even here the touch of a magician's wand might have produced
+the bookcases of Circassian walnut ready filled with evenly matched,
+leather bound, finely tooled volumes. It would have been a relief to see
+a few shabby, old-calf folios, a few more common and every-day, in cloth
+or buckram!
+
+On the mind of a carping critic the universal newness might have forced
+the question, "Where did the family live before they came here? Did all
+their accumulation of personal belongings burn with an old homestead? Or
+did they start fresh with their new house, coming from nowhere?" One
+could imagine their having superintended the moving-in of crates and
+boxes innumerable, but the idea of vans piled with heterogeneous
+personal effects that had accumulated through years---- Impossible!
+
+As Mrs. Randolph and her daughter entered, a servant opened the doors
+leading into the dining-room, and Mrs. Randolph turned at once in that
+direction.
+
+"You don't want to go upstairs before luncheon, do you, Nina?"
+
+"Yes, for a moment, Mamma. I want to speak to Celeste about the things
+for my steamer trunk." Her mother suggested sending a servant, but Nina
+had already gone. She entered an elevator that in contrast to the
+severity of the hall looked like a gilt bird cage with mirrors set
+between the bars, pushed a button, and mounted two flights.
+
+On emerging, she went into her own bedroom, which, from the Aubusson
+carpet to the Dresden and ormolu appliques, might have arrived in a
+bonbon box direct from the avenue de l'Opéra in Paris. At the present
+moment two steamer trunks stood gaping in the middle of the floor,
+tissue paper was scattered about on various chairs, the dressing-table
+was bare of silver, and a traveling bag displayed a row of gold bottle
+and brush tops. Nina threw her packages on a couch already littered with
+empty boxes, wrapping-paper, new books and various other articles.
+
+"Have the other trunks gone, Celeste?"
+
+"Yes, Mademoiselle."
+
+"Any messages for me?"
+
+"Mr. Derby telephoned that he would be here soon after lunch. Miss Lee
+also telephoned. And Mr. Travers."
+
+Nina listened, half absently, except possibly for a flickering interest
+at the mention of Mr. Derby. She went into an adjoining room that had a
+deep plunge bath of white marble, and a white bear rug on the floor. A
+sliding panel in the wall disclosed a safe, from which she gathered
+together several velvet boxes, and carried them to her maid.
+
+"Are these all that Mademoiselle will take?"
+
+"Yes, that is enough--I don't know, though, the emerald pendant looks
+well on gray dresses." She got another velvet box and threw it on the
+floor. "I ordered the Panhard to be here for you at two o'clock. They
+can put the trunks in the tonneau. My stateroom is 'B,' yours is 107."
+
+Quickly as she had entered, she was gone again, into the elevator and
+down to join her mother.
+
+"Really, Nina," Mrs. Randolph said as soon as her daughter was seated,
+"I can't see what you want to go to Rome for. I am sure it's more
+comfortable here. I hate visiting, myself." As she spoke she set
+straight a piece of silver that to her critical eye seemed an eighth of
+an inch out of line.
+
+"But, Mamma, you know how keen I have always been to see Aunt Eleanor's
+home. Being with her can hardly seem visiting; and Uncle Sandro----"
+
+"What your aunt ever saw in Sandro Sansevero," interrupted her mother,
+"I'm sure I can't imagine. He's always bobbing and bowing and
+gesticulating, and he talks broken English. He makes me nervous! I'd
+infinitely rather be without a title than have it at that price."
+
+"You have always told me that theirs was a love match, that Aunt Eleanor
+did not marry him for his title."
+
+"That is just the senseless part of it!" Mrs. Randolph retorted with a
+fine disregard for consistency. "If she had married him for his
+name--which, after all, is a good one, although princes are as common
+in Italy as 'misters' are here--that would have been one thing. But she
+was actually in love with him! She is yet, so far as I can see!"
+
+Nina burst out laughing, and, as though catching the infection, Mrs.
+Randolph laughed too. They were interrupted by the butler's announcing
+"Mr. Derby!"
+
+John Derby was a young man of twenty-five, broad shouldered and well
+over six feet. His features were a little too rugged to be strictly
+handsome, but his spare frame was as muscular as that of a young
+gladiator. So much at least our colleges do for the sons we send to
+them. John Derby had made both the 'Varsity eight and the eleven; he had
+been a young god at the end of June when, captain of the victorious
+boat, his classmates had borne him on their shoulders to their
+club-house. That night there had been toasting and speeches and what
+not--he was a very "big man" of a very big university; and perhaps
+nothing that life might ever give him in the future could overshadow
+this experience.
+
+All hail to the victor--and glorious be his remembrances. Exit our Greek
+god at the end of June, to be replaced by a young American citizen about
+the first of July--one small atom who thinks to make the same sized mark
+on the great plain of life that he made on the college campus. All the
+same, there were good clean ideals back of John Derby's blue eyes, and
+fresh, healthy young blood surged through his veins. What is the world
+for, if not for such as he to conquer?
+
+Thousands had called "Derby! Derby! Go it, Derby!" when he made his
+famous sixty-yard run down the gridiron. Yet it is well to remember that
+the victory came at the end of ten years' training at school and
+college, after many bruises, some dislocations, and not a few breaks.
+With such discipline, there was after all no reason to wonder that he
+donned overalls and went to a desolate settlement of brick chimneys,
+smelters, and shack dwellings, set on the sides of hills, which, because
+of sulphurous fumes, were bleak as sandhills in Sahara.
+
+He had taken up his work at Copper Rock exactly as he had taken up his
+practice under the athletic coaches. He gave all the best of him, from
+the earliest to the latest possible hours; and night saw him stretched
+on a bunk which would have made his mother wince, but upon which he
+slept the sleep of healthy, tired youth.
+
+Three years he had spent in this place. Twice in that time furnace
+explosions had sent him home to be nursed. But he suppressed the horrors
+and related only enthusiastic tales of metallurgical possibilities. In
+the main, however, he was strong enough to stand it. It did him a vast
+amount of good; and the end of three years saw him saying good-by with
+something akin to regret to the bleak shacks on the bleaker hills, and
+to the men he had grown to know and appreciate.
+
+An improved form of blast furnace that he had patented, eased his first
+strenuous need of money. And the present moment found him vice-president
+of a mining and smelting company, temporarily back among his old
+friends, and somewhat in his old life again. He was too busy and too
+interested in his work to spend any effort outside of it; but there were
+one or two houses where he went, and one of them was the Randolphs'. The
+Randolph and Derby country places adjoined, and since early boyhood he
+had been as much at home in one house as in the other.
+
+Mrs. Randolph had taken his college achievements complacently as a
+tribute to her discernments in having nurtured an eagle in her own
+swan's nest. But his work at Copper Rock seemed to her a fanatical whim.
+She no more appreciated the benefit of the experience than she
+understood the persevering grit that was the real reason for her liking
+him. Nina, having adored him as a Greek god, continued her allegiance to
+the workman at Copper Rock. She had written him letters regularly; she
+had even sent him provision baskets. To herself she questioned whether
+the end he was striving for might not be reached by smoother roads; but
+if any one else suggested that he was doing an irrational thing, she
+flew up in arms. And now as he came into the dining-room his "Hello,
+Nina!" was much as a brother's might have been, and he kissed Mrs.
+Randolph's cheek.
+
+"Will you have lunch, John?" she smiled up at him. "It is all cold by
+now, I dare say!"
+
+"No, thanks, I lunched downtown; but I'll sit here if I may." He picked
+up a knife from the table and cut the string of a package he held in his
+hand. "I brought you these, Nina. Have you read all of them?"
+
+Nina finished a mouthful of nectarine and picked up the books one by
+one.
+
+No, she had not read any of them. So he went on to explain: he knew the
+cowboy story was a corker, and another, of Arizona, described an Indian
+fight in the Bad Lands that was capital. He did not know much about the
+others, but the man at the shop had told him two were very funny; he had
+bought the rest on account of their illustrations.
+
+Nina laughed deliciously with real joy--she loved his selection, because
+it seemed to express him.
+
+"It was awfully sweet of you, Jack. And I shall adore them! I am so glad
+you did not bring the regular selection of 'Walks in Rome.'"
+
+"What I ought to have brought you," he answered, "was a big thick
+journal--one of those padlocked ones--to write up Italian court life as
+it really is. You mustn't miss such a chance! It could be published
+after everybody mentioned in it, is dead, including yourself. Wouldn't
+it be great!"
+
+"You need not make fun of me. I don't think you half appreciate how
+wonderful it is going to be," Nina returned enthusiastically. "Think of
+it, I am going to live in a palace!"
+
+Derby threw back his head and laughed.
+
+"What do you call this house? It is a great deal more of a palace than
+the tumble-down, musty ones of Italy."
+
+Mrs. Randolph seemed enchanted with this rejoinder, for she laughed
+rather exultantly as she exclaimed, "Nina will be ready enough to come
+home at the end of a week!"
+
+Instead of answering Nina jumped up from the table, calling "There you
+are at last, Father darling!"
+
+Her father, a man of distinguished presence, had come into the room
+looking at his watch from force of habit. And though his eyes rested
+upon his daughter with very evident pride and affection, the custom of
+quickly terminated interviews and the economy of precious time gave a
+sharp, decisive curtness to his manner. Every one who came in contact
+with him felt the impelling necessity of coming to the point as clearly
+and tersely as possible. Just now, with a "Hello, John, my boy," he held
+out his hand to Derby and shook his head negatively in answer to his
+wife's inquiry if he wanted luncheon.
+
+"Well, are you ready to start?" he asked his daughter, smiling. And then
+to Derby he added, "Excuse Nina for a few moments, John; I want to speak
+with her. You are going down to the steamer with her, of course?" As
+Derby answered affirmatively, Nina picked up her books and followed her
+father.
+
+In his own study he drew her to a sofa beside him, and from a number of
+papers in his pocket he handed her an envelope.
+
+"Here is your letter of credit. I doubt if you will need the whole
+amount of it. If, on the contrary, you find you want more for anything
+special, write or cable to the office."
+
+Out of another pocket he drew a white muslin bag, such as bankers use.
+It held a quantity of Italian gold and a roll of Italian bank notes.
+This was "change" to have with her when she should arrive. He talked
+with her for some time on various topics; on the beauty of Italy, the
+charm of the people; of his admiration for Eleanor Sansevero. "But
+dearest," he ended, "one word on the subject of European men: you will
+probably have a good deal of attention. I don't want to spoil your
+enjoyment, but you must remember the hard, cold fact that it will be
+chiefly because you are Miss Millionaire."
+
+"I am sure they couldn't be any more after 'Miss Millionaire' over there
+than here." She began calmly enough, but grew vehement as she continued:
+"How many of the proposals that I have had from my own countrymen during
+the past two years have been for me, the girl, and not merely for your
+daughter?"
+
+Her father, having stirred up her resentment, now tried to soothe it
+down again.
+
+"You must not get cynical, little girl. Every advantage in this world
+must have its corresponding disadvantage. I merely want you to follow
+your extremely sensible and well-balanced head. Only, remember," he
+added with bantering good-humor, "I am not over keen about foreigners,
+so don't bring a little what-is-it back with you, and expect because it
+has a long string of titles dangling to it, that it will be welcomed
+with any enthusiasm by your doting father! So, away with you!" He again
+looked at his watch. "Better get your things together; you haven't any
+too much time."
+
+As soon as Nina left him, instead of rejoining his wife and Derby he sat
+at his desk and was immediately absorbed in making figures with the stub
+of a pencil on the back of an envelope. He was still there when Nina, in
+coat and furs, came downstairs again to the library, where her mother
+and Derby were now waiting.
+
+"Well, are you ready at last? Where is your father? What is he doing
+now?" her mother demanded with a pout, as if his absence were quite
+Nina's fault, and as if whatever his occupation might be it especially
+annoyed her. She fluttered to the doorway of his study and looked in.
+
+"James, I really think you might give some thought to your family. Nina
+is going now." She spoke in a babyish, aggrieved tone. He did not look
+up, and Mrs. Randolph did not repeat her remark; she turned instead to
+her daughter. "Go in and tell your father that I think he might pay you
+some attention."
+
+Nina went over behind his chair, and gently put her cheek down to his.
+She did not interrupt him, but let him finish the calculation he was
+doing; and he turned to her after about a minute.
+
+"All right, sweetheart, come along."
+
+Having put his envelope in his pocket, he dismissed whatever it meant
+completely from his mind, and Nina held his undivided attention as he
+went down the steps with her to the motor, into which Derby had already
+put Mrs. Randolph. As soon as they were all in and the machine started,
+Nina leaned forward and called to the butler, "Good-by, Dawson!" And for
+once the man's face lost its imperturbability, as he answered fervently,
+"Good-by, miss, and a safe return--home!"
+
+"Safe return--home." For a moment the question entered her head--was
+there any doubt of her returning? With the apprehension came also a
+slight sense of excitement--but soon she had forgotten. While they sped
+toward the dock, Mrs. Randolph, possibly a little piqued that her
+daughter could want to spend the winter away from her, showed her
+authority by endless directions and counsels. As she completely
+monopolized the conversation as far as Nina was concerned, the two men
+talked together, and Nina's responses gradually drifted into a series
+of "Yes, Mamma's," to admonitions that were but half heard, until her
+wandering attention was brought up with a sharp turn by her mother's
+impatient exclamation:
+
+"For goodness sake, Nina, try to be less monotonous!"
+
+Nina roused herself quickly. "I am sorry, Mamma dear! I did not think
+there was anything for me to say. Please don't be put out with me, just
+now when I am going away!"
+
+They had by this time arrived at the steamer, and went for a moment to
+see Nina's cabin, where they found Celeste trying to reduce to some
+semblance of order the innumerable baskets of fruit and boxes of flowers
+with which it was crowded.
+
+Derby looked perhaps a trifle chagrined at the profusion, as Nina gave a
+cursory glance at the cards that Celeste had affixed to each opened box.
+But with a curious little smile--one that had real sweetness in it--Nina
+picked up a particular bunch of violets, and looked at Derby over their
+clustered fragrance as she lifted them to her face. She let the look
+thank him--and then she pinned the flowers on.
+
+Mrs. Randolph did not see the wordless scene, as she was busy reading
+cards and making characteristic comments. Mr. Randolph had stopped to
+make sure that the luggage was attended to. He now appeared, and with
+him Mrs. Gray, with whom Nina was to make the crossing. Mrs. Gray shook
+hands with every one, called Nina a "precious child," told her where
+the steamer chairs had been placed, and disappeared. On the promenade
+deck Nina found a throng of young girls and men waiting for her. They
+all chattered together in a group and plied her with questions: Was she
+going to be presented at court? Was she going to live in an old castle?
+What was her uncle the prince like? How wonderful to spend a season in
+Rome? They wished they were going, too--and so they went on.
+
+But at a moment when the others were all talking loudly, John Derby
+managed to draw Nina aside. He looked down at her with an expression
+half-quizzical, half-serious. "This is about the time we come to the
+'great divide,'" he said. "Your trail lies to the palaces of the Old
+World; mine to dig holes in remote corners of the New. You'll write me,
+won't you? My letters will be pretty dull, I am afraid--same old story:
+a laborer's day, and occasionally a Sunday's ride to get the mail at the
+nearest ranch."
+
+"Then I'll make mine doubly thick--so they will seem like packets. I may
+even write that famous journal and send it in instalments to you!" Then
+suddenly the banter died of her eyes and voice and she said
+half-sentimentally: "Dear old Jack! Most of every one I shall miss you.
+I hope things will go famously for you. You have my address?"
+
+"Yes; and mine is Breakstone, Arizona, care of Burk Mining Company.
+Well," he smiled, "good hunting to both of us!"
+
+There was still plenty of time before the ship sailed, but Mr. Randolph
+was leaving. He had been talking with another financier who was seeing
+his own family off, and now came up between his daughter and Derby.
+
+"If you will go with me now," he said to the latter, "we can talk over
+the Louisiana sulphur proposition on the way to my office." Then he
+turned to Nina: "It is barely possible you may see John in Italy before
+the winter is over."
+
+Nina raised her eyebrows as she looked at Derby. "You said you were
+going to Arizona!" she said accusingly.
+
+But Derby's expression showed that he was as much in the dark as she.
+Mr. Randolph wagged his head as though altogether pleased with the
+situation. "Of course, he is going to Arizona, and very likely he'll
+stay there--on the other hand, maybe he won't. Now that's something for
+you to think about besides speculating on the length of name of each
+stranger you meet." He kissed her affectionately on both cheeks and,
+giving Derby barely a chance to shake hands with her, hurried him away.
+
+People were beginning their final good-byes, and from where Nina and her
+friends stood by the deck rail, there was a clear view of the gang plank
+and the ship's departing visitors. It was from this vantage that several
+pairs of envious young masculine eyes, looking downward, saw the right
+hand of the great and only James B. Randolph affectionately laid on the
+broad shoulder of an ex-oarsman and football player. And for as long as
+the two were in sight it was the ex-oarsman who talked, and the great
+financier who listened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE DUKE SCORPA MAKES A DEAL
+
+
+In the branch office of Shayne & Co., in the Via Condotti, Rome, Mr.
+Shayne arose from his desk, rearranged his diamond scarf-pin in his gray
+satin Ascot tie, flicked two imaginary particles of dust from his
+tight-fitting cutaway coat, whisked his silk handkerchief out of his
+breast pocket and in again, so that the lavender border was visible,
+cleared his throat, and stood in an attitude of agreeable expectancy.
+
+Directly the door of his private room was discreetly opened, admitting a
+square-jawed, beetle-browed man, heavy and ugly--a coarse type, yet not
+without distinction. The two men did not shake hands. Mr. Christopher
+Shayne bowed blandly, deferentially, yet not servilely, and again he
+cleared his throat. The visitor nodded as though there upon an affair of
+business that he was anxious to have terminated as speedily as possible.
+
+"Will you be seated?--I think you will find this chair comfortable." Mr.
+Shayne indicated a chair with a wave of his hand. "The letter which I
+have from your Excellency is a trifle indefinite. But I take it that you
+have something of more than ordinary importance to communicate." He
+finished his sentence by giving his mustache a thoughtful twirl upward,
+first on one side and then on the other.
+
+The Duke Scorpa let his rat-like eyes rest a moment upon the alert face
+of Mr. Shayne before he answered: "You said once in my presence that you
+had long wanted to acquire a Raphael. I am in a position at present to
+offer you one."
+
+"A Raphael!" Shayne showed genuine surprise. "I do not remember one in
+your collection."
+
+"It is not in my own collection. Before giving you further details,
+however, I must be assured that you are still anxious to purchase, and
+also that you will observe strict secrecy with regard to it."
+
+"In answer to the first, such an opportunity is beyond question of
+interest to me; in answer to the second, my reputation should be a
+guarantee of my discretion. I hope the picture you have in view is not
+the Asanai one--for there is much doubt as to its being genuine."
+
+"No, the one I speak of is the Sansevero Madonna."
+
+In spite of himself Mr. Shayne blew a long whistle. "The Sansevero
+Madonna with the doves!" he reiterated. "That _is_ a prize! I am
+astonished, though----" It was on his tongue to say that he had thought
+the Prince Sansevero beyond the suspicion of illegal sale of treasures;
+but, checking himself in time, he finished his sentence--"that he should
+be willing to part with it. Besides, it is a dangerous thing for him to
+sell, on account of its celebrity."
+
+"So I told him." The Duke Scorpa lied perfectly. "But it is better,
+after all, to sell one thing that will bring in a good price than to
+sell a number of things that bring in little, and yet incur the same
+amount of risk in getting them out of the country." Here the duke's
+manner became almost confidential. "As I told you, I am of course acting
+merely in the interest of my friend the Prince Sansevero. Selling
+against the law of my country would be abhorrent to me personally. But
+my friend, poor fellow, is hard pressed for money. And, as he argues,
+the picture is his, and has been in his family since long before our
+government ever made such laws. He considers he has a right--or should
+have--to dispose of property that is his own. The government would pay
+not more than half what you will give me, I am sure."
+
+"Of course, of course. I have long coveted that Raphael. On the other
+hand, as I said, the picture is so very well known and so excellent that
+it could hardly be palmed off as a copy. Also the canvas is large, which
+will make it very difficult to conceal. It is still at Torre Sansevero,
+I suppose?"
+
+"No, it is here in Rome. It is removed from the frame and is at present
+in my palace. I suppose the offer that you once told me you would make
+still holds good?"
+
+The American looked shrewd. "Did I name a sum? I do not remember. Ah,
+yes. But that was for a very rich man who has since bought a Velasquez.
+I doubt if he will buy any more."
+
+Scorpa rose as though to leave. "My friend wants five hundred thousand
+lire."
+
+Mr. Shayne laughed scornfully. "Preposterous!" he said, and from that
+they argued for nearly half an hour; but in the end it was settled that
+the picture should change hands, and the price agreed upon was two
+hundred and fifty thousand lire.
+
+In the matter of payment the duke was punctilious about protecting his
+friend the Prince Sansevero from the consequences of his transgression
+of the law. Shayne agreed to make his payments in cash, so that
+Sansevero's name should not appear on the checks.
+
+But Christopher Shayne was more than skeptical about the duke's
+disinterestedness. "There is a rake-off for this one somewhere," he
+thought. He also thought that for once he had been mistaken in his
+judgment of character. Sansevero had been, in his opinion, a man who
+would sooner starve than defraud the government. So strongly did he
+believe this that although he had, as the duke knew, long coveted the
+Raphael, he would never have dared to approach Sansevero.
+
+After the duke had gone Shayne went out and personally sent a code cable
+announcing his purchase.
+
+"Well," he said to himself, "it's no business of mine. But duke or no
+duke, he is a slick one. I don't like him. I can tell, though, whether
+it is the Sansevero picture as soon as I lay my eyes on it--but what
+gets me is that the prince chose such a go-between. Why didn't he come
+to me direct?" He didn't puzzle over that long, however; planning to get
+the picture out of Italy occupied his attention. An excellent idea
+presented itself: some furniture ordered by his firm should carry it in
+a sofa, and his partner should be advised by cipher letter to remove the
+picture. J. B. Randolph would buy it, without doubt--no need to tell him
+how it came into Shayne & Co.'s hands. They could swear they bought it
+in London. Plausible stories of masterpieces discovered in out of the
+way corners were easily enough manufactured. So these thoughts all being
+to his utmost satisfaction, he went whistling down the street.
+
+The Duke Scorpa at the same time was being driven cheerfully homeward.
+That had been a stroke, that idea of pretending he was merely the
+intermediary. He had got the picture for a loan of one hundred thousand,
+and had one hundred and fifty thousand clear profit. There was nothing
+to show his transaction with Sansevero. No money had passed between
+them, not even a scrap of paper. He had torn up the prince's I. O. U.,
+and that was all the evidence there had been. Christopher Shayne,
+besides, was a shrewd man and reliable, and one who never had been
+caught in a questionable transaction. To be sure, Scorpa had given
+Sansevero his word (but again there was no proof), that he would let
+him retrieve the picture at an advanced price that should be merely the
+accrued compound interest on the money lent. In case of his being able
+to reclaim it, Scorpa would pretend that the picture was burnt or
+stolen--time enough to cross bridges when he came to them. But that
+chance was beyond all probability. There was no way for Sansevero ever
+to secure enough money to get back the picture--unless, indeed, his
+younger brother Giovanni should marry the great American heiress who was
+on her way to Italy for the winter.
+
+"I hardly think that likely," said the Duke Scorpa to himself, as he
+stroked his heavy chin with his fat hand, "for I intend to annex that
+little fortune myself."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+DON GIOVANNI ARRIVES
+
+
+It was a few days after Nina's arrival in Italy; one of the glorious
+mornings when the famous Sansevero gardens were full of golden light,
+bringing into high relief the creamy marble of statues that in other
+centuries had been white. Against the deep waxy green of shrubs and
+hedges, the fountains seemed to be tossing liquid diamonds; and beyond
+the marble balustrades of the descending terraces, the hills rolled away
+in soft gray billows of young olive leaves and powdered slopes of
+blossoming orange branches. In contrast with this background of green
+and marble and roses and flowers and fountains stood Nina reaching up to
+pick a pink camellia. In front of her, the princess was looking vaguely
+into the finder of a camera.
+
+"Now what shall I do? Just press the bulb and let go?"
+
+"W-w-ait a moment until my teeth stop chattering!"
+
+Nina had taken off her coat and was wearing a dress as summery in
+appearance as the garden. "All right, Auntie. This ought to be lovely--I
+hope gooseflesh and a blue nose won't show."
+
+The picture taken, she lost no time in getting back into her long fur
+coat again and wrapping it tightly around her, still shivering.
+
+"I do hope the pictures will be good--I am going to write under them 'In
+a rose garden at Christmas Time.' I shall not tell that I never was so
+cold in my life as at this minute. What I can't understand is how the
+flowers are hypnotized into believing it warm weather. It is every bit
+as cold as New York, yet if we were to ask these same shrubs to live in
+our gardens, they would hang their heads and die at the mere
+suggestion." Nina wanted to take snap shots of the princess, but the
+latter refused to remove her coat, and the incongruity of furs dispelled
+the midsummer illusion. Slipping her hand through her aunt's arm she
+drew her into a brisk walk. The temperature of Italy is low only by
+comparison with its summery appearance, and by the time they reached the
+terrace end she was in a glow.
+
+She looked up at the irregular stone pile of the old castle, against
+which semi-tropical vines climbed so high as partially to cover even the
+great square tower; and involuntarily she exclaimed, "It is so
+beautiful, so beautiful--it almost hurts; even the color of the
+sunshine--the brilliancy, yet the softness--and then to be with you!"
+Enthusiastically she pressed her aunt's arm.
+
+"But tell me," she went on, "what rooms are these along here? Do I know
+them? Let me see--mine is far around on that side over there, isn't
+it?"
+
+"That is your room in the corner, the one by the fountain of the
+dolphins."
+
+Just then there was the sound of tramping on the gravel walk. Nina
+turned, and the next instant her curiosity was aroused. "Who in the
+world were all these people?" As her aunt paid no attention, she
+repeated her question, and the princess casually glanced in their
+direction. It was probably a party of Cook's tourists. Yes, she
+recognized the conductor.
+
+Nina watched the party with increasing interest. "Look how funny that
+little woman is. When the guide tells her anything, she follows his
+directions as though he had a string tied to her nose." Nina began to
+laugh, and the princess turned to see two of the tourists, who, like
+rodents, seemed to be judging a statue of Hermes entirely by the sense
+of smell. The party came nearer, and the princess turned away. But Nina,
+alert, exclaimed, "The guide is pointing you out to them."
+
+"Very likely; one gets used to that. Come, let us go on; they will be
+all over here in a few minutes." The crowd craned after her as she went
+down the terrace, followed by Nina.
+
+"Do you mean to say you give up your own home like this to strangers?"
+the girl asked. "It must be a perfect nuisance!"
+
+"It is all a matter of custom," the princess answered. "Besides, the
+people don't annoy us. They go usually on the lower terraces; at most
+they come up to the old courtyard galleries, perhaps mount the tower to
+see the view, or go into the catacombs."
+
+At the bare mention of catacombs Nina was greatly excited, and looked
+eagerly toward the tourists who were going under the archway where the
+drawbridge once had been, but the Princess showed very little interest.
+They were merely underground passageways that were probably used by
+slaves, although there was one that undoubtedly was built as a means of
+escape. It ran many kilometers and ended in a cave in the forest. "Oh,
+come! Please come!" Nina fairly dragged her aunt after the party to the
+steep dark entrance leading from an old stone dungeon that was falling
+in ruins. The tourists were descending in an awed silence in which
+nothing could be heard but the groping shuffle of cautious feet, broken
+by the hollow echo of the guide's voice reciting his sing-song jargon of
+what he supposed to be English. He held a lantern that revealed a long
+alleyway of crumbling, mud-colored stone. Nina tried to make out
+something of his glib discourse, but soon gave it up.
+
+"What is he talking about?" she whispered.
+
+The princess disentangled the tradition from the overburdening names and
+dates: those scratches he was pointing out on the walls were supposed to
+be a cryptic message from some refugees in need of provisions. It was
+not a very authentic story, though.
+
+As the princess spoke in English, two tourists detached themselves from
+the huddled group around the guide and sidled up to her.
+
+"Can you tell me," asked one, a wizened small person who, in the
+flickering light of the lantern, was strongly suggestive of a mouse,
+"are there many buried here? The guide has been explaining, and I am
+stupid, I know, but for the life of me I can't understand a word he
+says." Her voice was a little dejected, and altogether apologetic.
+
+"We do not think there are any," the princess answered.
+
+The little tourist blinked, hesitated, and then asked, confidentially,
+"Did the guide say you were the princess of this castle? We couldn't
+make out."
+
+By this time two others, inquisitive and gaping, joined the spokeswoman,
+who, as the princess assented, exclaimed, "My!"
+
+That ended the conversation for the time being; and the party trooped on
+in silence. But after a little the small mousy one's curiosity overcame
+her diffidence. "Land, it'd be queer to live in a place like this! Do
+you come down here much, Your Highness?"
+
+Nina nearly giggled, but the princess replied, "I have been down only
+once or twice. There is no use to which we can put these passageways
+nowadays. There was a deep pit that descended from one of the upper
+rooms of the castle through a trap in the floor. The bottom of it was
+far below here, but it is all done away with and cemented over now."
+
+"You know, Your Highness," returned the little tourist, now glibly at
+ease, "I think it'd be a good place for growing mushrooms."
+
+The guide interrupted by mounting a pair of stairs and holding up his
+lantern with the order to "come this way." They all stumbled up the
+crumbling steps after him and suddenly found themselves behind the altar
+of a chapel that stood at the far end of the garden.
+
+"For pity's sake!" cried the little tourist, her eyes again
+blinking--this time at the light. "I never was in such a wonderful place
+in all my life. My! It won't seem like anything at all to go down cellar
+at home after I get back! Is this the way you go to meeting? Oh, no--you
+said you hadn't been down often. Maybe this is the way to go when it
+rains! It don't rain much here, does it? My, but that's an idea--to go
+underground to church. I wonder how ever you get used to it." And then
+irrelevantly she added, "All these beautiful churches over here in
+Yurrup, not a pew in one of 'em."
+
+"They bring out these kneeling chairs for service," the princess said,
+pointing to a number against one wall of the chapel.
+
+Again all the tourist could say was her ever ready "My!"
+
+"Would you like to see some of the castle?" the princess asked. "There
+is a picture gallery not usually opened to visitors, also some
+apartments with frescoes that are worth seeing." Then to the guide, "You
+may take them into the west wing." The tourists looked variously,
+according to their several dispositions; the little one beamed.
+
+"Oh, that's real kind of Your Highness," she exclaimed, her small gray
+person fluttering, more than ever like a mouse. "I must say that's real
+kind. I just dote on pictures. Do you like crayons? Well, I like oils
+best myself, but there are some who have a taste for crayons. The
+photographer's son--out where I live--he is real talented. He did some
+beautiful portraits. Folks thought he ought to come over here right away
+and study art. But others thought there was just as good art right at
+home. Now, what'd you say?"
+
+Her good intention quite won the princess, and her accent warmed her
+heart in a way that Nina would have been at a loss to understand.
+
+They had reached the west door, and the Princess sent a gardener around
+to the main entrance for the porter to bring his keys. The old man came
+quickly enough, fumbling in the pocket of his greatcoat, but he did not
+look at all edified at the whim of Her Excellency which allowed a lot of
+strangers to track mud through the best rooms of the Castle. He preceded
+the party, however, with all signs of deference, unlocking doors as they
+went.
+
+The little New Englander was meekly trailing after the guide, leaving
+Nina and her aunt for the moment alone.
+
+"Oh, but these are beautiful rooms, Aunt Eleanor! Why don't you use
+them?"
+
+"We do in summer sometimes, but one needs a staff of servants to keep
+them up. Besides in winter it is impossible to get them warm."
+
+"Then why," Nina spoke as though she had discovered an obviously simple
+solution, "don't you have the proper heating put in? You won't mind if I
+ask you something, will you?"
+
+"Ask what you like, dearest."
+
+"Why don't you make yourself more comfortable? For instance, why don't
+you have modern plumbing put in? And don't you prefer electric light?"
+
+The Princess smiled as though she had never felt the need of any of
+these things. "You have left the land of modern improvements and come
+over to the land of romance!" For a moment she kept the illusion, but
+the next she seemed to change her mind, for she said practically and
+with no veiling of the facts: "Quite apart from the difficulty of
+putting pipes and wires through these thick stone walls, even if every
+modern improvement were already installed, the cost would make it
+prohibitive to attempt either heating or lighting."
+
+Nina gasped, "I don't understand! You don't have to think of such a
+thing as the expense of keeping warm, do you?"
+
+"Indeed we do. Fuel is a very serious item."
+
+"But, you have plenty of money, surely. I thought living
+abroad--especially in Italy--was cheap."
+
+"I did have a bigger income than now--one does not get as good a rate of
+interest as one used." She colored a little at the false inference and
+dwelt with more emphasis on the next sentence.
+
+"When we go to Rome we spend much more money; we have all the rooms open
+there, and we have a great number of servants--in short we live like
+princes." She smiled brightly. "But you see in order to do that we have
+to live quietly and save during the rest of the year."
+
+Nina looked perplexed. "That sounds very queer," she said. "I should
+think you would even things up and be more comfortable all the time."
+
+"Then we would have nothing. It would be additional expenditure on
+things that don't matter, and no money left for things that do. Opening
+these rooms, for instance, would not greatly add to our pleasure. After
+all, we can only sit in one room at a time. To have many guests and
+motors and horses for hunting, and to have big shooting parties--all
+that is an expense not to be thought of. It amuses us more to go to
+Rome, so we prefer to save for nine months in order to live well the
+other three."
+
+Nina was trying to do a sum in mental arithmetic; she could not quite
+make the diminished interest account for her aunt's evident lack of
+income, but did not like to ask for more details. However, something
+else happened that diverted her attention. They went through
+innumerable rooms, always to the distant droning sing-song of the
+guide's explanations.
+
+Finally they came to the picture gallery. It was not a notable
+collection, with one or two exceptions; and one of these exceptions was
+strikingly absent. The guide left the group and approached the princess,
+exclaiming, "Excellency! The Raphael!"
+
+"It has been sent to be repaired." Her hesitation was scarcely
+perceptible. "The background was sinking a little."
+
+The man quite forgot himself and in his excitement dared a retort--"It
+was one of the best preserved Raphaels extant." But the expression in
+the princess' straight-gazing eyes held his further speech in check, and
+though she said no word the man cringed.
+
+"Pardon, Excellency," he said, and went back to explain to the waiting
+group that the great painting of the Sansevero collection at that moment
+was being carefully examined, by experts, as to its preservation.
+Nevertheless, there was a look in his face that caused Nina to turn to
+her aunt with an apprehension, that gave rise to a vague suspicion that
+the princess, who was walking slowly, her head very high and her
+beautiful shoulders well back, was struggling to hide some strong
+emotion. She thought later that she might have been mistaken, for a
+moment later her aunt asked with her usual composure, "Have you a watch
+on? What time is it?"
+
+Nina consulted the diamond and enamel trinket hanging on a chain around
+her neck. "It is ten minutes to one. Is it lunch time?"
+
+"Nearly. Are you hungry? We are not having lunch to-day until half
+after. I have a surprise for you."
+
+"For me? What is it to be?"
+
+"My young brother-in-law, Giovanni, comes home to-day. I expect him on
+the twelve-thirty train. Your uncle has gone to the station to fetch
+him--they ought to arrive at any moment."
+
+Nina's face looked brightly expectant. "Tell me something about him! Is
+he half as good-looking as his pictures?"
+
+"Ah? So she has been examining his photographs!"
+
+"Of course!" Nina laughed. "Oh, please tell me something about him! Does
+he speak English? French? Or shall I have to struggle in broken Italian?
+Is he like Uncle Sandro?"
+
+"Wait until you see him."
+
+"At least tell me does he speak English?"
+
+"He speaks beautiful French."
+
+"Which means, I suppose, that he speaks monkey English!"
+
+But the princess vouchsafed no reply.
+
+"Well, but really, I _do_ think you might tell me something! Is he
+attractive?"
+
+The Princess assumed a tantalizing air--"That also I am going to leave
+you to find out when you see him. At all events he is young--that is
+compared to your uncle and me. It has been dull for you, darling, with
+no one your own age."
+
+Nina interrupted her reproachfully. "Don't you dare! To hear you, one
+might suppose you were a hundred. I don't care a bit whether Don
+Giovanni is a Calaban or an Antinous--All the same," she laughed, "had I
+better tidy my hair--or does it not matter?"
+
+The tourists were all filing out of the castle now, and as the porter
+locked the doors, the princess shook hands with the little American.
+
+"Thank you, Your Highness," she said, "you have been real kind. We--I
+didn't think, when I left home that I was going to be talking this way
+to princesses. I never dreamed they were like you; and you talk
+beautiful English, too."
+
+With a warm impulse the princess laid her left hand over the
+cotton-gloved one in her right.
+
+"Ah, but I was an American myself," she said, "and it does me good to
+see a country-woman."
+
+They parted. Again the guide made a deep reverence to "Her Excellency,"
+but to Nina the look in his eyes seemed both sly and suspicious.
+
+In the meantime, the pony-cart carrying the prince and his brother was
+jogging slowly up the hills from the station.
+
+Don Giovanni Sansevero--by his own title the Marchese di Valdo--was
+still on the hither side of thirty, but if a reputation for being
+"irresistible to women" goes for anything, he must by this time have
+had some experience in their ways. At all events, his appearance so
+tallied with hearsay that, whether founded upon fact or not, the
+reputation remained.
+
+He was supple and beautifully built, his bones were small and finely
+jointed, his features chiseled with classic regularity--later on his
+lips might grow coarse, but as yet they were merely full. The chief
+characteristic of his expression was its mobility, but it was the
+mobility of an actor who knows every emotion that the muscles of a face
+can command. Sansevero's face, also changeable as an April day, was the
+spontaneous expression of unconscious mood. Giovanni was of a type to
+smile sweetly when most angry, or to assume an air of sulkiness when at
+heart he might be well content. Just now, with an assumption of extreme
+indifference, he turned to his brother.
+
+"What is she like, this heiress of yours whom you are so anxious to have
+me marry?" he asked. "Plain, stupid, a nonentity?--So much the
+better--those make the easy wives to manage. Give me a woman with little
+real success--I mean, one who has seen only the imitation fire that is
+lighted when man pursues with reason and not with feeling. The American
+men make it easy for the rest of us--they are what you call curtain
+raisers in the play of love. They keep the gallery busy until the
+entrance of the hero. I hope she is not a beauty."
+
+"_Per Bacco_, how you do talk!" interrupted the prince. "I have no
+chance to answer. Miss Randolph is not a beauty; but she is
+_simpatica_; she has an air, a _chic_."
+
+"So much the better, so long as the _chic_ is one of appearance and not
+of personality. I don't want my wife to be a siren." Suddenly he laughed
+and hit his brother's knee. "But what nonsense! Imagine a cold American
+miss having the power to make a man's pulses leap! Oh, don't make a face
+like that--I am not speaking of my honored sister-in-law; she is indeed
+of the true type of our mother." Mechanically both men indicated the
+sign of the cross at the word "mother."
+
+"But," continued Giovanni, "I am not exactly worthy of a saint--it would
+not suit my disposition. It is bad enough associating always with good
+Brother Antonio as it is. By the way, where is he?"
+
+He gave a shrill whistle and looked back down the road for the gray
+figure of his inseparable friend and companion: not a monk as the name
+indicated, but a Great Dane. A distant cloud of dust proclaimed that the
+whistle had been heard. "Poor Sant Antonio!" he called as soon as the
+dog had caught up, "Where have you been? I suppose you were meditating
+along life's highway. No," he continued, "it were best I did not pretend
+to be better than I am; my good monk would not absolve me else. Still,
+do you know, sometimes I seriously doubt even Brother Antonio's morals!"
+He shrugged his shoulders and laughed in great delight. Sansevero seemed
+undecided whether to be shocked or amused; ordinarily he would have
+laughed easily enough, but Giovanni in some way had seemed to involve
+Eleanor in his levity.
+
+"Well," continued Giovanni, "I suppose at least Miss America, not being
+a Catholic, will make no objections to Sant Antonio's short-comings!"
+
+At this Sansevero bristled, "Giovanni, I will ask you not to air your
+irreligious remarks about that dog with an unseemly name, in connection
+with the family of my wife."
+
+For answer Giovanni blew a whistle into the air.
+
+Sansevero grew sulky. "I warn you! Don't let Leonore hear you make
+remarks that she might think slighting about her darling! She is like
+her own child to her!"
+
+For a few moments both men were silent. Giovanni's face was no longer
+mocking; he was watching the beautiful lope of his huge dog. Sansevero
+looked straight ahead, quite pensively for him. "Poor Leonore," he said
+at last. "It is often such as she who have no children!" Unconsciously
+he sighed.
+
+Giovanni smiled, "I don't see what she wants of another child than you!"
+
+"And you will inherit----"
+
+"Please! I am not quite so bad as that. Believe me, I should rejoice for
+you if you had children. Leonore would have made a wonderful mother.
+Even I might be respectable if a woman such as she loved me as she loves
+you. But," he grew flippant again, "to marry one of those
+nose-in-the-air, soulless, school-teacher prudes--Never! And in any
+event, my dear, I am not so sure I want to marry your heiress. I am very
+well as I am!" He shrugged his shoulders. A moment later, though, he put
+a question. "What is her first name?--I have forgotten."
+
+"Nina."
+
+"Nina! Really a charming name, that! One that can be said without
+breaking consonants against the teeth. There was a girl once, very
+pretty, but she was called--I can never pronounce it--E-d-i-t-h--those
+are the letters. But Ni-na! It has a delicious sound." He let it slip
+over his tongue. Then he put his head on one side and asked quizzically,
+"How much has she?"
+
+Sansevero looked up quickly; he hesitated a moment, then answered
+stiffly: "She has a great fortune, but she is also my niece."
+
+Giovanni raised his eyebrows, and then burst into shouts of laughter.
+
+"What has come over you? It was you who suggested the match! You know as
+well as I that my debts don't disturb me in the least. It is quite easy
+always to--borrow, if one must pay."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+LOVE, AND A GARDEN
+
+
+Don Giovanni arrived on Tuesday, and Saturday found him out on the
+terrace leaning over the balustrade beside Nina. His expression was
+unusually animated, for he was making the most of his first chance to
+talk to her without the presence of a third person. Not that they were
+alone--the Princess Sansevero was too much of an Italian to leave a
+young girl for a moment unchaperoned. But she was walking about with the
+head gardener, discussing the possibilities of saving a grove of cypress
+trees that showed signs of dying; and though she kept the young people
+well in sight, she could not overhear their conversation. Giovanni's big
+dog, St. Anthony, was lying outstretched in the sunshine.
+
+In the full light, Nina had ample opportunity for observing that her
+companion was quite as good-looking in detail as in general effect; and
+the rhythmic inflection of his voice--he spoke in French--she thought
+truly attuned to his surroundings. He was one of those who, like Italy
+itself, give to strangers only the suggestion of their meaning, and he
+interested Nina chiefly as a new unsolved problem.
+
+Gradually the habitual sleepy expression had returned to his eyes, and
+his voice grew dreamy. "We of Italy," he was saying, "live, endure, die,
+if need be--always for the same reason--woman and love! Your men in
+America"--his teeth glittered as he smiled--"tell me, Mademoiselle, do
+you believe they know what it is to love? Do they hide it, perhaps, from
+us Europeans?"
+
+"I should think," answered Nina sagely, "that love means more to our men
+than to you." (A remark that John Derby had made came into her mind as
+she spoke: "You will find your own countrymen go in for the real thing,
+where the foreigner spends all his time talking about it.")
+
+Don Giovanni was too thoroughly a European to become argumentative. "You
+see, I speak only from hearsay," he continued, with that air of agreeing
+with her which only the Latin possesses. "I have always been led to
+suppose that love plays a very small part in the lives of your
+countrymen." He held the thread of the conversation, but his manner said
+plainly that he only waited humbly to be enlightened. "I should have
+said," he went on, "an illustration of love in my country as contrasted
+with yours is shown in the gardens--just as our gardens bloom all the
+year, so love blooms always in our hearts; flowers and love, they go
+together; nowhere in the world are they so perfect as in Italy."
+
+"So cultivated?" asked Nina.
+
+He took no notice of the quip. "If to cultivate is to think of and to
+nurture, to strive always for greater perfection, then, yes, let us say
+cultivated."
+
+There was a challenge; there was also a look of pity that annoyed her.
+It was this that she resented. She felt that she was being enmeshed in
+an invisible web, and she sought for a means of escape. Seeing none she
+might be sure of, she dropped the figurative speech and took refuge in
+platitudes.
+
+"In America we admire a man for what he does--over here you do nothing.
+Each day for you is the same. You spend your time as a woman might,
+unless you go into the army, the church, or diplomacy. For instance,
+you, yourself, what is your ambition? Is there anything you are trying
+to do?"
+
+Indolently he shrugged his shoulders, and with a half-lazy arrogance he
+answered, "Why should I try to create a personal and trivial future,
+when I can, without striving, merely survive from a far more glorious
+past? Listen, Mademoiselle, do you think as much can be accomplished by
+one short generation as by many? For instance, could a garden such as
+this be produced in the lifetime of one man?" He waved his arm in a
+circular motion. "It is not alone its plan and its fountains, and its
+green shrubbery that make it what it is, but the history of human lives
+that is planted in its every turn and corner. The gardens of America are
+but newly born from the minds of your landscape architects; in most of
+them the trees are but newly planted. This garden was already stately
+with ilex and cypress when the first white men of North America were
+sowing a little corn. How can you feel romance in a garden where there
+is no tradition save of the hours a few laborers have spent in digging?"
+
+Suddenly a look of real ardor came into his face, an animation into his
+expression that gave a new charm to his words. "On this terrace where we
+now stand, leaning upon the marble of this very railing, countless men
+who were heroes, poets, philosophers, and fair women who were their
+sweethearts, have looked, as we do, over the hills laden with blossoming
+trees. Up that path yonder to the monastery have gone pilgrims, sinners,
+martyrs, and many lovers to have their vows blessed, or to find a haven
+for broken hearts. In the _allée_ of cypress trees have walked many of
+the great lovers of Italy's romance. From this terrace end Beatrice
+herself is said to have thrown a rose of that very bush's parent stem to
+her immortal lover. Every corner of the garden holds its story of
+meetings that made of it a paradise, of partings that made of it an
+inferno. What is paradise, but love? Inferno, but the sorrow of love?
+Down before us, and even up here on this terrace, scenes have been
+enacted in feud and in peace, horrible scenes of bloodshed and cruelty,
+and again scenes of splendor--gatherings of church, ceremonials of
+state, but chiefly scenes of love--some beautiful and happy, others no
+less beautiful because they were tragic. Shall I tell you some of the
+stories?"
+
+Nina nodded an eager assent; Giovanni's manner held her completely.
+
+"Almost where you are standing, Cecilia Sansevero was stabbed by Guido
+Corlone before he killed himself, so that they might be together in the
+next world. Out of that window, the third from the end, another daughter
+of our house descended by a silk ladder. They--she and her lover--took
+the path directly below here; the guards saw them. This happened just
+beside the statue yonder. He drew his sword and stood before her, but
+the guards were too many, and he was killed. She had poison in a locket
+that she wore, and almost before they could drag her arms from about her
+lover's neck, she also was dead."
+
+"Horrible!" cried Nina. Her face, mobile as Giovanni's own, had
+unconsciously reflected, in changing expressions, the progress of his
+narrative. "To think that in such a place as this such things really
+happened." She shuddered, then added, "But, Don Giovanni, are there no
+pleasant stories? Please think of some."
+
+"Oh, any number. Once there was a small house in the valley--a lodge it
+would be called now. A very pretty girl lived there. This time it was
+the son of our house, a young, hot-headed fellow like all of us."
+Giovanni let just enough fire gleam in his eyes to give Nina a glimpse
+of another phase of him. "Well, this son--whose name was the same as
+mine, Giovanni, a Prince Sansevero--he was mad about this girl. He
+would marry her or he would take his life. She was the star of his
+destiny, the crown of his life, and all the rest of it. They were going
+to send her away--she was to go into a cloister; he was locked up in the
+castle. But the old custodian, who adored the boy, let him escape by the
+underground passage. He came out in the church. She had gone there to
+pray, knowing nothing of the underground way--it was kept a profound
+secret in those days. As the girl knelt, Giovanni appeared suddenly
+beside the altar. Her duenna thought him an apparition, and the two fled
+up to the monastery--that one you see from here."
+
+"And then----?" said Nina breathlessly.
+
+"The Father Abbot relented and married them."
+
+Nina tried to discern the path to the monastery; in her imagination she
+saw them hurrying along on the night of their escape.
+
+"And then? In the end what became of them?"
+
+"She bore him fifteen children; thirteen of them were girls."
+
+Giovanni's manner was so casual as he said this that Nina laughed long
+and deliciously. He swung himself lightly over the balustrade and
+gathered her a long-stemmed rose from the bush whose early branches were
+supposed to have known the touch of Beatrice. Perhaps the legend was
+untrue, but his action, like the afternoon, held much that was alluring.
+Something of this allure lay in Giovanni's having the same name as the
+people he told about. Something, too, in the carelessness, and yet the
+pride, of his telling, made his tales enchanting, and seemed in some way
+to include his own personality in the chain of romance as its final
+link. The garden was spread before her. The underground passage she
+knew, and it wound directly beneath her feet. The chapel, the statue,
+the ruins of the little temple, the monastery encircling like a low
+crown the summit of the distant mountain, all were before her; and
+beside her was a son of the same race, of the same blood. She wondered
+vaguely why it was so much more apparent in Don Giovanni than in her
+uncle the prince. Prince Sansevero seemed quite modern; the Marchese di
+Valdo, though more modern actually than his brother, still seemed to
+keep his touch on the age that was past.
+
+"Do these old legends please you, Mademoiselle? Or are you too restless?
+Too progressive? Americans, like the horse Pegasus, leap into the air
+without any need of foundation to stand on. We, over here, build, like
+the coral reefs, slowly perhaps, but always from the foundation up."
+
+"I think," said Nina slowly; "it is the mystery of the past that makes
+it so wonderful. We never can know quite enough about it. All legends
+are like pictures seen through a fog; it lifts and shows a glimpse, then
+as quickly closes in again. I always want to know what happened next."
+
+As she said this, she realized that she was more or less making an
+allegorical description of Giovanni himself. He was like his country and
+its traditions, revealing himself only in glimpses. He attracted her
+immensely through his subtle impersonality underlying all that was
+seemingly personal. She could not fathom his depth, nor determine his
+shallowness--she did not even guess which it might be. She was
+irresistibly drawn to him; yet she was on her guard, as one who, looking
+down from a great height, in fear of vertigo clings to the parapet over
+which he leans. The parapet she clung to was her own good American
+common sense. Yet she feared she did not know what. A little gleam in
+Giovanni's dark eyes, a curious, deliberate, intentionally produced
+expression of his smiling lips, swept over her sensibilities with a
+feeling that was as terrifying as it was delicious--and both perhaps
+because it was strange.
+
+A little look--like triumph--flickered in his face; he laughed joyously.
+"Mademoiselle, you are--adorable!" he said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ROME
+
+
+Christmas and New Year's passed, and the Sansevero household moved to
+Rome. The princess was impatient to have Nina meet people, but from the
+first glimpse of the domed City its immortal charm claimed the American
+girl, and for a little while she had neither time nor inclination for
+anything but sight-seeing. She fairly hungered for history and
+tradition, and she soon made the discovery that if Don Giovanni _did_
+nothing, he at least _knew_ a great deal.
+
+She marveled at his memory. He seemed to have every name and date in the
+history of Rome and Italian art at the tip of his tongue. One afternoon
+they were going through the apartments of the Borgias; the princess,
+tired out with sight-seeing, was sitting at the edge of the room, and
+Giovanni was following Nina and pointing out the story illustrated in
+the frescoes.
+
+"I have found at least one thing you could do!" she laughed. "You'd make
+a wonderful guide for Cook's."
+
+But he was not at all amused by this sally; in fact, he let her see that
+he was annoyed. This same sort of unexpected response had baffled her
+several times before. Any American youth would have fallen into the
+manner of a guide at once. She remembered that John Derby on one
+occasion, at a County fair, had insisted upon climbing on the stand of a
+barker and was the success of the show. On the other hand, this Italian
+prince appreciated things which John Derby would have brushed aside. He
+was a delightful companion, the most delightful she had ever known, but
+every now and then he became suddenly and inexplicably offended--and
+always over some stupid trifle, like this suggestion of hers about
+Cook's.
+
+"I only meant," she ventured appeasingly, "that you hold all of Rome's
+history in the palm of your hand. Is there anything that you don't
+know?"
+
+His gesture was expressive. He raised his eyebrows and opened both hands
+palms upward. "I am Roman--since a thousand years."
+
+Nina changed the subject. "I wish," she said, "that they had wheeling
+chairs with head rests. I have a crick in my neck and my eyes are going
+crossed from looking so much at ceilings."
+
+Giovanni's ill temper had been for a moment only. He smiled now and
+whimsically suggested that they write to the director of the Vatican
+asking that litters be provided. Why not? He grew quite enthusiastic
+over his description of how charming she would look between tall negro
+bearers, with a little black boy trotting beside her, carrying a long
+fan--no, in place of the fan he should carry a little stove.
+
+"My idea was not half so picturesque," she laughed in answer. "I think I
+had a dentist's chair in mind--a red fuzzy plush one on wheels."
+
+"And with me to push it?" He said it eagerly enough. Here was a
+contradiction of his late irritation! She did not dare, as a matter of
+fact, to answer; his melodies and his discords were too easily
+transposed.
+
+She turned her attention to the fresco before her; it was one with the
+portrait of the kneeling Borgia.
+
+"He looks like a burglar!" she exclaimed with a shudder. Then she
+hesitated, but Giovanni's mood being too uncertain to take into
+consideration she finished her sentence, "Do you know who he looks
+like--? The Duke Scorpa."
+
+Again he was angry. "Please, Miss Randolph, do not say anything of that
+sort."
+
+"But why shouldn't I?" She colored under his reproof, but held to her
+point.
+
+"Because you are of the household of the Sansevero. A little
+remark--even so little as a tenth of that, might be imprudent. Rome is
+to-day almost what it was. There still is a very frail bridge uniting
+the Scorpas and the Sanseveros; the ravine is always there; a torrent
+from the glacier may descend at any time."
+
+"Then I shall say it in a whisper! He looks like a burglar, and like a
+cut-throat and--like Scorpa!"
+
+Giovanni scowled. "I warn you, Mademoiselle, be prudent!" A note of
+tension in his voice brought Nina to a sudden halt.
+
+"There is no one here but Aunt Eleanor--I doubt if even she can hear."
+
+"In Rome it would not be the first time if walls had ears."
+
+"I am sorry," she said so simply, so candidly, that Giovanni was
+charmed. He became light and amusing. He elaborated the legends of the
+frescoes with the lives of the painters' until she felt as though they
+were yet living. Finally they reached the side of the room where the
+princess was waiting. There was no impatience in her voice, but she
+looked tired, and Nina cried penitently:
+
+"Ah, Aunt Eleanor! Why did you not call me sooner? I get so carried away
+by all the things I see, and the tales Don Giovanni tells me, that I
+have no sense of time."
+
+They descended the stairs to the inner court of the Vatican, where they
+found their carriage, an old-fashioned C-spring landeau, all very
+dignified and perfectly appointed, and in striking contrast to the
+pony-cart in which the princess was trundled about at Torre Sansevero.
+
+By the time they crossed the Ponte S. Angelo the color had come back a
+little into the princess's face. Nina, with no sign of fatigue, sat
+brightly alert, while Giovanni opposite, prattled ceaselessly, except
+for the interruption necessitated by his constantly taking off his hat
+as his sister-in-law bowed to passing acquaintances.
+
+They had not far to go along the Corso Vittorio Emanuele before they
+came to the dingy pile of yellow stone that for centuries had borne the
+name of Palazzo Sansevero. The landeau turned under one of its three
+broad archways, and entered the courtyard. A plain stone stairway, worn
+and dingy like the rest of the façade, led into a vestibule of
+unpromising darkness. The _portiere_, however, was very gorgeous and
+imposing in his knee breeches, white silk stockings, gold-trimmed coat,
+and his three-cornered hat with the prince's cockade at the side. He
+moved majestically down the steps, carrying a silver-headed mace, like a
+drum-major's, and saluted as the "nobilities" entered the palace. They
+ascended to a vast stone hall with a grand stairway at its further end,
+that quickly effaced the impression of the entrance. From an
+antechamber, they passed through five or six rooms hung with tapestries
+and paintings, and adorned with sculptures, until they arrived at the
+one where the princess really lived. This last was a huge, dignified,
+mellow, and splendid apartment, in every way worthy of the palace in
+which it stood, and of the great lady who occupied it now, no less than
+of all the great ladies who had occupied it in the past. In its present
+furnishings there were deep sofas with light and table arrangement, so
+that one might lounge and read and at the same time be near the great
+open fire. Many bibelots of silver and porcelain made a contrast to the
+other rooms, that were more like museum galleries; and everywhere--here
+as in the country--were flowers and the army of autographed photographs
+marching across tables and banked high against the walls.
+
+As soon as the family had entered, the tea-tray was brought in and
+placed near the fire. Following the Roman custom, according to which the
+daughter of the house pours the tea, the princess motioned Nina to fill
+the office, and she herself sat at her desk and began rapidly writing on
+a pad of paper. Giovanni carried tea and muffins to her, while Nina
+poured out her own cup and helped herself to a third cake.
+
+"Are these really so good?" she asked half wistfully. "Or are even these
+little cakes seemingly delicious only because they are in Rome? I am
+sure the cook at home made plenty that were every bit as good!" She said
+this last as though to convince herself.
+
+"They are wonderful little cakes--they are very celebrated!" Giovanni
+said it with an aggrieved air that made Nina laugh. As though wilfully
+misunderstanding her, he turned to his sister-in-law.
+
+"Such curious ideas Miss Randolph has about Rome! One would suppose, to
+hear her, that it was a land of witchcraft--even our food is to be
+taken with suspicion."
+
+"Not at all," retorted Nina, with a turn of manner that would have done
+credit to an Italian, "a land of enchantment, which makes ordinary
+cakes--very ordinary little cakes, I tell you!--seem small squares and
+rounds of ambrosia. And, furthermore--I can assure you it is much more
+comfortable here than in the country."
+
+If Giovanni thought she was going to stay sentimental very long, he did
+not know the American temperament. For she now went into a long
+dissertation upon the discomfort of Torre Sansevero, where she nearly
+froze to death. Candle light she had not minded, though she much
+preferred electricity.
+
+"Have you entirely obliterated the gardens from your memory,
+Mademoiselle?" Giovanni asked in an undertone, and with a romantic
+inflection. But Nina's mood was not, at that moment, attuned to gardens.
+
+"Ah, I love Rome--just Rome itself! There is no other such place in all
+the world! I thought I loved Paris. Paris is gay and beautiful. But Rome
+is glorious--splendid!"
+
+Giovanni's chagrin at her apparent indifference to the gardens was
+changed to enthusiasm at her appreciation of his beloved city, for to
+have her love Rome was like having her love the greater portion of
+himself--who was but part of Rome.
+
+"The only detriment is," continued Nina, "that at night I dream of
+marble statues parading against backgrounds of cobalt blue under groined
+arches of gold--like the ceilings in the rooms of the Borgias and--this
+one! Why this is exactly like them! There is the same face as the St.
+Catherine----" then suddenly she sat up, leaning eagerly
+forward--"Auntie Princess, I don't want to have a party at all! I don't
+want to meet people! I like to think of Rome as inhabited with those of
+long ago." Then with one of her sudden checks upon a tendency to become
+over sentimental, she added gaily, "The little cakes of to-day, are good
+at all events! Give me another, please!"
+
+Giovanni slid out of the corner of the sofa like smooth steel springs
+unfolding; neither hastily, nor with effort. She watched him; fascinated
+by his grace and litheness. Suddenly, though, she felt uncomfortably
+certain that he knew what was passing in her mind, and this conviction
+immediately put her out of humor. For the space of a few minutes she
+disliked him. He seemed to know that too, for his next sentence was:
+
+"Are all young girls in America so unreasonably capricious, so
+whimsically balanced mentally as--a young girl I once met?"
+
+"How was she?" Nina's curiosity was aroused in spite of her.
+
+"Very inexperienced, and therefore uncertain. Like the person who in
+dancing counts one, two, three--one, two, three, for fear of losing
+time--or like the inexperienced swimmer who measures constantly the
+distance to shore."
+
+"Children, you are chattering nonsense," the princess interfered. "Here,
+you lazy ones, help me to write the invitations!"
+
+Nina arose and went to look over her aunt's shoulder. "Oh, but it is for
+day after to-morrow!" she exclaimed. "Do you mean to say that any one
+will come at such short notice?" That the invitations were merely
+visiting cards with "Informal Dance" written in the corner, and a date
+not forty-eight hours ahead, astonished her. She asked about the
+details. How could they arrange for the decorations, favors, supper? But
+the princess smiled complacently. Candles were all the decoration
+necessary! the favors would be trifles that could be bought in half an
+hour; and as for supper--what could young people want more than lemonade
+or tea, sandwiches, and cakes? The only question was where they should
+dance.
+
+The princess turned to Giovanni. "I think it is best in the picture
+gallery, don't you?"
+
+"The floor is not so smooth as in the Room of the Aenead, but come, let
+us go and decide." He led the way, and they followed. The Room of the
+Aenead was next that in which they were sitting. The portrait gallery,
+filled with treasures from the days of Italy's grandeur, was still
+beyond. It was this apartment of all others that most appealed to Nina.
+For a moment she forgot why they had come into the gallery, and her
+attention remained fixed upon the canvases. With the ever-vigilant
+Giovanni at her side, she seemed to be walking in a day that was past,
+to be enveloped in a fairy mantle! She put her hand on a group said to
+be the work of Michelangelo, running her fingers over the face of one of
+the figures with awe in her touch.
+
+"To think," she said very softly, the wonder breaking through the low
+tone of her voice, "to think that Michelangelo's own living hand has
+been where mine is now--still more, he has been in this very room! Not
+alone he, but Raphael, Correggio, and Pinturicchio! And all this is
+called home by my own aunt. _Mine!_" A little quiver had come into her
+throat. "It is too wonderful! Yet it gives me the strangest sensation--I
+can't exactly explain it, but it is as though I were not born at all. Do
+you know," she had turned to Giovanni wistfully, "I think I can
+understand just a little of the way you feel--it is as though you were
+securely planted like a tree. In the beginning, long ago, you were put
+into the earth with the first things sown. I am merely a leaf, blown
+from what branch I do not even know--belonging nowhere, coming from
+nothing. I think I see for the first time what you mean, over here, but
+just _being_ and not caring to do more than survive from the
+gloriousness of all this." She spread her arms out as though
+bewildered.
+
+"Now you see," Giovanni answered her, as though there were a new and
+strong bond of sympathy between them, "why decorations are unnecessary.
+Can you imagine these walls, which for centuries have looked down upon
+every great personage of Rome, being decked up like a Christmas tree
+because a number of people whose achievements are in no way illustrious
+are coming for an hour or two?"
+
+"I think," said Nina, "that I shall dance like a wraith. It seems almost
+a sacrilege to bob around and prattle in such surroundings. How silly
+their sainted ghosts might think us!"
+
+"I never thought of the old masters as saints exactly. But come,
+Mademoiselle--let us pretend--in each of those chandeliers are burning a
+hundred wax candles. It is the night of the ball--we open it so--will
+you dance?"
+
+Again there appeared a Giovanni that she had never seen before, his lazy
+arrogance vanished, as, whisking a handkerchief out of his pocket to
+wave in his hand, he became a sprite--a dancing faun, a reincarnation of
+the spirit of Donatello.
+
+Twice he traversed the length of the gallery, and then, with a vigor
+added to his grace, he caught Nina and swung her with him into his
+whirling dance. It had been perfectly done; even in his _abandon_ there
+was no lack of ceremony. There was none of the "come along" spirit of
+youth in America. He was in this, just as he was in everything else, a
+remnant of a past age; he had merely been transformed into a Bacchant!
+He was in no way a mere young man who had grabbed a young girl around
+the waist and made her dance.
+
+But as the princess watched them, her feelings were strongly at
+variance. Admiration played the greater part. Even a much less biased
+mind than hers could not have failed to appreciate the wonderful grace
+of the man and the girl, for Nina was as graceful as he. Yet the
+princess looked vaguely troubled, too, at the thought that Giovanni was
+perhaps overstepping his privilege.
+
+"Giovanni! Nina!" she called, but she might as well have appealed to the
+wind that blew through the courtyard below, and instead of their heeding
+she felt her own waist encircled as Sansevero, who had entered by the
+door behind her, swept her into the dance with him. "But, Sandro!" she
+exclaimed, resisting, "it is . . . not seemly! What if . . . the servants
+. . . should . . . see us?" But, joining Giovanni in the tune he was
+whistling, Sansevero seemed to have caught some of his brother's humor.
+If Giovanni had become the spirit of grace, Alessandro had become the
+spirit of recklessness, and Eleanor was whirled, breathless, not as one
+dances usually, but madly, so that her feet barely touched the floor. To
+add to the revelry of the scene, the Great Dane, who was never far from
+Giovanni's side, now joined the general whirl and leaped round and round
+as though he had but newly come from a bath, his deep bark punctuating
+the valse the two men were whistling. The princess felt an apprehensive
+dread of a servant's intrusion, and again a breathless "Sandro, stop!"
+escaped her lips just as----
+
+The portière was lifted and the footman announced, "_Suo Eccellenza il
+Duca di Scorpa!_"
+
+"Ah, I hope I do not intrude upon the family gaiety!" The duke's face
+was insinuatingly bland and his manner smooth as an eel.
+
+The dancers stopped instantly. The princess flushed, but otherwise only
+one who knew her intimately might have guessed that she was conscious of
+having been put in the position of a careless and undignified chaperon.
+But she winced inwardly, and felt no reassurance in the knowledge that
+the duke's tongue was known to be more skillful in the art of
+embroidering than the fingers of the most expert needlewoman. Sansevero
+followed his wife's cue, but without feeling her dismay, for he, it must
+be remembered, liked Scorpa. He had the naïve manner of a child caught
+doing something foolish, but that was all. Giovanni welcomed the duke
+suavely, yet, as the princess led Scorpa into the living rooms, Nina had
+an exhibition of a real side of Giovanni that she was destined to
+remember ever after.
+
+She never in her life had imagined that such fury could be depicted in
+the human countenance. His nostrils dilated, and his jaw was squared.
+
+"I'll kill that viper yet!" he muttered between his teeth, and, reaching
+out for the first thing to hand, his long smooth fingers locked around
+the neck of the Great Dane--so tight that the dog, half strangled and
+snarling, lunged at his tormenter. Nina cried out in horror, but
+instantly Giovanni's temper vanished as it had come. He relaxed his
+fingers with a caress; and the animal fawned on him.
+
+"Forgive me, Mademoiselle." He said it as lightly as though there had
+been only some trivial inattention to overlook.
+
+The whole scene had taken place in a moment--so quickly, in fact, that
+as Nina and he followed the princess through the adjoining rooms, she
+half wondered if her senses had deceived her. What manner of man was
+this indolent, graceful descendant of a feudal race? As he approached
+the duke, Nina unconsciously held her breath. Half expecting to see them
+draw daggers then and there, she glanced fearfully from one to the
+other; but Giovanni, smiling his sleepy-eyed smile, talked as though he
+thought the duke the most charming man in the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+OPENING DAY AT THE TITLE MARKET
+
+
+On the evening of the dance the Princess Malio, stiff, thin, and sour,
+and the old Duchess Scorpa, stolid, ugly, and squat, sat together in a
+corner of the ballroom--that is to say, the picture gallery--of the
+Palazzo Sansevero.
+
+"So that is the new American heiress!" said the duchess. "Very
+presentable, I call her. My Todo might do worse than marry her--but of
+course"--her face drew itself into the grimace that did duty for a
+smile--"my Todo would have little chance for her favor in competition
+with your nephew."
+
+The princess bowed in acknowledgment and strongly protested against the
+idea of any one's being able to compete with a Duke Scorpa.
+
+The conversation between these two old women was always forced into just
+such channels of conscious politeness. It was rarely that they disclosed
+the antagonism that formed the chief spice of their lives. But the
+princess could not control an impulse to destroy, if possible, the
+satisfaction of her rival.
+
+"My dear Duchess," she insinuated dulcetly, "do you really credit her
+fabulous fortune?" Her manner expressed her pity for the other's
+credulity. "Such a sum as five hundred thousand _lire_ a year too much
+oversteps the mark of probability."
+
+But the complacency of the duchess was not so easily disturbed. "Oh, no,
+that is not right!" she broke in. "I have been assured that she has five
+hundred thousand _dollars_ a year. Dollars! And there are five _lire_ in
+every dollar, remember."
+
+"Dollars!" echoed the princess--and her voice rose several notes above
+normal pitch; in fact, she nearly screamed. "I am very certain you are
+misinformed." But her skepticism barely covered her real chagrin because
+her nephew was a cadaverous nonentity, with little to recommend him to a
+title hunter. As she looked at the girl in question, however, there was
+a decided relish in her next remark:
+
+"I think Giovanni Sansevero will carry off that prize! See the way she
+is smiling up at him. Ah! and now they are dancing together. Certainly
+they make a suitable looking couple."
+
+The duchess straightened her dumpy figure to its greatest possible
+height. For once she forgot herself. "Would any one marry a Sansevero
+when there is a Scorpa to choose!"
+
+"It has happened," chuckled the princess.
+
+The threatening break in their habitual politeness was averted by the
+arrival of a third old lady, the Marchesa Valdeste. As her husband was
+the receiver of the "_Gran Collare de l'Anunziata_," a distinction that
+gave him the rank of cousin to the king, the duchess and the princess
+both rose for a moment in deference. The "collaress" seated herself with
+them. In contrast to theirs, her face was sweet and fresh, with an
+expression almost like that of a young girl. Her whole personality was
+gentle, and she punctuated what she said by a curious little swaying
+motion, a bending of the body from the waist, very suggestive of the way
+a flower bends on its stalk to the breeze.
+
+The marchesa was also much interested in the new heiress, and although a
+certain finish of demeanor now modified their remarks, none of them
+attempted to conceal her ambition to secure Nina's money for her own
+family.
+
+The Princess Malio was more eager than skeptical as she asked the
+marchesa, "Have you heard the story of her half a million dollar income?
+Do you believe it possible!"
+
+The marchesa turned her little hands over, palms up. "She has something
+incredible, but I cannot say how much. Maria Potensi asked the American
+ambassador if the celebrated James Randolph was as rich as reputed, and
+he said----"
+
+The duchess became almost apoplectic in her eagerness. "He said----"
+
+The marchesa looked for all the world like a young girl telling a fairy
+tale. "He said"--she breathed it in wonder--"that Mr. Randolph's wealth
+was so fabulous that it was beyond computing! And _this_ is his _only
+child_!"
+
+An awed stillness fell upon the group, each old lady looking and longing
+according to her own nature. It was the marchesa who at last broke the
+silence. "I cannot deny that I should like my Cesare to be so fortunate
+as to win her, but I must confess she and Giovanni Sansevero make a
+charming couple!"
+
+"Dancing, yes," snapped the duchess, "but for my taste they dance too
+fast!"
+
+"She is doubtless thinking of her tub of a son, who moves with about the
+grace of an elephant," whispered the Princess Malio behind her fan.
+
+"I can imagine nothing more graceful than the picture they make at this
+moment," the marchesa answered, wistfully regarding the two slim figures
+whirling down the length of the room, dancing, dancing on! as though it
+were the first, and not the tenth, time they had traversed the great
+gallery; the elastic poise of each the same, the gold-colored gauze of
+Nina's dress exactly matching the rippling waves of glorious hair only a
+shade below the sleek black head of her partner.
+
+Yet the marchesa was perhaps no more anxious than either of the others
+to have Giovanni bear off the American prize. "My Cesare does not return
+from England for another month," she added only half audibly, and then
+she sighed.
+
+Suddenly the old princess pounced like a lean cat upon a new thought.
+"Ah, ha! There is some trouble brewing! Maria Potensi has found your
+picture of dancing grace a bit too charming. Di Valdo is biting his
+mustache, and she is giving herself away! I always thought the wind sat
+in that quarter. Now--she is losing her temper--and with it her
+discretion!"
+
+"Maria Potensi is above suspicion," interrupted the marchesa. "I do not
+believe there is a word of truth in what you imply."
+
+"But how do you account for her jewels? I am interested to hear. There
+were none in the Potensi family, nor in her own!"
+
+"She says quite frankly that they were given her by an old Russian who
+is her god-father."
+
+"Every one knows," rejoined the princess, "that di Valdo has made heavy
+debts, yet he is not a gambler like his brother Sansevero, and he has no
+personal extravagances that account for the sums borrowed."
+
+The "collaress" answered nothing, and the fat duchess, who had so far
+been only a listener, drew her head in like a snapping turtle as she
+made the satisfactory observation that her "Todo" was now the partner of
+the heiress.
+
+The Duke Scorpa and Nina, standing for the commencement of a quadrille,
+suggested rather a brigand and a princess than a duke and a titleless
+daughter of the democracy. Nina was holding her head very high, yet
+easily and unconsciously, because it was her natural way of standing.
+The dancing had brought color to her cheeks, and her eyes were
+sparkling; but it was at the evening in general, not at the man who at
+that moment was trying to please her. She could not bear the duke's
+sharp little black eyes, his brutal square jaw, his unctuous manners;
+and as he took her hand to lead her down a figure of the quadrille, its
+thickness felt to her imagination like a paw.
+
+Dancing vis-à-vis were Giovanni and the Contessa Potensi. Nina did not
+know her name or anything about her, but she felt at first sight a
+subtle antagonism, and, following an instinct that she would have found
+difficult to account for, she turned her attention away toward a second
+personality, which fascinated her in as great a degree as that of the
+Potensi had repelled.
+
+"Who is that over there?" she asked of the duke. "I mean the slender
+girl in black."
+
+"The Contessa Olisco. She was a Russian princess. Her name was Zoya
+Kromitskoff. I thought the name of Zoya pretty once--that is, until I
+heard the name of N-i-n-a!"
+
+As he said her name they were just turning around the last figure, and
+she might not, without attracting attention, snatch her hand from his;
+but his familiarity in using her Christian name made her cheeks burn. In
+the final courtesy she barely inclined her head, and at the close of the
+dance went in quest of her aunt without noticing his proffered arm. At
+this unheard-of behavior, the duke hurried after her, biting his
+mustache.
+
+"Ah, ha!" ejaculated the old princess in the ear of the Marchesa
+Valdeste, "that cuttlefish of a Scorpa has thrown his tentacles out too
+far, and the goldfish is scurrying away in alarm." She fanned herself in
+agitated satisfaction at her triumph over the duchess--who was
+pretending that she had noticed no coolness in the American's treatment
+of her son.
+
+The next moment the Princess Sansevero brought Nina to present her to
+the marchesa. Nina had been dancing at the time of the arrival of the
+"collaress" and must therefore be presented at the first opportunity.
+The marchesa, with a few kindly remarks about her dancing, would have
+let her return to her partners, but the duchess moved ponderously aside
+on the sofa, making a place for Nina. Without prelude she began, "Is it
+true that you have five hundred thousand dollars a year? Or is rumor
+mistaken--is it only five hundred thousand _lire_?"
+
+The baldness of the question left Nina for the moment speechless; then
+presently, "I have what father gives me," she answered evasively.
+
+"But you are the only child of the American multimillionaire, 'Jemmes
+Ronadolf,' yes?"
+
+Nina nodded in affirmative.
+
+"The Duke Scorpa, with whom you danced just now, is my son!" Her manner
+clearly demanded that the American girl recognize the great favor that
+she had received. "He is my only son," she reiterated, "and the head of
+the family of the Scorpa. You must come to tea to-morrow. I especially
+invite you, though we are regularly at home."
+
+The condescension of her demeanor can hardly be described. Nina turned
+helplessly toward the Princess Malio, but found in her a new inquisitor:
+"American fathers are proverbially generous"--her ingratiating smile so
+ill suited her features that it seemed almost not to belong to her--"of
+course your dot will be colossal?"
+
+Again Nina gasped, but before she was obliged to answer the Marchesa
+Valdeste laid her hand upon her arm. "Come, my dear," she said, with her
+soft Sicilian accent, "it is a pity to miss so much dancing. It is not
+right for a young girl to sit with old ladies at a ball," and, holding
+Nina's hand in hers, she led her away. They had taken only half a dozen
+steps when she tapped a young officer lightly with her fan.
+
+He wheeled quickly. "Ah, Marchesa!" He bowed ceremoniously.
+
+"Count Tornik," said the marchesa, "will you take Miss Randolph to the
+Princess Sansevero, or where her numerous partners may find her?"
+
+Count Tornik bowed again, this time to Nina. "Will you dance? I don't
+dance as well as di Valdo." Nina looked up at him, suspicious and
+displeased, but there was no conscious deprecation in his manner, which
+indeed proclaimed that whether he danced well or badly was a matter
+unlike unimportant to him.
+
+"Yes, let us dance," she said.
+
+As he put his arm around her it seemed to her that "an animated tin
+soldier" expressed him perfectly. He held her stiffly, and so closely
+that her nose was crushed against the gold braiding of his uniform. He
+was so tall, and his shoulders were so square, that she could not see
+over them, and to add to her discomfort, he danced, not as did the
+Italians, but round and round like a whirling dervish. Before they had
+gone ten yards she was so dizzy and uncomfortable that she stopped.
+
+Again Tornik bowed, offered his arm, and without addressing a further
+remark to her, led her to the Princess Sansevero. As he took leave of
+her his expression showed a glimpse of understanding, a momentary
+illumination. She felt for an instant a possibility of his
+attractiveness, but just as she became curious he was gone.
+
+The men she met after this were a mere succession of dancing figures,
+and at the end of the evening, when her aunt came into her room to kiss
+her good night, she could sleepily distinguish only one or two people
+out of the kaleidoscope of confused impressions. And even these few
+melted off into shadows as she danced on and on through dreamland with
+Giovanni, amid gardens and marble statues, to the magic rhythm of
+wonder-world music.
+
+But while Nina slept with a happy little smile still lying in the
+corners of her mouth, the princess in her own room was having an
+animated conversation with her husband.
+
+"Leonora, my treasure!" he exclaimed joyously, "things go well for
+Giovanni with _la bella_ Nina? _Hein?_ With her fortune! And to have
+such an air and grace, too--it is really Giovanni that is a lucky one!"
+Before his wife could interrupt he went on, "Five hundred thousand
+dollars income--that is to be her dot, isn't it? Why, we can have all
+the rooms at Torre Sansevero opened, and you, my beautiful one, shall
+have again the comfort that your wretch of a husband has deprived you
+of!"
+
+His excited appropriation of Nina's fortune for the general family
+coffers jarred; and the princess at once checked his rapidly soaring
+imaginings.
+
+"Not so fast! Not so fast! Remember the American girl is used to
+arranging her own marriage, and besides . . . for nothing in the world
+would I try to influence her. Should it turn out unhappily I could never
+forgive myself . . . never!"
+
+Sansevero looked at his wife in open-eyed amazement. "What has come over
+you, my dear! I am not proposing to sell your Miss Millions to a rag
+gatherer. She has no amount of beauty--yes (as he followed Eleanor's
+expression), she has a charming countenance--_molto simpatica_--also a
+distinction that is really rarer in your country of beautiful women.
+Giovanni, on his side, certainly has all that one could ask in the way
+of good looks and intelligence. He is young, and he is the sole heir to
+my titles and estates--She would be getting a very good exchange for her
+dollars, I am thinking. There is no use to make a face like that; I am
+not trying to sell her to an ogre. Why, he does not even gamble----"
+
+"No--but do you think Giovanni can be true to a woman?"
+
+Sansevero laughed. "What would you have? Are you becoming a Puritan
+miss, Leonora _mia_?" He shrugged his shoulders. "He is young and he has
+heart! Would you have for a nephew-in-law a St. Anthony?"
+
+As the princess still looked worried, he seemed afraid that he had hurt
+his project. "Giovanni is of a type that women like," he said
+reassuringly, "and probably he has had his successes--that is all I
+meant. Don't be so suspicious! I want merely to further the interests of
+two young people who are in every way suited to each other. Giovanni may
+be an anchorite, for all I know."
+
+Eleanor stood turning her wedding ring round and round on her finger.
+Then she looked anxiously into her husband's face. He was puffing at a
+cigarette that he had lighted, and his eyes looked back into hers with
+the perfectly innocent expression of a child's.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A DOOR IS OPENED THAT GIOVANNI PREFERS TO KEEP CLOSED
+
+
+The eyes of La Favorita boded good to no one! As a hostess her
+deportment left much to be desired, but since her visitors were limited
+to her very intimate friends it mattered, perhaps, little. At all
+events, as guest after guest arrived in her over-decorated salon, she
+looked up expectantly, and then resumed her expression of ugly
+indifference.
+
+"_Per Bacco!_" she muttered quite audibly enough for one to overhear,
+"this crowd seems to think I have asked all Rome to supper!"
+
+She attacked two young men of fashion as they entered. Fortunately, her
+manner somewhat modified the rudeness of her words--and the ill humor of
+her tone carried no conviction. "You cannot come in. I did not invite
+you! I have no room!"
+
+Instead of being angry, one, the Count Rosso, answered her in a voice
+that was half jesting, half conciliatory, in the familiar second person
+singular: "But thou art quite mad, my dear! We were all asked at Zizi's
+supper. I, for one, call it very ungracious of you to try to dispense
+with our agreeable society."
+
+La Favorita lapsed once more into indifference. "Oh well, I don't
+care"--she shrugged her shoulders--"I don't care whether you all go or
+stay!"
+
+A moment later a group that had formed at the end of the room made a
+great noise, and the hostess, suddenly rousing again, swept toward them
+with the floating motion of the professional dancer. "I wish you to
+understand," she said in a fury, "that you are to comport yourselves in
+my house as you would in the palaces of the nobility!"
+
+The group fell into a half-sympathetic hush as she moved back again to
+the door of the entrance. A little woman--a _café_ singer--broke into a
+snatch of song:
+
+          "The moon has two sides, a black and a white,
+           When the heart is dark there can be no light."
+
+Laughing, she snapped her fingers. "Fava has been in a bad temper ever
+since that American heiress came to Rome. She fears that Miss America
+will cut the leading strings of Giovanni."
+
+"Why pout at that? Giovanni will then be rich--a rich lover is better
+than a poor one any day!" laughed another soubrette.
+
+"What is the matter with Fava, anyway?" put in a third. "She was quite
+delighted with the American's arrival at first. Now she might draw a
+stiletto at any time."
+
+"The matter is that she has heard the millionairess is pretty, and she
+fears she will take Giovanni's heart as well as his name!"
+
+"Fava jealous! A delicious thought that! Yet I am not sure that I should
+care to be in Giovanni's shoes if he wants to get away from her,"
+observed Rigolo, the actor.
+
+Favorita again swept toward the group, her voice strident: "_Per Dio!_
+Do you suppose I can't imagine what you are all talking about, with your
+long ears together like so many donkeys chewing in a cabbage patch? You
+need not imagine to yourselves that I am jealous. No novice could hold
+Giovanni long. It is I who can tell you that, for I know such men and
+their ways fairly well--I have had experience! Me!"
+
+The others took it up in chorus: "Favorita has had some experience,
+_hein_! A race between the countries! Italy and America at the barrier.
+Holla, zip! they are off! La Favorita in the lead--America second,
+coming strong." And so it went on. Favorita had returned to her position
+by the door. She was more quiet, and in repose it might be seen that her
+face looked drawn--her eyes, if one observed closely, beneath the black
+penciling showed traces of recent weeping. "Tell me something," she said
+to Count Rosso. "What is she like, this Miss Randolph? Is it true"--her
+breath came short--"that Giovanni is trailing after her?"
+
+"Say after her millions, rather! I hope he gets them for your sake,
+Fava. Then you can have the house in the country that you have always
+wanted."
+
+"I'd rather he got his money some other way. It does not please me that
+he should marry!"
+
+"Aren't you unreasonable? Can't you give him up for a few weeks?"
+
+"If you call marriage a few weeks."
+
+Rosso, laughing, threw his hand up. "How long does a honeymoon last? A
+few weeks and he will be back."
+
+But the dancer's eyes filled, and she set her sharp little teeth
+together. "I cannot bear it! _Ah Dio!_ I cannot! She is young--and
+surely she loves him."
+
+"Every woman thinks the man she prefers is alike beloved by every other
+woman he meets! I have not heard that she loves him!"
+
+"Be quiet about what you have heard--what I want to know is, does he
+return it? I am told she is attractive; if she is--I shall----"
+
+Count Rosso chanced upon the right remark in answering, "Could a man, do
+you, think, who has had your favor, be satisfied with a cold American
+girl? Do not be stupid!"
+
+Favorita was slightly pacified. "Is she at all like me? Paint me her
+portrait!"
+
+"Her eyes are--m--m--rather nice; her skin--yes, good; her
+features--imperfect; she holds herself haughtily--chin out, and her back
+very straight, and"--as a last assurance, he added, "she speaks broken
+Italian."
+
+La Favorita's coal-black eyes lit with a new light, and her whole body
+seemed to flutter. Her carmine lips parted as, with an expression of
+quick joy, she clapped her hands together and exclaimed, "American
+accent! _Per Dio!_ She has an American accent!"
+
+In her delight she threw her arms about the count's neck and kissed him
+on the lips. With perfect impartiality she turned to two other men
+standing near and kissed them also, repeating to herself the while, "An
+American accent!"
+
+The next arrivals she received as though they were both expected and
+welcome; greeting them with the unintelligible exclamation, "Imagine
+speaking the only language in the world worth speaking with an American
+accent!"
+
+"But why do we not go into the dining-room?" asked her stage manager, a
+heavy puff of a man. "I have a void within."
+
+"May the void always stay, great beef!" she laughed. Then, with a shrug
+and a wave of her arms, as though to sweep every one out of the room,
+she cried petulantly, "Go! and eat, all of you. I am glad, if only you
+go!"
+
+The company, for the most part, laughed and went into the dining-room,
+whence the sound of revelry gradually grew louder. The Count Rosso alone
+remained with the hostess. "Come, Fava, don't be so headstrong--you're
+spoiling the party."
+
+"Spoiling the party! Do you hear the noise they are making? Is that the
+way to conduct one's self in a lady's house--I said a lady's house! Why
+do you look at me like that? Am I not a lady just as much as that
+daughter of an Indian squaw from over the Atlantic? Those in there"--she
+pointed with her thumb toward the dining-room--"they would not behave so
+in the Palazzo Sansevero!" Then, without another word, she followed
+where she had pointed, so fast that her thin draperies fluttered behind
+the lithe lines of her figure like butterfly wings. On the threshold of
+the dining-room she paused, like the bad fairy at the christening.
+
+"Why should you think you can behave in my house as you would not behave
+in the house of a princess?"
+
+The count, who had followed her, seemed relieved that she mentioned no
+specific name. Her remark seemed to touch a chord of sympathy in the
+company, for the women, especially, became very quiet. Favorita sat down
+at the end of the table between the manager and an empty place.
+
+"Eat something, my girl!" he said to her. "It will be the best thing you
+can do!"
+
+"My need is not the same as yours--I have emptiness of heart."
+
+Her alert hearing caught a footfall, and she was looking eagerly at the
+door when Giovanni Sansevero entered. At once her face became
+transfigured. "Ah, there thou art, my mouse!" she said, pulling out the
+chair beside her for him.
+
+He smiled and nodded familiarly to all at the table.
+
+"At least it is good for the rest of us that you come, Prince!" said the
+manager. "Fava is in a frightful mood." But there was that in Giovanni's
+expression that made the manager's speech turn quickly from any too
+personal allusion, and a qualifying clause was trailed at the end of his
+sentence, "She may show you more politeness."
+
+Giovanni looked annoyed. The dancer, to appease him, said gently: "You
+know I am nervous from overwork. The rehearsals have been doubled
+lately. If you don't come when I expect you, I imagine horrors!" The
+manager was about to put his fork into a grilled quail, when she whisked
+it away and put it on Giovanni's plate. The former was obliged to vent
+his indignation against her obstinately turned back and deaf ears. She
+was conscious of nothing and of no one but Giovanni, whom she was
+feeding with her own fork. His appetite, however, paying small
+compliment to her attention, she arose, and he followed her into the
+other room. Whereupon her guests, less constrained without her, drank
+and were merry.
+
+In the salon Giovanni's musical, caressing voice was saying, "You look
+bewitching to-night, Fava _mia_!" He covered her with his glance, so
+that she preened herself. He laughed lightly at her vanity, and, leaning
+over, kissed her lovely shoulder. Quickly, with both hands she held him
+close, her cheek against his.
+
+"_Carissimo_," she said tensely, "if you ever love any other woman----"
+
+"I love you," he said, against her lips; "let there be no doubt of
+that." And there was a long silence between them.
+
+Giovanni was not one of those who can withstand a woman of beauty. He
+loved La Favorita passionately; she perhaps more than any one else could
+hold him--a Griselda one day, a fury the next, but always alive and
+always beautiful.
+
+Yet he might have indulged his curiosity as to what she would do if
+seriously aroused to jealousy, had it not been for his innate hatred of
+all exhibitions of feeling, which seemed to him _bourgeois_. He knew
+that if the dancer had an idea that he might be falling in love with
+Nina, she would be capable of any scandal. On the other hand, he could
+not imagine Favorita's being jealous of the American girl. He had often
+congratulated himself that she was not jealous of her only real rival,
+the Contessa Potensi, his devotion to whom, however, he had managed to
+keep so quiet that very few persons in Rome had a suspicion of it.
+
+The contessa, on the other hand, looked upon Giovanni's attention to the
+dancer as an artifice practised solely on her account, so that the world
+would the less suspect his attachment to herself. Neither woman had
+until now felt any jealousy of Nina. To their Italian temperament she
+had seemed too cold a type, too antipathetic, to be a danger. The
+contessa was quite willing to have Giovanni marry the heiress, for she
+never doubted that the end of the honeymoon would find him tied more
+securely than ever to her own footstool.
+
+Giovanni, at present, with his arms about the dancer, was raining a
+succession of kisses upon her lips, her eyes, her hair. He could feel
+that she was all on edge about something, but, man-like, he preferred to
+keep things on the surface and not stir depths that might be turbulent.
+His efforts, however, were of small avail.
+
+"Swear to me by the Madonna, and by your ancestors, that you will not
+marry!"
+
+With sudden coldness Giovanni drew away from her. He let both arms hang
+limp at his sides. "Why let this thought come always between us!" Then,
+exasperated into taking up the discussion, he crossed his arms and faced
+her: "We might as well have this out. I am not engaged--I swear that;
+but whether I ever shall be or not, you have no cause for jealousy.
+Marriage in my world, you know very well, is not a matter of
+inclination, but of advantageous arrangement. There is every reason why
+I ought to marry, and if that is the case why not one as well as
+another? My brother has no children; I am the last of my name."
+
+With a cry she flung her arms around his neck and broke into a storm of
+weeping. "You shan't marry her! You shan't. She shall not have your
+children for you!"
+
+But Giovanni grew impatient. He unclasped her hands and pushed her away.
+"If you make these scenes all the time, I won't come near you! Please,
+once for all, let us have this ended. If there is one thing I can't
+endure, it is a woman who cries. Here, take my handkerchief. Come
+now--that is right, be reasonable." His tone modified, and he lightly
+and more affectionately laid his hand upon her shoulder. "Come here a
+minute, I want to show you a picture." He led her, as he spoke, before a
+long mirror.
+
+"Now, _cara mia_, tell me, do you think that a man who possessed the
+love of such a woman as that would be apt to run seeking elsewhere?"
+
+La Favorita looked at her own reflection, at the slender yet full
+perfection of southern beauty, and she saw also the returning ardor in
+the face of her lover as he, too, looked at her image. Her black eyes
+grew soft, her lips parted slightly--with a sudden exuberance he caught
+her to him, and this time he held her so tensely that, although her
+plaint was the same, her tone was altogether different. "But I don't
+want you to marry--even without love, I don't want you to," she pouted
+softly.
+
+"You are an idiot, Fava!" But the words were whispered caressingly. "It
+would be much better for you if I did."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MR. RANDOLPH SENDS FOR JOHN DERBY
+
+
+Meanwhile, one morning in New York, the express elevator of the American
+Trust Building shot skyward without stop to the twentieth story, at
+which John Derby alighted. He emerged upon a broad space of marble
+corridor, leading to the offices of J. B. Randolph & Co. Derby, being
+known--and, moreover, on the list of those expected--escaped the
+catechism to which visitors usually were subjected, and was shown into
+the waiting room without question. When, some minutes later, he was
+admitted to Mr. Randolph's private office, he caught the sign of battle
+in the ruffled effect of the great financier's hair, for he had a habit,
+when excited, of running his fingers up over his right temple until his
+iron gray locks bristled. But, whatever the cause of his annoyance, it
+was put aside as he held out his hand in unmistakable welcome to Derby.
+"Hello, John, good work! You have got here nearly a day ahead of the
+time I expected you. What is the latest news? Did you have any trouble
+in the swamp district?"
+
+"None at all. We find the quick sands average only about thirty feet,
+and the tubes go easily below. Everything is going along splendidly.
+Better than I had ever dared to hope."
+
+Mr. Randolph nodded his satisfaction. "And now," he said, "I'll tell you
+why I wired for you. The Volcano Sulphur Company is buying every
+available mine, and it is time for us to look into the Sicilian
+possibility. How soon can you leave for Italy?"
+
+"As soon as you say, sir."
+
+"Have you secured your assistant engineers?"
+
+"Jenkins came on with me, for one, and I am pretty sure I can get a man
+named Tiggs--a good mechanic, who was with me at Copper Rock."
+
+"And how soon can you get your machinery? You'll have to take everything
+in that line with you. Otherwise, you might get off by--to-morrow? The
+_Lusitania_ sails in the afternoon." He added this last with impatient
+regret.
+
+Derby pondered a moment, and then answered briskly: "I can make it.
+Jenkins can follow with the machinery on a Mediterranean boat. There
+will be no delay over there, as I'll have time to make my arrangements."
+
+"Good!" Mr. Randolph seemed pleased, then asked abruptly, "How well do
+you speak Italian?"
+
+"Fluently, very; grammatically, not at all."
+
+Mr. Randolph smiled. "Fluently will be good enough. Especially if you
+pick up an assortment of expletives in the Sicilian vernacular. Go to
+Rome first. Look about and get information on the Sicilian mines,
+especially those that are unproductive by the present mining system.
+Lease one and try your process. If it works--we have the biggest thing
+in the way of a sulphur control imaginable. You'd better get an option
+on every sulphur mine you can, to lease on a royalty basis. Our Italian
+correspondent will be notified to honor your drafts. You will have to
+use your own discretion as to necessary expenses--of course, you are to
+send a weekly statement to the office. The royalty to you on your
+inventions will be ten per cent. on the net, not the gross, earnings.
+Still, if it all turns out well, you ought to make a nice thing out of
+it."
+
+A swift gleam of eagerness leaped into the young man's face. Mr.
+Randolph looked at him sharply. "I did not know that you were so
+mercenary, John."
+
+"In my place any man would want millions, or else that----" He broke off
+abruptly, leaving his meaning unexpressed. But his eyes had something
+wistful in their direct appeal, which perhaps the older man understood,
+for his expression was unusually kind as he asked with apparent
+irrelevancy, "Have you heard from Nina?"
+
+Derby flushed even under his tan, but he answered frankly: "Yes, I have
+had letters regularly--bully ones--full of Italy and the high nobility.
+Isn't it just like her to remember her friends at home!" Then he added
+ardently, "There was never any one like Nina--never! Of course, every
+man in Italy is in love with her by now."
+
+"Humph!" was Mr. Randolph's answer, as his hand went up through his hair
+until it stood straight on end. "Had she the disposition of Xantippe and
+the ugliness of Medusa she would be called a goddess divine by the
+titled sellers. But what can I do? I can't keep her locked up at
+home--for the matter of that, she is run after about as badly over
+here----" and he added gently in an altered tone, "My poor little girl!
+Sometimes I think how much better off she would have been as the
+daughter of a man without money. At present, of course, she is beset
+with every possible danger. I don't think Nina will lose her heart
+easily, mind you, but there is an underlying excitement in her letters
+that gives me some uneasiness as to the state of her emotions. I do not
+relish the possibility of her marrying one of those ingratiating,
+cold-hearted, and seemingly ardent noblemen." Then, as though to qualify
+his general statement, he continued, "My sister-in-law married a decent
+sort of a man, and I imagine they are happy--but she'd have done much
+better if she had married your uncle. He never cared for any one else,
+and I hoped it would be a match. But Alessandro Sansevero came along and
+swept her off her feet. She was a great beauty, and I believe he married
+her for love--which is more than I can hope in Nina's case."
+
+Into Derby's face there came a look like that of the small boy who gazes
+hungrily into a bakery shop window as he protested. "No one could know
+Nina well and not love her. She is the squarest, the truest, just as she
+is the most beautiful, girl in the world."
+
+"No,"--Mr. Randolph spoke quite slowly, for him--"Nina is not
+beautiful--sweet, and unspoiled, and lovable, yes; but she is not a
+beauty."
+
+Derby's face kindled with indignation, and he retorted unguardedly,
+"I grant you she hasn't one of those pleased-with-itself,
+don't-disturb-the-placidity-of-my-peerless-perfection sort of faces; the
+valentine sort that strikes a man at first sight, but that at the end of
+a week he would do anything for the sake of varying its monotony. But
+Nina--the more you look at her the more lovely she becomes, _unless_ she
+gets the notion that some man wants to marry her money--and then it is
+time for me to take to the prairies! Her eyes get hard, her mouth goes
+up on one side and her features seem to set and freeze. She has only one
+hard side, but that is adamant! Poor girl, I can hardly blame her. As
+she says herself, there are proposals on her breakfast tray every
+morning--with all the other advertisements."
+
+Mr. Randolph looked directly into the blue eyes before him, as though to
+probe their depths. "I want my girl to marry a man whom she can look up
+to because he is trying to accomplish something himself," he said
+emphatically, "and not one who will lay his hat down in the front hall
+of my house instead of at his own office. And," he added grimly, "a
+coronet in place of the hat is still less to my liking."
+
+A curiously restrained, almost diffident, expression, which in no way
+suited his personality, came into Derby's face, and he abruptly rose to
+take leave.
+
+Mr. Randolph rose also, but, instead of terminating the interview,
+crossed the room, saying, "Before you go, John, I want to show you a
+prize I have found." He turned a canvas that stood face to the wall, and
+lifted it to a sofa for a better view.
+
+It was a marvelous picture: a Madonna and child; and on the shoulder of
+the Madonna was a dove.
+
+"It is supposed to be a Raphael," said Randolph, "and I am convinced
+that it is. The story is rather interesting. Raphael painted two
+pictures that were almost identical. One is in the Sansevero family.
+Their collection in Rome I have seen, but this picture has always hung
+at Torre Sansevero, their country estate, and I have never been there.
+However, as I said, Raphael painted two. The second belonged to the
+Belluno family and was sold long ago into France. There it became the
+property of a Duc du Richeur, and during the Revolution it was
+supposedly destroyed. Some time ago Christopher Shayne, the dealer,
+bought among other things at an auction a nearly black canvas. On having
+it cleaned, this was the result--without doubt the lost Raphael!"
+
+"Jove, that's interesting!" exclaimed Derby. "I'd like to see the
+other. Perhaps I'll have the chance, although Nina wrote that they were
+leaving for Rome, and that was several weeks ago. But now good-by, sir.
+Tiggs and Jenkins are to meet me at the Engineers' Club at noon. I am
+sure I can get off to-morrow."
+
+Mr. Randolph held the younger man's hand in a long clasp as he said,
+"Good-by, my boy, and--luck to you!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As Derby left the office, the sudden prospect of seeing Nina so soon set
+his thoughts in a turmoil unusual to the condition in which he managed
+pretty steadily to keep them. Of all the things that this young man had
+accomplished, none had been more difficult than preserving the attitude
+toward Nina that he had after careful deliberation determined upon. To
+his chagrin the task became more, instead of less, difficult, as time
+went on. In the long ago, it had been she who adored and he who accepted
+the adoration--in the way common with the big boy and the little girl.
+He had taught her to swim, and to ride, and to shoot. And--though he did
+not realize it--from his own precepts she had acquired a directness of
+outlook and a sense of truth that embodied justice as well as candor,
+and that was in quality much more like that of a boy than a girl.
+
+Then came the time when he was no longer a boy. He went out West, and
+work made him serious, and absence made him realize that he loved her as
+that rare type of man loves who loves but one woman in his life. But
+she, never dreaming of any change in his feelings, went on thinking of
+him always as of a brother. Often, when he returned from a long absence,
+and she ran to meet him with both hands outstretched, he looked for some
+sign from her--some fleeting gleam such as he had caught in other
+women's eyes. But always Nina's glance had met his own affectionately,
+but squarely and tranquilly. His coming, or his going, brought smiles or
+gravity to her lips, but her eyes showed no sudden veiling of feeling,
+no new consciousness of meaning unexpressed. When she laughed, they
+danced as though the sunlight were caught under their hazel surface.
+When she was serious, they were velvety soft. To John hers was the
+sweetest, brightest, and assuredly the most expressive face in the
+world. But he knew the distrust and coldness that would undoubtedly be
+his portion should he ever forget the rôle that up to the present he had
+played to perfection--that of her brotherly, affectionate friend. Her
+very expression, "Dear old John"--generally she said "Jack"--her entire
+lack of reserve or self-consciousness in his presence, put him where he
+belonged.
+
+And the other women--undoubtedly there were lots of the every-day kind,
+waiting all along the stream, just as there always are when a man is
+young and fairly good to look upon. And there were the different, and
+far more dangerous, "other women," who wait at the whirlpools for a man
+who has that elusive but distinctly felt magnetism which some
+personalities exert, seemingly with indifference, and quite apart from
+any effort or intent. But John Derby lashed his heart to the mast of
+hard work and resolutely turned his eyes and ears from the sirens. And
+so he saw the years stretching on, always crammed with tasks that he was
+to accomplish, but without hope of ever winning the girl he loved,
+because of the barrier of her money.
+
+Only a short time before, when a letter from her had come to
+Breakstone--a long letter full of the beauty and charm of Italy and the
+Italians--Derby had gone to the edge of the forest and--for no reason
+that any one could see, save the apparent joy of swinging an
+axe--chopped a tree into fire-wood.
+
+"D--n it all," he muttered as the chips flew, "I could support a
+wife--if she wasn't so all-fired rich." Later he carried a load of his
+wood across the clearing to the camp and slammed it down. "Oh, h----, I
+hate money!" he exclaimed vehemently to Jenkins.
+
+Jenkins, a Southerner, took the statement placidly. "Looks like you're
+workin' powerful hard to get what you don't care for. Some of that
+kindlin' 'd go good under this soup pot."
+
+Derby laughed and fed the fire. But "Shut up, Jenkins, you ass!" was all
+the latter got for a retort courteous.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+ROME GOES TO THE OPERA
+
+
+On the evening of the first court ball, the Sanseveros gave a small
+dinner, after which they went to the opera. The guests were the Count
+and Countess Olisco, Count Tornik, Don Cesare Carpazzi, and Prince
+Minotti. Don Cesare Carpazzi, a thin swarthy youth, sat just across the
+corner of the table from Nina. Although his appearance was one of great
+neatness, it was all too evident, if one observed with good eyes, that
+the edges of his shirt had been trimmed with the scissors until the hem
+narrowed close to the line of stitching; and his evening clothes in a
+strong light would have revealed not only the fatal gloss of long use,
+but also careful darning. The old saying that "Clothes make the man" was
+refuted in his case, however, as his arrogance was proclaimed in every
+gesture.
+
+Sitting next to him was the Countess Olisco, the Russian whom Nina had
+noted and admired at her aunt's ball. As there were but nine at dinner,
+and the conversation was general, Nina had time to observe closely her
+appearance. She had the broad Russian brow, the Egyptian eyes and
+unbroken bridge of the nose. She was the most slender woman imaginable,
+and her slenderness was exaggerated by the fashion of wearing her hair
+piled up so high and so far forward that at a distance it might be taken
+for a small black fur toque tipped over her nose. She rarely wore
+colors, but to-night, because of the etiquette against wearing black at
+court, her long-trained dress was of sapphire blue velvet, as severe and
+as clinging as possible.
+
+Nina divined better than she knew, when she put the little Russian and
+Carpazzi in the same category. Fundamentally they were much the same,
+but whereas he was always bursting into flame, the contessa suggested a
+well banked fire that burned continually, but within destroyed itself
+rather than others. Thin, white, and self-consuming, she was like the
+small Russian cigarettes that were never out of her lips. Fragile as she
+looked, she had a will that brooked no obstacle, an energy that knew no
+fatigue.
+
+Aside from her appearance, the story that Giovanni had related of the
+contessa's marriage was in itself enough to arouse the interest of any
+girl alive to romance. According to him, she was the daughter of a
+Russian nobleman of great family and wealth. The Count Olisco (a
+mild-eyed Italian boy, he looked) had been attached to the legation at
+St. Petersburg. Zoya was only sixteen years old when she announced her
+intention of marrying him. Her father, furious that the Italian had
+dared approach his daughter, demanded his recall, whereupon she told him
+the astonishing news that Olisco had never, to her knowledge, even seen
+her. But she declared that if her father did not marry her to him, she
+would kill herself.
+
+She did take poison but, being saved by the doctors, who discovered it
+through her maid, she sent the same maid to tell the Count Olisco the
+whole story. The romance of her act, coupled with her beauty and her
+birth, naturally so flattered the young Italian that he offered himself
+as a suitor, and, her father relenting, they were married.
+
+Nina was left for some time to her own thoughts, as her Italian (not
+particularly fluent at best) was altogether lacking in idiom, and she
+missed the point of most that was said. In the first lull, the Count
+Olisco asked her the usual question put to every stranger, "How do you
+like Rome?"
+
+The Countess Olisco, like an echo, caught and repeated her husband's
+inquiry, "Ah, and do you like Rome?"
+
+And then Carpazzi hoped she liked Rome--and this very harmless subject
+was tossed gently back and forth, until Prince Minotti gave it an
+unexpectedly violent fling by remarking, "I suppose Signorina, that you
+have been impressed"--he held the pause with evident satisfaction--"with
+the great history of the Carpazzi, without which there would be no
+Rome!"
+
+All at once the young man in the threadbare coat became like a live
+wire! His hair, which already was _en brosse_, seemed to rise still
+higher on his head, his thin lips quivered, and his hands worked in a
+complete language of their own. He put up an immediate barrier with his
+palms held rigidly outward. All the table stopped to look, and to
+listen.
+
+"Does a Principe Minotti"--he pronounced the word "_Principe_" with a
+sneering curl of the lips--"dare to criticize a Carpazzi?" He threw back
+his head with a jerk.
+
+"What is he?" whispered Nina to Tornik, who was sitting next her. "Is he
+a duke?"
+
+"A Don, that is all, I believe."
+
+Softly as the question was put and answered, Carpazzi heard. Showing
+none of the fury of a moment before he spoke suavely, though still with
+arrogance.
+
+"Signorina is a stranger in Rome; the Count Tornik also is a foreigner,
+which excuses an ignorance that would be unpardonable in an Italian."
+
+Tornik at that moment pulled his mustache, looking at it down the length
+of his nose. It was impossible to tell whether the movement hid
+annoyance or amusement. Nina was keen with curiosity.
+
+"Of course," Nina said sweetly, eager to soothe his over-sensitive
+pride, "I have heard of the Carpazzi, but I do not know what is the
+title of your house. I asked Count Tornik whether you were a duke."
+
+"I am Cesare di Carpazzi!" He said it as though he had announced that he
+was the Emperor of China.
+
+"The Carpazzi are of the oldest nobility," Giovanni interposed. "Such a
+name is in itself higher than a title."
+
+Don Cesare bowed to Don Giovanni as though to say, "You see! thus it
+is!"
+
+The subject would have simmered down, had not Tornik at this point set
+it boiling, by saying in an undertone to Nina, "Why all this fuss? It is
+stupid, don't you think?"
+
+He spoke in French, carelessly articulated, but the sharp ears of
+Carpazzi overheard.
+
+"Why all this fuss!" he repeated. "It is insupportable that an upstart
+of 'nobility' styled p-r-ince"--he snarled the word--"a title that was
+_bought_ with a tumbledown estate, _dares_ to speak lightly the great
+name of the Carpazzi, a name that is higher than that of the reigning
+family."
+
+His flexible fingers flashed and grew stiff by turns. Nina had seen a
+good deal of gesticulating since she had come to Rome; she had even been
+told that the different expressions of the hand had meanings quite as
+distinct as smiles or frowns or spoken words, and Carpazzi's fingers
+certainly looked insulting, as with each snap he also snapped his lips.
+
+"You know whereof I speak, Alessandro and Giovanni--not even the
+Sansevero have the lineage of the Carpazzi!"
+
+"Certainly, certainly, my friend," answered Giovanni. "No one is
+disputing the fact with you."
+
+"But I should think," ventured Nina, her velvety eyes looking
+wonderingly into his flashing black ones, "that you would accept a
+title, it would make it so much simpler--especially among strangers who
+do not know the family history. A duke is a duke and a prince for
+instance----"
+
+Up went his hand, rigid, palm outward, and at right angles to his wrist,
+"There you are wrong. A duke or a prince may be a parvenu. For me to
+accept a title--Non! It would mean that the name of _Carpazzi_,"--he
+lingered on the pronunciation--"could be improved! The name of Minotti,
+for instance, what does it say? Nothing! It is the name of a peasant. It
+may be dressed up to masquerade as noble, if it has 'Principe' pushed
+along before it. But it could not deceive a Roman. It is not the
+'Principe' before Sansevero that gives it renown. Don Giovanni Sansevero
+is a greater title than the Marchese Di Valdo, by which Giovanni is
+generally known. Yet Di Valdo is a good name, too, let me tell you."
+
+The Princess Sansevero kept Minotti's attention as much as possible, so
+that it might appear that Carpazzi's arraignment had not been heard. All
+that Carpazzi said was perfectly true. There was little therefore that
+Minotti could have answered. He was a man of plebeian origin. His
+father, a rich speculator, had bought a piece of property and assumed
+the title that went with it. To a Roman the name Carpazzi was a great
+deal higher than that of any number of dukes and princes.
+
+The question of "Good Taste," however, was another matter and the
+princess changed the subject by asking:
+
+"Does any one know what the opera is to-night?"
+
+The Contessa Olisco announced: "La Traviata." "They are to have a
+special scene in the third act," she said, "to introduce a new dance of
+Favorita's." She did not look at Giovanni, and yet she seemed to be
+aiming her remarks at him. To Nina it all meant nothing. Once or twice
+she had heard the name of the celebrated dancer, but it merely brushed
+through her perceptions like other fleeting suggestions; nothing ever
+had brought it to a full stop.
+
+The talk turned on other topics, and as the meal was very short, only
+five courses, the princess, the contessa, and Nina soon withdrew to
+another room. The conversation there, as it happened, came back to the
+subject of Carpazzi.
+
+Zoya Olisco lit her cigarette and spoke with it pasted on her lower lip.
+She smoked like this continually, and never touched the cigarette except
+to light it and put a new one in its place.
+
+"Though I see what he means," she said, "I should, were I in his place,
+claim a title! They need not take a new one. My husband told me that the
+Carpazzi were of the genuine optimates of the Roman Duchy."
+
+"I think Cesare regrets in his heart," said the Princess Sansevero,
+"that his ancestors did not accept one, but I agree with him now."
+
+She stirred her coffee slowly and then added, "I am fond of the boy, but
+I do not think I shall have him to dinner soon again. He is too
+uncontrolled."
+
+The contessa agreed. And then, with her eyes half shut to avoid the
+smoke of her cigarette, she stared with fixed curiosity at Nina.
+
+"Do you find people here like those in America?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, some are quite like Americans," Nina answered, and added frankly,
+"but you at least are altogether different from any one I have ever
+seen!"
+
+"Really, am I?" The contessa raised her eyebrows and laughed. "I know of
+what you are thinking!" She said it with a deliciously impulsive candor.
+"You are thinking of my marriage. Yes, it is true! The instant my father
+said 'no,' I took poison. It was the only way. Had fate willed it, I
+would have died. But fate willed that I should be--just married." She
+laughed again.
+
+Nina glanced at her aunt, whose answering smile said clearly, "I told
+you she was like this."
+
+The contessa lit another cigarette--everything she said and did seemed
+incongruous with her appearance, she was so fragile and so young. Nina
+became more and more fascinated as she watched her.
+
+"But supposing that, after meeting him, you had not liked him?" she
+asked.
+
+"That is impossible. I know always if I like people. I like people at
+sight--or I detest them! For instance, I detest Donna Francesca Dobini.
+She is a beauty, I know. She has charming manners; so has a cat. She is
+all soft sweetness. Ugh! I hate her!--But I like you."
+
+Nina was delighted, but she could not help being amused. "You don't know
+me in the least," she laughed. "I may be a perfectly horrid person."
+
+The contessa shrugged her shoulders. "That is nothing to me. No doubt I
+adore some very horrid persons!" Then impetuously she ran her arm
+through Nina's as they walked through the long row of rooms to the one
+where their wraps were. "I _like_ you!" she repeated; "that is all there
+is to it!"
+
+In the hall they were joined by the men, and started for the opera.
+
+Here, Nina had an unusual opportunity to see Roman Society, as the house
+that night was brilliant with the people who were going afterwards to
+the Court Ball. Donna Francesca Dobini, a celebrated beauty, was rather
+affectedly draped in a tulle arrangement around her shoulders. The
+Contessa Olisco, who for the time being was forced to do without her
+cigarette, said to Nina:
+
+"Look at her, there she is! She is 'going off,' so that she has to wrap
+tulle about her old neck to hide the wrinkles."
+
+She moved the column of her young throat with conscious triumph as she
+spoke. A moment later, as though Nina would understand, she whispered:
+"There is the Potensi! No! In the box opposite. She has on a dress of
+purple velvet. Sitting very straight, and quantities of diamonds."
+
+Nina put up her opera glass and encountered an insolent stare, as
+though the Contessa Potensi were purposely disdainful of the American
+girl.
+
+"She is the same one with whom Don Giovanni danced opposite in the
+quadrille! Heavens! but she is a disagreeable person!"
+
+"She has reason for looking disagreeable," announced the Contessa Zoya
+with a meaning laugh; but more she would not say.
+
+Giovanni leaned over Nina's chair. "Do you find the Romans attractive?
+How does our opera compare with that of New York?"
+
+"The house seems made of cardboard," Nina answered. "I never thought our
+opera houses especially wonderful----"
+
+"No?" Giovanni rallied her. "Is it possible that you have anything in
+America that is not the most wonderful in the world! I am sure you will
+say your opera house is bigger! And richer! and more comfortable! Yes?
+Of course it is!" He laughed. "My apple is bigger than your apple. My
+doll is bigger than your doll! What children you are, you Americans!"
+
+"If we are children," retorted Nina, piqued by his laughter, "we must be
+granted the advantages of youth!"
+
+With a sudden gravity, but none the less mockingly, Giovanni besought
+her for enlightenment.
+
+"We gain in enthusiasm, energy, and honesty," she announced
+sententiously. "A country and a people never attain perfection of finish
+until they have begun to grow decadent. I'd rather have my doll and my
+big apple than sit, like an old cynic, in the corner, watching the
+children play!"
+
+She was immensely pleased with this speech,--mentally she quite preened
+herself. Giovanni looked amused, but the Contessa Potensi caught his
+glance from across the house, and his smile faded as he bowed. Nina, who
+had good eyes, saw a complete change in her face as she returned his
+salutation.
+
+"Do you like that woman?"
+
+"She is one of the beauties of Rome," he said evasively.
+
+"No, but do you like her?" Nina could not herself have told why she was
+so insistent.
+
+"She is an old friend of mine," he said lightly; then changed the
+subject. "Do you follow the hounds, Miss Randolph?"
+
+"At home, yes." But she came back to the former topic. "Does she ride
+very well, the Contessa Potensi?"
+
+"Wonderfully." This time he answered her easily. "But I am sure you ride
+well, too. Any one who dances as you do, must also be a horsewoman."
+
+There was something in Giovanni's manner that excited suspicion, but she
+did not know of what. She half wondered if there had been a love affair
+between him and the Contessa. Maybe he had wanted to marry her and she
+had accepted Potensi instead. She wondered if Giovanni still cared; and
+for a while her sympathy was quite aroused.
+
+The curtain went up and every one stopped talking. At the beginning of
+the _entr'acte_ Giovanni left the box, and Count Tornik took his chair.
+He was a strange man, but Nina was beginning to like him.
+Notwithstanding his brusque indifference, he had a charm that he could
+exert when he chose. Giovanni's speeches were no more flattering than
+Tornik's lapses from boredom.
+
+As a matter of fact, in spite of his assumed bad manners, the social
+instinct was so strong in him that, just as a vulgar person shows his
+origin in every unguarded moment or unexpected situation, Tornik's good
+breeding was constantly revealed. And in appearance, he was an
+attractive contrast to the Italians, tall, broad-shouldered, very blond,
+and high cheekboned; he might have been taken for an Englishman.
+
+Presently her Majesty, the Dowager Queen, appeared in the royal box, and
+every one in the audience arose.
+
+"Shall we see both queens to-night at the ball?" Nina asked the Princess
+Sansevero.
+
+"No; only Queen Elena. The Queen Mother has never been present at a ball
+since King Umberto's tragic death."
+
+"I wish this evening were over," said Nina, with a half-frightened sigh.
+
+The Contessa Olisco, who had caught the remark and the sigh, asked
+sympathetically, "But why?"
+
+"I was nervous enough over going alone to the presentation the other
+afternoon, but to go to a ball is much worse."
+
+"But you won't be alone. We shall be there! You may have your endurance
+put to the test, though. Are you very strong?"
+
+Nina laughed. "You mean, have I the strength to stand indefinitely
+without dropping to the floor?"
+
+"Ah! you know, then, how it is. Still--if it is hard for us, think what
+it must be for their Majesties. To-night, for instance, the King does
+not once sit down!"
+
+Nina opened her eyes wide. "I thought the King and Queen sat on their
+throne. But then--I had an idea the presentation would be like that,
+too--and that I should have to courtesy all across a room, and back out
+again."
+
+The Contessa Zoya seemed to be occupied with a reminiscence that amused
+her. "If you have a special audience, you do, or if you go to take tea.
+We had a private audience yesterday with Queen Margherita and--I had on
+a long train--and clinging. Of course, entering the room is not hard--I
+made my three reverences very nicely, very gracefully, I thought,--one
+at the door, one half-way across the room, and one directly before the
+Queen, as I kissed her hand. But when the audience was over, the
+distance between where her Majesty sat and the door of exit--my dear, it
+seemed leagues! One must back all the way and make three deep
+courtesies! The first was simple, the second, half-way across the room,
+was difficult. I was already standing on nearly a meter of train, and
+when I got to the door--well, I just walked all the way up the back of
+my dress, lost my balance and _fell out_!"
+
+Nina laughed at the picture, but was glad the presentation had not been
+like that.
+
+"When you go to take tea with the Queen it is difficult, too," Zoya,
+having begun to explain, went on with all the details that came to mind.
+"Since two years Queen Elena has given 'tea parties' of about thirty or
+forty people. Her Majesty talks to every one separately, or in very
+small groups, while tea and cake and chocolate and iced drinks are
+served by the ladies in waiting--there are never any servants present.
+It is of course charming, and the Queen puts every one at ease, but
+there is always a feeling that you may do something dreadful--such as
+drop a spoon or have your mouth full just at the moment when her Majesty
+addresses a remark to you. At the Queen Mother's Court things are more
+formal--more ceremonious. I always feel timid before I go. And yet no
+sovereign could be more gracious, and her memory is extraordinary. She
+forgets nothing. Yesterday she asked me how the baby was. She knew his
+age, even his name and all about him. She asked me if he had recovered
+from the bronchitis he was subject to. Think of it!"
+
+Nina looked long at the royal box, and could well believe the contessa's
+account. Her Majesty was talking to the Marchesa Valdeste.
+
+Of all the older ladies to whom she had been presented, Nina liked the
+marchesa best. Her face had the sweet expression that can come only from
+genuine kindness and innate dignity. At a short distance from the royal
+box Don Cesare Carpazzi was talking to a young girl. Don Cesare's
+expression was for the moment transfigured; instead of arrogance, it
+suggested rather humility; both he and the young girl seemed deeply
+engrossed.
+
+Tornik told Nina that she was Donna Cecilia Potensi, the little
+sister-in-law of the contessa in the box opposite. He also added that
+Carpazzi was supposed to be in love with her, and she with him, but they
+had not a lira to marry on. There were no poorer families in Italy than
+the Carpazzis and the Potensis.
+
+Certainly there was nothing in the appearance of the young girl to
+indicate wealth, but her plain white dress with a bunch of flowers at
+her belt, and her hair as simply arranged as possible, only increased
+her Madonna-like beauty.
+
+Nina was enchanted with her, and instinctively compared her appearance
+with that of the sister-in-law, glittering with diamonds. "The Contessa
+Potensi was a rich girl in her own right, I suppose," Nina remarked
+aloud.
+
+With a suspicion of awkwardness Tornik glanced at Giovanni, who had
+returned to the box. The latter began to screw up his mustache as he
+replied in Tornik's stead. "The Contessa Potensi inherited some very
+good jewels from her mother's family, I am told."
+
+"Her mother was an Austrian, a cousin of mine," Tornik drawled. "I never
+heard of that branch of the family's having anything but stubble lands
+and debts. However, it is evident she has got the jewels! I felicitate
+her on her valuable possessions. _Elle a de la chance!_" He shrugged his
+shoulders. Tornik's detached and impersonal manner gave no effect of
+insult, and Giovanni, beyond looking annoyed, made no further remark.
+But the Princess Sansevero interposed:
+
+"Maria Potensi has a passion for jewels, as a child might have for toys,
+and she accepts them in the same way. She tells every one about it quite
+frankly; in that lies the proof of her innocence."
+
+But the Contessa Zoya showed neither sympathy nor credulity, and there
+was no misinterpreting her meaning as she said:
+
+"It is true, Princess, you know the Potensi well, and I only
+slightly--but if my husband offered a diamond ornament----"
+
+"He would never give her another! Is that it?" put in Tornik.
+
+"No--nor any one!" The intensity of her tone alarmed Nina, who was
+beginning to feel confused by the succession of violent impressions.
+Scorpa, Giovanni, Carpazzi, Zoya Olisco, all struck such strident notes
+that their vibrations jangled.
+
+Another act and _entr'acte_ passed. Nina saw Giovanni enter the box of
+the Contessa Potensi. In contrast to her greeting across the house, she
+seemed now scarcely to speak to him. He talked to her companion, the
+Princess Malio, who bobbed her head and prattled at a great rate; but as
+he left the box Nina saw him lean toward the Contessa Potensi as though
+saying something in an undertone. She answered rapidly, behind her fan.
+Giovanni inclined his head and left.
+
+This small incident made a greater impression on Nina than its
+importance warranted. And the Contessa Potensi occupied her thoughts far
+more than the various men who had come into the box, and who seemed
+little more than so many varieties of faces and shirt-fronts. She
+noticed that many of the older men wore Father Abraham beards and
+clothes several sizes too big. On account of the Court Ball those who
+had orders wore them, frequently so carelessly pinned to their coats
+that the decorations seemed likely to fall off. The Marchese Valdeste--a
+really imposing man--had two huge ones dangling from the flapping lapel
+of his coat, and a sash with a bow on the hip that would put any man's
+dignity to a supreme test.
+
+"The ballet is very important to-night," Nina heard the marchese saying
+to the Princess Sansevero. "La Favorita is to appear in the Birth of
+Venus. She does another dance first--a Spanish one, I think."
+
+As he spoke, the ballet music had already begun, and the Spanish
+_coryphées_ were twisting and bowing, and straightening their spines as
+they danced to the beat of their castanettes. Then they moved aside for
+the _ballerina_.
+
+It may have been intended as a Spanish dance, or Eastern, or gypsy--but
+it was more likely a dance of La Favorita's own imagination. She
+appeared clad in a thin slip of transparent and jetted gauze. Upon her
+feet were socks and ballet slippers of black satin. A black mask covered
+the upper part of her face, and her black hair was drawn high and held
+with a diamond bracelet; she wore a diamond collar, long diamond
+earrings, and the gauze of her upper garment--which could hardly be
+called a bodice--was held on one shoulder with a band of diamonds. For
+the space of a second she faced the audience, standing still and rigid;
+then, with a quiver, the rigidity was shattered! A serpent's coiling was
+not more swift than the movement of her dazzling, glittering form, which
+twirled and turned and bent, while the twinkling rapidity of her steps
+was faster than the eye could follow. A twirl, another twirl, a
+flash--and she was gone.
+
+[Illustration: "FOR THE SPACE OF A SECOND SHE FACED THE AUDIENCE,
+STANDING STILL AND RIGID"]
+
+The _coryphées_, who had seemingly danced well before, were now so
+awkward by comparison that Nina and Tornik laughed aloud.
+
+"They look like cows," commented Tornik.
+
+"Or nailed to the ground," Nina rejoined. She leaned forward, eager for
+Favorita's reappearance.
+
+To make a background for the second dance, the stage hands had moved in
+folding wings or screens of sea green. The calciums had gradually been
+turning to the blue of moonlight, and now, at the back of the stage,
+Venus arose, veiled in a mist of foam.
+
+Seeming scarcely to touch her feet to the ground, the dancer was a puff
+of the foam itself, a living fragment of green and white spray. She
+caught her arms full of the sea-colored gauze, like a great billow above
+her head, and then with a swirl she bent her body and drew the
+diaphanous film out sideways, like a wave that had run up on the sands.
+Drawing it together again, she seemed to produce another breaker.
+
+So perfectly was the fabric handled that it seemed exactly like the
+spray of the sea, which, in its freshness, clung to her, and at the
+last, by a wonderful illusion, she gave the appearance of having gone
+under the waves.
+
+For several seconds the house remained absolutely hushed, and in that
+moment Nina found herself vaguely groping through a confusion of
+ecstatic, yet slightly shocked, sensations. She wondered whether La
+Favorita had really nothing on except a number of yards of tulle which
+she held in her hands.
+
+But the verdict of the audience was voiced by a torrent of bravos and
+handclappings that thundered until La Favorita, having thrown a long
+mantle about her, came out into the glare of the footlights.
+
+She bowed and kissed her hands, her smiles of acknowledgment sweeping
+the house from left to right, but at the box of the Sanseveros her
+smile faded, and she threw back her head with a movement of triumph.
+
+Nina was startled into fancying that she looked long, directly, and
+particularly at her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A BALL AT COURT
+
+
+The Sansevero party left the opera shortly after ten o'clock, and a
+little while later drove into the courtyard of the Quirinal. Entering a
+side door, they ascended a long staircase, upon each step of which was
+stationed a royal cuirassier, all resplendent in embroidered coats,
+polished high boots, and veritable Greek helmets, which seemed to add
+still further to their unusual height. Between their immovable ranks the
+guests thronged up the stairway to the Cuirassiers' Hall. Here, at the
+long benches provided for the purpose, they left their wraps in charge
+of innumerable flunkies in the royal livery--which consists of a red
+coat, embroidered either in gold or in silver, powdered hair, blue plush
+breeches, and pink stockings.
+
+Nina followed her aunt and uncle through an antechamber into the throne
+room and beyond again into the vast yellow _sala di ballo_. Here also
+the cuirassiers, who were stationed everywhere, added a martial dignity
+to the splendor of the scene. The people were all massed against the
+sides of the room; and although certain important personages had seats
+upon the long red silk benches placed in set rows, the great majority of
+those present stood, and stood, and stood. In contrast to her weary
+waiting at the afternoon reception when, a few days before, she had been
+presented at court, Nina found so much to interest her to-night that she
+did not remark the time. One side of the room was quite empty save for
+the big gilt chair reserved for the Queen, and the stools grouped around
+it for ladies in waiting. Three especial stools were placed at the left
+of the queen for the three "collaresses"--those whose husbands held the
+highest order in Italy, the Grand Collar of the Annunciation.
+
+It was the most brilliant gathering that Nina had ever seen, chiefly
+made so by the gold-embroidered uniforms and court orders of the men.
+The dresses and jewels of the women differed very little from those seen
+at social functions elsewhere. With a rare exception, such as the
+Duchessa Astarte and the Princess Vessano, whose toilettes were the most
+_chic_ imaginable, the great ladies of Italy followed fashions very
+little. Not that Nina found them dowdy--far from it: they had a
+distinction of their own, which, like that of their ancient palaces,
+seemed to remain superior to modern decrees of fashion. Nearly all of
+them had lovely figures, which they did not strive to force into newly
+prescribed outlines.
+
+A remark that a foreigner in New York had made to Nina came back to her,
+and she now realized its truth. It was that the one great difference
+between the women of Europe and those of America was that in Europe one
+noticed the women, while in America too often one noticed merely the
+clothes. The Roman ladies wore plain princesse dresses, the majority of
+velvet or brocade, and with little or no trimming save enormous jewels
+often clumsily set, but barbarically magnificent.
+
+Here and there, to Nina's intense interest, she found, strangely mingled
+with the others, people of the provinces, who, because of distinguished
+names, had the right to appear at court, yet who looked as though they
+were wearing evening dress for the first time in their lives. Near by,
+for instance, was a lady whose rotund person was buttoned into a
+tight-fitting red velvet basque of ancient cut, above a skirt of pink
+satin. A court train, evidently constructed out of curtain material, was
+suspended from her shoulders. Broad gold bracelets clasped her plump
+wrists at the point where her gloves terminated, and a high comb of
+Etruscan gold ornamented the hard knob into which her hair was screwed.
+
+Princess Vessano represented the other extreme--that of fashion. She was
+in an Empire "creation" of green liberty satin with an over-tunic of
+silver-embroidered gauze. Her hair was arranged in a fillet of diamonds,
+which joined a small banded coronet, also of diamonds, set with three
+enormous emeralds. Around her throat she had a narrow band of green
+velvet bordered with diamonds and with a pendant emerald in the center
+that matched pear-shaped earrings nearly an inch long. Yet in a crowd
+of three thousand persons neither the grotesque lady nor the princess
+was remarkable.
+
+The crush of people became greater and greater until it seemed
+impossible to admit another person without filling the center of the
+ballroom and the royal space. As there was no music, the chatter of
+voices made an insistent humming din. At last! the Prefetto di Palazzo
+sounded three loud strokes, with the ferule of his mace, upon the floor,
+the sound of voices ceased, the doors into the royal apartments were
+thrown open, the band struck up the royal march, and their Majesties
+entered, followed by the members of their suite. Every one made a deep
+reverence, and the Queen seated herself upon the gold chair. The King
+stood at her left. As soon as the Queen had taken her place, the dancing
+commenced, led by the Prefetto di Palazzo and the French ambassadress.
+But as a wide space before the Queen's chair was reserved out of
+deference to their Majesties, the rest of the ballroom was so crowded
+that dancing was next to impossible. Presently the King made a tour of
+the room--followed always by two gentlemen of his suite, with whom he
+stopped continually to ask who this person or that might be, sometimes
+speaking to special guests.
+
+The Queen likewise singled out certain strangers of distinction. In this
+way she sent for a United States senator, who was making a short visit
+in Rome, and kept him talking with her for a considerable time. Her
+Majesty sat through the first waltz and quadrille. Then she and the
+King promenaded slowly through the assemblage, speaking to many people
+as they passed. Some careless foot went through Nina's dress, tearing a
+great rent, just as she made her reverence to their Majesties, who were
+approaching. The Queen smiled sympathetically and held out her hand for
+Nina to kiss, at the same time exclaiming her sympathy, then, quite at
+length, her admiration for the lovely dress. Nina flushed with pleasure,
+feeling that the damage to her prettiest frock had been more than
+repaid.
+
+Giovanni was standing with Nina at the time, and after their Majesties
+had passed, he looked quizzically at the torn hem that Nina held in her
+hand. "Is it altogether spoiled?"
+
+Nina laughed. "If I were sentimental, I should keep it always in tatters
+in memory of the Queen!"
+
+"But as you are not sentimental--I hope it can be mended. May I tell you
+that her Majesty's admiration was well deserved? It is a most charming
+costume and not too elaborate. The touch of silver in the dress is just
+enough to go with the silver fillet over your hair. White is seldom
+becoming to blondes, but it suits you admirably."
+
+She looked up, frankly pleased. "It is nice, really? I am so glad!" She
+was perfectly happy, and her smile showed it. The whole evening had been
+delightful. The disagreeable impressions made by the Contessa Potensi
+and Favorita were forgotten as she danced with Giovanni, who performed a
+feat of rare ability in finding a passage through the crush.
+
+Presently he said to her, "When their Majesties have gone into an
+adjoining room, then the rest of us can go to supper."
+
+As he spoke, Nina saw them disappear through the doorway. "Are they not
+coming back?" she asked.
+
+"No. They have gone."
+
+"But do they never dance?"
+
+"Never! Queen Margherita and King Humbert always opened the ball by the
+_quadrille d'honneur_, with the ambassadors and important court ladies
+and gentlemen. But the present King abolished all that."
+
+At the end of the waltz Tornik managed to find Nina and announced
+supper. In the stampede for food there was such a crush that people
+stepped on her slippers and literally swept up the floor with her train.
+Tornik, being a giant, and able to reach over any number of smaller
+persons, finally secured a _pâté_ and an ice. Standing near her, two
+young men were stuffing cakes and sandwiches into their pockets. Amazed,
+she drew Tornik's attention. He shrugged his shoulders. "Who are they?"
+she whispered. "Princes, for all I know," was his rejoinder. "Poor
+devils, many of them never get such a feast as this."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+CORONETS FOR SALE
+
+
+According to Italian etiquette, strangers must leave cards within
+twenty-four hours upon every person to whom they have been introduced.
+Therefore the afternoon of the day following the ball was necessarily
+spent by Nina in three hours of steady driving from house to house.
+Finally, as she and the princess were alighting at the Palazzo
+Sansevero, Count Tornik drove into the courtyard, and together they
+mounted to the apartments used by the family.
+
+Nina settled herself in the corner of a sofa, pulling off her gloves.
+Tornik dropped into a loose-jointed heap in a big chair opposite.
+Suddenly he sat up straight, his eyebrows lifted.
+
+"I did not know!" he said. "May I felicitate you, mademoiselle?"
+
+"On what?" she asked, puzzled.
+
+"Since you wear a ring, it is evident that your engagement is to be
+announced. Will you tell me who is the fortunate man?"
+
+She saw that he was gazing at the emerald she wore on her little finger.
+"Is there reason to think I am engaged--because of _this_?"
+
+"Certainly, what else? A young girl's wearing a ring can mean but one
+thing."
+
+"On my little finger? How ridiculous! My father gave it to me.
+Sometimes, at home, I wear several rings. Does that mean I am engaged to
+several men?"
+
+"Then you are still free?"
+
+He hesitated as though under an impulse to say something sentimental,
+then apparently changed his mind, and relapsed into his habitually
+detached indifference of manner.
+
+"They have curious customs in your country," he said casually. "A friend
+of mine was in America last year. He told me many things!"
+
+"Did he? What, for instance?"
+
+"He said that the women sat in chairs that balanced back and forth----"
+
+"Chairs that----" she interrupted. "Oh, you mean rocking-chairs! That's
+true, you don't have them over here, do you? I did not mean to
+interrupt. You said we rock----"
+
+"Not you, it's the older women who balance all day on verandas, and let
+their daughters do whatever they please! In an American family, I am
+told, the young girl is supreme ruler. Is that true?"
+
+Nina, laughing, shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know--I never thought
+about it! But over here I suppose a girl does not count at all? Tell me,
+according to your ideas, what her place should be."
+
+"Oh, I do not say _should_. I merely state the fact: over here, a young
+girl plays a very small rôle. But then, for the matter of that, most
+people belong naturally in the background, and very few, whether they
+are women or men, have their names on the program."
+
+"And you? What part do you play?"
+
+For a moment his eyes gleamed. "That depends upon whether fate shall
+cast me to support a _diva_ or to occupy an empty stage."
+
+"And if fate allowed you to choose, I could easily imagine that you
+would prefer a part with very little action and as few lines as
+possible."
+
+"You are quite wrong. I do not object to saying all that a part calls
+for, and, above all, I like action."
+
+"That's true; I had forgotten! You are a soldier! I wonder why you went
+into the army?"
+
+"It is the only career open to me."
+
+Nina was thinking of Giovanni and his point of view as she asked, "Why
+are you not content to be merely Count Tornik?"
+
+"You mean that I, like Carpazzi, should live on the illustriousness of
+my name? If I were very poor, perhaps I should."
+
+"How curious!" Nina exclaimed. "Does not a career mean making money?"
+
+"On the contrary, it means spending it! One must have a great deal of
+money to go to any height in diplomacy."
+
+"Then you are rich?" Nina already had acquired a brutal frankness of
+direct interrogation through her Italian sojourn.
+
+"Not exactly." He looked bored again. "But I have a little--though
+perhaps not enough for my ambition. If only there were a serious war,
+I'd have a good chance." Then he added simply, "I am a good soldier!"
+
+The princess, who had been summoned to the telephone, now returned and
+seated herself beside Nina on the sofa. "I have just been talking with
+the Marchesa Valdeste, and she told me that the Queen said most gracious
+things of you, dear; called you the 'charming little American.'" The
+prince entered while the princess was speaking. He kissed his wife's
+hand and began, at great length, to tell her exactly where and how he
+had spent the afternoon. After a while, however, as one or two other
+friends dropped in, Sansevero talked aside with Tornik.
+
+"You were not at Savini's last night, were you?" he asked.
+
+Tornik looked interested. "No," he said, "but I hear they had a very
+high game."
+
+"Yes. Young Allegro was practically cleaned out."
+
+"Who won?"
+
+"Who, indeed, but Scorpa! He has the luck, that man!"
+
+"Were you there? I thought you never played any more; have you taken it
+up again?"
+
+Sansevero, glancing apprehensively at his wife, answered quickly, "I
+never play." Fortunately, just then the dangerous conversation was ended
+by the arrival of the Contessa Potensi. She smiled graciously upon the
+prince as he pressed her hand to his lips, and bestowed the left-over
+remnant of the same smile, upon Tornik. She also kissed the air on
+either side of the princess with much affection, and shook hands
+cordially with two other ladies who were present, but she directed
+toward Nina the barest glance.
+
+She and Nina, by the way, furnished at the moment a typical illustration
+of the difference in appearance between European and American women.
+
+The contessa was wearing an untrimmed, black tailor-made costume with a
+very long train, a little fur toque to match a small neck piece, and a
+little sausage-shaped muff. Her diamond earrings were enormous, but not
+very good stones. Nina's dress was of raspberry cloth, cut in the latest
+exaggeration of fashion--her skirt was short and skimp as her hat was
+huge. Her muff of sables as big and soft as a pillow--she could easily
+have buried her arms in it to the shoulder. The elaborateness of Nina's
+clothes filled the contessa with satisfaction, for she thought them
+barbarously inappropriate, and she knew that Giovanni was a martinet so
+far as "fitness" went.
+
+Presently, in spite of her more than rude greeting, she coolly sat down
+beside Nina. "Will you make me a cup of tea? I like it without sugar
+and with very little cream." She did not smile, and she did not say
+"please." Her bearing was a fair example of the cold, impersonal
+insolence of which Italian women of fashion are capable when
+antagonistic.
+
+After a time she leaned over and scrutinized Nina's watch, as though it
+were in a show case. "Do many young girls in America wear jewels?"
+
+Nina found herself congealing; instead of answering, she handed the
+contessa her tea, and expressed a hope that she had not put in too much
+cream.
+
+Taking no notice of Nina's evasion, the contessa, talking
+indiscriminately about people, arrived finally at the subject of
+Giovanni. In her opinion, the Marchese di Valdo ought to marry money!
+Unfortunately, however, she feared he had loved too many women to be
+capable now of caring for one alone. From this she went to generalities.
+A man had but one grand passion in a lifetime, didn't Nina think so?
+
+Nina's thoughts were very hazy, indeed, about grand passions, which were
+associated dimly in her mind with the seven deadly sins--in the category
+of things one didn't speak of. So she answered vaguely, feeling like a
+stupid child being cross-examined by the school commissioner.
+
+"Still, he is very attractive, don't you find? Of course, he says the
+same things to all of us--but then no one understands how to make love
+as well as he, so what does it matter whether he means it or not? It
+takes a woman of great experience," insinuated the contessa, "to parry
+Giovanni's fencing with the foils of love."
+
+Nina was goaded into answering. "You seem to know a great deal about his
+love-making," she said at last, with the breathy calm of controlled
+temper.
+
+Half shutting her eyes, the contessa replied: "It is common hearsay. One
+has only to follow the list of his conquests to know that he must be a
+past master in the art of making women care for him. That he is fickle
+is evident; he is constantly changing his attentions from one woman to
+another, and leaving with a crisis of the heart her whom he has lately
+adored. I am sorry for the woman he marries--still, perhaps she would
+not know the difference! He might even be devoted, from force of habit."
+
+Nina, furious, told herself that she did not believe one word that this
+spiteful woman was saying, but it made an impression all the same, which
+was, of course, exactly what the contessa wanted.
+
+"Tornik, too, needs a fortune badly," Maria Potensi went on piercing
+neatly. "It is hard, over here with us, that men acquire fortunes only
+by marriage. In America, it must be better, for there they can earn
+their money, and marry for love."
+
+Nina felt her cheeks burn as she listened, but there was nothing she
+could say. She knew only too well how hard it would be to believe
+herself loved.
+
+But not all of the women were like the Contessa Potensi, and by the time
+Nina had been a month in Rome, she had, with the responsiveness of
+youth, formed several friendships that were rapidly drifting into
+intimacies, though she chose as her associates, for the most part, young
+married women rather than girls. Her particular friend was Zoya Olisco,
+really six months younger than herself, but of a precocious worldly
+experience that gave her at least ten years' advantage.
+
+The young girls were to Nina quite incomprehensible. Their curiously
+negative behavior in public, their self-conscious diffidence, seemed to
+her stupid; but their education filled her with envy and shame. Nearly
+all spoke several languages, not in her own fashion of broken French,
+broken German, and baby-talk Italian, but with perfect facility and
+correctness of grammar. Nearly all were thoroughly grounded in
+mathematics, history, literature, and science. And yet their whole
+attitude toward life seemed out of balance; they were like pedagogues
+never out of the schoolroom--one moment discoursing learnedly, the next
+prattling like little children. The end and aim of life to them was
+marriage. Each talked of her dot and of what it might buy her in the way
+of a husband, very much as girls in America might plan the spending of
+their Christmas money.
+
+In spite of the unusual liberty allowed Nina, as an American, it seemed
+to her that she was very restricted. She had, for instance, suggested
+that they ask Carpazzi to dine with them alone and go to the opera. But
+the princess had said, "Impossible. Carpazzi, finding no one but the
+family, would naturally suppose we wish to arrange a marriage between
+you."
+
+Marry Carpazzi! It was ridiculous; she never had heard of such customs!
+"Well, then, why not ask Tornik?" she suggested. "He is not an Italian."
+The princess demurred. It might be possible to ask Tornik--still it was
+better not. Unless Nina wanted to marry Tornik? Apparently there was
+little use in pursuing this subject further, so she laughed and gave it
+up.
+
+They were in the princess's room, at the time, and Nina, dressed for the
+street, was pulling on new gloves of fawn-colored _suède_. Her brown
+velvet and fox furs, her big hat with a fox band fastened with an
+osprey, were all that the modeste's art could achieve.
+
+The princess fastened a little yellow mink collar around her throat over
+her black cloth dress, selected the better of two pairs of cleaned white
+kid gloves, picked up her hard, round, little yellow muff, and then went
+over and sat on the sofa beside Nina. "By the way, darling, I have
+something to say to you. The Marchese Valdeste has approached your
+uncle in regard to a marriage between his son Carlo and you. Not being
+an Italian, I suppose you want to give your answer yourself. What do you
+say?"
+
+"What do I say!" Nina's eyes and mouth opened together. "Why, I have
+never seen the man!"
+
+The princess smiled. "The offer is made in the same way in which it
+would be if you were an Italian. Your parents not being here, I ask you
+in their stead--or as I might ask you if you were a widow. To begin,
+then,--no, I am perfectly in earnest--I am authorized to offer you a
+young man of unquestionable birth. He has in his own right three
+castles. Two will need a great deal of repair, but one is in excellent
+condition and contains three hundred rooms, more than half of which are
+furnished. He has an annual income of twenty thousand _lire_ and
+no--debts! That he is fairly good-looking, medium-sized, has black hair
+and brown eyes, and is said to have a very amiable disposition, are
+details."
+
+As the princess concluded, Nina added: "And he has also a most charming
+mother. My answer is--my regret that I cannot marry her instead."
+
+"You are sure you do not care to consider this offer?"
+
+Nina looked steadily into her aunt's eyes. "I am sure you married Uncle
+Sandro through no such courtship as this!"
+
+"I did not think you would accept, my dear child; yet such marriages
+often turn out for the best--at least it was my duty to ask for your
+answer. You have given it--and now let us go out. The carriage has been
+waiting some time."
+
+Shortly afterward they were in the Pincio--for the custom still prevails
+among Roman ladies and gentlemen of slowly driving up and down or
+standing for a chat with friends. The dome of St. Peter's looked like a
+globe of gold set in the center of the celebrated frame of the Pincio
+trees, but as the sun went down it grew chilly, and the Sansevero landau
+rolled briskly up the Corso. At Nina's suggestion they stopped at a tea
+shop.
+
+No sooner were they seated at a little table when they were joined by
+the Duchess Astarte. The duchess had most graceful manners, but she
+talked to the princess across Nina, and about her, as though she were an
+article of furniture, or at least a small child who could not understand
+what was said. She spoke frankly of Nina's suitors. Scorpa's was an
+excellent title, but Scorpa was a widower and no longer young. Then she
+begged the princess to consider her nephew, the young Prince Allegro.
+
+It would be a brilliant match, for he was one of the mediatized princes
+and ranked with royalty. But his properties took such an immense amount
+of money to keep up that an added fortune would be a great relief to the
+whole family. Her consummate naturalness did away with much of the
+bluntness of her speech; but even so, this was too much for Nina's
+calmness.
+
+"But, Duchessa," she broke in, "have the Prince Allegro and I nothing to
+do with the arranging of our own future?"
+
+The duchess observed her in as much astonishment as though a baby of six
+months had broken into the conversation. A moment or two elapsed before
+she said smoothly: "Oh, the Prince is enchanted at the idea. He danced
+with you at Court and finds you _molto simpatica_. It is a great name,
+my dear, that he has to offer you----" and then with a condescension,
+yet a courteousness that prevented offense: "We shall all be willing,
+nay, delighted, to receive you with open arms. Your position will be in
+every way as though you had been born into the nobility."
+
+"Thank you," said Nina quietly, "but I don't think I am quite used to
+the European marriage of arrangement."
+
+"Ah, but it need not be a marriage of arrangement. If you will permit
+Allegro to pay his addresses to you, he will consider himself the most
+fortunate of men. May I tell him?"
+
+"Please not!" said Nina. Quite at bay, she longed wildly for some means
+of escape. To her relief, two Americans whom she knew, young Mrs. Davis
+and her sister, entered the shop. Nina rose abruptly, apologizing to the
+duchess, and ran to them. How long had they been in Rome? Where were
+they stopping? What was the news from New York? They told her all they
+could think of. The Tony Stuarts had a son--they thought it the only
+baby that had ever been born; and as for old Mr. Stuart, he was nearly
+insane with joy. Billy Rivers had lost every cent of his money; and
+then--but, of course, Nina had heard about John Derby.
+
+In her fear that some accident had happened to him, Nina's heart seemed
+to miss two beats. But Mrs. Davis merely meant his success in mining. By
+the way, she had seen him in New York, as she was driving to the
+steamer. He was striding up Fifth Avenue, and was "too good-looking for
+words."
+
+The princess was leaving the shop and, as Nina followed her into the
+carriage, her mind was full of Derby. It was very strange--she had had a
+letter the day before from Arizona, in which John had said nothing about
+going to New York. Then she remembered that her father had hinted at a
+possibility that John might be sent to Italy later in the winter. Her
+pulse quickened at the thought, but with no consciousness of sentiment
+deepened or changed by absence.
+
+Arrived at the palace, she found a note from Zoya Olisco, who was coming
+to spend the next day with her. Nina handed the note to the princess. "I
+thought we could go out in the car and lunch somewhere. Or is it not
+allowed?" Her eyes twinkled as she questioned.
+
+"That depends," the princess answered in the same spirit, "upon whether
+you are counting upon including me. I am a very disagreeable tyrant when
+it comes to being left out of a party."
+
+The automobile in question was Nina's. She had wanted one, and with her
+"to want" meant "to get." Nearly every one thought it belonged to the
+princess, as it would not have occurred to many in Rome to suppose it
+was owned by a young girl.
+
+That night another extravagance of Nina's came to light. In the morning
+they had been at an exhibition of furs brought to Rome by a Russian
+dealer. Among them was a set of superb sables, and Nina, throwing the
+collar around her aunt's shoulders, had exclaimed at their becomingness.
+
+The princess unconsciously stroked the furs as she put them down. "I
+have never seen anything more lovely," she said wistfully, and with no
+idea that she had sighed. A sable collar and muff had been one of the
+desired things of her life, but it was utterly impossible now to think
+of so much as one skin, and in the piece and muff in question there were
+more than thirty.
+
+That evening, upon their return, the princess found the furs in her room
+when she went to dress. At first she felt that they were too much to
+accept, but when Nina's hazel eyes implored, and her lips begged her
+aunt to take "just one present to remember her by," the princess for
+once gave free reign to her emotions and was as wildly delighted as a
+child.
+
+The very next afternoon, however, Scorpa saw the sables, and on a slip
+of paper made the following note:
+
+          Sables                  80,000 lire
+          60 H. P. motor car      30,000 lire
+
+With a smile that would have done no discredit to his Satanic Majesty,
+he put the paper in his pocket.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+APPLES OF SODOM
+
+
+"It amounts to this: do you take a fitting interest in the name you
+bear, or do you not?" Sansevero was the speaker, and beneath his usual
+volubility there was an unwonted eagerness. The two brothers were in
+Giovanni's apartment on the second floor, which in Roman palaces usually
+belongs to the eldest son, and Giovanni sat astride a chair, his arms
+crossed over the back.
+
+"I don't think you can ask such a question," he retorted hotly. "I am as
+much a Sansevero as you! But I really see no reason why--just because
+you have got a notion in your head that a pile of gold dollars would
+look well in our strong box--I should tie myself up for life. I am well
+enough as I am. My income is not regal, but it suffices."
+
+Sansevero, like many talkative persons, was too busy thinking of what he
+was going to say next himself, to listen attentively to his brother's
+responses. He was merely aware that Giovanni's manner proclaimed
+opposition, so, when the sound of his voice ceased, Sansevero continued:
+"Nina is all the most fastidious could ask. _Noblesse oblige_--are you
+going to keep our name among the greatest in Rome, or are you going to
+let it fall like that of the Carpazzi? Shall they say of us in the near
+future, as they say of them to-day: 'Ah, yes, the Sanseveros were a
+great family once, but they are all dead or beggared now'?"
+
+"_Per Dio!_ What an orator we are becoming!" mocked Giovanni, looking
+out of half-shut eyes like a cat. But after a moment, also like a cat,
+he opened them wide and stared coolly at his brother. "Out of the mouth
+of babes----" he said impertinently. "My child, thou hast spoken much
+wisdom! It is, after all, a proposition that has, possibly, sense in it.
+_La Nina_ is a woman such as any man might be glad to make his wife, and
+yet--this very fact that she is not an insignificant personality, is
+what I object to! I doubt her developing into either a blinded saint or
+a coquette with amiable complacence for others. We should lead a peppery
+life, I fear. But don't you think, my brother, that we are a bit
+hysterical over our family's extermination? After all, I am only
+twenty-eight; and in my opinion thirty-five is a suitable age for a man
+to marry. How old are you, Sandro--thirty-seven, is it not? And Leonora
+is nearly three years less. Of a truth, you are young!"
+
+He rested his cheek in the hollow of his hand, looking up sideways. "It
+would be a great amusement if I should marry because I am the heir to
+the estates, and then you should have a large family--so----" He made
+steps with his unoccupied hand to indicate a succession of children.
+Then he laughed, without seeming to consider the difference that the
+birth of an heir to his brother would make to himself. He arose, lit a
+cigarette, and, smoking, threw himself into an easy chair on the other
+side of the room. The great Dane, which had been lying beside him as
+usual, now slowly got up, crossed the room, and dropped down again at
+his master's feet.
+
+Meanwhile the prince, hands in pockets, had unaccountably become as
+silent as he had before been talkative, and Giovanni, upon observing his
+brother's sulky expression, leaned forward.
+
+"Well?" he questioned, with a new ring in his voice, for Sansevero's
+moodiness was never a good omen. "What are you thinking of? Come, say
+it!"
+
+Sansevero paced the length of the room and back; then he burst out:
+"Very well, it is this--everything is as bad as can be--so bad that if
+you don't marry money, and at once, the Sansevero burial will take place
+before you and I are dead. _Nome di Dio!_ how are we to live with no
+money?"
+
+"Since you ask my opinion, I have long wondered why you do not live
+better than you do," Giovanni answered. "Your income, added to Leonora's
+money, must make a very handsome sum. But one of the faults of the
+American women is that they are seldom good managers. Leonora is either
+no exception to the rule--or else she is getting very miserly. Why, an
+Italian on Leonora's income would live like a queen!"
+
+"Be silent!" Sansevero, flushing darkly, flamed into speech. "Before
+you dare to criticise the woman who adorns our house! Here is the truth
+for you: I haven't one cent of private fortune--I gambled it all away
+long ago! More than half of Leonora's money is lost--I lost it. Some of
+it she paid out for my debts; the greater portion I put into the 'Little
+Devil' mine. I might much better have shoveled it into the Tiber. Do you
+know what she has done--the woman whom you criticise as a bad manager
+and stigmatize as mean--I would not care what you said, if you had not
+thought Leonora mean! _Dio mio_, MEAN! Know, then, that the very jewels
+she wears are false; that the real ones have been sold--to pay the debts
+of the man standing before you--the gambling debts of the head of one of
+the noblest houses in Italy!"
+
+Giovanni was deeply moved, for this was a wound in his one vulnerable
+point, his pride of birth. The cigarette dropped to the floor unheeded.
+He moistened his lips as Alessandro continued:
+
+"They were Leonora's own jewels that were sold, mark you. The Sansevero
+heirlooms will go to your son's wife intact, as they came to mine! But
+that is not all: I have given my oath to Leonora never again to go into
+a game of chance, and really I want to keep it! Yet you know--no, you
+don't; no one can who hasn't the fever in his veins--if I see a game, it
+is as though an unseen force had me in its grip, drawing me against my
+will; I can't resist! At Savini's I was dining, and I did not know they
+were going to play--I won a very little; enough to pay the interest on
+what I owe Meyer. But it makes me cold all over to think--_if_ I had
+lost! An enviable inheritance you will get, when it is known what a mess
+of things the present holder of the title has made!" He dropped into a
+chair opposite his brother, and buried his face in his hands; between
+his slim fingers his forehead looked dark, and his temple veins swollen.
+For a long time Giovanni sat immovable, staring fixedly, but when at
+last he broke the silence, he spoke almost lightly:
+
+"It is not a very charming history that you have given me--even though
+it increases my admiration for the woman who has, it seems, been more
+worthy of the name she bears than has the man who conferred his titles
+upon her. I wish you had told me before." Then, with a queerly whimsical
+smile, he said musingly: "To marry the girl with the golden hair--and
+purse? Not such a terrible fate to look forward to, after all! She would
+demand a great deal, and I should have to keep the brakes on.
+Still--that would do me no harm! You look as though you had been down a
+sulphur mine. Come, cheer up--all may yet be well." Suddenly he laughed
+out loud. "Funny thing," he observed further--"you know, I am not so
+sure that I am not rather in love."
+
+He leaned to St. Anthony, and, putting his hand through the dog's collar
+beneath the throat, lifted the head on the back of his wrist. "Tell me,
+_padre_, am I in love? Do you advise the marriage?" The dog put his paw
+up, fanned the air once in missing, and let it rest on his master's
+knee.
+
+Giovanni laughed aloud "_Ecco!_ Sandro, he consents!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+AN OPPOSITION BOOTH IS SET UP IN THE MARKET PLACE
+
+
+While Sansevero and Giovanni were in their imaginations refurbishing
+their escutcheon, two other men, with the opposite intent, stood on the
+front steps of the agency of "Thomas Cook and Sons." One was proclaimed
+by the regulation "Cook's" badge on his cap to be a guide; the other, by
+his military cloak, might have been recognized as an official of the
+Italian government. Both had shown covert interest in the Princess
+Sansevero, who, looking particularly lovely in her magnificent set of
+sables, had crossed the sidewalk with the light, buoyant carriage
+characteristic of her.
+
+"There, you may see for yourself if it is I who speak the truth." This
+was said by the guide.
+
+The official looked at him askance as he drew his bushy brows together
+and pulled at his beard. "I confess it looks serious--and strongly
+favors your supposition."
+
+"But what else? It is as plain as the nose on your face, I should say!
+At Torre Sansevero they have been living on next to nothing--my cousin
+is cook, and I know that every _soldo_ is counted. They come to Rome and
+spend their savings. You will say they have done that for years; but
+tell me this, should their savings in this year treble the savings of
+other years?"
+
+Triumphantly he looked at his companion and, throwing back his head, put
+his hands on his hips. Then, with a return to his confidential manner,
+he laid his finger against his nose. "I know it for a fact," he
+continued--"Luigi heard it at the key-hole--that their excellencies
+contemplated staying at Torre Sansevero all this winter! Her excellency
+had the look--Maria, the maid, told the servants that much--that her
+excellency always has when _signore_, the prince, has cut the strings
+and left the purse empty."
+
+"Furthermore?" The official twirled his mustache with an air of
+incredulity.
+
+"Furthermore, the great Raphael disappears! Her excellency's renovation
+story was a little weak for my digestion, and, unless my eyes played me
+false, she was well frightened. I'll take my oath she was at a loss what
+to answer."
+
+"You say you taxed her with it?"
+
+"As I told you. She answered that the picture was being renovated. An
+answer for an idiot--the picture is one of the best canvases extant; in
+perfect repair."
+
+"Did you tell her that?"
+
+"Partially. I am sure she saw my suspicion."
+
+"I should doubt her carrying out the sale after that. There is where
+your story fails."
+
+"Ah, but it had already gone! It was perhaps by then in the house of a
+foreign millionaire. No, no, my story hangs together: The great picture
+disappears! A month later--time exactly for its arrival in America and
+the payment for it to be sent over here--her excellency of no money
+comes out in such a motor-car as that! And sables! I have an eye for
+furs. My father was in the business. The value of those she has on runs
+easily into the seventy or eighty thousand _lire_. Here she comes now,
+out of the banker's where American money is most often paid! Do you want
+better evidence?"
+
+He had been punctuating all he said with his fingers, and now, with a
+final snap of arms and a shrug of shoulders, he looked up in keen
+triumph at his companion.
+
+The other--slower and less excited than the narrator (probably because
+he was not the discoverer of the plot)--nevertheless showed lively
+interest. "It is very grave," he admitted at last. "But the Sansevero
+family is illustrious. We may not proceed against them without due
+consideration. I shall report the case to the chief of our secret
+service, and the prince must be----"
+
+A tall, athletic young man who had been changing some foreign gold into
+Italian, came into the open doorway of the office. A carriage, passing
+at that moment close to the curb, had prevented the two men from hearing
+the stranger's footfall, and as the latter stood on the top step,
+searching in his pocket for matches, he happened to catch the name
+"Sansevero." At once his attention was arrested, but as the conversation
+was carried on in an undertone, he caught only vague, detached words.
+Still, he was sure that he had heard "Raphael" after the name,
+"Sansevero," "disappearance," and then something like "secret service."
+But his presence evidently had become known, for as he passed on out
+into the street the two in blue coats were talking loudly about the
+excursion to Tivoli and the scenery _en route_.
+
+Walking out into the middle of the square where the cabs stand, he
+jumped into the first one, but he looked cautiously back toward the men
+in front of Cook's, before telling the driver to take him to the Palazzo
+Sansevero.
+
+Here the _portiere_ in his morning clothes, very different from the
+gorgeous apparel of afternoon, was sweeping out the courtyard. Holding
+his broom handle with exactly the same dignity with which, later in the
+day, he would hold his mace, he informed the stranger that his
+excellency the prince was not at home--neither was her excellency the
+princess. Upon being asked whether Miss Randolph were perhaps at home,
+he altogether forgot his imperturbability. That a _signore_ should send
+in his card to a _signorina_ was so far outside the range of his
+experience that the man stood with his mouth open, unable even to think
+what answer to give. As though he were a somnambulist, the man took the
+card and slowly read the name on its face; then he looked the stranger
+over from head to foot, read the name a second time, and finally entered
+the palace.
+
+The young man watched his retreating figure, and then, throwing back his
+head, laughed long and heartily. After which he fell to studying the
+details of the courtyard. He noted with keen interest the deep ruts worn
+in the solid stone paving under the massive arches of the gateways, and
+glanced up at the bas-reliefs between the windows. At the sound of
+footsteps he turned and encountered Nina's maid, Celeste.
+
+Mademoiselle had sent her to bid him mount to the _salon_. Through the
+green baize doors--it was the shorter way--and then, if monsieur would
+go straight on to the very last of the rooms-- His striding pace made
+Celeste fairly trot along at his heels. He went through room after room.
+Was there no end to them? At last Nina's slight, girlish figure was seen
+silhouetted against a broad window at the end--the light at her back
+hazing the gold of her hair, like a nimbus, about her face.
+
+She ran toward him, both hands out. "Jack! Dear Jack! Is it you, really,
+or am I dreaming? When did you come? Oh, I _am_ so glad to see you; but
+what a surprise! Why did you not send word?"
+
+For a moment a light leaped into Derby's eyes. It seemed as though Nina
+was looking at him exactly as he, in his day dreams, had seen her. But
+his prudence steadied his first impulse, and he put down her gladness as
+merely the joy of a person who, far from home, sees suddenly a familiar
+face in the midst of strangers; and they sat on the sofa just as they
+had sat on the railing of the veranda in the country, ever since they
+were children.
+
+In Derby's account of himself, Nina could easily read the confidence
+that had led her father to send him to Italy. But their talk had gone
+little further than the barest outline of his mission when the prince
+and princess returned. At the sight of Nina sitting alone with a man,
+the princess came forward quickly with the question, "My child, what
+does this mean?" as plainly asked in her eyes as it could have been by
+spoken words. But at Nina's "John Derby, Aunt Eleanor!" the princess put
+out her hand with all the grace in the world, and as she returned the
+straight, frank look of his blue eyes, her whole expression became
+youthful, as if reflecting some pleasant memory of her girlhood.
+
+"I knew your uncle very, very well!" She smiled entrancingly. It was a
+smile that irresistibly attracted to her all who ever saw it. "You are
+like him." Then she added softly, dreamingly, as though half speaking to
+herself, "You remind me of so many things--at home!"
+
+The next minute she had turned to present Derby to her husband, and the
+conversation became general. But, finally, in a pause, Nina said, "Jack,
+tell Uncle Sandro what father sent you over to do. Or is it a secret?"
+
+Derby looked toward Sansevero as though measuring the man. "It is no
+great secret--but I would rather it was not spoken of yet."
+
+"My ears are deaf, and my tongue is dumb." Sansevero put his hand over
+his ear, his mouth, and finally his heart.
+
+"I have come over to buy, or to lease--at all events, to work--sulphur
+mines."
+
+As though an electric current had been turned on, Sansevero sat up
+straight, and his levity vanished. "To work sulphur mines! Will you tell
+me more? I have a particular reason for wanting to know."
+
+Derby answered willingly. "I can give you a general idea. I was forced
+into inventing a new method of mining on account of the quicksands,
+which are found all through our mines at home. Taking a suggestion from
+the oil wells, I bored just such a well down into the sulphur beds.
+Ordinarily the sulphur is brought up in powder or rock form, and refined
+in vats on the surface, so that not only do the miners have to go down
+into the sulphurous heat, but the caldrons in which the sulphur is
+refined give out gases that are unendurable to human throats and lungs.
+In our mines, the sulphur is now refined sixty or a hundred feet below
+the surface of the ground, and pours out in an already purified state,
+at the top of the well."
+
+Sansevero looked incredulous. "But sulphur is almost impossible to
+liquefy. Unlike metals, it congeals again when it has been heated beyond
+the proper temperature. Also it corrodes any metal it touches, so that a
+pipe would be eaten away immediately."
+
+"To get over those difficulties is exactly what I am trying to do by my
+new process," Derby answered. "The sulphur is melted by hot water sent
+down the pipes, followed by sand, and then sawdust--the sand to carry
+the heat to the cooler edges, and the wet sawdust to check the heat at
+the center."
+
+Even the princess drew nearer and laid her hand on her husband's arm as
+Derby made his explanation. Sansevero trembled with excitement. "But
+according to that," he cried, turning to his wife; "our mine would be
+practicable!" Then to Derby: "I ought to explain to you that we have a
+sulphur mine in Sicily, near Vencata. So far as I know, the sulphur
+does, as you say, lie in a bed some twenty meters down. Above it are
+rock and alluvial soil. The volcanic neighborhood makes the temperature
+below ground higher than can be borne, yet we know that the sulphur
+deposit is immense."
+
+"Give me more details. From what you say, it sounds as though this mine
+of yours might be exactly what we are looking for. Does Mr. Randolph
+know of it, or that you are the owner?"
+
+"No; no one knows it excepting one small group of sulphur owners. I
+unwisely went into it on the advice of--some one who is very good at
+all these things; yet the best are liable to mistake. Other mines in the
+neighborhood, owned by friends of mine, have brought in a fortune. Ours
+has, so far, been a failure."
+
+The talk lasted until luncheon was served. Giovanni put in an
+appearance, and Derby was pressed to stay. As di Valdo and the American
+met, there was a barely perceptible coldness under the Italian's good
+manners, while Derby's greeting showed a momentary curiosity. Two more
+sharply contrasted beings could hardly have been brought together. But
+gradually Giovanni also became interested in the mining plans, and, as
+the reason for the American's coming to Europe very evidently was
+business and not the pursuit of the heiress, Giovanni's affability
+became genuine.
+
+The end of the matter was that Derby agreed to take up the Sansevero
+mine, commonly known as the "Little Devil"; to be worked on a "royalty"
+basis. Derby, representing his company, was to pay all expenses, take
+all responsibility, and to return to Sansevero a percentage of the
+market price on every ton of sulphur taken out of it.
+
+Furthermore, Sansevero insisted upon giving him a letter to the
+Archbishop of Vencata, who lived about eight hours on muleback from the
+mining settlement. The Sicilians, he declared, were a dangerous people
+for strangers who tried to interfere in their established order of
+things.
+
+"So then I am likely to have adventures! It sounds exciting!" The
+American laughed light-heartedly at the sport of it. However, he
+accepted the letter to the archbishop.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A MENACE
+
+
+Derby did not realize until afterward that the entire conversation at
+the Palazzo Sansevero had been about his projects, and that, aside from
+a few generalities, he really knew nothing of Nina's winter or of her
+Italian experiences. He returned to his hotel at about five o'clock, and
+was striding directly toward the smoking-room without glancing to right
+or left among the attractive groups that characterize the tea hour at
+the Excelsior, when he was arrested by some one's calling, "Why, John
+Derby!"
+
+In the crowd of persons and tables he looked blankly for a familiar
+face, but, as his name was repeated, he recognized Mrs. Bobby Davis and
+her sister, Mildred Hoyt. As soon as Derby reached their table, Mrs.
+Davis glibly rattled off the names of the four or five men who comprised
+their party. They were all Europeans, who, in regular afternoon
+attire--frock coats, and flower in buttonhole--were sipping tea and
+eating cake. Derby was in tweeds, and afternoon tea was by no means part
+of his daily program.
+
+However, he made the best of it, and also of the remarks that followed,
+for he was sooner seated than Mrs. Davis turned all her powers of
+sprightly conversation upon the subject of Nina. Half of the nobility of
+Italy, she averred, were sighing--or busily doing sums--at the feet of
+the American heiress. There was a particularly fascinating Sansevero--he
+was not called Sansevero, but di Valdo (curious custom of having half a
+dozen names for one person!), who, it was rumored, was simply mad about
+Nina! People said she was going to marry him--either him or Duke
+something. And there were crowds of others. That was one of her suitors
+now--she pointed out Tornik, who was taking tea with a group from the
+Austrian Embassy. He was most attractive, didn't John think so? In
+Nina's place, she would have her head turned!
+
+This idea seemed to be a new one to Derby. "Should you?" The question
+was asked so reflectively that Mrs. Davis almost stopped to think; but
+the habit of prattling carried her on.
+
+"To have men like that sighing for one--I should call it thrilling, to
+say the least."
+
+Derby's look questioned. "I wonder why the Europeans make such a hit
+with you women," he said. "Why, for instance, do you find that man over
+there attractive? What do you like about him?"
+
+"Seriously?" Mrs. Davis patted her hair up the back with a little
+smoothing movement of satisfaction. "I don't know how to put it--it is
+very indefinable; but a man like that has a quality--a polish, I
+suppose it is, really--that is quite irresistible."
+
+Derby looked rather disgusted. "And you think that is why Nina likes
+them?"
+
+"Oh, there are other reasons--lots of them. In the first place, Nina has
+a bad case of '_allure de noblesse_.' In her case I don't wonder! You
+can't imagine anything so heavenly as her aunt's palace; it is every bit
+as fine as any of the galleries or museums."
+
+As though this remark added a new link to a chain of old impressions,
+Derby found himself asking: "By the way--they have a famous picture
+gallery out in the country somewhere, haven't they?"
+
+Mrs. Davis turned for information to Prince Minotti, sitting next to
+her; who, as he was not especially welcomed by the Romans, much affected
+the society of Americans, since to them, as a rule, a prince is a
+prince, and the name that follows of comparative unimportance.
+
+"Torre Sansevero," he said pompously, "is one of the finest estates we
+have in Italy. In fact, the gardens are hardly less celebrated than
+those of the Villa d'Este, and there are a few excellent paintings. Do
+you ask for any special reason?"
+
+"No," replied Derby casually. "I heard they had a Raphael that was
+especially beautiful; I should like to see it--that is all."
+
+"Do you, by chance, know the Princess Sansevero's niece, from America,
+who is captivating Rome this winter?"
+
+"Miss Randolph? Yes."
+
+"Ah, then it will be easy for you to get permission to see the painting.
+The gallery is not open to the public, though Cook's, I believe, send a
+party out once a week, to see the gardens."
+
+To Derby the suspicion at once became a certainty that, in overhearing
+the talk between the Cook's guide and the official, he had by accident
+stumbled upon something of serious importance to the Sanseveros. He was
+puzzling over it when, in the smoking-room, a few moments later, he
+encountered Eliot Porter, an American writer who was making a study of
+Roman life. At sight of Derby he called out heartily, "Hello, Jack, when
+did you come over?"
+
+Derby drew up a chair beside him, and briefly sketched the object of his
+visit.
+
+"Negotiating with Scorpa, I suppose?" asked Porter.
+
+"The Sulphur King?" Derby shook his head. "No, I don't think I shall
+need him. I have my hands on a property that promises to be what I am
+looking for. The duke wants to work his mines himself and in his own
+way. I am merely trying a scheme; if it turns out well, good! If not, I
+shall have tested it."
+
+"When do you begin operations? I suppose you realize, my friend, that it
+is no joke to interfere with the Sicilians? They are as suspicious of a
+new face as a tribe of savages. Savages is just about what they are,
+too! And there is another element that you should not lose sight of: If
+you are going to upset Scorpa's methods, it is not the Sicilians alone
+that you will have to deal with, but also the duke himself."
+
+"I am not going to try his property."
+
+"No, but he controls the sulphur output. If you come into his
+market--well, I'd not give a _soldo_ for your skin. Besides, that would
+be the second grudge he'd have against you!"
+
+"Second? I don't understand----"
+
+"He wants to marry your best girl! Oh, hold on--no offense meant. She is
+having a splendid time of it, if a string of satellites as long as the
+Ponte San Angelo constitutes a woman's joy. All the same, my boy; put
+this in your pipe and smoke it: 'Ware Scorpa, don't turn your back to
+any one who might be in his employ, and bolt your door at night. Will
+you have my Winchester?"
+
+Derby smoked on, unperturbed. "It sounds as though it might be
+interesting. I had expected a mere proposition of machinery; the human
+element always adds. Wasn't it you who told me that?"
+
+"In a book, decidedly!" and then with a sudden impulse, "By Jove, Jack,
+I believe it would be a good thing for me to go along with you! I might
+get new copy."
+
+Derby laughed incredulously. "Well, if you mean it, come along! I wish
+you would." Porter meant it enough to be interested in the project, at
+any rate, for later the two men dined together, and they discussed
+arrangements and expedients all the evening.
+
+Derby went to the Palazzo Sansevero the next day, but again he had much
+to talk over with the prince, and saw little of Nina. In some
+unaccountable way she seemed changed; nothing definite happened to mark
+the difference that he vaguely felt, but Mrs. Davis's remark came back
+to him--"The Europeans are so finished," and he wondered whether Nina
+found him unfinished; he even wondered whether he was or not--which was
+a good deal of wondering for him.
+
+At first, Sansevero's investment in the "Little Devil" had seemed to
+Derby merely the unfortunate venture the prince thought it, but when, in
+the course of their talk, it came out that Scorpa was the "friend" who
+had sold him the mine, Derby was sure that the duke had deliberately
+saddled him with a property which he knew to be useless. And yet every
+word that Scorpa had urged as a reason for the mine's value, was--taken
+literally--true. The mine was in close proximity to his own; the
+surveys, furthermore, showed the "Little Devil" to be the richest in
+sulphur deposit of any in the region. But if the mine was as valuable as
+Scorpa declared, it was scarcely compatible with all that was known of
+his character that out of purely disinterested friendship, he should put
+such a prize in Sansevero's hands, while he bought up for himself less
+valuable mines at higher prices. Derby kept his opinions to himself;
+but his blood boiled with indignation and, mentally, he resolved to beat
+Scorpa if it was humanly possible.
+
+As Derby was leaving, Nina deliberately went from the room with him. "I
+want to speak with John a few minutes," she said to her aunt. "We are
+both Americans, you know," she added, laughing. In the adjoining room
+she motioned him to sit beside her, but he stood instead, leaning
+against the window frame. She looked up with something like apology. "Am
+I keeping you?" she asked quickly. "Are you in a hurry?"
+
+Almost with the manner of Mr. Randolph, he pulled out his watch. "Not
+especially. I have an appointment with the Duke Scorpa--but not for half
+an hour." She had not noticed before the nervously hurried manner of her
+countrymen. There were many things she wanted to talk to John about--but
+she might as well have tried to carry on a restful conversation at a
+railroad station, when the train was coming in.
+
+"With Scorpa?" She tried to hold his attention. "What are you going to
+see _him_ about?"
+
+Derby seemed preoccupied.
+
+"I don't think I'm very sure myself--further than that he wants to buy
+my patents, which I have no intention of selling, and I want to rent his
+mines, which he has no intention of renting. Rather asinine, going to
+see him! Still, as he insists----" There was an eagerness in Derby's
+face inconsistent with the shrugging of his shoulders.
+
+But Nina's thoughts were not on the processes of mining just then,
+though they were on Scorpa. She looked at Derby appealingly.
+
+"Jack!"
+
+"Yes, Nina?"
+
+"Do you know what I think?--Aunt Eleanor won't say a word; she hides it
+all she can, but she must have lost almost her entire fortune. Jack, do
+you think that Duke Scorpa could be at the bottom of it?"
+
+Derby gave her a glance of keen interest, but he expressed no surprise
+and asked her no questions. As a matter of fact, the gossip of the
+Cook's guide had partly prepared him for Nina's revelation about her
+aunt's fortune, and he had his own theories about Scorpa. "Quite
+likely," he answered dryly, "but it is also quite likely that we shall
+get the better of him----" Then, with a sudden change in his manner he
+looked at her steadily. "But perhaps you don't want us to get the better
+of him?"
+
+"Do you mean----?"
+
+"I hear he is very devoted--and he has not only the handle to his name
+that you women seem to be keen about, but he is too rich to be after
+your money." Derby had no sooner said the words than he regretted them.
+But seeing Nina color, he misinterpreted her feelings, and spoke under a
+sudden flash of jealousy. "And I suppose the title of duchess is
+irresistible."
+
+Nina was deeply hurt. "That is pretty blunt," she said, the pupils of
+her eyes contracted as though the sun blinded them. "Have you ever seen
+the man you speak of? No? Well, you would not say such a thing if you
+had. I _hate_ him!"
+
+Derby seemed fated to blunder. Again he made the wrong remark. "Hate,
+they say, is next to love."
+
+His lack of insight, so palpable in contrast with Giovanni's keenness of
+perception, was too much for Nina's new sensitiveness. She suddenly
+congealed, and stood up, very straight, with the little upward tilt of
+the chin that indicated fast approaching temper.
+
+Derby knew this symptom well enough, but he had not the slightest idea
+that his own obtuseness was the cause. Without analyzing, he accepted
+her starting up as a signal to leave, and promptly said good-by.
+"Good-by, then!" Nina said frigidly; and, turning on her heel, she
+abruptly left him.
+
+Under the spur of her anger against him, the words framed themselves in
+her mind--"How unfinished he is!" But down in her heart there was an
+ache, deeper than could have been caused by mere irritation, or even
+disappointment. Never before in her life had there been a breach between
+John and her. She felt it was all the fault of his own density--or was
+it lack of feeling?
+
+She went to her room to put on her riding habit, for she was going to
+the meet. Then, as she dressed, the thought came to her that John, a
+foreigner, and the most venturesome person in the world, was going off
+to Sicily, into the very center of one of the wildest districts. And
+gradually fear for him made her forget her resentment.
+
+Just as she was leaving her room a big cornucopia of roses was brought
+in, to which was appended the following note:
+
+          "If we weren't such old friends and you didn't
+          know what a blundering fool I am, I wouldn't dare
+          to apologize for this morning. Judge me by intent,
+          though, won't you--and forgive me?
+
+          "JACK."
+
+Nina broke off a rose and fastened it to the lapel of her habit; but the
+note she tucked in between the buttonholes. Suddenly humming a gay
+little song, she ran through the rooms and corridors to join her aunt
+and uncle, who were waiting for her to motor out to the hunt, the horses
+having been sent ahead with the grooms. As they drove out of the
+courtyard she noticed that the sun was brilliantly shining.
+
+At the meet the scene was really animated, for the day was perfect, and
+the Via Appia was a bright moving picture of carriages, large and small,
+big motors and little runabouts, the road dotted here and there with the
+brilliant scarlet coats of those who were to hunt and the bright colors
+of women's dresses in the various conveyances.
+
+There was apparently much lack of system: the huntsmen chatted aimlessly
+with persons in the carriages; while the hounds scurried around
+according to their own inclinations, paying little attention to the snap
+of the whip. The Contessa Potensi, who had appeared in a pink hunting
+coat, was the cynosure of all eyes. The innovation created quite a stir
+and no little admiration. She bowed to Nina with unusual civility, and
+made a formal acknowledgment of the pleasure of riding with her. Yet
+shortly after, when she joined a group of friends a distance farther on,
+she was laughing and glancing back as she spoke, in a way that left
+little doubt that she was making disparaging remarks.
+
+Sansevero and Giovanni had mounted their hunters, and now joined Nina,
+but that gave her little pleasure, for the contessa immediately
+returned. Nina was glad when Donna Francesca Dobini and the young Prince
+Allegro cantered up. Donna Francesca was soon talking with Sansevero,
+leaving Nina to Allegro--an attractive youth, but light as a bit of
+fluff.
+
+As for Giovanni, she felt that he was as unstable as the dead leaves
+which the wind at that moment was blowing around and around. They were
+graceful, too, those leaves, and Giovanni was fascinating, agile,
+charming--but in case one counted upon him seriously, where would he be?
+Smiling sweetly, no doubt, at some other woman, and telling her that
+her eyes were twin lakes of heaven's blue, or forest pools in which his
+heart was lost forever.
+
+The contrasting image of John Derby came sharply to mind. John was going
+to Sicily to do a man's work in a man's way. A little later she noticed
+Tornik, who was cantering ahead of her: his figure was not unlike
+John's--he was strong and masculine. She wondered aimlessly if they
+might be in any other way alike. Supposing, in some unaccountable
+situation she were to be thrown upon his chivalry for protection, what
+would he do? Shrug his shoulders and look bored? Or detail a company
+from his regiment to stand guard over her? The idea made her laugh.
+
+"You are gay this morning," observed Giovanni, light-heartedly joining
+in her laughter.
+
+With a quizzical little expression Nina looked at him--"I wonder if you
+would be amused if you knew why I laughed."
+
+[Illustration: "NINA LOOKED AT HIM--'I WONDER IF YOU WOULD BE AMUSED IF
+YOU KNEW WHY I LAUGHED'"]
+
+"If it gives you pleasure--it is delicious, whatever it is!"
+
+All the softness went out of the girl's brown eyes; they glittered
+curiously. "Yes," she said, "that is just what I thought." After which
+ambiguous remark she returned to her former gayety--"Come," she said,
+"let's go fast; we shall be the last!" Urging her horse, she galloped
+across the fields.
+
+She would have been at a loss to understand her own vacillations of mood
+that day: she seemed to feel an unaccountable revulsion against every
+one. The gesticulations of the men around her, their airs and
+blandishments, annoyed her. Not an hour earlier she had found John dull
+and flat by comparison with Europeans. Now suddenly they were effeminate
+dandies, and John alone was a real man.
+
+But the exhilaration of jumping brought her to a more equable frame of
+mind, and at the first check she and the Prince Allegro were in the
+lead. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes bright from the long gallop.
+
+They had stopped on a knoll out on the Campagna, and Nina remained apart
+from the other hunters, walking her horse slowly, while Allegro went
+over to the carriage to get a handkerchief for her from the Princess
+Sansevero. She drew in deep breaths of the fresh air, as she gazed out
+over the rolling hills to the snowclad tops of the Albanian mountains
+glistening in the sunshine.
+
+Then suddenly a deep, oily voice jarred through her wandering thoughts.
+"You are very pensive!" exclaimed the Duke Scorpa, appearing beside her.
+
+Nina started violently, for, besides his unexpected appearance, there
+was something in this man's personality that always sent a shudder
+through her.
+
+"The Marchese di Valdo has been telling me that I am very gay," she
+answered, not so much to give the duke the information as to contradict
+him.
+
+"Then I am doubly sad, since you are gay with others, and absent-minded
+when I come." A lurking familiarity in his smile made Nina wince. He
+ranged his horse so close that his boots brushed against hers, and she
+pulled aside quickly; he did not move close again, but he checked her
+attempt to pass him, keeping between her and the other riders.
+
+"Why are you so cruel?" he murmured. "Diana never had so many votaries
+as Venus."
+
+"I am not interested in mythology," said Nina, her heart fluttering with
+fright. "Please allow me to pass--I want to join my uncle."
+
+"Sweet, pale little Diana,"--he leaned over in his saddle and purred the
+words at her--"where mythology failed was in not marrying Diana to Mars.
+Exactly as--you are going to marry me!"
+
+"I will not! I told you before I would not! Let me pass!" She pulled the
+reins so taut that her horse reared as she urged him forward, but again
+the duke ranged his horse close beside her, heading off her attempt to
+get past.
+
+"A woman's 'won't' as often means she will," he answered deliberately.
+"It is when she says she is not certain that her irrevocable decision is
+made."
+
+"I hate you, I utterly hate you!" cried Nina, her anger getting the
+better of her fear.
+
+The duke laughed maliciously. "I had scarcely hoped to make so deep a
+mark on your emotions! If you hate me, then truly you will marry
+me!--against your will, if need be," he added, reining back his horse at
+last. "I will wait to make you love me afterward."
+
+At this point Allegro returned with the handkerchief, and the duke let
+Nina pass. Tornik, also, now joined her, the master of the hounds gave
+the signal, and again the riders were off. Nina, between Tornik and
+Allegro, was protected from the duke's approach, but she kept
+apprehensively glancing back. She looked about for her uncle, but could
+not see him.
+
+As a matter of fact, Sansevero's horse had strained itself slightly in
+one of the jumps, and he had thought it best to drop out of the hunt. He
+had gone only a short distance on his way toward Rome when he was joined
+by Scorpa, who said that he did not care to ride farther but would go
+back with Sansevero. The prince was glad of his company until Scorpa
+began:
+
+"You have not yet given me a favorable answer to my proposal for Miss
+Randolph's hand."
+
+The abruptness with which the subject was introduced irritated
+Sansevero, and he answered sulkily: "I told you, when you first spoke to
+me, that it was a matter Miss Randolph would have to decide for herself.
+An American girl never allows other people to arrange her marriage for
+her, and I found my niece not at all disposed to reconsider her answer."
+
+An ugly light shone in the duke's eyes. "I do not want to seem
+importunate," he said, "but--I would do very much for the man who
+furthered my marriage with Miss Randolph, and you would find the
+alliance of our families of great advantage. I am a hot-blooded fellow,
+but I'm not such a bad lot. I cannot help being wounded, though, by your
+niece's indifference, and in jealousy of a rival I might do things that
+otherwise would not enter my head. This is--eh--not a threat--but it is
+a family trait--the Scorpas stop at nothing once their hearts are
+aflame! Think it over, my friend, before you decide not to help me."
+
+He sighed deeply and then, as though turning his attention to the first
+trivial thought that came to mind, he said casually: "By the way, I have
+been reading lately an extremely interesting book on celebrated criminal
+cases, and I was particularly impressed by the way in which
+circumstantial evidence can be built up out of harmless trifles. Since
+reading it I have been rather amusing myself by constructing
+hypothetical cases. For instance"--Scorpa pursed his lips and lowered
+his eyes, as though trying to invent a fanciful story--"take a
+transaction such as your letting me have that picture. One could build a
+very stirring case upon that!"
+
+"Yes?" encouraged the prince. "How do you mean?"
+
+"Well, to begin, we would send word to the government that your Raphael
+Madonna had been sold out of the country."
+
+"I don't think that a good beginning, because it is easy enough to prove
+it is in your palace."
+
+"Ah, of course. But for the amusement of the argument we will say that I
+_want_ to do you an injury and so smuggle it out of the country! Then
+when I am questioned, I deny all knowledge of it. Yes, I would have you
+there! It would be quite feasible, because no one saw the picture change
+hands, and your notes to me--the only proof of the transfer--could
+easily be destroyed. You see? This really grows interesting! Then comes
+all the cumulative evidence of the type I was speaking about; for
+instance: After the supposed sale of the picture, you indulge in
+unwonted expenditures--of course, it is easy to say that they are those
+of the American heiress stopping with you"--he paused, in apparent
+thoughtfulness--"but when, in addition, an enemy buys in Paris a pair of
+earrings, matchless emeralds, that are recognized as having been
+worn----"
+
+"_Dio mio!_ My wife's emeralds!" Sansevero was startled into exclaiming.
+Then suddenly he blazed out: "What do you mean by your story? If you
+have anything to say, say it so I can follow you."
+
+From the gross lips of the duke his apology fell like drops of thickest
+oil: "I regret you take my pleasantry so ill, and I ask your pardon as
+many times as you require, my friend! It happened by chance that I saw a
+pair of emeralds in Paris that were duplicates of the magnificent gems I
+have often admired when the princess wore them, and the jeweler told me
+that they had been sold at a sacrifice by a noble lady in urgent need of
+money. The curious coincidence came to my mind in illustration of the
+problems I was talking of. Further than that I meant nothing--except
+that I was serious in what I said about repaying the man who should
+bring about my marriage."
+
+They had long since passed through the Porta San Giovanni and had
+arrived at the Coliseum. Scorpa gave Sansevero little chance to answer,
+but with a friendly good-by, he turned toward the Monte Quirinal.
+Sansevero pursued his way along the foot of the Palatine. He was
+disturbed; but he could not bring himself to read into the duke's words
+a covert threat. His first impulse was to repeat the conversation to
+Eleanor, but he knew how the mere suspicion that Scorpa had detected her
+false stones had worried her. Curiously enough, in Sansevero's mind the
+larger issue of the picture was quite overlooked in the more immediate
+consideration of the jewels. By the time he reached home he had decided
+to wait until further events should show Scorpa's intentions. And until
+then he would say nothing to any one--least of all to Eleanor.
+
+In the meantime Nina was galloping across the Campagna. For a while the
+fear of Scorpa remained, but when she realized that he was no longer
+with the hunt, she breathed more freely, and again began to enjoy the
+day. It was almost as though she were riding through the country at
+home. She might have been hunting in Westchester, or on Long Island,
+for any actual difference that there was, and the finish, as at home,
+was merely anise seed, and the hounds were fed raw meat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+NINA DUSTS BEHIND THE COUNTER
+
+
+Kate Titherington, daughter of Alonzo K. Titherington, the Pittsburg
+iron magnate, had some six years before married the Count Masco. After a
+short experience of living in his ancestral palace, they had moved into
+an apartment out in the new part of the city; very handsome, very
+luxurious and modern in every way. "Deliver me from these musty old
+dungeons!" she had exclaimed to her husband. "I will give a free deed of
+gift to the rats, who are really, my dear, the only beings I can think
+of to whom this tumbledown barracks of yours would be comfortable." Her
+husband was a meek and inoffensive appendage, who had been well brought
+up by an overbearing mother and turned over, perfectly trained, to the
+strenuous requirements of the bonny Kate.
+
+The vivid Countess Masco, _née_ Titherington, was looked upon with
+disfavor by the more conservative Romans, and her position was rather,
+one might say, on the outer edge of the inner circle. There were those
+who liked her, and who found her amusing and lively; indeed, that was
+the trouble--it was her liveliness that had banished her to the outer
+edge, instead of making a place for her in the inmost circle, where
+Eleanor Sansevero, for instance, was so securely established.
+
+Nina had known Kate Titherington one summer at Bar Harbor, but her first
+encounter with this flamboyant personality in Italy was at the Grand
+Hotel a few days before the hunt. Nina was serving at one of the tables
+of a charity tea, when she saw a very highly-colored, plump figure, with
+draperies in full sail, bearing down upon her from the top of the wide
+steps, at the back of the big red hall. The red of the hall paled beside
+the cerise costume of the approaching lady. In a voice loud and
+high-keyed, yet not unmusical, she cried:
+
+"Well, I declare if it isn't little Nina Randolph!" And then with
+exuberant good humor she called to her husband, who followed lamb-like
+in her wake, "You see, Gio, it _is_ the little Randolph--I told you so!
+
+"This is my husband." She presented him as though he were some inanimate
+personal possession. "We have been in Paris and Monte Carlo all winter.
+Got back yesterday. Nice old place, Rome, don't you think so? I dote on
+it, but of course it gets provincial if you stay too long!" At the same
+moment she caught sight of Zoya Olisco, and waved to her. To Nina's
+surprise, the young Russian came forward with both hands outstretched.
+"Ah, you are back? What was the news in Monte Carlo?"
+
+"Nothing much. They still talk of the _coup_ that Tornik----" But before
+Nina could hear the end of the sentence, the old Princess Malio handed
+her a five-_lire_ note for tea, and Nina had to get change. Then the
+whole family of the Rosenbaums, eight in number, demanded her services
+for many cups of tea and as many plates of sandwiches and cakes, and
+when their change was counted, the Countess Kate and her attendant
+husband were leaving. The countess, however, called back over her
+shoulder, "You are dining with me on Friday; the princess said yes for
+you!"
+
+And so it was that on the evening of the hunt Nina, alone with her
+uncle--her aunt having stayed at home on account of a headache--found
+herself entering a big new apartment house, and going up in an elevator,
+quite as though she were at home in one of the most modern, instead of
+one of the most ancient, cities in the world.
+
+The Masco apartment was all brand-new--so new that there was still about
+it an odor of fresh paint and plaster, and the pungency of raw textiles.
+The Countess Kate, not to be outdone by her decorator, was as new as her
+surroundings--in the latest style of sheath dress, of a brilliant blue,
+which she wore triumphantly, regardless of the strain with which it
+stretched across the amplitude of her bosom.
+
+The company consisted of the Oliscos, Count Tornik, Prince Minotti,
+Count Rosso, Prince Allegro, Eliot Porter, and John Derby. It gave Nina
+a sudden feeling of satisfaction to see how attractive John was by
+comparison with the others. He had a quiet reserve and a forcefulness
+that Nina thought very effective in this foreign surrounding, and she
+was ashamed of herself for having judged him by the shallow standard of
+mere social grace.
+
+The Countess Masco's parties were renowned for their gayety. She was one
+of those hostesses whose vivacity never relaxes, and whose ready answers
+pass for sparkling wit. According to her own standard, a party was a
+success or a failure as it was noisy or quiet. Consequently she talked
+and laughed continuously. Startling colors were her particular weakness,
+and by the scent of extract of tuberose she could be traced for days.
+
+Nina sat between Eliot Porter and the young Prince Allegro; but her
+attention wandered across the table to John Derby so constantly that the
+Prince Allegro remarked, "You seem to be entranced by that American!"
+
+"Mr. Derby happens to be my oldest and my best friend!" Nina answered.
+Then, realizing that she had made the statement sententiously, she
+smiled brightly. "You Europeans so often say that American men are
+unattractive," she said. "Over there you may behold one of 'our best!'"
+
+Without rancor or jealousy, the young prince seemed entirely to agree
+with her opinion. "Why is it we so seldom meet those Americans you call
+'best'?" he asked, between spoonfuls of _purée d'écrevisse_.
+
+"Because they are those who have to stay at home and work." And then she
+added, "They are saints--don't you think?"
+
+"They are very stupid, I should say."
+
+Nina let her spoon rest on the rim of her plate. "That's not polite of
+you."
+
+"Why? Since it is true. Of course they are stupid! They let their women,
+who are adorable, come over to us. Would I, do you think, if you were my
+wife, allow you so much as to go out for an afternoon's drive without
+me? Never! To prove further that your men are stupid--in no country are
+there so many divorces as in America!"
+
+"It is not because our men are stupid, at all events!"
+
+"Then why is it?"
+
+"Chiefly because our men have too little time to give us." And then she
+spoke under sudden stress of feeling, without perhaps knowing the full
+wisdom of what she said: "Do you suppose that if our men at home had
+time for us, we _would_ come over here, to you?"
+
+"Then all the more are the Americans fools!" He raised his champagne
+glass. "Signorina," he said, "may you find the American who _has_ the
+time."
+
+Involuntarily her glance went toward John. Allegro saw it and laughed.
+"Ah, ha! So that is why we have no chance? Still," he added on second
+thought, "your choice does you credit."
+
+"He is not my choice, he is my friend. You don't understand! At home a
+girl has men friends exactly as she has girl friends. I wonder how I can
+make it clear to you--we are all like a big family. They might as well
+be my brothers, many of the men I know; there is not a bit of sentiment
+in our liking for each other."
+
+"There is no sentiment between you and the man over there?" Allegro
+twisted the blond down on his upper lip, laughing at her out of the
+corners of his eyes. "I may be little more than a boy, signorina, but
+there is one thing that I know quite well when I see it, and that is a
+person who is in love. Human nature is the same all over the world. Your
+American men can, after all, have only the same emotions that we have
+over here. It is as plain as the dome on St. Peter's--you may see it
+from every direction. That man over there is in love with you! _Ecco!_"
+
+"He is nothing of the sort! You Italians are mad on the subject. I told
+you you could not understand. You are different, that is all."
+
+Allegro shrugged his shoulders. "As you please! I tell you he is! And
+what is more, you are in love with him. After all"--he put up his hand
+to ward off interruption--"I had much rather think you declined my own
+suit because your affections were already given before I was so unhappy
+as to see you, than that, while your heart was still free, you would
+not consider me."
+
+Nina was so surprised that for a few minutes she was unable to answer.
+Allegro had never said a word to her about the proposal which had been
+made by his family. Up to that moment she had thought he did not himself
+know of it.
+
+"Heart?" she said, bewildered. "Did you put any heart into the offer
+that was made? None has ever been shown to me."
+
+"Is there a chance of your considering my suit?" He asked it very
+seriously.
+
+Nina shook her head, and Allegro sighed as though dejected; then, having
+paid her this compliment, he became cheerful again and his candor was as
+delicious as it was astonishing.
+
+"Shall I tell you? Yes, I will! If you had said 'yes,' I should have
+found it very easy to love you. As you won't accept my name,
+however----"
+
+"You don't love me, is that it?" Nina burst out laughing, and Allegro
+joined light-heartedly, as he nodded his agreement. Their gayety
+attracted the attention of their neighbors, and for a while the
+conversation became general. It was suggestive of the Tower of Babel.
+Nina had turned to Porter with a remark in English, but Allegro added to
+it in Italian. Tornik, whose Italian was only slightly more villainous
+than his English, chimed in across the corner of the table in French,
+but he soon forgot himself and broke into German. Nina found herself
+mixing her sentences like Neapolitan ice cream into four languages,
+until finally she put her hands over her ears and exclaimed, "_Attendez,
+aspetarre, warten sie nur_, oh, do let us decide on one tongue at a
+time!" They all laughed, and then, as is usual among a group of various
+nationalities, the conversation went on in French.
+
+Finally, Tornik and Allegro got into a discussion about the Austrian
+influence in Italy, and Nina was left _tête-à-tête_ with Eliot Porter.
+
+She had not met him before coming to Rome. He was a Californian. A
+Westerner, she put it, but he answered her, "Not at all! I am from the
+Pacific coast!" He was an agreeable man, much liked in Rome, and he was
+writing a book on Roman society, a fact that greatly amused the
+Italians. There was some mild and good-naturedly satirical speculation
+about what he was going to put in it, but beyond the fact that he
+acknowledged his subject, nothing was known of either his plot or his
+characters.
+
+"_Do_ tell me what you are going to put in your book. Is it of to-day,
+or long ago?"
+
+"The story is to be laid in Rome, the theme society, the time the
+present."
+
+"How fascinating! Ah, please tell me from whom you have drawn your
+heroine," Nina continued. "Is she rich or poor? Italian, I suppose, and
+of course young and beautiful! Is the hero a noble duke or an American
+on the Prisoner of Zenda or Graustark model?"
+
+"Supposing I should tell you that they were yourself, for the one, and
+our friend Jack over the way, for the other!"
+
+The coupling of her name with Derby's for the second time in less than
+half an hour struck Nina, and she became absent-minded; then she said
+vaguely, "But we are not Italians, either of us."
+
+"Neither are my characters! I will tell you," he said, admitting her to
+his confidence, "I am going to write of the Expatriates--the people who,
+to those at home, are always said to be 'abroad.' The story from this
+side of the water is interesting to me. And the Excelsior is an ideal
+field for observing them."
+
+"I see!" Then ingenuously, "Are you really going to put Jack in your
+book?"
+
+Porter smiled, amused. "He hardly corresponds to my aimless nomad
+wandering hither and yon, with neither ambition nor destination! By the
+way," he added abruptly, "what do you _think_ of Jack? I am not asking
+this, mind you, just to make conversation, but because I am interested
+in him as a national type. I confess I was beginning to think that no
+woman could care for the men at home as any woman might for the
+Europeans, until he came along the other day." There was no doubting
+Porter's enthusiasm as he added, "He gave me back my ideals of my own
+country! He is _real_, I tell you. But this trip he is going to take
+into Sicily----"
+
+"There is no danger in this day, surely!" she interrupted.
+
+"I am not so sure of it, they are pesky devils!" Then, appreciating her
+uneasiness, he tried to reassure her. "Jack will be all right, he will
+be well protected. In fact, to show you how little I really fear from
+the adventure, I am thinking of going with him. My work is getting
+stale, and a week or two of change of scene would set me up."
+
+"I don't see that your going proves there is no danger. I should never
+imagine you the type of a coward."
+
+Porter laughed. "Thank you for your good opinion of my type. But I am
+not at all certain about it myself. If I thought I was going to run any
+risk of being stabbed in the ribs, or riddled with bullets, I assure you
+I would preserve my skin very carefully by staying right here. But to go
+back to John: Did you ever study physiognomy?" He glanced across at
+Derby as he spoke.
+
+Nina's lips broke into a smile, as she answered, "No. Did you?"
+
+"Yes. I studied that, and palmistry, and graphology, too. Look at
+John--he has a remarkably interesting head and hand. You are quite
+wrong," he answered an interjection of Nina's, "his hands are far from
+ugly! Spatulate fingers show invention and energy. Just look at his
+thumb! Did you ever see such cool-headed logic or a better balanced
+will? Why, all in all, I consider him the best-looking man I know! There
+are plenty with better features, no doubt, but if I'd had my choice as
+to looks, I should have been his twin."
+
+Nina laughed joyously. "Do you mean it?" It sounded incredible to her,
+yet she felt strangely pleased--she looked at John from a new point of
+view. "I think he has a great many good points; there is something
+strong and admirable about him, but good-looking--never! His features
+are too uneven, too big-boned."
+
+"Just like a woman!" exclaimed Porter testily. "I suppose you think that
+apology on your other side a beau ideal!"
+
+Nina glanced critically toward the small features and blond curls of
+Allegro. "No," she said, "he is much too effeminate."
+
+"Then who is your Adonis?"
+
+"The best-looking man I have ever seen? Well--I think I'd choose the
+Marchese di Valdo." The pink mounted over her cheeks into her hair, for
+she thought Porter was going to deride. To her surprise he agreed with
+her.
+
+"Of his type, yes, he certainly is good; but I prefer John's. I can see
+how di Valdo would appeal to a girl, though personally I should ask more
+masculinity, more bone and sinew."
+
+Nina remembered how Giovanni had nearly choked the Great Dane, and she
+shuddered slightly. "Oh, but he is strong," she exclaimed; "he is strong
+as a panther! He always makes me think of Bagheera in the Jungle Book."
+
+"Bagheera was warm-blooded; there was truth and affection in him--for
+Mowgli, at all events. Your friend di Valdo is as cold a proposition as
+you could find."
+
+Nina thought this last characterization absurd, and said so.
+
+"All right!" Porter answered. "You mark my word. He is a man swayed by
+the emotions of the moment. He has feeling, yes--but no heart; he has
+certain inborn principles, but they are racial rather than ethical. His
+is the code of _Noblesse oblige_, not of the Golden Rule. In a point of
+honor he is irreproachable, but it is he, himself, who defines the
+boundaries of his code."
+
+He paused a moment and continued in a more personal tone: "I don't know
+you very well, Miss Randolph, but you are a girl from home. And--excuse
+my frankness--you are one of our great heiresses. I am a stranger to
+you, and that is why I am going to say something--perhaps all the more
+forcefully because I have only a racial and not a personal interest: but
+between marrying Giovanni Sansevero--or that Austrian over yonder--or
+the golden-headed ornament on your right, and such a man as John Derby,
+no woman with an ounce of sense could for one minute hesitate. The
+first, by the gift of kings, are noblemen, but John over there, by the
+grace of God, is a _man_!"
+
+Nina was so deeply stirred by his words that she sat for a little while
+quite motionless, looking down at her hands, which were clasped in her
+lap. Then, before she either looked up or answered, the women left the
+table.
+
+In the drawing-room, as the other women lighted their cigarettes, Nina
+stood leaning her cheek on her hand as it rested against the mantel--and
+for some time she gazed down into the fire, while Porter's words echoed
+and reëchoed through her mind. When she turned away from the fire her
+attention was caught by an Englishwoman who had thrown herself full
+length on the sofa. Her person was a curious mixture of cleanliness and
+untidiness, her face was even polished by soap and scrubbing, but her
+frock, although probably quite clean, looked anything but fresh, and
+lying down among the cushions had not improved her hair, which had been
+frowzily frizzed anyway. Nina would have thought Lady Dorothy an
+impossible person were it not for the "Lady" which, as Carpazzi put it,
+"was pushed before the name."
+
+In the meanwhile Lady Dorothy went off into a long disquisition upon the
+advisability of having couches at formal banquets as in the old Roman
+days. The illustration which she was at the moment affording was
+scarcely, to Nina's mind, encouraging to her proposition. She smoked
+rapidly and let the cigarette ashes spill all down the side of her
+neck.
+
+"Isn't it funny what a little place the world is?" babbled the late Miss
+Titherington, cutting short Lady Dorothy's discourse. "Here we are, you
+and I and John--just the same as though we were back in Bar Harbor! What
+a lamb of a child you used to be! Only do you remember the day you
+nearly drowned me? And he had to rescue us both!"
+
+"Just fancy that!" said the Lady Dorothy from her corner of the sofa.
+"However did it happen?"
+
+"The water in Maine is so cold one dare hardly go in. Nina was a little
+girl, she got a cramp, and clutched me around the neck."
+
+"The water cold! How very odd! I had a friend in St. Augustine, who said
+the water was positively hot. I am sure it must have been, as my friend
+has rheumatism and could never have ventured into a cold bath."
+
+Lady Dorothy lighted a fresh cigarette and waved the old one helplessly
+around in her fingers. Nina, afraid that she would let it fall upon the
+trail of ashes down the front of her dress, went to take it from her.
+
+"Oh, thanks." She threw herself even further back into the cushions and
+now addressed her remarks to the Countess Kate. She was glad to get away
+from home. She declared London was overrun this season with enormously,
+disgustingly, rich Americans. No offense to her hostess was meant, but
+it was really quite shameful whom one got down to associating with, and
+yet they were so overloaded with dollars that one might as well, she
+supposed, gather in some of the surplus! Then she coolly asked Nina's
+name, which she had not caught. Its announcement had the effect of an
+electric battery. She raised herself on her elbows.
+
+"The Earl of Eagon is looking for a wife," she announced, and then as
+though the idea of Nina's wealth were still more felt, she continued
+almost with enthusiasm, "And there is the Duke of Norchester--his
+estates need a fortune to keep up, but there are none finer in England."
+
+Nina's expression had a curious little note in it that made the Countess
+Zoya cross the room and sit on the arm of her chair. Her slim fingers
+ran lightly over Nina's hair, "You poor child!" she said. "Ah, I am glad
+I was never so rich. If I were so rich I should be dreadful! I would
+never believe in any one's caring for me. I should doubt even my Carlo!
+I could not help it!"
+
+"Don't," Nina said, as though in pain. Zoya impulsively put her arms
+about her and quickly changed the subject.
+
+"I want to tell you," she said, "I like your friend the engineer--is
+that what he is? He is very clever, is he not? I am told he is going to
+relieve the sufferings of the poor Sicilian miners--is he?"
+
+"Suffering?" Nina repeated, wondering. "I don't know. But it is only a
+business venture, his mining--not a philanthropic one. At least I have
+not heard about any poor people who are to be relieved."
+
+Zoya put her hands over her eyes and then her ears as though to shut out
+both sight and sound. "Oh, it is horrible--horrible in the sulphur
+mines! You have no idea! Nowhere in all the world is life so dreadful."
+She shuddered, "But I feel sure, somehow, that your friend the American
+will be able to do something."
+
+They went on talking until their _tête-à-tête_ was interrupted by the
+men coming in from the dining-room. The servants brought in a big card
+table.
+
+"Are you going to play bridge?" Nina asked, feeling that the answer was
+obvious.
+
+But the Contessa Masco, taking her cognac at a swallow, glanced at
+Tornik with a laugh. "Oh, lord, no! Nothing so dull, I hope, in this
+house!"
+
+Derby joined Nina, and she looked up at him with pride. "I am glad you
+are here to-night; I seem to be especially glad----" She broke off, but
+her intonation conveyed unspoken thoughts.
+
+Derby's eyes kindled. "Why especially? Have you a particular reason,
+really?" His heart beat so hard, because of the sweetness in her
+expression, that it seemed to him she must hear it pounding, that she
+must look through the mask he wore, and read his love for her.
+
+But his mask was impenetrable, and Nina answered lightly: "I wonder
+which reason you would like me to give? I wonder if it would make any
+real difference to you whether I said just _glad_--or glad because of
+something?"
+
+He forced himself to speak with a stolidity that walled in securely his
+threatening emotions. "I am not a bit good at guessing the meaning of
+sentences that have no direct statement in them. You see, they are not
+the kind my grammar book taught me!"
+
+Nina smiled. "You like a regular, straight-out, simple sentence with one
+subject and one predicate, don't you?"
+
+"That's it! And as few qualifying clauses as possible."
+
+"And as your speech is, so are your actions. No time for trivialities.
+Big, serious things!" To her surprise she felt a sharp pain in her
+throat.
+
+"What an old bear I must seem to you----" His sentence broke off as the
+Countess Masco interrupted them.
+
+"Come along, John--you'll play, won't you? We are waiting!" Count Rosso
+had already deserted Zoya for the green table.
+
+"Do you need me?" Derby asked.
+
+"Of course we do! The more the jollier; it is dreadfully dull without a
+lot."
+
+Nina and the Countess Zoya sat apart talking together until nearly
+midnight. Finally, with a yawn, Zoya suggested that they try to break up
+the party. For a little while they looked on. Not understanding the
+game of baccarat, Nina watched the faces of the players.
+
+Suddenly she felt uneasy about her uncle, who had taken a place at the
+table. Knowing no reason why he should not play, she had thought nothing
+of that. But now he was flushed, and seemed very excited. Unconsciously
+taking a leaf out of her aunt's book, she laid her hand on his shoulder.
+Her touch was, in fact, so like that of his wife that the prince started
+violently, and a short while later relinquished his place.
+
+After the prince dropped out of the game Nina still stood watching. The
+Countess Kate played as placidly as though she were dealing cards for
+"old maid," while her husband reminded Nina of a squirrel sitting up and
+nibbling at a nut. Carlo Olisco was excited but not unnatural. Porter
+looked gloomy and taciturn. Minotti and Allegro were both tense and
+keen, the former arrogant, the latter flushed and excited. John Derby,
+like the Countess Kate, played exactly as he used to play Jack Straws or
+_besique_, on rainy days in the country.
+
+From where she had been standing Nina could see only the top of Tornik's
+head and, obeying an idle impulse of curiosity, she crossed to the
+opposite side of the table. But no sooner had she caught sight of his
+face than she started as though some one had dashed cold water over her.
+Tornik! It was unbelievable! His eyes glowed like coals; his lips, half
+opened, looked dry and burnt, as with that drawing-in motion of the
+confirmed gambler he stretched out his trembling fingers to grasp the
+last of the evening's winnings.
+
+Nina was not in love with him--she had never even for a moment fancied
+that she was. But nevertheless the revelation of his greed struck at her
+pride, and she seemed to see herself, or rather her own fortune, being
+grasped with precisely that avidity by those same long, eager fingers.
+"He, too!" were the words that framed themselves in her thoughts.
+Tornik, at least, had seemed disinterested, but it was only her gold
+that he was after--like all the rest.
+
+She turned away abruptly. The Count Olisco left the table and, as her
+uncle was already waiting, Zoya and she said good-night to the Mascos
+and left.
+
+On the way home, Sansevero was decidedly nervous. Something was wrong,
+that was certain--he was as transparent as crystal; a child could not
+have shown trouble more plainly. They drove the Oliscos home, but after
+they had left them, Nina put her hand on her uncle's coat sleeve.
+
+"Can't you--tell me?" she asked him.
+
+Sansevero started, then shook his head. "It is nothing!" he said. But he
+changed his mind almost immediately, took his breath as though to speak,
+and stopped again. Nina's manner had been very sweet, very sympathetic.
+The thought of confiding in the girl beside him had not entered his
+head; but he might as well have tried to dam up a spring, as to keep
+his confidence from overflowing at the first words of kindness. He
+seized her hand, and his fingers during a moment of nervous indecision
+beat a tattoo upon her glove--then he let her hand drop again.
+
+"I am in the most difficult situation."
+
+"Yes----?" Nina encouraged. "Can't I help?--Oh, I wish I _could_!"
+
+"No!" He threw himself into the farthest possible corner of the
+carriage. "No, no! I could not let you do that!"
+
+Quickly a suspicion of the difficulty crossed her mind. "Uncle Sandro, I
+want you to tell me! You know that I love Aunt Eleanor better than
+almost any one in the world. If to help you is to help her--and it is in
+my power--I really think you ought to tell me."
+
+He weakened, hesitated. "Give me your promise you will not tell
+Leonora----?"
+
+"You have it!" She put her hand back into his.
+
+"It is this, then: I am the weakest man imaginable. To-night I had no
+idea of playing; I held out for some time, but the temptation was too
+strong at the end. Also what I lost was very little, but the money was a
+sum we had put aside to pay household expenses. If I do not pay them,
+Leonora must know of it."
+
+Between the lines Nina divined a good deal of the whole story. Other
+vague suspicions that had come to her here and there helped somewhat to
+the conclusion.
+
+Already they had driven into the courtyard and the footman was holding
+open the door. Nina jumped out quickly and entered the palace. In the
+antechamber she stopped for her uncle to catch up with her. "Just wait a
+moment," she said; "we can finish our conversation quickly." She spoke
+rapidly and in English.
+
+"How much is it?"
+
+"Five hundred _lire_."
+
+She caught her breath. "Do you mean to say that _you_--the Prince
+Sansevero, the owner of this palace, are in need of a hundred dollars,
+and don't know where to get it? You shall have it to-morrow, the first
+thing."
+
+Then suddenly she added: "Uncle Sandro--I want you to tell me something!
+Will you swear on your honor to answer the truth? If you deceive me, I
+will never forgive you to my dying day!"
+
+He looked at her, puzzled. There was no doubt as to the gravity of her
+tone. "I will answer if I can." He said it not without alarm.
+
+"Does your brother gamble? Is he also like Tornik and you?" She had no
+thought for the stigma of her words, and Sansevero was not so small that
+he resented them.
+
+"No. I can answer that easily enough. Giovanni has not one drop of the
+gambling blood. That I can swear to you by the name of my mother!" He
+made the sign of the cross.
+
+Nina sighed with relief. "I'll send Celeste to you with the money in the
+morning, and you can trust me--I will never let Aunt Eleanor know!" She
+said it sympathetically and kindly enough, but her tone was a little
+constrained. "Good-night!"
+
+And then quickly she left him. She felt sure that her uncle had spoken
+the truth, and that Giovanni was not a gambler; but as she went down the
+long corridors she felt a sharp contraction in her throat.
+"Dear--poor--precious Auntie Princess!" she whispered to herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+FAVORITA DRIVES A BARGAIN
+
+
+As the winter progressed, Favorita's temper showed so little improvement
+that those whose duty brought them in contact with her at the theatre
+were on the verge of resigning their posts. Her dresser had a thoroughly
+cowed expression; her manager consumed more black cigars than were good
+for him; the _corps de ballet_ had hysterics singly and indignation
+councils _en masse_. In fact, the call-boy, who seemed to enjoy
+tormenting her, was the only member of the company who took her rages
+cheerfully.
+
+Finally even Giovanni became uneasy; a well-bred woman could be counted
+on in given circumstances to do thus and so, but Favorita was of lowest
+peasant birth: her people were of the mountain districts, so primitive
+in thought and habit that her early training had taught her obedience to
+nothing higher than impulse. Superficially, she submitted to the
+dictates of civilization, just as a half-wild animal submits to the
+control of his trainer. And in a very real sense Giovanni occupied, in
+relation to her, the trainer's position. He was the force that held her
+in check; but though to the audience of the world he appeared perfectly
+at ease, a definite apprehensiveness underlay his seeming composure.
+
+Matters at last came to a crisis. Giovanni was about to leave the palace
+one morning a day or two after the Masco dinner, when a neatly dressed
+woman passed him on the grand stairway. She was wearing a thick veil,
+but he had an eye for outline and he knew that there was only one woman
+in Rome with just that half-floating lightness of movement. At once he
+blocked her way.
+
+She was forced to halt; but her feet did not stand quite still, and
+there was an effect of briefly suspended motion in her attitude, as
+though she sought a chance to dart past him.
+
+"Good-morning, signorina!" Giovanni's urbanity was for the benefit of
+the footmen. For a few seconds there was a straightening of her figure;
+poised for flight, she held her head a little to one side as she swiftly
+scanned his face.
+
+Giovanni dropped his voice. "I was just on my way to see you. Come,
+_cara mia_," he said persuasively. "I have something I want to talk over
+with you--it is impossible here with lackeys listening to everything we
+may say. Come, dear."
+
+She looked at him a moment, wavering, then shrugged her shoulders. "Very
+well," she said, and descended the stairs at his side. They crossed the
+wide hall, and she stopped to gaze about it in wonder and curiosity,
+even though she did not appreciate the splendor of its proportions. The
+great _baldachino_, of blue and silver, surmounting the Sansevero arms,
+held her attention.
+
+"Do the broken silver chains in your coat of arms represent mercy or
+weakness?" she asked.
+
+"Both, probably," he answered grimly, as he caught the sound of an
+automobile chugging in the courtyard. Feeling sure that it was Nina's
+car, he slipped his arm through Favorita's to urge her forward,
+whereupon she grew suspicious and lagged purposely. She looked
+deliberately about, as though she were a tourist intent upon finding
+every object starred in Baedeker. To his inward rage and chagrin,
+Giovanni realized his mistake in having attempted to hurry her, and now
+changed his tactics. Although his every nerve was strained to catch the
+sound of Nina's approaching footfall, he went into a long, prosy
+dissertation upon the history of the ceiling, dwelling purposely upon
+the dullest facts he could think of, until his tormentor was glad enough
+to leave.
+
+Once outside the building, Giovanni breathed more freely, although the
+sight of the automobile confirmed his apprehension. Hailing a cab, he
+put Favorita into it and got in after her. They had not gone more than
+five hundred yards when Nina, alone in the car, passed them. Giovanni
+had stooped over quickly so that she might not recognize him; but
+Favorita took no notice of this, or anything else, and they drove on in
+a silence broken only by occasional and casual remarks. It was not
+until they were safely within her apartment that he demanded:
+
+"And now, Fava, perhaps you will have the goodness to explain to me what
+you were doing at the Palazzo Sansevero when I saw you, and how you got
+past the _portiere_?"
+
+"At least it shows you that what I try to do I accomplish," she retorted
+with an air of bravado. She leaned her elbows on a little table, looking
+across at Giovanni, her lips parted, her eyes dancing. "Do you wish to
+hear? Very well. I have a friend who gives the American heiress lessons
+in Italian. She says it is easy--one has only to talk Italian and make
+her talk, and tell her when she makes mistakes. My friend is sick. She
+sent a letter, which I intercepted, and I went in her place. Why not?"
+Then suddenly her little teeth locked tightly, and she spoke between
+them savagely--"I'd be a teacher worth employing. I could talk Italian
+to her that she would never forget! Nor would she forget _me_, either!"
+
+Giovanni's teeth locked quite as tightly as hers. "Will you hush? You
+must be insane! I told you from the beginning that I would not advertise
+myself with you. I told you also that if you made a scene, or if you
+ever tried to interfere with my family or my private life, at that
+moment all would end between us." As he spoke, Favorita looked
+frightened, but in a flash her manner changed completely. Long
+association with him had not been without its lessons, and she answered
+as sweetly as though no disagreement had ever come between them; as
+though there were no incongruity between their suspended discussion and
+her interrupting sentence. "Giovannino," she cooed, "I have had a great
+offer, an astounding offer from Vienna."
+
+He saw his opportunity. His manner therefore, changed as rapidly as hers
+had done, and with every appearance of sympathy and interest he asked
+for her news. She told him with triumph the details of her offer from
+the manager of a Viennese theatre for a ten weeks' engagement at a
+stupendous salary.
+
+"You must accept--by all means!" Not a trace of the relief he felt crept
+into his expression; he looked sad, but thoroughly resigned. "It is
+time," he added cleverly, "that you should make a name for yourself that
+is cosmopolitan and not alone of Italy."
+
+So far they had been sitting on either side of a small table, but now
+Favorita arose and went around to him. Pushing the table away, she sat
+on his knee, and, with one arm about his neck, held up his chin with her
+other hand. Then, deliberately, she looked into his eyes with that
+level, determined steadiness which makes no compromise. She spoke very
+quietly, so quietly that he was more than ever uneasy. Her turbulence
+was annoying, but this calmness was ominous.
+
+"I shall accept the offer on one condition:--you go to Vienna with me!"
+
+Giovanni looked quite as though the gates of Paradise were opening
+before him. Even Favorita believed his enthusiasm genuine as he
+exclaimed, "Ah, that would be charming!" Then he seemed to be
+considering the matter eagerly. "That I _want_ to go with you--of that
+there can be no doubt! I am merely wondering how it can be managed."
+
+Now that she seemed to be getting her own way, and her jealousy was
+allayed, Favorita was soft, and sweet, and affectionate as a little
+black cat. "Rosso is going to Hungary," she purred. "You can easily say
+you are going with him on his trip, whereas you can really be in
+Vienna!"
+
+"That sounds perfect!" he returned gayly; "at least you can accept the
+manager's offer!"
+
+"Do you promise to go with me? You must swear it!" He hesitated as he
+rapidly turned the situation over in his mind. Now that he had
+determined to marry Nina, the main thing was to keep Favorita away, for,
+should she have an opportunity to unburden her heart to the heiress,
+that would be the end of his matrimonial chances. But if he could get
+the dancer to Vienna, and keep her there, then find an excuse for at
+least a short absence from her, he could come back to Rome, win Nina, be
+married at once--and then let come what would! An independent American
+girl would throw him over, he knew that; but a wife would be different!
+A wife would have to forgive.
+
+"Will you promise?" repeated Favorita.
+
+"Yes, I promise," he said. "Come, we will fill in the contract!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A CHALLENGE, AND AN ANSWER
+
+
+Nina had intended taking her Italian teacher out with her in the
+automobile. She did this quite often, as it was as easy to practice
+Italian conversation in a motor-car as anywhere else. But after half an
+hour--Favorita was nearly that late--she had given up waiting and
+telephoned Zoya Olisco suggesting that they two spend the day at Tivoli.
+Zoya agreed, and Nina was on her way to fetch her when she passed
+Giovanni and Favorita. But she neither saw the former nor recognized the
+latter.
+
+It was after six o'clock when Nina returned from Tivoli, and she had to
+hurry to dress for an early dinner, as it was the Sanseveros' regular
+Lenten evening at home.
+
+Nina particularly liked these informal receptions, where the company was
+composed, for the most part, of really interesting, agreeable people.
+There was always music, generally by amateur performers; occasionally
+there was some other form of impromptu entertainment, an impersonation
+or a recitation. Throughout the evening there was the simplest sort of
+buffet supper: tea, bouillon--a claret cup, perhaps, and possibly
+chocolate, little cakes, and sandwiches; never more. But the princess
+was one of those hostesses whose personality thoroughly pervades a
+house; a type which is becoming rare with every change in our modern
+civilization, and without which people might as well congregate in a
+hotel parlor. Each guest at the Palazzo Sansevero carried away the
+impression that not only had he been welcome himself, but that his
+presence had added materially to the enjoyment of others.
+
+Early in the evening Nina was standing with Giovanni a little apart.
+Giovanni was unusually quiet, and both had fallen into reverie, from
+which Nina was aroused by the sudden announcement of a jarring name.
+Like the ceaseless beating of the waves upon a beach, she had heard the
+long rolling titles, "Sua Excellenza la principessa di Malio," "Il Conte
+e la Contessa Casabella," "Donna Francesca Dobini," "Sua Excellenza il
+Duca e la Duchessa Astarte," and then--"Messa Smeet!"
+
+Nina felt a swift pity for the beautiful woman who was forced to suffer
+the ignominy of being thus announced. She had herself been daily
+conscious of that same flatness when, after the long announcement of her
+aunt's and uncle's names, came the blankness of "Messa Randolf."
+
+And in that moment, divining the impression made upon her mind, Giovanni
+seized his opportunity. His eyes looked ardently into hers, his smile
+was transporting as, with all the warmth of which his voice was
+capable, he said, "Donna Nina Sansevero, Marchesa di Valdo!"
+
+Nina's heart fluttered strangely, her will was swayed by the moment's
+thrill, as she heard him continuing: "It can surely not surprise you to
+hear in spoken words what has long been in my heart to----" But his
+sentence was broken off abruptly, for a sudden thinning of the crush
+revealed the Contessa Potensi close beside them. Heedless of Nina, the
+contessa demanded that Giovanni take her into the supper room for a cup
+of tea, and Nina was left with Carpazzi, who had at that moment also
+joined them. He took no notice of her absent-mindedness and kept the
+conversation going briskly without much help from her, until gradually
+she became able to focus her attention upon him.
+
+He talked of many things and finally of Cecelia Potenzi. That he should
+have spoken the name of the girl he loved was quite foreign to his, or
+in fact to any, Italian nature. But by now Nina had become thoroughly
+interested in what he was telling her and her sympathetic eyes had a way
+of urging confidences, and besides, as Carpazzi knew, she was very fond
+of Cecelia. He spoke quite frankly therefore of his hopes and plans. He
+was desperately interested in Derby's mining project because he owned a
+piece of property within a few miles of Vencata and if the Sansevero
+sulphur mines turned out well probably all the land in the neighborhood
+would also be leased by Derby's company, and it might be that he and
+Cecelia could be married.
+
+Nina had already observed the young girl in question and she and
+Carpazzi made their way toward her. Gradually other young people joined
+them until a merry group was formed at that side of the room.
+
+The music at that moment was by a young violinist, a _protégé_ of the
+Princess Sansevero's (a brother, by the way, of the peasant Marcella,
+whose marriage to Pedro the princess had arranged). The boy had real
+talent, and the princess had denied herself not a few things in order to
+help him complete his education.
+
+At the close of his second selection the young violinist came over to
+her, with that look of devoted allegiance which cannot be imitated, and
+the princess held out her hand for him to kiss. "I am so pleased with
+your success," she said to him. "Come, I want to present you to the
+Duchessa Astarte, who was much delighted with your playing." Smiling,
+she led him away.
+
+The young man traversed the rooms with perfect ease and
+unconsciousness--this peasant boy who four years previously had run
+ragged and barefooted, begging for soldos from the tourists who were
+driving out to Torre Sansevero! From one of the doorways Sansevero
+watched them. "_Per Dio_, she is wonderful, my Leonora!" he exclaimed to
+the Countess Masco, whom he had taken to the supper room. "Look what
+she has made of that ragamuffin! You Americans are an extraordinary
+people." The countess, as she watched the prince's open admiration of
+his wife, showed the finest, the most generous side of her cheerful
+nature. Her expression was scarcely less admiring than his own.
+
+"I'd like well enough to take all the credit for my country," she
+returned, with her usual good humor, "but in Eleanor's case it is the
+woman and not the nationality that is wonderful----" Then she added
+brusquely, "I'm glad you appreciate her." The next moment she tossed the
+topic aside and discoursed noisily of the latest Roman gossip.
+
+About this time the Count and Countess Olisco were announced. Seeing
+Derby, who had arrived just ahead of them, Zoya walked up to him without
+hesitation or manoeuvre. "I should like to talk to you," she said; "will
+you take me to a seat? There is one over there."
+
+He gave her his arm and led her to a sofa at the far end of the room.
+"Have you been out to Torre Sansevero?" she asked when they had sat
+down.
+
+"No. We had planned to motor out next week, but I must go to Sicily
+to-morrow, so the motor trip is postponed until I come back. You asked
+as though you had something special in mind. Had you?"
+
+"Yes. I might as well tell you--though maybe you know--there is a rumor
+that a Sansevero painting--the Raphael Madonna--has been sold out of the
+country. The way I know is secret; but through somebody connected with
+the Government I have learned that there are grave suspicions against
+the prince."
+
+Derby gave her his full attention, but said nothing. "Everybody knows,"
+continued the contessa, "that he has spent all his wife's money in
+gambling, and that they have sold everything that is not covered by the
+family entail." Her listener did not know it, but his face betrayed no
+surprise. "This picture, they say, has been smuggled out of the country
+to a rich American." Her face grew troubled and she spoke lower and more
+distinctly. "I do not find it possible to think that Sansevero did such
+a thing. He is weak, if you like; he would fall into temptation; he
+might gamble or make love to a pretty woman"--she shrugged her
+shoulders--"but that he would do anything really against the law, I
+don't believe. Yet--I have never seen such furs as the princess wears
+this winter. Can't you find out about the picture? Everybody believes it
+is in America. Think what it would be if Sansevero were put in prison!
+But I am sure you will set everything straight."
+
+"Your faith in me is flattering, to say the least," he laughed. "But you
+seem to think that finding an object in America is as simple as though
+it were mislaid in a fishing village. Do you realize the vastness of
+the territory which I am to search in the twinkling of an eye?"
+
+"No, no! You must not laugh. I am very serious. I know that America is a
+land in which everything may be accomplished, even though I may have a
+false idea of its size. And in you, as an American, my faith is
+unbounded. You see, I feel convinced that it all depends on you!" Then,
+under the impulsion of her enthusiasm she clapped her hands together as
+she exclaimed: "Oh, I am sure you will clear the prince! And then, like
+the hero in all good story books, win the reward."
+
+"And the reward?" he queried. "What is it to be? Unfortunately, you are
+asking me to save a prince--a poor prince at that, with no favors to
+bestow. In the good story books it is always a beautiful princess. To be
+sure," he added, "the princess is as beautiful as one could wish, but
+alas! she is married."
+
+"I do not find you at all amiable," the contessa pouted. "I am
+serious--very serious, and you make fun."
+
+"Not at all. I am very serious, and you talk of fairy tales. Still, if
+you are my fairy godmother, there is no knowing what stroke of fortune
+may await me in Sicily." Then, changing his tone, he said earnestly: "I
+am really sorry, but I am afraid I shall have to leave the picture
+question until I come back."
+
+"You are going straight off to Sicily?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"To be gone how long?"
+
+"I don't know; I have no idea. Weeks, perhaps. Months, very likely; why
+do you ask?"
+
+"May I say something--something very frank to you?" Zoya leaned forward
+with a sudden direct impulse.
+
+"Say what you please, by all means!" Derby braced himself for her
+remark, but even so he colored as she said: "Are you in love with Nina?
+Please, don't be angry; I don't ask you to answer. But if you are, I
+can't see why you go away to work mines and such things. I should have
+married her long ago had I been you."
+
+Derby's eyes blazed. "Do you mean I should try to marry her and live on
+her money?"
+
+"Why not? Since she has enough for two--enough for twenty! There is no
+need to be so furious. _Per l'amore di Dio!_ You Americans have always
+the ears up, listening for a sound that you can fly at!" Languorously
+she leaned back among the cushions of the sofa. "It is all so
+silly--your idea of life." And then she stopped and looked at him
+curiously. "What _is_ your idea of life?"
+
+"Life? One might put it in three words: One must work!"
+
+Zoya shook her head--she did it charmingly. "No, no," she said softly;
+"you are altogether wrong--though I also can put it in three words.
+Life lies in this: One must love. That's all there is!"
+
+The conversation ended there, for the Duke Scorpa and Count Masco came
+up to speak to the contessa. Derby arose and was about to leave when the
+duke stopped him. Masco sat down to talk with Zoya, and Scorpa spoke to
+Derby in an undertone. "I hear you are going to Sicily to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes, I leave early in the morning."
+
+"Take my advice"--his glance was sinister--"and stay away."
+
+Derby smiled frankly. "May I ask why?"
+
+"Because your process will not work."
+
+"That might be taken in two ways," Derby rejoined: "either that you
+believe my patents useless, or else that some means will be taken to
+prevent my trying them. I rather wonder--after our conversation on the
+subject--if you intend a threat?" He spoke without stress of feeling,
+quite simply, in fact.
+
+The duke's unctuous smile was not wholly pleasant to see. "That is for
+you to decide. To-morrow morning you intend to go. That is not far off;
+but you have until then to reconsider your refusal to sell me your
+patents. I made you a fair offer, which I should in your place accept.
+However, if you go to Sicily"--he spread out his hands with a shrug--"I
+shall have warned you, and whatever comes will be off my conscience."
+
+For answer Derby spoke quietly, but with clear, level distinctness. "I
+go to-morrow to Vencata, to work a piece of land which is the property
+of the Prince and Princess Sansevero. As their representative, I am
+vested with every legal right to apply my invention to the mine known as
+the 'Little Devil.' And I may add"--he put it casually--"that back of me
+is the full strength and protection of the United States Government." He
+looked straight into the small rat-like eyes nearly a foot below his
+own. Then with a smile he bowed to the Contessa Zoya and went in search
+of the Princess Sansevero, to say good-by.
+
+He found her in the adjoining room, absorbed in the music; and luckily
+there was an empty chair beside her, into which he quietly dropped. She
+smiled her welcome as he sat down beside her, but she had accepted her
+young countryman into too good a friendship to make either of them feel
+the need of rushing into speech. After a little she turned to him; even
+then her sentence seemed to complete a conversation interrupted rather
+than a new one begun, "Above all, do not forget to present Sandro's
+letter to the Archbishop! I know you will be drawn to him. His Eminence
+is one of those rare persons who have not waited to die to become
+angels." She smiled. "I am sure you will be safe under his protection."
+
+"I wish you would tell me, Princess, why there is so much talk of
+protection--it sounds as though I were going to explore the interior of
+Africa! I shall be, at most, twenty-four hours away from Rome."
+
+"There is no knowing what you are going to explore"--a shade of anxiety
+had come into her face. "The Mafia is there, the people are ignorant,
+and the lava wastes are as desolate and wild as any spot in Africa. I
+hope there will be no danger, but it is well to take precautions before
+going into such a country. You will promise me won't you?--to follow the
+directions of his Eminence." Unconsciously she put her hand against her
+heart.
+
+Derby gave his promise easily, and she held out her hand. He kissed it
+after the European custom; and as he did so he felt her fingers tighten
+over his, as she whispered with a little underlying emotional vibration,
+"God bless you, my dear boy!--and a safe return."
+
+Vaguely, as he went through the rooms in search of Nina, the princess's
+words echoed through his mind, and through some unknown train of
+suggestion he remembered that Miller, the butler in New York, had wished
+Nina a "safe return." The association of the two seemed ridiculous, yet
+a thought held: Was it at all certain that she was going to return home?
+Was he, perhaps, not going to return from Sicily? He put himself in the
+category of idiots and banished the idea. But the echo of the blessing
+that the princess had given him settled softly upon his sensibilities.
+"God bless _her_!" he said almost aloud.
+
+Presently he found Nina, unapproachably hemmed in, and too near the
+music to talk. For a moment she hesitated, on the verge of extricating
+herself or encouraging him to enter the circle despite the general
+disturbance it must cause. But the moment passed. His lips framed
+"Good-by" and hers answered, both smiled brightly--and that was the
+parting.
+
+[Illustration: "HIS LIPS FRAMED 'GOOD-BY' AND HERS ANSWERED, BOTH SMILED
+BRIGHTLY--AND THAT WAS THE PARTING"]
+
+Derby was in many ways a fatalist--not one of those who thought that by
+sitting still the gifts from the horn of fortune would tumble into his
+lap; but one of those who believe (to use his own expression), in
+pegging away at the thing in hand; further than that, what was to be,
+would be.
+
+As Derby descended the stairs he encountered the Countess Masco. "Hello,
+John!" she exclaimed, and then as she held him by the arm, her voice
+came down to what for her was a low whisper; at twenty feet any one
+could have overheard her, but fortunately the hall was deserted, save
+for a couple of footmen standing at the green baize door that led to the
+outer stairs of the courtyard. "Have you heard the news? Giovanni
+Sansevero agreed to go on a cruise to Malta with Rosso, and Rosso won't
+let him out of it! You may imagine he does not relish leaving Rome just
+now, especially with you again out of the field!"
+
+Derby was not given an opportunity either to accept or to resent her
+intrusion into his affairs, for the dashing lady immediately fled, and
+Derby went on. As he waited for his cab, he felt inclined to go back and
+try to see Nina. He was letting her drift very, very far away. But while
+he was hesitating, his cab drove up, and without more ado he jumped into
+it and drove to his hotel. As soon as he reached his room, he began a
+letter to Nina; but all the things he had vowed to himself not to say,
+swarmed to the very tip of his pen. He threw it down, therefore, and
+tore up the paper that showed, under "Dear Nina," an erased "Darl--"
+After pacing the floor a while, he again picked up the pen, but this
+time he wrote to Mr. Randolph. At the end of a letter of details
+relating to the mines, he added:
+
+          "There are rumors now agitating people over here
+          and likely to become public property, that the
+          Sansevero Madonna has been smuggled out of the
+          country. I have reason to believe that the Raphael
+          you showed me in New York is not the duplicate you
+          were led to suppose, but the Sansevero picture.
+          How it was sold, I have not yet discovered, though
+          I do not believe the prince guilty of violating
+          the laws. But I know the Government has its secret
+          agents at work upon the case because of the
+          seeming luxury of the princess, whose new furs and
+          automobile are known to be far beyond her present
+          income. I more than suspect that these luxuries
+          are the result of Nina's generosity, but if the
+          Sansevero picture _is_ the one you have, the
+          affair will end badly for the prince. At all
+          events, I consider it best to carry the matter
+          direct to you."
+
+While Derby was writing to Mr. Randolph, an animated conversation was
+taking place in a little room on the ground floor of the gigantic palace
+of the Scorpas. The doors were bolted, and the two inmates of the
+apartment talked in whispers.
+
+"You understand your instructions?"
+
+"Yes, Excellency."
+
+"Repeat them."
+
+"I take the boat to-morrow--go to Vencata. Keep watch upon the
+Americano--the one whose name I have here."
+
+"John Derby, yes. But he is very big--a giant. Make no mistake, find the
+one who is the _padrone_! And----? Continue!"
+
+"I am to watch if it is true that he begins working the 'Little Devil,'
+and if so--I know the rest. It is nothing! A pig's skin is thick--a
+man's thin!" As he said this he glanced at the duke, and there was a
+sinister gleam in the man's deep-set eyes, and beneath the sharp nose
+the mouth was hard and straight, like a seam across the face.
+
+The duke nodded as though satisfied. "It may be well for you to
+remember," he observed impressively, "that the reward will make you and
+yours easy for life."
+
+The man saluted respectfully, but with a dogged surliness that revealed
+no loyalty. Yet there was in his look a hint of fanatical intensity.
+Outside in the passageway he smiled grimly. For once the errand on which
+the duke had sent him fell in with his own inclinations. He opened a
+window and looked out through the gratings into the night. In his heart
+he bore no love for the duke, but he was by race and inheritance a
+dependent of the house of Scorpa. It had always been so--the dukes had
+been masters since time immemorial. The present duke had made the lives
+of Sicilians terrible enough, but he, Luigi Calluci, would have no
+stranger Americano forcing his people to work that hell-mine of the
+"Little Devil"!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+HIS EMINENCE THE ARCHBISHOP OF VENCATA
+
+
+Barely two days after the evening at the Palazzo Sansevero, Derby was
+driving up the Sicilian hills towards the palace--courtesy gave it the
+name--of the venerable Archbishop of Vencata. Porter, in company with
+Tiggs and Jenkins--Derby's American assistants--had been left at the inn
+in the town, but Derby was anxious to present his letter as soon as
+possible, in order that there might be no delay in commencing work at
+the mines.
+
+The carriage in which Derby sat had at first sight seemed liable to
+tumble apart, like so many separate pieces of mosaic puzzle, and he had
+taken his place on the old cloth cushion rather dubiously. But the
+driver gayly, and with every appearance of confidence in himself and his
+equipage, had cracked his whip and shouted all the names in the calendar
+to the horses, whose muscles gradually became sufficiently taut to impel
+them onward. A few dozen yards having been made without mishap, Derby
+felt that the special protection of Providence must be over them, and he
+leaned back contentedly, puffing at his pipe and enjoying to the full
+the witchery of a Sicilian sunset. The rickety conveyance clattered
+slowly up a winding road that seemed like a white band tied about the
+mountainside, holding here little terraced vineyards, there a huddling
+group of houses that else would surely have slipped into the ravine. For
+a short distance it hung out over the sea, then cut inward, as though
+the band of white had been laced in and out among the silvery sprays of
+the olive leaves.
+
+Below it all, and beyond, lay the Mediterranean, its blue waters now
+deepened to indigo, shading into wide lakes of purple, under the
+reflection of the setting sun, which, like a great red lantern, seemed
+sinking into the sea. A sharp turn inward and upward brought the
+conveyance shambling into a little courtyard. It halted before the
+doorway of a low, white-washed house smothered in semi-tropical vines,
+which extended from the eaves over a pergola built along the wall at the
+terrace edge. Beneath this arbor was a rustic seat, on the cushions of
+which a big gray cat sat up slowly, and stared at the intruders with
+insolent, unwinking eyes.
+
+A woman's voice droned a dirgeful song that had a half Oriental, half
+negro suggestion in its monotonous pitch, while from afar, like an echo
+over the mountainside, came faintly the wailing cadence of the
+_caramella_ of some shepherd boy, and the tinkle of goat bells,
+interrupted by the hoot of little owls crying through the dusk.
+
+The bells of the flapping harness settled into silence, the droning
+sing-song ceased, and from the stone flagging within came the shuffle
+of wooden shoes. An old woman, in the inevitable dark stuff dress of her
+class, and the blue apron gay-bordered with red and white, stood in the
+doorway. Her big hoop earrings fell to her shoulders, but were partly
+hidden by the kerchief which she held over her head with one hand, as if
+in fear of a draught, while with the other she still grasped the door
+latch.
+
+To Derby's inquiry as to whether His Eminence were at home, she
+responded suspiciously--almost contemptuously, as she looked him over
+from head to toe. Certainly, His Exaltedness was at home. What should
+one of his venerability be doing abroad at such an hour!
+
+Derby's bow was apologetic. Would Signora have the kindness to deliver
+the letter which he tendered her?
+
+She turned the envelope over in her hands, looked again at the stranger,
+and at last stood aside so that he might enter.
+
+Derby waited in the dim, low-ceilinged passageway, which suggested
+anything but the antechamber of an archbishop's palace. Presently a door
+opened, a feeble yellow haze filtered into the corridor, and the old
+woman reappeared and led Derby into a small, stone-paved apartment
+illumined by a single flickering lamp of the most primitive design, by
+the light of which the archbishop had evidently been reading. As soon as
+Derby entered, the venerable prelate arose. In his long _sottana_ of
+violet he looked strangely diminutive and feminine; his pale skin and
+mild eyes, and the soft white hair like a fringe beneath his velvet
+cap--all gave an impression of great gentleness, an impression
+heightened by contrast with the bare, white-washed walls and rigorously
+meager furnishing of the cell-like room. With the courteous manner of
+all southern countries, the archbishop placed the best chair for his
+guest, and said smilingly:
+
+"Do you speak Italian? Ah--I am glad you understand that language! My
+French is very failing, and as for Inglese--_non lo conosco_. It is too
+difficult at my age. If I were younger I should like to learn your
+tongue." He said this with inimitable grace, and added with a gentle
+inclination: "You are Americano, are you not? Your land has done much
+for my people! But tell me, Signore, in what way may I serve you? Sua
+Eccellenza il Principe Sansevero places you under our protection, but he
+does not tell us what it is that has brought you to us." The archbishop,
+leaning back in his chair, might so have sat for his portrait--his white
+hands folded one over the other, and the great amethyst ring on the
+third finger of his right hand seeming to reflect the paler shadings in
+the folds of his gown.
+
+[Illustration: "'YOU ARE AMERICANO, ARE YOU NOT? YOUR LAND HAS DONE MUCH
+FOR MY PEOPLE!'"]
+
+"I have come, your Eminence," said Derby, going to the point at once,
+"to work the 'Little Devil' mine." Before the archbishop could utter a
+protest, he continued very quickly and distinctly: "I know just such
+mines as that which are being operated now without danger or suffering
+to the miners."
+
+Then, briefly as possible, he went on to outline his system of mining.
+There was no necessity, he said, for miners to descend below the surface
+of the earth, and he would need only a dozen men--instead of the many
+workers, including women and children, that were now employed. To
+Derby's surprise, the old man seemed troubled.
+
+"I grow old, Signore; one does not easily take in new ideas! By your
+method--am I right?--you will employ a dozen men in place of a hundred.
+That troubles me, though your plan seems good. If there are but a small
+handful needed, it must put the others out of work. The mines are hard.
+A harder existence cannot well be imagined--but the good God must know
+it is for the best, since he allows it to continue. To be sure," he
+interrupted himself sadly, "he calls them to him soon!"
+
+"You mean they die young in the mines? That is what I have been told."
+
+"Yes, Signore, in their twenty-eighth year the people are at the end of
+life; at the age of twelve they are already stooped and wrinkled old men
+and women. For the children it is most terrible; it is they who climb up
+the high ladders out of the pits in the earth--it gives one a foretaste
+of inferno to see such things. _Cosi Dio, m' ajuti_, it is true! Yet so
+they live--otherwise they must die. What can we do? Since the Santa
+Maria does not intervene, the poor must work or starve. They have not
+the money to go away to the country beyond the sea, to America, the land
+of plenty! If some of the rich abundance might be brought to my
+people----" He shook his head, looking, it seemed, beyond the white
+walls of the room, as though he saw a vision.
+
+Then slowly, carefully, Derby explained. It was to bring some of the
+customs of the land of plenty that he had come. He would pay the
+men--the father, the brother, the big son--more money than had been
+earned hitherto by the whole family. No, His Eminence did not
+understand--the work was not to be harder, but easier! And for the
+reason that he had already explained: Machinery would take the place of
+children's hands; steel pipes, and not human beings, would descend into
+the stifling fumes. He wanted to get a few intelligent men to go with
+their families to the deserted village clustered about the "Little
+Devil."
+
+Still the old man sat, looking straight before him.
+
+"All that you tell me, Signore," he said at last, his voice echoing a
+sweetness, a cheerful patience that was doubtless the keynote to his
+nature--"it all sounds very beautiful; but, indeed, it cannot be! The
+great Duke Scorpa has given the matter much thought. The mine owners
+cannot pay the people more--there is scarcely any profit as it is. The
+duke has often told me this himself, so I know it to be true."
+
+Derby thereupon said that the great Duke Scorpa had doubtless done
+everything possible, and that under the old method there had been no
+help for the conditions, but--and again he expressed himself as clearly
+as possible--with the new method and with machinery, one man could do
+the work of many. So the wages might be trebled and yet the mines be
+made to pay.
+
+As Derby talked, a faint color mounted in the cheeks of the
+archbishop--his eyes grew eagerly wistful, and at last he leaned forward
+in his chair, his voice almost breathless as he asked, "Can such a thing
+be true--that in your country the father can earn sufficient that the
+little children need not work? Ah, Signore--who knows?--who knows?--may
+be at last the cry of the _bambinos_ has reached the throne of the Santa
+Vergine!" He sat again silent, but this time with a smile on his lips.
+Then the old woman appeared in the doorway and the archbishop arose.
+
+"It is the hour for my supper," he said. "I shall esteem it an honor if
+you will break bread with me." Derby was about to decline, thinking it
+better to return later, but the manner of the old man left no doubt as
+to the genuineness of his invitation, and Derby accepted. In the
+adjoining room a small table was set with very few utensils. Two plates,
+two forks, two spoons, a cup, and a wine glass apiece--that was all.
+After the blessing, they were served a frugal meal of bread and goats'
+milk, a pudding of macaroni, and a plate of figs; there was also wine,
+acid and thin, which the good Marianna--for so the housekeeper was
+called--had doubtless pressed herself.
+
+Her son Teobaldo, who waited at table, was dressed in some semblance of
+a livery--black broadcloth and a white tie. The archbishop ate
+sparingly--he drank a little of the milk, and tasted a piece of fruit,
+but his conversation with his guest seemed to satisfy him far more than
+food could do.
+
+Full of the hope of relief for his people, he now turned to plans for
+the Signore Americano's protection. Throughout the mountains, the hard
+life had made a hard people, he said, and unfriendly to foreigners. What
+could they expect from the hands of strangers when their own nobility,
+even their priests, were powerless to help! But the Signore should be
+put under the guidance of Padre Filippo--and also there should be two
+_carabinieri_ for protection. Besides, Padre Filippo would recommend
+carpenters and mechanics of Vencata Minore--the village nearest the
+"Little Devil"--good men and honest, who would help in the work.
+
+The meal ended, they returned to the living room. The old woman fussed
+at the wick of the lamp and then placed a book close to the light and
+opened it at the page marked by a bit of paper. The archbishop smiled.
+"She takes good care of me, my Marianna. Once she lost my place, but
+she is very careful."
+
+Derby looked at the page beneath the flickering dimness. "Does Your
+Eminence read by this light?"
+
+"Oh, yes, a little. By day I can see nearly as well as ever, but in the
+evening I can read only the books that have large print--and only for a
+little time. But what would you have, Signore? My eyesight may not any
+longer be like that of a boy." Then he added: "The good sun brings now
+each day a longer time to read, and perhaps by the time another winter
+makes the days again grow short, I shall be near the Great Light that
+knows no setting."
+
+"You might have a good lamp and see very well," suggested Derby.
+
+"A lamp? But in this I burn olive oil. It is very good oil, Signore--no
+one makes it better than Marianna! The reading at night is only for
+young eyes." Again he smiled.
+
+With difficulty he wrote a letter of direction to Padre Filippo and
+affixed his seal. Also he promised that two _carabinieri_ should be at
+the inn at eight o'clock on the following morning, to accompany the
+expedition to the mines. And they should carry a letter to Donna
+Marcella--in her house the Americans had better lodge. From there they
+could with ease go each day on muleback to the "Little Devil."
+
+At last Derby arose to leave. And then, although he was not of the Roman
+faith, he swiftly bent and kissed the ring on the thin, white hand that
+had been placed in his own. Into the archbishop's eyes came a look of
+tenderness that yet seemed tinged by a vague fear, as he laid his free
+hand on the bent head and gave his blessing, "_Deus te benedicet, meum
+filium._ May you fulfil your hopes for my people in safety!" Very
+slightly the old man's voice broke.
+
+Derby stood at his full height, towering by head and shoulders over the
+archbishop as he again thanked him for his hospitality and his
+protection. He walked back to the inn, his mind full of many things. At
+the _ufficio della posta_ he glanced up, hesitated, and then, with a
+smile, went in and wrote out the following telegram:
+
+          "MISS NINA RANDOLPH,
+                 "Palazzo Sansevero,
+                             "Rome.
+
+          "Send immediately by express one good Rochester
+          burner lamp and barrel of kerosene to
+
+               "Sua Eminenza,
+                       "L'Arcivescovo di Vencata,
+                                             "JOHN."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE SULPHUR MINES
+
+
+It was nearly nine o'clock the next morning before Derby's party was
+ready to start. The pack mules, with a bulging load on either side,
+looked like great bales on legs. Long steel pieces needed for the drills
+were strapped lengthwise between two mules. The saddled animals, which
+were to carry the members of the party were held at a short distance
+while the men were seeing to the final preparations. Four horses had
+been procured for Derby, Porter, Tiggs, and Jenkins; the _carabinieri_
+had their own horses, and Padre Filippo his mule.
+
+As it happened, the priest had come to Vencata the evening before, so
+that the archbishop had been able to turn over at once to his especial
+guidance the Americanos who had been sent by the Blessed Virgin to
+rescue the _bambinos_ from the inferno of the mines. Padre Filippo was
+short, rotund, with a ruddy complexion and a cheerful crop of
+carrot-colored hair. The two _carabinieri_ were splendid specimens of
+men, but after all, to say _carabinieri_ is enough: for the Italian
+cavalry must stand not only a physical, but also a moral examination
+that goes back three generations. It is not sufficient for a candidate
+to be above suspicion himself; his father and his father's father must
+have been so as well. These two men were both over six feet, lean and
+dark-skinned, with that trace of the Arab which one sees all through the
+people of Sicily; and they were silent and serious, in great contrast to
+another type of Sicilians who smile much. They wore the _carabiniere_
+uniform for the mountain districts--a double-breasted coat with two rows
+of silver buttons, coat tails bordered with red, two strips of red down
+the trouser seams, a visored cap, and high black boots. They were
+mounted on magnificent black horses, with rifles hung across their
+saddles.
+
+Finally, as the procession started and the hoofs clattered on the hard
+road leading up over the mountain, people crowded out on the little iron
+balconies, heads appeared at the windows--heads that seemed gigantic by
+comparison with the miniature houses, which were painted brilliant pink
+and blue, mauve and Naples yellow.
+
+As the road ascended, it turned inward away from the sea, and after a
+short distance narrowed into a rocky mountain path that looked like the
+dry bed of a stream, winding through the wilderness. After an hour's
+ride the character of the landscape changed. The semi-tropical
+vegetation grew gradually sparse, and after a while in the distance,
+seemingly in the midst of the path, a great rock loomed gigantic and
+gaunt, cutting in two the blue dome of the sky. Still farther on, they
+came upon stretches of straggling wild peach, olive, and lemon trees.
+Beyond again, tangles of hawthorn were interspersed with patches of
+dried weeds and grass. But as they neared the mining district the soil
+was bleak and barren. The mountain rivers were dry, and their beds made
+yawning gaps as though the earth had violently shuddered at her own
+desolation.
+
+At last, about noon, they came to the village of Vencata Minore, which
+stood in a little plain of green. The house of Donna Marcella was set on
+a slight eminence and, compared with the surrounding habitations, was
+quite pretentious. It was kalsomined white, had a courtyard of its own,
+and back of it was a little fruit and flower garden. Donna Marcella was
+a buxom, thrifty, and dominating woman. Had she been a man she would
+assuredly have migrated to America and become a captain of industry;
+however, circumstances having placed her under heavier responsibilities,
+she came smiling to the door, followed by a troop of brown-skinned and
+curly-haired babies. She courtesied and beamed and gesticulated her
+delighted welcome of the strangers and, upon being shown the
+archbishop's missive, kissed the red seal. A few words were intelligible
+to her, but the reading of a whole letter was beyond the measure of her
+accomplishments, and she looked to Padre Filippo to explain. She could
+write the few nouns and do sums quite well enough, though, to make out
+the bills for her occasional guests,--if in doubt she added another
+figure.
+
+Sometimes she had guests--ah, but illustrious! The Gran Signore, Sua
+Eccellenza il Duca di Scorpa--that name to be whispered, and yet to be
+dwelt upon--no less a personage than such an exaltedness had come to
+sleep a night under her humble roof! The distinguished _forestieri_
+should have the very room His _Eccellentissimo_ had occupied! She seemed
+to choose among the Americans by instinct, assigning to Derby and Porter
+this apartment in which she took such evident pride.
+
+It was, in fact, airy and good sized, scantily furnished, but
+scrupulously clean, and with two great beds heaped high with the red and
+yellow flowered quilts which in Sicilian houses serve the double purpose
+of warmth and decoration: not alone do they lend supreme elegance to the
+bedrooms, but suspended from the windows, they most gayly embellish the
+house front on days of _festa_.
+
+As soon as his belongings were unpacked, Porter, with an eye for beauty
+as well as a view to making himself popular, began to draw a pencil
+sketch of the little Marcella, a witch of five and beautiful as a doll.
+Tiggs and Jenkins saw to the unloading of the mules. But Derby and the
+_carabinieri_, with Padre Filippo, after a hasty luncheon of bread,
+figs, and goats' milk, pushed on to the mines. Beyond the outskirts of
+the little village the land soon grew dead again--not a bird fluttered,
+not a living thing was heard. A few patches of green had sprouted here
+and there in the lava blackness of the soil, but otherwise the country
+seemed under a curse.
+
+A new bend in the road brought them close to a small abandoned
+settlement whose windowless houses gaped, staring like lidless eyes, at
+the pits which had been dug and left like caverns of the dead--as, in
+truth, they were. Yet nature had softened the graveyard with straggling
+spots of new green. A vapor rose from one of the pits as though a
+monster lay in wait below to destroy his victims with the poison of his
+breath. This was "Little Devil," the priest told Derby. Through the jaws
+of that yawning hole many had entered the gates of paradise! His lips
+muttered a fragment of the prayer for the dead; he crossed himself, and
+Derby noticed that the _carabinieri_ did the same.
+
+During the day Derby had been slowly unfolding to Padre Filippo his
+plans, and now the priest looked anxiously into the American's
+face--could he still be hopeful of such a cemetery as this? Derby rode
+slowly, making a cursory survey of the conditions. It was much as he had
+expected to find it, he told the priest; he was not disheartened.
+
+They did not stop, as Derby was anxious to go to the Scorpa mines, where
+he expected to secure his men. He had heard enough to know what lay
+before him; and even in anticipation he felt oppressed. Another sudden
+turn in the road gave them a near view of the settlement. Over the arid
+earth spread a dense haze of smoke and yellow vapor, and down in it--in
+this vapor whose metallic fumes gripped lungs and throat and burned like
+fire--crawled human beings! Close to the earth they crept, so that the
+rising smoke might spend its worst above them.
+
+Derby had thought himself prepared, but with the horrors actually before
+him, he shuddered uncontrollably; unconsciously, he gripped the pommel
+of the saddle so tensely that his knuckles whitened. The mine of "Golden
+Plenty!" From the horrible mockery of the name, the devil might well
+have taken notes in planning hell! Copper Rock was paradise indeed,
+compared to this inferno.
+
+Little forms passed by him with faces wizened and wrinkled--were they
+gnomes?--or what? Surely not children! Small, narrow, stooped shoulders,
+backs bent under loads buckled to tottering legs. Ragged the creatures
+were to the point of nakedness, and on their arms and legs were scars
+fresh and scarlet from the torches of the overseers. Women and men
+crawled near the caldrons, and down the ladders into the hell pits went
+the children--up with the heavy loads past the torch and lash of the
+devil servers, whose duty it was to see that no panting being loitered.
+Day in, day out, these miserable wretches stumbled under the stinging
+pain of burning flesh--and once in a while a child's faltering feet
+slipped from the ladder rungs, his weak hands lost hold--a cry, a fall,
+and the "Golden Plenty" had swallowed one more victim.
+
+As Derby's party drew near, a straggling group gathered around the
+strangers. They stared dully and without intelligence, and yet like
+animals in whom savagery is ever ready to burst restraints. The stronger
+men among them glowered at the intruders, turning against a strange face
+with the snarl they dared not show to one grown familiar. Beyond the
+mines, ranged at different heights on the barren mountain slope, were
+huts much like the abandoned ones at "Little Devil"--black caverns,
+smoke-stained and gaping, where stooping human beings moved in and out,
+maimed and broken like insects whose wings some brutal boy has pulled.
+
+And yet the priest affirmed that to get half a dozen families to leave
+this place and go to the new settlement would be no easy task. They were
+too dull to grasp the promise of betterment, and the very mention of
+"Little Devil" filled them with alarm. It would need many days and much
+patient handling to convince them that the _forestieri_ meant them good
+instead of harm.
+
+Padre Filippo was the one who most persuaded them--he and a Sicilian
+workman, a native of Vencata who had lately returned from America.
+Between these two the miners' fears were partly allayed, and in less
+than a week's time Derby received a small company of men, women, and
+children into his new settlement. They came like prisoners, under the
+guard of the _carabinieri_, and so feeble and debilitated were the
+wretched creatures that, for a few weeks after their arrival, Derby
+turned his settlement into a hospital.
+
+Yet suspicion surrounded him on every side. It was one of the
+_carabinieri_--the taller one--who ventured his opinions one day:
+"Signore does not know these people! Signore is letting them grow strong
+that they may the better use their fangs. They cannot believe that
+Signore is not the devil in paying such wages--in pretending to give
+them a life of ease. The great Duke Scorpa is their friend--he has been
+able to do nothing. The good and honorable His Eminence the Archbishop,
+not even he may help--none in this world; not even the Holy Virgin on
+her throne in heaven. If any one comes to interfere it must be the
+devil--since none but the devil comes to such a land."
+
+"That's all right, my friend," Derby answered. "Just you wait and see.
+Animals never resent kindness, and that's all these poor creatures
+are--just animals."
+
+In the meantime he and the engineers and the carpenters from Vencata
+Minore had worked day and night getting up the scaffolding for the first
+well. The first boiler was set up in a shanty, and pens were hammered
+together to hold the molten sulphur.
+
+From the moment of Derby's arrival in the Vencata mines, the
+_carabinieri_ kept him under the closest guard and accompanied him
+wherever he went. But in spite of this there were a few mild outbreaks.
+One day a stone was hurled at him. Another time some half-crazed wretch
+tried to stab him; and once a pit was dug across the road, in which his
+horse broke a leg, so that it had to be shot. This last nearly brought
+Derby to the point of meting out punishment to the offenders. Yet when
+he realized again the sufferings of these people, his anger gradually
+subsided.
+
+However, these disturbances had all taken place within the week after
+his arrival in Sicily, and at the end of the second week he strongly
+objected to being guarded. Each day he knew he gained in the confidence
+of the people, and each day he knew also that they must be improving. He
+felt sure that as their bodies were put in something like human
+condition, their intellects must follow. The _carabinieri_ protested
+that he would be making a needless target of himself should he attempt
+to ride alone in the early dawn from the village of Vencata Minore to
+the mines. The road led between rocks and underbrush where a man might
+hide with perfect safety. But the apprehension of the _carabinieri_ did
+not trouble Derby in the least. "Nonsense," he said. "Why, the miners
+are all beginning to like me--I can see it in their faces."
+
+What he said was true, and under the new treatment the people were
+beginning to look and act like human beings. Even two weeks were enough
+to show a settlement beyond Padre Filippo's highest hopes. No child was
+employed in the mines, neither were the women allowed to work outside
+their huts and plots of ground. They might dig and plant the soil, but
+they were barred out of the mines. With the elimination of the refining
+vats and the reduction of the scorching heat, and with the presence of
+moisture from the steam and water required in the new mining, conditions
+became favorable for luxuriant vegetation.
+
+Besides, Derby had received by cable approval of certain quixotic
+measures: Each family was given a milk goat. The houses were furnished
+with cook stoves, beds, chairs, and tables. And although it would be
+some time before "Little Devil" would seem inappropriate as a name, less
+than three weeks had passed when Derby, sitting in the tent which served
+as his office, felt a real thrill as he footed up assets and
+liabilities. One well had been sunk, and the boilers and engines needed
+to operate it were going full blast. The scaffoldings for two more were
+nearly up.
+
+In the doorway near him Porter lounged, drawing a picture of Padre
+Filippo, who, in turn, was writing on his knees, his fine penmanship
+covering page after page--all about the miracles of the Americano, and
+addressed to the archbishop.
+
+But his Eminence needed no letters from Padre Filippo to announce
+miracles, since a miracle had happened in his own house--a marvel that
+had made Marianna cross her hands in speechless wonder. The new lamp
+burned on the table, the green reading shade reflected almost as much
+light on the page as the sun itself, and His Eminence might now read any
+book he pleased. The archbishop thoughtfully stroked the cat that lay
+curled on his lap.
+
+"It is not in this world," he mused, "that we shall journey, thou and I,
+to the land of the Americanos, the miracle workers; but assuredly the
+Santa Vergine sent the young Signore Americano to bless our people with
+his miracles--even as he has sent this one to thee and me."
+
+But beyond the bright radius of the good archbishop's lamp a figure
+waited and watched in the darkness--the figure of a man with a sinister
+face and across it a mouth that looked like a seam.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+BEFORE DAYLIGHT
+
+
+In the purple dawn of a morning two or three days later, Derby emerged
+from the house of Donna Marcella, saddled his horse and for the first
+time without his attendant _carabinieri_, started for the mines. The
+faint light showed him only a blurred and indistinct landscape; and in
+the crisp stillness the leather of his saddle creaked a monotonous
+accompaniment to the horse's hoofs, which struck the road with clean-cut
+staccato sharpness.
+
+Meanwhile, in the big best room on the ground floor of Donna Marcella's
+house, Porter slept. A man's step outside and the fingering of a
+shutter-latch disturbed him not at all; even when there came a nervous
+tap on the window frame, Porter slept on. A moment of silence followed,
+and then a voice breathed stridently, "_Signore!_" Porter stirred in his
+sleep. A man's head and shoulders appeared over the sill of the open
+window. "_Signore! Signore l'Americano!_" The tone was louder and very
+urgent. Porter awoke with a start and seized his revolver. "_Pax, pax!_"
+came the voice as the man dropped out of sight.
+
+"_Signore, Signore._ It is a friend who would speak to the _Signore
+l'Americano_!" The syllables were whispered with ringing distinctness.
+Porter jumped out of bed, revolver in hand. Close to the window, he
+demanded who was there.
+
+"It is a matter of life and death! May I show myself?"
+
+"Certainly!" said Porter. "For heaven's sake, stand up and let me have a
+look at you! And give an account of why you are getting a Christian out
+of his bed at this unearthly hour!" In the glimmering dawn he could see
+the outline of the man's figure, but he could not recognize him.
+
+"_Signore_, I would speak with the big _Americano_, the one who sent the
+daylight miracle to the palace of the archbishop. I am sent by His
+Eminence the Archbishop. I am Teobaldo his servant. See, I carry the
+archbishop's holy ring to show I speak the truth."
+
+Porter saw the ring distinctly, held between the man's fingers--"Yes! I
+believe you. Be quick!"
+
+"I have ridden through the night, but I arrive late because I lost my
+path in the blackness. Last night by chance it became known to the
+archbishop that there is a plot to assassinate the Americano. I am come
+secretly to warn him. The assassin is waiting along the road to the
+mine; it is to be there, and the hour is now!"
+
+Porter sprang back into the room. "Jack, Jack! For God's sake, are you
+there?" He tore back the covers of Derby's bed, but it was empty. He
+remembered with horror that the _carabinieri_ were not to accompany
+Derby that morning. He had insisted that they were no longer necessary.
+Scrambling into his clothes any fashion--his trousers over his pajamas,
+his shoes over stocking less feet--he strapped on his revolvers, and
+took the window ledge at a bound.
+
+He jumped astride his horse without stopping for a saddle, and beat and
+kicked the poor beast along the road as though the very fiends were
+after him. The horse rocked on his legs and breathed hard, but Porter
+had no consideration for that. The pale dawn revealed an empty road,
+along which he sped at breakneck pace, while beads of perspiration
+gathered on his forehead in his impatience at the seeming slowness of
+his progress. At last the road cut through a tangled bit of forest with
+a sharp bend at the end. Just as he reached the turn two shots rang out
+in quick succession. With his heart almost frozen, he dashed around the
+corner in time to see Derby plunging into the underbrush. Like a wild
+man Porter shouted, "I'm coming, Jack, I'm coming!"--impelling his
+already spent horse to the spot where Derby had disappeared into the
+thicket.
+
+Derby, like all men who live much in the woods, had almost an animal's
+instinct for danger, and his ears, supersensitive to wood sounds, had
+caught a moving in the bushes. To get his revolver in hand and drop
+forward behind his horse's shoulders had been the act of a second, and
+the bullet whistled over his head. But the immediate effect of the
+attack had been to enrage him out of all prudence. Firing point-blank at
+the smudge of smoke, he jumped from his horse and rushed in pursuit of
+his assailant.
+
+A second shot Derby thought had grazed his coat; he emptied two barrels
+of his revolver in the direction from which it came. Another bullet
+whistled close to his ear, then two shots went entirely wide of him, and
+the next moment he reached a man lying prone--with blood gushing from
+his head. Derby knocked the rifle out of his hands, but there was no
+further danger of its being fired, for the man had fainted.
+
+In a second Porter dashed up, in a frenzy of terror. When he found Derby
+safe, his fright turned to rage, and he was impatient to put the
+prisoner into the hands of the _carabinieri_. "Our friend Basso will
+make short work of him, I'm thinking!" he said grimly.
+
+But Derby had no intention of making such a disposition of his prisoner.
+"Not at all," he said deliberately; "we will hand him over to Padre
+Filippo. Priests are better for such creatures than police. Come, help
+me tie up his head--my shirt will do!" Suiting the action to his words,
+he pulled off his coat. His shirt was scarlet!
+
+"Great Heavens, man, why didn't you say you were hit?" Porter gasped.
+
+Derby looked down at his shirt and then quizzically at Porter. "Funny,"
+he remarked indifferently; "I thought the bullet had only grazed my
+coat. It can't be much, as I didn't even feel it; however, you might tie
+me up, too." He pulled off his shirt. Porter tore it up and bound
+Derby's shoulder. Then together they made a bandage for the bandit's
+head.
+
+"He's got an ugly mug!" said Porter, as he wiped the man's face. "By
+Jove--it's the brigand I noticed coming down on the boat! I told you he
+looked like a cutthroat."
+
+"Your natural intuition for character?" Derby smiled, but the next
+minute added soberly enough: "If he came from the mainland we must be up
+against a good deal more than the poor devils here! Who the deuce can he
+be? He's no miner, that's certain!"
+
+They had dragged their prisoner out to the side of the road and laid him
+down. And as Derby insisted, Porter rode off for the priest. Derby sat
+near his charge, who showed no signs of returning consciousness. His own
+shoulder ached now, and he gradually became aware of slight weakness. He
+felt in his pockets for a flask, but found he had forgotten to carry
+one, so he lit his pipe instead, and fell to scrutinizing the man before
+him. He was of small stature, but there was great endurance in the long,
+pointed nose, the strong, lantern jaw; and the face, sinister though it
+was, retained, even in unconsciousness, an expression of grim
+fortitude. The more Derby studied the man, the more certain he became
+that he was no mere skulking coward.
+
+At last Porter and the _padre_ appeared over the hill. No sooner had the
+priest caught sight of the prisoner than he exclaimed, "_Per l'amor di
+Dio!_ It is Luigi Calluci!" There was added horror in his tone as he
+whispered, "Signore, Signore, he is the body servant of the Duca di
+Scorpa!"
+
+At this even Derby started, but he said quite calmly, "Poor devil! The
+question is, what will you do with him?"
+
+"He must be put under the arrest----"
+
+"Well, naturally," chimed in Porter.
+
+But Derby interposed: "He shall be put under nothing of the kind until
+he can give an account of himself. There is no knowing what fancied
+grievance he may have against me. Wait until he has been heard. The
+question of punishment can be considered then. But in the meantime he
+must be nursed!"
+
+"You have his brother in the settlement--Salvatore Calluci, the man to
+whom you have given special duty in the night shaft." The priest's red
+head wagged mournfully: "It was to the wife of Salvatore you gave an
+extra goat because of her children!" But then he added, brightening a
+little at the thought, "I am sure--of a truth I am sure, Signore, that
+the brother had no hand in this!"
+
+"Very well, then; we will take him to the house of Salvatore. We will
+say merely that an accident has happened--do you hear? I do not want the
+story of an attempted assassination to get about." Derby's voice had
+grown quite weak as he spoke, and the priest and Porter were both too
+concerned for him to think of opposing any wish he might express in
+regard to the prisoner. So they laid the man across the saddle of Padre
+Filippo's horse, and Porter and the _padre_ walked on either side of him
+into camp. Derby rode his own horse, but by the time he reached the
+mine, he had lost so much blood that he was pretty fit for the doctor
+himself. Tiggs, a lean, wiry Yankee, sandy-haired and resourceful, was a
+tolerable surgeon, and he plastered Derby up, pronouncing the injury
+nothing more serious than a flesh wound.
+
+Luigi Calluci meanwhile was carried into the hut of his brother and put
+to bed. If Salvatore and his wife had any idea of the cause of his
+"accident," they said nothing. They were among the most intelligent of
+the miners, and their gratitude to Derby for the change in their
+condition, was proportionate.
+
+But it was not alone the Callucis who had made fast strides. The whole
+settlement had undergone a change that was nothing short of
+transformation. One reason for the rapid improvement was doubtless the
+influence exerted by the Sicilian carpenter who had been to America and
+who had returned a "great man" and rich. Through him as interpreter,
+all things the American did were good; and the "land of plenty" lost
+nothing in the telling. The people began to look upon the new mining
+process as a miracle, and the American as sent by the Blessed Virgin.
+The wages were stupendous--as much as sixty cents a day! But best of
+all, they were wages for work that a human being could do. Around the
+miners' houses were the beginnings of gardens, and several families had,
+in addition to the goat, a few chickens.
+
+Every day Derby went to the hut of the Calluci. Gradually consciousness
+came back to Luigi. Slowly, as reason returned, the events of the past
+weeks formed themselves in distinct sequence. He knew where he was
+now--at the "Little Devil." Had he not himself descended its ladders
+into the mine's burning pits? Was not that why he was undersized and
+weak of lungs? He bore scars that had seared even deeper than through
+the flesh. He knew the huts, too: caves in which men lived like beasts.
+It was all clear except the surroundings in which he found himself. The
+haggard faces of his brother and his sister-in-law were familiar, yet
+not as he remembered them. The withered bodies of the children seemed
+not nearly so pathetic! Then, full of bewilderment, he heard his
+sister-in-law singing. Singing! Could it be possible that a voice could
+sing in the "Little Devil" settlement! Distinctly he heard another
+sound, the voices of children at play.
+
+Thinking all this must be merely the creation of his brain, he raised
+himself on his elbow and made a careful survey of the room. There was no
+doubt that he was in a good bed, covered by a thick new quilt, and the
+walls were cleanly white-washed. The air held none of the foul and
+strangling odors which never had been, and never could be, forgotten.
+That his brother had moved and had become a well-to-do peasant of the
+mountain slopes and vineyards was the only explanation possible. He
+tried to get out of bed, but fell back dizzy, and his mind wandered off
+again to the semi-conscious vagaries of illness.
+
+In this state of mind, he had become used to a new presence--a very big,
+very kind personality that hauntingly resembled the Americano--it was,
+of course, one of those phantoms that appear before fevered
+imaginations. He realized that, and now he made an effort to detach the
+dream from the reality.
+
+But even as he was trying to put his thoughts in order, the door
+opened--and he vividly saw the figure of his vision followed by his
+sister-in-law. Thinking that his mind was wandering, he lay quite still.
+Then he heard a kindly voice saying, "I have brought soup for him with
+me--in this jar. You have only to heat it."
+
+Luigi felt a strong hand clasp his wrist and feel for his pulse. Then
+came the full belief that this was no dream, but reality, and that it
+was the Tyrant, the Americano himself, who laid hands on him. With a
+frantic effort he sprang up and tried to close his fingers around his
+enemy's throat! But firm, powerful hands gripped his shoulders and
+forced him quietly down in his bed. Then he lost consciousness.
+
+When he came to, he thought he had dreamed the whole occurrence. His
+brother and Padre Filippo were sitting beside him, and they would not
+let him talk. But gradually, as his strength returned, he took in the
+story. From his brother, from the neighbors, from the priest most of
+all, he heard, bit by bit, of the work that the Americano had
+accomplished--the Americano whom he, Luigi, had nearly slain. Slowly,
+slowly, he understood that the "Little Devil" mine had been
+re-christened "The Paradise"--not by the nobles who owned it, but by the
+people who worked in it. And then little by little the resentment, the
+bitterness, the grievances of his long, hard life turned him against the
+Duke Scorpa just as his realization of what Derby was doing won him over
+to the American.
+
+That Scorpa should have sent a man to stab him was, curiously enough, a
+fact that did not seem to trouble Derby in the least. It was, after all,
+no more than he might have expected. Before he had left Rome, Scorpa had
+warned him. He rather admired him for that.
+
+Derby was heart and soul interested in his settlement. In the short
+space of time since he had arrived in Sicily, the incredible had
+already come to pass--and to Derby, as he looked forward, there was
+every reason to feel assured that the settlement would develop as he had
+planned. The output of the mines promised to be up to the most sanguine
+expectation. The whole scheme was organized and started--there was
+nothing to do now but to keep it going.
+
+In the meantime he received a cable which, when deciphered, ran:
+
+          "Telegraph _Celtic_ at Gibraltar, giving Hobson
+          instructions where to find you. Put package he
+          carries in safe keeping. In case of serious
+          development use own judgment."
+
+Hobson was one of J. B. Randolph's secretaries. Derby at once wired to
+Hobson to await him in Naples. Then, leaving Tiggs and Jenkins in
+charge, he and Porter embarked.
+
+As they leaned over the deck rail watching the blue shallows where the
+waters of the Mediterranean curled away from the ship's prow, Porter
+said:
+
+"It must be good to be going back to Rome with the feeling that you have
+carried out what you started to do. It's a big feather in your cap, and
+now there is only one thing needed to make the whole episode a romance
+from start to finish!"
+
+Derby interrogated good-humoredly, "And that is----?"
+
+"You will probably go up in the air if I tell you."
+
+Derby looked up from the water. "Go ahead--say what you like----"
+
+"You ought to marry Miss Randolph!" Porter declared abruptly, and before
+Derby could protest he hurried on: "Yes, I know what you would say--she
+is too rich and she is scheduled to marry a title. But I don't think she
+is the sort of girl that really puts as much stock in titles as it would
+seem; and as for money, by the time you have two or three mines like the
+'Little Devil' going, you will be pretty rich yourself. Even with your
+present prospects, no one could accuse you of marrying her for her
+fortune."
+
+"Prospects are very different from actual money, and compared to her I'm
+a pauper," Derby answered. "I don't care what people accuse me of, but
+to marry a girl like Nina Randolph--even assuming the unlikelihood that
+she'd have me--would be a fatal mistake, unless I had a fortune to match
+her own. Every changing hour of the day would bring fresh doubt; she
+would never believe in a poor man's love. How could she!"
+
+Derby stood up straight, thrust his hands into the pockets of his
+ulster, and as Porter tried to protest, he withdrew from the discussion
+by declaring that there was nothing to discuss. For himself--he was but
+a human machine that God had set upon the earth to bore holes in it, and
+to set swarms of human ants working.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE SPIDER'S WEB
+
+
+In Rome, after Easter, society blossomed out afresh. Giovanni Sansevero
+had returned, and to Nina the commencement of the spring season promised
+a repetition of the winter.
+
+Nina's antipathy to the Duke Scorpa remained unchanged, and to her
+annoyance it had happened frequently, when dining out, that he had taken
+her in to dinner. Each time his unctuous, "It is my pleasure, Signorina,
+to conduct you," gave her so strong a feeling of resentment that she had
+to exert a real effort to put her finger tips on his coat sleeve. She
+always kept the distance between them as wide as possible by the angle
+at which her arm was bent.
+
+On looking back, however, she had to acknowledge that his manner had
+undergone a radical change. He no longer alarmed her by aggressive
+pursuit, nor sought to lead the conversation to those personal topics
+which she had found so repellent. Furthermore, he never alluded to the
+threat he had made to her that day at the hunt, nor even mentioned his
+rejected suit. And yet she felt apprehensively that he had not given up
+his original determination.
+
+In the meantime he was untiring in his efforts to interest her, and
+evinced an ability to keep the conversation going with great skill--even
+more skill than Giovanni, whose natural attractiveness could afford to
+do without the effort that Scorpa found necessary. He flattered her by
+his assumption that she was a woman of the world, and he disguised the
+exaggeration of his expressions in such a way that she thought he was
+speaking but the barest truth. For instance, he dilated upon the
+particular qualities for which Nina herself adored the princess, until
+it became apparent to her that, after all, Scorpa must be a man of
+sensitive perceptions.
+
+Nevertheless, the underlying feeling of terror with which he filled her
+at the first moment of each encounter was far worse than mere dislike.
+Intuitively, she regarded him as a menace, and, through his unvarying
+politeness, she found herself trying to fathom his real intentions. What
+object could he have had in ranging himself with the suitors for her
+hand? He was very rich himself. Aside from his own fortune, "poor
+Jane"--as every one called his first wife--had left a handsome amount,
+which, according to European custom, was entirely in his control.
+Perhaps he wanted still more money, and thought that he could find in
+her another source of supply to be exhausted and practically thrust
+aside. Many tales that Nina had heard, many things that she had observed
+were not good for the girl's all too ready cynicism--and the hard little
+lines around her mouth that the princess so disliked to see, were
+growing deeper.
+
+The question of international marriage was one on which Nina found
+herself becoming quite skeptical. She admitted that there were happy
+examples. Her aunt, for instance. Surely no wife was ever more loved and
+appreciated than the princess, even though her husband had one serious
+failing. But then, did not some American husbands also gamble?
+
+In the Masco household too, the bonny Kate was certainly in no need of
+sympathy. That her position was not as good as her husband's name should
+have given her was her own fault. She was not one of those gifted with
+the chameleon faculty of harmonizing with her background. Among the
+mellow pigments of the Roman canvas she was a glaring splotch of primary
+color. But she was far from unhappy.
+
+Indeed, so far as Nina's observation could penetrate, the general
+impression of the average Americo-Italian marriage was of sympathetic
+comradeship between husband and wife; in nearly every household she had
+found the indescribably charming atmosphere of a harmonious home.
+
+Yet proposals for the hand of the American heiress were so common that,
+in spite of the delightful households of her countrywomen, Nina had long
+since begun to think--first in fun and then more seriously--of the
+palaces of Italy as so many spider webs waiting for the American gilded
+fly. It was at the Palazzo Scorpa that her theory became actuality.
+
+The princess had, very much against Nina's will, taken her to see the
+duchess on the day after their own dance. But a serious indisposition
+had prevented the duchess from receiving--not only on that particular
+day, but for the rest of the winter. Toward the end of March, however,
+in response to a note, Nina was finally obliged to enter the Palazzo
+Scorpa.
+
+It was a rugged gray stone fortress of a place, "like a monster," Nina
+said, "of the dragon age, that sulkily remained asleep and hidden among
+the narrow, twisted streets that had crept around it."
+
+Through the yawning gateway they entered a sunless courtyard. Even the
+porter at the door, notwithstanding his gold lace and crimson livery,
+was austere and forbidding. Within, the palace had been refurnished in
+the most lavish Florentine period, but the effect of the high-vaulted
+rooms was that of a prison.
+
+One room, however, through which they passed to reach the reception
+apartments of the duchess, gave Nina a little thrill in spite of her
+antipathy. The Scorpas had belonged to the "Blacks," that is to the
+ecclesiasticals, and this room was not repaired in modern fashion, but
+hung in tattered purple silk. On one side stood a solitary piece of
+furniture--a great gilt throne upholstered in red velvet, and above it
+hung a portrait of Pope Alexander VI, the whole surmounted by a canopy
+of red velvet.
+
+"Was he a relation of the duke?" Nina whispered, aghast at the
+resemblance.
+
+"Who, child?" asked the princess.
+
+"Rodrigo Borgia."
+
+"No one knows. Hush!"
+
+"But why the throne? Were the Scorpas kings--or what?"
+
+"Before the secular unification of Italy," the princess answered, "the
+Holy Fathers used to visit the Scorpa cardinals. There has always been a
+Scorpa among the cardinals. The one now is Monsignore Gamba del Sati.
+Del Sati is one of the numerous names of the Scorpa family."
+
+Nina cast another glance at the portrait of Alexander VI. The sinister
+face was so like the present duke's that it made her shudder, and her
+imagination at once pictured slaves and prisoners being dragged along
+these same stone floors. At the end of ten or twelve rooms, each gloomy,
+yet over-rich with architectural adornments and modern elaboration, two
+lackeys lifted the hangings covering the last doorway, and announced:
+
+"Sua Eccellenza la Principessa Sansevero!"
+
+"Messa Randolph."
+
+The Duchess Scorpa was very gracious to the American heiress. But,
+unaccountably, Nina had a strangled feeling, as though she were a bird
+and had been enticed into a cage. It was a ridiculous notion, for, even
+following out the simile, the door was open, she knew; and, for that
+matter, the bars were too far apart to hold her, as soon as she should
+choose to slip through. But the feeling of the cage was oppressively
+vivid, and she clung as closely to her aunt's side as she could. Friends
+of the princess rather monopolized her, however, while the duchess
+neglected her other guests to talk to Nina. To add to the girl's
+distress, the duke, stroking his heavy chin with his fat hand, stood
+beside her chair with what seemed a proprietary air, and a smile that
+was intolerable. "Well, my guests," his manner seemed to say, "how do
+you like my choice? She is not all that I might ask for, but she will
+do--quite nicely."
+
+Nina glanced appealingly at her aunt, but Eleanor's back was turned.
+Involuntarily she looked toward the doorway--Giovanni was to meet them
+there, and she longed to see his slender figure appear between the
+_portières_, to hear the announcement of the well-known name which was
+no less great than that of the odious man who was trying to compromise
+her by his air of proprietorship.
+
+Nina could stand it no longer, and sprang to her feet, in the very midst
+of a long-winded story about--she had no idea what the duchess was
+saying to her, but she realized that she had done an inexcusably
+_gauche_ thing, not only interrupting, but in starting to go before her
+chaperon made the move. And her discomfiture was increased by a quick
+sense of the Potensi's derisive criticism. Recovering herself, she
+exclaimed rapidly: "I am so much interested in sculpture; may I look at
+that statue?"
+
+The duchess, far from showing resentment at the interruption, was
+apparently delighted with the opportunity of impressing upon her guest
+the greatness of the palace and the family of the Scorpas. "Certainly,"
+she cooed, as nearly as a snapping turtle can imitate a turtledove;
+"that is a genuine Niccola Pisano. The original document is still intact
+in which he agreed with the cardinal of our house to execute it himself.
+The portrait of our ancestor who ordered the statue is in the gallery."
+
+Before Nina could resist, she found herself being conducted between
+mother and son through the numerous rooms which terminated finally in
+the gallery. Unlike most of the collections of Italy, this included many
+modern canvases.
+
+Before the portrait of a thin, heavy-boned, frightened-looking English
+girl, the duke assumed a deeply sentimental air, sighing as though out
+of breath. "That is the portrait of my beloved Jane," he said. "It was
+painted by Sargent while we were on our honeymoon." The artist, with his
+consummate skill of characterization, had transferred a crushed,
+fatalistic helplessness to the canvas. Nina found herself, partly in
+pity, partly in contempt, scrutinizing the face of the woman who had
+brought herself to marry such a man.
+
+Suddenly an indescribable feeling of oppression seized her. She looked
+away from the picture, and then, glancing around to speak to the
+duchess, she saw the edge of her dress disappearing through the hangings
+of the doorway, while between herself and her retreating hostess stood
+the stolid figure of the duke, with the most odious smile imaginable
+upon his horrid face.
+
+With a flush of anger that made her temples throb, Nina realized that a
+dastardly trap had been sprung upon her. To leave a young girl even for
+a moment unchaperoned was against the strictest rule of Italian
+propriety. The duchess had brought her all this distance on purpose to
+leave her with the villainous duke--in a situation that, should it
+become known, would so compromise an Italian girl that there would be no
+place for her in the social system of her world afterward outside of a
+convent. Her marriage with the duke would be almost inevitable.
+
+Determined to give no evidence of the terror that gripped her, with the
+most fearless air she could assume she attempted to pass the duke; but
+he blocked her way so that her manoeuvres came down to the indignity of
+a game of blind man's buff. Nina held her head very high and looked
+straight at her tormentor. "Please allow me to pass." She tried hard to
+speak quietly and to keep the tremulousness out of her voice.
+
+For answer Scorpa quickly closed the intervening distance between them,
+and the next thing she knew the grasp of his thick, hot hands burned
+through the sleeve of her coat, and his face was thrust near to her
+own. In a frenzy of fury she wrenched herself free, and without thought
+or even consciousness of what she was doing, she struck him full in the
+face.
+
+Instead of recoiling, he caught and pinned her arms in a grip like a
+vice. "Ah, ha, so that is the mettle you are made of, is it, you little
+fiend! Don't think that I mind your fury--you will be a wife after my
+own heart when I have tamed you! I am a man of my word--I said I would
+marry you, and I will! Not many men would want to marry a woman of your
+temper, but you suit me!"
+
+In her horror Nina felt her throat grow dry. She stared at the thick,
+red, cruel, animal lips of the man with a loathing that almost paralyzed
+her power to move; while his hands pressed numbingly into the flesh of
+her arms.
+
+"Let me go! Do you hear"--her voice shook with fright and rage--"let me
+go! At once! You coward! You beast!"
+
+And like a beast he snarled his answer: "Scream all you please! You
+could not be heard if you had a throat of brass!" Then mockingly he
+sneered, "Come, won't you dance with me, as you did with the pretty
+Giovanni? You had his arms around you lovingly enough! But, by Bacchus!
+the way to win a woman is to seize her, after the good old customs of
+our ancestors!" And with that he drew her close to him--so close that,
+though she screamed and struggled like a fury, his lips drew
+nearer--nearer----
+
+Then a jar struck through her blinding rage; in a daze she felt herself
+released, and realized that Giovanni had appeared; that he had gripped
+Scorpa around the throat until his eyes started out of their sockets;
+and then sent him sprawling to the floor.
+
+With the relief and reaction, everything seemed to recede from Nina and
+grow black. Dimly she felt that Giovanni had put his arm around her to
+support her. "Come quickly, Mademoiselle, before there is a scene"--she
+heard his voice as though it were far off. But she was perfectly
+conscious. She knew that Scorpa still lay on the floor as Giovanni
+hurried her through another set of rooms and led her down a staircase
+that brought them to a second entrance door--one by which, as it
+happened, Giovanni had come in. The footman on duty looked as though he
+were going to bar their egress, but Giovanni ordered him to open the
+door quickly. "The lady is fainting," he said, and a glance at Nina's
+face too well confirmed it. Besides, the man would hardly have dared
+disobey a Sansevero. Once in the open air, they lost no time in going
+around to the main entrance. The Sansevero carriage was waiting, and
+Giovanni put Nina in. "Wait here a moment--I will go up and tell
+Eleanor."
+
+Nina was shaking from head to foot. "No--no--don't leave me; take me
+away!"
+
+"It is not seemly to drive with you, Mademoiselle; I will return in a
+moment."
+
+But by this time Nina was hysterical. "No--no--please take me home,"
+she begged. "The carriage can come back." And she began to sob.
+
+Giovanni hesitated, then jumped in quickly, telling the coachman to
+drive home as fast as possible.
+
+"It must have been a frightful experience," he said, as they started.
+"Thank God I came even when I did."
+
+A shudder ran through Nina. Instinctively she drew away from Giovanni,
+merely because he was a foreigner, and of the same race as Scorpa. She
+could still see those thick, loathsome lips approaching her own, and the
+recollection gave her a nauseating sense of pollution. Holding her hands
+over her face, she sobbed and sobbed.
+
+Giovanni let her cry it out. It was not a moment to play on her
+feelings--they were too strained to stand any other emotion. Yet had he
+considered nothing but his own advantage, he could not better have used
+his opportunity than by doing exactly what he did.
+
+"Listen, Mademoiselle"--his voice was soothing--as kind and
+unimpassioned as though he were talking to a troubled little child.
+"Promise me that you will try not to think about this afternoon. It will
+do no good. Try to forget it, if you can. That man shall never again in
+any way enter your life. At least I can promise you that! Here we are!
+Now," he added in English, as the footman opened the door, "go upstairs
+and lie down. I will go back immediately and tell Eleanor that you felt
+suddenly ill and that the carriage took you home. It is not likely that
+Scorpa has given any version of the affair."
+
+But a new fear assailed Nina. "You cannot go back! The duke will kill
+you! He would do anything, that man!"
+
+There was pride in Giovanni's easy answer. "He is not very agile," he
+laughed; "to stab he would have first to reach me!" Then seriously and
+very gently he added, "You are overstrung and nervous, Mademoiselle. On
+my honor I promise you need never fear him again."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" Startled, she put the question.
+
+"Nothing," he rejoined lightly, "only that a man never repeats a
+performance like that of the duke. The Italian custom prevents!" he
+added, with a curious expression of whimsicality over which Nina puzzled
+as she mounted the stairs to her room. Even in her shaken state, she
+marveled at the contrast between Giovanni's finely chiseled features and
+the elastic strength that must have been necessary to overpower the bull
+force of the duke. She thought gratefully of the sympathy in his gentle
+voice, as well as in his whole manner during the ten minutes which were
+all that had elapsed since the duchess left her. She realized with what
+perfect tact and perception he had treated her on the way home. And
+suddenly her heart went out to him. She felt now, as she went through
+the long stone corridors and galleries toward her room, that instead of
+drawing away from him, were he at that moment beside her, she might
+easily sob her emotions all peacefully out in his arms.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the meantime Giovanni returned to the Palazzo Scorpa and, ascending
+the main stairway, entered the antechamber of the reception room. The
+old duchess was hovering anxiously at the entrance of the rooms leading
+to the picture gallery, the closed _portières_ screening her from the
+guests to whom she had not dared to return without Nina. The rugs laid
+upon the marble floors dulled all sound of Giovanni's footfalls, so that
+he appeared without warning, and with his own hand hastily lifted the
+_portière_, disclosing her to her waiting guests. She had no choice but
+to precede him, doubtless framing an excuse for Nina's absence. If so,
+she need not have troubled, for Giovanni spoke in her stead, and with
+such distinct enunciation that the whole roomful heard:
+
+"Miss Randolph felt suddenly ill and asked to go home. I came just as
+the carriage was disappearing, and found the duchess much disturbed over
+it, though I assured her it was quite usual for young girls to go about
+alone in America."
+
+His look at the duchess demanded that she corroborate his account.
+
+"It was too bad," she said, glibly enough. "I should have accompanied
+her as I was, without hat or mantle even, but Miss Randolph was gone
+before I really had time to think. It is, after all, but a step to the
+Palazzo Sansevero."
+
+Eleanor Sansevero arose. Through a perfect control and sweetness of
+manner the most careless observer might have read displeasure. "Of
+course," she said, enunciating each word with smoothly modulated
+distinctness, "in America there could be no impropriety in a young
+girl's driving alone, but I am sorry you did not send for me. Your son
+left the room at the same time--he has not returned."
+
+The American princess towered in slim height above the stolid dumpiness
+of the duchess. From appearance one would never have guessed rightly
+which of the two women could trace her lineage for over a thousand
+years.
+
+The mouth of the duchess went down hard in the corners, and her dull,
+turtle eyes contracted, then her lips snapped open to answer, but
+Giovanni again saved her the trouble. "I met Scorpa on the street about
+ten minutes ago. He was going toward the Circolo d'Acacia."
+
+"Ah yes, Todo was filled with regret, as he wanted to show Miss Randolph
+the portraits," haltingly echoed the duchess, but she glanced uneasily
+at the door. "I was glad he did not see her indisposition--he has a
+heart as tender as a woman's, and it would have distressed him greatly!
+I do hope, princess, that you will find her quite recovered on your
+return. I think it must be the effect of sirocco."
+
+The other guests supported her in chorus. "The sirocco is very
+treacherous," ventured one. "She was perhaps not acclimatized to Rome,"
+said a second. "I thought she looked pale," chimed a third.
+
+The princess made her adieus at once and, followed by Giovanni, left the
+palace. For a few minutes the various groups, disposed about the Scorpa
+drawing-room, conversed in low whispers, but by the time the Sanseveros
+were well out of earshot the duchess had turned to the whispering groups
+with a hauteur of expression conveying quite plainly that it was not to
+be endured that a Sansevero, born American, should imply a criticism of
+a Duchess Scorpa, born Orsonna.
+
+"A headstrong young barbarian from the United States is quite beyond my
+control," she shrugged. "How can I help it if she chooses to run from
+the palace, like Cinderella when the clock strikes twelve!"
+
+One or two of those present who were friends of the Princess Sansevero
+may have resented the implied slight to her democratic birth. But though
+there was a vague appreciation of something beneath the surface in this
+American girl's sudden departure, there was nothing to which any one
+could take exception.
+
+The Contessa Potensi, however, had long waited for just such an
+opportunity, and seized it. "I felt sorry for Eleanor Sansevero," she
+said sweetly. "It puts her in an unendurable position to have to defend
+such a person. Naturally she _has_ to defend her, since she is her
+niece. I am sure she did not want her for the winter--but her parents
+would not keep her. It is no wonder they would be willing to give her a
+big dot!"
+
+There was general excitement. "What do you know?" the company cried in
+chorus. "Tell us about it!"
+
+But the Potensi at once became very discreet. For nothing would she take
+away a young girl's character. Besides, Eleanor Sansevero was one of her
+best friends--it would not be loyal to say anything further. More
+definite information she would not disclose, but her manner left little
+to the imagination.
+
+"Surely you can tell us something of what is said," insinuated the old
+Princess Malio, adjusting her false teeth securely in the roof of her
+mouth as if the better to enjoy the delectable morsel of scandal that
+she felt was about to be served. But the contessa, with a
+"could-if-she-would" expression, refused to say anything more, and the
+old princess turned instead to the duchess with, "Tell us the _truth_
+about Miss Randolph's sudden illness!"
+
+The truth, of course, was out of the question. Public sympathy must have
+gone against her and her son, and she hedged to gain time, "It is not
+all worth the thought needed to frame words."
+
+The old Princess Malio made a swallowing motion, still waiting. "Yes?"
+she encouraged eagerly.
+
+"Any one could see what happened," said the duchess reluctantly, as
+though she were loath to speak scandal. "The American girl, through
+lack of training--it is, after all, not her fault, poor thing--knows no
+better than to try to arrange matters for herself! She wanted, of
+course, to have an opportunity of talking to my Todo alone. Her plan to
+go into the picture gallery here, however, necessitated my chaperoning
+her, and then--contrary to her expectations--Todo, who did not fall in
+with her scheme, said he had an engagement and at once left. She could
+not, of course, declare the picture gallery of no interest, so I took
+her, but in her disappointment she quite lost her temper, so much so
+that it made her ill. And then she took the matter in her own hands and
+went home--I was never so astonished in my life! She ran off with
+Giovanni Sansevero so fast I could not catch up with them. I _suppose_
+he put her in the carriage, but for all I know he took her somewhere
+else. I followed to the front door and waited, not knowing what to do.
+Just as I returned to inform Princess Sansevero, for whom I have always
+had the highest regard, Giovanni commenced with his own account. What
+could I do except agree to his statement?"
+
+She looked inquiringly from one to the other. "That is the whole story!
+But I have made up my mind to one thing"--she spread her fat fingers
+out--"not even her millions would induce me to countenance Todo's
+marriage with such a self-willed girl as that!"
+
+The old Princess Malio looked like a bird of prey whose prize morsel
+had been stolen from it. "There is more in this than appears," she
+whispered to a timid little countess sitting next to her.
+
+The latter's half-hearted, "Do you think so, really?" voiced the
+attitude of nearly all present. The Scorpas were, to use the old Roman
+proverb, "sleeping dogs best let alone," and the Sanseveros, though not
+as rich, were none the less too great a family to side against.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+While the voice of the duchess was still echoing in the drawing-room of
+the Palazzo Scorpa, Nina had thrown herself into the corner of the sofa
+in her own room. She had a perfectly normal constitution, but she had
+been not only infuriated and horrified, but really frightened, and her
+nerves were unstrung.
+
+As she grew calmer, she thought more clearly; and she found that the
+afternoon's experience, horrible as it was, held some leaven--Giovanni's
+behavior stirred her deeply. She had realized the power of his muscles
+under his slight build before--when he had held the Great Dane's throat
+in his grip--and she had seen his flexibility, in turning
+instantaneously from fury to suavity. Yet his masterful attack upon her
+assailant, followed by his sympathy and comprehension on the way home,
+thrilled her as with a revelation of unguessed capacities. John Derby
+could not have come to her rescue better, nor could she have felt more
+protected and calmed with her childhood's friend at her side in the
+carriage, than with this alien of a foreign race.
+
+She went into her dressing-room and bathed her eyes and cheeks in cold
+water. Then, thinking the princess must surely have returned by this
+time, she decided to go into the drawing-room. On her way she met her
+aunt coming toward her, followed closely by Giovanni, who put his finger
+on his lips, just as the princess exclaimed, "Nina, my child, what
+happened to you? You did very wrong to run off home alone. I can't
+understand your having done such a thing. It was not only ill-mannered,
+but it put you in a very questionable light."
+
+Over the princess's shoulder Giovanni was making an unmistakable demand
+for silence. "I'm very sorry," Nina faltered--Giovanni was looking at
+her intensely, pleadingly, his finger on his lips--"but I--never felt
+like that before. I got terribly--nervous, and I felt that if I did not
+get away from that house I should go mad." Even the recollection made
+Nina look so distraught that her aunt's indignation turned to anxiety,
+and she put her arm around the girl and led her into the drawing-room.
+
+"It is not like you, dear, to lose control of yourself," she said
+tenderly, and then, as she scrutinized Nina's face in the better light,
+she added: "You do look white, darling. You had better lie down here on
+the sofa. I think I will prepare you some tea of camomile," and then,
+with a final touch of gentle admonition, she added, "We must not have
+any more such scenes!" Nina hoped for a chance to ask Giovanni why she
+might not tell the princess what had happened, but the latter did not
+leave the room. Having sent for the camomile flowers, she made Nina a
+cup of tea, and the subject of the afternoon's occurrence was dropped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE
+
+
+All that evening Nina was tense and nervous, not only because of her
+experience at the Palazzo Scorpa, but because of something portentous in
+Giovanni's unexplained demand for silence. He was not at the same dinner
+party with her, but she went on to a dance at the Marchese Valdeste's,
+feeling sure that she would have a chance to speak with him there. He
+always danced with her several times during a ball, and, as he was not
+very much taller than she, she could easily talk to him without danger
+of any one's overhearing.
+
+Her partners undoubtedly found her _distraite_; her attention vacillated
+from one side of the ballroom to the other, as she searched for a
+well-known, graceful figure and a small, sleek black head. All the time,
+too, she was fearful of seeing a square-jawed face that kept recurring
+to her memory as she had last seen it that afternoon--distorted, with
+mouth open, and eyes protruding from their sockets. Vivid pictures of
+the terrible incident flashed before her as she tried to listen to her
+partners; now she was swept with horror and revulsion, and again she
+felt a strange thrill at thought of the steely strength of Giovanni's
+arms, as he had half carried her down the stairway. But she looked in
+vain for her protector--neither he nor the duke appeared.
+
+"What is it, Signorina?" Prince Allegro's voice broke jarringly upon her
+recollections. "I am afraid I dance too fast!"
+
+Nina recovered herself with a start. "Oh, no! But I feel--a little
+tired; I wish we might sit down."
+
+"Let me conduct you into the next room--or shall I take you to the
+princess? Perhaps it would be better for you to go home."
+
+Nina smiled. "No," she said, "I am all right. The room is very warm,
+I think."
+
+The Contessa Potensi, walking for once with her husband, passed through
+the adjoining room just as Nina had finally succeeded in focusing her
+attention upon Allegro's sprightly chatter. As they passed, the contessa
+stopped a moment to say to Nina, "I am so glad to see that you have
+recovered from your sudden indisposition of this afternoon." But her
+tone was neither solicitous nor sincere, and she hid her hands in such a
+way that she might have been making with her fingers the little horns
+that are supposed to be a protection against the evil eye.
+
+"I am much better, thank you," Nina answered simply.
+
+"Don't let me keep you standing. I merely wanted to be assured that you
+are recovered. I would not interrupt a _tête-à-tête_!"
+
+The contessa's manner suggested to Nina that it was perhaps questionable
+taste for a young girl to sit out part of a dance. Instead, therefore, of
+resuming her place on the sofa, she asked Allegro to take her to the
+princess.
+
+During the rest of the evening she had an uncomfortable conviction that
+the Contessa Potensi was talking about her. She always had this impression
+in some degree whenever the contessa was present, but to-night it was
+strong and unmistakable. And after a while she became aware that other
+people's eyes were upon her with a new expression, that was not idle
+conjecture nor unmeaning curiosity. The old ladies against the wall
+whispered together and glanced openly in her direction, as their gray
+heads bobbed above their fans.
+
+At the end of the evening, as she was descending the staircase with her
+aunt and uncle, she was joined by Zoya Olisco, who whispered excitedly,
+"Tell me, _cara mia_--what happened this afternoon?"
+
+Nina started. "What have you heard?" She tried to look unconcerned, but
+her face was troubled, and she drew Zoya out of her aunt's hearing.
+
+"It is rumored that you lost your temper--oh, but entirely! and walked
+yourself out of the Palazzo Scorpa without so much as saying good-by or
+waiting for your chaperon."
+
+Nina hesitated, then said in an undertone, "Yes, I am afraid it is true.
+Was it a dreadful thing to do?"
+
+The contessa laughed softly. "I told you that you were a girl after my
+own heart. In your place I should have walked myself out of that house
+as quickly as I had entered, but all the same--that would not be my
+advice. However, this is not the serious part of the story." Even Zoya's
+buoyancy became restrained as she concluded: "All Rome is asking what
+you have done with the duke. He followed you out of the room and has not
+been seen since. Giovanni is said to have spoken of seeing him at the
+club--and that is known to be untrue. Carlo was at the Circolo d'Acacia
+all the afternoon; so was that Ugo Potensi, as well as a dozen others--and
+neither Scorpa nor Giovanni was there! So where is the duke? Come, tell
+me!"
+
+A look of terror came into Nina's eyes, and the young contessa darted
+her a swift returning glance of comprehension. "Listen, _carissima_,"
+she said, "I am your friend, therefore don't look so frightened--you are
+a regular baby! The situation is not difficult to read. Obviously there
+was a scene between you, the thick duke, and the agile Giovanni. Just
+what it was all about, of course, I can only surmise; but I _do_ know
+that Giovanni is deep in it, and, what is more important, I know also
+that the result is likely to be troublesome for you. For men to quarrel
+between themselves is one thing; but when a _woman_ comes into it, one
+can never see the end."
+
+"Woman? I know nothing of any woman." Nina shook her head.
+
+"I told you that you were a baby! But we can't talk here. I shall come
+to see you to-morrow, but not until late in the afternoon. I shall then
+perhaps be useful, for in the meantime I am going about like the wolf in
+the sheep's pelt, to see what news I can pick up. Till then--have
+courage!"
+
+Just then the Sansevero carriage was announced, and Nina was obliged to
+hasten after her aunt. At the door she glanced back at Zoya with a
+half-questioning look, which the contessa answered by blowing her a
+kiss.
+
+That night the little sleep Nina was able to get was fitful and broken
+by dreams. The duke and his mother appeared to her as cuttlefish in a
+cave under perpendicular cliffs that ran into the sea. Nina was out in a
+little boat alone, and the waves dashed the tiny craft nearer and nearer
+to the cave where the cuttlefish were waiting; finally she came so close
+that one tentacle seized her. Terrified, she awoke. After hours of
+half-waking, half-sleeping, formless confusion, she dreamed again. In
+this dream she and Giovanni were on horseback. She was sitting in a most
+precarious position on the horse's shoulder, but was held securely by
+Giovanni's arm around her waist. Behind them she heard the pounding of
+many horses in pursuit. The whole dream had the underlying terror of a
+nightmare, and just as the distance diminished, and they were nearly
+caught, the ground gave way and they pitched over a precipice. As they
+were falling and about to be dashed on the rocks at the bottom of the
+ravine, she heard a woman's laugh, and recognized it as that of the
+Contessa Maria Potensi.
+
+She awoke, trembling, and lit her lamp. It was nearly four o'clock, and
+she had slept but half an hour. Near her bed was an American magazine;
+she read the advertisements, to fill her mind with thoughts commonplace
+and practical enough to banish dreams. The sun was rising when at last
+she fell asleep, and she did not awake until nearly noon.
+
+The morning's mail brought her a letter from John Derby--a good letter,
+simple and frank, like himself, full of enthusiasm and of plans for
+making the "Little Devil" a model settlement. He would arrive in Rome,
+he told her, within a week. But even John's letter gave her only a few
+moments' relief from her distressing memories.
+
+Knowing that she had to pay visits with her aunt again that afternoon,
+she put on her hat before lunch, in the hope of securing an opportunity
+to speak with Giovanni while waiting for Eleanor, who always dressed
+after luncheon. When she was nearly ready to go down, Celeste answered a
+knock at the door, but, instead of delivering a package or message,
+disappeared. After at least five minutes she returned, and, with a
+noticeable air of mystery, locked the door, and then gave Nina a letter.
+"I was told to give this into Mademoiselle's hands, without letting any
+one know," she said.
+
+Nina felt an undefined misgiving as she tore open the envelope. Though
+she had never seen Giovanni's handwriting, she had no doubt that it was
+his. It looked as though it might not be very legible at best; but on
+the sheet before her the shaking, uneven letters trailed off into such
+filiform indistinctness that she had to go through it several times
+before she could decipher the following, written in French:
+
+         "Mademoiselle, I understand you well enough to be
+         sure that you will ask for the truth at all costs,
+         but in giving it to you, I also depend upon your
+         honor to divulge to no one, not even Eleanor, what
+         I tell you: I fought Scorpa this morning and have
+         sustained a bullet wound in the arm. Unfortunately,
+         it was impossible to hide, as the bone is broken
+         and it had to be put in plaster. Scorpa's condition
+         is, I am told, serious. If it goes badly, I shall
+         have to leave the country, though I doubt if he
+         allows the real cause to be known. I rely upon your
+         discretion as completely as you may rely upon my
+         having avenged an insult offered to the purest and
+         noblest of women.
+
+          "I beg you to believe, Mademoiselle, in the
+          respectful devotion of the humblest of your
+          servants.
+
+                                            "DI VALDO."
+
+
+Nina folded the letter and locked it away in her jewel case, moving as
+if in a daze. She felt faint and suffocated. Giovanni had risked his
+life--for her sake! He was hurt--what if the wound should prove serious,
+what if he should lose his arm! Oh, if only she might go to her aunt and
+pour out the whole story! But she was in honor bound to say nothing
+without Giovanni's permission, and she must master herself at once in
+order to appear as usual at luncheon.
+
+A little later, as she entered the dining-room, she heard the prince
+saying--"Pretty serious accident." He turned at once to her:
+
+"You have heard?" he said, and as she merely inclined her head, he
+hastened to explain: "Giovanni, it seems, slipped this morning and broke
+his arm. But, though the fracture is a very serious one, he is in no
+danger."
+
+Nina tried to speak, but her tongue seemed glued to the roof of her
+mouth. Naturally enough, both Eleanor and Sansevero interpreted her
+pallor and agitation as a sign of interest in Giovanni. "He broke the
+elbow," the prince continued; "a 'T' break, it is called, which may
+leave the joint stiff. There was a piece of bone splintered." Nina
+gripped the under edge of the table--she knew what had splintered the
+bone! She almost screamed aloud, but she set her lips, held tight to the
+table, and tried to appear calm; while Sansevero, in spite of his
+anxiety for his brother's condition, could not help feeling great
+satisfaction in what looked so encouraging to Giovanni's suit.
+
+"Giovanni went to the surgeon's," he continued. "Imagine--he walked
+there! He should never have attempted such a thing. He had quite an
+operation, for the splintered portions of the bone had to be cut away.
+The arm is now in plaster, and they won't be able to tell for weeks
+whether he ever can move his elbow again. They brought him home a couple
+of hours ago. He is now a little feverish, but a sister has come to
+nurse him, and we have left him to rest." Then Sansevero turned to his
+wife: "It all sounds very queer to me, Leonora. What was the matter with
+the boy, anyway? Why did he not send for me? And why did he not go to
+bed like a sensible human being and stay there?"
+
+Nina was on tenterhooks. She so wanted to ask her aunt and uncle what
+they really thought! She wondered if they truly had no suspicions. Or
+were they perhaps dissimulating as she herself was trying with poor
+success to do? She could not understand how the princess, who was
+usually quick of perception, could possibly be blind to the real facts
+of the case. She felt choked--as if she herself had fired the shot that
+might bring far more horrible consequences than her aunt and uncle knew.
+
+The princess, seeing Nina's face grow whiter and whiter, asked anxiously
+if she felt ill.
+
+"No--not a bit!" Nina answered, looking as though she were about to
+faint. After several unsuccessful attempts to turn the conversation into
+happier channels, the princess met with some success in the topic of
+John Derby and the miracles with which rumor credited him. Nina listened
+with half-pathetic interest, but her hands trembled, and the few
+mouthfuls she took almost refused to go down her throat. In her heart,
+at that moment, everything gave way to Giovanni. She reproached herself
+deeply for lack of belief in him. Always she had acknowledged that he
+was charming, but the doubt of his sincerity had weighed against her
+really caring for him. She had accepted John Derby's casual words, "The
+Europeans do a lot of beautiful talking and picturesque posing, but when
+it comes to real devotion you will find that one of your Uncle Samuel's
+nephews will come out ahead."
+
+All that was ended; there was no more question about what the Europeans
+would do when it came to a test. Giovanni had done far more than say
+beautiful, graceful things--he had proved to her that her honor was
+dearer to him than his life, and she was stirred to the very depths of
+her soul. In the midst of Eleanor's talk of John Derby, she tried to
+imagine what John would have done in Giovanni's place. He would have
+thrashed the man within an inch of his life--that she knew. But, manly
+as that would have been, it could not compare with Giovanni's course in
+silently waiting fourteen or fifteen hours and then deliberately going
+out in the dull gray dawn and standing up at forty paces as a target for
+Scorpa's bullet. She thought how, while she had been merely tossing in
+her bed, unable to sleep, intent on herself, dwelling on her injured
+dignity and the horror of that brute's touch, Giovanni had been sitting
+up through the same long night, putting his affairs in order, and
+looking death in the face! And she found herself forced to realize that
+Giovanni--whose instability had been the strongest argument against
+allowing herself to love him--had paid a price so high that his right to
+her faith must henceforward be unquestioned.
+
+She had only a vague idea when luncheon ended, or what visits she and
+her uncle and aunt paid that afternoon. She went through the rest of the
+day as though dazed. Fortunately, her agitation seemed natural to the
+prince and princess, and her apparent interest in Giovanni was so near
+to the truth that she did not mind. Late that afternoon she and Zoya
+Olisco sat together behind the tea table, for most of the time alone.
+Zoya had the story pretty straight, but Nina simply looked at her
+dumbly--answering nothing. She was relieved, however, to hear that, so
+far, people had evidently not ferreted out the facts.
+
+They were not to find out through the papers. On the morning after the
+duel, the _Tribunale_ had this paragraph:
+
+          "Society of Rome will be sorry to learn that the
+          Duke Scorpa is seriously ill at his Palazzo. The
+          doctor's bulletins announce that their illustrious
+          patient is suffering from a malignant case of
+          fever which at the best will mean an illness of
+          many weeks."
+
+But it was not until the next day that there was a paragraph to the
+effect that the Marchese di Valdo had met with an accident. A passer-by
+had seen him slip in front of his club, the Circolo d'Acacia. It seems
+the wind carried his hat off suddenly, and, as he put his hand out to
+catch it, he fell and broke his arm. Following this came several other
+social items, and then the second day's bulletin about the Duke Scorpa,
+saying that the gravity of his condition remained unchanged.
+
+Nina quite refused to be moved to pity by the news of Scorpa's critical
+state. Her only anxiety in connection with him was, what would they do
+to Giovanni, in case Scorpa should die? For _how_ was Giovanni to be got
+out of the country, when he was said to be delirious in bed! By day she
+thought, and by night she dreamed, that they were going to cut off his
+arm.
+
+As the excitement was dying down, John Derby returned from Sicily. He
+noticed that Nina looked nervous and ill, but she tried to convince him
+that it was the result of late hours and dancing. Besides, he had no
+opportunity of talking to her alone, for in consequence of his success,
+all who were interested in Sicily or mines flocked to the Palazzo
+Sansevero as soon as it became known that Derby was there. The fuss made
+over him pleased him, of course; for, after all, he was quite human and
+quite young, and there was great exhilaration in being the bearer of
+good news. He would not promise any definite amount to the holders of
+the "Little Devil." There would be some money, but that was all he could
+say. He did not yet know how much. To Nina's delight, he actually got
+Carpazzi to accept the position of Tiggs, who had to return to America.
+The plant, once started, no longer needed both engineers. And Carpazzi's
+tumble-down castle not far from Vencata, enabled him to go without hurt
+to his European ideas of dignity to "look after his own property."
+
+In spite of her explanations, John was very much worried about Nina. She
+certainly was not herself. Several times he caught a half-appealing look
+in her eyes, as though she had something weighing on her mind. Yet she
+gave him no chance to ask her confidence. Finally he had the good luck
+to be left with her for a few moments alone, but there was a lack of
+frankness in her face that he had never seen there before, and she had
+an apprehensive, frightened manner that alarmed him.
+
+The question he was almost ready to put, in spite of his resolution,
+remained unasked, and he said instead: "Look here, Nina, I don't think
+you are well! You're awfully jumpy. I never saw you like this at home.
+Has anything happened?"
+
+Nina shook her head.
+
+"Honest and straight?"
+
+She looked at him with a distracted expression that reminded him of a
+child afraid of losing its way.
+
+"Jack"--she hesitated; her voice sounded constrained--"please don't look
+so--so serious. It is nothing--that I can tell you! Don't notice that I
+am any different. Really, I am not. You are my best friend, and the
+first I would go to if I needed help."
+
+Yet, as she said the words, she felt with a sudden, poignant pain that
+they were no longer true. Her mind was in a turmoil, and at that very
+moment, had she followed her inclination, she would have screamed aloud.
+She did not understand why she was so wretched; but one thing was
+certain--it was Giovanni who filled her thoughts!
+
+Perhaps Derby interpreted the change in her. He put a question suddenly,
+"Nina, you couldn't really care for an Italian, could you?"
+
+Nina flushed. "I don't know whether I could or not," she said. "I think
+there may be just as wonderful men over here as at home. I know there
+are some that are quite as brave."
+
+Derby frowned. "Nina, Nina----"
+
+But Nina did not even hear his interruption. "I wish you knew Don
+Giovanni, Jack," she said. "You would like Italians better, I think!"
+
+"It is not that I think ill of Italians--quite the contrary; but--I
+should not like to think of your marrying Don Giovanni."
+
+"And why shouldn't I?" The question came near to summing up the problem
+of her own meditations, and his opposition--with its carefully
+maintained impersonal quality--piqued her and made the smoldering
+consideration of marrying Giovanni suddenly flame into a definite
+intention.
+
+"Well?" she repeated.
+
+"Because I think American men make the best husbands."
+
+Nina was brutal. "You say that because you are an American yourself!"
+
+He let the injustice of her remark pass unnoticed. "I merely repeat," he
+said calmly, "that, married to the Marchese di Valdo, you would be a
+very unhappy woman. That is my straight opinion. If you don't like it,
+I can't help it."
+
+"Why should I be unhappy?"
+
+"Don't let's discuss it."
+
+"That is just like an American. Do you wonder women care for Europeans?
+A man over here would sit down sensibly and tell you every sort of
+reason."
+
+"Yes, and one sort of reason as well as another. For, or against,
+whichever way the wind might happen to be blowing!"
+
+In spite of herself, Nina was disagreeably conscious of the truth of his
+judgment. But she shut her mind to it, as she exclaimed, "And you say
+you don't dislike Italian men!"
+
+"No, I don't! You are altogether wrong. I have been over here often
+enough to admire them tremendously, in a great many ways. But I don't
+like to see the girl I--the girl I have known all her life, marry a man
+that I feel sure will break her heart."
+
+"Aunt Eleanor's heart is not broken!"
+
+Derby walked up and down the floor, then stood still, stuffed his hands
+into his pockets, and looked down at his shoes as though their varnish
+were the only thing in life that interested him.
+
+"Well? Is Aunt Eleanor's heart broken?"
+
+"Perhaps not; but, even so, you and she are very different women. From
+her girlhood she was more or less trained for the life she leads. She
+went from a convent school to the house of a brother-in-law--in other
+words, from one dependence to another. She is the type of woman who
+weathers change and storm by bending to the wind."
+
+"Aunt Eleanor! Hers is the strongest character I know!"
+
+"Of course it is! But it is exactly because she is apparently
+unresisting and pliant to surrounding conditions that her spirit is
+unassailable. You, on the contrary, would snap in the first tempest! Or,
+to change the simile, have you ever seen a young bull calf tied to a
+tree, and, in a frantic effort to get loose, wind itself up tighter,
+until its head was pulled close to the tree? That is exactly what you
+would be over here. No girl has ever had her own way all her life more
+than you! Believe me, you have no idea what it would mean to be tied to
+a rope of convention that would tighten like a noose at any struggle on
+your part. As the wife of a man like di Valdo, you would be bound by
+endless petty formalities. Another thing--which your aunt has made me
+realize--as an American, you would have to excel the Italians in dignity
+in order to be thought to equal them. Things perfectly pardonable for
+them would finish you. You need only take your aunt and Kate Masco for
+your examples. Kate's behavior is not any worse than that of plenty of
+the born countesses, even. But that's just it--she _isn't_ a countess
+born, and her ways won't do! Your aunt, on the other hand, is '_grande
+dame_' in every fiber of her being. Hardly another woman in Rome has her
+graciousness and dignity. These qualities were hers, doubtless, from
+the beginning, but you needn't tell me even she found it as easy to be a
+princess as it would seem!"
+
+Nina looked up at Derby in open-eyed amazement. "Gracious, John! I never
+dreamed you were so observing! In a way, I imagine you are right, too.
+But at least, if a woman has to follow conventions to earn a position
+over here, that position is real and worth while when she does get it.
+And a woman like Aunt Eleanor is far more appreciated here than she
+would be at home."
+
+"Humph!" was Derby's retort. "You needn't think that all the
+appreciating of women is done in Italy, though the men at home may not
+put things so gracefully as these over here, who have nothing else to do
+but learn to turn beautiful phrases. I don't think that I am flattering
+myself in saying that if I were to give up my life to the one
+accomplishment of artistic love-making, I might make good, too! However,
+that is pretty far out of my line. I'm a blunt sort of person, but
+I--well, I care a lot for you, Nina! I'd rather see you marry--Billy
+Dalton, any day!"
+
+As Derby brought in Billy Dalton's name, Nina had a sense of flatness
+that she would have been at a loss to explain.
+
+"Jack!" she cried suddenly, her surface vanity piqued, but before even
+the sentence which crowded back of her exclamation could frame itself,
+Giovanni's image flashed before her mind and pushed out every other
+impression. She seemed to see him racked with suffering, and all for
+her! She hated her own vacillation. She despised herself for a fickle
+flirt. What else was she? Here she was imagining all sorts of vague
+heartaches that were utterly unworthy of her loyalty either to
+Giovanni's love or to Jack's friendship. Jack was her best friend,
+almost her brother, and she had no right to feel so limp because--she
+did not finish the sentence even to herself; yet she was swept into such
+a turmoil of emotion--friendship, love, pique, doubt--that she could
+restore nothing to order. She knew Derby thought Giovanni wanted her
+money--instinctively her mouth hardened as she thought of it--but
+then--every one wanted it except Jack! And at once, with an
+unaccountable baffling ache, she was brought face to face with the fact
+that Jack, as it happened, did not want her at all!
+
+Then, hating herself because she had for a moment thought of Jack as a
+possible suitor, and more especially because of the detestable and
+unworthy chagrin that his not being a suitor had caused her, she became
+hysterically erratic, aloof, and impossible, and began suddenly to talk
+like a paid guide about the sculptures at the Vatican! At the end of
+some minutes, during which Derby failed to get anything in the way of a
+natural remark from her, he arose to go. He left with a strong desire to
+send a doctor and a trained nurse to take Nina in hand.
+
+Down at the entrance of the palace a very pretty woman was speaking with
+the porter. She was talking vehemently and with much accompanying
+gesticulation. As Derby passed out, she looked up into his face. He put
+his hand to his hat, in a vague remembrance of her features, wondering
+where he had met her, and what her name might be. As he went through the
+archway into the street, the recognition came to him. She was the
+celebrated dancer, La Favorita.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+"THY PEOPLE SHALL BE MY PEOPLE--"
+
+
+The following morning, for the first time since his injury, Giovanni was
+brought into the princess's sitting-room, and propped up on a sofa. As
+occasionally happens in early spring, midsummer seemed to have arrived
+in one day, and the windows stood wide open to the morning breeze.
+
+Sitting in the full light of the windows, and close by Giovanni's couch,
+Nina was making a necktie--a very smart one, of dull raspberry silk; but
+she was knitting rather because the occupation steadied her nerves than
+for any other reason, and the charmingly tranquil picture that she made
+was very far from representing her feelings. She had never been less
+happy or peaceful in her life.
+
+The princess, within easy earshot, was busily writing at her desk. But
+after a while, in answer to an appealing look from Giovanni, she left
+the room. Nina felt no surprise either at Giovanni's appeal or at her
+aunt's response. She knew very well what he would say, and she had long
+been trying to make up her mind what her answer should be. Yet no sooner
+had the _portières_ closed than an unaccountable dread took possession
+of her, and she had an overwhelming desire to escape.
+
+She knitted industriously, her head bent, her eyes intent upon her
+needles. For a while Giovanni lay back against the pillows, idly
+watching her progress; then he raised himself on his unbandaged elbow
+and leaned forward. Even this exertion revealed his weakness: an
+increasing pallor overspread his transparent features, and he spoke as
+sick people do--with difficulty and as though out of breath:
+"Mademoiselle, you know--what I have in my heart--to say----"
+
+"Don't, ah--please----" Nina sprang up and put out her hand in protest.
+
+But he paid no heed. "Donna Nina," he implored, "will you do me the
+honor to be my wife? _Carissima mia_--" she heard his voice as though
+from afar, as he fell back against the pillow--"I love you! Even a
+portion of how much I love you would fill a life!" He took her hand as
+she stood beside him, and pressed it to his lips.
+
+She felt how thin his hand was, and how it trembled. Her conscience
+smote her--it was all because of her! And for a moment the answer that
+he sought hung on the very tip of her tongue--hung, faltered--and then
+raced down her throat again. Her hand drew away from his clasp, and she
+almost sobbed, "I can't, I can't. Oh, I would if I could--but I can't!"
+
+Then she heard him say gently: "Give me an answer later--I am not such,
+just now, that I can hold my own--I will wait till I am strong again.
+Will you give me your answer then?" Half choking, she nodded her head in
+assent and hurried from the room.
+
+St. Anthony, the great Dane, who, since Giovanni's illness, had attached
+himself to Nina, stalked after her. She went through the intervening
+rooms into the picture gallery, and there dropped down upon a low marble
+seat and took the big dog's head in her arms.
+
+She believed in Giovanni's disinterestedness; he had given her every
+reason to think he truly loved her. It seemed to her that she had seen
+his real feeling grow gradually. If she could believe in any one _ever_,
+she must believe in him. Even the astute little Zoya Olisco had
+confirmed the impression by saying that all Rome knew that Giovanni
+cared nothing for money. There had been a very rich girl--all the
+fortune hunters were after her--and she was so strongly attracted to
+Giovanni that she made no effort to disguise her preference for him. But
+he showed no inclination to marry a rich wife.
+
+These and many other things were enough to convince Nina that his love
+was real, without the final proof when he had risked his life for her.
+In mere gratitude she would have made the effort to care for him. And
+yet the more she tried to encourage her sentiments, the more they
+baffled her. From the first she had felt timid of something unknown in
+Giovanni. She had thought herself in danger of being attracted too much,
+but now she felt that, throughout, the fear had been of another sort, a
+fear which she could not analyze.
+
+"What is the matter with me?" she whispered brokenly to St. Anthony. "We
+love Giovanni, don't we? We do! We do!" But her words were meaningless
+sounds that echoed hollowly.
+
+Then slowly she noted the great gallery filled with things flawless--the
+mellow canvases of the old masters, the marvelous statuary, perfect even
+in the brilliant light streaming through the eastern windows; and her
+thoughts turned backwards to that day when the allure of antiquity had
+most strongly held her--that day when she had first seen Giovanni dance.
+As the recollection grew in vividness, she was again aware of the same
+strange sensation that she had felt then. It was as though she were
+living in a past age, with which she, as Nina Randolph, had nothing to
+do. Her name might be Tullia or Claudia!
+
+And then once again the memory of Giovanni's high-bred charm, no less
+than of his great estate, which she was now asked to share, seemed to
+hold a spell of enchantment. His words, "_Carissima_, I love you," swept
+through her memory with a thrill that the spoken words themselves had
+failed to carry. She laid her cheek down on the dog's great head, her
+mouth close to a pointed ear. "We _do_ love him, thou and I," she
+whispered in Italian, "and we will stay here always--always."
+
+She unclasped her arms from about the dog's neck and sat up straight,
+determined to hurry back through the rooms, before the queer fear should
+seize her anew. She would not wait to analyze her feelings again; she
+would go straight to the sofa and say to Giovanni's ardent, appealing
+eyes--his beautiful Italian eyes--"Yes."
+
+But even as the resolve was shaped, there followed swift upon it an
+overwhelming wave of doubt that made her clasp her hands to still the
+turmoil within her breast. It was as if an inner voice repeated, clearly
+and insistently, "You don't love him! You don't love him!"
+
+The dog lifted one huge paw and put it on her knee, his head went up, he
+pushed his cold nose against her cheek, and as she lifted her chin, to
+escape his over-affectionate caress, her glance fell by chance on a
+picture of Ruth and Naomi. On the day when she had first come into the
+gallery Giovanni had repeated, in French, the words of Ruth; and now, as
+she gazed absently at the picture, she found that she was saying to
+herself, not in French but in English, "Thy people shall be my
+people----" Gradually an indescribable, comforted, soothed feeling crept
+over her, as she looked into the true, steadfast eyes of the pictured
+Ruth--hers were indeed the eyes of one who could follow faithfully to
+the ends of the earth.
+
+"'Whither thou goest, I will go,'" repeated Nina--yes, that was the
+test. Giovanni away from his surroundings, and apart from his name--she
+could not picture him. And should she put her hand in his, whither would
+he lead her? Where did his path of life end? She could not with any
+certainty guess. "Thy people shall be my people"--how could they ever
+be? They were so widely different--so utterly different--she had never
+realized it before--and then without warning, as a final move in a
+puzzle snaps into place and makes the whole complete, with a little cry
+she started up. For she now knew that the more she tried to focus her
+thoughts upon Giovanni, the more they turned to another quite different
+personality. Until at last, as in a burst of light, she awoke to the
+consciousness that the words of Ruth were bringing a great longing for
+the sight of a certain pair of eyes whose expression was like those in
+the canvas! "'Whither thou goest, I will go----' Ah!"--exultantly and
+with no fear of doubt; it was true! To the uttermost parts of the
+earth! . . .
+
+But she must tell Giovanni--she must tell him at once, decidedly and
+finally, "No."
+
+Sadly, regretfully, she crossed the room again, her hand slipped through
+the great Dane's collar as though to gain encouragement from his
+presence. In the antechamber of the room where Giovanni lay, she stopped
+and kissed St. Anthony's head--as though the dog in turn might help
+Giovanni to understand that she was not in truth as heartless as she
+seemed.
+
+The stone floors were covered with thick rugs, the hangings were heavy,
+and her light footfall made no sound. Without warning she parted the
+_portières_, took one step across the threshold, and halted,
+stunned--the Contessa Potensi was kneeling beside Giovanni's couch, and
+the sound of Giovanni's voice came distinctly, saying, "For her? But no!
+But because she is of the household of the Sansevero." And then with an
+ardor that made the tones which he had used to her sound flat and
+shallow by comparison, she heard him say, "_Carissima_, I swear I shall
+never love another as I love you."
+
+The _portières_ fell together, and Nina fled. Two or three times she
+lost her way in the endless turnings of the palace before she finally
+reached her own room. Once there, she wrote the shortest note
+imaginable, declining in terse and positive terms Giovanni's offer of
+marriage. The pen nearly dug through the paper as she signed her name.
+Besides giving Celeste this missive to deliver, she sent her upon a tour
+of trivial shopping--anything to be left alone.
+
+When the door was closed, Nina threw herself across the bed, still
+hardly able to credit her senses. Giovanni had asked her, Nina, to be
+his wife, not half an hour before--he still had the effrontery to hope
+for a change in her answer. He had dared to tell her that he loved her,
+he had dared to call her, too, "_Carissima!_"
+
+With her head buried in the pillows, she did not hear the door open, and
+the princess reached the bed and took Nina in her arms before the girl
+knew that she had entered.
+
+Nina poured out the whole story. The one clear idea that she had in mind
+was to leave Rome at once. She wanted to go away! Above all, she wanted
+to go away! She was by this time quite hysterical.
+
+The princess's coolness gradually dominated as she said finally: "The
+thing is incredible--you must have misunderstood. I don't know what the
+explanation is, myself, but the worst blunder we can make is to judge
+too hastily. I am sure it will come out differently than it seems, if
+you will but have patience."
+
+Savagely Nina turned on her. "Are you against me? _You_, auntie! Do you
+side with him? And that Potensi?"
+
+With an expression more troubled than angry, the princess answered
+gently, "Of course, my child, I don't side against you--but I can't
+believe that they were really as you thought they were."
+
+A sudden violent knocking interrupted, and at the same moment Sansevero,
+who had been looking for his wife everywhere, rushed in, quite beside
+himself, with the announcement that Scorpa was dead. The Sanseveros had
+for some days known the cause of his illness, and the doctor who had
+been at the duel had kept them informed of his condition. Now there was
+not a minute to lose! The news of the duke's death had not yet been
+made public, but Giovanni must be got out of the country at once, or
+there would be trouble! A train would go north in an hour, and the
+prince and princess hurried off to complete the arrangements for
+Giovanni's departure.
+
+Left alone in her room and to her own thoughts, Nina's anger gradually
+lessened. Giovanni's danger, and his having to be taken away so weak and
+ill, appealed to her humanity and helped to soften her resentment.
+Whether it had been for love of her or not, it was on her account that
+he had been placed in his present unfortunate situation. He was going
+out of her life--it was not likely that she would ever see him
+again--but it took an hour or two's turning of the subject over in her
+thoughts before she came to the conclusion that, instead of being
+resentful, she ought to be thankful for her escape. She had finally
+reached this frame of mind when there was a knock at the door.
+
+"May I come in, my dear?" Zoya Olisco entered as she spoke. She stood a
+second on the threshold, then, closing the door after her, crossed the
+room quickly and, taking Nina's face between her hands, looked at her
+with a half-quizzical grimace. "You silly little cat," she said softly,
+"surely you have not been melting into tears over the duke's death--nor
+yet for Giovanni's departure?"
+
+"How do you know about it? Aunt Eleanor didn't tell you, did she? Is
+the news of the duke's death out?"
+
+Zoya's raised eyebrows expressed satisfaction, and she exclaimed
+triumphantly: "I knew I was right! Really, it is extraordinary how
+things come about! No one has told me a word. Yet the whole story
+unrolled itself in front of me. Listen"--she interrupted herself long
+enough to light a cigarette, then sat down tailor fashion on the foot of
+the lounge--"I was but a moment ago at the station--my sister went back
+to Russia this morning. As I was leaving, whom did I see but Giovanni
+being piloted down the trainway! He looked really ill, and it would have
+struck any one as strange that he should be traveling. Then all at once
+I thought to myself, 'Hm, Hm! Signore il duca has descended into the
+next world, and the one who sent him there is being banished into the
+next country!' Thereupon I thought further, 'That child of a Nina will
+be hiding her head under the pillows of her bed'--exactly as you have
+been doing! How do I know? Look at your hair, and look at the
+pillows--and here I am to scold you!"
+
+Nina looked at her in amazement. "You have put it all together, you
+wonderful Zoya! Compared to you, I never seem to see anything! Oh, but
+this whole day has been full of horrible surprises. I never dreamed what
+sort of man Giovanni is--and yet I can't help feeling sorry to think of
+his being sent off ill and alone!"
+
+"How _very_ pathetic!" exclaimed Zoya sarcastically. "It is the very
+saddest thing I have ever heard of." Then her tone changed. "I would not
+waste too much sympathy on him for his loneliness, however," she said
+briskly, "as he has a very charming companion, who, if accounts are
+true, is not only diverting but devoted. That spoils your sad picture
+somewhat, does it not?"
+
+"The Potensi!" escaped Nina's lips before she knew it.
+
+Zoya blew rings of smoke unperturbed. "So you have found _that_ out,
+have you?"
+
+Nina colored with indignation. "Have you known that, too, and never told
+me? Zoya, you call yourself my friend!"
+
+But Zoya met Nina's glance squarely, as she asked in turn: "What
+difference does it make? Though, for that matter, I've made it plain all
+winter; any one but a baby would have understood long ago. But after
+all, why such an excitement over such a commonplace fact?" Then, with
+far more interest, she said: "You certainly are funny, you Americans.
+What in the world do you think men are? And since Giovanni is not even
+married? However, to finish my story: it was not the Potensi with your
+hero, but Favorita."
+
+"Favorita--the dancer? Zoya, what do you mean?"
+
+"Exactly what I tell you." Zoya inhaled her cigarette deeply and then
+shrugged her shoulders. "When I saw Giovanni, I did not believe it
+possible, that, even on so short notice, he would go off as you said,
+ill and alone. So I went back along the station and waited. In a moment,
+I saw Favorita come out on the platform and pass hurriedly down the
+train, peering into every carriage. When she came to Giovanni's she flew
+in like a bird. I waited a moment longer, and saw the guards lock the
+door and the train pull out!"
+
+Though Nina understood only vaguely what it all meant, she was human and
+feminine enough to find a certain grim satisfaction in the thought that
+Giovanni was no more to be trusted by the Potensi than by herself.
+
+A short time afterward Zoya got up to go. "I shall see you to-morrow,
+_cara_, yes? Will you lunch with me? And--I shall like very much if you
+bring the American."
+
+"Do you mean John?"
+
+Zoya burst out laughing and then mimicked Nina's tone. "Is it indeed
+possible that I could mean him?" She leaned over and kissed Nina
+affectionately, then hurried to the door. On the threshold she paused to
+call back, "One o'clock to-morrow, and be sure of John!" She smiled,
+blew another kiss, and was gone.
+
+Nina looked after her, her thoughts in strange turbulence. A moment
+later she ran a comb through her hair, pinned up one or two tumbled
+locks, washed her face, polished her nails, took out a clean
+handkerchief; after which, she felt quite made over, and went in search
+of her aunt.
+
+If she imagined that the day's emotions were ended, she was destined to
+be mistaken, for just as she went into the princess's room, a messenger
+came with a note from the prince, saying that he had been arrested. It
+was a very cheerful note and sounded rather as though he considered the
+whole situation a joke. He begged his wife not to be alarmed. The police
+had evidently mistaken him for Giovanni, so he had given no explanation
+and refused even to tell his name. When Giovanni should have time to
+reach the frontier, he would prove his identity and return home.
+
+The princess's chief anxiety was therefore directed toward Giovanni, and
+she dreaded lest Sandro's identity be discovered before his brother
+should be safe. As for Nina, she cared no longer what might happen to
+Giovanni. She had had too many shocks and too little time for recovery.
+All her sympathy was for her poor Uncle Sandro who, in the meantime, was
+sitting in jail! Yet the thought of his situation in some way struck her
+as ludicrous--almost like comic opera.
+
+But following this there came a second letter, very different from the
+first, written by the prince in great agitation, and saying that his
+arrest was not for the death of the duke, but for the smuggling of a
+Raphael out of the country.
+
+At the shock of this news, the princess for once lost her self-control
+and turned to Nina in frightened helplessness.
+
+Nina's first thought was to send for Derby, and to her relief the
+princess not only made no objection, but grasped eagerly at the
+suggestion. Fortunately, she got him on the telephone just as he was
+leaving his hotel, but in her agitation she did not stop to explain
+further than that her uncle was under arrest somewhere because of
+something to do with a picture. Derby answered that he would come at
+once, and the reassurance that she felt from the mere sound of his voice
+partly communicated itself through her to the princess, as they went
+into the sitting-room to wait for him. A few minutes later the
+_portières_ were lifted--but instead of Derby, it was the Marchese
+Valdeste who entered.
+
+Happily he had been at a meeting in the Tribunale Publico when the
+prince was arrested, and, as an important official and a great personal
+friend of Sansevero's, had hurried to inform the princess what had
+happened, and to place himself at her service. The case was very serious
+not only because of the evidence against the prince, but because of the
+lofty way in which the latter had replied some weeks previously to an
+inquiry from the Ministero. Sansevero said his Raphael was in the
+possession of the Duke Scorpa, but the duke, who had been chiefly
+instrumental in discovering the sale of the picture, was unable to
+shield his friend. Sansevero was questioned again, and refused to say
+anything more. He had answered once, and that, in his opinion, was
+sufficient for a gentleman.
+
+The government thereupon had sent a representative to the Scorpa palace,
+where Sansevero averred the picture was. The duke's servants were
+catechised, but none had ever seen it. To add to the complication, the
+duke was far too ill to be questioned further, and Sansevero was at
+present injuring the case by making every moment more and more confused
+statements about his alleged transaction with Scorpa. First he said he
+had loaned it--because Torre Sansevero was cold; then that he had sold
+it for one hundred thousand _lire_; then that no money was received;
+then that he had let the duke have it as security, and that there was an
+agreement whereby he was to get his picture back. When he was asked to
+show a receipt in writing, he went into a rage.
+
+The princess, quick enough to see the treachery of Scorpa and the net of
+circumstantial evidence that he had thrown about them, felt utterly
+helpless. "It is true, even I did not actually see the duke take the
+picture," she said, "and I am the only one who knew anything about it.
+As Sandro's wife--my word will have no weight at all!"
+
+Valdeste solemnly shook his head. "I fear it is graver than that--for
+even Miss Randolph's word that she had made certain unusual expenditures
+would not be believed. The picture might too easily have been sold and
+paid for through her. Unless it can be produced _here in Italy_, the
+end may be bad. Somehow we must find a way to do that."
+
+Nina was getting every moment more and more nervous--she could not
+understand Derby's delay. Why did he not come? Since she telephoned, he
+could have covered the distance from the Excelsior half a dozen times.
+Every second of glancing at the door seemed a minute, and the minutes
+hours. After the disillusionments she had suffered she actually was
+beginning to think that he, too, would fail her in the crucial moment,
+when, at last, the _portières_ parted, and Derby entered carrying--the
+celebrated Sansevero Madonna!
+
+The princess and the marchese were so astonished that only Nina seemed
+to notice Derby himself. With a cry of "_Jack!_ How _did_ you do it?"
+she sprang up, staring at him in bewilderment.
+
+The sound of Nina's voice drew the princess's attention to Derby, and
+she, too, started toward him.
+
+"John! What does it all mean?" she exclaimed, quite unconscious that she
+had called him by his first name.
+
+"It means a rotten plot--neither more nor less--to ruin Prince
+Sansevero, concocted by a man whom the prince believed to be his friend!
+The Duke Scorpa has just died, which ends the affair for him, but I have
+the whole chain of evidence that clears the prince. The picture was
+taken in exchange for a promissory note of the prince's, for one hundred
+thousand _lire_. The duke tore the paper up and threw it into the
+waste-paper basket. Luigi Callucci, who was his servant, gathered the
+scraps out of the basket and pasted them together. This same Luigi also
+wrapped up the picture and carried it to Shayne. That's all, officially.
+Actually, there is a good deal more. The facts are that the duke sold it
+with perfect knowledge that it was to be smuggled out of the country. I
+have all the information necessary."
+
+"It is incredible, incredible--the duke Scorpa!" exclaimed Valdeste.
+"But that the Prince Sansevero is cleared is the main thing." Then,
+turning to Derby, he continued, "I hope you will allow me to express to
+you my admiration and congratulation for the way in which you have
+brought it about."
+
+Upon this the princess joined the marchese by holding her hand out to
+Derby. "I never can thank you enough for what you have done! But for
+you, we should be in a very bad way. I quite agree with the Archbishop
+of Vencata that you must be a miracle worker!" Her voice was a little
+tremulous as she broke off. Then, including the marchese also, she
+added: "But now, my good, kind friends, go, please, and get Sandro out
+of his situation. My poor boy must be in a terrible state of nerves.
+And--thank you both again!"
+
+The marchese and Derby hurried out, Derby carrying the picture. Nina
+followed them out of the door and stood looking after them until they
+had disappeared down the vista of rooms. Then she exclaimed: "Really,
+John is wonderful, isn't he? Wasn't it just like him not to say a word
+all the time! So many people talk, and do nothing!" Then Nina noticed
+that the princess was holding her hands over her face. She hurried to
+her anxiously. "Aunt Eleanor, what is it?"
+
+The princess put her hands down. "I am just thankful--that is all. It
+threatened to be so dreadful, I can scarcely realize the relief yet.
+What a chain of circumstances! It is almost impossible to believe that
+even Scorpa would plan them! But it is true I never trusted him. When
+there is a race feud over here it seems never to die out." She paused a
+few moments, and then continued as though half to herself, "Although, in
+this case, I think it was chiefly on account of Giovanni. If you had
+married him, and the duke had lived, I believe he would have spent the
+rest of his life in scheming to injure you and everybody connected with
+us."
+
+At the suggestion of the marriage which might have taken place, all the
+experiences of that varied day came rushing back to Nina--Giovanni's
+proposal, the revelation of his falseness, and the conversation with
+Zoya which had given her the true key to him who had until then been
+something of a mystery.
+
+With a strained intensity of tone, she suddenly demanded, "Aunt Eleanor,
+tell me, supposing I had _wanted_ to marry Giovanni, would you have made
+no protest?"
+
+The princess answered thoughtfully: "I am glad you are not to marry
+Giovanni--yes, I am glad. Yet even so, he might make a good husband."
+
+Instantly the blood rushed to Nina's head, "Don't you love me more than
+to let me risk a life of wretchedness?" she exclaimed, but the look in
+her aunt's face brought from the girl an immediate apology, and
+presently the princess said:
+
+"I don't think I should want you to marry over here at all. At first I
+hoped it might be possible--but I am afraid you would be unhappy. There
+are plenty of girls who might be content, but not you!" The princess
+took her sewing out of a near-by chest and began hemming a table cloth.
+
+"You mean," said Nina, "that when one reads of the broken hearts and
+lost illusions of Americans married to Europeans, the accounts _are_
+true? Why did you not tell me before?"
+
+"I don't know, dear. Probably because such accounts are, to me, purely
+sensational writing--and yet at the bottom of them lies a certain amount
+of truth. In the majority of such cases of wretchedness, if you sift out
+the facts, you will wonder not so much at the outcome, as that such a
+marriage could ever have taken place. When it happens that a nice,
+sweet, wholesome girl marries a disreputable nobleman, who is despised
+from one end of Europe to the other, American parents seem to feel no
+horror until she has become a mental, moral, and physical wreck. To us
+over here it was unbelievable that a decent girl could think of
+marrying him; that her parents could be so dazzled by the mere title of
+'Lady' or 'Marquise' or 'Grafin' or 'Principessa' that they were willing
+to give her into the keeping of an unspeakable cad, brute, or rake. Do
+you think that it is the fault of Europe if such girls know nothing but
+wretchedness?"
+
+The princess paused, then continued: "On the other hand, if a girl
+marries in Europe as good a man, regardless of his title, as the
+American she would probably have chosen at home; and, above all--for
+this is most essential--if she is adaptable enough to change herself
+into a European, rather than to expect Europe to pattern itself upon
+her, she will have as good a chance of happiness as comes to any one.
+Marriage is a lottery in any event. Of course, _if_ it turns out badly
+abroad, it is worse for her than it would have been at home--much worse.
+Everything over here is, in that case, against her: custom, language,
+law, religion; she is literally thrown upon her husband's indulgence. In
+a contest against him she would have no chance at all--there is no
+divorce; there is no redress.
+
+"Yet, so far as my personal observation goes, numberless international
+marriages have been happy. The American wife of a European finds many
+compensations--for although her husband does not allow her freedom to
+follow her own whims, and may not even permit her to spend her own
+money, he gives her a ceaseless attentiveness that never relaxes into
+the careless indifference of the husbands across the sea.
+
+"It is after all a question of choice--do you want the little things of
+life very perfectly polished or do you prefer rough edges and heroic
+sizes! European men know how to make themselves charming to their wives,
+because with them to be charming is an aim in itself. They have
+versatility, ease, and grace of intellect, where the American men are
+bound up in their one or two absorbing ideas, outside of which they take
+no interest. The Europeans are brilliant conversationalists, they make
+an effort to be agreeable and to take an interest in whatever occupies
+the person they are talking to--even though that person is a member of
+their family.
+
+"But, of course, as in everything, there is a price one has to pay. One
+can't have rigidity and flexibility both in the same person. For the
+pliancy of understanding, the easy sympathy, one has to relinquish a
+certain moral steadfastness."
+
+Suddenly the princess looked away and spoke very lightly, as though
+merely brushing over the surface of the thoughts in her mind: "What
+would you have, dear? Men are men--it is well not to question too far.
+Even the best of them have to be forgiven sometimes." Under the light
+tone, there was an unwonted vibration, and though the princess's face
+was partly averted, Nina caught a shadow of pain in her eyes. But the
+next moment she smiled. "I can tell you a story," she said, "about a
+young bride whose husband was very fascinating to women. The young
+wife, with suspicions of his devotion to another lady, went in tears to
+her mother-in-law. But the old lady asked her, 'Is not Pietro an
+admirable husband? And is he not a most devoted and attentive lover as
+well?' And the bride sobbed, 'Oh, yes, that is the worst of it--it is
+almost impossible to believe in his faithlessness, he is so adorable.'
+And her mother-in-law answered: 'Then, my child, be glad that you have
+in your husband one of the most accomplished lovers in the world, and do
+not inquire too closely where he gets his practice.'"
+
+"Do you mean to say that a woman can be happy under such circumstances?"
+Nina demanded. "If that is a typical foreigner, then I am glad American
+men are different! I'd rather my husband were less accomplished and more
+entirely mine."
+
+"Yes, dear, I am sure you would," the princess rejoined. "That is one of
+the reasons why I told you. For you, I think a European marriage would
+be--not best." She looked up quickly. "You ought to marry some one--I'll
+describe him--some one quite strong, quite big, quite splendid. And his
+name is easy to guess--of course it's John."
+
+"John!" echoed Nina dolefully. "John is just the one person above all
+others who does not want to marry me--or even my money!"
+
+"Your money, no! But _you_, indeed yes."
+
+Nina shook her head. "No--he is not in love with me. In nothing that he
+has said or even looked, has he indicated it."
+
+"You are a little mole, then," said the princess, smiling. "Every look
+he gives you, even every expression of his face in speaking about you,
+tells the story."
+
+Like a whirlwind Nina threw herself at her aunt's knees, pulled her
+sewing away, and claimed her whole attention. "Tell me everything you
+know," she demanded hungrily. "Why haven't you told me before? Why do
+you think so? What has he said to you? Dearest auntie princess, tell me
+every word he has said. Quick! Every word----"
+
+The princess, between tears and laughter, looked down at Nina. "Every
+word? Oh, my very dear," she said tenderly, "his love is not of the
+little sort that spends itself in words."
+
+And then suddenly they heard the sound of two men's voices, and the next
+moment the _portières_ parted, admitting Sansevero and Derby. Both the
+princess and Nina sprang up; the princess in her joy ran straight to her
+husband's arms. It was like a meeting after a long separation that had
+been full of perils.
+
+A little later she put out her hand to Derby. "I don't think I shall
+ever be able to thank you enough; it was quite worth all the anxiety and
+distress to have found such a friend." Her smile was entrancing. The
+charm of her was always not so much in what she said, as in the way she
+said it--in the way she gave her hand, in the way she looked at one, in
+the varying inflection of her voice, in her sweetness, her calm, her
+dignity, and, under all these attributes, always her heart. And never
+had she shown them all more vividly than now as she put her hand into
+Derby's.
+
+Then they all four sat down--the princess in a big chair and her husband
+on the arm of it leaning half back of her. And nothing could stop his
+talk about his friend the American, and the effect upon the members of
+the committee when the picture was produced and Derby presented his
+chain of evidence. They had been more than polite and courteous to the
+prince, that was true, but they _had_ detained him; him, a
+Sansevero!--and in the telling he again grew indignant. And yet it had
+been a terrible chain of evidence, and he had not seen how it was to be
+broken.
+
+Then he branched off from his own affair, and went into an account of
+all that he had just heard of the experience of Derby himself with
+Calluci; and the adventure, in spite of Derby's protests, certainly lost
+nothing in the recital. The princess and Nina had not heard of this, and
+Nina sat and gazed at the hero in mute rapture. In fact, the only one
+whose feelings were at all uncertain was Derby. Not but that it was
+pleasant to hear such praise of himself but it is very hard to be a hero
+unless one has no sense of humor at all. When the prince had used up
+half the adjectives of praise and admiration in the Italian language,
+and was about to begin on the other half, Derby succeeded in
+interrupting.
+
+"By the way, princess," he said, "I have something I meant to show you
+this morning, but the other matter put it out of my mind." He drew a
+paper out of his pocket and handed it to her. She opened it, the prince
+looking over her shoulder. It was a sheet of foolscap covered with fine
+writing and many figures in groups and in columns.
+
+"But what does it mean?" she asked.
+
+"It is our first balance sheet at the mines. These are the tons of ore
+taken out," he answered, pointing to various totals, "this is the
+present market price paid for the first shipment, and this is the amount
+we are turning out now per day. At the same rate, the year's payment, at
+a conservative estimate, will be that amount. At all events I shall send
+you a check the first of August for fifty thousand _lire_."
+
+"Fifty thousand _lire_! Oh, Sandro!" The instinct of the woman showed,
+in that her husband was her first thought; and her voice vibrated
+joyously. "Fifty thousand _lire_!" they both repeated as though unable
+to comprehend--and then, the full meaning of it dawning upon him, the
+prince threw his arms about her in wild exuberance.
+
+"Oh, my dear one!"--he punctuated each phrase with kisses--"now you
+shall have everything . . . everything . . . your heart can wish! Stoves
+you shall have . . . servants and dresses. . . . Yes, and your emeralds!
+And your pearls! You shall have . . . emeralds set in a footstool! Every
+_soldo_ is for you, _carissima_, it is all _yours_, YOURS!"
+
+Gently she stopped him. "Sandro," she smiled, "Sandro _mio_, not the
+mines of the Indies could supply your plans for spending!" Then her
+voice broke, but she laughed through her tears and buried her face
+against his throat.
+
+After a moment the princess recovered herself. She looked up, blushing
+like a girl--a little self-conscious that any one should have witnessed
+the scene between herself and her husband. "We are very foolish," she
+laughed. "But it is good to feel so joyous as that!" She got up and, as
+she passed Nina, she put her hand caressingly under the girl's chin. "It
+has not been a bad day, after all, has it?" she said. "And when fortune
+begins to come, it always comes in waves--the difficulty is to make it
+begin." Then she looked back at her husband, "Sandro, come with me, will
+you? These children will not mind, I am sure, if we leave them for a
+little while, and I want very much to talk to you." She smiled her
+apology to Nina and Derby, who both stood up. Then she and the prince
+went out of the door together, his arm about her waist.
+
+When they had gone, Nina said softly: "They are dears, aren't they! Oh,
+Jack, aren't you proud to think you are the cause of every bit of the
+gladness they are feeling to-day?" She glanced up at him, her eyes
+alight with a brilliant softness and tenderness. But he did not look at
+her, and so answered merely her words: "I guess it would have worked out
+all right, anyway." And then he seemed to study the pattern of the
+carpet, and there was silence.
+
+Nina stood leaning against a heavy table, and Derby stood near her with
+his hands in his pockets and his attention engrossed on the floor. Both
+seemed incapable of speaking or moving, as though a hypnotic spell had
+fallen upon them. Twice, while her aunt and uncle were in the room,
+Derby had looked at her with an expression that set Nina's heart
+beating, but now they were alone it had entirely vanished and he kept
+his head persistently turned away. She wondered how she could ever have
+failed to find his profile splendid. But he seemed so detached, so
+bafflingly absorbed, that all the old ache that she had felt that day
+when he had advised her to marry Billy Dalton--and since--came
+suffocatingly back. The old doubt suddenly gripped her--could her aunt
+be mistaken?
+
+Finally, it came to her, intuitively, that her whole future was hanging
+on this moment, and the impulse was overwhelming to forget that she was
+the woman. It seemed that she must herself force the issue and end the
+doubt, at all hazards--this doubt which hammered at the door of her
+intellect and yet which her heart refused stubbornly to accept.
+
+"Jack"--she tried hard to carry out her resolve not to let the false
+pride of a moment perhaps spoil her whole life; but the inborn reserve
+of generations of womanhood rebelled. In her uncertainty and anguish
+each moment of silence seemed weighted into leaden despair, but she was
+utterly unable to say what she had intended. At last her lips parted
+and, like the wail of a lost child, "Jack----" she cried. It was all she
+could say before her eyes filled and a queer little gulp came into her
+throat; then, with superhuman effort yet hardly articulate, came the
+whisper, "H-ave you n-othing to say--to me?"
+
+All at once he turned and looked at her--looked again and caught her by
+the shoulders. The love and ardor of which the princess had spoken
+flamed unmistakably in his expression now--she saw him swallow hard, and
+it seemed to her as though her very soul were wandering lost in the blue
+spaces of his eyes as they searched hers, and then through it all his
+voice came huskily.
+
+"Nina!"
+
+For another long, intense moment he gazed at her earnestly, then "Nina!
+Nina!" he cried again, the wonder breaking through his tone. "Do you
+understand--do you _mean_ what you are looking? Do you love me
+like--that?"
+
+She tried to answer, but could not, though a little smile quivered in
+the corner of her mouth, and the dimple in her cheek was softly
+visible. Then she looked up again through her tears. A radiance
+indescribable lit the man's face, making his rugged features
+beautiful--then swiftly he stooped and gathered her to his heart.
+
+
+THE END
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors corrected.
+
+Page 18, "personailty" changed to "personality" (personality to the
+mind).
+
+Page 132, "acount" changed to "account" (On account of the).
+
+Page 148, "flckle" changed to "fickle" (that he is fickle).
+
+Page 154, "Suarts" changed to "Stuarts" (Stuarts had a son).
+
+Page 158, "look" changed to "looked" (He looked bored).
+
+Page 194, the word "bosom" was presumed. Text was obscurred. (amplitude
+of her bosom)
+
+Page 208, "trivalities" changed to "trivialities" (time for
+trivialities).
+
+Page 236, "himeslf" changed to "himself" (in himself and).
+
+Page 240, "fortaste" changed to "foretaste" (a foretaste of inferno).
+
+Page 302, "Giovvanni" changed to "Giovanni" (it was Giovanni).
+
+Page 319, "exhileration" changed to "exhilaration" (great exhilaration
+in).
+
+Page 322, "that" changed to "than" (graver than that).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Title Market, by Emily Post
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TITLE MARKET ***
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+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Title Market, by Emily Post.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
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+    ins {text-decoration:none;  border-bottom: thin dotted gray;}
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+
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+    .pagenum  { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
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+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Title Market, by Emily Post
+
+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: The Title Market
+
+Author: Emily Post
+
+Illustrator: J. H. Gardner Soper
+
+Release Date: February 5, 2006 [EBook #17680]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TITLE MARKET ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Brian Janes, Emmy and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span></p>
+<h1><i>THE TITLE MARKET</i></h1>
+
+<h3><i>By</i></h3>
+
+<h2><i>Emily Post</i></h2>
+
+<div class='center'><i>Author of "The Flight of a Moth,"</i><br />
+<i>"Woven in the Tapestry," etc.</i></div>
+
+<div class='center'><i><br /><br />With Illustrations by</i><br />
+
+<i>J. H. Gardner Soper</i><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 107px;">
+<img src="images/emblem.png" width="107" height="100" alt="Emblem" title="Emblem" />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'><br /><br /><i>New York</i><br />
+<i>Dodd, Mead and Company</i><br />
+<i>1909</i></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 261px;"><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a>
+<img src="images/gs001.jpg" width="261" height="400" alt="Frontis" title="Frontis" />
+</div>
+
+<div class='center'>
+"'WE OF ITALY,' HE WAS SAYING, 'LIVE, ENDURE, DIE,<br />
+IF NEED BE&mdash;ALWAYS FOR THE SAME<br />
+REASON&mdash;WOMAN AND LOVE!'"<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 9em;">(<a href='#Page_65'>Page 65</a>)</span></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="center">Copyright, 1909, by<br />
+THE RIDGWAY COMPANY<br /></div>
+
+<div class="center">Copyright, 1909, by<br />
+DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY<br /></div>
+
+<div class="center">Published, September, 1909
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class='center'>
+As though you did not know each page,<br />
+each paragraph, each word;<br />
+as though for months and months the Sanseveros,<br />
+Nina, John, and all the rest, had not been<br />
+your daily companions&mdash;<br />
+<span class="smcap">Madre Mia</span>,<br />
+this book is dedicated<br />
+to you.<br />
+</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+<tr><td align='left'>CHAPTER</td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>I</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Prince Sansevero Diminishes the Fortunes of His House</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Princess Plans to Receive the American Heiress</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_14'>14</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Nina</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_25'>25</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Duke Scorpa Makes a Deal</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_42'>42</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Don Giovanni Arrives</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_48'>48</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Love, and a Garden</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_64'>64</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Rome</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_72'>72</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VIII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Opening Day at the Title Market</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_86'>86</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IX</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Door is Opened That Giovanni Prefers to Keep Closed</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_97'>97</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>X</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mr. Randolph Sends for John Derby</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_107'>107</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XI</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Rome Goes to the Opera</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_116'>116</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Ball at Court</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_136'>136</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Coronets for Sale</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_142'>142</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIV</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Apples of Sodom</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_157'>157</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XV</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">An Opposition Booth is Set up in the Market Place</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_163'>163</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVI</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Menace</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_173'>173</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Nina Dusts Behind the Counter</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_192'>192</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVIII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Favorita Drives a Bargain</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_214'>214</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIX</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Challenge, and an Answer</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_221'>221</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XX</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">His Eminence, the Archbishop of Vencata</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_236'>236</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXI</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Sulphur Mines</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_246'>246</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Before Daylight</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_257'>257</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXIII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Spider's Web</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_269'>269</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXIV</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Weighed in the Balance</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_289'>289</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XXV</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">"Thy People Shall Be My People</span>&mdash;"</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_308'>308</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations">
+<tr><td align='left'>"<span class="smcap">'We of Italy,' he was saying, 'live, endure, die, if need be&mdash;always for the same reason&mdash;women and love!</span>'" Page <a href='#Page_65'>65</a></td><td align='right'><a href='#frontis'><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"<span class="smcap">As she spoke, a door opened opposite, and the prince came in</span>"</td><td align='right'>Facing page <a href='#spoke'>4</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"<span class="smcap">For the space of a second she faced the audience, standing still and rigid</span>"</td><td align='right'><a href='#space'>134</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"<span class="smcap">Nina looked at him&mdash;'I wonder if you would be amused if you knew why I laughed'</span>"</td><td align='right'><a href='#nina'>184</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"<span class="smcap">His lips framed 'Good-by' and hers answered, both smiled brightly&mdash;and that was the parting</span>"</td><td align='right'><a href='#framed'>232</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"<span class="smcap">'You are Americano, are you not? Your land has done much for my people!'</span>"</td><td align='right'><a href='#americano'>239</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>PRINCE SANSEVERO DIMINISHES THE FORTUNES OF HIS HOUSE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Her excellency the Princess Sansevero sat up in bed. Reaching quickly
+across the great width of mattress, she pulled the bell-rope twice,
+then, shivering, slid back under the warmth of the covers. She drew them
+close up over her shoulders, so far that only a heavy mass of golden
+hair remained visible above the old crimson brocade of which the
+counterpane was made. The room was still darkened so that the objects in
+it were barely discernible, but presently one of the high, carved doors
+opened and a maid entered, carrying a breakfast tray. Setting the tray
+down, she crossed quickly to the windows and drew back the curtains.</p>
+
+<p>Sunlight flooded the black and white marble of the floor, and brought
+out in sharp detail the splendor of the apartment. The rich colors of
+the frescoed walls, the mellow crimson damask upholstering, might have
+suggested warmth and comfort, had not a little cloud of white vapor
+floating before the maid's lips proclaimed the temperature.</p>
+
+<p>She was a stocky peasant woman, this maid, with good red color in her
+cheeks, but she wore a dress of heavy woolen material and a cardigan
+jacket over <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>that. Her thick felt slippers pattered briskly over the
+stone floor as she went to a clothes-press, carved and beautifully
+inlaid, took out a drab-colored woolen wrapper trimmed with common red
+fox fur, and, picking up the tray again, mounted the dais of the huge
+carved bed.</p>
+
+<p>"If Excellency will make haste, the coffee is good and very hot."</p>
+
+<p>The covers were pushed down just a little, and the princess peered out.</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of a day have we, Marie? Isn't it very cold?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no! It is a beautiful day. But Excellency will say that the coffee
+is cold unless it is soon taken."</p>
+
+<p>So again the Princess Sansevero sat up in bed. Her maid placed the
+coffee tray before her, and wrapped her quickly in the dressing-gown.
+The plain woolen wrapper had looked ugly enough in the maid's hands, but
+its drab color and fox fur so toned in with the red-gold hair and creamy
+skin of its wearer that an artist, could he have beheld the picture,
+would have been filled with delight. It would not in the least have
+mattered to him that there was a chip in the cup into which she poured
+her coffee, nor that the linen napkin was darned in three places. The
+silver breakfast service belonged to a time when such things were
+chiseled only for great personages and by master craftsmen. That it was
+battered through several centuries of constant handling rather enhanced
+than diminished its value. Of the same an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>tiquity was the bed&mdash;seven
+feet wide, its four posts elaborately carved with fruits and flowers,
+and with cupids grouped in the corners of the framework supporting a
+dome of crimson damask that matched the hangings. What difference could
+it make to the artist that the springless mattress was as hard as a
+rock, and lumpy as a ploughed field? With painted walls and vaulted
+ceilings that were the apotheosis of luxury, what did it matter that the
+raw chill from their stone surface penetrated to the very marrow of her
+Exalted Excellency's bones? Unfortunately, however, it was she who had
+to occupy the apartment and to her it did matter very much, for her
+American blood never had grown used to the chill of unheated rooms.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I can heat the bathroom sufficiently for Excellency's bath,"
+ventured the maid.</p>
+
+<p>The princess shivered at the mere suggestion. She knew only too well the
+feeling of the water in a room that was like an unheated cellar in the
+rainy season of late autumn. "No, no!" she exclaimed, "fill me the
+little tub, in my sitting-room."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 257px;"><a name="spoke" id="spoke"></a>
+<img src="images/gs014.jpg" width="257" height="400" alt="&quot;AS SHE SPOKE, A DOOR OPENED OPPOSITE THE ONE THROUGH WHICH THE MAID HAD ENTERED, AND THE PRINCE CAME IN&quot;" title="&quot;AS SHE SPOKE, A DOOR OPENED OPPOSITE THE ONE THROUGH WHICH THE MAID HAD ENTERED, AND THE PRINCE CAME IN&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;AS SHE SPOKE, A DOOR OPENED OPPOSITE THE ONE THROUGH WHICH THE MAID HAD ENTERED, AND THE PRINCE CAME IN&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>As she spoke, a door opened opposite the one through which the maid had
+entered, and the prince came in. A fresh color glowed under his olive
+skin, his hair was brushed until it was as polished as his nails; also
+he was shaved, but here his toilet for the day ended. The open "V" of
+his dressing-gown (his was made of a costly material, quite in contrast
+to the one his wife wore) showed his throat; bare <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>ankles were visible
+above his slippers. With the raillery of a boy he cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Can it really be possible that you are cold! No wonder they call yours
+the nation of ice water! I know that is what you have in your veins!"
+With a spring he threw himself full length across the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Sandro, be careful! See what you are doing! You have spilled the
+coffee."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's nothing!" he said gaily; "it will wash out."</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, it is a great deal. It makes unnecessary laundry and
+uses up the linen&mdash;we can't get any more, you know."</p>
+
+<p>At once his gay humor changed to sulkiness. "<i>Va bene, va bene!</i> let us
+drop that subject."</p>
+
+<p>Immediately the princess softened, as though she had unthinkingly hurt
+him, "I did not mean it as a complaint; but you know, dear, we do have
+to be careful."</p>
+
+<p>But the prince stared moodily at his finger-nails.</p>
+
+<p>She began a new topic cheerfully. "I hope to get a letter from Nina
+to-day; there has been time for an answer."</p>
+
+<p>Sansevero had been quite interested in the idea of a possible visit from
+Nina Randolph, his wife's niece, a much exploited American heiress. But
+now he paid no attention. He still stared at his nails. The princess
+scrutinized his face as though in the habit of reading its expression,
+and at last she said gently:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What have you in mind, dear? Tell me&mdash;come, out with it, I see quite
+well there is something."</p>
+
+<p>For answer he sat up, took a cigarette from his pocket, put it between
+his lips, searched in both pockets for a match, and, failing to find
+one, sat with the unlighted cigarette between his lips, sulkier than
+ever.</p>
+
+<p>He felt her looking at him, and swayed his shoulders exactly as though
+some one were trying to hold him. "Really, Leonora," he burst out, "this
+question of money all the time is far from pleasant!"</p>
+
+<p>A helpless, frightened look came into her face. It grew suddenly
+pinched; instinctively she put her hand over her heart.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not mentioned money." She made an effort to speak lightly, but
+there was a vibration in the tone. Then, as though gathering her
+strength together, she made a direct demand:</p>
+
+<p>"Alessandro, tell me at once, what have you done?"</p>
+
+<p>For a moment he looked defiant, then shrugged his shoulders. "Well,
+since you will know&mdash;&mdash;" he sprang from the bed, pulled a letter out of
+his pocket, and, quite as a small boy hands over the note that his
+teacher has caught him passing in school, he tossed her the envelope,
+and left the room.</p>
+
+<p>Her fingers trembled a little in unfolding the paper; and she breathed
+quickly as she read. For some time she sat staring at the few lines of
+writing before her. Then suddenly thrusting her feet into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>fur slippers,
+she ran into the next room. "Sandro," she said, "come into my
+sitting-room; I must speak with you."</p>
+
+<p>He followed her through her bedroom into an apartment much smaller and,
+unlike the other two rooms, quite warm. Just now, all the articles of a
+woman's toilet were spread out on a table upon which a dressing-mirror
+had been placed; and close beside a brazier of glowing coals was a
+portable English tub; the water for the bath was heating in the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that there was no means of avoiding the inevitable, he said
+doggedly: "I thought to make, of course, or I would not have gone into
+the scheme." Then something in her face held him, and at the same time
+his impulsive boyishness&mdash;a little dramatic, perhaps, but only so much
+as is consistent with his race&mdash;carried him into a new mood.</p>
+
+<p>"Leonora, I suppose I am in the wrong&mdash;indeed I am sure I am utterly at
+fault; but help me. Don't you see, <i>carissima</i>, this time I did not
+<i>wager</i>&mdash;it was a business venture!"</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of her distress she could not help but smile at the
+absurdity.</p>
+
+<p>"Scorpa is doing it all," he continued&mdash;"not I. You know what a clever
+business man <i>he</i> is! He assured me that it was a rare chance&mdash;the
+opportunity of a lifetime. It was because I wanted so to restore to you
+what my gambling had cost, that I agreed. I did not think it possible to
+lose. But <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>help me this once; believe me, I do know, and with shame,
+that were it not for my accursed ill luck we should be living in luxury
+now. But just this once&mdash;you will help me, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>His wife seated herself in a big armchair, and looked at him wearily,
+running her fingers through the heavy waves of her hair. She had
+beautiful hands&mdash;beautiful because they seemed part of her expression;
+capable hands with nothing helpless in her use of them; the kind that a
+sick person dreams of as belonging to an ideal nurse; gentle and smooth,
+but quick and firm.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a question of willingness, Sandro." Her voice was as smooth
+and strong, as flexible, as her hands. "You know everything we have just
+as well as I. I never kept anything from you, and what we have is ours
+jointly&mdash;as much yours as mine. I have, as you know, only two jewels of
+value left, and they would not bring half the amount of this debt."</p>
+
+<p>"Leonora, no! you have sold too many already; I cannot ask such a thing
+again."</p>
+
+<p>His wife's smile was more sad than tears; it was not that she was making
+up her mind for some one necessary sacrifice&mdash;it was a smile of absolute
+helplessness. "If only I might believe you! We now have nothing but what
+is held in trust for me. I am not reproaching you&mdash;what is gone is gone.
+But Sandro! where will it end?"</p>
+
+<p>The maid knocked and entered with two pails of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>hot water, which she
+poured into the tub. She spread a bath towel over a chair, moved another
+chair near, put out various articles of clothing, and left the room
+again.</p>
+
+<p>The princess threw off her slippers, and tried the temperature of the
+water with her toes.</p>
+
+<p>"I think, Sandro, we had better give up Rome," she said. "The money
+saved for that will pay the greater part of the debt. It is the only way
+I can see. But go now; I want to take my bath. We can talk more by and
+by." She smiled quite brightly, and the prince, emboldened by her
+cheerfulness, would have taken her in his arms. But she turned away, her
+hand involuntarily put up as a barrier between herself and the kiss that
+at the moment she shrank from. He took the hand instead and pressed it
+to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>When he had gone, she bathed quickly, partially dressed herself, and
+called her maid to do her hair. Sitting before the improvised
+dressing-table, she glanced in the mirror, and her reflection caught and
+held her attention a long moment. A curious, half-wistful, half-pathetic
+expression crept into her eyes as the realization came to her sharply
+that she was fading. There were lines and shadows and pallor that ought
+not to be in the face of a woman of thirty-five. She smoothed the
+vertical lines in her forehead, and then let her hands remain over her
+face, while behind their cool smoothness her mind resumed its
+troublesome thoughts.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was not like meeting some new difficulty for which the strength is
+fresh; it was struggling again with emotions that have repeatedly
+exhausted one's endurance. Just as she had every hope that her husband
+was cured of the gambler's fever, here he was down again with an even
+more dangerous form of it. The man who knowingly risks is bad enough;
+but the man who cannot see that he risks, and cannot understand how he
+has lost is the hardest victim to cure. All of her capital was gone
+except a small property which her brother-in-law, J. B. Randolph, held
+for her in trust and on the income of which they now lived. Ten years
+before she had had considerable money, enough for them to live not only
+in comfort but in luxury. A large amount had been sunk in a Sicilian
+sulphur mine, and to this investment she had given her consent, not yet
+realizing her husband's lack of judgment. But aside from this, cards and
+horse races and trips to Monaco had limited their living in luxury to a
+periodic pleasure of three or four months. Now in order to open the
+palace in Rome, they had to practise the most rigid economics the other
+eight or nine months in their villa in the country.</p>
+
+<p>Yet in spite of all, her compassion went out to Sandro. He was so gay,
+so boy-like, that he acquired ascendancy over her sympathies in spite of
+her judgment. And by the time her maid had coiled her great golden waves
+of hair and helped her into a short, heavy skirt, a pair of stout boots,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>a plain shirt-waist, and a rough, short coat and cap, her feeling of
+resentment against him had passed. She drew on a pair of dogskin gloves,
+and went out.</p>
+
+<p>In the stables she found the prince helping to harness a pony.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to drive to the village?" she asked as cheerfully as
+though there had been no topic of distress.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; will you come with me?" he returned eagerly. She nodded her assent
+and as they started down the road they talked easily of various things.
+It was the prince who finally came back to the topic that was uppermost
+in their minds. He looked at her tenderly as he said:</p>
+
+<p>"You do believe, my darling, don't you, that to have brought this
+additional trouble to you breaks my heart? I have taken everything from
+you&mdash;given you nothing in return. Yet&mdash;I do love you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, <i>va bene, va bene, caro mio</i>; we will talk no more about it. Do you
+really agree to stay in the country all winter and give up Rome?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," he said, with the best grace in the world. "It is all far
+too easy for me&mdash;but for you!&mdash;Ah, Leonora, no admiration, no new
+interest! no amusement! a year of your beauty wasted on only me."</p>
+
+<p>"Be still; you know very well that I care nothing for all that. It is
+always this horrible fear of your leaping before you look. Sandro,
+Sandro! can you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>really see that one more plunge&mdash;and we are done? Now
+we can give up our savings, and the jewels; another time&mdash;don't let
+there ever be another time!"</p>
+
+<p>He looked up the road and down; there was not even a peasant in sight.
+He put his arm about her and drew her to him. "Look at me, Leonora! On
+the name of my family and on that which I hold most sacred in the world
+I swear it: you will never again have to suffer from such a cause."</p>
+
+<p>She inclined toward his kiss, and love dominated the sadness in her
+eyes. Who could be angry with him&mdash;impulsive, affectionate, warm-hearted
+child of the Sun, or Italy&mdash;since both are the same.</p>
+
+<p>A turn in the road, around a high wall topped with orange trees, brought
+them into the little town and the village life. A couple of ragged
+urchins sitting before the door of one of the cave-like structures that
+are called dwellings, grinned as the princess looked at them. An older
+girl bobbed a courtesy and pulled one of the children to her feet,
+bidding her do the same. The men uncovered their heads, as the noble
+padrones passed.</p>
+
+<p>Before one house the little trap stopped. Immediately the door opened
+and a woman came out. She was young and handsome though the shadow of
+maternity was blue-stenciled under her eyes. She courtesied, then looked
+anxiously at the prince.</p>
+
+<p>"Excellency would speak with me?" she asked, "has Excellency decided?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," the prince answered, "Pedro will wed thee <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>at the house of the
+good father&mdash;to-night at eight." At his first words she clasped her
+hands in thanksgiving, but when he continued that she was to wear no
+veil or wreath, her joy gave way to a wail.</p>
+
+<p>"Excellency would shame me," she sobbed, "I am a good girl and Pedro my
+husband by promise."</p>
+
+<p>Sansevero looked helpless for a moment and then seemed wavering. The
+woman caught at the opportunity and repeated her cry, this time to the
+princess, but there was no indecision in the latter's manner as she
+spoke now in her husband's stead.</p>
+
+<p>"Thou knowest, Marcella, that the veil and the wreath are only for such
+as are maidens! Say no more, I speak not of goodness, Pedro comes to the
+house of the padre&mdash;at eight. Be a faithful wife and mother, and so
+shalt thou have honor&mdash;better than by the wearing of a wreath."</p>
+
+<p>She put her hand on the girl's head, with a kindness that took away all
+sting from her words. And Marcella made no further protest, although as
+the pony-cart drove on, she remained weeping before the door.</p>
+
+<p>Sansevero himself looked dejected. "Don't you think, dear one," he
+protested, "that you were rather severe! What difference can it make
+after all, whether the poor girl wears a few leaves in her hair or a bit
+of tulle?"</p>
+
+<p>But the princess was inflexible. "It would not be just to the others,"
+she answered, "since we made this rule there has been a great difference
+in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>the village. It is almost rare now that the family arrives before
+the wedding. The question of irregularity never used trouble the girls
+at all. The only disgrace they seem able to feel is that they may not
+dress as brides; and that being the case, I think we have to be strict."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, wise one," said the prince as he drew up at the post-office,
+"I am sure you know best." He looked at her with such obvious
+satisfaction that two urchins standing by the road-side grinned. The
+post-master hurried out with the mail, and the princess looked through
+the letters. One with an American stamp held her attention. As she read,
+her cheeks flushed with pleasure, her eyes grew bright, a sweet and
+tender expression came into her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Nina is coming!" she cried. Gladness rang in her voice. "Coming for the
+whole winter&mdash;let me see, the letter is dated the fifteenth&mdash;she will
+sail this week. Oh, Sandro, I am so happy!"</p>
+
+<p>For a moment it would have been hard to say which looked more pleased,
+the prince or the princess. But then, as though by thought transference,
+in blank consternation each stared at the other, and exclaimed in the
+same breath, "But how about Rome?"</p>
+
+<p>In silence the prince turned the pony about and slowly they drove back
+up the hills.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PRINCESS PLANS TO RECEIVE THE AMERICAN HEIRESS</h3>
+
+
+<p>When the pony-cart arrived at the castle the princess alighted, too
+preoccupied with her own thoughts to notice that her husband drove off
+in the opposite direction from the stables. Her forehead was wrinkled
+and her head bent as she walked between the high hedges of ilex toward
+the south wing of the building. Her worry over their inability to pay
+the debt was increased by the fact that their creditor was the Duke
+Scorpa.</p>
+
+<p>There had been a feud between the Sanseveros and the Scorpas for over a
+century, and while the present generation tried to ignore it, the
+princess felt instinctively that like the people of Alsace Lorraine, who
+never really forgave the government that changed their nationality, the
+Scorpas never forgave the Sanseveros for lands which they claimed were
+unjustly lost in 1803, when a daughter of the house married a Sansevero
+and took a portion of the Scorpa property as her dowry. That these same
+lands were distant from either county seat, and of comparatively small
+value, in no way mitigated the Scorpa resentment, and every time they
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>looked at the map and saw the triangular piece painted over from the
+Scorpa red to the Sansevero blue, there was bad feeling.</p>
+
+<p>When the old Prince Sansevero was alive, he and the present Duke, who
+was then a violent tempered youth, had several unfriendly encounters
+about the boundary line of this same property. All this had seemed very
+trivial to Alessandro, the present Prince, who looked upon the Duke as
+one of his best friends&mdash;but Alessandro had no perspicacity. He believed
+others to be as free from guile as himself.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching a small postern gate at the end of the path, the princess
+opened it by pressing a hidden spring. This led directly into the
+apartments at the end of the south wing next to the kitchen offices&mdash;the
+only ones at present in use. She went directly to her own sitting-room,
+from which the evidences of her toilet had meantime been removed.</p>
+
+<p>This room better than anything else proclaimed the manner of woman who
+occupied it. It had been arranged by one to whom comfort was of
+paramount importance, and, in spite of a certain incongruity, the whole
+effect was pleasing and harmonious. The frescoes on the walls were
+almost obliterated by age, and were partially covered by dull red stuff.
+Against this latter hung three pictures from the famous Sansevero
+collection: a Holy Family by Leonardo da Vinci, a triptych by Perugino,
+and a Madonna by Correggio. Hardly less celebrated, but sharply at odds
+with the ecclesiastical subjects of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>the paintings, was the mantle,
+carved in a bacchanalian procession of satyrs and nymphs&mdash;a model said
+to have been made by Niccola Pisano.</p>
+
+<p>The floor, of the inevitable black and white marble, was strewn with
+rugs; and in front of desk and sofa bear skins had been added as a
+double protection against the cold. The furniture was modern upholstery,
+with gay chintz slip-covers. Frilled muslin curtains were crossed over
+and draped high under outer ones of chintz. And everywhere there were
+flowers&mdash;roses, orange blossoms, and camellias; in tall jars and short,
+on every available piece of furniture. Scarcely less in evidence were
+photographs, propped against walls, ornaments, and flower jars; long,
+narrow, highly glazed European photographs with white backgrounds,
+uniformed officers, sentimentally posed engaged couples, young mothers
+in full evening dress reading to barefooted babies out of gingerly held
+picture books. There were photographs of all varieties; big ones and
+little ones, framed and unframed&mdash;the king and the queen with
+crown-surmounted settings and boldly written first names, and "<i>A la
+cara Eleanor</i>" inscribed above that of her majesty. In the other
+photographs the signatures grew in complication and length as their
+aristocratic importance diminished. Books and magazines littered the
+tables; French, Italian, and English in indiscriminate association. A
+workbasket of plain sewing lay open among the pillows on the sofa. An
+American maga<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>zine, with a paper-knife inserted between its leaves, was
+tossed beside a tooled morocco edition of Tacitus. A crucifix hung
+beneath the Correggio; a plaster model of the Discobolus stood between
+the windows.</p>
+
+<p>And in the midst of old and new, religious and pagan, priceless and
+insignificant, sat her Excellency, the ex-American beauty and present
+chatelaine of the great family of the princes of the Sansevero, in a
+golf skirt and walking boots, a plain starched shirtwaist and stock tie,
+adding to the wrinkles in her forehead and in the corners of her eyes by
+trying to figure out how, with forty thousand lire, she was going to pay
+a debt of sixty thousand lire and have enough left over to open the
+great palace in Rome, and realize a dream that had always been in her
+heart&mdash;to take Nina out in Roman society, to give herself the delight of
+showing Rome to Nina, and the greater delight of showing Nina to Rome.</p>
+
+<p>She glanced up at two photographs, the only ones on her desk. The first
+was of her husband, taken in the fancy costume of a troubadour, with the
+signature "Sandro" across the lower half, in characters symbolical of
+the song he might have sung, so gay and ascending was the handwriting.
+The other picture was of a young woman in evening dress. The face was
+bright and winning rather than pretty; the personality really chic, and
+this in spite of the fact that the girl's clothes were over-elaborate.
+Her dress was a mass of embroidery, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>and around her throat she wore a
+diamond collar. Diamond hairpins held the loops of waving fair
+hair&mdash;very like the princess's own&mdash;and two handsome rings were on the
+fingers of one hand. It in no way suggested the Italian idea of a young
+girl; yet there was a youthful freshness in the expression of the face,
+a girlish slimness of the figure that could not have been produced by
+touching up the negative. Under the picture was written in a clear and
+modernly square handwriting, "To my own Auntie Princess with love from
+Nina."</p>
+
+<p>The name "Auntie Princess" carried as much of Nina's <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'personailty'">personality</ins> to the
+mind of her aunt as the picture itself. It was the one her childish lips
+had spoken when she was told that her aunt was to marry a prince. Most
+distinct of all Eleanor Sansevero's memories of home was one of Nina
+being held up high above the crowd at the end of the pier to blow
+good-by kisses to the bride of a foreign nobleman, being carried out
+into the river whose widening water was making actual the separation
+between herself and all that till then had been her life.</p>
+
+<p>It was only for a little while, she had thought at the time. She would
+go back once a year or so, surely; and Nina should come over often. But
+in the intervening fifteen years, though the Randolphs had been in
+Europe many times, they had always chosen midsummer for their trip, and
+the princess had joined her sister at some northern city or
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>watering-place. This visit, therefore, was to be Nina's first glimpse
+of her aunt's home, and the princess was determined that she should not
+spend the time desolately in the country! She might come here for a
+little while&mdash;for reasons that the princess would have found hard to
+explain to herself, she did not want Nina to get a false impression. Yet
+for nothing would she have exposed her husband's failing&mdash;even to her
+own family. With the weakness of a true wife, she never dreamed that all
+her world suspected, if it did not actually know, of the great inroads
+on her fortune that his gambling had made.</p>
+
+<p>The princess went back to her accounts, but no amount of auditing made
+the sum they had saved any larger. A large pearl pendant that had been
+the Randolphs' wedding present to her, and a ruby that had been her
+mother's, were her only remaining possessions that could bring anything
+like the sum needed; with them and perhaps notes on her next year's
+income, they might make up the full amount. But how to sell the jewels
+was the problem. There is little demand for really fine stones in Italy,
+and besides, they might be recognized. Long before, she had sold her
+emerald earrings and had false ones put in their places. She had hated
+wearing the imitations, but she had worn the real ones constantly, she
+feared their sudden absence might be noticed.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, as it was, one day out in the garden, when Scorpa was sitting
+near her, she thought she <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>saw a knowing gleam in his eyes. Afterwards
+she tried to assure herself that it was a trick of her own
+consciousness; but she had not worn the earrings again in the
+daytime&mdash;nor ever if she knew that Scorpa was to be present.</p>
+
+<p>She threw down her pencil. The first thing at all events was to find out
+how much she could realize on her stones, and to do that she would have
+to go to Paris. Taking a railroad gazette out of a drawer, she looked up
+trains. Eight-thirty mornings, arriving at&mdash;&mdash; The door burst open. The
+prince, exuberant, his face wreathed in smiles, skipped, rather than
+walked, into the room. In pure joyousness he pinched her cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think, my dear one? It is all arranged. We can have <i>la
+bella</i> Nina; we shall go to Rome as usual. And you, you more than
+generous, shall not sell any jewels!"</p>
+
+<p>His wife did not at once echo his gladness; in fact she seemed
+frightened.</p>
+
+<p>"What has happened? You have not made a wager and won?"</p>
+
+<p>He looked reproachful, almost sulky. "Leonora, unjust you are. Have I
+not promised? But I will tell you. I have arranged it all with Scorpa. I
+have let him have the Raphael&mdash;as security, practically&mdash;that is, I have
+sold it to him for a hundred thousand lire&mdash;a loan merely&mdash;and he has
+given me the privilege of buying it back at any time, with added
+interest, of course. There will be no need of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>paying for years. He is
+enchanted, as he has always wanted the picture, and says he only hopes I
+may never wish to take it back."</p>
+
+<p>"No, don't let us do that," the princess broke in, then hesitated, "I
+can't tell you how I feel about it, but&mdash;I don't trust Scorpa. It is a
+hard thing to say, but I have always believed he persuaded you into
+buying the 'Little Devil' mine, knowing it could not be worked. Of
+course, dear, that heavy loss may not have been his fault, but I'd so
+much rather never have any dealings with him. Besides, the very thing I
+wish to avoid is letting people know we must get money."</p>
+
+<p>"But, <i>cara mia</i>, listen: It is all so well thought out, no one will
+know. You see, we go to Rome; this picture hangs in an empty house,
+which through the winter is very damp, and bad, therefore, for the
+painting. Scorpa keeps his house open and heated; he takes care of it on
+that account. Is that not a wonderful reason?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whose reason was that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Scorpa's own!" He danced a few steps in his excess of delight.</p>
+
+<p>His wife arose and put her hand on his arm. "To please me, do not send
+the picture. I can sell the jewels and have false stones put in their
+places. We need not have any one know. But I don't want to remain in the
+duke's debt!"</p>
+
+<p>"The picture is already in his possession."</p>
+
+<p>"In his possession? But how?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He drove over here just now, followed me in his motor-car, and took it
+back with him."</p>
+
+<p>The princess was evidently frightened. "What are his reasons?" she said
+to herself, yet audibly.</p>
+
+<p>Her husband looked at her, his head a little on one side, then he said
+banteringly: "My dear, you Americans are too analytical. You always look
+for a motive. Life is not of motive over here. Have you not learned that
+in all these years? We act from impulse, as the mood takes us&mdash;we have
+not the hidden thought that you are always looking for."</p>
+
+<p>"You speak for yourself, Sandro <i>mio</i>, but all are not like you.
+However, since the picture is gone&mdash;and since you have made that
+arrangement&mdash;let it be. I may do Scorpa injustice; he has always
+professed friendship for you&mdash;as indeed who has not?" She looked at him
+with the softened glance that one sees in a mother's face.</p>
+
+<p>Sansevero seated himself at the desk and took up the photograph of Nina.
+"When will she arrive?" he asked buoyantly; then with sudden
+inspiration, "Write to Giovanni and ask him to hurry home. If Nina
+should fancy him, what a prize!"</p>
+
+<p>The princess frowned. "On account of her money, you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but one must think of that! We have no children; all this goes to
+Giovanni&mdash;with Nina's immense fortune it would be very well. We could
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>all live as it used to be; there are the apartments on the second floor
+in Rome, and the west wing here. I can think of nothing more fitting or
+delightful. Has she grown pretty?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that you would call her pretty," mused the princess.</p>
+
+<p>"Besides <i>you</i>, my dearest, a beauty might seem plain!" His wife tried
+to look indifferent, but she was pleased, nevertheless.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, Sandro, you flatterer, but tell me honestly, am I still
+pretty? No, really? Will Nina think me the same, or will her thought be
+'How my Aunt has gone off'?"</p>
+
+<p>Melodramatically he seized her wrists and drew her to the window;
+placing her in the full light of the sun, he peered with mock tragedy
+into her face. "Let me see. Your hair&mdash;no, not a gray one! The gold of
+your hair at least I have not squandered&mdash;yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't, dear." She would have moved away, but he held her.</p>
+
+<p>"Your face is thinner, but that only shows better its beautiful bones.
+Ah, now your smile is just as delicious&mdash;but don't wrinkle your forehead
+like that; it is full of lines. So&mdash;that is better. You make the eyes
+sad sometimes; eyes should be the windows that let light into the soul;
+they should be glad and admit only sunshine." Then with one of his
+lightning transitions of mood, he added, not without a ring of emotion,
+"<i>Mia povera bella</i>."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But Eleanor reached up and took his face between her hands. "As for
+you," she said, "you are always just a boy. Sometimes it is impossible
+to believe you are older than I&mdash;I think I should have been your
+mother."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>NINA</h3>
+
+
+<p>A ponderous, glossy, red Limousine turned in under the wrought bronze
+portico of one of the palatial houses of upper Fifth Avenue. As the car
+stopped, the face of a woman of about forty appeared at its window. Her
+expression was one of fretful annoyance, as though the footman who had
+sprung off the box and hurried up the steps to ring the front doorbell
+had, in his haste, stumbled purposely. The look she gave him, as he held
+the door open for her to alight, rebuked plainly his awkward stupidity.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, in spite of Mrs. Randolph's petulant expression, it was evident
+that she had distinct claims to prettiness, though of the carefully
+prolonged variety. The art of the masseuse was visible in that curious
+swollen smoothness of the skin which gives an effect of spilled
+candle-wax&mdash;its lack of wrinkles never to be mistaken for the freshness
+of youth. Much also might be said of the skill with which the "original
+color" of her hair had been preserved. She was very well "done," indeed;
+every detail proclaimed expenditure of time&mdash;other people's&mdash;and
+money&mdash;her own. She trotted, rather than walked, as though bored beyond
+the measure of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>endurance and yet in a hurry. Following her was a slim,
+fair-haired young girl, who, leaving the footman to gather up a number
+of parcels, turned to the chauffeur. Even in giving an order, there was
+a winning grace in her lack of self-consciousness, and her voice was
+fresh in its timbre, enthusiastic in its inflection.</p>
+
+<p>"Henri," she said, "you had better be here at three. The steamer sails
+at four, and an hour will not give me any too much time. Have William
+come for Celeste and the steamer things at two. The Panhard will be
+best, as there is plenty of room in the tonneau." Then she ran lightly
+up the steps and into the house.</p>
+
+<p>The first impression of a visitor upon entering the hall might have been
+of emptiness. In contrast to the over-elaborateness characteristic of
+all too many American homes and hotels, obtruding their highly colored,
+gold-laden ornament, the Randolph house rather inclined toward an
+austerity of decoration. But after the first general impression, more
+careful observation revealed the extreme luxury of appointments and
+details. The one flaw&mdash;if one might call it such&mdash;was that every article
+in the entire house was spotlessly, perfectly brand-new. The Persian
+rugs, pinkish red in coloring and made expressly to tone in with the
+gray white marble of the hall, were direct from the looms. The banister,
+of beautiful simplicity, was as newly wrought as the stainless velvet
+with which the hand-rail was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>covered. From the hall opened faultlessly
+executed rooms, each correctly adhering to the "period" that had been
+selected. The library was possibly more furnished than the rest of the
+house; but even here the touch of a magician's wand might have produced
+the bookcases of Circassian walnut ready filled with evenly matched,
+leather bound, finely tooled volumes. It would have been a relief to see
+a few shabby, old-calf folios, a few more common and every-day, in cloth
+or buckram!</p>
+
+<p>On the mind of a carping critic the universal newness might have forced
+the question, "Where did the family live before they came here? Did all
+their accumulation of personal belongings burn with an old homestead? Or
+did they start fresh with their new house, coming from nowhere?" One
+could imagine their having superintended the moving-in of crates and
+boxes innumerable, but the idea of vans piled with heterogeneous
+personal effects that had accumulated through years&mdash;&mdash; Impossible!</p>
+
+<p>As Mrs. Randolph and her daughter entered, a servant opened the doors
+leading into the dining-room, and Mrs. Randolph turned at once in that
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't want to go upstairs before luncheon, do you, Nina?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, for a moment, Mamma. I want to speak to Celeste about the things
+for my steamer trunk." Her mother suggested sending a servant, but Nina
+had already gone. She entered an elevator that in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>contrast to the
+severity of the hall looked like a gilt bird cage with mirrors set
+between the bars, pushed a button, and mounted two flights.</p>
+
+<p>On emerging, she went into her own bedroom, which, from the Aubusson
+carpet to the Dresden and ormolu appliques, might have arrived in a
+bonbon box direct from the avenue de l'Op&eacute;ra in Paris. At the present
+moment two steamer trunks stood gaping in the middle of the floor,
+tissue paper was scattered about on various chairs, the dressing-table
+was bare of silver, and a traveling bag displayed a row of gold bottle
+and brush tops. Nina threw her packages on a couch already littered with
+empty boxes, wrapping-paper, new books and various other articles.</p>
+
+<p>"Have the other trunks gone, Celeste?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Mademoiselle."</p>
+
+<p>"Any messages for me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Derby telephoned that he would be here soon after lunch. Miss Lee
+also telephoned. And Mr. Travers."</p>
+
+<p>Nina listened, half absently, except possibly for a flickering interest
+at the mention of Mr. Derby. She went into an adjoining room that had a
+deep plunge bath of white marble, and a white bear rug on the floor. A
+sliding panel in the wall disclosed a safe, from which she gathered
+together several velvet boxes, and carried them to her maid.</p>
+
+<p>"Are these all that Mademoiselle will take?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is enough&mdash;I don't know, though, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>emerald pendant looks
+well on gray dresses." She got another velvet box and threw it on the
+floor. "I ordered the Panhard to be here for you at two o'clock. They
+can put the trunks in the tonneau. My stateroom is 'B,' yours is 107."</p>
+
+<p>Quickly as she had entered, she was gone again, into the elevator and
+down to join her mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Really, Nina," Mrs. Randolph said as soon as her daughter was seated,
+"I can't see what you want to go to Rome for. I am sure it's more
+comfortable here. I hate visiting, myself." As she spoke she set
+straight a piece of silver that to her critical eye seemed an eighth of
+an inch out of line.</p>
+
+<p>"But, Mamma, you know how keen I have always been to see Aunt Eleanor's
+home. Being with her can hardly seem visiting; and Uncle Sandro&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What your aunt ever saw in Sandro Sansevero," interrupted her mother,
+"I'm sure I can't imagine. He's always bobbing and bowing and
+gesticulating, and he talks broken English. He makes me nervous! I'd
+infinitely rather be without a title than have it at that price."</p>
+
+<p>"You have always told me that theirs was a love match, that Aunt Eleanor
+did not marry him for his title."</p>
+
+<p>"That is just the senseless part of it!" Mrs. Randolph retorted with a
+fine disregard for consistency. "If she had married him for his
+name&mdash;which, after all, is a good one, although princes are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>as common
+in Italy as 'misters' are here&mdash;that would have been one thing. But she
+was actually in love with him! She is yet, so far as I can see!"</p>
+
+<p>Nina burst out laughing, and, as though catching the infection, Mrs.
+Randolph laughed too. They were interrupted by the butler's announcing
+"Mr. Derby!"</p>
+
+<p>John Derby was a young man of twenty-five, broad shouldered and well
+over six feet. His features were a little too rugged to be strictly
+handsome, but his spare frame was as muscular as that of a young
+gladiator. So much at least our colleges do for the sons we send to
+them. John Derby had made both the 'Varsity eight and the eleven; he had
+been a young god at the end of June when, captain of the victorious
+boat, his classmates had borne him on their shoulders to their
+club-house. That night there had been toasting and speeches and what
+not&mdash;he was a very "big man" of a very big university; and perhaps
+nothing that life might ever give him in the future could overshadow
+this experience.</p>
+
+<p>All hail to the victor&mdash;and glorious be his remembrances. Exit our Greek
+god at the end of June, to be replaced by a young American citizen about
+the first of July&mdash;one small atom who thinks to make the same sized mark
+on the great plain of life that he made on the college campus. All the
+same, there were good clean ideals back of John Derby's blue eyes, and
+fresh, healthy young blood surged <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>through his veins. What is the world
+for, if not for such as he to conquer?</p>
+
+<p>Thousands had called "Derby! Derby! Go it, Derby!" when he made his
+famous sixty-yard run down the gridiron. Yet it is well to remember that
+the victory came at the end of ten years' training at school and
+college, after many bruises, some dislocations, and not a few breaks.
+With such discipline, there was after all no reason to wonder that he
+donned overalls and went to a desolate settlement of brick chimneys,
+smelters, and shack dwellings, set on the sides of hills, which, because
+of sulphurous fumes, were bleak as sandhills in Sahara.</p>
+
+<p>He had taken up his work at Copper Rock exactly as he had taken up his
+practice under the athletic coaches. He gave all the best of him, from
+the earliest to the latest possible hours; and night saw him stretched
+on a bunk which would have made his mother wince, but upon which he
+slept the sleep of healthy, tired youth.</p>
+
+<p>Three years he had spent in this place. Twice in that time furnace
+explosions had sent him home to be nursed. But he suppressed the horrors
+and related only enthusiastic tales of metallurgical possibilities. In
+the main, however, he was strong enough to stand it. It did him a vast
+amount of good; and the end of three years saw him saying good-by with
+something akin to regret to the bleak shacks on the bleaker hills, and
+to the men he had grown to know and appreciate.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>An improved form of blast furnace that he had patented, eased his first
+strenuous need of money. And the present moment found him vice-president
+of a mining and smelting company, temporarily back among his old
+friends, and somewhat in his old life again. He was too busy and too
+interested in his work to spend any effort outside of it; but there were
+one or two houses where he went, and one of them was the Randolphs'. The
+Randolph and Derby country places adjoined, and since early boyhood he
+had been as much at home in one house as in the other.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Randolph had taken his college achievements complacently as a
+tribute to her discernments in having nurtured an eagle in her own
+swan's nest. But his work at Copper Rock seemed to her a fanatical whim.
+She no more appreciated the benefit of the experience than she
+understood the persevering grit that was the real reason for her liking
+him. Nina, having adored him as a Greek god, continued her allegiance to
+the workman at Copper Rock. She had written him letters regularly; she
+had even sent him provision baskets. To herself she questioned whether
+the end he was striving for might not be reached by smoother roads; but
+if any one else suggested that he was doing an irrational thing, she
+flew up in arms. And now as he came into the dining-room his "Hello,
+Nina!" was much as a brother's might have been, and he kissed Mrs.
+Randolph's cheek.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Will you have lunch, John?" she smiled up at him. "It is all cold by
+now, I dare say!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, thanks, I lunched downtown; but I'll sit here if I may." He picked
+up a knife from the table and cut the string of a package he held in his
+hand. "I brought you these, Nina. Have you read all of them?"</p>
+
+<p>Nina finished a mouthful of nectarine and picked up the books one by
+one.</p>
+
+<p>No, she had not read any of them. So he went on to explain: he knew the
+cowboy story was a corker, and another, of Arizona, described an Indian
+fight in the Bad Lands that was capital. He did not know much about the
+others, but the man at the shop had told him two were very funny; he had
+bought the rest on account of their illustrations.</p>
+
+<p>Nina laughed deliciously with real joy&mdash;she loved his selection, because
+it seemed to express him.</p>
+
+<p>"It was awfully sweet of you, Jack. And I shall adore them! I am so glad
+you did not bring the regular selection of 'Walks in Rome.'"</p>
+
+<p>"What I ought to have brought you," he answered, "was a big thick
+journal&mdash;one of those padlocked ones&mdash;to write up Italian court life as
+it really is. You mustn't miss such a chance! It could be published
+after everybody mentioned in it, is dead, including yourself. Wouldn't
+it be great!"</p>
+
+<p>"You need not make fun of me. I don't think you half appreciate how
+wonderful it is going to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>be," Nina returned enthusiastically. "Think of
+it, I am going to live in a palace!"</p>
+
+<p>Derby threw back his head and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you call this house? It is a great deal more of a palace than
+the tumble-down, musty ones of Italy."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Randolph seemed enchanted with this rejoinder, for she laughed
+rather exultantly as she exclaimed, "Nina will be ready enough to come
+home at the end of a week!"</p>
+
+<p>Instead of answering Nina jumped up from the table, calling "There you
+are at last, Father darling!"</p>
+
+<p>Her father, a man of distinguished presence, had come into the room
+looking at his watch from force of habit. And though his eyes rested
+upon his daughter with very evident pride and affection, the custom of
+quickly terminated interviews and the economy of precious time gave a
+sharp, decisive curtness to his manner. Every one who came in contact
+with him felt the impelling necessity of coming to the point as clearly
+and tersely as possible. Just now, with a "Hello, John, my boy," he held
+out his hand to Derby and shook his head negatively in answer to his
+wife's inquiry if he wanted luncheon.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, are you ready to start?" he asked his daughter, smiling. And then
+to Derby he added, "Excuse Nina for a few moments, John; I want to speak
+with her. You are going down to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>steamer with her, of course?" As
+Derby answered affirmatively, Nina picked up her books and followed her
+father.</p>
+
+<p>In his own study he drew her to a sofa beside him, and from a number of
+papers in his pocket he handed her an envelope.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is your letter of credit. I doubt if you will need the whole
+amount of it. If, on the contrary, you find you want more for anything
+special, write or cable to the office."</p>
+
+<p>Out of another pocket he drew a white muslin bag, such as bankers use.
+It held a quantity of Italian gold and a roll of Italian bank notes.
+This was "change" to have with her when she should arrive. He talked
+with her for some time on various topics; on the beauty of Italy, the
+charm of the people; of his admiration for Eleanor Sansevero. "But
+dearest," he ended, "one word on the subject of European men: you will
+probably have a good deal of attention. I don't want to spoil your
+enjoyment, but you must remember the hard, cold fact that it will be
+chiefly because you are Miss Millionaire."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure they couldn't be any more after 'Miss Millionaire' over there
+than here." She began calmly enough, but grew vehement as she continued:
+"How many of the proposals that I have had from my own countrymen during
+the past two years have been for me, the girl, and not merely for your
+daughter?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Her father, having stirred up her resentment, now tried to soothe it
+down again.</p>
+
+<p>"You must not get cynical, little girl. Every advantage in this world
+must have its corresponding disadvantage. I merely want you to follow
+your extremely sensible and well-balanced head. Only, remember," he
+added with bantering good-humor, "I am not over keen about foreigners,
+so don't bring a little what-is-it back with you, and expect because it
+has a long string of titles dangling to it, that it will be welcomed
+with any enthusiasm by your doting father! So, away with you!" He again
+looked at his watch. "Better get your things together; you haven't any
+too much time."</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Nina left him, instead of rejoining his wife and Derby he sat
+at his desk and was immediately absorbed in making figures with the stub
+of a pencil on the back of an envelope. He was still there when Nina, in
+coat and furs, came downstairs again to the library, where her mother
+and Derby were now waiting.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, are you ready at last? Where is your father? What is he doing
+now?" her mother demanded with a pout, as if his absence were quite
+Nina's fault, and as if whatever his occupation might be it especially
+annoyed her. She fluttered to the doorway of his study and looked in.</p>
+
+<p>"James, I really think you might give some thought to your family. Nina
+is going now." She spoke in a babyish, aggrieved tone. He did not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>look
+up, and Mrs. Randolph did not repeat her remark; she turned instead to
+her daughter. "Go in and tell your father that I think he might pay you
+some attention."</p>
+
+<p>Nina went over behind his chair, and gently put her cheek down to his.
+She did not interrupt him, but let him finish the calculation he was
+doing; and he turned to her after about a minute.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, sweetheart, come along."</p>
+
+<p>Having put his envelope in his pocket, he dismissed whatever it meant
+completely from his mind, and Nina held his undivided attention as he
+went down the steps with her to the motor, into which Derby had already
+put Mrs. Randolph. As soon as they were all in and the machine started,
+Nina leaned forward and called to the butler, "Good-by, Dawson!" And for
+once the man's face lost its imperturbability, as he answered fervently,
+"Good-by, miss, and a safe return&mdash;home!"</p>
+
+<p>"Safe return&mdash;home." For a moment the question entered her head&mdash;was
+there any doubt of her returning? With the apprehension came also a
+slight sense of excitement&mdash;but soon she had forgotten. While they sped
+toward the dock, Mrs. Randolph, possibly a little piqued that her
+daughter could want to spend the winter away from her, showed her
+authority by endless directions and counsels. As she completely
+monopolized the conversation as far as Nina was concerned, the two men
+talked together, and Nina's responses gradually <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>drifted into a series
+of "Yes, Mamma's," to admonitions that were but half heard, until her
+wandering attention was brought up with a sharp turn by her mother's
+impatient exclamation:</p>
+
+<p>"For goodness sake, Nina, try to be less monotonous!"</p>
+
+<p>Nina roused herself quickly. "I am sorry, Mamma dear! I did not think
+there was anything for me to say. Please don't be put out with me, just
+now when I am going away!"</p>
+
+<p>They had by this time arrived at the steamer, and went for a moment to
+see Nina's cabin, where they found Celeste trying to reduce to some
+semblance of order the innumerable baskets of fruit and boxes of flowers
+with which it was crowded.</p>
+
+<p>Derby looked perhaps a trifle chagrined at the profusion, as Nina gave a
+cursory glance at the cards that Celeste had affixed to each opened box.
+But with a curious little smile&mdash;one that had real sweetness in it&mdash;Nina
+picked up a particular bunch of violets, and looked at Derby over their
+clustered fragrance as she lifted them to her face. She let the look
+thank him&mdash;and then she pinned the flowers on.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Randolph did not see the wordless scene, as she was busy reading
+cards and making characteristic comments. Mr. Randolph had stopped to
+make sure that the luggage was attended to. He now appeared, and with
+him Mrs. Gray, with whom Nina was to make the crossing. Mrs. Gray shook
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>hands with every one, called Nina a "precious child," told her where
+the steamer chairs had been placed, and disappeared. On the promenade
+deck Nina found a throng of young girls and men waiting for her. They
+all chattered together in a group and plied her with questions: Was she
+going to be presented at court? Was she going to live in an old castle?
+What was her uncle the prince like? How wonderful to spend a season in
+Rome? They wished they were going, too&mdash;and so they went on.</p>
+
+<p>But at a moment when the others were all talking loudly, John Derby
+managed to draw Nina aside. He looked down at her with an expression
+half-quizzical, half-serious. "This is about the time we come to the
+'great divide,'" he said. "Your trail lies to the palaces of the Old
+World; mine to dig holes in remote corners of the New. You'll write me,
+won't you? My letters will be pretty dull, I am afraid&mdash;same old story:
+a laborer's day, and occasionally a Sunday's ride to get the mail at the
+nearest ranch."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'll make mine doubly thick&mdash;so they will seem like packets. I may
+even write that famous journal and send it in instalments to you!" Then
+suddenly the banter died of her eyes and voice and she said
+half-sentimentally: "Dear old Jack! Most of every one I shall miss you.
+I hope things will go famously for you. You have my address?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and mine is Breakstone, Arizona, care of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> Burk Mining Company.
+Well," he smiled, "good hunting to both of us!"</p>
+
+<p>There was still plenty of time before the ship sailed, but Mr. Randolph
+was leaving. He had been talking with another financier who was seeing
+his own family off, and now came up between his daughter and Derby.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will go with me now," he said to the latter, "we can talk over
+the Louisiana sulphur proposition on the way to my office." Then he
+turned to Nina: "It is barely possible you may see John in Italy before
+the winter is over."</p>
+
+<p>Nina raised her eyebrows as she looked at Derby. "You said you were
+going to Arizona!" she said accusingly.</p>
+
+<p>But Derby's expression showed that he was as much in the dark as she.
+Mr. Randolph wagged his head as though altogether pleased with the
+situation. "Of course, he is going to Arizona, and very likely he'll
+stay there&mdash;on the other hand, maybe he won't. Now that's something for
+you to think about besides speculating on the length of name of each
+stranger you meet." He kissed her affectionately on both cheeks and,
+giving Derby barely a chance to shake hands with her, hurried him away.</p>
+
+<p>People were beginning their final good-byes, and from where Nina and her
+friends stood by the deck rail, there was a clear view of the gang plank
+and the ship's departing visitors. It was from this vantage that several
+pairs of envious young masculine <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>eyes, looking downward, saw the right
+hand of the great and only James B. Randolph affectionately laid on the
+broad shoulder of an ex-oarsman and football player. And for as long as
+the two were in sight it was the ex-oarsman who talked, and the great
+financier who listened.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DUKE SCORPA MAKES A DEAL</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the branch office of Shayne &amp; Co., in the Via Condotti, Rome, Mr.
+Shayne arose from his desk, rearranged his diamond scarf-pin in his gray
+satin Ascot tie, flicked two imaginary particles of dust from his
+tight-fitting cutaway coat, whisked his silk handkerchief out of his
+breast pocket and in again, so that the lavender border was visible,
+cleared his throat, and stood in an attitude of agreeable expectancy.</p>
+
+<p>Directly the door of his private room was discreetly opened, admitting a
+square-jawed, beetle-browed man, heavy and ugly&mdash;a coarse type, yet not
+without distinction. The two men did not shake hands. Mr. Christopher
+Shayne bowed blandly, deferentially, yet not servilely, and again he
+cleared his throat. The visitor nodded as though there upon an affair of
+business that he was anxious to have terminated as speedily as possible.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you be seated?&mdash;I think you will find this chair comfortable." Mr.
+Shayne indicated a chair with a wave of his hand. "The letter which I
+have from your Excellency is a trifle indefinite. But I take it that you
+have something of more than ordinary importance to communicate." He
+finished <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>his sentence by giving his mustache a thoughtful twirl upward,
+first on one side and then on the other.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke Scorpa let his rat-like eyes rest a moment upon the alert face
+of Mr. Shayne before he answered: "You said once in my presence that you
+had long wanted to acquire a Raphael. I am in a position at present to
+offer you one."</p>
+
+<p>"A Raphael!" Shayne showed genuine surprise. "I do not remember one in
+your collection."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not in my own collection. Before giving you further details,
+however, I must be assured that you are still anxious to purchase, and
+also that you will observe strict secrecy with regard to it."</p>
+
+<p>"In answer to the first, such an opportunity is beyond question of
+interest to me; in answer to the second, my reputation should be a
+guarantee of my discretion. I hope the picture you have in view is not
+the Asanai one&mdash;for there is much doubt as to its being genuine."</p>
+
+<p>"No, the one I speak of is the Sansevero Madonna."</p>
+
+<p>In spite of himself Mr. Shayne blew a long whistle. "The Sansevero
+Madonna with the doves!" he reiterated. "That <i>is</i> a prize! I am
+astonished, though&mdash;&mdash;" It was on his tongue to say that he had thought
+the Prince Sansevero beyond the suspicion of illegal sale of treasures;
+but, checking himself in time, he finished his sentence&mdash;"that he should
+be willing to part with it. Besides, it is a danger<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>ous thing for him to
+sell, on account of its celebrity."</p>
+
+<p>"So I told him." The Duke Scorpa lied perfectly. "But it is better,
+after all, to sell one thing that will bring in a good price than to
+sell a number of things that bring in little, and yet incur the same
+amount of risk in getting them out of the country." Here the duke's
+manner became almost confidential. "As I told you, I am of course acting
+merely in the interest of my friend the Prince Sansevero. Selling
+against the law of my country would be abhorrent to me personally. But
+my friend, poor fellow, is hard pressed for money. And, as he argues,
+the picture is his, and has been in his family since long before our
+government ever made such laws. He considers he has a right&mdash;or should
+have&mdash;to dispose of property that is his own. The government would pay
+not more than half what you will give me, I am sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, of course. I have long coveted that Raphael. On the other
+hand, as I said, the picture is so very well known and so excellent that
+it could hardly be palmed off as a copy. Also the canvas is large, which
+will make it very difficult to conceal. It is still at Torre Sansevero,
+I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, it is here in Rome. It is removed from the frame and is at present
+in my palace. I suppose the offer that you once told me you would make
+still holds good?"</p>
+
+<p>The American looked shrewd. "Did I name a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>sum? I do not remember. Ah,
+yes. But that was for a very rich man who has since bought a Velasquez.
+I doubt if he will buy any more."</p>
+
+<p>Scorpa rose as though to leave. "My friend wants five hundred thousand
+lire."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Shayne laughed scornfully. "Preposterous!" he said, and from that
+they argued for nearly half an hour; but in the end it was settled that
+the picture should change hands, and the price agreed upon was two
+hundred and fifty thousand lire.</p>
+
+<p>In the matter of payment the duke was punctilious about protecting his
+friend the Prince Sansevero from the consequences of his transgression
+of the law. Shayne agreed to make his payments in cash, so that
+Sansevero's name should not appear on the checks.</p>
+
+<p>But Christopher Shayne was more than skeptical about the duke's
+disinterestedness. "There is a rake-off for this one somewhere," he
+thought. He also thought that for once he had been mistaken in his
+judgment of character. Sansevero had been, in his opinion, a man who
+would sooner starve than defraud the government. So strongly did he
+believe this that although he had, as the duke knew, long coveted the
+Raphael, he would never have dared to approach Sansevero.</p>
+
+<p>After the duke had gone Shayne went out and personally sent a code cable
+announcing his purchase.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said to himself, "it's no business of mine. But duke or no
+duke, he is a slick one. I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>don't like him. I can tell, though, whether
+it is the Sansevero picture as soon as I lay my eyes on it&mdash;but what
+gets me is that the prince chose such a go-between. Why didn't he come
+to me direct?" He didn't puzzle over that long, however; planning to get
+the picture out of Italy occupied his attention. An excellent idea
+presented itself: some furniture ordered by his firm should carry it in
+a sofa, and his partner should be advised by cipher letter to remove the
+picture. J. B. Randolph would buy it, without doubt&mdash;no need to tell him
+how it came into Shayne &amp; Co.'s hands. They could swear they bought it
+in London. Plausible stories of masterpieces discovered in out of the
+way corners were easily enough manufactured. So these thoughts all being
+to his utmost satisfaction, he went whistling down the street.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke Scorpa at the same time was being driven cheerfully homeward.
+That had been a stroke, that idea of pretending he was merely the
+intermediary. He had got the picture for a loan of one hundred thousand,
+and had one hundred and fifty thousand clear profit. There was nothing
+to show his transaction with Sansevero. No money had passed between
+them, not even a scrap of paper. He had torn up the prince's I. O. U.,
+and that was all the evidence there had been. Christopher Shayne,
+besides, was a shrewd man and reliable, and one who never had been
+caught in a questionable transaction. To be sure, Scorpa had given
+Sansevero his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>word (but again there was no proof), that he would let
+him retrieve the picture at an advanced price that should be merely the
+accrued compound interest on the money lent. In case of his being able
+to reclaim it, Scorpa would pretend that the picture was burnt or
+stolen&mdash;time enough to cross bridges when he came to them. But that
+chance was beyond all probability. There was no way for Sansevero ever
+to secure enough money to get back the picture&mdash;unless, indeed, his
+younger brother Giovanni should marry the great American heiress who was
+on her way to Italy for the winter.</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly think that likely," said the Duke Scorpa to himself, as he
+stroked his heavy chin with his fat hand, "for I intend to annex that
+little fortune myself."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>DON GIOVANNI ARRIVES</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was a few days after Nina's arrival in Italy; one of the glorious
+mornings when the famous Sansevero gardens were full of golden light,
+bringing into high relief the creamy marble of statues that in other
+centuries had been white. Against the deep waxy green of shrubs and
+hedges, the fountains seemed to be tossing liquid diamonds; and beyond
+the marble balustrades of the descending terraces, the hills rolled away
+in soft gray billows of young olive leaves and powdered slopes of
+blossoming orange branches. In contrast with this background of green
+and marble and roses and flowers and fountains stood Nina reaching up to
+pick a pink camellia. In front of her, the princess was looking vaguely
+into the finder of a camera.</p>
+
+<p>"Now what shall I do? Just press the bulb and let go?"</p>
+
+<p>"W-w-ait a moment until my teeth stop chattering!"</p>
+
+<p>Nina had taken off her coat and was wearing a dress as summery in
+appearance as the garden. "All right, Auntie. This ought to be lovely&mdash;I
+hope gooseflesh and a blue nose won't show."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The picture taken, she lost no time in getting back into her long fur
+coat again and wrapping it tightly around her, still shivering.</p>
+
+<p>"I do hope the pictures will be good&mdash;I am going to write under them 'In
+a rose garden at Christmas Time.' I shall not tell that I never was so
+cold in my life as at this minute. What I can't understand is how the
+flowers are hypnotized into believing it warm weather. It is every bit
+as cold as New York, yet if we were to ask these same shrubs to live in
+our gardens, they would hang their heads and die at the mere
+suggestion." Nina wanted to take snap shots of the princess, but the
+latter refused to remove her coat, and the incongruity of furs dispelled
+the midsummer illusion. Slipping her hand through her aunt's arm she
+drew her into a brisk walk. The temperature of Italy is low only by
+comparison with its summery appearance, and by the time they reached the
+terrace end she was in a glow.</p>
+
+<p>She looked up at the irregular stone pile of the old castle, against
+which semi-tropical vines climbed so high as partially to cover even the
+great square tower; and involuntarily she exclaimed, "It is so
+beautiful, so beautiful&mdash;it almost hurts; even the color of the
+sunshine&mdash;the brilliancy, yet the softness&mdash;and then to be with you!"
+Enthusiastically she pressed her aunt's arm.</p>
+
+<p>"But tell me," she went on, "what rooms are these along here? Do I know
+them? Let me see&mdash;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>mine is far around on that side over there, isn't
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is your room in the corner, the one by the fountain of the
+dolphins."</p>
+
+<p>Just then there was the sound of tramping on the gravel walk. Nina
+turned, and the next instant her curiosity was aroused. "Who in the
+world were all these people?" As her aunt paid no attention, she
+repeated her question, and the princess casually glanced in their
+direction. It was probably a party of Cook's tourists. Yes, she
+recognized the conductor.</p>
+
+<p>Nina watched the party with increasing interest. "Look how funny that
+little woman is. When the guide tells her anything, she follows his
+directions as though he had a string tied to her nose." Nina began to
+laugh, and the princess turned to see two of the tourists, who, like
+rodents, seemed to be judging a statue of Hermes entirely by the sense
+of smell. The party came nearer, and the princess turned away. But Nina,
+alert, exclaimed, "The guide is pointing you out to them."</p>
+
+<p>"Very likely; one gets used to that. Come, let us go on; they will be
+all over here in a few minutes." The crowd craned after her as she went
+down the terrace, followed by Nina.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say you give up your own home like this to strangers?"
+the girl asked. "It must be a perfect nuisance!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is all a matter of custom," the princess <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>answered. "Besides, the
+people don't annoy us. They go usually on the lower terraces; at most
+they come up to the old courtyard galleries, perhaps mount the tower to
+see the view, or go into the catacombs."</p>
+
+<p>At the bare mention of catacombs Nina was greatly excited, and looked
+eagerly toward the tourists who were going under the archway where the
+drawbridge once had been, but the Princess showed very little interest.
+They were merely underground passageways that were probably used by
+slaves, although there was one that undoubtedly was built as a means of
+escape. It ran many kilometers and ended in a cave in the forest. "Oh,
+come! Please come!" Nina fairly dragged her aunt after the party to the
+steep dark entrance leading from an old stone dungeon that was falling
+in ruins. The tourists were descending in an awed silence in which
+nothing could be heard but the groping shuffle of cautious feet, broken
+by the hollow echo of the guide's voice reciting his sing-song jargon of
+what he supposed to be English. He held a lantern that revealed a long
+alleyway of crumbling, mud-colored stone. Nina tried to make out
+something of his glib discourse, but soon gave it up.</p>
+
+<p>"What is he talking about?" she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>The princess disentangled the tradition from the overburdening names and
+dates: those scratches he was pointing out on the walls were supposed to
+be a cryptic message from some refugees in need <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>of provisions. It was
+not a very authentic story, though.</p>
+
+<p>As the princess spoke in English, two tourists detached themselves from
+the huddled group around the guide and sidled up to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you tell me," asked one, a wizened small person who, in the
+flickering light of the lantern, was strongly suggestive of a mouse,
+"are there many buried here? The guide has been explaining, and I am
+stupid, I know, but for the life of me I can't understand a word he
+says." Her voice was a little dejected, and altogether apologetic.</p>
+
+<p>"We do not think there are any," the princess answered.</p>
+
+<p>The little tourist blinked, hesitated, and then asked, confidentially,
+"Did the guide say you were the princess of this castle? We couldn't
+make out."</p>
+
+<p>By this time two others, inquisitive and gaping, joined the spokeswoman,
+who, as the princess assented, exclaimed, "My!"</p>
+
+<p>That ended the conversation for the time being; and the party trooped on
+in silence. But after a little the small mousy one's curiosity overcame
+her diffidence. "Land, it'd be queer to live in a place like this! Do
+you come down here much, Your Highness?"</p>
+
+<p>Nina nearly giggled, but the princess replied, "I have been down only
+once or twice. There is no use to which we can put these passageways
+nowadays. There was a deep pit that descended from one of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>the upper
+rooms of the castle through a trap in the floor. The bottom of it was
+far below here, but it is all done away with and cemented over now."</p>
+
+<p>"You know, Your Highness," returned the little tourist, now glibly at
+ease, "I think it'd be a good place for growing mushrooms."</p>
+
+<p>The guide interrupted by mounting a pair of stairs and holding up his
+lantern with the order to "come this way." They all stumbled up the
+crumbling steps after him and suddenly found themselves behind the altar
+of a chapel that stood at the far end of the garden.</p>
+
+<p>"For pity's sake!" cried the little tourist, her eyes again
+blinking&mdash;this time at the light. "I never was in such a wonderful place
+in all my life. My! It won't seem like anything at all to go down cellar
+at home after I get back! Is this the way you go to meeting? Oh, no&mdash;you
+said you hadn't been down often. Maybe this is the way to go when it
+rains! It don't rain much here, does it? My, but that's an idea&mdash;to go
+underground to church. I wonder how ever you get used to it." And then
+irrelevantly she added, "All these beautiful churches over here in
+Yurrup, not a pew in one of 'em."</p>
+
+<p>"They bring out these kneeling chairs for service," the princess said,
+pointing to a number against one wall of the chapel.</p>
+
+<p>Again all the tourist could say was her ever ready "My!"</p>
+
+<p>"Would you like to see some of the castle?" the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>princess asked. "There
+is a picture gallery not usually opened to visitors, also some
+apartments with frescoes that are worth seeing." Then to the guide, "You
+may take them into the west wing." The tourists looked variously,
+according to their several dispositions; the little one beamed.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's real kind of Your Highness," she exclaimed, her small gray
+person fluttering, more than ever like a mouse. "I must say that's real
+kind. I just dote on pictures. Do you like crayons? Well, I like oils
+best myself, but there are some who have a taste for crayons. The
+photographer's son&mdash;out where I live&mdash;he is real talented. He did some
+beautiful portraits. Folks thought he ought to come over here right away
+and study art. But others thought there was just as good art right at
+home. Now, what'd you say?"</p>
+
+<p>Her good intention quite won the princess, and her accent warmed her
+heart in a way that Nina would have been at a loss to understand.</p>
+
+<p>They had reached the west door, and the Princess sent a gardener around
+to the main entrance for the porter to bring his keys. The old man came
+quickly enough, fumbling in the pocket of his greatcoat, but he did not
+look at all edified at the whim of Her Excellency which allowed a lot of
+strangers to track mud through the best rooms of the Castle. He preceded
+the party, however, with all signs of deference, unlocking doors as they
+went.</p>
+
+<p>The little New Englander was meekly trailing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>after the guide, leaving
+Nina and her aunt for the moment alone.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but these are beautiful rooms, Aunt Eleanor! Why don't you use
+them?"</p>
+
+<p>"We do in summer sometimes, but one needs a staff of servants to keep
+them up. Besides in winter it is impossible to get them warm."</p>
+
+<p>"Then why," Nina spoke as though she had discovered an obviously simple
+solution, "don't you have the proper heating put in? You won't mind if I
+ask you something, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ask what you like, dearest."</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you make yourself more comfortable? For instance, why don't
+you have modern plumbing put in? And don't you prefer electric light?"</p>
+
+<p>The Princess smiled as though she had never felt the need of any of
+these things. "You have left the land of modern improvements and come
+over to the land of romance!" For a moment she kept the illusion, but
+the next she seemed to change her mind, for she said practically and
+with no veiling of the facts: "Quite apart from the difficulty of
+putting pipes and wires through these thick stone walls, even if every
+modern improvement were already installed, the cost would make it
+prohibitive to attempt either heating or lighting."</p>
+
+<p>Nina gasped, "I don't understand! You don't have to think of such a
+thing as the expense of keeping warm, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed we do. Fuel is a very serious item."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But, you have plenty of money, surely. I thought living
+abroad&mdash;especially in Italy&mdash;was cheap."</p>
+
+<p>"I did have a bigger income than now&mdash;one does not get as good a rate of
+interest as one used." She colored a little at the false inference and
+dwelt with more emphasis on the next sentence.</p>
+
+<p>"When we go to Rome we spend much more money; we have all the rooms open
+there, and we have a great number of servants&mdash;in short we live like
+princes." She smiled brightly. "But you see in order to do that we have
+to live quietly and save during the rest of the year."</p>
+
+<p>Nina looked perplexed. "That sounds very queer," she said. "I should
+think you would even things up and be more comfortable all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we would have nothing. It would be additional expenditure on
+things that don't matter, and no money left for things that do. Opening
+these rooms, for instance, would not greatly add to our pleasure. After
+all, we can only sit in one room at a time. To have many guests and
+motors and horses for hunting, and to have big shooting parties&mdash;all
+that is an expense not to be thought of. It amuses us more to go to
+Rome, so we prefer to save for nine months in order to live well the
+other three."</p>
+
+<p>Nina was trying to do a sum in mental arithmetic; she could not quite
+make the diminished interest account for her aunt's evident lack of
+income, but did not like to ask for more details. However, something
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>else happened that diverted her attention. They went through
+innumerable rooms, always to the distant droning sing-song of the
+guide's explanations.</p>
+
+<p>Finally they came to the picture gallery. It was not a notable
+collection, with one or two exceptions; and one of these exceptions was
+strikingly absent. The guide left the group and approached the princess,
+exclaiming, "Excellency! The Raphael!"</p>
+
+<p>"It has been sent to be repaired." Her hesitation was scarcely
+perceptible. "The background was sinking a little."</p>
+
+<p>The man quite forgot himself and in his excitement dared a retort&mdash;"It
+was one of the best preserved Raphaels extant." But the expression in
+the princess' straight-gazing eyes held his further speech in check, and
+though she said no word the man cringed.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon, Excellency," he said, and went back to explain to the waiting
+group that the great painting of the Sansevero collection at that moment
+was being carefully examined, by experts, as to its preservation.
+Nevertheless, there was a look in his face that caused Nina to turn to
+her aunt with an apprehension, that gave rise to a vague suspicion that
+the princess, who was walking slowly, her head very high and her
+beautiful shoulders well back, was struggling to hide some strong
+emotion. She thought later that she might have been mistaken, for a
+moment later her aunt asked with her usual composure, "Have you a watch
+on? What time is it?"</p>
+
+<p>Nina consulted the diamond and enamel trinket <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>hanging on a chain around
+her neck. "It is ten minutes to one. Is it lunch time?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nearly. Are you hungry? We are not having lunch to-day until half
+after. I have a surprise for you."</p>
+
+<p>"For me? What is it to be?"</p>
+
+<p>"My young brother-in-law, Giovanni, comes home to-day. I expect him on
+the twelve-thirty train. Your uncle has gone to the station to fetch
+him&mdash;they ought to arrive at any moment."</p>
+
+<p>Nina's face looked brightly expectant. "Tell me something about him! Is
+he half as good-looking as his pictures?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah? So she has been examining his photographs!"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course!" Nina laughed. "Oh, please tell me something about him! Does
+he speak English? French? Or shall I have to struggle in broken Italian?
+Is he like Uncle Sandro?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait until you see him."</p>
+
+<p>"At least tell me does he speak English?"</p>
+
+<p>"He speaks beautiful French."</p>
+
+<p>"Which means, I suppose, that he speaks monkey English!"</p>
+
+<p>But the princess vouchsafed no reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, but really, I <i>do</i> think you might tell me something! Is he
+attractive?"</p>
+
+<p>The Princess assumed a tantalizing air&mdash;"That also I am going to leave
+you to find out when you see him. At all events he is young&mdash;that is
+compared to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>your uncle and me. It has been dull for you, darling, with
+no one your own age."</p>
+
+<p>Nina interrupted her reproachfully. "Don't you dare! To hear you, one
+might suppose you were a hundred. I don't care a bit whether Don
+Giovanni is a Calaban or an Antinous&mdash;All the same," she laughed, "had I
+better tidy my hair&mdash;or does it not matter?"</p>
+
+<p>The tourists were all filing out of the castle now, and as the porter
+locked the doors, the princess shook hands with the little American.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Your Highness," she said, "you have been real kind. We&mdash;I
+didn't think, when I left home that I was going to be talking this way
+to princesses. I never dreamed they were like you; and you talk
+beautiful English, too."</p>
+
+<p>With a warm impulse the princess laid her left hand over the
+cotton-gloved one in her right.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but I was an American myself," she said, "and it does me good to
+see a country-woman."</p>
+
+<p>They parted. Again the guide made a deep reverence to "Her Excellency,"
+but to Nina the look in his eyes seemed both sly and suspicious.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, the pony-cart carrying the prince and his brother was
+jogging slowly up the hills from the station.</p>
+
+<p>Don Giovanni Sansevero&mdash;by his own title the Marchese di Valdo&mdash;was
+still on the hither side of thirty, but if a reputation for being
+"irresistible to women" goes for anything, he must by this time have
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>had some experience in their ways. At all events, his appearance so
+tallied with hearsay that, whether founded upon fact or not, the
+reputation remained.</p>
+
+<p>He was supple and beautifully built, his bones were small and finely
+jointed, his features chiseled with classic regularity&mdash;later on his
+lips might grow coarse, but as yet they were merely full. The chief
+characteristic of his expression was its mobility, but it was the
+mobility of an actor who knows every emotion that the muscles of a face
+can command. Sansevero's face, also changeable as an April day, was the
+spontaneous expression of unconscious mood. Giovanni was of a type to
+smile sweetly when most angry, or to assume an air of sulkiness when at
+heart he might be well content. Just now, with an assumption of extreme
+indifference, he turned to his brother.</p>
+
+<p>"What is she like, this heiress of yours whom you are so anxious to have
+me marry?" he asked. "Plain, stupid, a nonentity?&mdash;So much the
+better&mdash;those make the easy wives to manage. Give me a woman with little
+real success&mdash;I mean, one who has seen only the imitation fire that is
+lighted when man pursues with reason and not with feeling. The American
+men make it easy for the rest of us&mdash;they are what you call curtain
+raisers in the play of love. They keep the gallery busy until the
+entrance of the hero. I hope she is not a beauty."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Per Bacco</i>, how you do talk!" interrupted the prince. "I have no
+chance to answer. Miss Ran<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>dolph is not a beauty; but she is
+<i>simpatica</i>; she has an air, a <i>chic</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better, so long as the <i>chic</i> is one of appearance and not
+of personality. I don't want my wife to be a siren." Suddenly he laughed
+and hit his brother's knee. "But what nonsense! Imagine a cold American
+miss having the power to make a man's pulses leap! Oh, don't make a face
+like that&mdash;I am not speaking of my honored sister-in-law; she is indeed
+of the true type of our mother." Mechanically both men indicated the
+sign of the cross at the word "mother."</p>
+
+<p>"But," continued Giovanni, "I am not exactly worthy of a saint&mdash;it would
+not suit my disposition. It is bad enough associating always with good
+Brother Antonio as it is. By the way, where is he?"</p>
+
+<p>He gave a shrill whistle and looked back down the road for the gray
+figure of his inseparable friend and companion: not a monk as the name
+indicated, but a Great Dane. A distant cloud of dust proclaimed that the
+whistle had been heard. "Poor Sant Antonio!" he called as soon as the
+dog had caught up, "Where have you been? I suppose you were meditating
+along life's highway. No," he continued, "it were best I did not pretend
+to be better than I am; my good monk would not absolve me else. Still,
+do you know, sometimes I seriously doubt even Brother Antonio's morals!"
+He shrugged his shoulders and laughed in great delight. Sansevero seemed
+undecided whether to be shocked or amused; ordinarily <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>he would have
+laughed easily enough, but Giovanni in some way had seemed to involve
+Eleanor in his levity.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," continued Giovanni, "I suppose at least Miss America, not being
+a Catholic, will make no objections to Sant Antonio's short-comings!"</p>
+
+<p>At this Sansevero bristled, "Giovanni, I will ask you not to air your
+irreligious remarks about that dog with an unseemly name, in connection
+with the family of my wife."</p>
+
+<p>For answer Giovanni blew a whistle into the air.</p>
+
+<p>Sansevero grew sulky. "I warn you! Don't let Leonore hear you make
+remarks that she might think slighting about her darling! She is like
+her own child to her!"</p>
+
+<p>For a few moments both men were silent. Giovanni's face was no longer
+mocking; he was watching the beautiful lope of his huge dog. Sansevero
+looked straight ahead, quite pensively for him. "Poor Leonore," he said
+at last. "It is often such as she who have no children!" Unconsciously
+he sighed.</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni smiled, "I don't see what she wants of another child than you!"</p>
+
+<p>"And you will inherit&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Please! I am not quite so bad as that. Believe me, I should rejoice for
+you if you had children. Leonore would have made a wonderful mother.
+Even I might be respectable if a woman such as she loved me as she loves
+you. But," he grew flippant again, "to marry one of those
+nose-in-the-air, soulless, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>school-teacher prudes&mdash;Never! And in any
+event, my dear, I am not so sure I want to marry your heiress. I am very
+well as I am!" He shrugged his shoulders. A moment later, though, he put
+a question. "What is her first name?&mdash;I have forgotten."</p>
+
+<p>"Nina."</p>
+
+<p>"Nina! Really a charming name, that! One that can be said without
+breaking consonants against the teeth. There was a girl once, very
+pretty, but she was called&mdash;I can never pronounce it&mdash;E-d-i-t-h&mdash;those
+are the letters. But Ni-na! It has a delicious sound." He let it slip
+over his tongue. Then he put his head on one side and asked quizzically,
+"How much has she?"</p>
+
+<p>Sansevero looked up quickly; he hesitated a moment, then answered
+stiffly: "She has a great fortune, but she is also my niece."</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni raised his eyebrows, and then burst into shouts of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"What has come over you? It was you who suggested the match! You know as
+well as I that my debts don't disturb me in the least. It is quite easy
+always to&mdash;borrow, if one must pay."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>LOVE, AND A GARDEN</h3>
+
+
+<p>Don Giovanni arrived on Tuesday, and Saturday found him out on the
+terrace leaning over the balustrade beside Nina. His expression was
+unusually animated, for he was making the most of his first chance to
+talk to her without the presence of a third person. Not that they were
+alone&mdash;the Princess Sansevero was too much of an Italian to leave a
+young girl for a moment unchaperoned. But she was walking about with the
+head gardener, discussing the possibilities of saving a grove of cypress
+trees that showed signs of dying; and though she kept the young people
+well in sight, she could not overhear their conversation. Giovanni's big
+dog, St. Anthony, was lying outstretched in the sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>In the full light, Nina had ample opportunity for observing that her
+companion was quite as good-looking in detail as in general effect; and
+the rhythmic inflection of his voice&mdash;he spoke in French&mdash;she thought
+truly attuned to his surroundings. He was one of those who, like Italy
+itself, give to strangers only the suggestion of their meaning, and he
+interested Nina chiefly as a new unsolved problem.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually the habitual sleepy expression had re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>turned to his eyes, and
+his voice grew dreamy. "We of Italy," he was saying, "live, endure, die,
+if need be&mdash;always for the same reason&mdash;woman and love! Your men in
+America"&mdash;his teeth glittered as he smiled&mdash;"tell me, Mademoiselle, do
+you believe they know what it is to love? Do they hide it, perhaps, from
+us Europeans?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should think," answered Nina sagely, "that love means more to our men
+than to you." (A remark that John Derby had made came into her mind as
+she spoke: "You will find your own countrymen go in for the real thing,
+where the foreigner spends all his time talking about it.")</p>
+
+<p>Don Giovanni was too thoroughly a European to become argumentative. "You
+see, I speak only from hearsay," he continued, with that air of agreeing
+with her which only the Latin possesses. "I have always been led to
+suppose that love plays a very small part in the lives of your
+countrymen." He held the thread of the conversation, but his manner said
+plainly that he only waited humbly to be enlightened. "I should have
+said," he went on, "an illustration of love in my country as contrasted
+with yours is shown in the gardens&mdash;just as our gardens bloom all the
+year, so love blooms always in our hearts; flowers and love, they go
+together; nowhere in the world are they so perfect as in Italy."</p>
+
+<p>"So cultivated?" asked Nina.</p>
+
+<p>He took no notice of the quip. "If to cultivate is to think of and to
+nurture, to strive always <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>for greater perfection, then, yes, let us say
+cultivated."</p>
+
+<p>There was a challenge; there was also a look of pity that annoyed her.
+It was this that she resented. She felt that she was being enmeshed in
+an invisible web, and she sought for a means of escape. Seeing none she
+might be sure of, she dropped the figurative speech and took refuge in
+platitudes.</p>
+
+<p>"In America we admire a man for what he does&mdash;over here you do nothing.
+Each day for you is the same. You spend your time as a woman might,
+unless you go into the army, the church, or diplomacy. For instance,
+you, yourself, what is your ambition? Is there anything you are trying
+to do?"</p>
+
+<p>Indolently he shrugged his shoulders, and with a half-lazy arrogance he
+answered, "Why should I try to create a personal and trivial future,
+when I can, without striving, merely survive from a far more glorious
+past? Listen, Mademoiselle, do you think as much can be accomplished by
+one short generation as by many? For instance, could a garden such as
+this be produced in the lifetime of one man?" He waved his arm in a
+circular motion. "It is not alone its plan and its fountains, and its
+green shrubbery that make it what it is, but the history of human lives
+that is planted in its every turn and corner. The gardens of America are
+but newly born from the minds of your landscape architects; in most of
+them the trees are but newly planted. This garden <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>was already stately
+with ilex and cypress when the first white men of North America were
+sowing a little corn. How can you feel romance in a garden where there
+is no tradition save of the hours a few laborers have spent in digging?"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a look of real ardor came into his face, an animation into his
+expression that gave a new charm to his words. "On this terrace where we
+now stand, leaning upon the marble of this very railing, countless men
+who were heroes, poets, philosophers, and fair women who were their
+sweethearts, have looked, as we do, over the hills laden with blossoming
+trees. Up that path yonder to the monastery have gone pilgrims, sinners,
+martyrs, and many lovers to have their vows blessed, or to find a haven
+for broken hearts. In the <i>all&eacute;e</i> of cypress trees have walked many of
+the great lovers of Italy's romance. From this terrace end Beatrice
+herself is said to have thrown a rose of that very bush's parent stem to
+her immortal lover. Every corner of the garden holds its story of
+meetings that made of it a paradise, of partings that made of it an
+inferno. What is paradise, but love? Inferno, but the sorrow of love?
+Down before us, and even up here on this terrace, scenes have been
+enacted in feud and in peace, horrible scenes of bloodshed and cruelty,
+and again scenes of splendor&mdash;gatherings of church, ceremonials of
+state, but chiefly scenes of love&mdash;some beautiful and happy, others no
+less beautiful because they were tragic. Shall I tell you some of the
+stories?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nina nodded an eager assent; Giovanni's manner held her completely.</p>
+
+<p>"Almost where you are standing, Cecilia Sansevero was stabbed by Guido
+Corlone before he killed himself, so that they might be together in the
+next world. Out of that window, the third from the end, another daughter
+of our house descended by a silk ladder. They&mdash;she and her lover&mdash;took
+the path directly below here; the guards saw them. This happened just
+beside the statue yonder. He drew his sword and stood before her, but
+the guards were too many, and he was killed. She had poison in a locket
+that she wore, and almost before they could drag her arms from about her
+lover's neck, she also was dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Horrible!" cried Nina. Her face, mobile as Giovanni's own, had
+unconsciously reflected, in changing expressions, the progress of his
+narrative. "To think that in such a place as this such things really
+happened." She shuddered, then added, "But, Don Giovanni, are there no
+pleasant stories? Please think of some."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, any number. Once there was a small house in the valley&mdash;a lodge it
+would be called now. A very pretty girl lived there. This time it was
+the son of our house, a young, hot-headed fellow like all of us."
+Giovanni let just enough fire gleam in his eyes to give Nina a glimpse
+of another phase of him. "Well, this son&mdash;whose name was the same as
+mine, Giovanni, a Prince Sansevero&mdash;he was mad about <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>this girl. He
+would marry her or he would take his life. She was the star of his
+destiny, the crown of his life, and all the rest of it. They were going
+to send her away&mdash;she was to go into a cloister; he was locked up in the
+castle. But the old custodian, who adored the boy, let him escape by the
+underground passage. He came out in the church. She had gone there to
+pray, knowing nothing of the underground way&mdash;it was kept a profound
+secret in those days. As the girl knelt, Giovanni appeared suddenly
+beside the altar. Her duenna thought him an apparition, and the two fled
+up to the monastery&mdash;that one you see from here."</p>
+
+<p>"And then&mdash;&mdash;?" said Nina breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"The Father Abbot relented and married them."</p>
+
+<p>Nina tried to discern the path to the monastery; in her imagination she
+saw them hurrying along on the night of their escape.</p>
+
+<p>"And then? In the end what became of them?"</p>
+
+<p>"She bore him fifteen children; thirteen of them were girls."</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni's manner was so casual as he said this that Nina laughed long
+and deliciously. He swung himself lightly over the balustrade and
+gathered her a long-stemmed rose from the bush whose early branches were
+supposed to have known the touch of Beatrice. Perhaps the legend was
+untrue, but his action, like the afternoon, held much that was alluring.
+Something of this allure lay in Giovanni's having the same name as the
+people he told about.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> Something, too, in the carelessness, and yet the
+pride, of his telling, made his tales enchanting, and seemed in some way
+to include his own personality in the chain of romance as its final
+link. The garden was spread before her. The underground passage she
+knew, and it wound directly beneath her feet. The chapel, the statue,
+the ruins of the little temple, the monastery encircling like a low
+crown the summit of the distant mountain, all were before her; and
+beside her was a son of the same race, of the same blood. She wondered
+vaguely why it was so much more apparent in Don Giovanni than in her
+uncle the prince. Prince Sansevero seemed quite modern; the Marchese di
+Valdo, though more modern actually than his brother, still seemed to
+keep his touch on the age that was past.</p>
+
+<p>"Do these old legends please you, Mademoiselle? Or are you too restless?
+Too progressive? Americans, like the horse Pegasus, leap into the air
+without any need of foundation to stand on. We, over here, build, like
+the coral reefs, slowly perhaps, but always from the foundation up."</p>
+
+<p>"I think," said Nina slowly; "it is the mystery of the past that makes
+it so wonderful. We never can know quite enough about it. All legends
+are like pictures seen through a fog; it lifts and shows a glimpse, then
+as quickly closes in again. I always want to know what happened next."</p>
+
+<p>As she said this, she realized that she was more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>or less making an
+allegorical description of Giovanni himself. He was like his country and
+its traditions, revealing himself only in glimpses. He attracted her
+immensely through his subtle impersonality underlying all that was
+seemingly personal. She could not fathom his depth, nor determine his
+shallowness&mdash;she did not even guess which it might be. She was
+irresistibly drawn to him; yet she was on her guard, as one who, looking
+down from a great height, in fear of vertigo clings to the parapet over
+which he leans. The parapet she clung to was her own good American
+common sense. Yet she feared she did not know what. A little gleam in
+Giovanni's dark eyes, a curious, deliberate, intentionally produced
+expression of his smiling lips, swept over her sensibilities with a
+feeling that was as terrifying as it was delicious&mdash;and both perhaps
+because it was strange.</p>
+
+<p>A little look&mdash;like triumph&mdash;flickered in his face; he laughed joyously.
+"Mademoiselle, you are&mdash;adorable!" he said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>ROME</h3>
+
+
+<p>Christmas and New Year's passed, and the Sansevero household moved to
+Rome. The princess was impatient to have Nina meet people, but from the
+first glimpse of the domed City its immortal charm claimed the American
+girl, and for a little while she had neither time nor inclination for
+anything but sight-seeing. She fairly hungered for history and
+tradition, and she soon made the discovery that if Don Giovanni <i>did</i>
+nothing, he at least <i>knew</i> a great deal.</p>
+
+<p>She marveled at his memory. He seemed to have every name and date in the
+history of Rome and Italian art at the tip of his tongue. One afternoon
+they were going through the apartments of the Borgias; the princess,
+tired out with sight-seeing, was sitting at the edge of the room, and
+Giovanni was following Nina and pointing out the story illustrated in
+the frescoes.</p>
+
+<p>"I have found at least one thing you could do!" she laughed. "You'd make
+a wonderful guide for Cook's."</p>
+
+<p>But he was not at all amused by this sally; in fact, he let her see that
+he was annoyed. This same sort of unexpected response had baffled her
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>several times before. Any American youth would have fallen into the
+manner of a guide at once. She remembered that John Derby on one
+occasion, at a County fair, had insisted upon climbing on the stand of a
+barker and was the success of the show. On the other hand, this Italian
+prince appreciated things which John Derby would have brushed aside. He
+was a delightful companion, the most delightful she had ever known, but
+every now and then he became suddenly and inexplicably offended&mdash;and
+always over some stupid trifle, like this suggestion of hers about
+Cook's.</p>
+
+<p>"I only meant," she ventured appeasingly, "that you hold all of Rome's
+history in the palm of your hand. Is there anything that you don't
+know?"</p>
+
+<p>His gesture was expressive. He raised his eyebrows and opened both hands
+palms upward. "I am Roman&mdash;since a thousand years."</p>
+
+<p>Nina changed the subject. "I wish," she said, "that they had wheeling
+chairs with head rests. I have a crick in my neck and my eyes are going
+crossed from looking so much at ceilings."</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni's ill temper had been for a moment only. He smiled now and
+whimsically suggested that they write to the director of the Vatican
+asking that litters be provided. Why not? He grew quite enthusiastic
+over his description of how charming she would look between tall negro
+bearers, with a little black boy trotting beside her, carrying a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>long
+fan&mdash;no, in place of the fan he should carry a little stove.</p>
+
+<p>"My idea was not half so picturesque," she laughed in answer. "I think I
+had a dentist's chair in mind&mdash;a red fuzzy plush one on wheels."</p>
+
+<p>"And with me to push it?" He said it eagerly enough. Here was a
+contradiction of his late irritation! She did not dare, as a matter of
+fact, to answer; his melodies and his discords were too easily
+transposed.</p>
+
+<p>She turned her attention to the fresco before her; it was one with the
+portrait of the kneeling Borgia.</p>
+
+<p>"He looks like a burglar!" she exclaimed with a shudder. Then she
+hesitated, but Giovanni's mood being too uncertain to take into
+consideration she finished her sentence, "Do you know who he looks
+like&mdash;? The Duke Scorpa."</p>
+
+<p>Again he was angry. "Please, Miss Randolph, do not say anything of that
+sort."</p>
+
+<p>"But why shouldn't I?" She colored under his reproof, but held to her
+point.</p>
+
+<p>"Because you are of the household of the Sansevero. A little
+remark&mdash;even so little as a tenth of that, might be imprudent. Rome is
+to-day almost what it was. There still is a very frail bridge uniting
+the Scorpas and the Sanseveros; the ravine is always there; a torrent
+from the glacier may descend at any time."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall say it in a whisper! He looks <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>like a burglar, and like a
+cut-throat and&mdash;like Scorpa!"</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni scowled. "I warn you, Mademoiselle, be prudent!" A note of
+tension in his voice brought Nina to a sudden halt.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no one here but Aunt Eleanor&mdash;I doubt if even she can hear."</p>
+
+<p>"In Rome it would not be the first time if walls had ears."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry," she said so simply, so candidly, that Giovanni was
+charmed. He became light and amusing. He elaborated the legends of the
+frescoes with the lives of the painters' until she felt as though they
+were yet living. Finally they reached the side of the room where the
+princess was waiting. There was no impatience in her voice, but she
+looked tired, and Nina cried penitently:</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Aunt Eleanor! Why did you not call me sooner? I get so carried away
+by all the things I see, and the tales Don Giovanni tells me, that I
+have no sense of time."</p>
+
+<p>They descended the stairs to the inner court of the Vatican, where they
+found their carriage, an old-fashioned C-spring landeau, all very
+dignified and perfectly appointed, and in striking contrast to the
+pony-cart in which the princess was trundled about at Torre Sansevero.</p>
+
+<p>By the time they crossed the Ponte S. Angelo the color had come back a
+little into the princess's face. Nina, with no sign of fatigue, sat
+brightly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>alert, while Giovanni opposite, prattled ceaselessly, except
+for the interruption necessitated by his constantly taking off his hat
+as his sister-in-law bowed to passing acquaintances.</p>
+
+<p>They had not far to go along the Corso Vittorio Emanuele before they
+came to the dingy pile of yellow stone that for centuries had borne the
+name of Palazzo Sansevero. The landeau turned under one of its three
+broad archways, and entered the courtyard. A plain stone stairway, worn
+and dingy like the rest of the fa&ccedil;ade, led into a vestibule of
+unpromising darkness. The <i>portiere</i>, however, was very gorgeous and
+imposing in his knee breeches, white silk stockings, gold-trimmed coat,
+and his three-cornered hat with the prince's cockade at the side. He
+moved majestically down the steps, carrying a silver-headed mace, like a
+drum-major's, and saluted as the "nobilities" entered the palace. They
+ascended to a vast stone hall with a grand stairway at its further end,
+that quickly effaced the impression of the entrance. From an
+antechamber, they passed through five or six rooms hung with tapestries
+and paintings, and adorned with sculptures, until they arrived at the
+one where the princess really lived. This last was a huge, dignified,
+mellow, and splendid apartment, in every way worthy of the palace in
+which it stood, and of the great lady who occupied it now, no less than
+of all the great ladies who had occupied it in the past. In its present
+furnishings <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>there were deep sofas with light and table arrangement, so
+that one might lounge and read and at the same time be near the great
+open fire. Many bibelots of silver and porcelain made a contrast to the
+other rooms, that were more like museum galleries; and everywhere&mdash;here
+as in the country&mdash;were flowers and the army of autographed photographs
+marching across tables and banked high against the walls.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the family had entered, the tea-tray was brought in and
+placed near the fire. Following the Roman custom, according to which the
+daughter of the house pours the tea, the princess motioned Nina to fill
+the office, and she herself sat at her desk and began rapidly writing on
+a pad of paper. Giovanni carried tea and muffins to her, while Nina
+poured out her own cup and helped herself to a third cake.</p>
+
+<p>"Are these really so good?" she asked half wistfully. "Or are even these
+little cakes seemingly delicious only because they are in Rome? I am
+sure the cook at home made plenty that were every bit as good!" She said
+this last as though to convince herself.</p>
+
+<p>"They are wonderful little cakes&mdash;they are very celebrated!" Giovanni
+said it with an aggrieved air that made Nina laugh. As though wilfully
+misunderstanding her, he turned to his sister-in-law.</p>
+
+<p>"Such curious ideas Miss Randolph has about Rome! One would suppose, to
+hear her, that it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>was a land of witchcraft&mdash;even our food is to be
+taken with suspicion."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all," retorted Nina, with a turn of manner that would have done
+credit to an Italian, "a land of enchantment, which makes ordinary
+cakes&mdash;very ordinary little cakes, I tell you!&mdash;seem small squares and
+rounds of ambrosia. And, furthermore&mdash;I can assure you it is much more
+comfortable here than in the country."</p>
+
+<p>If Giovanni thought she was going to stay sentimental very long, he did
+not know the American temperament. For she now went into a long
+dissertation upon the discomfort of Torre Sansevero, where she nearly
+froze to death. Candle light she had not minded, though she much
+preferred electricity.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you entirely obliterated the gardens from your memory,
+Mademoiselle?" Giovanni asked in an undertone, and with a romantic
+inflection. But Nina's mood was not, at that moment, attuned to gardens.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I love Rome&mdash;just Rome itself! There is no other such place in all
+the world! I thought I loved Paris. Paris is gay and beautiful. But Rome
+is glorious&mdash;splendid!"</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni's chagrin at her apparent indifference to the gardens was
+changed to enthusiasm at her appreciation of his beloved city, for to
+have her love Rome was like having her love the greater portion of
+himself&mdash;who was but part of Rome.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The only detriment is," continued Nina, "that at night I dream of
+marble statues parading against backgrounds of cobalt blue under groined
+arches of gold&mdash;like the ceilings in the rooms of the Borgias and&mdash;this
+one! Why this is exactly like them! There is the same face as the St.
+Catherine&mdash;&mdash;" then suddenly she sat up, leaning eagerly
+forward&mdash;"Auntie Princess, I don't want to have a party at all! I don't
+want to meet people! I like to think of Rome as inhabited with those of
+long ago." Then with one of her sudden checks upon a tendency to become
+over sentimental, she added gaily, "The little cakes of to-day, are good
+at all events! Give me another, please!"</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni slid out of the corner of the sofa like smooth steel springs
+unfolding; neither hastily, nor with effort. She watched him; fascinated
+by his grace and litheness. Suddenly, though, she felt uncomfortably
+certain that he knew what was passing in her mind, and this conviction
+immediately put her out of humor. For the space of a few minutes she
+disliked him. He seemed to know that too, for his next sentence was:</p>
+
+<p>"Are all young girls in America so unreasonably capricious, so
+whimsically balanced mentally as&mdash;a young girl I once met?"</p>
+
+<p>"How was she?" Nina's curiosity was aroused in spite of her.</p>
+
+<p>"Very inexperienced, and therefore uncertain. Like the person who in
+dancing counts one, two, three&mdash;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>one, two, three, for fear of losing
+time&mdash;or like the inexperienced swimmer who measures constantly the
+distance to shore."</p>
+
+<p>"Children, you are chattering nonsense," the princess interfered. "Here,
+you lazy ones, help me to write the invitations!"</p>
+
+<p>Nina arose and went to look over her aunt's shoulder. "Oh, but it is for
+day after to-morrow!" she exclaimed. "Do you mean to say that any one
+will come at such short notice?" That the invitations were merely
+visiting cards with "Informal Dance" written in the corner, and a date
+not forty-eight hours ahead, astonished her. She asked about the
+details. How could they arrange for the decorations, favors, supper? But
+the princess smiled complacently. Candles were all the decoration
+necessary! the favors would be trifles that could be bought in half an
+hour; and as for supper&mdash;what could young people want more than lemonade
+or tea, sandwiches, and cakes? The only question was where they should
+dance.</p>
+
+<p>The princess turned to Giovanni. "I think it is best in the picture
+gallery, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"The floor is not so smooth as in the Room of the Aenead, but come, let
+us go and decide." He led the way, and they followed. The Room of the
+Aenead was next that in which they were sitting. The portrait gallery,
+filled with treasures from the days of Italy's grandeur, was still
+beyond. It was this apartment of all others that most appealed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> Nina.
+For a moment she forgot why they had come into the gallery, and her
+attention remained fixed upon the canvases. With the ever-vigilant
+Giovanni at her side, she seemed to be walking in a day that was past,
+to be enveloped in a fairy mantle! She put her hand on a group said to
+be the work of Michelangelo, running her fingers over the face of one of
+the figures with awe in her touch.</p>
+
+<p>"To think," she said very softly, the wonder breaking through the low
+tone of her voice, "to think that Michelangelo's own living hand has
+been where mine is now&mdash;still more, he has been in this very room! Not
+alone he, but Raphael, Correggio, and Pinturicchio! And all this is
+called home by my own aunt. <i>Mine!</i>" A little quiver had come into her
+throat. "It is too wonderful! Yet it gives me the strangest sensation&mdash;I
+can't exactly explain it, but it is as though I were not born at all. Do
+you know," she had turned to Giovanni wistfully, "I think I can
+understand just a little of the way you feel&mdash;it is as though you were
+securely planted like a tree. In the beginning, long ago, you were put
+into the earth with the first things sown. I am merely a leaf, blown
+from what branch I do not even know&mdash;belonging nowhere, coming from
+nothing. I think I see for the first time what you mean, over here, but
+just <i>being</i> and not caring to do more than survive from the
+gloriousness of all this." She spread her arms out as though
+bewildered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Now you see," Giovanni answered her, as though there were a new and
+strong bond of sympathy between them, "why decorations are unnecessary.
+Can you imagine these walls, which for centuries have looked down upon
+every great personage of Rome, being decked up like a Christmas tree
+because a number of people whose achievements are in no way illustrious
+are coming for an hour or two?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think," said Nina, "that I shall dance like a wraith. It seems almost
+a sacrilege to bob around and prattle in such surroundings. How silly
+their sainted ghosts might think us!"</p>
+
+<p>"I never thought of the old masters as saints exactly. But come,
+Mademoiselle&mdash;let us pretend&mdash;in each of those chandeliers are burning a
+hundred wax candles. It is the night of the ball&mdash;we open it so&mdash;will
+you dance?"</p>
+
+<p>Again there appeared a Giovanni that she had never seen before, his lazy
+arrogance vanished, as, whisking a handkerchief out of his pocket to
+wave in his hand, he became a sprite&mdash;a dancing faun, a reincarnation of
+the spirit of Donatello.</p>
+
+<p>Twice he traversed the length of the gallery, and then, with a vigor
+added to his grace, he caught Nina and swung her with him into his
+whirling dance. It had been perfectly done; even in his <i>abandon</i> there
+was no lack of ceremony. There was none of the "come along" spirit of
+youth in America. He was in this, just as he was in every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>thing else, a
+remnant of a past age; he had merely been transformed into a Bacchant!
+He was in no way a mere young man who had grabbed a young girl around
+the waist and made her dance.</p>
+
+<p>But as the princess watched them, her feelings were strongly at
+variance. Admiration played the greater part. Even a much less biased
+mind than hers could not have failed to appreciate the wonderful grace
+of the man and the girl, for Nina was as graceful as he. Yet the
+princess looked vaguely troubled, too, at the thought that Giovanni was
+perhaps overstepping his privilege.</p>
+
+<p>"Giovanni! Nina!" she called, but she might as well have appealed to the
+wind that blew through the courtyard below, and instead of their heeding
+she felt her own waist encircled as Sansevero, who had entered by the
+door behind her, swept her into the dance with him. "But, Sandro!" she
+exclaimed, resisting, "it is&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;not seemly! What if&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;the servants
+&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;should&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;see us?" But, joining Giovanni in the tune he was
+whistling, Sansevero seemed to have caught some of his brother's humor.
+If Giovanni had become the spirit of grace, Alessandro had become the
+spirit of recklessness, and Eleanor was whirled, breathless, not as one
+dances usually, but madly, so that her feet barely touched the floor. To
+add to the revelry of the scene, the Great Dane, who was never far from
+Giovanni's side, now joined the general whirl and leaped round and round
+as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>though he had but newly come from a bath, his deep bark punctuating
+the valse the two men were whistling. The princess felt an apprehensive
+dread of a servant's intrusion, and again a breathless "Sandro, stop!"
+escaped her lips just as&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The porti&egrave;re was lifted and the footman announced, "<i>Suo Eccellenza il
+Duca di Scorpa!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I hope I do not intrude upon the family gaiety!" The duke's face
+was insinuatingly bland and his manner smooth as an eel.</p>
+
+<p>The dancers stopped instantly. The princess flushed, but otherwise only
+one who knew her intimately might have guessed that she was conscious of
+having been put in the position of a careless and undignified chaperon.
+But she winced inwardly, and felt no reassurance in the knowledge that
+the duke's tongue was known to be more skillful in the art of
+embroidering than the fingers of the most expert needlewoman. Sansevero
+followed his wife's cue, but without feeling her dismay, for he, it must
+be remembered, liked Scorpa. He had the na&iuml;ve manner of a child caught
+doing something foolish, but that was all. Giovanni welcomed the duke
+suavely, yet, as the princess led Scorpa into the living rooms, Nina had
+an exhibition of a real side of Giovanni that she was destined to
+remember ever after.</p>
+
+<p>She never in her life had imagined that such fury could be depicted in
+the human countenance. His nostrils dilated, and his jaw was squared.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'll kill that viper yet!" he muttered between his teeth, and, reaching
+out for the first thing to hand, his long smooth fingers locked around
+the neck of the Great Dane&mdash;so tight that the dog, half strangled and
+snarling, lunged at his tormenter. Nina cried out in horror, but
+instantly Giovanni's temper vanished as it had come. He relaxed his
+fingers with a caress; and the animal fawned on him.</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me, Mademoiselle." He said it as lightly as though there had
+been only some trivial inattention to overlook.</p>
+
+<p>The whole scene had taken place in a moment&mdash;so quickly, in fact, that
+as Nina and he followed the princess through the adjoining rooms, she
+half wondered if her senses had deceived her. What manner of man was
+this indolent, graceful descendant of a feudal race? As he approached
+the duke, Nina unconsciously held her breath. Half expecting to see them
+draw daggers then and there, she glanced fearfully from one to the
+other; but Giovanni, smiling his sleepy-eyed smile, talked as though he
+thought the duke the most charming man in the world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>OPENING DAY AT THE TITLE MARKET</h3>
+
+
+<p>On the evening of the dance the Princess Malio, stiff, thin, and sour,
+and the old Duchess Scorpa, stolid, ugly, and squat, sat together in a
+corner of the ballroom&mdash;that is to say, the picture gallery&mdash;of the
+Palazzo Sansevero.</p>
+
+<p>"So that is the new American heiress!" said the duchess. "Very
+presentable, I call her. My Todo might do worse than marry her&mdash;but of
+course"&mdash;her face drew itself into the grimace that did duty for a
+smile&mdash;"my Todo would have little chance for her favor in competition
+with your nephew."</p>
+
+<p>The princess bowed in acknowledgment and strongly protested against the
+idea of any one's being able to compete with a Duke Scorpa.</p>
+
+<p>The conversation between these two old women was always forced into just
+such channels of conscious politeness. It was rarely that they disclosed
+the antagonism that formed the chief spice of their lives. But the
+princess could not control an impulse to destroy, if possible, the
+satisfaction of her rival.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Duchess," she insinuated dulcetly, "do you really credit her
+fabulous fortune?" Her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>manner expressed her pity for the other's
+credulity. "Such a sum as five hundred thousand <i>lire</i> a year too much
+oversteps the mark of probability."</p>
+
+<p>But the complacency of the duchess was not so easily disturbed. "Oh, no,
+that is not right!" she broke in. "I have been assured that she has five
+hundred thousand <i>dollars</i> a year. Dollars! And there are five <i>lire</i> in
+every dollar, remember."</p>
+
+<p>"Dollars!" echoed the princess&mdash;and her voice rose several notes above
+normal pitch; in fact, she nearly screamed. "I am very certain you are
+misinformed." But her skepticism barely covered her real chagrin because
+her nephew was a cadaverous nonentity, with little to recommend him to a
+title hunter. As she looked at the girl in question, however, there was
+a decided relish in her next remark:</p>
+
+<p>"I think Giovanni Sansevero will carry off that prize! See the way she
+is smiling up at him. Ah! and now they are dancing together. Certainly
+they make a suitable looking couple."</p>
+
+<p>The duchess straightened her dumpy figure to its greatest possible
+height. For once she forgot herself. "Would any one marry a Sansevero
+when there is a Scorpa to choose!"</p>
+
+<p>"It has happened," chuckled the princess.</p>
+
+<p>The threatening break in their habitual politeness was averted by the
+arrival of a third old lady, the Marchesa Valdeste. As her husband was
+the receiver of the "<i>Gran Collare de l'Anunziata</i>," a distinction that
+gave him the rank of cousin to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>king, the duchess and the princess
+both rose for a moment in deference. The "collaress" seated herself with
+them. In contrast to theirs, her face was sweet and fresh, with an
+expression almost like that of a young girl. Her whole personality was
+gentle, and she punctuated what she said by a curious little swaying
+motion, a bending of the body from the waist, very suggestive of the way
+a flower bends on its stalk to the breeze.</p>
+
+<p>The marchesa was also much interested in the new heiress, and although a
+certain finish of demeanor now modified their remarks, none of them
+attempted to conceal her ambition to secure Nina's money for her own
+family.</p>
+
+<p>The Princess Malio was more eager than skeptical as she asked the
+marchesa, "Have you heard the story of her half a million dollar income?
+Do you believe it possible!"</p>
+
+<p>The marchesa turned her little hands over, palms up. "She has something
+incredible, but I cannot say how much. Maria Potensi asked the American
+ambassador if the celebrated James Randolph was as rich as reputed, and
+he said&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The duchess became almost apoplectic in her eagerness. "He said&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The marchesa looked for all the world like a young girl telling a fairy
+tale. "He said"&mdash;she breathed it in wonder&mdash;"that Mr. Randolph's wealth
+was so fabulous that it was beyond computing! And <i>this</i> is his <i>only
+child!</i>"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>An awed stillness fell upon the group, each old lady looking and longing
+according to her own nature. It was the marchesa who at last broke the
+silence. "I cannot deny that I should like my Cesare to be so fortunate
+as to win her, but I must confess she and Giovanni Sansevero make a
+charming couple!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dancing, yes," snapped the duchess, "but for my taste they dance too
+fast!"</p>
+
+<p>"She is doubtless thinking of her tub of a son, who moves with about the
+grace of an elephant," whispered the Princess Malio behind her fan.</p>
+
+<p>"I can imagine nothing more graceful than the picture they make at this
+moment," the marchesa answered, wistfully regarding the two slim figures
+whirling down the length of the room, dancing, dancing on! as though it
+were the first, and not the tenth, time they had traversed the great
+gallery; the elastic poise of each the same, the gold-colored gauze of
+Nina's dress exactly matching the rippling waves of glorious hair only a
+shade below the sleek black head of her partner.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the marchesa was perhaps no more anxious than either of the others
+to have Giovanni bear off the American prize. "My Cesare does not return
+from England for another month," she added only half audibly, and then
+she sighed.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the old princess pounced like a lean cat upon a new thought.
+"Ah, ha! There is some trouble brewing! Maria Potensi has found <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>your
+picture of dancing grace a bit too charming. Di Valdo is biting his
+mustache, and she is giving herself away! I always thought the wind sat
+in that quarter. Now&mdash;she is losing her temper&mdash;and with it her
+discretion!"</p>
+
+<p>"Maria Potensi is above suspicion," interrupted the marchesa. "I do not
+believe there is a word of truth in what you imply."</p>
+
+<p>"But how do you account for her jewels? I am interested to hear. There
+were none in the Potensi family, nor in her own!"</p>
+
+<p>"She says quite frankly that they were given her by an old Russian who
+is her god-father."</p>
+
+<p>"Every one knows," rejoined the princess, "that di Valdo has made heavy
+debts, yet he is not a gambler like his brother Sansevero, and he has no
+personal extravagances that account for the sums borrowed."</p>
+
+<p>The "collaress" answered nothing, and the fat duchess, who had so far
+been only a listener, drew her head in like a snapping turtle as she
+made the satisfactory observation that her "Todo" was now the partner of
+the heiress.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke Scorpa and Nina, standing for the commencement of a quadrille,
+suggested rather a brigand and a princess than a duke and a titleless
+daughter of the democracy. Nina was holding her head very high, yet
+easily and unconsciously, because it was her natural way of standing.
+The dancing had brought color to her cheeks, and her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>eyes were
+sparkling; but it was at the evening in general, not at the man who at
+that moment was trying to please her. She could not bear the duke's
+sharp little black eyes, his brutal square jaw, his unctuous manners;
+and as he took her hand to lead her down a figure of the quadrille, its
+thickness felt to her imagination like a paw.</p>
+
+<p>Dancing vis-&agrave;-vis were Giovanni and the Contessa Potensi. Nina did not
+know her name or anything about her, but she felt at first sight a
+subtle antagonism, and, following an instinct that she would have found
+difficult to account for, she turned her attention away toward a second
+personality, which fascinated her in as great a degree as that of the
+Potensi had repelled.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is that over there?" she asked of the duke. "I mean the slender
+girl in black."</p>
+
+<p>"The Contessa Olisco. She was a Russian princess. Her name was Zoya
+Kromitskoff. I thought the name of Zoya pretty once&mdash;that is, until I
+heard the name of N-i-n-a!"</p>
+
+<p>As he said her name they were just turning around the last figure, and
+she might not, without attracting attention, snatch her hand from his;
+but his familiarity in using her Christian name made her cheeks burn. In
+the final courtesy she barely inclined her head, and at the close of the
+dance went in quest of her aunt without noticing his proffered arm. At
+this unheard-of behavior, the duke hurried after her, biting his
+mustache.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah, ha!" ejaculated the old princess in the ear of the Marchesa
+Valdeste, "that cuttlefish of a Scorpa has thrown his tentacles out too
+far, and the goldfish is scurrying away in alarm." She fanned herself in
+agitated satisfaction at her triumph over the duchess&mdash;who was
+pretending that she had noticed no coolness in the American's treatment
+of her son.</p>
+
+<p>The next moment the Princess Sansevero brought Nina to present her to
+the marchesa. Nina had been dancing at the time of the arrival of the
+"collaress" and must therefore be presented at the first opportunity.
+The marchesa, with a few kindly remarks about her dancing, would have
+let her return to her partners, but the duchess moved ponderously aside
+on the sofa, making a place for Nina. Without prelude she began, "Is it
+true that you have five hundred thousand dollars a year? Or is rumor
+mistaken&mdash;is it only five hundred thousand <i>lire?</i>"</p>
+
+<p>The baldness of the question left Nina for the moment speechless; then
+presently, "I have what father gives me," she answered evasively.</p>
+
+<p>"But you are the only child of the American multimillionaire, 'Jemmes
+Ronadolf,' yes?"</p>
+
+<p>Nina nodded in affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>"The Duke Scorpa, with whom you danced just now, is my son!" Her manner
+clearly demanded that the American girl recognize the great favor that
+she had received. "He is my only son," she <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>reiterated, "and the head of
+the family of the Scorpa. You must come to tea to-morrow. I especially
+invite you, though we are regularly at home."</p>
+
+<p>The condescension of her demeanor can hardly be described. Nina turned
+helplessly toward the Princess Malio, but found in her a new inquisitor:
+"American fathers are proverbially generous"&mdash;her ingratiating smile so
+ill suited her features that it seemed almost not to belong to her&mdash;"of
+course your dot will be colossal?"</p>
+
+<p>Again Nina gasped, but before she was obliged to answer the Marchesa
+Valdeste laid her hand upon her arm. "Come, my dear," she said, with her
+soft Sicilian accent, "it is a pity to miss so much dancing. It is not
+right for a young girl to sit with old ladies at a ball," and, holding
+Nina's hand in hers, she led her away. They had taken only half a dozen
+steps when she tapped a young officer lightly with her fan.</p>
+
+<p>He wheeled quickly. "Ah, Marchesa!" He bowed ceremoniously.</p>
+
+<p>"Count Tornik," said the marchesa, "will you take Miss Randolph to the
+Princess Sansevero, or where her numerous partners may find her?"</p>
+
+<p>Count Tornik bowed again, this time to Nina. "Will you dance? I don't
+dance as well as di Valdo." Nina looked up at him, suspicious and
+displeased, but there was no conscious deprecation in his manner, which
+indeed proclaimed that whether <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>he danced well or badly was a matter
+unlike unimportant to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, let us dance," she said.</p>
+
+<p>As he put his arm around her it seemed to her that "an animated tin
+soldier" expressed him perfectly. He held her stiffly, and so closely
+that her nose was crushed against the gold braiding of his uniform. He
+was so tall, and his shoulders were so square, that she could not see
+over them, and to add to her discomfort, he danced, not as did the
+Italians, but round and round like a whirling dervish. Before they had
+gone ten yards she was so dizzy and uncomfortable that she stopped.</p>
+
+<p>Again Tornik bowed, offered his arm, and without addressing a further
+remark to her, led her to the Princess Sansevero. As he took leave of
+her his expression showed a glimpse of understanding, a momentary
+illumination. She felt for an instant a possibility of his
+attractiveness, but just as she became curious he was gone.</p>
+
+<p>The men she met after this were a mere succession of dancing figures,
+and at the end of the evening, when her aunt came into her room to kiss
+her good night, she could sleepily distinguish only one or two people
+out of the kaleidoscope of confused impressions. And even these few
+melted off into shadows as she danced on and on through dreamland with
+Giovanni, amid gardens and marble statues, to the magic rhythm of
+wonder-world music.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But while Nina slept with a happy little smile still lying in the
+corners of her mouth, the princess in her own room was having an
+animated conversation with her husband.</p>
+
+<p>"Leonora, my treasure!" he exclaimed joyously, "things go well for
+Giovanni with <i>la bella</i> Nina? <i>Hein?</i> With her fortune! And to have
+such an air and grace, too&mdash;it is really Giovanni that is a lucky one!"
+Before his wife could interrupt he went on, "Five hundred thousand
+dollars income&mdash;that is to be her dot, isn't it? Why, we can have all
+the rooms at Torre Sansevero opened, and you, my beautiful one, shall
+have again the comfort that your wretch of a husband has deprived you
+of!"</p>
+
+<p>His excited appropriation of Nina's fortune for the general family
+coffers jarred; and the princess at once checked his rapidly soaring
+imaginings.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so fast! Not so fast! Remember the American girl is used to
+arranging her own marriage, and besides&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;for nothing in the world
+would I try to influence her. Should it turn out unhappily I could never
+forgive myself&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;never!"</p>
+
+<p>Sansevero looked at his wife in open-eyed amazement. "What has come over
+you, my dear! I am not proposing to sell your Miss Millions to a rag
+gatherer. She has no amount of beauty&mdash;yes (as he followed Eleanor's
+expression), she has a charming countenance&mdash;<i>molto simpatica</i>&mdash;also a
+distinction that is really rarer in your country of beautiful women.
+Giovanni, on his side, certainly has all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>that one could ask in the way
+of good looks and intelligence. He is young, and he is the sole heir to
+my titles and estates&mdash;She would be getting a very good exchange for her
+dollars, I am thinking. There is no use to make a face like that; I am
+not trying to sell her to an ogre. Why, he does not even gamble&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;but do you think Giovanni can be true to a woman?"</p>
+
+<p>Sansevero laughed. "What would you have? Are you becoming a Puritan
+miss, Leonora <i>mia?</i>" He shrugged his shoulders. "He is young and he has
+heart! Would you have for a nephew-in-law a St. Anthony?"</p>
+
+<p>As the princess still looked worried, he seemed afraid that he had hurt
+his project. "Giovanni is of a type that women like," he said
+reassuringly, "and probably he has had his successes&mdash;that is all I
+meant. Don't be so suspicious! I want merely to further the interests of
+two young people who are in every way suited to each other. Giovanni may
+be an anchorite, for all I know."</p>
+
+<p>Eleanor stood turning her wedding ring round and round on her finger.
+Then she looked anxiously into her husband's face. He was puffing at a
+cigarette that he had lighted, and his eyes looked back into hers with
+the perfectly innocent expression of a child's.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>A DOOR IS OPENED THAT GIOVANNI PREFERS TO KEEP CLOSED</h3>
+
+
+<p>The eyes of La Favorita boded good to no one! As a hostess her
+deportment left much to be desired, but since her visitors were limited
+to her very intimate friends it mattered, perhaps, little. At all
+events, as guest after guest arrived in her over-decorated salon, she
+looked up expectantly, and then resumed her expression of ugly
+indifference.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Per Bacco!</i>" she muttered quite audibly enough for one to overhear,
+"this crowd seems to think I have asked all Rome to supper!"</p>
+
+<p>She attacked two young men of fashion as they entered. Fortunately, her
+manner somewhat modified the rudeness of her words&mdash;and the ill humor of
+her tone carried no conviction. "You cannot come in. I did not invite
+you! I have no room!"</p>
+
+<p>Instead of being angry, one, the Count Rosso, answered her in a voice
+that was half jesting, half conciliatory, in the familiar second person
+singular: "But thou art quite mad, my dear! We were all asked at Zizi's
+supper. I, for one, call it very ungracious of you to try to dispense
+with our agreeable society."</p>
+
+<p>La Favorita lapsed once more into indifference.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> "Oh well, I don't
+care"&mdash;she shrugged her shoulders&mdash;"I don't care whether you all go or
+stay!"</p>
+
+<p>A moment later a group that had formed at the end of the room made a
+great noise, and the hostess, suddenly rousing again, swept toward them
+with the floating motion of the professional dancer. "I wish you to
+understand," she said in a fury, "that you are to comport yourselves in
+my house as you would in the palaces of the nobility!"</p>
+
+<p>The group fell into a half-sympathetic hush as she moved back again to
+the door of the entrance. A little woman&mdash;a <i>caf&eacute;</i> singer&mdash;broke into a
+snatch of song:</p>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="The moon has two sides">
+<tr><td align='left'>"The moon has two sides, a black and a white</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: .5em;">When the heart is dark there can be no light."</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>Laughing, she snapped her fingers. "Fava has been in a bad temper ever
+since that American heiress came to Rome. She fears that Miss America
+will cut the leading strings of Giovanni."</p>
+
+<p>"Why pout at that? Giovanni will then be rich&mdash;a rich lover is better
+than a poor one any day!" laughed another soubrette.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter with Fava, anyway?" put in a third. "She was quite
+delighted with the American's arrival at first. Now she might draw a
+stiletto at any time."</p>
+
+<p>"The matter is that she has heard the millionairess is pretty, and she
+fears she will take Giovanni's heart as well as his name!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Fava jealous! A delicious thought that! Yet I am not sure that I should
+care to be in Giovanni's shoes if he wants to get away from her,"
+observed Rigolo, the actor.</p>
+
+<p>Favorita again swept toward the group, her voice strident: "<i>Per Dio!</i>
+Do you suppose I can't imagine what you are all talking about, with your
+long ears together like so many donkeys chewing in a cabbage patch? You
+need not imagine to yourselves that I am jealous. No novice could hold
+Giovanni long. It is I who can tell you that, for I know such men and
+their ways fairly well&mdash;I have had experience! Me!"</p>
+
+<p>The others took it up in chorus: "Favorita has had some experience,
+<i>hein!</i> A race between the countries! Italy and America at the barrier.
+Holla, zip! they are off! La Favorita in the lead&mdash;America second,
+coming strong." And so it went on. Favorita had returned to her position
+by the door. She was more quiet, and in repose it might be seen that her
+face looked drawn&mdash;her eyes, if one observed closely, beneath the black
+penciling showed traces of recent weeping. "Tell me something," she said
+to Count Rosso. "What is she like, this Miss Randolph? Is it true"&mdash;her
+breath came short&mdash;"that Giovanni is trailing after her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Say after her millions, rather! I hope he gets them for your sake,
+Fava. Then you can have the house in the country that you have always
+wanted."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'd rather he got his money some other way. It does not please me that
+he should marry!"</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't you unreasonable? Can't you give him up for a few weeks?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you call marriage a few weeks."</p>
+
+<p>Rosso, laughing, threw his hand up. "How long does a honeymoon last? A
+few weeks and he will be back."</p>
+
+<p>But the dancer's eyes filled, and she set her sharp little teeth
+together. "I cannot bear it! <i>Ah Dio!</i> I cannot! She is young&mdash;and
+surely she loves him."</p>
+
+<p>"Every woman thinks the man she prefers is alike beloved by every other
+woman he meets! I have not heard that she loves him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Be quiet about what you have heard&mdash;what I want to know is, does he
+return it? I am told she is attractive; if she is&mdash;I shall&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Count Rosso chanced upon the right remark in answering, "Could a man, do
+you, think, who has had your favor, be satisfied with a cold American
+girl? Do not be stupid!"</p>
+
+<p>Favorita was slightly pacified. "Is she at all like me? Paint me her
+portrait!"</p>
+
+<p>"Her eyes are&mdash;m&mdash;m&mdash;rather nice; her skin&mdash;yes, good; her
+features&mdash;imperfect; she holds herself haughtily&mdash;chin out, and her back
+very straight, and"&mdash;as a last assurance, he added, "she speaks broken
+Italian."</p>
+
+<p>La Favorita's coal-black eyes lit with a new light, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>and her whole body
+seemed to flutter. Her carmine lips parted as, with an expression of
+quick joy, she clapped her hands together and exclaimed, "American
+accent! <i>Per Dio!</i> She has an American accent!"</p>
+
+<p>In her delight she threw her arms about the count's neck and kissed him
+on the lips. With perfect impartiality she turned to two other men
+standing near and kissed them also, repeating to herself the while, "An
+American accent!"</p>
+
+<p>The next arrivals she received as though they were both expected and
+welcome; greeting them with the unintelligible exclamation, "Imagine
+speaking the only language in the world worth speaking with an American
+accent!"</p>
+
+<p>"But why do we not go into the dining-room?" asked her stage manager, a
+heavy puff of a man. "I have a void within."</p>
+
+<p>"May the void always stay, great beef!" she laughed. Then, with a shrug
+and a wave of her arms, as though to sweep every one out of the room,
+she cried petulantly, "Go! and eat, all of you. I am glad, if only you
+go!"</p>
+
+<p>The company, for the most part, laughed and went into the dining-room,
+whence the sound of revelry gradually grew louder. The Count Rosso alone
+remained with the hostess. "Come, Fava, don't be so headstrong&mdash;you're
+spoiling the party."</p>
+
+<p>"Spoiling the party! Do you hear the noise <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>they are making? Is that the
+way to conduct one's self in a lady's house&mdash;I said a lady's house! Why
+do you look at me like that? Am I not a lady just as much as that
+daughter of an Indian squaw from over the Atlantic? Those in there"&mdash;she
+pointed with her thumb toward the dining-room&mdash;"they would not behave so
+in the Palazzo Sansevero!" Then, without another word, she followed
+where she had pointed, so fast that her thin draperies fluttered behind
+the lithe lines of her figure like butterfly wings. On the threshold of
+the dining-room she paused, like the bad fairy at the christening.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should you think you can behave in my house as you would not behave
+in the house of a princess?"</p>
+
+<p>The count, who had followed her, seemed relieved that she mentioned no
+specific name. Her remark seemed to touch a chord of sympathy in the
+company, for the women, especially, became very quiet. Favorita sat down
+at the end of the table between the manager and an empty place.</p>
+
+<p>"Eat something, my girl!" he said to her. "It will be the best thing you
+can do!"</p>
+
+<p>"My need is not the same as yours&mdash;I have emptiness of heart."</p>
+
+<p>Her alert hearing caught a footfall, and she was looking eagerly at the
+door when Giovanni Sansevero entered. At once her face became
+transfigured. "Ah, there thou art, my mouse!" she said, pulling out the
+chair beside her for him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He smiled and nodded familiarly to all at the table.</p>
+
+<p>"At least it is good for the rest of us that you come, Prince!" said the
+manager. "Fava is in a frightful mood." But there was that in Giovanni's
+expression that made the manager's speech turn quickly from any too
+personal allusion, and a qualifying clause was trailed at the end of his
+sentence, "She may show you more politeness."</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni looked annoyed. The dancer, to appease him, said gently: "You
+know I am nervous from overwork. The rehearsals have been doubled
+lately. If you don't come when I expect you, I imagine horrors!" The
+manager was about to put his fork into a grilled quail, when she whisked
+it away and put it on Giovanni's plate. The former was obliged to vent
+his indignation against her obstinately turned back and deaf ears. She
+was conscious of nothing and of no one but Giovanni, whom she was
+feeding with her own fork. His appetite, however, paying small
+compliment to her attention, she arose, and he followed her into the
+other room. Whereupon her guests, less constrained without her, drank
+and were merry.</p>
+
+<p>In the salon Giovanni's musical, caressing voice was saying, "You look
+bewitching to-night, Fava <i>mia!</i>" He covered her with his glance, so
+that she preened herself. He laughed lightly at her vanity, and, leaning
+over, kissed her lovely shoulder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> Quickly, with both hands she held him
+close, her cheek against his.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Carissimo</i>," she said tensely, "if you ever love any other woman&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I love you," he said, against her lips; "let there be no doubt of
+that." And there was a long silence between them.</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni was not one of those who can withstand a woman of beauty. He
+loved La Favorita passionately; she perhaps more than any one else could
+hold him&mdash;a Griselda one day, a fury the next, but always alive and
+always beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>Yet he might have indulged his curiosity as to what she would do if
+seriously aroused to jealousy, had it not been for his innate hatred of
+all exhibitions of feeling, which seemed to him <i>bourgeois</i>. He knew
+that if the dancer had an idea that he might be falling in love with
+Nina, she would be capable of any scandal. On the other hand, he could
+not imagine Favorita's being jealous of the American girl. He had often
+congratulated himself that she was not jealous of her only real rival,
+the Contessa Potensi, his devotion to whom, however, he had managed to
+keep so quiet that very few persons in Rome had a suspicion of it.</p>
+
+<p>The contessa, on the other hand, looked upon Giovanni's attention to the
+dancer as an artifice practised solely on her account, so that the world
+would the less suspect his attachment to herself. Neither woman had
+until now felt any jealousy of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> Nina. To their Italian temperament she
+had seemed too cold a type, too antipathetic, to be a danger. The
+contessa was quite willing to have Giovanni marry the heiress, for she
+never doubted that the end of the honeymoon would find him tied more
+securely than ever to her own footstool.</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni, at present, with his arms about the dancer, was raining a
+succession of kisses upon her lips, her eyes, her hair. He could feel
+that she was all on edge about something, but, man-like, he preferred to
+keep things on the surface and not stir depths that might be turbulent.
+His efforts, however, were of small avail.</p>
+
+<p>"Swear to me by the Madonna, and by your ancestors, that you will not
+marry!"</p>
+
+<p>With sudden coldness Giovanni drew away from her. He let both arms hang
+limp at his sides. "Why let this thought come always between us!" Then,
+exasperated into taking up the discussion, he crossed his arms and faced
+her: "We might as well have this out. I am not engaged&mdash;I swear that;
+but whether I ever shall be or not, you have no cause for jealousy.
+Marriage in my world, you know very well, is not a matter of
+inclination, but of advantageous arrangement. There is every reason why
+I ought to marry, and if that is the case why not one as well as
+another? My brother has no children; I am the last of my name."</p>
+
+<p>With a cry she flung her arms around his neck and broke into a storm of
+weeping. "You shan't <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>marry her! You shan't. She shall not have your
+children for you!"</p>
+
+<p>But Giovanni grew impatient. He unclasped her hands and pushed her away.
+"If you make these scenes all the time, I won't come near you! Please,
+once for all, let us have this ended. If there is one thing I can't
+endure, it is a woman who cries. Here, take my handkerchief. Come
+now&mdash;that is right, be reasonable." His tone modified, and he lightly
+and more affectionately laid his hand upon her shoulder. "Come here a
+minute, I want to show you a picture." He led her, as he spoke, before a
+long mirror.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, <i>cara mia</i>, tell me, do you think that a man who possessed the
+love of such a woman as that would be apt to run seeking elsewhere?"</p>
+
+<p>La Favorita looked at her own reflection, at the slender yet full
+perfection of southern beauty, and she saw also the returning ardor in
+the face of her lover as he, too, looked at her image. Her black eyes
+grew soft, her lips parted slightly&mdash;with a sudden exuberance he caught
+her to him, and this time he held her so tensely that, although her
+plaint was the same, her tone was altogether different. "But I don't
+want you to marry&mdash;even without love, I don't want you to," she pouted
+softly.</p>
+
+<p>"You are an idiot, Fava!" But the words were whispered caressingly. "It
+would be much better for you if I did."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>MR. RANDOLPH SENDS FOR JOHN DERBY</h3>
+
+
+<p>Meanwhile, one morning in New York, the express elevator of the American
+Trust Building shot skyward without stop to the twentieth story, at
+which John Derby alighted. He emerged upon a broad space of marble
+corridor, leading to the offices of J. B. Randolph &amp; Co. Derby, being
+known&mdash;and, moreover, on the list of those expected&mdash;escaped the
+catechism to which visitors usually were subjected, and was shown into
+the waiting room without question. When, some minutes later, he was
+admitted to Mr. Randolph's private office, he caught the sign of battle
+in the ruffled effect of the great financier's hair, for he had a habit,
+when excited, of running his fingers up over his right temple until his
+iron gray locks bristled. But, whatever the cause of his annoyance, it
+was put aside as he held out his hand in unmistakable welcome to Derby.
+"Hello, John, good work! You have got here nearly a day ahead of the
+time I expected you. What is the latest news? Did you have any trouble
+in the swamp district?"</p>
+
+<p>"None at all. We find the quick sands average only about thirty feet,
+and the tubes go easily below.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> Everything is going along splendidly.
+Better than I had ever dared to hope."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Randolph nodded his satisfaction. "And now," he said, "I'll tell you
+why I wired for you. The Volcano Sulphur Company is buying every
+available mine, and it is time for us to look into the Sicilian
+possibility. How soon can you leave for Italy?"</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as you say, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you secured your assistant engineers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Jenkins came on with me, for one, and I am pretty sure I can get a man
+named Tiggs&mdash;a good mechanic, who was with me at Copper Rock."</p>
+
+<p>"And how soon can you get your machinery? You'll have to take everything
+in that line with you. Otherwise, you might get off by&mdash;to-morrow? The
+<i>Lusitania</i> sails in the afternoon." He added this last with impatient
+regret.</p>
+
+<p>Derby pondered a moment, and then answered briskly: "I can make it.
+Jenkins can follow with the machinery on a Mediterranean boat. There
+will be no delay over there, as I'll have time to make my arrangements."</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" Mr. Randolph seemed pleased, then asked abruptly, "How well do
+you speak Italian?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fluently, very; grammatically, not at all."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Randolph smiled. "Fluently will be good enough. Especially if you
+pick up an assortment of expletives in the Sicilian vernacular. Go to
+Rome first. Look about and get information on the Sicilian <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>mines,
+especially those that are unproductive by the present mining system.
+Lease one and try your process. If it works&mdash;we have the biggest thing
+in the way of a sulphur control imaginable. You'd better get an option
+on every sulphur mine you can, to lease on a royalty basis. Our Italian
+correspondent will be notified to honor your drafts. You will have to
+use your own discretion as to necessary expenses&mdash;of course, you are to
+send a weekly statement to the office. The royalty to you on your
+inventions will be ten per cent. on the net, not the gross, earnings.
+Still, if it all turns out well, you ought to make a nice thing out of
+it."</p>
+
+<p>A swift gleam of eagerness leaped into the young man's face. Mr.
+Randolph looked at him sharply. "I did not know that you were so
+mercenary, John."</p>
+
+<p>"In my place any man would want millions, or else that&mdash;&mdash;" He broke off
+abruptly, leaving his meaning unexpressed. But his eyes had something
+wistful in their direct appeal, which perhaps the older man understood,
+for his expression was unusually kind as he asked with apparent
+irrelevancy, "Have you heard from Nina?"</p>
+
+<p>Derby flushed even under his tan, but he answered frankly: "Yes, I have
+had letters regularly&mdash;bully ones&mdash;full of Italy and the high nobility.
+Isn't it just like her to remember her friends at home!" Then he added
+ardently, "There was never any one like Nina&mdash;never! Of course, every
+man in Italy is in love with her by now."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Humph!" was Mr. Randolph's answer, as his hand went up through his hair
+until it stood straight on end. "Had she the disposition of Xantippe and
+the ugliness of Medusa she would be called a goddess divine by the
+titled sellers. But what can I do? I can't keep her locked up at
+home&mdash;for the matter of that, she is run after about as badly over
+here&mdash;&mdash;" and he added gently in an altered tone, "My poor little girl!
+Sometimes I think how much better off she would have been as the
+daughter of a man without money. At present, of course, she is beset
+with every possible danger. I don't think Nina will lose her heart
+easily, mind you, but there is an underlying excitement in her letters
+that gives me some uneasiness as to the state of her emotions. I do not
+relish the possibility of her marrying one of those ingratiating,
+cold-hearted, and seemingly ardent noblemen." Then, as though to qualify
+his general statement, he continued, "My sister-in-law married a decent
+sort of a man, and I imagine they are happy&mdash;but she'd have done much
+better if she had married your uncle. He never cared for any one else,
+and I hoped it would be a match. But Alessandro Sansevero came along and
+swept her off her feet. She was a great beauty, and I believe he married
+her for love&mdash;which is more than I can hope in Nina's case."</p>
+
+<p>Into Derby's face there came a look like that of the small boy who gazes
+hungrily into a bakery shop window as he protested. "No one could know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
+Nina well and not love her. She is the squarest, the truest, just as she
+is the most beautiful, girl in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"No,"&mdash;Mr. Randolph spoke quite slowly, for him&mdash;"Nina is not
+beautiful&mdash;sweet, and unspoiled, and lovable, yes; but she is not a
+beauty."</p>
+
+<p>Derby's face kindled with indignation, and he retorted unguardedly, "I
+grant you she hasn't one of those pleased-with-itself,
+don't-disturb-the-placidity-of-my-peerless-perfection sort of faces; the
+valentine sort that strikes a man at first sight, but that at the end of
+a week he would do anything for the sake of varying its monotony. But
+Nina&mdash;the more you look at her the more lovely she becomes, <i>unless</i> she
+gets the notion that some man wants to marry her money&mdash;and then it is
+time for me to take to the prairies! Her eyes get hard, her mouth goes
+up on one side and her features seem to set and freeze. She has only one
+hard side, but that is adamant! Poor girl, I can hardly blame her. As
+she says herself, there are proposals on her breakfast tray every
+morning&mdash;with all the other advertisements."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Randolph looked directly into the blue eyes before him, as though to
+probe their depths. "I want my girl to marry a man whom she can look up
+to because he is trying to accomplish something himself," he said
+emphatically, "and not one who will lay his hat down in the front hall
+of my house instead of at his own office. And," he added grimly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> "a
+coronet in place of the hat is still less to my liking."</p>
+
+<p>A curiously restrained, almost diffident, expression, which in no way
+suited his personality, came into Derby's face, and he abruptly rose to
+take leave.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Randolph rose also, but, instead of terminating the interview,
+crossed the room, saying, "Before you go, John, I want to show you a
+prize I have found." He turned a canvas that stood face to the wall, and
+lifted it to a sofa for a better view.</p>
+
+<p>It was a marvelous picture: a Madonna and child; and on the shoulder of
+the Madonna was a dove.</p>
+
+<p>"It is supposed to be a Raphael," said Randolph, "and I am convinced
+that it is. The story is rather interesting. Raphael painted two
+pictures that were almost identical. One is in the Sansevero family.
+Their collection in Rome I have seen, but this picture has always hung
+at Torre Sansevero, their country estate, and I have never been there.
+However, as I said, Raphael painted two. The second belonged to the
+Belluno family and was sold long ago into France. There it became the
+property of a Duc du Richeur, and during the Revolution it was
+supposedly destroyed. Some time ago Christopher Shayne, the dealer,
+bought among other things at an auction a nearly black canvas. On having
+it cleaned, this was the result&mdash;without doubt the lost Raphael!"</p>
+
+<p>"Jove, that's interesting!" exclaimed Derby.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> "I'd like to see the
+other. Perhaps I'll have the chance, although Nina wrote that they were
+leaving for Rome, and that was several weeks ago. But now good-by, sir.
+Tiggs and Jenkins are to meet me at the Engineers' Club at noon. I am
+sure I can get off to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Randolph held the younger man's hand in a long clasp as he said,
+"Good-by, my boy, and&mdash;luck to you!"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>As Derby left the office, the sudden prospect of seeing Nina so soon set
+his thoughts in a turmoil unusual to the condition in which he managed
+pretty steadily to keep them. Of all the things that this young man had
+accomplished, none had been more difficult than preserving the attitude
+toward Nina that he had after careful deliberation determined upon. To
+his chagrin the task became more, instead of less, difficult, as time
+went on. In the long ago, it had been she who adored and he who accepted
+the adoration&mdash;in the way common with the big boy and the little girl.
+He had taught her to swim, and to ride, and to shoot. And&mdash;though he did
+not realize it&mdash;from his own precepts she had acquired a directness of
+outlook and a sense of truth that embodied justice as well as candor,
+and that was in quality much more like that of a boy than a girl.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the time when he was no longer a boy. He went out West, and
+work made him serious, and absence made him realize that he loved her as
+that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>rare type of man loves who loves but one woman in his life. But
+she, never dreaming of any change in his feelings, went on thinking of
+him always as of a brother. Often, when he returned from a long absence,
+and she ran to meet him with both hands outstretched, he looked for some
+sign from her&mdash;some fleeting gleam such as he had caught in other
+women's eyes. But always Nina's glance had met his own affectionately,
+but squarely and tranquilly. His coming, or his going, brought smiles or
+gravity to her lips, but her eyes showed no sudden veiling of feeling,
+no new consciousness of meaning unexpressed. When she laughed, they
+danced as though the sunlight were caught under their hazel surface.
+When she was serious, they were velvety soft. To John hers was the
+sweetest, brightest, and assuredly the most expressive face in the
+world. But he knew the distrust and coldness that would undoubtedly be
+his portion should he ever forget the r&ocirc;le that up to the present he had
+played to perfection&mdash;that of her brotherly, affectionate friend. Her
+very expression, "Dear old John"&mdash;generally she said "Jack"&mdash;her entire
+lack of reserve or self-consciousness in his presence, put him where he
+belonged.</p>
+
+<p>And the other women&mdash;undoubtedly there were lots of the every-day kind,
+waiting all along the stream, just as there always are when a man is
+young and fairly good to look upon. And there were the different, and
+far more dangerous, "other women," who wait at the whirlpools for a man
+who has that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>elusive but distinctly felt magnetism which some
+personalities exert, seemingly with indifference, and quite apart from
+any effort or intent. But John Derby lashed his heart to the mast of
+hard work and resolutely turned his eyes and ears from the sirens. And
+so he saw the years stretching on, always crammed with tasks that he was
+to accomplish, but without hope of ever winning the girl he loved,
+because of the barrier of her money.</p>
+
+<p>Only a short time before, when a letter from her had come to
+Breakstone&mdash;a long letter full of the beauty and charm of Italy and the
+Italians&mdash;Derby had gone to the edge of the forest and&mdash;for no reason
+that any one could see, save the apparent joy of swinging an
+axe&mdash;chopped a tree into fire-wood.</p>
+
+<p>"D&mdash;n it all," he muttered as the chips flew, "I could support a
+wife&mdash;if she wasn't so all-fired rich." Later he carried a load of his
+wood across the clearing to the camp and slammed it down. "Oh, h&mdash;&mdash;, I
+hate money!" he exclaimed vehemently to Jenkins.</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins, a Southerner, took the statement placidly. "Looks like you're
+workin' powerful hard to get what you don't care for. Some of that
+kindlin' 'd go good under this soup pot."</p>
+
+<p>Derby laughed and fed the fire. But "Shut up, Jenkins, you ass!" was all
+the latter got for a retort courteous.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>ROME GOES TO THE OPERA</h3>
+
+
+<p>On the evening of the first court ball, the Sanseveros gave a small
+dinner, after which they went to the opera. The guests were the Count
+and Countess Olisco, Count Tornik, Don Cesare Carpazzi, and Prince
+Minotti. Don Cesare Carpazzi, a thin swarthy youth, sat just across the
+corner of the table from Nina. Although his appearance was one of great
+neatness, it was all too evident, if one observed with good eyes, that
+the edges of his shirt had been trimmed with the scissors until the hem
+narrowed close to the line of stitching; and his evening clothes in a
+strong light would have revealed not only the fatal gloss of long use,
+but also careful darning. The old saying that "Clothes make the man" was
+refuted in his case, however, as his arrogance was proclaimed in every
+gesture.</p>
+
+<p>Sitting next to him was the Countess Olisco, the Russian whom Nina had
+noted and admired at her aunt's ball. As there were but nine at dinner,
+and the conversation was general, Nina had time to observe closely her
+appearance. She had the broad Russian brow, the Egyptian eyes and
+unbroken bridge of the nose. She was the most slender woman imaginable,
+and her slenderness was exaggerated by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>the fashion of wearing her hair
+piled up so high and so far forward that at a distance it might be taken
+for a small black fur toque tipped over her nose. She rarely wore
+colors, but to-night, because of the etiquette against wearing black at
+court, her long-trained dress was of sapphire blue velvet, as severe and
+as clinging as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Nina divined better than she knew, when she put the little Russian and
+Carpazzi in the same category. Fundamentally they were much the same,
+but whereas he was always bursting into flame, the contessa suggested a
+well banked fire that burned continually, but within destroyed itself
+rather than others. Thin, white, and self-consuming, she was like the
+small Russian cigarettes that were never out of her lips. Fragile as she
+looked, she had a will that brooked no obstacle, an energy that knew no
+fatigue.</p>
+
+<p>Aside from her appearance, the story that Giovanni had related of the
+contessa's marriage was in itself enough to arouse the interest of any
+girl alive to romance. According to him, she was the daughter of a
+Russian nobleman of great family and wealth. The Count Olisco (a
+mild-eyed Italian boy, he looked) had been attached to the legation at
+St. Petersburg. Zoya was only sixteen years old when she announced her
+intention of marrying him. Her father, furious that the Italian had
+dared approach his daughter, demanded his recall, whereupon she told him
+the astonishing news that Olisco had never, to her knowledge, even seen
+her. But she <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>declared that if her father did not marry her to him, she
+would kill herself.</p>
+
+<p>She did take poison but, being saved by the doctors, who discovered it
+through her maid, she sent the same maid to tell the Count Olisco the
+whole story. The romance of her act, coupled with her beauty and her
+birth, naturally so flattered the young Italian that he offered himself
+as a suitor, and, her father relenting, they were married.</p>
+
+<p>Nina was left for some time to her own thoughts, as her Italian (not
+particularly fluent at best) was altogether lacking in idiom, and she
+missed the point of most that was said. In the first lull, the Count
+Olisco asked her the usual question put to every stranger, "How do you
+like Rome?"</p>
+
+<p>The Countess Olisco, like an echo, caught and repeated her husband's
+inquiry, "Ah, and do you like Rome?"</p>
+
+<p>And then Carpazzi hoped she liked Rome&mdash;and this very harmless subject
+was tossed gently back and forth, until Prince Minotti gave it an
+unexpectedly violent fling by remarking, "I suppose Signorina, that you
+have been impressed"&mdash;he held the pause with evident satisfaction&mdash;"with
+the great history of the Carpazzi, without which there would be no
+Rome!"</p>
+
+<p>All at once the young man in the threadbare coat became like a live
+wire! His hair, which already was <i>en brosse</i>, seemed to rise still
+higher on his head, his thin lips quivered, and his hands worked in a
+com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>plete language of their own. He put up an immediate barrier with his
+palms held rigidly outward. All the table stopped to look, and to
+listen.</p>
+
+<p>"Does a Principe Minotti"&mdash;he pronounced the word "<i>Principe</i>" with a
+sneering curl of the lips&mdash;"dare to criticize a Carpazzi?" He threw back
+his head with a jerk.</p>
+
+<p>"What is he?" whispered Nina to Tornik, who was sitting next her. "Is he
+a duke?"</p>
+
+<p>"A Don, that is all, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>Softly as the question was put and answered, Carpazzi heard. Showing
+none of the fury of a moment before he spoke suavely, though still with
+arrogance.</p>
+
+<p>"Signorina is a stranger in Rome; the Count Tornik also is a foreigner,
+which excuses an ignorance that would be unpardonable in an Italian."</p>
+
+<p>Tornik at that moment pulled his mustache, looking at it down the length
+of his nose. It was impossible to tell whether the movement hid
+annoyance or amusement. Nina was keen with curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," Nina said sweetly, eager to soothe his over-sensitive
+pride, "I have heard of the Carpazzi, but I do not know what is the
+title of your house. I asked Count Tornik whether you were a duke."</p>
+
+<p>"I am Cesare di Carpazzi!" He said it as though he had announced that he
+was the Emperor of China.</p>
+
+<p>"The Carpazzi are of the oldest nobility," Giovanni interposed. "Such a
+name is in itself higher than a title."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Don Cesare bowed to Don Giovanni as though to say, "You see! thus it
+is!"</p>
+
+<p>The subject would have simmered down, had not Tornik at this point set
+it boiling, by saying in an undertone to Nina, "Why all this fuss? It is
+stupid, don't you think?"</p>
+
+<p>He spoke in French, carelessly articulated, but the sharp ears of
+Carpazzi overheard.</p>
+
+<p>"Why all this fuss!" he repeated. "It is insupportable that an upstart
+of 'nobility' styled p-r-ince"&mdash;he snarled the word&mdash;"a title that was
+<i>bought</i> with a tumbledown estate, <i>dares</i> to speak lightly the great
+name of the Carpazzi, a name that is higher than that of the reigning
+family."</p>
+
+<p>His flexible fingers flashed and grew stiff by turns. Nina had seen a
+good deal of gesticulating since she had come to Rome; she had even been
+told that the different expressions of the hand had meanings quite as
+distinct as smiles or frowns or spoken words, and Carpazzi's fingers
+certainly looked insulting, as with each snap he also snapped his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"You know whereof I speak, Alessandro and Giovanni&mdash;not even the
+Sansevero have the lineage of the Carpazzi!"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, certainly, my friend," answered Giovanni. "No one is
+disputing the fact with you."</p>
+
+<p>"But I should think," ventured Nina, her velvety eyes looking
+wonderingly into his flashing black ones, "that you would accept a
+title, it would make it so much simpler&mdash;especially among strangers who
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>do not know the family history. A duke is a duke and a prince for
+instance&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Up went his hand, rigid, palm outward, and at right angles to his wrist,
+"There you are wrong. A duke or a prince may be a parvenu. For me to
+accept a title&mdash;Non! It would mean that the name of <i>Carpazzi</i>,"&mdash;he
+lingered on the pronunciation&mdash;"could be improved! The name of Minotti,
+for instance, what does it say? Nothing! It is the name of a peasant. It
+may be dressed up to masquerade as noble, if it has 'Principe' pushed
+along before it. But it could not deceive a Roman. It is not the
+'Principe' before Sansevero that gives it renown. Don Giovanni Sansevero
+is a greater title than the Marchese Di Valdo, by which Giovanni is
+generally known. Yet Di Valdo is a good name, too, let me tell you."</p>
+
+<p>The Princess Sansevero kept Minotti's attention as much as possible, so
+that it might appear that Carpazzi's arraignment had not been heard. All
+that Carpazzi said was perfectly true. There was little therefore that
+Minotti could have answered. He was a man of plebeian origin. His
+father, a rich speculator, had bought a piece of property and assumed
+the title that went with it. To a Roman the name Carpazzi was a great
+deal higher than that of any number of dukes and princes.</p>
+
+<p>The question of "Good Taste," however, was another matter and the
+princess changed the subject by asking:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Does any one know what the opera is to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>The Contessa Olisco announced: "La Traviata." "They are to have a
+special scene in the third act," she said, "to introduce a new dance of
+Favorita's." She did not look at Giovanni, and yet she seemed to be
+aiming her remarks at him. To Nina it all meant nothing. Once or twice
+she had heard the name of the celebrated dancer, but it merely brushed
+through her perceptions like other fleeting suggestions; nothing ever
+had brought it to a full stop.</p>
+
+<p>The talk turned on other topics, and as the meal was very short, only
+five courses, the princess, the contessa, and Nina soon withdrew to
+another room. The conversation there, as it happened, came back to the
+subject of Carpazzi.</p>
+
+<p>Zoya Olisco lit her cigarette and spoke with it pasted on her lower lip.
+She smoked like this continually, and never touched the cigarette except
+to light it and put a new one in its place.</p>
+
+<p>"Though I see what he means," she said, "I should, were I in his place,
+claim a title! They need not take a new one. My husband told me that the
+Carpazzi were of the genuine optimates of the Roman Duchy."</p>
+
+<p>"I think Cesare regrets in his heart," said the Princess Sansevero,
+"that his ancestors did not accept one, but I agree with him now."</p>
+
+<p>She stirred her coffee slowly and then added, "I am fond of the boy, but
+I do not think I shall have him to dinner soon again. He is too
+uncontrolled."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The contessa agreed. And then, with her eyes half shut to avoid the
+smoke of her cigarette, she stared with fixed curiosity at Nina.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you find people here like those in America?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, some are quite like Americans," Nina answered, and added frankly,
+"but you at least are altogether different from any one I have ever
+seen!"</p>
+
+<p>"Really, am I?" The contessa raised her eyebrows and laughed. "I know of
+what you are thinking!" She said it with a deliciously impulsive candor.
+"You are thinking of my marriage. Yes, it is true! The instant my father
+said 'no,' I took poison. It was the only way. Had fate willed it, I
+would have died. But fate willed that I should be&mdash;just married." She
+laughed again.</p>
+
+<p>Nina glanced at her aunt, whose answering smile said clearly, "I told
+you she was like this."</p>
+
+<p>The contessa lit another cigarette&mdash;everything she said and did seemed
+incongruous with her appearance, she was so fragile and so young. Nina
+became more and more fascinated as she watched her.</p>
+
+<p>"But supposing that, after meeting him, you had not liked him?" she
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"That is impossible. I know always if I like people. I like people at
+sight&mdash;or I detest them! For instance, I detest Donna Francesca Dobini.
+She is a beauty, I know. She has charming manners; so has a cat. She is
+all soft sweetness. Ugh! I hate her!&mdash;But I like you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nina was delighted, but she could not help being amused. "You don't know
+me in the least," she laughed. "I may be a perfectly horrid person."</p>
+
+<p>The contessa shrugged her shoulders. "That is nothing to me. No doubt I
+adore some very horrid persons!" Then impetuously she ran her arm
+through Nina's as they walked through the long row of rooms to the one
+where their wraps were. "I <i>like</i> you!" she repeated; "that is all there
+is to it!"</p>
+
+<p>In the hall they were joined by the men, and started for the opera.</p>
+
+<p>Here, Nina had an unusual opportunity to see Roman Society, as the house
+that night was brilliant with the people who were going afterwards to
+the Court Ball. Donna Francesca Dobini, a celebrated beauty, was rather
+affectedly draped in a tulle arrangement around her shoulders. The
+Contessa Olisco, who for the time being was forced to do without her
+cigarette, said to Nina:</p>
+
+<p>"Look at her, there she is! She is 'going off,' so that she has to wrap
+tulle about her old neck to hide the wrinkles."</p>
+
+<p>She moved the column of her young throat with conscious triumph as she
+spoke. A moment later, as though Nina would understand, she whispered:
+"There is the Potensi! No! In the box opposite. She has on a dress of
+purple velvet. Sitting very straight, and quantities of diamonds."</p>
+
+<p>Nina put up her opera glass and encountered an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>insolent stare, as
+though the Contessa Potensi were purposely disdainful of the American
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>"She is the same one with whom Don Giovanni danced opposite in the
+quadrille! Heavens! but she is a disagreeable person!"</p>
+
+<p>"She has reason for looking disagreeable," announced the Contessa Zoya
+with a meaning laugh; but more she would not say.</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni leaned over Nina's chair. "Do you find the Romans attractive?
+How does our opera compare with that of New York?"</p>
+
+<p>"The house seems made of cardboard," Nina answered. "I never thought our
+opera houses especially wonderful&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No?" Giovanni rallied her. "Is it possible that you have anything in
+America that is not the most wonderful in the world! I am sure you will
+say your opera house is bigger! And richer! and more comfortable! Yes?
+Of course it is!" He laughed. "My apple is bigger than your apple. My
+doll is bigger than your doll! What children you are, you Americans!"</p>
+
+<p>"If we are children," retorted Nina, piqued by his laughter, "we must be
+granted the advantages of youth!"</p>
+
+<p>With a sudden gravity, but none the less mockingly, Giovanni besought
+her for enlightenment.</p>
+
+<p>"We gain in enthusiasm, energy, and honesty," she announced
+sententiously. "A country and a people never attain perfection of finish
+until they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>have begun to grow decadent. I'd rather have my doll and my
+big apple than sit, like an old cynic, in the corner, watching the
+children play!"</p>
+
+<p>She was immensely pleased with this speech,&mdash;mentally she quite preened
+herself. Giovanni looked amused, but the Contessa Potensi caught his
+glance from across the house, and his smile faded as he bowed. Nina, who
+had good eyes, saw a complete change in her face as she returned his
+salutation.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you like that woman?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is one of the beauties of Rome," he said evasively.</p>
+
+<p>"No, but do you like her?" Nina could not herself have told why she was
+so insistent.</p>
+
+<p>"She is an old friend of mine," he said lightly; then changed the
+subject. "Do you follow the hounds, Miss Randolph?"</p>
+
+<p>"At home, yes." But she came back to the former topic. "Does she ride
+very well, the Contessa Potensi?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wonderfully." This time he answered her easily. "But I am sure you ride
+well, too. Any one who dances as you do, must also be a horsewoman."</p>
+
+<p>There was something in Giovanni's manner that excited suspicion, but she
+did not know of what. She half wondered if there had been a love affair
+between him and the Contessa. Maybe he had wanted to marry her and she
+had accepted Potensi instead. She wondered if Giovanni still cared; and
+for a while her sympathy was quite aroused.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The curtain went up and every one stopped talking. At the beginning of
+the <i>entr'acte</i> Giovanni left the box, and Count Tornik took his chair.
+He was a strange man, but Nina was beginning to like him.
+Notwithstanding his brusque indifference, he had a charm that he could
+exert when he chose. Giovanni's speeches were no more flattering than
+Tornik's lapses from boredom.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, in spite of his assumed bad manners, the social
+instinct was so strong in him that, just as a vulgar person shows his
+origin in every unguarded moment or unexpected situation, Tornik's good
+breeding was constantly revealed. And in appearance, he was an
+attractive contrast to the Italians, tall, broad-shouldered, very blond,
+and high cheekboned; he might have been taken for an Englishman.</p>
+
+<p>Presently her Majesty, the Dowager Queen, appeared in the royal box, and
+every one in the audience arose.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we see both queens to-night at the ball?" Nina asked the Princess
+Sansevero.</p>
+
+<p>"No; only Queen Elena. The Queen Mother has never been present at a ball
+since King Umberto's tragic death."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish this evening were over," said Nina, with a half-frightened sigh.</p>
+
+<p>The Contessa Olisco, who had caught the remark and the sigh, asked
+sympathetically, "But why?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was nervous enough over going alone to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>presentation the other
+afternoon, but to go to a ball is much worse."</p>
+
+<p>"But you won't be alone. We shall be there! You may have your endurance
+put to the test, though. Are you very strong?"</p>
+
+<p>Nina laughed. "You mean, have I the strength to stand indefinitely
+without dropping to the floor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! you know, then, how it is. Still&mdash;if it is hard for us, think what
+it must be for their Majesties. To-night, for instance, the King does
+not once sit down!"</p>
+
+<p>Nina opened her eyes wide. "I thought the King and Queen sat on their
+throne. But then&mdash;I had an idea the presentation would be like that,
+too&mdash;and that I should have to courtesy all across a room, and back out
+again."</p>
+
+<p>The Contessa Zoya seemed to be occupied with a reminiscence that amused
+her. "If you have a special audience, you do, or if you go to take tea.
+We had a private audience yesterday with Queen Margherita and&mdash;I had on
+a long train&mdash;and clinging. Of course, entering the room is not hard&mdash;I
+made my three reverences very nicely, very gracefully, I thought,&mdash;one
+at the door, one half-way across the room, and one directly before the
+Queen, as I kissed her hand. But when the audience was over, the
+distance between where her Majesty sat and the door of exit&mdash;my dear, it
+seemed leagues! One must back all the way and make three deep
+courtesies! The first was simple, the second, half-way <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>across the room,
+was difficult. I was already standing on nearly a meter of train, and
+when I got to the door&mdash;well, I just walked all the way up the back of
+my dress, lost my balance and <i>fell out!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Nina laughed at the picture, but was glad the presentation had not been
+like that.</p>
+
+<p>"When you go to take tea with the Queen it is difficult, too," Zoya,
+having begun to explain, went on with all the details that came to mind.
+"Since two years Queen Elena has given 'tea parties' of about thirty or
+forty people. Her Majesty talks to every one separately, or in very
+small groups, while tea and cake and chocolate and iced drinks are
+served by the ladies in waiting&mdash;there are never any servants present.
+It is of course charming, and the Queen puts every one at ease, but
+there is always a feeling that you may do something dreadful&mdash;such as
+drop a spoon or have your mouth full just at the moment when her Majesty
+addresses a remark to you. At the Queen Mother's Court things are more
+formal&mdash;more ceremonious. I always feel timid before I go. And yet no
+sovereign could be more gracious, and her memory is extraordinary. She
+forgets nothing. Yesterday she asked me how the baby was. She knew his
+age, even his name and all about him. She asked me if he had recovered
+from the bronchitis he was subject to. Think of it!"</p>
+
+<p>Nina looked long at the royal box, and could well believe the contessa's
+account. Her Majesty was talking to the Marchesa Valdeste.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Of all the older ladies to whom she had been presented, Nina liked the
+marchesa best. Her face had the sweet expression that can come only from
+genuine kindness and innate dignity. At a short distance from the royal
+box Don Cesare Carpazzi was talking to a young girl. Don Cesare's
+expression was for the moment transfigured; instead of arrogance, it
+suggested rather humility; both he and the young girl seemed deeply
+engrossed.</p>
+
+<p>Tornik told Nina that she was Donna Cecilia Potensi, the little
+sister-in-law of the contessa in the box opposite. He also added that
+Carpazzi was supposed to be in love with her, and she with him, but they
+had not a lira to marry on. There were no poorer families in Italy than
+the Carpazzis and the Potensis.</p>
+
+<p>Certainly there was nothing in the appearance of the young girl to
+indicate wealth, but her plain white dress with a bunch of flowers at
+her belt, and her hair as simply arranged as possible, only increased
+her Madonna-like beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Nina was enchanted with her, and instinctively compared her appearance
+with that of the sister-in-law, glittering with diamonds. "The Contessa
+Potensi was a rich girl in her own right, I suppose," Nina remarked
+aloud.</p>
+
+<p>With a suspicion of awkwardness Tornik glanced at Giovanni, who had
+returned to the box. The latter began to screw up his mustache as he
+replied in Tornik's stead. "The Contessa Potensi inherited <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>some very
+good jewels from her mother's family, I am told."</p>
+
+<p>"Her mother was an Austrian, a cousin of mine," Tornik drawled. "I never
+heard of that branch of the family's having anything but stubble lands
+and debts. However, it is evident she has got the jewels! I felicitate
+her on her valuable possessions. <i>Elle a de la chance!</i>" He shrugged his
+shoulders. Tornik's detached and impersonal manner gave no effect of
+insult, and Giovanni, beyond looking annoyed, made no further remark.
+But the Princess Sansevero interposed:</p>
+
+<p>"Maria Potensi has a passion for jewels, as a child might have for toys,
+and she accepts them in the same way. She tells every one about it quite
+frankly; in that lies the proof of her innocence."</p>
+
+<p>But the Contessa Zoya showed neither sympathy nor credulity, and there
+was no misinterpreting her meaning as she said:</p>
+
+<p>"It is true, Princess, you know the Potensi well, and I only
+slightly&mdash;but if my husband offered a diamond ornament&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He would never give her another! Is that it?" put in Tornik.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;nor any one!" The intensity of her tone alarmed Nina, who was
+beginning to feel confused by the succession of violent impressions.
+Scorpa, Giovanni, Carpazzi, Zoya Olisco, all struck such strident notes
+that their vibrations jangled.</p>
+
+<p>Another act and <i>entr'acte</i> passed. Nina saw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> Giovanni enter the box of
+the Contessa Potensi. In contrast to her greeting across the house, she
+seemed now scarcely to speak to him. He talked to her companion, the
+Princess Malio, who bobbed her head and prattled at a great rate; but as
+he left the box Nina saw him lean toward the Contessa Potensi as though
+saying something in an undertone. She answered rapidly, behind her fan.
+Giovanni inclined his head and left.</p>
+
+<p>This small incident made a greater impression on Nina than its
+importance warranted. And the Contessa Potensi occupied her thoughts far
+more than the various men who had come into the box, and who seemed
+little more than so many varieties of faces and shirt-fronts. She
+noticed that many of the older men wore Father Abraham beards and
+clothes several sizes too big. On <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'acount'">account</ins> of the Court Ball those who
+had orders wore them, frequently so carelessly pinned to their coats
+that the decorations seemed likely to fall off. The Marchese Valdeste&mdash;a
+really imposing man&mdash;had two huge ones dangling from the flapping lapel
+of his coat, and a sash with a bow on the hip that would put any man's
+dignity to a supreme test.</p>
+
+<p>"The ballet is very important to-night," Nina heard the marchese saying
+to the Princess Sansevero. "La Favorita is to appear in the Birth of
+Venus. She does another dance first&mdash;a Spanish one, I think."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, the ballet music had already begun, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>and the Spanish
+<i>coryph&eacute;es</i> were twisting and bowing, and straightening their spines as
+they danced to the beat of their castanettes. Then they moved aside for
+the <i>ballerina</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It may have been intended as a Spanish dance, or Eastern, or gypsy&mdash;but
+it was more likely a dance of La Favorita's own imagination. She
+appeared clad in a thin slip of transparent and jetted gauze. Upon her
+feet were socks and ballet slippers of black satin. A black mask covered
+the upper part of her face, and her black hair was drawn high and held
+with a diamond bracelet; she wore a diamond collar, long diamond
+earrings, and the gauze of her upper garment&mdash;which could hardly be
+called a bodice&mdash;was held on one shoulder with a band of diamonds. For
+the space of a second she faced the audience, standing still and rigid;
+then, with a quiver, the rigidity was shattered! A serpent's coiling was
+not more swift than the movement of her dazzling, glittering form, which
+twirled and turned and bent, while the twinkling rapidity of her steps
+was faster than the eye could follow. A twirl, another twirl, a
+flash&mdash;and she was gone.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 258px;"><a name="space" id="space"></a>
+<img src="images/gs146.jpg" width="258" height="400" alt="&quot;FOR THE SPACE OF A SECOND SHE FACED THE AUDIENCE, STANDING STILL AND RIGID&quot;" title="&quot;FOR THE SPACE OF A SECOND SHE FACED THE AUDIENCE, STANDING STILL AND RIGID&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;FOR THE SPACE OF A SECOND SHE FACED THE AUDIENCE, STANDING STILL AND RIGID&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The <i>coryph&eacute;es</i>, who had seemingly danced well before, were now so
+awkward by comparison that Nina and Tornik laughed aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"They look like cows," commented Tornik.</p>
+
+<p>"Or nailed to the ground," Nina rejoined. She leaned forward, eager for
+Favorita's reappearance.</p>
+
+<p>To make a background for the second dance, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>stage hands had moved in
+folding wings or screens of sea green. The calciums had gradually been
+turning to the blue of moonlight, and now, at the back of the stage,
+Venus arose, veiled in a mist of foam.</p>
+
+<p>Seeming scarcely to touch her feet to the ground, the dancer was a puff
+of the foam itself, a living fragment of green and white spray. She
+caught her arms full of the sea-colored gauze, like a great billow above
+her head, and then with a swirl she bent her body and drew the
+diaphanous film out sideways, like a wave that had run up on the sands.
+Drawing it together again, she seemed to produce another breaker.</p>
+
+<p>So perfectly was the fabric handled that it seemed exactly like the
+spray of the sea, which, in its freshness, clung to her, and at the
+last, by a wonderful illusion, she gave the appearance of having gone
+under the waves.</p>
+
+<p>For several seconds the house remained absolutely hushed, and in that
+moment Nina found herself vaguely groping through a confusion of
+ecstatic, yet slightly shocked, sensations. She wondered whether La
+Favorita had really nothing on except a number of yards of tulle which
+she held in her hands.</p>
+
+<p>But the verdict of the audience was voiced by a torrent of bravos and
+handclappings that thundered until La Favorita, having thrown a long
+mantle about her, came out into the glare of the footlights.</p>
+
+<p>She bowed and kissed her hands, her smiles of acknowledgment sweeping
+the house from left to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>right, but at the box of the Sanseveros her
+smile faded, and she threw back her head with a movement of triumph.</p>
+
+<p>Nina was startled into fancying that she looked long, directly, and
+particularly at her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>A BALL AT COURT</h3>
+
+
+<p>The Sansevero party left the opera shortly after ten o'clock, and a
+little while later drove into the courtyard of the Quirinal. Entering a
+side door, they ascended a long staircase, upon each step of which was
+stationed a royal cuirassier, all resplendent in embroidered coats,
+polished high boots, and veritable Greek helmets, which seemed to add
+still further to their unusual height. Between their immovable ranks the
+guests thronged up the stairway to the Cuirassiers' Hall. Here, at the
+long benches provided for the purpose, they left their wraps in charge
+of innumerable flunkies in the royal livery&mdash;which consists of a red
+coat, embroidered either in gold or in silver, powdered hair, blue plush
+breeches, and pink stockings.</p>
+
+<p>Nina followed her aunt and uncle through an antechamber into the throne
+room and beyond again into the vast yellow <i>sala di ballo</i>. Here also
+the cuirassiers, who were stationed everywhere, added a martial dignity
+to the splendor of the scene. The people were all massed against the
+sides of the room; and although certain important personages had seats
+upon the long red silk benches placed in set rows, the great majority of
+those present stood, and stood, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>and stood. In contrast to her weary
+waiting at the afternoon reception when, a few days before, she had been
+presented at court, Nina found so much to interest her to-night that she
+did not remark the time. One side of the room was quite empty save for
+the big gilt chair reserved for the Queen, and the stools grouped around
+it for ladies in waiting. Three especial stools were placed at the left
+of the queen for the three "collaresses"&mdash;those whose husbands held the
+highest order in Italy, the Grand Collar of the Annunciation.</p>
+
+<p>It was the most brilliant gathering that Nina had ever seen, chiefly
+made so by the gold-embroidered uniforms and court orders of the men.
+The dresses and jewels of the women differed very little from those seen
+at social functions elsewhere. With a rare exception, such as the
+Duchessa Astarte and the Princess Vessano, whose toilettes were the most
+<i>chic</i> imaginable, the great ladies of Italy followed fashions very
+little. Not that Nina found them dowdy&mdash;far from it: they had a
+distinction of their own, which, like that of their ancient palaces,
+seemed to remain superior to modern decrees of fashion. Nearly all of
+them had lovely figures, which they did not strive to force into newly
+prescribed outlines.</p>
+
+<p>A remark that a foreigner in New York had made to Nina came back to her,
+and she now realized its truth. It was that the one great difference
+between the women of Europe and those of America was that in Europe one
+noticed the women, while in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> America too often one noticed merely the
+clothes. The Roman ladies wore plain princesse dresses, the majority of
+velvet or brocade, and with little or no trimming save enormous jewels
+often clumsily set, but barbarically magnificent.</p>
+
+<p>Here and there, to Nina's intense interest, she found, strangely mingled
+with the others, people of the provinces, who, because of distinguished
+names, had the right to appear at court, yet who looked as though they
+were wearing evening dress for the first time in their lives. Near by,
+for instance, was a lady whose rotund person was buttoned into a
+tight-fitting red velvet basque of ancient cut, above a skirt of pink
+satin. A court train, evidently constructed out of curtain material, was
+suspended from her shoulders. Broad gold bracelets clasped her plump
+wrists at the point where her gloves terminated, and a high comb of
+Etruscan gold ornamented the hard knob into which her hair was screwed.</p>
+
+<p>Princess Vessano represented the other extreme&mdash;that of fashion. She was
+in an Empire "creation" of green liberty satin with an over-tunic of
+silver-embroidered gauze. Her hair was arranged in a fillet of diamonds,
+which joined a small banded coronet, also of diamonds, set with three
+enormous emeralds. Around her throat she had a narrow band of green
+velvet bordered with diamonds and with a pendant emerald in the center
+that matched pear-shaped earrings nearly an inch long. Yet in a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>crowd
+of three thousand persons neither the grotesque lady nor the princess
+was remarkable.</p>
+
+<p>The crush of people became greater and greater until it seemed
+impossible to admit another person without filling the center of the
+ballroom and the royal space. As there was no music, the chatter of
+voices made an insistent humming din. At last! the Prefetto di Palazzo
+sounded three loud strokes, with the ferule of his mace, upon the floor,
+the sound of voices ceased, the doors into the royal apartments were
+thrown open, the band struck up the royal march, and their Majesties
+entered, followed by the members of their suite. Every one made a deep
+reverence, and the Queen seated herself upon the gold chair. The King
+stood at her left. As soon as the Queen had taken her place, the dancing
+commenced, led by the Prefetto di Palazzo and the French ambassadress.
+But as a wide space before the Queen's chair was reserved out of
+deference to their Majesties, the rest of the ballroom was so crowded
+that dancing was next to impossible. Presently the King made a tour of
+the room&mdash;followed always by two gentlemen of his suite, with whom he
+stopped continually to ask who this person or that might be, sometimes
+speaking to special guests.</p>
+
+<p>The Queen likewise singled out certain strangers of distinction. In this
+way she sent for a United States senator, who was making a short visit
+in Rome, and kept him talking with her for a considerable time. Her
+Majesty sat through the first waltz <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>and quadrille. Then she and the
+King promenaded slowly through the assemblage, speaking to many people
+as they passed. Some careless foot went through Nina's dress, tearing a
+great rent, just as she made her reverence to their Majesties, who were
+approaching. The Queen smiled sympathetically and held out her hand for
+Nina to kiss, at the same time exclaiming her sympathy, then, quite at
+length, her admiration for the lovely dress. Nina flushed with pleasure,
+feeling that the damage to her prettiest frock had been more than
+repaid.</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni was standing with Nina at the time, and after their Majesties
+had passed, he looked quizzically at the torn hem that Nina held in her
+hand. "Is it altogether spoiled?"</p>
+
+<p>Nina laughed. "If I were sentimental, I should keep it always in tatters
+in memory of the Queen!"</p>
+
+<p>"But as you are not sentimental&mdash;I hope it can be mended. May I tell you
+that her Majesty's admiration was well deserved? It is a most charming
+costume and not too elaborate. The touch of silver in the dress is just
+enough to go with the silver fillet over your hair. White is seldom
+becoming to blondes, but it suits you admirably."</p>
+
+<p>She looked up, frankly pleased. "It is nice, really? I am so glad!" She
+was perfectly happy, and her smile showed it. The whole evening had been
+delightful. The disagreeable impressions made by the Contessa Potensi
+and Favorita were forgotten as she danced with Giovanni, who performed a
+feat <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>of rare ability in finding a passage through the crush.</p>
+
+<p>Presently he said to her, "When their Majesties have gone into an
+adjoining room, then the rest of us can go to supper."</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke, Nina saw them disappear through the doorway. "Are they not
+coming back?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No. They have gone."</p>
+
+<p>"But do they never dance?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never! Queen Margherita and King Humbert always opened the ball by the
+<i>quadrille d'honneur</i>, with the ambassadors and important court ladies
+and gentlemen. But the present King abolished all that."</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the waltz Tornik managed to find Nina and announced
+supper. In the stampede for food there was such a crush that people
+stepped on her slippers and literally swept up the floor with her train.
+Tornik, being a giant, and able to reach over any number of smaller
+persons, finally secured a <i>p&acirc;t&eacute;</i> and an ice. Standing near her, two
+young men were stuffing cakes and sandwiches into their pockets. Amazed,
+she drew Tornik's attention. He shrugged his shoulders. "Who are they?"
+she whispered. "Princes, for all I know," was his rejoinder. "Poor
+devils, many of them never get such a feast as this."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>CORONETS FOR SALE</h3>
+
+
+<p>According to Italian etiquette, strangers must leave cards within
+twenty-four hours upon every person to whom they have been introduced.
+Therefore the afternoon of the day following the ball was necessarily
+spent by Nina in three hours of steady driving from house to house.
+Finally, as she and the princess were alighting at the Palazzo
+Sansevero, Count Tornik drove into the courtyard, and together they
+mounted to the apartments used by the family.</p>
+
+<p>Nina settled herself in the corner of a sofa, pulling off her gloves.
+Tornik dropped into a loose-jointed heap in a big chair opposite.
+Suddenly he sat up straight, his eyebrows lifted.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know!" he said. "May I felicitate you, mademoiselle?"</p>
+
+<p>"On what?" she asked, puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"Since you wear a ring, it is evident that your engagement is to be
+announced. Will you tell me who is the fortunate man?"</p>
+
+<p>She saw that he was gazing at the emerald she wore on her little finger.
+"Is there reason to think I am engaged&mdash;because of <i>this?</i>"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, what else? A young girl's wearing a ring can mean but one
+thing."</p>
+
+<p>"On my little finger? How ridiculous! My father gave it to me.
+Sometimes, at home, I wear several rings. Does that mean I am engaged to
+several men?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are still free?"</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated as though under an impulse to say something sentimental,
+then apparently changed his mind, and relapsed into his habitually
+detached indifference of manner.</p>
+
+<p>"They have curious customs in your country," he said casually. "A friend
+of mine was in America last year. He told me many things!"</p>
+
+<p>"Did he? What, for instance?"</p>
+
+<p>"He said that the women sat in chairs that balanced back and forth&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Chairs that&mdash;&mdash;" she interrupted. "Oh, you mean rocking-chairs! That's
+true, you don't have them over here, do you? I did not mean to
+interrupt. You said we rock&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not you, it's the older women who balance all day on verandas, and let
+their daughters do whatever they please! In an American family, I am
+told, the young girl is supreme ruler. Is that true?"</p>
+
+<p>Nina, laughing, shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know&mdash;I never thought
+about it! But over here I suppose a girl does not count at all? Tell me,
+according to your ideas, what her place should be."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I do not say <i>should</i>. I merely state the fact: over here, a young
+girl plays a very small r&ocirc;le. But then, for the matter of that, most
+people belong naturally in the background, and very few, whether they
+are women or men, have their names on the program."</p>
+
+<p>"And you? What part do you play?"</p>
+
+<p>For a moment his eyes gleamed. "That depends upon whether fate shall
+cast me to support a <i>diva</i> or to occupy an empty stage."</p>
+
+<p>"And if fate allowed you to choose, I could easily imagine that you
+would prefer a part with very little action and as few lines as
+possible."</p>
+
+<p>"You are quite wrong. I do not object to saying all that a part calls
+for, and, above all, I like action."</p>
+
+<p>"That's true; I had forgotten! You are a soldier! I wonder why you went
+into the army?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is the only career open to me."</p>
+
+<p>Nina was thinking of Giovanni and his point of view as she asked, "Why
+are you not content to be merely Count Tornik?"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean that I, like Carpazzi, should live on the illustriousness of
+my name? If I were very poor, perhaps I should."</p>
+
+<p>"How curious!" Nina exclaimed. "Does not a career mean making money?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, it means spending it! One must have a great deal of
+money to go to any height in diplomacy."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are rich?" Nina already had ac<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>quired a brutal frankness of
+direct interrogation through her Italian sojourn.</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly." He <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'look'">looked</ins> bored again. "But I have a little&mdash;though
+perhaps not enough for my ambition. If only there were a serious war,
+I'd have a good chance." Then he added simply, "I am a good soldier!"</p>
+
+<p>The princess, who had been summoned to the telephone, now returned and
+seated herself beside Nina on the sofa. "I have just been talking with
+the Marchesa Valdeste, and she told me that the Queen said most gracious
+things of you, dear; called you the 'charming little American.'" The
+prince entered while the princess was speaking. He kissed his wife's
+hand and began, at great length, to tell her exactly where and how he
+had spent the afternoon. After a while, however, as one or two other
+friends dropped in, Sansevero talked aside with Tornik.</p>
+
+<p>"You were not at Savini's last night, were you?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Tornik looked interested. "No," he said, "but I hear they had a very
+high game."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Young Allegro was practically cleaned out."</p>
+
+<p>"Who won?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who, indeed, but Scorpa! He has the luck, that man!"</p>
+
+<p>"Were you there? I thought you never played any more; have you taken it
+up again?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sansevero, glancing apprehensively at his wife, answered quickly, "I
+never play." Fortunately, just then the dangerous conversation was ended
+by the arrival of the Contessa Potensi. She smiled graciously upon the
+prince as he pressed her hand to his lips, and bestowed the left-over
+remnant of the same smile, upon Tornik. She also kissed the air on
+either side of the princess with much affection, and shook hands
+cordially with two other ladies who were present, but she directed
+toward Nina the barest glance.</p>
+
+<p>She and Nina, by the way, furnished at the moment a typical illustration
+of the difference in appearance between European and American women.</p>
+
+<p>The contessa was wearing an untrimmed, black tailor-made costume with a
+very long train, a little fur toque to match a small neck piece, and a
+little sausage-shaped muff. Her diamond earrings were enormous, but not
+very good stones. Nina's dress was of raspberry cloth, cut in the latest
+exaggeration of fashion&mdash;her skirt was short and skimp as her hat was
+huge. Her muff of sables as big and soft as a pillow&mdash;she could easily
+have buried her arms in it to the shoulder. The elaborateness of Nina's
+clothes filled the contessa with satisfaction, for she thought them
+barbarously inappropriate, and she knew that Giovanni was a martinet so
+far as "fitness" went.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, in spite of her more than rude greeting, she coolly sat down
+beside Nina. "Will you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>make me a cup of tea? I like it without sugar
+and with very little cream." She did not smile, and she did not say
+"please." Her bearing was a fair example of the cold, impersonal
+insolence of which Italian women of fashion are capable when
+antagonistic.</p>
+
+<p>After a time she leaned over and scrutinized Nina's watch, as though it
+were in a show case. "Do many young girls in America wear jewels?"</p>
+
+<p>Nina found herself congealing; instead of answering, she handed the
+contessa her tea, and expressed a hope that she had not put in too much
+cream.</p>
+
+<p>Taking no notice of Nina's evasion, the contessa, talking
+indiscriminately about people, arrived finally at the subject of
+Giovanni. In her opinion, the Marchese di Valdo ought to marry money!
+Unfortunately, however, she feared he had loved too many women to be
+capable now of caring for one alone. From this she went to generalities.
+A man had but one grand passion in a lifetime, didn't Nina think so?</p>
+
+<p>Nina's thoughts were very hazy, indeed, about grand passions, which were
+associated dimly in her mind with the seven deadly sins&mdash;in the category
+of things one didn't speak of. So she answered vaguely, feeling like a
+stupid child being cross-examined by the school commissioner.</p>
+
+<p>"Still, he is very attractive, don't you find? Of course, he says the
+same things to all of us&mdash;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>but then no one understands how to make love
+as well as he, so what does it matter whether he means it or not? It
+takes a woman of great experience," insinuated the contessa, "to parry
+Giovanni's fencing with the foils of love."</p>
+
+<p>Nina was goaded into answering. "You seem to know a great deal about his
+love-making," she said at last, with the breathy calm of controlled
+temper.</p>
+
+<p>Half shutting her eyes, the contessa replied: "It is common hearsay. One
+has only to follow the list of his conquests to know that he must be a
+past master in the art of making women care for him. That he is <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'flckle'">fickle</ins>
+is evident; he is constantly changing his attentions from one woman to
+another, and leaving with a crisis of the heart her whom he has lately
+adored. I am sorry for the woman he marries&mdash;still, perhaps she would
+not know the difference! He might even be devoted, from force of habit."</p>
+
+<p>Nina, furious, told herself that she did not believe one word that this
+spiteful woman was saying, but it made an impression all the same, which
+was, of course, exactly what the contessa wanted.</p>
+
+<p>"Tornik, too, needs a fortune badly," Maria Potensi went on piercing
+neatly. "It is hard, over here with us, that men acquire fortunes only
+by marriage. In America, it must be better, for there they can earn
+their money, and marry for love."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nina felt her cheeks burn as she listened, but there was nothing she
+could say. She knew only too well how hard it would be to believe
+herself loved.</p>
+
+<p>But not all of the women were like the Contessa Potensi, and by the time
+Nina had been a month in Rome, she had, with the responsiveness of
+youth, formed several friendships that were rapidly drifting into
+intimacies, though she chose as her associates, for the most part, young
+married women rather than girls. Her particular friend was Zoya Olisco,
+really six months younger than herself, but of a precocious worldly
+experience that gave her at least ten years' advantage.</p>
+
+<p>The young girls were to Nina quite incomprehensible. Their curiously
+negative behavior in public, their self-conscious diffidence, seemed to
+her stupid; but their education filled her with envy and shame. Nearly
+all spoke several languages, not in her own fashion of broken French,
+broken German, and baby-talk Italian, but with perfect facility and
+correctness of grammar. Nearly all were thoroughly grounded in
+mathematics, history, literature, and science. And yet their whole
+attitude toward life seemed out of balance; they were like pedagogues
+never out of the schoolroom&mdash;one moment discoursing learnedly, the next
+prattling like little children. The end and aim of life to them was
+marriage. Each talked of her dot and of what it might buy her in the way
+of a husband, very much as girls in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> America might plan the spending of
+their Christmas money.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the unusual liberty allowed Nina, as an American, it seemed
+to her that she was very restricted. She had, for instance, suggested
+that they ask Carpazzi to dine with them alone and go to the opera. But
+the princess had said, "Impossible. Carpazzi, finding no one but the
+family, would naturally suppose we wish to arrange a marriage between
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Marry Carpazzi! It was ridiculous; she never had heard of such customs!
+"Well, then, why not ask Tornik?" she suggested. "He is not an Italian."
+The princess demurred. It might be possible to ask Tornik&mdash;still it was
+better not. Unless Nina wanted to marry Tornik? Apparently there was
+little use in pursuing this subject further, so she laughed and gave it
+up.</p>
+
+<p>They were in the princess's room, at the time, and Nina, dressed for the
+street, was pulling on new gloves of fawn-colored <i>su&egrave;de</i>. Her brown
+velvet and fox furs, her big hat with a fox band fastened with an
+osprey, were all that the modeste's art could achieve.</p>
+
+<p>The princess fastened a little yellow mink collar around her throat over
+her black cloth dress, selected the better of two pairs of cleaned white
+kid gloves, picked up her hard, round, little yellow muff, and then went
+over and sat on the sofa beside Nina. "By the way, darling, I have
+something to say to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>you. The Marchese Valdeste has approached your
+uncle in regard to a marriage between his son Carlo and you. Not being
+an Italian, I suppose you want to give your answer yourself. What do you
+say?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do I say!" Nina's eyes and mouth opened together. "Why, I have
+never seen the man!"</p>
+
+<p>The princess smiled. "The offer is made in the same way in which it
+would be if you were an Italian. Your parents not being here, I ask you
+in their stead&mdash;or as I might ask you if you were a widow. To begin,
+then,&mdash;no, I am perfectly in earnest&mdash;I am authorized to offer you a
+young man of unquestionable birth. He has in his own right three
+castles. Two will need a great deal of repair, but one is in excellent
+condition and contains three hundred rooms, more than half of which are
+furnished. He has an annual income of twenty thousand <i>lire</i> and
+no&mdash;debts! That he is fairly good-looking, medium-sized, has black hair
+and brown eyes, and is said to have a very amiable disposition, are
+details."</p>
+
+<p>As the princess concluded, Nina added: "And he has also a most charming
+mother. My answer is&mdash;my regret that I cannot marry her instead."</p>
+
+<p>"You are sure you do not care to consider this offer?"</p>
+
+<p>Nina looked steadily into her aunt's eyes. "I am sure you married Uncle
+Sandro through no such courtship as this!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I did not think you would accept, my dear child; yet such marriages
+often turn out for the best&mdash;at least it was my duty to ask for your
+answer. You have given it&mdash;and now let us go out. The carriage has been
+waiting some time."</p>
+
+<p>Shortly afterward they were in the Pincio&mdash;for the custom still prevails
+among Roman ladies and gentlemen of slowly driving up and down or
+standing for a chat with friends. The dome of St. Peter's looked like a
+globe of gold set in the center of the celebrated frame of the Pincio
+trees, but as the sun went down it grew chilly, and the Sansevero landau
+rolled briskly up the Corso. At Nina's suggestion they stopped at a tea
+shop.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner were they seated at a little table when they were joined by
+the Duchess Astarte. The duchess had most graceful manners, but she
+talked to the princess across Nina, and about her, as though she were an
+article of furniture, or at least a small child who could not understand
+what was said. She spoke frankly of Nina's suitors. Scorpa's was an
+excellent title, but Scorpa was a widower and no longer young. Then she
+begged the princess to consider her nephew, the young Prince Allegro.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a brilliant match, for he was one of the mediatized princes
+and ranked with royalty. But his properties took such an immense amount
+of money to keep up that an added fortune would be a great relief to the
+whole family. Her consummate naturalness did away with much of the
+bluntness of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>her speech; but even so, this was too much for Nina's
+calmness.</p>
+
+<p>"But, Duchessa," she broke in, "have the Prince Allegro and I nothing to
+do with the arranging of our own future?"</p>
+
+<p>The duchess observed her in as much astonishment as though a baby of six
+months had broken into the conversation. A moment or two elapsed before
+she said smoothly: "Oh, the Prince is enchanted at the idea. He danced
+with you at Court and finds you <i>molto simpatica</i>. It is a great name,
+my dear, that he has to offer you&mdash;&mdash;" and then with a condescension,
+yet a courteousness that prevented offense: "We shall all be willing,
+nay, delighted, to receive you with open arms. Your position will be in
+every way as though you had been born into the nobility."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Nina quietly, "but I don't think I am quite used to
+the European marriage of arrangement."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but it need not be a marriage of arrangement. If you will permit
+Allegro to pay his addresses to you, he will consider himself the most
+fortunate of men. May I tell him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Please not!" said Nina. Quite at bay, she longed wildly for some means
+of escape. To her relief, two Americans whom she knew, young Mrs. Davis
+and her sister, entered the shop. Nina rose abruptly, apologizing to the
+duchess, and ran to them. How long had they been in Rome? Where <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>were
+they stopping? What was the news from New York? They told her all they
+could think of. The Tony <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Suarts'">Stuarts</ins> had a son&mdash;they thought it the only
+baby that had ever been born; and as for old Mr. Stuart, he was nearly
+insane with joy. Billy Rivers had lost every cent of his money; and
+then&mdash;but, of course, Nina had heard about John Derby.</p>
+
+<p>In her fear that some accident had happened to him, Nina's heart seemed
+to miss two beats. But Mrs. Davis merely meant his success in mining. By
+the way, she had seen him in New York, as she was driving to the
+steamer. He was striding up Fifth Avenue, and was "too good-looking for
+words."</p>
+
+<p>The princess was leaving the shop and, as Nina followed her into the
+carriage, her mind was full of Derby. It was very strange&mdash;she had had a
+letter the day before from Arizona, in which John had said nothing about
+going to New York. Then she remembered that her father had hinted at a
+possibility that John might be sent to Italy later in the winter. Her
+pulse quickened at the thought, but with no consciousness of sentiment
+deepened or changed by absence.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at the palace, she found a note from Zoya Olisco, who was coming
+to spend the next day with her. Nina handed the note to the princess. "I
+thought we could go out in the car and lunch somewhere. Or is it not
+allowed?" Her eyes twinkled as she questioned.</p>
+
+<p>"That depends," the princess answered in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>same spirit, "upon whether
+you are counting upon including me. I am a very disagreeable tyrant when
+it comes to being left out of a party."</p>
+
+<p>The automobile in question was Nina's. She had wanted one, and with her
+"to want" meant "to get." Nearly every one thought it belonged to the
+princess, as it would not have occurred to many in Rome to suppose it
+was owned by a young girl.</p>
+
+<p>That night another extravagance of Nina's came to light. In the morning
+they had been at an exhibition of furs brought to Rome by a Russian
+dealer. Among them was a set of superb sables, and Nina, throwing the
+collar around her aunt's shoulders, had exclaimed at their becomingness.</p>
+
+<p>The princess unconsciously stroked the furs as she put them down. "I
+have never seen anything more lovely," she said wistfully, and with no
+idea that she had sighed. A sable collar and muff had been one of the
+desired things of her life, but it was utterly impossible now to think
+of so much as one skin, and in the piece and muff in question there were
+more than thirty.</p>
+
+<p>That evening, upon their return, the princess found the furs in her room
+when she went to dress. At first she felt that they were too much to
+accept, but when Nina's hazel eyes implored, and her lips begged her
+aunt to take "just one present to remember her by," the princess for
+once gave free reign to her emotions and was as wildly delighted as a
+child.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The very next afternoon, however, Scorpa saw the sables, and on a slip
+of paper made the following note:</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" summary="Sables">
+<tr><td align='left'>Sables</td><td align='left'>80,000 lire</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>60 H. P. motor car&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td><td align='left'>30,000 lire</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>With a smile that would have done no discredit to his Satanic Majesty,
+he put the paper in his pocket.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>APPLES OF SODOM</h3>
+
+
+<p>"It amounts to this: do you take a fitting interest in the name you
+bear, or do you not?" Sansevero was the speaker, and beneath his usual
+volubility there was an unwonted eagerness. The two brothers were in
+Giovanni's apartment on the second floor, which in Roman palaces usually
+belongs to the eldest son, and Giovanni sat astride a chair, his arms
+crossed over the back.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think you can ask such a question," he retorted hotly. "I am as
+much a Sansevero as you! But I really see no reason why&mdash;just because
+you have got a notion in your head that a pile of gold dollars would
+look well in our strong box&mdash;I should tie myself up for life. I am well
+enough as I am. My income is not regal, but it suffices."</p>
+
+<p>Sansevero, like many talkative persons, was too busy thinking of what he
+was going to say next himself, to listen attentively to his brother's
+responses. He was merely aware that Giovanni's manner proclaimed
+opposition, so, when the sound of his voice ceased, Sansevero continued:
+"Nina is all the most fastidious could ask. <i>Noblesse oblige</i>&mdash;are you
+going to keep our name among the greatest in Rome, or are you going to
+let it fall like that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>of the Carpazzi? Shall they say of us in the near
+future, as they say of them to-day: 'Ah, yes, the Sanseveros were a
+great family once, but they are all dead or beggared now'?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Per Dio!</i> What an orator we are becoming!" mocked Giovanni, looking
+out of half-shut eyes like a cat. But after a moment, also like a cat,
+he opened them wide and stared coolly at his brother. "Out of the mouth
+of babes&mdash;&mdash;" he said impertinently. "My child, thou hast spoken much
+wisdom! It is, after all, a proposition that has, possibly, sense in it.
+<i>La Nina</i> is a woman such as any man might be glad to make his wife, and
+yet&mdash;this very fact that she is not an insignificant personality, is
+what I object to! I doubt her developing into either a blinded saint or
+a coquette with amiable complacence for others. We should lead a peppery
+life, I fear. But don't you think, my brother, that we are a bit
+hysterical over our family's extermination? After all, I am only
+twenty-eight; and in my opinion thirty-five is a suitable age for a man
+to marry. How old are you, Sandro&mdash;thirty-seven, is it not? And Leonora
+is nearly three years less. Of a truth, you are young!"</p>
+
+<p>He rested his cheek in the hollow of his hand, looking up sideways. "It
+would be a great amusement if I should marry because I am the heir to
+the estates, and then you should have a large family&mdash;so&mdash;&mdash;" He made
+steps with his unoccupied hand to indicate a succession of children.
+Then he laughed, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>without seeming to consider the difference that the
+birth of an heir to his brother would make to himself. He arose, lit a
+cigarette, and, smoking, threw himself into an easy chair on the other
+side of the room. The great Dane, which had been lying beside him as
+usual, now slowly got up, crossed the room, and dropped down again at
+his master's feet.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the prince, hands in pockets, had unaccountably become as
+silent as he had before been talkative, and Giovanni, upon observing his
+brother's sulky expression, leaned forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" he questioned, with a new ring in his voice, for Sansevero's
+moodiness was never a good omen. "What are you thinking of? Come, say
+it!"</p>
+
+<p>Sansevero paced the length of the room and back; then he burst out:
+"Very well, it is this&mdash;everything is as bad as can be&mdash;so bad that if
+you don't marry money, and at once, the Sansevero burial will take place
+before you and I are dead. <i>Nome di Dio!</i> how are we to live with no
+money?"</p>
+
+<p>"Since you ask my opinion, I have long wondered why you do not live
+better than you do," Giovanni answered. "Your income, added to Leonora's
+money, must make a very handsome sum. But one of the faults of the
+American women is that they are seldom good managers. Leonora is either
+no exception to the rule&mdash;or else she is getting very miserly. Why, an
+Italian on Leonora's income would live like a queen!"</p>
+
+<p>"Be silent!" Sansevero, flushing darkly, flamed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>into speech. "Before
+you dare to criticise the woman who adorns our house! Here is the truth
+for you: I haven't one cent of private fortune&mdash;I gambled it all away
+long ago! More than half of Leonora's money is lost&mdash;I lost it. Some of
+it she paid out for my debts; the greater portion I put into the 'Little
+Devil' mine. I might much better have shoveled it into the Tiber. Do you
+know what she has done&mdash;the woman whom you criticise as a bad manager
+and stigmatize as mean&mdash;I would not care what you said, if you had not
+thought Leonora mean! <i>Dio mio</i>, <span class="smcap">mean</span>! Know, then, that the
+very jewels she wears are false; that the real ones have been sold&mdash;to
+pay the debts of the man standing before you&mdash;the gambling debts of the
+head of one of the noblest houses in Italy!"</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni was deeply moved, for this was a wound in his one vulnerable
+point, his pride of birth. The cigarette dropped to the floor unheeded.
+He moistened his lips as Alessandro continued:</p>
+
+<p>"They were Leonora's own jewels that were sold, mark you. The Sansevero
+heirlooms will go to your son's wife intact, as they came to mine! But
+that is not all: I have given my oath to Leonora never again to go into
+a game of chance, and really I want to keep it! Yet you know&mdash;no, you
+don't; no one can who hasn't the fever in his veins&mdash;if I see a game, it
+is as though an unseen force had me in its grip, drawing me against my
+will; I can't resist! At Savini's I was dining, and I did not know they
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>were going to play&mdash;I won a very little; enough to pay the interest on
+what I owe Meyer. But it makes me cold all over to think&mdash;<i>if</i> I had
+lost! An enviable inheritance you will get, when it is known what a mess
+of things the present holder of the title has made!" He dropped into a
+chair opposite his brother, and buried his face in his hands; between
+his slim fingers his forehead looked dark, and his temple veins swollen.
+For a long time Giovanni sat immovable, staring fixedly, but when at
+last he broke the silence, he spoke almost lightly:</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a very charming history that you have given me&mdash;even though
+it increases my admiration for the woman who has, it seems, been more
+worthy of the name she bears than has the man who conferred his titles
+upon her. I wish you had told me before." Then, with a queerly whimsical
+smile, he said musingly: "To marry the girl with the golden hair&mdash;and
+purse? Not such a terrible fate to look forward to, after all! She would
+demand a great deal, and I should have to keep the brakes on.
+Still&mdash;that would do me no harm! You look as though you had been down a
+sulphur mine. Come, cheer up&mdash;all may yet be well." Suddenly he laughed
+out loud. "Funny thing," he observed further&mdash;"you know, I am not so
+sure that I am not rather in love."</p>
+
+<p>He leaned to St. Anthony, and, putting his hand through the dog's collar
+beneath the throat, lifted the head on the back of his wrist. "Tell me,
+<i>padre</i>, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>am I in love? Do you advise the marriage?" The dog put his paw
+up, fanned the air once in missing, and let it rest on his master's
+knee.</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni laughed aloud "<i>Ecco!</i> Sandro, he consents!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>AN OPPOSITION BOOTH IS SET UP IN THE MARKET PLACE</h3>
+
+
+<p>While Sansevero and Giovanni were in their imaginations refurbishing
+their escutcheon, two other men, with the opposite intent, stood on the
+front steps of the agency of "Thomas Cook and Sons." One was proclaimed
+by the regulation "Cook's" badge on his cap to be a guide; the other, by
+his military cloak, might have been recognized as an official of the
+Italian government. Both had shown covert interest in the Princess
+Sansevero, who, looking particularly lovely in her magnificent set of
+sables, had crossed the sidewalk with the light, buoyant carriage
+characteristic of her.</p>
+
+<p>"There, you may see for yourself if it is I who speak the truth." This
+was said by the guide.</p>
+
+<p>The official looked at him askance as he drew his bushy brows together
+and pulled at his beard. "I confess it looks serious&mdash;and strongly
+favors your supposition."</p>
+
+<p>"But what else? It is as plain as the nose on your face, I should say!
+At Torre Sansevero they have been living on next to nothing&mdash;my cousin
+is cook, and I know that every <i>soldo</i> is counted. They come to Rome and
+spend their savings. You will <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>say they have done that for years; but
+tell me this, should their savings in this year treble the savings of
+other years?"</p>
+
+<p>Triumphantly he looked at his companion and, throwing back his head, put
+his hands on his hips. Then, with a return to his confidential manner,
+he laid his finger against his nose. "I know it for a fact," he
+continued&mdash;"Luigi heard it at the key-hole&mdash;that their excellencies
+contemplated staying at Torre Sansevero all this winter! Her excellency
+had the look&mdash;Maria, the maid, told the servants that much&mdash;that her
+excellency always has when <i>signore</i>, the prince, has cut the strings
+and left the purse empty."</p>
+
+<p>"Furthermore?" The official twirled his mustache with an air of
+incredulity.</p>
+
+<p>"Furthermore, the great Raphael disappears! Her excellency's renovation
+story was a little weak for my digestion, and, unless my eyes played me
+false, she was well frightened. I'll take my oath she was at a loss what
+to answer."</p>
+
+<p>"You say you taxed her with it?"</p>
+
+<p>"As I told you. She answered that the picture was being renovated. An
+answer for an idiot&mdash;the picture is one of the best canvases extant; in
+perfect repair."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you tell her that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Partially. I am sure she saw my suspicion."</p>
+
+<p>"I should doubt her carrying out the sale after that. There is where
+your story fails."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but it had already gone! It was perhaps by then in the house of a
+foreign millionaire. No, no, my story hangs together: The great picture
+disappears! A month later&mdash;time exactly for its arrival in America and
+the payment for it to be sent over here&mdash;her excellency of no money
+comes out in such a motor-car as that! And sables! I have an eye for
+furs. My father was in the business. The value of those she has on runs
+easily into the seventy or eighty thousand <i>lire</i>. Here she comes now,
+out of the banker's where American money is most often paid! Do you want
+better evidence?"</p>
+
+<p>He had been punctuating all he said with his fingers, and now, with a
+final snap of arms and a shrug of shoulders, he looked up in keen
+triumph at his companion.</p>
+
+<p>The other&mdash;slower and less excited than the narrator (probably because
+he was not the discoverer of the plot)&mdash;nevertheless showed lively
+interest. "It is very grave," he admitted at last. "But the Sansevero
+family is illustrious. We may not proceed against them without due
+consideration. I shall report the case to the chief of our secret
+service, and the prince must be&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A tall, athletic young man who had been changing some foreign gold into
+Italian, came into the open doorway of the office. A carriage, passing
+at that moment close to the curb, had prevented the two men from hearing
+the stranger's footfall, and as the latter stood on the top step,
+searching in his pocket <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>for matches, he happened to catch the name
+"Sansevero." At once his attention was arrested, but as the conversation
+was carried on in an undertone, he caught only vague, detached words.
+Still, he was sure that he had heard "Raphael" after the name,
+"Sansevero," "disappearance," and then something like "secret service."
+But his presence evidently had become known, for as he passed on out
+into the street the two in blue coats were talking loudly about the
+excursion to Tivoli and the scenery <i>en route</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Walking out into the middle of the square where the cabs stand, he
+jumped into the first one, but he looked cautiously back toward the men
+in front of Cook's, before telling the driver to take him to the Palazzo
+Sansevero.</p>
+
+<p>Here the <i>portiere</i> in his morning clothes, very different from the
+gorgeous apparel of afternoon, was sweeping out the courtyard. Holding
+his broom handle with exactly the same dignity with which, later in the
+day, he would hold his mace, he informed the stranger that his
+excellency the prince was not at home&mdash;neither was her excellency the
+princess. Upon being asked whether Miss Randolph were perhaps at home,
+he altogether forgot his imperturbability. That a <i>signore</i> should send
+in his card to a <i>signorina</i> was so far outside the range of his
+experience that the man stood with his mouth open, unable even to think
+what answer to give. As though he were a somnambulist, the man took the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>card and slowly read the name on its face; then he looked the stranger
+over from head to foot, read the name a second time, and finally entered
+the palace.</p>
+
+<p>The young man watched his retreating figure, and then, throwing back his
+head, laughed long and heartily. After which he fell to studying the
+details of the courtyard. He noted with keen interest the deep ruts worn
+in the solid stone paving under the massive arches of the gateways, and
+glanced up at the bas-reliefs between the windows. At the sound of
+footsteps he turned and encountered Nina's maid, Celeste.</p>
+
+<p>Mademoiselle had sent her to bid him mount to the <i>salon</i>. Through the
+green baize doors&mdash;it was the shorter way&mdash;and then, if monsieur would
+go straight on to the very last of the rooms&mdash; His striding pace made
+Celeste fairly trot along at his heels. He went through room after room.
+Was there no end to them? At last Nina's slight, girlish figure was seen
+silhouetted against a broad window at the end&mdash;the light at her back
+hazing the gold of her hair, like a nimbus, about her face.</p>
+
+<p>She ran toward him, both hands out. "Jack! Dear Jack! Is it you, really,
+or am I dreaming? When did you come? Oh, I <i>am</i> so glad to see you; but
+what a surprise! Why did you not send word?"</p>
+
+<p>For a moment a light leaped into Derby's eyes. It seemed as though Nina
+was looking at him ex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>actly as he, in his day dreams, had seen her. But
+his prudence steadied his first impulse, and he put down her gladness as
+merely the joy of a person who, far from home, sees suddenly a familiar
+face in the midst of strangers; and they sat on the sofa just as they
+had sat on the railing of the veranda in the country, ever since they
+were children.</p>
+
+<p>In Derby's account of himself, Nina could easily read the confidence
+that had led her father to send him to Italy. But their talk had gone
+little further than the barest outline of his mission when the prince
+and princess returned. At the sight of Nina sitting alone with a man,
+the princess came forward quickly with the question, "My child, what
+does this mean?" as plainly asked in her eyes as it could have been by
+spoken words. But at Nina's "John Derby, Aunt Eleanor!" the princess put
+out her hand with all the grace in the world, and as she returned the
+straight, frank look of his blue eyes, her whole expression became
+youthful, as if reflecting some pleasant memory of her girlhood.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew your uncle very, very well!" She smiled entrancingly. It was a
+smile that irresistibly attracted to her all who ever saw it. "You are
+like him." Then she added softly, dreamingly, as though half speaking to
+herself, "You remind me of so many things&mdash;at home!"</p>
+
+<p>The next minute she had turned to present Derby to her husband, and the
+conversation became general. But, finally, in a pause, Nina said, "Jack,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>tell Uncle Sandro what father sent you over to do. Or is it a secret?"</p>
+
+<p>Derby looked toward Sansevero as though measuring the man. "It is no
+great secret&mdash;but I would rather it was not spoken of yet."</p>
+
+<p>"My ears are deaf, and my tongue is dumb." Sansevero put his hand over
+his ear, his mouth, and finally his heart.</p>
+
+<p>"I have come over to buy, or to lease&mdash;at all events, to work&mdash;sulphur
+mines."</p>
+
+<p>As though an electric current had been turned on, Sansevero sat up
+straight, and his levity vanished. "To work sulphur mines! Will you tell
+me more? I have a particular reason for wanting to know."</p>
+
+<p>Derby answered willingly. "I can give you a general idea. I was forced
+into inventing a new method of mining on account of the quicksands,
+which are found all through our mines at home. Taking a suggestion from
+the oil wells, I bored just such a well down into the sulphur beds.
+Ordinarily the sulphur is brought up in powder or rock form, and refined
+in vats on the surface, so that not only do the miners have to go down
+into the sulphurous heat, but the caldrons in which the sulphur is
+refined give out gases that are unendurable to human throats and lungs.
+In our mines, the sulphur is now refined sixty or a hundred feet below
+the surface of the ground, and pours out in an already purified state,
+at the top of the well."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sansevero looked incredulous. "But sulphur is almost impossible to
+liquefy. Unlike metals, it congeals again when it has been heated beyond
+the proper temperature. Also it corrodes any metal it touches, so that a
+pipe would be eaten away immediately."</p>
+
+<p>"To get over those difficulties is exactly what I am trying to do by my
+new process," Derby answered. "The sulphur is melted by hot water sent
+down the pipes, followed by sand, and then sawdust&mdash;the sand to carry
+the heat to the cooler edges, and the wet sawdust to check the heat at
+the center."</p>
+
+<p>Even the princess drew nearer and laid her hand on her husband's arm as
+Derby made his explanation. Sansevero trembled with excitement. "But
+according to that," he cried, turning to his wife; "our mine would be
+practicable!" Then to Derby: "I ought to explain to you that we have a
+sulphur mine in Sicily, near Vencata. So far as I know, the sulphur
+does, as you say, lie in a bed some twenty meters down. Above it are
+rock and alluvial soil. The volcanic neighborhood makes the temperature
+below ground higher than can be borne, yet we know that the sulphur
+deposit is immense."</p>
+
+<p>"Give me more details. From what you say, it sounds as though this mine
+of yours might be exactly what we are looking for. Does Mr. Randolph
+know of it, or that you are the owner?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; no one knows it excepting one small group of sulphur owners. I
+unwisely went into it on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>advice of&mdash;some one who is very good at
+all these things; yet the best are liable to mistake. Other mines in the
+neighborhood, owned by friends of mine, have brought in a fortune. Ours
+has, so far, been a failure."</p>
+
+<p>The talk lasted until luncheon was served. Giovanni put in an
+appearance, and Derby was pressed to stay. As di Valdo and the American
+met, there was a barely perceptible coldness under the Italian's good
+manners, while Derby's greeting showed a momentary curiosity. Two more
+sharply contrasted beings could hardly have been brought together. But
+gradually Giovanni also became interested in the mining plans, and, as
+the reason for the American's coming to Europe very evidently was
+business and not the pursuit of the heiress, Giovanni's affability
+became genuine.</p>
+
+<p>The end of the matter was that Derby agreed to take up the Sansevero
+mine, commonly known as the "Little Devil"; to be worked on a "royalty"
+basis. Derby, representing his company, was to pay all expenses, take
+all responsibility, and to return to Sansevero a percentage of the
+market price on every ton of sulphur taken out of it.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, Sansevero insisted upon giving him a letter to the
+Archbishop of Vencata, who lived about eight hours on muleback from the
+mining settlement. The Sicilians, he declared, were a dangerous people
+for strangers who tried to interfere in their established order of
+things.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"So then I am likely to have adventures! It sounds exciting!" The
+American laughed light-heartedly at the sport of it. However, he
+accepted the letter to the archbishop.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>A MENACE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Derby did not realize until afterward that the entire conversation at
+the Palazzo Sansevero had been about his projects, and that, aside from
+a few generalities, he really knew nothing of Nina's winter or of her
+Italian experiences. He returned to his hotel at about five o'clock, and
+was striding directly toward the smoking-room without glancing to right
+or left among the attractive groups that characterize the tea hour at
+the Excelsior, when he was arrested by some one's calling, "Why, John
+Derby!"</p>
+
+<p>In the crowd of persons and tables he looked blankly for a familiar
+face, but, as his name was repeated, he recognized Mrs. Bobby Davis and
+her sister, Mildred Hoyt. As soon as Derby reached their table, Mrs.
+Davis glibly rattled off the names of the four or five men who comprised
+their party. They were all Europeans, who, in regular afternoon
+attire&mdash;frock coats, and flower in buttonhole&mdash;were sipping tea and
+eating cake. Derby was in tweeds, and afternoon tea was by no means part
+of his daily program.</p>
+
+<p>However, he made the best of it, and also of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>remarks that followed,
+for he was sooner seated than Mrs. Davis turned all her powers of
+sprightly conversation upon the subject of Nina. Half of the nobility of
+Italy, she averred, were sighing&mdash;or busily doing sums&mdash;at the feet of
+the American heiress. There was a particularly fascinating Sansevero&mdash;he
+was not called Sansevero, but di Valdo (curious custom of having half a
+dozen names for one person!), who, it was rumored, was simply mad about
+Nina! People said she was going to marry him&mdash;either him or Duke
+something. And there were crowds of others. That was one of her suitors
+now&mdash;she pointed out Tornik, who was taking tea with a group from the
+Austrian Embassy. He was most attractive, didn't John think so? In
+Nina's place, she would have her head turned!</p>
+
+<p>This idea seemed to be a new one to Derby. "Should you?" The question
+was asked so reflectively that Mrs. Davis almost stopped to think; but
+the habit of prattling carried her on.</p>
+
+<p>"To have men like that sighing for one&mdash;I should call it thrilling, to
+say the least."</p>
+
+<p>Derby's look questioned. "I wonder why the Europeans make such a hit
+with you women," he said. "Why, for instance, do you find that man over
+there attractive? What do you like about him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Seriously?" Mrs. Davis patted her hair up the back with a little
+smoothing movement of satisfaction. "I don't know how to put it&mdash;it is
+very in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>definable; but a man like that has a quality&mdash;a polish, I
+suppose it is, really&mdash;that is quite irresistible."</p>
+
+<p>Derby looked rather disgusted. "And you think that is why Nina likes
+them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there are other reasons&mdash;lots of them. In the first place, Nina has
+a bad case of '<i>allure de noblesse</i>.' In her case I don't wonder! You
+can't imagine anything so heavenly as her aunt's palace; it is every bit
+as fine as any of the galleries or museums."</p>
+
+<p>As though this remark added a new link to a chain of old impressions,
+Derby found himself asking: "By the way&mdash;they have a famous picture
+gallery out in the country somewhere, haven't they?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Davis turned for information to Prince Minotti, sitting next to
+her; who, as he was not especially welcomed by the Romans, much affected
+the society of Americans, since to them, as a rule, a prince is a
+prince, and the name that follows of comparative unimportance.</p>
+
+<p>"Torre Sansevero," he said pompously, "is one of the finest estates we
+have in Italy. In fact, the gardens are hardly less celebrated than
+those of the Villa d'Este, and there are a few excellent paintings. Do
+you ask for any special reason?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied Derby casually. "I heard they had a Raphael that was
+especially beautiful; I should like to see it&mdash;that is all."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you, by chance, know the Princess Sansevero's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>niece, from America,
+who is captivating Rome this winter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Randolph? Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, then it will be easy for you to get permission to see the painting.
+The gallery is not open to the public, though Cook's, I believe, send a
+party out once a week, to see the gardens."</p>
+
+<p>To Derby the suspicion at once became a certainty that, in overhearing
+the talk between the Cook's guide and the official, he had by accident
+stumbled upon something of serious importance to the Sanseveros. He was
+puzzling over it when, in the smoking-room, a few moments later, he
+encountered Eliot Porter, an American writer who was making a study of
+Roman life. At sight of Derby he called out heartily, "Hello, Jack, when
+did you come over?"</p>
+
+<p>Derby drew up a chair beside him, and briefly sketched the object of his
+visit.</p>
+
+<p>"Negotiating with Scorpa, I suppose?" asked Porter.</p>
+
+<p>"The Sulphur King?" Derby shook his head. "No, I don't think I shall
+need him. I have my hands on a property that promises to be what I am
+looking for. The duke wants to work his mines himself and in his own
+way. I am merely trying a scheme; if it turns out well, good! If not, I
+shall have tested it."</p>
+
+<p>"When do you begin operations? I suppose you realize, my friend, that it
+is no joke to interfere with the Sicilians? They are as suspicious of a
+new face <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>as a tribe of savages. Savages is just about what they are,
+too! And there is another element that you should not lose sight of: If
+you are going to upset Scorpa's methods, it is not the Sicilians alone
+that you will have to deal with, but also the duke himself."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not going to try his property."</p>
+
+<p>"No, but he controls the sulphur output. If you come into his
+market&mdash;well, I'd not give a <i>soldo</i> for your skin. Besides, that would
+be the second grudge he'd have against you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Second? I don't understand&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He wants to marry your best girl! Oh, hold on&mdash;no offense meant. She is
+having a splendid time of it, if a string of satellites as long as the
+Ponte San Angelo constitutes a woman's joy. All the same, my boy; put
+this in your pipe and smoke it: 'Ware Scorpa, don't turn your back to
+any one who might be in his employ, and bolt your door at night. Will
+you have my Winchester?"</p>
+
+<p>Derby smoked on, unperturbed. "It sounds as though it might be
+interesting. I had expected a mere proposition of machinery; the human
+element always adds. Wasn't it you who told me that?"</p>
+
+<p>"In a book, decidedly!" and then with a sudden impulse, "By Jove, Jack,
+I believe it would be a good thing for me to go along with you! I might
+get new copy."</p>
+
+<p>Derby laughed incredulously. "Well, if you mean it, come along! I wish
+you would." Porter <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>meant it enough to be interested in the project, at
+any rate, for later the two men dined together, and they discussed
+arrangements and expedients all the evening.</p>
+
+<p>Derby went to the Palazzo Sansevero the next day, but again he had much
+to talk over with the prince, and saw little of Nina. In some
+unaccountable way she seemed changed; nothing definite happened to mark
+the difference that he vaguely felt, but Mrs. Davis's remark came back
+to him&mdash;"The Europeans are so finished," and he wondered whether Nina
+found him unfinished; he even wondered whether he was or not&mdash;which was
+a good deal of wondering for him.</p>
+
+<p>At first, Sansevero's investment in the "Little Devil" had seemed to
+Derby merely the unfortunate venture the prince thought it, but when, in
+the course of their talk, it came out that Scorpa was the "friend" who
+had sold him the mine, Derby was sure that the duke had deliberately
+saddled him with a property which he knew to be useless. And yet every
+word that Scorpa had urged as a reason for the mine's value, was&mdash;taken
+literally&mdash;true. The mine was in close proximity to his own; the
+surveys, furthermore, showed the "Little Devil" to be the richest in
+sulphur deposit of any in the region. But if the mine was as valuable as
+Scorpa declared, it was scarcely compatible with all that was known of
+his character that out of purely disinterested friendship, he should put
+such a prize in Sansevero's hands, while he bought up for himself less
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>valuable mines at higher prices. Derby kept his opinions to himself;
+but his blood boiled with indignation and, mentally, he resolved to beat
+Scorpa if it was humanly possible.</p>
+
+<p>As Derby was leaving, Nina deliberately went from the room with him. "I
+want to speak with John a few minutes," she said to her aunt. "We are
+both Americans, you know," she added, laughing. In the adjoining room
+she motioned him to sit beside her, but he stood instead, leaning
+against the window frame. She looked up with something like apology. "Am
+I keeping you?" she asked quickly. "Are you in a hurry?"</p>
+
+<p>Almost with the manner of Mr. Randolph, he pulled out his watch. "Not
+especially. I have an appointment with the Duke Scorpa&mdash;but not for half
+an hour." She had not noticed before the nervously hurried manner of her
+countrymen. There were many things she wanted to talk to John about&mdash;but
+she might as well have tried to carry on a restful conversation at a
+railroad station, when the train was coming in.</p>
+
+<p>"With Scorpa?" She tried to hold his attention. "What are you going to
+see <i>him</i> about?"</p>
+
+<p>Derby seemed preoccupied.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I'm very sure myself&mdash;further than that he wants to buy
+my patents, which I have no intention of selling, and I want to rent his
+mines, which he has no intention of renting. Rather asinine, going to
+see him! Still, as he insists&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> There was an eagerness in Derby's
+face inconsistent with the shrugging of his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>But Nina's thoughts were not on the processes of mining just then,
+though they were on Scorpa. She looked at Derby appealingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Nina?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know what I think?&mdash;Aunt Eleanor won't say a word; she hides it
+all she can, but she must have lost almost her entire fortune. Jack, do
+you think that Duke Scorpa could be at the bottom of it?"</p>
+
+<p>Derby gave her a glance of keen interest, but he expressed no surprise
+and asked her no questions. As a matter of fact, the gossip of the
+Cook's guide had partly prepared him for Nina's revelation about her
+aunt's fortune, and he had his own theories about Scorpa. "Quite
+likely," he answered dryly, "but it is also quite likely that we shall
+get the better of him&mdash;&mdash;" Then, with a sudden change in his manner he
+looked at her steadily. "But perhaps you don't want us to get the better
+of him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hear he is very devoted&mdash;and he has not only the handle to his name
+that you women seem to be keen about, but he is too rich to be after
+your money." Derby had no sooner said the words than he regretted them.
+But seeing Nina color, he misinterpreted her feelings, and spoke under a
+sudden <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>flash of jealousy. "And I suppose the title of duchess is
+irresistible."</p>
+
+<p>Nina was deeply hurt. "That is pretty blunt," she said, the pupils of
+her eyes contracted as though the sun blinded them. "Have you ever seen
+the man you speak of? No? Well, you would not say such a thing if you
+had. I <i>hate</i> him!"</p>
+
+<p>Derby seemed fated to blunder. Again he made the wrong remark. "Hate,
+they say, is next to love."</p>
+
+<p>His lack of insight, so palpable in contrast with Giovanni's keenness of
+perception, was too much for Nina's new sensitiveness. She suddenly
+congealed, and stood up, very straight, with the little upward tilt of
+the chin that indicated fast approaching temper.</p>
+
+<p>Derby knew this symptom well enough, but he had not the slightest idea
+that his own obtuseness was the cause. Without analyzing, he accepted
+her starting up as a signal to leave, and promptly said good-by.
+"Good-by, then!" Nina said frigidly; and, turning on her heel, she
+abruptly left him.</p>
+
+<p>Under the spur of her anger against him, the words framed themselves in
+her mind&mdash;"How unfinished he is!" But down in her heart there was an
+ache, deeper than could have been caused by mere irritation, or even
+disappointment. Never before in her life had there been a breach between
+John and her. She felt it was all the fault of his own density&mdash;or was
+it lack of feeling?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She went to her room to put on her riding habit, for she was going to
+the meet. Then, as she dressed, the thought came to her that John, a
+foreigner, and the most venturesome person in the world, was going off
+to Sicily, into the very center of one of the wildest districts. And
+gradually fear for him made her forget her resentment.</p>
+
+<p>Just as she was leaving her room a big cornucopia of roses was brought
+in, to which was appended the following note:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"If we weren't such old friends and you didn't
+know what a blundering fool I am, I wouldn't dare
+to apologize for this morning. Judge me by intent,
+though, won't you&mdash;and forgive me? </p></div>
+
+<div class='right'>
+"<span class="smcap">Jack</span>."<br />
+</div>
+
+<p>Nina broke off a rose and fastened it to the lapel of her habit; but the
+note she tucked in between the buttonholes. Suddenly humming a gay
+little song, she ran through the rooms and corridors to join her aunt
+and uncle, who were waiting for her to motor out to the hunt, the horses
+having been sent ahead with the grooms. As they drove out of the
+courtyard she noticed that the sun was brilliantly shining.</p>
+
+<p>At the meet the scene was really animated, for the day was perfect, and
+the Via Appia was a bright moving picture of carriages, large and small,
+big motors and little runabouts, the road dotted here and there with the
+brilliant scarlet coats of those who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>were to hunt and the bright colors
+of women's dresses in the various conveyances.</p>
+
+<p>There was apparently much lack of system: the huntsmen chatted aimlessly
+with persons in the carriages; while the hounds scurried around
+according to their own inclinations, paying little attention to the snap
+of the whip. The Contessa Potensi, who had appeared in a pink hunting
+coat, was the cynosure of all eyes. The innovation created quite a stir
+and no little admiration. She bowed to Nina with unusual civility, and
+made a formal acknowledgment of the pleasure of riding with her. Yet
+shortly after, when she joined a group of friends a distance farther on,
+she was laughing and glancing back as she spoke, in a way that left
+little doubt that she was making disparaging remarks.</p>
+
+<p>Sansevero and Giovanni had mounted their hunters, and now joined Nina,
+but that gave her little pleasure, for the contessa immediately
+returned. Nina was glad when Donna Francesca Dobini and the young Prince
+Allegro cantered up. Donna Francesca was soon talking with Sansevero,
+leaving Nina to Allegro&mdash;an attractive youth, but light as a bit of
+fluff.</p>
+
+<p>As for Giovanni, she felt that he was as unstable as the dead leaves
+which the wind at that moment was blowing around and around. They were
+graceful, too, those leaves, and Giovanni was fascinating, agile,
+charming&mdash;but in case one counted upon him seriously, where would he be?
+Smiling sweetly, no doubt, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>at some other woman, and telling her that
+her eyes were twin lakes of heaven's blue, or forest pools in which his
+heart was lost forever.</p>
+
+<p>The contrasting image of John Derby came sharply to mind. John was going
+to Sicily to do a man's work in a man's way. A little later she noticed
+Tornik, who was cantering ahead of her: his figure was not unlike
+John's&mdash;he was strong and masculine. She wondered aimlessly if they
+might be in any other way alike. Supposing, in some unaccountable
+situation she were to be thrown upon his chivalry for protection, what
+would he do? Shrug his shoulders and look bored? Or detail a company
+from his regiment to stand guard over her? The idea made her laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"You are gay this morning," observed Giovanni, light-heartedly joining
+in her laughter.</p>
+
+<p>With a quizzical little expression Nina looked at him&mdash;"I wonder if you
+would be amused if you knew why I laughed."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 572px;"><a name="nina" id="nina"></a>
+<img src="images/gs198.jpg" width="572" height="400" alt="&quot;NINA LOOKED AT HIM&mdash;&#39;I WONDER IF YOU WOULD BE AMUSED IF YOU KNEW WHY I LAUGHED&#39;&quot;" title="&quot;NINA LOOKED AT HIM&mdash;&#39;I WONDER IF YOU WOULD BE AMUSED IF YOU KNEW WHY I LAUGHED&#39;&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;NINA LOOKED AT HIM&mdash;&#39;I WONDER IF YOU WOULD BE AMUSED IF YOU KNEW WHY I LAUGHED&#39;&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"If it gives you pleasure&mdash;it is delicious, whatever it is!"</p>
+
+<p>All the softness went out of the girl's brown eyes; they glittered
+curiously. "Yes," she said, "that is just what I thought." After which
+ambiguous remark she returned to her former gayety&mdash;"Come," she said,
+"let's go fast; we shall be the last!" Urging her horse, she galloped
+across the fields.</p>
+
+<p>She would have been at a loss to understand her own vacillations of mood
+that day: she seemed to feel an unaccountable revulsion against every
+one. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>gesticulations of the men around her, their airs and
+blandishments, annoyed her. Not an hour earlier she had found John dull
+and flat by comparison with Europeans. Now suddenly they were effeminate
+dandies, and John alone was a real man.</p>
+
+<p>But the exhilaration of jumping brought her to a more equable frame of
+mind, and at the first check she and the Prince Allegro were in the
+lead. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes bright from the long gallop.</p>
+
+<p>They had stopped on a knoll out on the Campagna, and Nina remained apart
+from the other hunters, walking her horse slowly, while Allegro went
+over to the carriage to get a handkerchief for her from the Princess
+Sansevero. She drew in deep breaths of the fresh air, as she gazed out
+over the rolling hills to the snowclad tops of the Albanian mountains
+glistening in the sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly a deep, oily voice jarred through her wandering thoughts.
+"You are very pensive!" exclaimed the Duke Scorpa, appearing beside her.</p>
+
+<p>Nina started violently, for, besides his unexpected appearance, there
+was something in this man's personality that always sent a shudder
+through her.</p>
+
+<p>"The Marchese di Valdo has been telling me that I am very gay," she
+answered, not so much to give the duke the information as to contradict
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I am doubly sad, since you are gay with others, and absent-minded
+when I come." A lurking familiarity in his smile made Nina wince. He
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>ranged his horse so close that his boots brushed against hers, and she
+pulled aside quickly; he did not move close again, but he checked her
+attempt to pass him, keeping between her and the other riders.</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you so cruel?" he murmured. "Diana never had so many votaries
+as Venus."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not interested in mythology," said Nina, her heart fluttering with
+fright. "Please allow me to pass&mdash;I want to join my uncle."</p>
+
+<p>"Sweet, pale little Diana,"&mdash;he leaned over in his saddle and purred the
+words at her&mdash;"where mythology failed was in not marrying Diana to Mars.
+Exactly as&mdash;you are going to marry me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not! I told you before I would not! Let me pass!" She pulled the
+reins so taut that her horse reared as she urged him forward, but again
+the duke ranged his horse close beside her, heading off her attempt to
+get past.</p>
+
+<p>"A woman's 'won't' as often means she will," he answered deliberately.
+"It is when she says she is not certain that her irrevocable decision is
+made."</p>
+
+<p>"I hate you, I utterly hate you!" cried Nina, her anger getting the
+better of her fear.</p>
+
+<p>The duke laughed maliciously. "I had scarcely hoped to make so deep a
+mark on your emotions! If you hate me, then truly you will marry
+me!&mdash;against your will, if need be," he added, reining back his horse at
+last. "I will wait to make you love me afterward."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At this point Allegro returned with the handkerchief, and the duke let
+Nina pass. Tornik, also, now joined her, the master of the hounds gave
+the signal, and again the riders were off. Nina, between Tornik and
+Allegro, was protected from the duke's approach, but she kept
+apprehensively glancing back. She looked about for her uncle, but could
+not see him.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, Sansevero's horse had strained itself slightly in
+one of the jumps, and he had thought it best to drop out of the hunt. He
+had gone only a short distance on his way toward Rome when he was joined
+by Scorpa, who said that he did not care to ride farther but would go
+back with Sansevero. The prince was glad of his company until Scorpa
+began:</p>
+
+<p>"You have not yet given me a favorable answer to my proposal for Miss
+Randolph's hand."</p>
+
+<p>The abruptness with which the subject was introduced irritated
+Sansevero, and he answered sulkily: "I told you, when you first spoke to
+me, that it was a matter Miss Randolph would have to decide for herself.
+An American girl never allows other people to arrange her marriage for
+her, and I found my niece not at all disposed to reconsider her answer."</p>
+
+<p>An ugly light shone in the duke's eyes. "I do not want to seem
+importunate," he said, "but&mdash;I would do very much for the man who
+furthered my marriage with Miss Randolph, and you would find <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>the
+alliance of our families of great advantage. I am a hot-blooded fellow,
+but I'm not such a bad lot. I cannot help being wounded, though, by your
+niece's indifference, and in jealousy of a rival I might do things that
+otherwise would not enter my head. This is&mdash;eh&mdash;not a threat&mdash;but it is
+a family trait&mdash;the Scorpas stop at nothing once their hearts are
+aflame! Think it over, my friend, before you decide not to help me."</p>
+
+<p>He sighed deeply and then, as though turning his attention to the first
+trivial thought that came to mind, he said casually: "By the way, I have
+been reading lately an extremely interesting book on celebrated criminal
+cases, and I was particularly impressed by the way in which
+circumstantial evidence can be built up out of harmless trifles. Since
+reading it I have been rather amusing myself by constructing
+hypothetical cases. For instance"&mdash;Scorpa pursed his lips and lowered
+his eyes, as though trying to invent a fanciful story&mdash;"take a
+transaction such as your letting me have that picture. One could build a
+very stirring case upon that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes?" encouraged the prince. "How do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, to begin, we would send word to the government that your Raphael
+Madonna had been sold out of the country."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think that a good beginning, because it is easy enough to prove
+it is in your palace."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah, of course. But for the amusement of the argument we will say that I
+<i>want</i> to do you an injury and so smuggle it out of the country! Then
+when I am questioned, I deny all knowledge of it. Yes, I would have you
+there! It would be quite feasible, because no one saw the picture change
+hands, and your notes to me&mdash;the only proof of the transfer&mdash;could
+easily be destroyed. You see? This really grows interesting! Then comes
+all the cumulative evidence of the type I was speaking about; for
+instance: After the supposed sale of the picture, you indulge in
+unwonted expenditures&mdash;of course, it is easy to say that they are those
+of the American heiress stopping with you"&mdash;he paused, in apparent
+thoughtfulness&mdash;"but when, in addition, an enemy buys in Paris a pair of
+earrings, matchless emeralds, that are recognized as having been
+worn&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Dio mio!</i> My wife's emeralds!" Sansevero was startled into exclaiming.
+Then suddenly he blazed out: "What do you mean by your story? If you
+have anything to say, say it so I can follow you."</p>
+
+<p>From the gross lips of the duke his apology fell like drops of thickest
+oil: "I regret you take my pleasantry so ill, and I ask your pardon as
+many times as you require, my friend! It happened by chance that I saw a
+pair of emeralds in Paris that were duplicates of the magnificent gems I
+have often admired when the princess wore them, and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>jeweler told me
+that they had been sold at a sacrifice by a noble lady in urgent need of
+money. The curious coincidence came to my mind in illustration of the
+problems I was talking of. Further than that I meant nothing&mdash;except
+that I was serious in what I said about repaying the man who should
+bring about my marriage."</p>
+
+<p>They had long since passed through the Porta San Giovanni and had
+arrived at the Coliseum. Scorpa gave Sansevero little chance to answer,
+but with a friendly good-by, he turned toward the Monte Quirinal.
+Sansevero pursued his way along the foot of the Palatine. He was
+disturbed; but he could not bring himself to read into the duke's words
+a covert threat. His first impulse was to repeat the conversation to
+Eleanor, but he knew how the mere suspicion that Scorpa had detected her
+false stones had worried her. Curiously enough, in Sansevero's mind the
+larger issue of the picture was quite overlooked in the more immediate
+consideration of the jewels. By the time he reached home he had decided
+to wait until further events should show Scorpa's intentions. And until
+then he would say nothing to any one&mdash;least of all to Eleanor.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Nina was galloping across the Campagna. For a while the
+fear of Scorpa remained, but when she realized that he was no longer
+with the hunt, she breathed more freely, and again began to enjoy the
+day. It was almost as though she were riding through the country at
+home. She <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>might have been hunting in Westchester, or on Long Island,
+for any actual difference that there was, and the finish, as at home,
+was merely anise seed, and the hounds were fed raw meat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>NINA DUSTS BEHIND THE COUNTER</h3>
+
+
+<p>Kate Titherington, daughter of Alonzo K. Titherington, the Pittsburg
+iron magnate, had some six years before married the Count Masco. After a
+short experience of living in his ancestral palace, they had moved into
+an apartment out in the new part of the city; very handsome, very
+luxurious and modern in every way. "Deliver me from these musty old
+dungeons!" she had exclaimed to her husband. "I will give a free deed of
+gift to the rats, who are really, my dear, the only beings I can think
+of to whom this tumbledown barracks of yours would be comfortable." Her
+husband was a meek and inoffensive appendage, who had been well brought
+up by an overbearing mother and turned over, perfectly trained, to the
+strenuous requirements of the bonny Kate.</p>
+
+<p>The vivid Countess Masco, <i>n&eacute;e</i> Titherington, was looked upon with
+disfavor by the more conservative Romans, and her position was rather,
+one might say, on the outer edge of the inner circle. There were those
+who liked her, and who found her amusing and lively; indeed, that was
+the trouble&mdash;it was her liveliness that had banished her to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>outer
+edge, instead of making a place for her in the inmost circle, where
+Eleanor Sansevero, for instance, was so securely established.</p>
+
+<p>Nina had known Kate Titherington one summer at Bar Harbor, but her first
+encounter with this flamboyant personality in Italy was at the Grand
+Hotel a few days before the hunt. Nina was serving at one of the tables
+of a charity tea, when she saw a very highly-colored, plump figure, with
+draperies in full sail, bearing down upon her from the top of the wide
+steps, at the back of the big red hall. The red of the hall paled beside
+the cerise costume of the approaching lady. In a voice loud and
+high-keyed, yet not unmusical, she cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I declare if it isn't little Nina Randolph!" And then with
+exuberant good humor she called to her husband, who followed lamb-like
+in her wake, "You see, Gio, it <i>is</i> the little Randolph&mdash;I told you so!</p>
+
+<p>"This is my husband." She presented him as though he were some inanimate
+personal possession. "We have been in Paris and Monte Carlo all winter.
+Got back yesterday. Nice old place, Rome, don't you think so? I dote on
+it, but of course it gets provincial if you stay too long!" At the same
+moment she caught sight of Zoya Olisco, and waved to her. To Nina's
+surprise, the young Russian came forward with both hands outstretched.
+"Ah, you are back? What was the news in Monte Carlo?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Nothing much. They still talk of the <i>coup</i> that Tornik&mdash;&mdash;" But before
+Nina could hear the end of the sentence, the old Princess Malio handed
+her a five-<i>lire</i> note for tea, and Nina had to get change. Then the
+whole family of the Rosenbaums, eight in number, demanded her services
+for many cups of tea and as many plates of sandwiches and cakes, and
+when their change was counted, the Countess Kate and her attendant
+husband were leaving. The countess, however, called back over her
+shoulder, "You are dining with me on Friday; the princess said yes for
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>And so it was that on the evening of the hunt Nina, alone with her
+uncle&mdash;her aunt having stayed at home on account of a headache&mdash;found
+herself entering a big new apartment house, and going up in an elevator,
+quite as though she were at home in one of the most modern, instead of
+one of the most ancient, cities in the world.</p>
+
+<p>The Masco apartment was all brand-new&mdash;so new that there was still about
+it an odor of fresh paint and plaster, and the pungency of raw textiles.
+The Countess Kate, not to be outdone by her decorator, was as new as her
+surroundings&mdash;in the latest style of sheath dress, of a brilliant blue,
+which she wore triumphantly, regardless of the strain with which it
+stretched across the amplitude of her <ins title="Transcriber's Note: Original text obscurred. This word is presumed.">bosom</ins>.</p>
+
+<p>The company consisted of the Oliscos, Count Tornik, Prince Minotti,
+Count Rosso, Prince Allegro,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> Eliot Porter, and John Derby. It gave Nina
+a sudden feeling of satisfaction to see how attractive John was by
+comparison with the others. He had a quiet reserve and a forcefulness
+that Nina thought very effective in this foreign surrounding, and she
+was ashamed of herself for having judged him by the shallow standard of
+mere social grace.</p>
+
+<p>The Countess Masco's parties were renowned for their gayety. She was one
+of those hostesses whose vivacity never relaxes, and whose ready answers
+pass for sparkling wit. According to her own standard, a party was a
+success or a failure as it was noisy or quiet. Consequently she talked
+and laughed continuously. Startling colors were her particular weakness,
+and by the scent of extract of tuberose she could be traced for days.</p>
+
+<p>Nina sat between Eliot Porter and the young Prince Allegro; but her
+attention wandered across the table to John Derby so constantly that the
+Prince Allegro remarked, "You seem to be entranced by that American!"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Derby happens to be my oldest and my best friend!" Nina answered.
+Then, realizing that she had made the statement sententiously, she
+smiled brightly. "You Europeans so often say that American men are
+unattractive," she said. "Over there you may behold one of 'our best!'"</p>
+
+<p>Without rancor or jealousy, the young prince seemed entirely to agree
+with her opinion. "Why is it we so seldom meet those Americans you call<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>
+'best'?" he asked, between spoonfuls of <i>pur&eacute;e d'&eacute;crevisse</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Because they are those who have to stay at home and work." And then she
+added, "They are saints&mdash;don't you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are very stupid, I should say."</p>
+
+<p>Nina let her spoon rest on the rim of her plate. "That's not polite of
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Since it is true. Of course they are stupid! They let their women,
+who are adorable, come over to us. Would I, do you think, if you were my
+wife, allow you so much as to go out for an afternoon's drive without
+me? Never! To prove further that your men are stupid&mdash;in no country are
+there so many divorces as in America!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not because our men are stupid, at all events!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then why is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Chiefly because our men have too little time to give us." And then she
+spoke under sudden stress of feeling, without perhaps knowing the full
+wisdom of what she said: "Do you suppose that if our men at home had
+time for us, we <i>would</i> come over here, to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then all the more are the Americans fools!" He raised his champagne
+glass. "Signorina," he said, "may you find the American who <i>has</i> the
+time."</p>
+
+<p>Involuntarily her glance went toward John. Allegro saw it and laughed.
+"Ah, ha! So that is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>why we have no chance? Still," he added on second
+thought, "your choice does you credit."</p>
+
+<p>"He is not my choice, he is my friend. You don't understand! At home a
+girl has men friends exactly as she has girl friends. I wonder how I can
+make it clear to you&mdash;we are all like a big family. They might as well
+be my brothers, many of the men I know; there is not a bit of sentiment
+in our liking for each other."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no sentiment between you and the man over there?" Allegro
+twisted the blond down on his upper lip, laughing at her out of the
+corners of his eyes. "I may be little more than a boy, signorina, but
+there is one thing that I know quite well when I see it, and that is a
+person who is in love. Human nature is the same all over the world. Your
+American men can, after all, have only the same emotions that we have
+over here. It is as plain as the dome on St. Peter's&mdash;you may see it
+from every direction. That man over there is in love with you! <i>Ecco!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"He is nothing of the sort! You Italians are mad on the subject. I told
+you you could not understand. You are different, that is all."</p>
+
+<p>Allegro shrugged his shoulders. "As you please! I tell you he is! And
+what is more, you are in love with him. After all"&mdash;he put up his hand
+to ward off interruption&mdash;"I had much rather think you declined my own
+suit because your affections were already given before I was so unhappy
+as to see you, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>than that, while your heart was still free, you would
+not consider me."</p>
+
+<p>Nina was so surprised that for a few minutes she was unable to answer.
+Allegro had never said a word to her about the proposal which had been
+made by his family. Up to that moment she had thought he did not himself
+know of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Heart?" she said, bewildered. "Did you put any heart into the offer
+that was made? None has ever been shown to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there a chance of your considering my suit?" He asked it very
+seriously.</p>
+
+<p>Nina shook her head, and Allegro sighed as though dejected; then, having
+paid her this compliment, he became cheerful again and his candor was as
+delicious as it was astonishing.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I tell you? Yes, I will! If you had said 'yes,' I should have
+found it very easy to love you. As you won't accept my name,
+however&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You don't love me, is that it?" Nina burst out laughing, and Allegro
+joined light-heartedly, as he nodded his agreement. Their gayety
+attracted the attention of their neighbors, and for a while the
+conversation became general. It was suggestive of the Tower of Babel.
+Nina had turned to Porter with a remark in English, but Allegro added to
+it in Italian. Tornik, whose Italian was only slightly more villainous
+than his English, chimed in across the corner of the table in French,
+but he soon for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>got himself and broke into German. Nina found herself
+mixing her sentences like Neapolitan ice cream into four languages,
+until finally she put her hands over her ears and exclaimed, "<i>Attendez,
+aspetarre, warten sie nur</i>, oh, do let us decide on one tongue at a
+time!" They all laughed, and then, as is usual among a group of various
+nationalities, the conversation went on in French.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, Tornik and Allegro got into a discussion about the Austrian
+influence in Italy, and Nina was left <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> with Eliot Porter.</p>
+
+<p>She had not met him before coming to Rome. He was a Californian. A
+Westerner, she put it, but he answered her, "Not at all! I am from the
+Pacific coast!" He was an agreeable man, much liked in Rome, and he was
+writing a book on Roman society, a fact that greatly amused the
+Italians. There was some mild and good-naturedly satirical speculation
+about what he was going to put in it, but beyond the fact that he
+acknowledged his subject, nothing was known of either his plot or his
+characters.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Do</i> tell me what you are going to put in your book. Is it of to-day,
+or long ago?"</p>
+
+<p>"The story is to be laid in Rome, the theme society, the time the
+present."</p>
+
+<p>"How fascinating! Ah, please tell me from whom you have drawn your
+heroine," Nina continued. "Is she rich or poor? Italian, I suppose, and
+of course young and beautiful! Is the hero a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>noble duke or an American
+on the Prisoner of Zenda or Graustark model?"</p>
+
+<p>"Supposing I should tell you that they were yourself, for the one, and
+our friend Jack over the way, for the other!"</p>
+
+<p>The coupling of her name with Derby's for the second time in less than
+half an hour struck Nina, and she became absent-minded; then she said
+vaguely, "But we are not Italians, either of us."</p>
+
+<p>"Neither are my characters! I will tell you," he said, admitting her to
+his confidence, "I am going to write of the Expatriates&mdash;the people who,
+to those at home, are always said to be 'abroad.' The story from this
+side of the water is interesting to me. And the Excelsior is an ideal
+field for observing them."</p>
+
+<p>"I see!" Then ingenuously, "Are you really going to put Jack in your
+book?"</p>
+
+<p>Porter smiled, amused. "He hardly corresponds to my aimless nomad
+wandering hither and yon, with neither ambition nor destination! By the
+way," he added abruptly, "what do you <i>think</i> of Jack? I am not asking
+this, mind you, just to make conversation, but because I am interested
+in him as a national type. I confess I was beginning to think that no
+woman could care for the men at home as any woman might for the
+Europeans, until he came along the other day." There was no doubting
+Porter's enthusiasm as he added, "He gave me back my ideals <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>of my own
+country! He is <i>real</i>, I tell you. But this trip he is going to take
+into Sicily&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no danger in this day, surely!" she interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not so sure of it, they are pesky devils!" Then, appreciating her
+uneasiness, he tried to reassure her. "Jack will be all right, he will
+be well protected. In fact, to show you how little I really fear from
+the adventure, I am thinking of going with him. My work is getting
+stale, and a week or two of change of scene would set me up."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see that your going proves there is no danger. I should never
+imagine you the type of a coward."</p>
+
+<p>Porter laughed. "Thank you for your good opinion of my type. But I am
+not at all certain about it myself. If I thought I was going to run any
+risk of being stabbed in the ribs, or riddled with bullets, I assure you
+I would preserve my skin very carefully by staying right here. But to go
+back to John: Did you ever study physiognomy?" He glanced across at
+Derby as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>Nina's lips broke into a smile, as she answered, "No. Did you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I studied that, and palmistry, and graphology, too. Look at
+John&mdash;he has a remarkably interesting head and hand. You are quite
+wrong," he answered an interjection of Nina's, "his hands are far from
+ugly! Spatulate fingers show invention and energy. Just look at his
+thumb!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> Did you ever see such cool-headed logic or a better balanced
+will? Why, all in all, I consider him the best-looking man I know! There
+are plenty with better features, no doubt, but if I'd had my choice as
+to looks, I should have been his twin."</p>
+
+<p>Nina laughed joyously. "Do you mean it?" It sounded incredible to her,
+yet she felt strangely pleased&mdash;she looked at John from a new point of
+view. "I think he has a great many good points; there is something
+strong and admirable about him, but good-looking&mdash;never! His features
+are too uneven, too big-boned."</p>
+
+<p>"Just like a woman!" exclaimed Porter testily. "I suppose you think that
+apology on your other side a beau ideal!"</p>
+
+<p>Nina glanced critically toward the small features and blond curls of
+Allegro. "No," she said, "he is much too effeminate."</p>
+
+<p>"Then who is your Adonis?"</p>
+
+<p>"The best-looking man I have ever seen? Well&mdash;I think I'd choose the
+Marchese di Valdo." The pink mounted over her cheeks into her hair, for
+she thought Porter was going to deride. To her surprise he agreed with
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Of his type, yes, he certainly is good; but I prefer John's. I can see
+how di Valdo would appeal to a girl, though personally I should ask more
+masculinity, more bone and sinew."</p>
+
+<p>Nina remembered how Giovanni had nearly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>choked the Great Dane, and she
+shuddered slightly. "Oh, but he is strong," she exclaimed; "he is strong
+as a panther! He always makes me think of Bagheera in the Jungle Book."</p>
+
+<p>"Bagheera was warm-blooded; there was truth and affection in him&mdash;for
+Mowgli, at all events. Your friend di Valdo is as cold a proposition as
+you could find."</p>
+
+<p>Nina thought this last characterization absurd, and said so.</p>
+
+<p>"All right!" Porter answered. "You mark my word. He is a man swayed by
+the emotions of the moment. He has feeling, yes&mdash;but no heart; he has
+certain inborn principles, but they are racial rather than ethical. His
+is the code of <i>Noblesse oblige</i>, not of the Golden Rule. In a point of
+honor he is irreproachable, but it is he, himself, who defines the
+boundaries of his code."</p>
+
+<p>He paused a moment and continued in a more personal tone: "I don't know
+you very well, Miss Randolph, but you are a girl from home. And&mdash;excuse
+my frankness&mdash;you are one of our great heiresses. I am a stranger to
+you, and that is why I am going to say something&mdash;perhaps all the more
+forcefully because I have only a racial and not a personal interest: but
+between marrying Giovanni Sansevero&mdash;or that Austrian over yonder&mdash;or
+the golden-headed ornament on your right, and such a man as John Derby,
+no woman with an ounce of sense could for one minute hesitate. The
+first, by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>the gift of kings, are noblemen, but John over there, by the
+grace of God, is a <i>man!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Nina was so deeply stirred by his words that she sat for a little while
+quite motionless, looking down at her hands, which were clasped in her
+lap. Then, before she either looked up or answered, the women left the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>In the drawing-room, as the other women lighted their cigarettes, Nina
+stood leaning her cheek on her hand as it rested against the mantel&mdash;and
+for some time she gazed down into the fire, while Porter's words echoed
+and re&euml;choed through her mind. When she turned away from the fire her
+attention was caught by an Englishwoman who had thrown herself full
+length on the sofa. Her person was a curious mixture of cleanliness and
+untidiness, her face was even polished by soap and scrubbing, but her
+frock, although probably quite clean, looked anything but fresh, and
+lying down among the cushions had not improved her hair, which had been
+frowzily frizzed anyway. Nina would have thought Lady Dorothy an
+impossible person were it not for the "Lady" which, as Carpazzi put it,
+"was pushed before the name."</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile Lady Dorothy went off into a long disquisition upon the
+advisability of having couches at formal banquets as in the old Roman
+days. The illustration which she was at the moment affording was
+scarcely, to Nina's mind, encouraging to her proposition. She smoked
+rapidly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>and let the cigarette ashes spill all down the side of her
+neck.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it funny what a little place the world is?" babbled the late Miss
+Titherington, cutting short Lady Dorothy's discourse. "Here we are, you
+and I and John&mdash;just the same as though we were back in Bar Harbor! What
+a lamb of a child you used to be! Only do you remember the day you
+nearly drowned me? And he had to rescue us both!"</p>
+
+<p>"Just fancy that!" said the Lady Dorothy from her corner of the sofa.
+"However did it happen?"</p>
+
+<p>"The water in Maine is so cold one dare hardly go in. Nina was a little
+girl, she got a cramp, and clutched me around the neck."</p>
+
+<p>"The water cold! How very odd! I had a friend in St. Augustine, who said
+the water was positively hot. I am sure it must have been, as my friend
+has rheumatism and could never have ventured into a cold bath."</p>
+
+<p>Lady Dorothy lighted a fresh cigarette and waved the old one helplessly
+around in her fingers. Nina, afraid that she would let it fall upon the
+trail of ashes down the front of her dress, went to take it from her.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thanks." She threw herself even further back into the cushions and
+now addressed her remarks to the Countess Kate. She was glad to get away
+from home. She declared London was overrun this season with enormously,
+disgustingly, rich Americans. No offense to her hostess was meant, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>but
+it was really quite shameful whom one got down to associating with, and
+yet they were so overloaded with dollars that one might as well, she
+supposed, gather in some of the surplus! Then she coolly asked Nina's
+name, which she had not caught. Its announcement had the effect of an
+electric battery. She raised herself on her elbows.</p>
+
+<p>"The Earl of Eagon is looking for a wife," she announced, and then as
+though the idea of Nina's wealth were still more felt, she continued
+almost with enthusiasm, "And there is the Duke of Norchester&mdash;his
+estates need a fortune to keep up, but there are none finer in England."</p>
+
+<p>Nina's expression had a curious little note in it that made the Countess
+Zoya cross the room and sit on the arm of her chair. Her slim fingers
+ran lightly over Nina's hair, "You poor child!" she said. "Ah, I am glad
+I was never so rich. If I were so rich I should be dreadful! I would
+never believe in any one's caring for me. I should doubt even my Carlo!
+I could not help it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't," Nina said, as though in pain. Zoya impulsively put her arms
+about her and quickly changed the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to tell you," she said, "I like your friend the engineer&mdash;is
+that what he is? He is very clever, is he not? I am told he is going to
+relieve the sufferings of the poor Sicilian miners&mdash;is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Suffering?" Nina repeated, wondering. "I don't know. But it is only a
+business venture, his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>mining&mdash;not a philanthropic one. At least I have
+not heard about any poor people who are to be relieved."</p>
+
+<p>Zoya put her hands over her eyes and then her ears as though to shut out
+both sight and sound. "Oh, it is horrible&mdash;horrible in the sulphur
+mines! You have no idea! Nowhere in all the world is life so dreadful."
+She shuddered, "But I feel sure, somehow, that your friend the American
+will be able to do something."</p>
+
+<p>They went on talking until their <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> was interrupted by the
+men coming in from the dining-room. The servants brought in a big card
+table.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to play bridge?" Nina asked, feeling that the answer was
+obvious.</p>
+
+<p>But the Contessa Masco, taking her cognac at a swallow, glanced at
+Tornik with a laugh. "Oh, lord, no! Nothing so dull, I hope, in this
+house!"</p>
+
+<p>Derby joined Nina, and she looked up at him with pride. "I am glad you
+are here to-night; I seem to be especially glad&mdash;&mdash;" She broke off, but
+her intonation conveyed unspoken thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Derby's eyes kindled. "Why especially? Have you a particular reason,
+really?" His heart beat so hard, because of the sweetness in her
+expression, that it seemed to him she must hear it pounding, that she
+must look through the mask he wore, and read his love for her.</p>
+
+<p>But his mask was impenetrable, and Nina answered lightly: "I wonder
+which reason you would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>like me to give? I wonder if it would make any
+real difference to you whether I said just <i>glad</i>&mdash;or glad because of
+something?"</p>
+
+<p>He forced himself to speak with a stolidity that walled in securely his
+threatening emotions. "I am not a bit good at guessing the meaning of
+sentences that have no direct statement in them. You see, they are not
+the kind my grammar book taught me!"</p>
+
+<p>Nina smiled. "You like a regular, straight-out, simple sentence with one
+subject and one predicate, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's it! And as few qualifying clauses as possible."</p>
+
+<p>"And as your speech is, so are your actions. No time for <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'trivalities'">trivialities</ins>.
+Big, serious things!" To her surprise she felt a sharp pain in her
+throat.</p>
+
+<p>"What an old bear I must seem to you&mdash;&mdash;" His sentence broke off as the
+Countess Masco interrupted them.</p>
+
+<p>"Come along, John&mdash;you'll play, won't you? We are waiting!" Count Rosso
+had already deserted Zoya for the green table.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you need me?" Derby asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course we do! The more the jollier; it is dreadfully dull without a
+lot."</p>
+
+<p>Nina and the Countess Zoya sat apart talking together until nearly
+midnight. Finally, with a yawn, Zoya suggested that they try to break up
+the party. For a little while they looked on. Not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>understanding the
+game of baccarat, Nina watched the faces of the players.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she felt uneasy about her uncle, who had taken a place at the
+table. Knowing no reason why he should not play, she had thought nothing
+of that. But now he was flushed, and seemed very excited. Unconsciously
+taking a leaf out of her aunt's book, she laid her hand on his shoulder.
+Her touch was, in fact, so like that of his wife that the prince started
+violently, and a short while later relinquished his place.</p>
+
+<p>After the prince dropped out of the game Nina still stood watching. The
+Countess Kate played as placidly as though she were dealing cards for
+"old maid," while her husband reminded Nina of a squirrel sitting up and
+nibbling at a nut. Carlo Olisco was excited but not unnatural. Porter
+looked gloomy and taciturn. Minotti and Allegro were both tense and
+keen, the former arrogant, the latter flushed and excited. John Derby,
+like the Countess Kate, played exactly as he used to play Jack Straws or
+<i>besique</i>, on rainy days in the country.</p>
+
+<p>From where she had been standing Nina could see only the top of Tornik's
+head and, obeying an idle impulse of curiosity, she crossed to the
+opposite side of the table. But no sooner had she caught sight of his
+face than she started as though some one had dashed cold water over her.
+Tornik! It was unbelievable! His eyes glowed like coals; his lips, half
+opened, looked dry and burnt, as with that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>drawing-in motion of the
+confirmed gambler he stretched out his trembling fingers to grasp the
+last of the evening's winnings.</p>
+
+<p>Nina was not in love with him&mdash;she had never even for a moment fancied
+that she was. But nevertheless the revelation of his greed struck at her
+pride, and she seemed to see herself, or rather her own fortune, being
+grasped with precisely that avidity by those same long, eager fingers.
+"He, too!" were the words that framed themselves in her thoughts.
+Tornik, at least, had seemed disinterested, but it was only her gold
+that he was after&mdash;like all the rest.</p>
+
+<p>She turned away abruptly. The Count Olisco left the table and, as her
+uncle was already waiting, Zoya and she said good-night to the Mascos
+and left.</p>
+
+<p>On the way home, Sansevero was decidedly nervous. Something was wrong,
+that was certain&mdash;he was as transparent as crystal; a child could not
+have shown trouble more plainly. They drove the Oliscos home, but after
+they had left them, Nina put her hand on her uncle's coat sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you&mdash;tell me?" she asked him.</p>
+
+<p>Sansevero started, then shook his head. "It is nothing!" he said. But he
+changed his mind almost immediately, took his breath as though to speak,
+and stopped again. Nina's manner had been very sweet, very sympathetic.
+The thought of confiding in the girl beside him had not entered his
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>head; but he might as well have tried to dam up a spring, as to keep
+his confidence from overflowing at the first words of kindness. He
+seized her hand, and his fingers during a moment of nervous indecision
+beat a tattoo upon her glove&mdash;then he let her hand drop again.</p>
+
+<p>"I am in the most difficult situation."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;&mdash;?" Nina encouraged. "Can't I help?&mdash;Oh, I wish I <i>could!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"No!" He threw himself into the farthest possible corner of the
+carriage. "No, no! I could not let you do that!"</p>
+
+<p>Quickly a suspicion of the difficulty crossed her mind. "Uncle Sandro, I
+want you to tell me! You know that I love Aunt Eleanor better than
+almost any one in the world. If to help you is to help her&mdash;and it is in
+my power&mdash;I really think you ought to tell me."</p>
+
+<p>He weakened, hesitated. "Give me your promise you will not tell
+Leonora&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have it!" She put her hand back into his.</p>
+
+<p>"It is this, then: I am the weakest man imaginable. To-night I had no
+idea of playing; I held out for some time, but the temptation was too
+strong at the end. Also what I lost was very little, but the money was a
+sum we had put aside to pay household expenses. If I do not pay them,
+Leonora must know of it."</p>
+
+<p>Between the lines Nina divined a good deal of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>whole story. Other
+vague suspicions that had come to her here and there helped somewhat to
+the conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>Already they had driven into the courtyard and the footman was holding
+open the door. Nina jumped out quickly and entered the palace. In the
+antechamber she stopped for her uncle to catch up with her. "Just wait a
+moment," she said; "we can finish our conversation quickly." She spoke
+rapidly and in English.</p>
+
+<p>"How much is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Five hundred <i>lire</i>."</p>
+
+<p>She caught her breath. "Do you mean to say that <i>you</i>&mdash;the Prince
+Sansevero, the owner of this palace, are in need of a hundred dollars,
+and don't know where to get it? You shall have it to-morrow, the first
+thing."</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly she added: "Uncle Sandro&mdash;I want you to tell me something!
+Will you swear on your honor to answer the truth? If you deceive me, I
+will never forgive you to my dying day!"</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her, puzzled. There was no doubt as to the gravity of her
+tone. "I will answer if I can." He said it not without alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"Does your brother gamble? Is he also like Tornik and you?" She had no
+thought for the stigma of her words, and Sansevero was not so small that
+he resented them.</p>
+
+<p>"No. I can answer that easily enough. Giovanni has not one drop of the
+gambling blood.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> That I can swear to you by the name of my mother!" He
+made the sign of the cross.</p>
+
+<p>Nina sighed with relief. "I'll send Celeste to you with the money in the
+morning, and you can trust me&mdash;I will never let Aunt Eleanor know!" She
+said it sympathetically and kindly enough, but her tone was a little
+constrained. "Good-night!"</p>
+
+<p>And then quickly she left him. She felt sure that her uncle had spoken
+the truth, and that Giovanni was not a gambler; but as she went down the
+long corridors she felt a sharp contraction in her throat.
+"Dear&mdash;poor&mdash;precious Auntie Princess!" she whispered to herself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>FAVORITA DRIVES A BARGAIN</h3>
+
+
+<p>As the winter progressed, Favorita's temper showed so little improvement
+that those whose duty brought them in contact with her at the theatre
+were on the verge of resigning their posts. Her dresser had a thoroughly
+cowed expression; her manager consumed more black cigars than were good
+for him; the <i>corps de ballet</i> had hysterics singly and indignation
+councils <i>en masse</i>. In fact, the call-boy, who seemed to enjoy
+tormenting her, was the only member of the company who took her rages
+cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>Finally even Giovanni became uneasy; a well-bred woman could be counted
+on in given circumstances to do thus and so, but Favorita was of lowest
+peasant birth: her people were of the mountain districts, so primitive
+in thought and habit that her early training had taught her obedience to
+nothing higher than impulse. Superficially, she submitted to the
+dictates of civilization, just as a half-wild animal submits to the
+control of his trainer. And in a very real sense Giovanni occupied, in
+relation to her, the trainer's position. He was the force that held her
+in check; but though to the audience of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>the world he appeared perfectly
+at ease, a definite apprehensiveness underlay his seeming composure.</p>
+
+<p>Matters at last came to a crisis. Giovanni was about to leave the palace
+one morning a day or two after the Masco dinner, when a neatly dressed
+woman passed him on the grand stairway. She was wearing a thick veil,
+but he had an eye for outline and he knew that there was only one woman
+in Rome with just that half-floating lightness of movement. At once he
+blocked her way.</p>
+
+<p>She was forced to halt; but her feet did not stand quite still, and
+there was an effect of briefly suspended motion in her attitude, as
+though she sought a chance to dart past him.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning, signorina!" Giovanni's urbanity was for the benefit of
+the footmen. For a few seconds there was a straightening of her figure;
+poised for flight, she held her head a little to one side as she swiftly
+scanned his face.</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni dropped his voice. "I was just on my way to see you. Come,
+<i>cara mia</i>," he said persuasively. "I have something I want to talk over
+with you&mdash;it is impossible here with lackeys listening to everything we
+may say. Come, dear."</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him a moment, wavering, then shrugged her shoulders. "Very
+well," she said, and descended the stairs at his side. They crossed the
+wide hall, and she stopped to gaze about it in wonder and curiosity,
+even though she did not appreciate the splendor of its proportions. The
+great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> <i>baldachino</i>, of blue and silver, surmounting the Sansevero arms,
+held her attention.</p>
+
+<p>"Do the broken silver chains in your coat of arms represent mercy or
+weakness?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Both, probably," he answered grimly, as he caught the sound of an
+automobile chugging in the courtyard. Feeling sure that it was Nina's
+car, he slipped his arm through Favorita's to urge her forward,
+whereupon she grew suspicious and lagged purposely. She looked
+deliberately about, as though she were a tourist intent upon finding
+every object starred in Baedeker. To his inward rage and chagrin,
+Giovanni realized his mistake in having attempted to hurry her, and now
+changed his tactics. Although his every nerve was strained to catch the
+sound of Nina's approaching footfall, he went into a long, prosy
+dissertation upon the history of the ceiling, dwelling purposely upon
+the dullest facts he could think of, until his tormentor was glad enough
+to leave.</p>
+
+<p>Once outside the building, Giovanni breathed more freely, although the
+sight of the automobile confirmed his apprehension. Hailing a cab, he
+put Favorita into it and got in after her. They had not gone more than
+five hundred yards when Nina, alone in the car, passed them. Giovanni
+had stooped over quickly so that she might not recognize him; but
+Favorita took no notice of this, or anything else, and they drove on in
+a silence broken only by occasional and casual remarks. It <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>was not
+until they were safely within her apartment that he demanded:</p>
+
+<p>"And now, Fava, perhaps you will have the goodness to explain to me what
+you were doing at the Palazzo Sansevero when I saw you, and how you got
+past the <i>portiere?</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"At least it shows you that what I try to do I accomplish," she retorted
+with an air of bravado. She leaned her elbows on a little table, looking
+across at Giovanni, her lips parted, her eyes dancing. "Do you wish to
+hear? Very well. I have a friend who gives the American heiress lessons
+in Italian. She says it is easy&mdash;one has only to talk Italian and make
+her talk, and tell her when she makes mistakes. My friend is sick. She
+sent a letter, which I intercepted, and I went in her place. Why not?"
+Then suddenly her little teeth locked tightly, and she spoke between
+them savagely&mdash;"I'd be a teacher worth employing. I could talk Italian
+to her that she would never forget! Nor would she forget <i>me</i>, either!"</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni's teeth locked quite as tightly as hers. "Will you hush? You
+must be insane! I told you from the beginning that I would not advertise
+myself with you. I told you also that if you made a scene, or if you
+ever tried to interfere with my family or my private life, at that
+moment all would end between us." As he spoke, Favorita looked
+frightened, but in a flash her manner changed completely. Long
+association with him had not been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>without its lessons, and she answered
+as sweetly as though no disagreement had ever come between them; as
+though there were no incongruity between their suspended discussion and
+her interrupting sentence. "Giovannino," she cooed, "I have had a great
+offer, an astounding offer from Vienna."</p>
+
+<p>He saw his opportunity. His manner therefore, changed as rapidly as hers
+had done, and with every appearance of sympathy and interest he asked
+for her news. She told him with triumph the details of her offer from
+the manager of a Viennese theatre for a ten weeks' engagement at a
+stupendous salary.</p>
+
+<p>"You must accept&mdash;by all means!" Not a trace of the relief he felt crept
+into his expression; he looked sad, but thoroughly resigned. "It is
+time," he added cleverly, "that you should make a name for yourself that
+is cosmopolitan and not alone of Italy."</p>
+
+<p>So far they had been sitting on either side of a small table, but now
+Favorita arose and went around to him. Pushing the table away, she sat
+on his knee, and, with one arm about his neck, held up his chin with her
+other hand. Then, deliberately, she looked into his eyes with that
+level, determined steadiness which makes no compromise. She spoke very
+quietly, so quietly that he was more than ever uneasy. Her turbulence
+was annoying, but this calmness was ominous.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I shall accept the offer on one condition:&mdash;you go to Vienna with me!"</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni looked quite as though the gates of Paradise were opening
+before him. Even Favorita believed his enthusiasm genuine as he
+exclaimed, "Ah, that would be charming!" Then he seemed to be
+considering the matter eagerly. "That I <i>want</i> to go with you&mdash;of that
+there can be no doubt! I am merely wondering how it can be managed."</p>
+
+<p>Now that she seemed to be getting her own way, and her jealousy was
+allayed, Favorita was soft, and sweet, and affectionate as a little
+black cat. "Rosso is going to Hungary," she purred. "You can easily say
+you are going with him on his trip, whereas you can really be in
+Vienna!"</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds perfect!" he returned gayly; "at least you can accept the
+manager's offer!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you promise to go with me? You must swear it!" He hesitated as he
+rapidly turned the situation over in his mind. Now that he had
+determined to marry Nina, the main thing was to keep Favorita away, for,
+should she have an opportunity to unburden her heart to the heiress,
+that would be the end of his matrimonial chances. But if he could get
+the dancer to Vienna, and keep her there, then find an excuse for at
+least a short absence from her, he could come back to Rome, win Nina, be
+married at once&mdash;and then let come what would! An independent American
+girl would throw him over, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>he knew that; but a wife would be different!
+A wife would have to forgive.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you promise?" repeated Favorita.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I promise," he said. "Come, we will fill in the contract!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>A CHALLENGE, AND AN ANSWER</h3>
+
+
+<p>Nina had intended taking her Italian teacher out with her in the
+automobile. She did this quite often, as it was as easy to practice
+Italian conversation in a motor-car as anywhere else. But after half an
+hour&mdash;Favorita was nearly that late&mdash;she had given up waiting and
+telephoned Zoya Olisco suggesting that they two spend the day at Tivoli.
+Zoya agreed, and Nina was on her way to fetch her when she passed
+Giovanni and Favorita. But she neither saw the former nor recognized the
+latter.</p>
+
+<p>It was after six o'clock when Nina returned from Tivoli, and she had to
+hurry to dress for an early dinner, as it was the Sanseveros' regular
+Lenten evening at home.</p>
+
+<p>Nina particularly liked these informal receptions, where the company was
+composed, for the most part, of really interesting, agreeable people.
+There was always music, generally by amateur performers; occasionally
+there was some other form of impromptu entertainment, an impersonation
+or a recitation. Throughout the evening there was the simplest sort of
+buffet supper: tea, bouillon&mdash;a claret cup, perhaps, and possibly
+chocolate, little <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>cakes, and sandwiches; never more. But the princess
+was one of those hostesses whose personality thoroughly pervades a
+house; a type which is becoming rare with every change in our modern
+civilization, and without which people might as well congregate in a
+hotel parlor. Each guest at the Palazzo Sansevero carried away the
+impression that not only had he been welcome himself, but that his
+presence had added materially to the enjoyment of others.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the evening Nina was standing with Giovanni a little apart.
+Giovanni was unusually quiet, and both had fallen into reverie, from
+which Nina was aroused by the sudden announcement of a jarring name.
+Like the ceaseless beating of the waves upon a beach, she had heard the
+long rolling titles, "Sua Excellenza la principessa di Malio," "Il Conte
+e la Contessa Casabella," "Donna Francesca Dobini," "Sua Excellenza il
+Duca e la Duchessa Astarte," and then&mdash;"Messa Smeet!"</p>
+
+<p>Nina felt a swift pity for the beautiful woman who was forced to suffer
+the ignominy of being thus announced. She had herself been daily
+conscious of that same flatness when, after the long announcement of her
+aunt's and uncle's names, came the blankness of "Messa Randolf."</p>
+
+<p>And in that moment, divining the impression made upon her mind, Giovanni
+seized his opportunity. His eyes looked ardently into hers, his smile
+was transporting as, with all the warmth of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>which his voice was
+capable, he said, "Donna Nina Sansevero, Marchesa di Valdo!"</p>
+
+<p>Nina's heart fluttered strangely, her will was swayed by the moment's
+thrill, as she heard him continuing: "It can surely not surprise you to
+hear in spoken words what has long been in my heart to&mdash;&mdash;" But his
+sentence was broken off abruptly, for a sudden thinning of the crush
+revealed the Contessa Potensi close beside them. Heedless of Nina, the
+contessa demanded that Giovanni take her into the supper room for a cup
+of tea, and Nina was left with Carpazzi, who had at that moment also
+joined them. He took no notice of her absent-mindedness and kept the
+conversation going briskly without much help from her, until gradually
+she became able to focus her attention upon him.</p>
+
+<p>He talked of many things and finally of Cecelia Potenzi. That he should
+have spoken the name of the girl he loved was quite foreign to his, or
+in fact to any, Italian nature. But by now Nina had become thoroughly
+interested in what he was telling her and her sympathetic eyes had a way
+of urging confidences, and besides, as Carpazzi knew, she was very fond
+of Cecelia. He spoke quite frankly therefore of his hopes and plans. He
+was desperately interested in Derby's mining project because he owned a
+piece of property within a few miles of Vencata and if the Sansevero
+sulphur mines turned out well probably all the land in the neighborhood
+would also be leased by Derby's company, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>and it might be that he and
+Cecelia could be married.</p>
+
+<p>Nina had already observed the young girl in question and she and
+Carpazzi made their way toward her. Gradually other young people joined
+them until a merry group was formed at that side of the room.</p>
+
+<p>The music at that moment was by a young violinist, a <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;</i> of the
+Princess Sansevero's (a brother, by the way, of the peasant Marcella,
+whose marriage to Pedro the princess had arranged). The boy had real
+talent, and the princess had denied herself not a few things in order to
+help him complete his education.</p>
+
+<p>At the close of his second selection the young violinist came over to
+her, with that look of devoted allegiance which cannot be imitated, and
+the princess held out her hand for him to kiss. "I am so pleased with
+your success," she said to him. "Come, I want to present you to the
+Duchessa Astarte, who was much delighted with your playing." Smiling,
+she led him away.</p>
+
+<p>The young man traversed the rooms with perfect ease and
+unconsciousness&mdash;this peasant boy who four years previously had run
+ragged and barefooted, begging for soldos from the tourists who were
+driving out to Torre Sansevero! From one of the doorways Sansevero
+watched them. "<i>Per Dio</i>, she is wonderful, my Leonora!" he exclaimed to
+the Countess Masco, whom he had taken to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>supper room. "Look what
+she has made of that ragamuffin! You Americans are an extraordinary
+people." The countess, as she watched the prince's open admiration of
+his wife, showed the finest, the most generous side of her cheerful
+nature. Her expression was scarcely less admiring than his own.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like well enough to take all the credit for my country," she
+returned, with her usual good humor, "but in Eleanor's case it is the
+woman and not the nationality that is wonderful&mdash;&mdash;" Then she added
+brusquely, "I'm glad you appreciate her." The next moment she tossed the
+topic aside and discoursed noisily of the latest Roman gossip.</p>
+
+<p>About this time the Count and Countess Olisco were announced. Seeing
+Derby, who had arrived just ahead of them, Zoya walked up to him without
+hesitation or man&oelig;uvre. "I should like to talk to you," she said;
+"will you take me to a seat? There is one over there."</p>
+
+<p>He gave her his arm and led her to a sofa at the far end of the room.
+"Have you been out to Torre Sansevero?" she asked when they had sat
+down.</p>
+
+<p>"No. We had planned to motor out next week, but I must go to Sicily
+to-morrow, so the motor trip is postponed until I come back. You asked
+as though you had something special in mind. Had you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I might as well tell you&mdash;though maybe <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>you know&mdash;there is a rumor
+that a Sansevero painting&mdash;the Raphael Madonna&mdash;has been sold out of the
+country. The way I know is secret; but through somebody connected with
+the Government I have learned that there are grave suspicions against
+the prince."</p>
+
+<p>Derby gave her his full attention, but said nothing. "Everybody knows,"
+continued the contessa, "that he has spent all his wife's money in
+gambling, and that they have sold everything that is not covered by the
+family entail." Her listener did not know it, but his face betrayed no
+surprise. "This picture, they say, has been smuggled out of the country
+to a rich American." Her face grew troubled and she spoke lower and more
+distinctly. "I do not find it possible to think that Sansevero did such
+a thing. He is weak, if you like; he would fall into temptation; he
+might gamble or make love to a pretty woman"&mdash;she shrugged her
+shoulders&mdash;"but that he would do anything really against the law, I
+don't believe. Yet&mdash;I have never seen such furs as the princess wears
+this winter. Can't you find out about the picture? Everybody believes it
+is in America. Think what it would be if Sansevero were put in prison!
+But I am sure you will set everything straight."</p>
+
+<p>"Your faith in me is flattering, to say the least," he laughed. "But you
+seem to think that finding an object in America is as simple as though
+it were mislaid in a fishing village. Do you realize the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>vastness of
+the territory which I am to search in the twinkling of an eye?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! You must not laugh. I am very serious. I know that America is a
+land in which everything may be accomplished, even though I may have a
+false idea of its size. And in you, as an American, my faith is
+unbounded. You see, I feel convinced that it all depends on you!" Then,
+under the impulsion of her enthusiasm she clapped her hands together as
+she exclaimed: "Oh, I am sure you will clear the prince! And then, like
+the hero in all good story books, win the reward."</p>
+
+<p>"And the reward?" he queried. "What is it to be? Unfortunately, you are
+asking me to save a prince&mdash;a poor prince at that, with no favors to
+bestow. In the good story books it is always a beautiful princess. To be
+sure," he added, "the princess is as beautiful as one could wish, but
+alas! she is married."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not find you at all amiable," the contessa pouted. "I am
+serious&mdash;very serious, and you make fun."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. I am very serious, and you talk of fairy tales. Still, if
+you are my fairy godmother, there is no knowing what stroke of fortune
+may await me in Sicily." Then, changing his tone, he said earnestly: "I
+am really sorry, but I am afraid I shall have to leave the picture
+question until I come back."</p>
+
+<p>"You are going straight off to Sicily?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"To be gone how long?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know; I have no idea. Weeks, perhaps. Months, very likely; why
+do you ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"May I say something&mdash;something very frank to you?" Zoya leaned forward
+with a sudden direct impulse.</p>
+
+<p>"Say what you please, by all means!" Derby braced himself for her
+remark, but even so he colored as she said: "Are you in love with Nina?
+Please, don't be angry; I don't ask you to answer. But if you are, I
+can't see why you go away to work mines and such things. I should have
+married her long ago had I been you."</p>
+
+<p>Derby's eyes blazed. "Do you mean I should try to marry her and live on
+her money?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? Since she has enough for two&mdash;enough for twenty! There is no
+need to be so furious. <i>Per l'amore di Dio!</i> You Americans have always
+the ears up, listening for a sound that you can fly at!" Languorously
+she leaned back among the cushions of the sofa. "It is all so
+silly&mdash;your idea of life." And then she stopped and looked at him
+curiously. "What <i>is</i> your idea of life?"</p>
+
+<p>"Life? One might put it in three words: One must work!"</p>
+
+<p>Zoya shook her head&mdash;she did it charmingly. "No, no," she said softly;
+"you are altogether wrong&mdash;though I also can put it in three words.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>
+Life lies in this: One must love. That's all there is!"</p>
+
+<p>The conversation ended there, for the Duke Scorpa and Count Masco came
+up to speak to the contessa. Derby arose and was about to leave when the
+duke stopped him. Masco sat down to talk with Zoya, and Scorpa spoke to
+Derby in an undertone. "I hear you are going to Sicily to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I leave early in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Take my advice"&mdash;his glance was sinister&mdash;"and stay away."</p>
+
+<p>Derby smiled frankly. "May I ask why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because your process will not work."</p>
+
+<p>"That might be taken in two ways," Derby rejoined: "either that you
+believe my patents useless, or else that some means will be taken to
+prevent my trying them. I rather wonder&mdash;after our conversation on the
+subject&mdash;if you intend a threat?" He spoke without stress of feeling,
+quite simply, in fact.</p>
+
+<p>The duke's unctuous smile was not wholly pleasant to see. "That is for
+you to decide. To-morrow morning you intend to go. That is not far off;
+but you have until then to reconsider your refusal to sell me your
+patents. I made you a fair offer, which I should in your place accept.
+However, if you go to Sicily"&mdash;he spread out his hands with a shrug&mdash;"I
+shall have warned you, and whatever comes will be off my conscience."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>For answer Derby spoke quietly, but with clear, level distinctness. "I
+go to-morrow to Vencata, to work a piece of land which is the property
+of the Prince and Princess Sansevero. As their representative, I am
+vested with every legal right to apply my invention to the mine known as
+the 'Little Devil.' And I may add"&mdash;he put it casually&mdash;"that back of me
+is the full strength and protection of the United States Government." He
+looked straight into the small rat-like eyes nearly a foot below his
+own. Then with a smile he bowed to the Contessa Zoya and went in search
+of the Princess Sansevero, to say good-by.</p>
+
+<p>He found her in the adjoining room, absorbed in the music; and luckily
+there was an empty chair beside her, into which he quietly dropped. She
+smiled her welcome as he sat down beside her, but she had accepted her
+young countryman into too good a friendship to make either of them feel
+the need of rushing into speech. After a little she turned to him; even
+then her sentence seemed to complete a conversation interrupted rather
+than a new one begun, "Above all, do not forget to present Sandro's
+letter to the Archbishop! I know you will be drawn to him. His Eminence
+is one of those rare persons who have not waited to die to become
+angels." She smiled. "I am sure you will be safe under his protection."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you would tell me, Princess, why there is so much talk of
+protection&mdash;it sounds as though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> I were going to explore the interior of
+Africa! I shall be, at most, twenty-four hours away from Rome."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no knowing what you are going to explore"&mdash;a shade of anxiety
+had come into her face. "The Mafia is there, the people are ignorant,
+and the lava wastes are as desolate and wild as any spot in Africa. I
+hope there will be no danger, but it is well to take precautions before
+going into such a country. You will promise me won't you?&mdash;to follow the
+directions of his Eminence." Unconsciously she put her hand against her
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>Derby gave his promise easily, and she held out her hand. He kissed it
+after the European custom; and as he did so he felt her fingers tighten
+over his, as she whispered with a little underlying emotional vibration,
+"God bless you, my dear boy!&mdash;and a safe return."</p>
+
+<p>Vaguely, as he went through the rooms in search of Nina, the princess's
+words echoed through his mind, and through some unknown train of
+suggestion he remembered that Miller, the butler in New York, had wished
+Nina a "safe return." The association of the two seemed ridiculous, yet
+a thought held: Was it at all certain that she was going to return home?
+Was he, perhaps, not going to return from Sicily? He put himself in the
+category of idiots and banished the idea. But the echo of the blessing
+that the princess had given <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>him settled softly upon his sensibilities.
+"God bless <i>her!</i>" he said almost aloud.</p>
+
+<p>Presently he found Nina, unapproachably hemmed in, and too near the
+music to talk. For a moment she hesitated, on the verge of extricating
+herself or encouraging him to enter the circle despite the general
+disturbance it must cause. But the moment passed. His lips framed
+"Good-by" and hers answered, both smiled brightly&mdash;and that was the
+parting.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 590px;"><a name="framed" id="framed"></a>
+<img src="images/gs248.jpg" width="590" height="400" alt="&quot;HIS LIPS FRAMED &#39;GOOD-BY&#39; AND HERS ANSWERED, BOTH SMILED BRIGHTLY&mdash;AND THAT WAS THE PARTING&quot;" title="HIS LIPS FRAMED &#39;GOOD-BY&#39; AND HERS ANSWERED, BOTH SMILED BRIGHTLY&mdash;AND THAT WAS THE PARTING&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;HIS LIPS FRAMED &#39;GOOD-BY&#39; AND HERS ANSWERED, BOTH SMILED BRIGHTLY&mdash;AND THAT WAS THE PARTING&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Derby was in many ways a fatalist&mdash;not one of those who thought that by
+sitting still the gifts from the horn of fortune would tumble into his
+lap; but one of those who believe (to use his own expression), in
+pegging away at the thing in hand; further than that, what was to be,
+would be.</p>
+
+<p>As Derby descended the stairs he encountered the Countess Masco. "Hello,
+John!" she exclaimed, and then as she held him by the arm, her voice
+came down to what for her was a low whisper; at twenty feet any one
+could have overheard her, but fortunately the hall was deserted, save
+for a couple of footmen standing at the green baize door that led to the
+outer stairs of the courtyard. "Have you heard the news? Giovanni
+Sansevero agreed to go on a cruise to Malta with Rosso, and Rosso won't
+let him out of it! You may imagine he does not relish leaving Rome just
+now, especially with you again out of the field!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Derby was not given an opportunity either to accept or to resent her
+intrusion into his affairs, for the dashing lady immediately fled, and
+Derby went on. As he waited for his cab, he felt inclined to go back and
+try to see Nina. He was letting her drift very, very far away. But while
+he was hesitating, his cab drove up, and without more ado he jumped into
+it and drove to his hotel. As soon as he reached his room, he began a
+letter to Nina; but all the things he had vowed to himself not to say,
+swarmed to the very tip of his pen. He threw it down, therefore, and
+tore up the paper that showed, under "Dear Nina," an erased "Darl&mdash;"
+After pacing the floor a while, he again picked up the pen, but this
+time he wrote to Mr. Randolph. At the end of a letter of details
+relating to the mines, he added:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"There are rumors now agitating people over here
+and likely to become public property, that the
+Sansevero Madonna has been smuggled out of the
+country. I have reason to believe that the Raphael
+you showed me in New York is not the duplicate you
+were led to suppose, but the Sansevero picture.
+How it was sold, I have not yet discovered, though
+I do not believe the prince guilty of violating
+the laws. But I know the Government has its secret
+agents at work upon the case because of the
+seeming luxury of the princess, whose new furs and
+automobile are known to be far beyond her present
+income. I more than suspect that these luxuries
+are the result of Nina's generosity, but if the
+Sansevero picture <i>is</i> the one you have, the
+affair will end badly for the prince. At all
+events, I consider it best to carry the matter
+direct to you." </p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>While Derby was writing to Mr. Randolph, an animated conversation was
+taking place in a little room on the ground floor of the gigantic palace
+of the Scorpas. The doors were bolted, and the two inmates of the
+apartment talked in whispers.</p>
+
+<p>"You understand your instructions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Excellency."</p>
+
+<p>"Repeat them."</p>
+
+<p>"I take the boat to-morrow&mdash;go to Vencata. Keep watch upon the
+Americano&mdash;the one whose name I have here."</p>
+
+<p>"John Derby, yes. But he is very big&mdash;a giant. Make no mistake, find the
+one who is the <i>padrone!</i> And&mdash;&mdash;? Continue!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am to watch if it is true that he begins working the 'Little Devil,'
+and if so&mdash;I know the rest. It is nothing! A pig's skin is thick&mdash;a
+man's thin!" As he said this he glanced at the duke, and there was a
+sinister gleam in the man's deep-set eyes, and beneath the sharp nose
+the mouth was hard and straight, like a seam across the face.</p>
+
+<p>The duke nodded as though satisfied. "It may be well for you to
+remember," he observed impressively, "that the reward will make you and
+yours easy for life."</p>
+
+<p>The man saluted respectfully, but with a dogged surliness that revealed
+no loyalty. Yet there was in his look a hint of fanatical intensity.
+Outside in the passageway he smiled grimly. For once the errand on which
+the duke had sent him fell in with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>his own inclinations. He opened a
+window and looked out through the gratings into the night. In his heart
+he bore no love for the duke, but he was by race and inheritance a
+dependent of the house of Scorpa. It had always been so&mdash;the dukes had
+been masters since time immemorial. The present duke had made the lives
+of Sicilians terrible enough, but he, Luigi Calluci, would have no
+stranger Americano forcing his people to work that hell-mine of the
+"Little Devil"!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>HIS EMINENCE, THE ARCHBISHOP OF VENCATA</h3>
+
+
+<p>Barely two days after the evening at the Palazzo Sansevero, Derby was
+driving up the Sicilian hills towards the palace&mdash;courtesy gave it the
+name&mdash;of the venerable Archbishop of Vencata. Porter, in company with
+Tiggs and Jenkins&mdash;Derby's American assistants&mdash;had been left at the inn
+in the town, but Derby was anxious to present his letter as soon as
+possible, in order that there might be no delay in commencing work at
+the mines.</p>
+
+<p>The carriage in which Derby sat had at first sight seemed liable to
+tumble apart, like so many separate pieces of mosaic puzzle, and he had
+taken his place on the old cloth cushion rather dubiously. But the
+driver gayly, and with every appearance of confidence in <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'himeslf'">himself</ins> and his
+equipage, had cracked his whip and shouted all the names in the calendar
+to the horses, whose muscles gradually became sufficiently taut to impel
+them onward. A few dozen yards having been made without mishap, Derby
+felt that the special protection of Providence must be over them, and he
+leaned back contentedly, puffing at his pipe and enjoying to the full
+the witchery of a Sicilian sunset. The rickety convey<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>ance clattered
+slowly up a winding road that seemed like a white band tied about the
+mountainside, holding here little terraced vineyards, there a huddling
+group of houses that else would surely have slipped into the ravine. For
+a short distance it hung out over the sea, then cut inward, as though
+the band of white had been laced in and out among the silvery sprays of
+the olive leaves.</p>
+
+<p>Below it all, and beyond, lay the Mediterranean, its blue waters now
+deepened to indigo, shading into wide lakes of purple, under the
+reflection of the setting sun, which, like a great red lantern, seemed
+sinking into the sea. A sharp turn inward and upward brought the
+conveyance shambling into a little courtyard. It halted before the
+doorway of a low, white-washed house smothered in semi-tropical vines,
+which extended from the eaves over a pergola built along the wall at the
+terrace edge. Beneath this arbor was a rustic seat, on the cushions of
+which a big gray cat sat up slowly, and stared at the intruders with
+insolent, unwinking eyes.</p>
+
+<p>A woman's voice droned a dirgeful song that had a half Oriental, half
+negro suggestion in its monotonous pitch, while from afar, like an echo
+over the mountainside, came faintly the wailing cadence of the
+<i>caramella</i> of some shepherd boy, and the tinkle of goat bells,
+interrupted by the hoot of little owls crying through the dusk.</p>
+
+<p>The bells of the flapping harness settled into silence, the droning
+sing-song ceased, and from the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>stone flagging within came the shuffle
+of wooden shoes. An old woman, in the inevitable dark stuff dress of her
+class, and the blue apron gay-bordered with red and white, stood in the
+doorway. Her big hoop earrings fell to her shoulders, but were partly
+hidden by the kerchief which she held over her head with one hand, as if
+in fear of a draught, while with the other she still grasped the door
+latch.</p>
+
+<p>To Derby's inquiry as to whether His Eminence were at home, she
+responded suspiciously&mdash;almost contemptuously, as she looked him over
+from head to toe. Certainly, His Exaltedness was at home. What should
+one of his venerability be doing abroad at such an hour!</p>
+
+<p>Derby's bow was apologetic. Would Signora have the kindness to deliver
+the letter which he tendered her?</p>
+
+<p>She turned the envelope over in her hands, looked again at the stranger,
+and at last stood aside so that he might enter.</p>
+
+<p>Derby waited in the dim, low-ceilinged passageway, which suggested
+anything but the antechamber of an archbishop's palace. Presently a door
+opened, a feeble yellow haze filtered into the corridor, and the old
+woman reappeared and led Derby into a small, stone-paved apartment
+illumined by a single flickering lamp of the most primitive design, by
+the light of which the archbishop had evidently been reading. As soon as
+Derby entered, the venerable prelate arose. In his long <i>sottana</i> of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>violet he looked strangely diminutive and feminine; his pale skin and
+mild eyes, and the soft white hair like a fringe beneath his velvet
+cap&mdash;all gave an impression of great gentleness, an impression
+heightened by contrast with the bare, white-washed walls and rigorously
+meager furnishing of the cell-like room. With the courteous manner of
+all southern countries, the archbishop placed the best chair for his
+guest, and said smilingly:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you speak Italian? Ah&mdash;I am glad you understand that language! My
+French is very failing, and as for Inglese&mdash;<i>non lo conosco</i>. It is too
+difficult at my age. If I were younger I should like to learn your
+tongue." He said this with inimitable grace, and added with a gentle
+inclination: "You are Americano, are you not? Your land has done much
+for my people! But tell me, Signore, in what way may I serve you? Sua
+Eccellenza il Principe Sansevero places you under our protection, but he
+does not tell us what it is that has brought you to us." The archbishop,
+leaning back in his chair, might so have sat for his portrait&mdash;his white
+hands folded one over the other, and the great amethyst ring on the
+third finger of his right hand seeming to reflect the paler shadings in
+the folds of his gown.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 293px;"><a name="americano" id="americano"></a>
+<img src="images/gs257.jpg" width="293" height="400" alt="&quot;&#39;YOU ARE AMERICANO, ARE YOU NOT? YOUR LAND HAS DONE MUCH FOR MY PEOPLE!&#39;&quot;" title="&quot;&#39;YOU ARE AMERICANO, ARE YOU NOT? YOUR LAND HAS DONE MUCH FOR MY PEOPLE!&#39;&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;&#39;YOU ARE AMERICANO, ARE YOU NOT? YOUR LAND HAS DONE MUCH FOR MY PEOPLE!&#39;&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"I have come, your Eminence," said Derby, going to the point at once,
+"to work the 'Little Devil' mine." Before the archbishop could utter a
+protest, he continued very quickly and distinctly:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> "I know just such
+mines as that which are being operated now without danger or suffering
+to the miners."</p>
+
+<p>Then, briefly as possible, he went on to outline his system of mining.
+There was no necessity, he said, for miners to descend below the surface
+of the earth, and he would need only a dozen men&mdash;instead of the many
+workers, including women and children, that were now employed. To
+Derby's surprise, the old man seemed troubled.</p>
+
+<p>"I grow old, Signore; one does not easily take in new ideas! By your
+method&mdash;am I right?&mdash;you will employ a dozen men in place of a hundred.
+That troubles me, though your plan seems good. If there are but a small
+handful needed, it must put the others out of work. The mines are hard.
+A harder existence cannot well be imagined&mdash;but the good God must know
+it is for the best, since he allows it to continue. To be sure," he
+interrupted himself sadly, "he calls them to him soon!"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean they die young in the mines? That is what I have been told."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Signore, in their twenty-eighth year the people are at the end of
+life; at the age of twelve they are already stooped and wrinkled old men
+and women. For the children it is most terrible; it is they who climb up
+the high ladders out of the pits in the earth&mdash;it gives one a <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'fortaste'">foretaste</ins>
+of inferno to see such things. <i>Cosi Dio, m' ajuti</i>, it is true! Yet so
+they live&mdash;otherwise they must die. What <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>can we do? Since the Santa
+Maria does not intervene, the poor must work or starve. They have not
+the money to go away to the country beyond the sea, to America, the land
+of plenty! If some of the rich abundance might be brought to my
+people&mdash;&mdash;" He shook his head, looking, it seemed, beyond the white
+walls of the room, as though he saw a vision.</p>
+
+<p>Then slowly, carefully, Derby explained. It was to bring some of the
+customs of the land of plenty that he had come. He would pay the
+men&mdash;the father, the brother, the big son&mdash;more money than had been
+earned hitherto by the whole family. No, His Eminence did not
+understand&mdash;the work was not to be harder, but easier! And for the
+reason that he had already explained: Machinery would take the place of
+children's hands; steel pipes, and not human beings, would descend into
+the stifling fumes. He wanted to get a few intelligent men to go with
+their families to the deserted village clustered about the "Little
+Devil."</p>
+
+<p>Still the old man sat, looking straight before him.</p>
+
+<p>"All that you tell me, Signore," he said at last, his voice echoing a
+sweetness, a cheerful patience that was doubtless the keynote to his
+nature&mdash;"it all sounds very beautiful; but, indeed, it cannot be! The
+great Duke Scorpa has given the matter much thought. The mine owners
+cannot pay the people more&mdash;there is scarcely any profit as it is. The
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>duke has often told me this himself, so I know it to be true."</p>
+
+<p>Derby thereupon said that the great Duke Scorpa had doubtless done
+everything possible, and that under the old method there had been no
+help for the conditions, but&mdash;and again he expressed himself as clearly
+as possible&mdash;with the new method and with machinery, one man could do
+the work of many. So the wages might be trebled and yet the mines be
+made to pay.</p>
+
+<p>As Derby talked, a faint color mounted in the cheeks of the
+archbishop&mdash;his eyes grew eagerly wistful, and at last he leaned forward
+in his chair, his voice almost breathless as he asked, "Can such a thing
+be true&mdash;that in your country the father can earn sufficient that the
+little children need not work? Ah, Signore&mdash;who knows?&mdash;who knows?&mdash;may
+be at last the cry of the <i>bambinos</i> has reached the throne of the Santa
+Vergine!" He sat again silent, but this time with a smile on his lips.
+Then the old woman appeared in the doorway and the archbishop arose.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the hour for my supper," he said. "I shall esteem it an honor if
+you will break bread with me." Derby was about to decline, thinking it
+better to return later, but the manner of the old man left no doubt as
+to the genuineness of his invitation, and Derby accepted. In the
+adjoining room a small table was set with very few utensils. Two plates,
+two forks, two spoons, a cup, and a wine <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>glass apiece&mdash;that was all.
+After the blessing, they were served a frugal meal of bread and goats'
+milk, a pudding of macaroni, and a plate of figs; there was also wine,
+acid and thin, which the good Marianna&mdash;for so the housekeeper was
+called&mdash;had doubtless pressed herself.</p>
+
+<p>Her son Teobaldo, who waited at table, was dressed in some semblance of
+a livery&mdash;black broadcloth and a white tie. The archbishop ate
+sparingly&mdash;he drank a little of the milk, and tasted a piece of fruit,
+but his conversation with his guest seemed to satisfy him far more than
+food could do.</p>
+
+<p>Full of the hope of relief for his people, he now turned to plans for
+the Signore Americano's protection. Throughout the mountains, the hard
+life had made a hard people, he said, and unfriendly to foreigners. What
+could they expect from the hands of strangers when their own nobility,
+even their priests, were powerless to help! But the Signore should be
+put under the guidance of Padre Filippo&mdash;and also there should be two
+<i>carabinieri</i> for protection. Besides, Padre Filippo would recommend
+carpenters and mechanics of Vencata Minore&mdash;the village nearest the
+"Little Devil"&mdash;good men and honest, who would help in the work.</p>
+
+<p>The meal ended, they returned to the living room. The old woman fussed
+at the wick of the lamp and then placed a book close to the light and
+opened it at the page marked by a bit of paper. The archbishop smiled.
+"She takes good care of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>me, my Marianna. Once she lost my place, but
+she is very careful."</p>
+
+<p>Derby looked at the page beneath the flickering dimness. "Does Your
+Eminence read by this light?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, a little. By day I can see nearly as well as ever, but in the
+evening I can read only the books that have large print&mdash;and only for a
+little time. But what would you have, Signore? My eyesight may not any
+longer be like that of a boy." Then he added: "The good sun brings now
+each day a longer time to read, and perhaps by the time another winter
+makes the days again grow short, I shall be near the Great Light that
+knows no setting."</p>
+
+<p>"You might have a good lamp and see very well," suggested Derby.</p>
+
+<p>"A lamp? But in this I burn olive oil. It is very good oil, Signore&mdash;no
+one makes it better than Marianna! The reading at night is only for
+young eyes." Again he smiled.</p>
+
+<p>With difficulty he wrote a letter of direction to Padre Filippo and
+affixed his seal. Also he promised that two <i>carabinieri</i> should be at
+the inn at eight o'clock on the following morning, to accompany the
+expedition to the mines. And they should carry a letter to Donna
+Marcella&mdash;in her house the Americans had better lodge. From there they
+could with ease go each day on muleback to the "Little Devil."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At last Derby arose to leave. And then, although he was not of the Roman
+faith, he swiftly bent and kissed the ring on the thin, white hand that
+had been placed in his own. Into the archbishop's eyes came a look of
+tenderness that yet seemed tinged by a vague fear, as he laid his free
+hand on the bent head and gave his blessing, "<i>Deus te benedicet, meum
+filium.</i> May you fulfil your hopes for my people in safety!" Very
+slightly the old man's voice broke.</p>
+
+<p>Derby stood at his full height, towering by head and shoulders over the
+archbishop as he again thanked him for his hospitality and his
+protection. He walked back to the inn, his mind full of many things. At
+the <i>ufficio della posta</i> he glanced up, hesitated, and then, with a
+smile, went in and wrote out the following telegram:</p>
+
+<div>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">"M</span><span class="smcap">iss Nina Randolph,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">"Palazzo Sansevero,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">"Rome.</span><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Send immediately by express one good Rochester
+burner lamp and barrel of kerosene to </p></div>
+
+<div class='right'>
+<span style="margin-right: 13.5em;">"Sua Eminenza,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 5em;">"L'Arcivescovo di Vencata,</span><br />
+"<span class="smcap">John</span>."&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br /></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SULPHUR MINES</h3>
+
+
+<p>It was nearly nine o'clock the next morning before Derby's party was
+ready to start. The pack mules, with a bulging load on either side,
+looked like great bales on legs. Long steel pieces needed for the drills
+were strapped lengthwise between two mules. The saddled animals, which
+were to carry the members of the party were held at a short distance
+while the men were seeing to the final preparations. Four horses had
+been procured for Derby, Porter, Tiggs, and Jenkins; the <i>carabinieri</i>
+had their own horses, and Padre Filippo his mule.</p>
+
+<p>As it happened, the priest had come to Vencata the evening before, so
+that the archbishop had been able to turn over at once to his especial
+guidance the Americanos who had been sent by the Blessed Virgin to
+rescue the <i>bambinos</i> from the inferno of the mines. Padre Filippo was
+short, rotund, with a ruddy complexion and a cheerful crop of
+carrot-colored hair. The two <i>carabinieri</i> were splendid specimens of
+men, but after all, to say <i>carabinieri</i> is enough: for the Italian
+cavalry must stand not only a physical, but also a moral examination
+that goes back three generations. It is not sufficient for a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>candidate
+to be above suspicion himself; his father and his father's father must
+have been so as well. These two men were both over six feet, lean and
+dark-skinned, with that trace of the Arab which one sees all through the
+people of Sicily; and they were silent and serious, in great contrast to
+another type of Sicilians who smile much. They wore the <i>carabiniere</i>
+uniform for the mountain districts&mdash;a double-breasted coat with two rows
+of silver buttons, coat tails bordered with red, two strips of red down
+the trouser seams, a visored cap, and high black boots. They were
+mounted on magnificent black horses, with rifles hung across their
+saddles.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, as the procession started and the hoofs clattered on the hard
+road leading up over the mountain, people crowded out on the little iron
+balconies, heads appeared at the windows&mdash;heads that seemed gigantic by
+comparison with the miniature houses, which were painted brilliant pink
+and blue, mauve and Naples yellow.</p>
+
+<p>As the road ascended, it turned inward away from the sea, and after a
+short distance narrowed into a rocky mountain path that looked like the
+dry bed of a stream, winding through the wilderness. After an hour's
+ride the character of the landscape changed. The semi-tropical
+vegetation grew gradually sparse, and after a while in the distance,
+seemingly in the midst of the path, a great rock loomed gigantic and
+gaunt, cutting in two the blue dome of the sky. Still farther on, they
+came upon <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>stretches of straggling wild peach, olive, and lemon trees.
+Beyond again, tangles of hawthorn were interspersed with patches of
+dried weeds and grass. But as they neared the mining district the soil
+was bleak and barren. The mountain rivers were dry, and their beds made
+yawning gaps as though the earth had violently shuddered at her own
+desolation.</p>
+
+<p>At last, about noon, they came to the village of Vencata Minore, which
+stood in a little plain of green. The house of Donna Marcella was set on
+a slight eminence and, compared with the surrounding habitations, was
+quite pretentious. It was kalsomined white, had a courtyard of its own,
+and back of it was a little fruit and flower garden. Donna Marcella was
+a buxom, thrifty, and dominating woman. Had she been a man she would
+assuredly have migrated to America and become a captain of industry;
+however, circumstances having placed her under heavier responsibilities,
+she came smiling to the door, followed by a troop of brown-skinned and
+curly-haired babies. She courtesied and beamed and gesticulated her
+delighted welcome of the strangers and, upon being shown the
+archbishop's missive, kissed the red seal. A few words were intelligible
+to her, but the reading of a whole letter was beyond the measure of her
+accomplishments, and she looked to Padre Filippo to explain. She could
+write the few nouns and do sums quite well enough, though, to make out
+the bills for her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>occasional guests,&mdash;if in doubt she added another
+figure.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes she had guests&mdash;ah, but illustrious! The Gran Signore, Sua
+Eccellenza il Duca di Scorpa&mdash;that name to be whispered, and yet to be
+dwelt upon&mdash;no less a personage than such an exaltedness had come to
+sleep a night under her humble roof! The distinguished <i>forestieri</i>
+should have the very room His <i>Eccellentissimo</i> had occupied! She seemed
+to choose among the Americans by instinct, assigning to Derby and Porter
+this apartment in which she took such evident pride.</p>
+
+<p>It was, in fact, airy and good sized, scantily furnished, but
+scrupulously clean, and with two great beds heaped high with the red and
+yellow flowered quilts which in Sicilian houses serve the double purpose
+of warmth and decoration: not alone do they lend supreme elegance to the
+bedrooms, but suspended from the windows, they most gayly embellish the
+house front on days of <i>festa</i>.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as his belongings were unpacked, Porter, with an eye for beauty
+as well as a view to making himself popular, began to draw a pencil
+sketch of the little Marcella, a witch of five and beautiful as a doll.
+Tiggs and Jenkins saw to the unloading of the mules. But Derby and the
+<i>carabinieri</i>, with Padre Filippo, after a hasty luncheon of bread,
+figs, and goats' milk, pushed on to the mines. Beyond the outskirts of
+the little village the land soon grew dead again&mdash;not a bird fluttered,
+not a living <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>thing was heard. A few patches of green had sprouted here
+and there in the lava blackness of the soil, but otherwise the country
+seemed under a curse.</p>
+
+<p>A new bend in the road brought them close to a small abandoned
+settlement whose windowless houses gaped, staring like lidless eyes, at
+the pits which had been dug and left like caverns of the dead&mdash;as, in
+truth, they were. Yet nature had softened the graveyard with straggling
+spots of new green. A vapor rose from one of the pits as though a
+monster lay in wait below to destroy his victims with the poison of his
+breath. This was "Little Devil," the priest told Derby. Through the jaws
+of that yawning hole many had entered the gates of paradise! His lips
+muttered a fragment of the prayer for the dead; he crossed himself, and
+Derby noticed that the <i>carabinieri</i> did the same.</p>
+
+<p>During the day Derby had been slowly unfolding to Padre Filippo his
+plans, and now the priest looked anxiously into the American's
+face&mdash;could he still be hopeful of such a cemetery as this? Derby rode
+slowly, making a cursory survey of the conditions. It was much as he had
+expected to find it, he told the priest; he was not disheartened.</p>
+
+<p>They did not stop, as Derby was anxious to go to the Scorpa mines, where
+he expected to secure his men. He had heard enough to know what lay
+before him; and even in anticipation he felt oppressed. Another sudden
+turn in the road gave them a near <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>view of the settlement. Over the arid
+earth spread a dense haze of smoke and yellow vapor, and down in it&mdash;in
+this vapor whose metallic fumes gripped lungs and throat and burned like
+fire&mdash;crawled human beings! Close to the earth they crept, so that the
+rising smoke might spend its worst above them.</p>
+
+<p>Derby had thought himself prepared, but with the horrors actually before
+him, he shuddered uncontrollably; unconsciously, he gripped the pommel
+of the saddle so tensely that his knuckles whitened. The mine of "Golden
+Plenty!" From the horrible mockery of the name, the devil might well
+have taken notes in planning hell! Copper Rock was paradise indeed,
+compared to this inferno.</p>
+
+<p>Little forms passed by him with faces wizened and wrinkled&mdash;were they
+gnomes?&mdash;or what? Surely not children! Small, narrow, stooped shoulders,
+backs bent under loads buckled to tottering legs. Ragged the creatures
+were to the point of nakedness, and on their arms and legs were scars
+fresh and scarlet from the torches of the overseers. Women and men
+crawled near the caldrons, and down the ladders into the hell pits went
+the children&mdash;up with the heavy loads past the torch and lash of the
+devil servers, whose duty it was to see that no panting being loitered.
+Day in, day out, these miserable wretches stumbled under the stinging
+pain of burning flesh&mdash;and once in a while a child's faltering feet
+slipped from the ladder rungs, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>his weak hands lost hold&mdash;a cry, a fall,
+and the "Golden Plenty" had swallowed one more victim.</p>
+
+<p>As Derby's party drew near, a straggling group gathered around the
+strangers. They stared dully and without intelligence, and yet like
+animals in whom savagery is ever ready to burst restraints. The stronger
+men among them glowered at the intruders, turning against a strange face
+with the snarl they dared not show to one grown familiar. Beyond the
+mines, ranged at different heights on the barren mountain slope, were
+huts much like the abandoned ones at "Little Devil"&mdash;black caverns,
+smoke-stained and gaping, where stooping human beings moved in and out,
+maimed and broken like insects whose wings some brutal boy has pulled.</p>
+
+<p>And yet the priest affirmed that to get half a dozen families to leave
+this place and go to the new settlement would be no easy task. They were
+too dull to grasp the promise of betterment, and the very mention of
+"Little Devil" filled them with alarm. It would need many days and much
+patient handling to convince them that the <i>forestieri</i> meant them good
+instead of harm.</p>
+
+<p>Padre Filippo was the one who most persuaded them&mdash;he and a Sicilian
+workman, a native of Vencata who had lately returned from America.
+Between these two the miners' fears were partly allayed, and in less
+than a week's time Derby received a small company of men, women, and
+children into his new settlement. They came like prisoners, un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>der the
+guard of the <i>carabinieri</i>, and so feeble and debilitated were the
+wretched creatures that, for a few weeks after their arrival, Derby
+turned his settlement into a hospital.</p>
+
+<p>Yet suspicion surrounded him on every side. It was one of the
+<i>carabinieri</i>&mdash;the taller one&mdash;who ventured his opinions one day:
+"Signore does not know these people! Signore is letting them grow strong
+that they may the better use their fangs. They cannot believe that
+Signore is not the devil in paying such wages&mdash;in pretending to give
+them a life of ease. The great Duke Scorpa is their friend&mdash;he has been
+able to do nothing. The good and honorable His Eminence the Archbishop,
+not even he may help&mdash;none in this world; not even the Holy Virgin on
+her throne in heaven. If any one comes to interfere it must be the
+devil&mdash;since none but the devil comes to such a land."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right, my friend," Derby answered. "Just you wait and see.
+Animals never resent kindness, and that's all these poor creatures
+are&mdash;just animals."</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime he and the engineers and the carpenters from Vencata
+Minore had worked day and night getting up the scaffolding for the first
+well. The first boiler was set up in a shanty, and pens were hammered
+together to hold the molten sulphur.</p>
+
+<p>From the moment of Derby's arrival in the Vencata mines, the
+<i>carabinieri</i> kept him under the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>closest guard and accompanied him
+wherever he went. But in spite of this there were a few mild outbreaks.
+One day a stone was hurled at him. Another time some half-crazed wretch
+tried to stab him; and once a pit was dug across the road, in which his
+horse broke a leg, so that it had to be shot. This last nearly brought
+Derby to the point of meting out punishment to the offenders. Yet when
+he realized again the sufferings of these people, his anger gradually
+subsided.</p>
+
+<p>However, these disturbances had all taken place within the week after
+his arrival in Sicily, and at the end of the second week he strongly
+objected to being guarded. Each day he knew he gained in the confidence
+of the people, and each day he knew also that they must be improving. He
+felt sure that as their bodies were put in something like human
+condition, their intellects must follow. The <i>carabinieri</i> protested
+that he would be making a needless target of himself should he attempt
+to ride alone in the early dawn from the village of Vencata Minore to
+the mines. The road led between rocks and underbrush where a man might
+hide with perfect safety. But the apprehension of the <i>carabinieri</i> did
+not trouble Derby in the least. "Nonsense," he said. "Why, the miners
+are all beginning to like me&mdash;I can see it in their faces."</p>
+
+<p>What he said was true, and under the new treatment the people were
+beginning to look and act like human beings. Even two weeks were enough
+to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>show a settlement beyond Padre Filippo's highest hopes. No child was
+employed in the mines, neither were the women allowed to work outside
+their huts and plots of ground. They might dig and plant the soil, but
+they were barred out of the mines. With the elimination of the refining
+vats and the reduction of the scorching heat, and with the presence of
+moisture from the steam and water required in the new mining, conditions
+became favorable for luxuriant vegetation.</p>
+
+<p>Besides, Derby had received by cable approval of certain quixotic
+measures: Each family was given a milk goat. The houses were furnished
+with cook stoves, beds, chairs, and tables. And although it would be
+some time before "Little Devil" would seem inappropriate as a name, less
+than three weeks had passed when Derby, sitting in the tent which served
+as his office, felt a real thrill as he footed up assets and
+liabilities. One well had been sunk, and the boilers and engines needed
+to operate it were going full blast. The scaffoldings for two more were
+nearly up.</p>
+
+<p>In the doorway near him Porter lounged, drawing a picture of Padre
+Filippo, who, in turn, was writing on his knees, his fine penmanship
+covering page after page&mdash;all about the miracles of the Americano, and
+addressed to the archbishop.</p>
+
+<p>But his Eminence needed no letters from Padre Filippo to announce
+miracles, since a miracle had happened in his own house&mdash;a marvel that
+had made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> Marianna cross her hands in speechless wonder. The new lamp
+burned on the table, the green reading shade reflected almost as much
+light on the page as the sun itself, and His Eminence might now read any
+book he pleased. The archbishop thoughtfully stroked the cat that lay
+curled on his lap.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not in this world," he mused, "that we shall journey, thou and I,
+to the land of the Americanos, the miracle workers; but assuredly the
+Santa Vergine sent the young Signore Americano to bless our people with
+his miracles&mdash;even as he has sent this one to thee and me."</p>
+
+<p>But beyond the bright radius of the good archbishop's lamp a figure
+waited and watched in the darkness&mdash;the figure of a man with a sinister
+face and across it a mouth that looked like a seam.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>BEFORE DAYLIGHT</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the purple dawn of a morning two or three days later, Derby emerged
+from the house of Donna Marcella, saddled his horse and for the first
+time without his attendant <i>carabinieri</i>, started for the mines. The
+faint light showed him only a blurred and indistinct landscape; and in
+the crisp stillness the leather of his saddle creaked a monotonous
+accompaniment to the horse's hoofs, which struck the road with clean-cut
+staccato sharpness.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, in the big best room on the ground floor of Donna Marcella's
+house, Porter slept. A man's step outside and the fingering of a
+shutter-latch disturbed him not at all; even when there came a nervous
+tap on the window frame, Porter slept on. A moment of silence followed,
+and then a voice breathed stridently, "<i>Signore!</i>" Porter stirred in his
+sleep. A man's head and shoulders appeared over the sill of the open
+window. "<i>Signore! Signore l'Americano!</i>" The tone was louder and very
+urgent. Porter awoke with a start and seized his revolver. "<i>Pax, pax!</i>"
+came the voice as the man dropped out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Signore, Signore.</i> It is a friend who would speak to the <i>Signore
+l'Americano!</i>" The syllables <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>were whispered with ringing distinctness.
+Porter jumped out of bed, revolver in hand. Close to the window, he
+demanded who was there.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a matter of life and death! May I show myself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly!" said Porter. "For heaven's sake, stand up and let me have a
+look at you! And give an account of why you are getting a Christian out
+of his bed at this unearthly hour!" In the glimmering dawn he could see
+the outline of the man's figure, but he could not recognize him.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Signore</i>, I would speak with the big <i>Americano</i>, the one who sent the
+daylight miracle to the palace of the archbishop. I am sent by His
+Eminence the Archbishop. I am Teobaldo his servant. See, I carry the
+archbishop's holy ring to show I speak the truth."</p>
+
+<p>Porter saw the ring distinctly, held between the man's fingers&mdash;"Yes! I
+believe you. Be quick!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have ridden through the night, but I arrive late because I lost my
+path in the blackness. Last night by chance it became known to the
+archbishop that there is a plot to assassinate the Americano. I am come
+secretly to warn him. The assassin is waiting along the road to the
+mine; it is to be there, and the hour is now!"</p>
+
+<p>Porter sprang back into the room. "Jack, Jack! For God's sake, are you
+there?" He tore back the covers of Derby's bed, but it was empty. He
+remembered with horror that the <i>carabinieri</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> were not to accompany
+Derby that morning. He had insisted that they were no longer necessary.
+Scrambling into his clothes any fashion&mdash;his trousers over his pajamas,
+his shoes over stocking less feet&mdash;he strapped on his revolvers, and
+took the window ledge at a bound.</p>
+
+<p>He jumped astride his horse without stopping for a saddle, and beat and
+kicked the poor beast along the road as though the very fiends were
+after him. The horse rocked on his legs and breathed hard, but Porter
+had no consideration for that. The pale dawn revealed an empty road,
+along which he sped at breakneck pace, while beads of perspiration
+gathered on his forehead in his impatience at the seeming slowness of
+his progress. At last the road cut through a tangled bit of forest with
+a sharp bend at the end. Just as he reached the turn two shots rang out
+in quick succession. With his heart almost frozen, he dashed around the
+corner in time to see Derby plunging into the underbrush. Like a wild
+man Porter shouted, "I'm coming, Jack, I'm coming!"&mdash;impelling his
+already spent horse to the spot where Derby had disappeared into the
+thicket.</p>
+
+<p>Derby, like all men who live much in the woods, had almost an animal's
+instinct for danger, and his ears, supersensitive to wood sounds, had
+caught a moving in the bushes. To get his revolver in hand and drop
+forward behind his horse's shoulders had been the act of a second, and
+the bullet whistled <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>over his head. But the immediate effect of the
+attack had been to enrage him out of all prudence. Firing point-blank at
+the smudge of smoke, he jumped from his horse and rushed in pursuit of
+his assailant.</p>
+
+<p>A second shot Derby thought had grazed his coat; he emptied two barrels
+of his revolver in the direction from which it came. Another bullet
+whistled close to his ear, then two shots went entirely wide of him, and
+the next moment he reached a man lying prone&mdash;with blood gushing from
+his head. Derby knocked the rifle out of his hands, but there was no
+further danger of its being fired, for the man had fainted.</p>
+
+<p>In a second Porter dashed up, in a frenzy of terror. When he found Derby
+safe, his fright turned to rage, and he was impatient to put the
+prisoner into the hands of the <i>carabinieri</i>. "Our friend Basso will
+make short work of him, I'm thinking!" he said grimly.</p>
+
+<p>But Derby had no intention of making such a disposition of his prisoner.
+"Not at all," he said deliberately; "we will hand him over to Padre
+Filippo. Priests are better for such creatures than police. Come, help
+me tie up his head&mdash;my shirt will do!" Suiting the action to his words,
+he pulled off his coat. His shirt was scarlet!</p>
+
+<p>"Great Heavens, man, why didn't you say you were hit?" Porter gasped.</p>
+
+<p>Derby looked down at his shirt and then quiz<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>zically at Porter. "Funny,"
+he remarked indifferently; "I thought the bullet had only grazed my
+coat. It can't be much, as I didn't even feel it; however, you might tie
+me up, too." He pulled off his shirt. Porter tore it up and bound
+Derby's shoulder. Then together they made a bandage for the bandit's
+head.</p>
+
+<p>"He's got an ugly mug!" said Porter, as he wiped the man's face. "By
+Jove&mdash;it's the brigand I noticed coming down on the boat! I told you he
+looked like a cutthroat."</p>
+
+<p>"Your natural intuition for character?" Derby smiled, but the next
+minute added soberly enough: "If he came from the mainland we must be up
+against a good deal more than the poor devils here! Who the deuce can he
+be? He's no miner, that's certain!"</p>
+
+<p>They had dragged their prisoner out to the side of the road and laid him
+down. And as Derby insisted, Porter rode off for the priest. Derby sat
+near his charge, who showed no signs of returning consciousness. His own
+shoulder ached now, and he gradually became aware of slight weakness. He
+felt in his pockets for a flask, but found he had forgotten to carry
+one, so he lit his pipe instead, and fell to scrutinizing the man before
+him. He was of small stature, but there was great endurance in the long,
+pointed nose, the strong, lantern jaw; and the face, sinister though it
+was, retained, even in unconsciousness, an expression of grim
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>fortitude. The more Derby studied the man, the more certain he became
+that he was no mere skulking coward.</p>
+
+<p>At last Porter and the <i>padre</i> appeared over the hill. No sooner had the
+priest caught sight of the prisoner than he exclaimed, "<i>Per l'amor di
+Dio!</i> It is Luigi Calluci!" There was added horror in his tone as he
+whispered, "Signore, Signore, he is the body servant of the Duca di
+Scorpa!"</p>
+
+<p>At this even Derby started, but he said quite calmly, "Poor devil! The
+question is, what will you do with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"He must be put under the arrest&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, naturally," chimed in Porter.</p>
+
+<p>But Derby interposed: "He shall be put under nothing of the kind until
+he can give an account of himself. There is no knowing what fancied
+grievance he may have against me. Wait until he has been heard. The
+question of punishment can be considered then. But in the meantime he
+must be nursed!"</p>
+
+<p>"You have his brother in the settlement&mdash;Salvatore Calluci, the man to
+whom you have given special duty in the night shaft." The priest's red
+head wagged mournfully: "It was to the wife of Salvatore you gave an
+extra goat because of her children!" But then he added, brightening a
+little at the thought, "I am sure&mdash;of a truth I am sure, Signore, that
+the brother had no hand in this!"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then; we will take him to the house <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>of Salvatore. We will
+say merely that an accident has happened&mdash;do you hear? I do not want the
+story of an attempted assassination to get about." Derby's voice had
+grown quite weak as he spoke, and the priest and Porter were both too
+concerned for him to think of opposing any wish he might express in
+regard to the prisoner. So they laid the man across the saddle of Padre
+Filippo's horse, and Porter and the <i>padre</i> walked on either side of him
+into camp. Derby rode his own horse, but by the time he reached the
+mine, he had lost so much blood that he was pretty fit for the doctor
+himself. Tiggs, a lean, wiry Yankee, sandy-haired and resourceful, was a
+tolerable surgeon, and he plastered Derby up, pronouncing the injury
+nothing more serious than a flesh wound.</p>
+
+<p>Luigi Calluci meanwhile was carried into the hut of his brother and put
+to bed. If Salvatore and his wife had any idea of the cause of his
+"accident," they said nothing. They were among the most intelligent of
+the miners, and their gratitude to Derby for the change in their
+condition, was proportionate.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not alone the Callucis who had made fast strides. The whole
+settlement had undergone a change that was nothing short of
+transformation. One reason for the rapid improvement was doubtless the
+influence exerted by the Sicilian carpenter who had been to America and
+who had returned a "great man" and rich. Through him as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>interpreter,
+all things the American did were good; and the "land of plenty" lost
+nothing in the telling. The people began to look upon the new mining
+process as a miracle, and the American as sent by the Blessed Virgin.
+The wages were stupendous&mdash;as much as sixty cents a day! But best of
+all, they were wages for work that a human being could do. Around the
+miners' houses were the beginnings of gardens, and several families had,
+in addition to the goat, a few chickens.</p>
+
+<p>Every day Derby went to the hut of the Calluci. Gradually consciousness
+came back to Luigi. Slowly, as reason returned, the events of the past
+weeks formed themselves in distinct sequence. He knew where he was
+now&mdash;at the "Little Devil." Had he not himself descended its ladders
+into the mine's burning pits? Was not that why he was undersized and
+weak of lungs? He bore scars that had seared even deeper than through
+the flesh. He knew the huts, too: caves in which men lived like beasts.
+It was all clear except the surroundings in which he found himself. The
+haggard faces of his brother and his sister-in-law were familiar, yet
+not as he remembered them. The withered bodies of the children seemed
+not nearly so pathetic! Then, full of bewilderment, he heard his
+sister-in-law singing. Singing! Could it be possible that a voice could
+sing in the "Little Devil" settlement! Distinctly he heard another
+sound, the voices of children at play.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Thinking all this must be merely the creation of his brain, he raised
+himself on his elbow and made a careful survey of the room. There was no
+doubt that he was in a good bed, covered by a thick new quilt, and the
+walls were cleanly white-washed. The air held none of the foul and
+strangling odors which never had been, and never could be, forgotten.
+That his brother had moved and had become a well-to-do peasant of the
+mountain slopes and vineyards was the only explanation possible. He
+tried to get out of bed, but fell back dizzy, and his mind wandered off
+again to the semi-conscious vagaries of illness.</p>
+
+<p>In this state of mind, he had become used to a new presence&mdash;a very big,
+very kind personality that hauntingly resembled the Americano&mdash;it was,
+of course, one of those phantoms that appear before fevered
+imaginations. He realized that, and now he made an effort to detach the
+dream from the reality.</p>
+
+<p>But even as he was trying to put his thoughts in order, the door
+opened&mdash;and he vividly saw the figure of his vision followed by his
+sister-in-law. Thinking that his mind was wandering, he lay quite still.
+Then he heard a kindly voice saying, "I have brought soup for him with
+me&mdash;in this jar. You have only to heat it."</p>
+
+<p>Luigi felt a strong hand clasp his wrist and feel for his pulse. Then
+came the full belief that this was no dream, but reality, and that it
+was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> Tyrant, the Americano himself, who laid hands on him. With a
+frantic effort he sprang up and tried to close his fingers around his
+enemy's throat! But firm, powerful hands gripped his shoulders and
+forced him quietly down in his bed. Then he lost consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>When he came to, he thought he had dreamed the whole occurrence. His
+brother and Padre Filippo were sitting beside him, and they would not
+let him talk. But gradually, as his strength returned, he took in the
+story. From his brother, from the neighbors, from the priest most of
+all, he heard, bit by bit, of the work that the Americano had
+accomplished&mdash;the Americano whom he, Luigi, had nearly slain. Slowly,
+slowly, he understood that the "Little Devil" mine had been
+re-christened "The Paradise"&mdash;not by the nobles who owned it, but by the
+people who worked in it. And then little by little the resentment, the
+bitterness, the grievances of his long, hard life turned him against the
+Duke Scorpa just as his realization of what Derby was doing won him over
+to the American.</p>
+
+<p>That Scorpa should have sent a man to stab him was, curiously enough, a
+fact that did not seem to trouble Derby in the least. It was, after all,
+no more than he might have expected. Before he had left Rome, Scorpa had
+warned him. He rather admired him for that.</p>
+
+<p>Derby was heart and soul interested in his settlement. In the short
+space of time since he had ar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>rived in Sicily, the incredible had
+already come to pass&mdash;and to Derby, as he looked forward, there was
+every reason to feel assured that the settlement would develop as he had
+planned. The output of the mines promised to be up to the most sanguine
+expectation. The whole scheme was organized and started&mdash;there was
+nothing to do now but to keep it going.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime he received a cable which, when deciphered, ran:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Telegraph <i>Celtic</i> at Gibraltar, giving Hobson
+instructions where to find you. Put package he
+carries in safe keeping. In case of serious
+development use own judgment." </p></div>
+
+<p>Hobson was one of J. B. Randolph's secretaries. Derby at once wired to
+Hobson to await him in Naples. Then, leaving Tiggs and Jenkins in
+charge, he and Porter embarked.</p>
+
+<p>As they leaned over the deck rail watching the blue shallows where the
+waters of the Mediterranean curled away from the ship's prow, Porter
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"It must be good to be going back to Rome with the feeling that you have
+carried out what you started to do. It's a big feather in your cap, and
+now there is only one thing needed to make the whole episode a romance
+from start to finish!"</p>
+
+<p>Derby interrogated good-humoredly, "And that is&mdash;&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will probably go up in the air if I tell you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Derby looked up from the water. "Go ahead&mdash;say what you like&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to marry Miss Randolph!" Porter declared abruptly, and before
+Derby could protest he hurried on: "Yes, I know what you would say&mdash;she
+is too rich and she is scheduled to marry a title. But I don't think she
+is the sort of girl that really puts as much stock in titles as it would
+seem; and as for money, by the time you have two or three mines like the
+'Little Devil' going, you will be pretty rich yourself. Even with your
+present prospects, no one could accuse you of marrying her for her
+fortune."</p>
+
+<p>"Prospects are very different from actual money, and compared to her I'm
+a pauper," Derby answered. "I don't care what people accuse me of, but
+to marry a girl like Nina Randolph&mdash;even assuming the unlikelihood that
+she'd have me&mdash;would be a fatal mistake, unless I had a fortune to match
+her own. Every changing hour of the day would bring fresh doubt; she
+would never believe in a poor man's love. How could she!"</p>
+
+<p>Derby stood up straight, thrust his hands into the pockets of his
+ulster, and as Porter tried to protest, he withdrew from the discussion
+by declaring that there was nothing to discuss. For himself&mdash;he was but
+a human machine that God had set upon the earth to bore holes in it, and
+to set swarms of human ants working.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SPIDER'S WEB</h3>
+
+
+<p>In Rome, after Easter, society blossomed out afresh. Giovanni Sansevero
+had returned, and to Nina the commencement of the spring season promised
+a repetition of the winter.</p>
+
+<p>Nina's antipathy to the Duke Scorpa remained unchanged, and to her
+annoyance it had happened frequently, when dining out, that he had taken
+her in to dinner. Each time his unctuous, "It is my pleasure, Signorina,
+to conduct you," gave her so strong a feeling of resentment that she had
+to exert a real effort to put her finger tips on his coat sleeve. She
+always kept the distance between them as wide as possible by the angle
+at which her arm was bent.</p>
+
+<p>On looking back, however, she had to acknowledge that his manner had
+undergone a radical change. He no longer alarmed her by aggressive
+pursuit, nor sought to lead the conversation to those personal topics
+which she had found so repellent. Furthermore, he never alluded to the
+threat he had made to her that day at the hunt, nor even mentioned his
+rejected suit. And yet she felt apprehensively that he had not given up
+his original determination.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In the meantime he was untiring in his efforts to interest her, and
+evinced an ability to keep the conversation going with great skill&mdash;even
+more skill than Giovanni, whose natural attractiveness could afford to
+do without the effort that Scorpa found necessary. He flattered her by
+his assumption that she was a woman of the world, and he disguised the
+exaggeration of his expressions in such a way that she thought he was
+speaking but the barest truth. For instance, he dilated upon the
+particular qualities for which Nina herself adored the princess, until
+it became apparent to her that, after all, Scorpa must be a man of
+sensitive perceptions.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, the underlying feeling of terror with which he filled her
+at the first moment of each encounter was far worse than mere dislike.
+Intuitively, she regarded him as a menace, and, through his unvarying
+politeness, she found herself trying to fathom his real intentions. What
+object could he have had in ranging himself with the suitors for her
+hand? He was very rich himself. Aside from his own fortune, "poor
+Jane"&mdash;as every one called his first wife&mdash;had left a handsome amount,
+which, according to European custom, was entirely in his control.
+Perhaps he wanted still more money, and thought that he could find in
+her another source of supply to be exhausted and practically thrust
+aside. Many tales that Nina had heard, many things that she had observed
+were not good for the girl's all too ready cynicism&mdash;and the hard little
+lines around her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>mouth that the princess so disliked to see, were
+growing deeper.</p>
+
+<p>The question of international marriage was one on which Nina found
+herself becoming quite skeptical. She admitted that there were happy
+examples. Her aunt, for instance. Surely no wife was ever more loved and
+appreciated than the princess, even though her husband had one serious
+failing. But then, did not some American husbands also gamble?</p>
+
+<p>In the Masco household too, the bonny Kate was certainly in no need of
+sympathy. That her position was not as good as her husband's name should
+have given her was her own fault. She was not one of those gifted with
+the chameleon faculty of harmonizing with her background. Among the
+mellow pigments of the Roman canvas she was a glaring splotch of primary
+color. But she was far from unhappy.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, so far as Nina's observation could penetrate, the general
+impression of the average Americo-Italian marriage was of sympathetic
+comradeship between husband and wife; in nearly every household she had
+found the indescribably charming atmosphere of a harmonious home.</p>
+
+<p>Yet proposals for the hand of the American heiress were so common that,
+in spite of the delightful households of her countrywomen, Nina had long
+since begun to think&mdash;first in fun and then more seriously&mdash;of the
+palaces of Italy as so many spider webs waiting for the American gilded
+fly. It was at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>the Palazzo Scorpa that her theory became actuality.</p>
+
+<p>The princess had, very much against Nina's will, taken her to see the
+duchess on the day after their own dance. But a serious indisposition
+had prevented the duchess from receiving&mdash;not only on that particular
+day, but for the rest of the winter. Toward the end of March, however,
+in response to a note, Nina was finally obliged to enter the Palazzo
+Scorpa.</p>
+
+<p>It was a rugged gray stone fortress of a place, "like a monster," Nina
+said, "of the dragon age, that sulkily remained asleep and hidden among
+the narrow, twisted streets that had crept around it."</p>
+
+<p>Through the yawning gateway they entered a sunless courtyard. Even the
+porter at the door, notwithstanding his gold lace and crimson livery,
+was austere and forbidding. Within, the palace had been refurnished in
+the most lavish Florentine period, but the effect of the high-vaulted
+rooms was that of a prison.</p>
+
+<p>One room, however, through which they passed to reach the reception
+apartments of the duchess, gave Nina a little thrill in spite of her
+antipathy. The Scorpas had belonged to the "Blacks," that is to the
+ecclesiasticals, and this room was not repaired in modern fashion, but
+hung in tattered purple silk. On one side stood a solitary piece of
+furniture&mdash;a great gilt throne upholstered in red velvet, and above <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>it
+hung a portrait of Pope Alexander VI, the whole surmounted by a canopy
+of red velvet.</p>
+
+<p>"Was he a relation of the duke?" Nina whispered, aghast at the
+resemblance.</p>
+
+<p>"Who, child?" asked the princess.</p>
+
+<p>"Rodrigo Borgia."</p>
+
+<p>"No one knows. Hush!"</p>
+
+<p>"But why the throne? Were the Scorpas kings&mdash;or what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Before the secular unification of Italy," the princess answered, "the
+Holy Fathers used to visit the Scorpa cardinals. There has always been a
+Scorpa among the cardinals. The one now is Monsignore Gamba del Sati.
+Del Sati is one of the numerous names of the Scorpa family."</p>
+
+<p>Nina cast another glance at the portrait of Alexander VI. The sinister
+face was so like the present duke's that it made her shudder, and her
+imagination at once pictured slaves and prisoners being dragged along
+these same stone floors. At the end of ten or twelve rooms, each gloomy,
+yet over-rich with architectural adornments and modern elaboration, two
+lackeys lifted the hangings covering the last doorway, and announced:</p>
+
+<p>"Sua Eccellenza la Principessa Sansevero!"</p>
+
+<p>"Messa Randolph."</p>
+
+<p>The Duchess Scorpa was very gracious to the American heiress. But,
+unaccountably, Nina had a strangled feeling, as though she were a bird
+and had been enticed into a cage. It was a ridiculous notion, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>for, even
+following out the simile, the door was open, she knew; and, for that
+matter, the bars were too far apart to hold her, as soon as she should
+choose to slip through. But the feeling of the cage was oppressively
+vivid, and she clung as closely to her aunt's side as she could. Friends
+of the princess rather monopolized her, however, while the duchess
+neglected her other guests to talk to Nina. To add to the girl's
+distress, the duke, stroking his heavy chin with his fat hand, stood
+beside her chair with what seemed a proprietary air, and a smile that
+was intolerable. "Well, my guests," his manner seemed to say, "how do
+you like my choice? She is not all that I might ask for, but she will
+do&mdash;quite nicely."</p>
+
+<p>Nina glanced appealingly at her aunt, but Eleanor's back was turned.
+Involuntarily she looked toward the doorway&mdash;Giovanni was to meet them
+there, and she longed to see his slender figure appear between the
+<i>porti&egrave;res</i>, to hear the announcement of the well-known name which was
+no less great than that of the odious man who was trying to compromise
+her by his air of proprietorship.</p>
+
+<p>Nina could stand it no longer, and sprang to her feet, in the very midst
+of a long-winded story about&mdash;she had no idea what the duchess was
+saying to her, but she realized that she had done an inexcusably
+<i>gauche</i> thing, not only interrupting, but in starting to go before her
+chaperon made the move. And her discomfiture was increased by a quick
+sense of the Potensi's derisive criticism. Recovering her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>self, she
+exclaimed rapidly: "I am so much interested in sculpture; may I look at
+that statue?"</p>
+
+<p>The duchess, far from showing resentment at the interruption, was
+apparently delighted with the opportunity of impressing upon her guest
+the greatness of the palace and the family of the Scorpas. "Certainly,"
+she cooed, as nearly as a snapping turtle can imitate a turtledove;
+"that is a genuine Niccola Pisano. The original document is still intact
+in which he agreed with the cardinal of our house to execute it himself.
+The portrait of our ancestor who ordered the statue is in the gallery."</p>
+
+<p>Before Nina could resist, she found herself being conducted between
+mother and son through the numerous rooms which terminated finally in
+the gallery. Unlike most of the collections of Italy, this included many
+modern canvases.</p>
+
+<p>Before the portrait of a thin, heavy-boned, frightened-looking English
+girl, the duke assumed a deeply sentimental air, sighing as though out
+of breath. "That is the portrait of my beloved Jane," he said. "It was
+painted by Sargent while we were on our honeymoon." The artist, with his
+consummate skill of characterization, had transferred a crushed,
+fatalistic helplessness to the canvas. Nina found herself, partly in
+pity, partly in contempt, scrutinizing the face of the woman who had
+brought herself to marry such a man.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly an indescribable feeling of oppression seized her. She looked
+away from the picture, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>then, glancing around to speak to the
+duchess, she saw the edge of her dress disappearing through the hangings
+of the doorway, while between herself and her retreating hostess stood
+the stolid figure of the duke, with the most odious smile imaginable
+upon his horrid face.</p>
+
+<p>With a flush of anger that made her temples throb, Nina realized that a
+dastardly trap had been sprung upon her. To leave a young girl even for
+a moment unchaperoned was against the strictest rule of Italian
+propriety. The duchess had brought her all this distance on purpose to
+leave her with the villainous duke&mdash;in a situation that, should it
+become known, would so compromise an Italian girl that there would be no
+place for her in the social system of her world afterward outside of a
+convent. Her marriage with the duke would be almost inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>Determined to give no evidence of the terror that gripped her, with the
+most fearless air she could assume she attempted to pass the duke; but
+he blocked her way so that her man&oelig;uvres came down to the indignity
+of a game of blind man's buff. Nina held her head very high and looked
+straight at her tormentor. "Please allow me to pass." She tried hard to
+speak quietly and to keep the tremulousness out of her voice.</p>
+
+<p>For answer Scorpa quickly closed the intervening distance between them,
+and the next thing she knew the grasp of his thick, hot hands burned
+through the sleeve of her coat, and his face was thrust near to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>her
+own. In a frenzy of fury she wrenched herself free, and without thought
+or even consciousness of what she was doing, she struck him full in the
+face.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of recoiling, he caught and pinned her arms in a grip like a
+vice. "Ah, ha, so that is the mettle you are made of, is it, you little
+fiend! Don't think that I mind your fury&mdash;you will be a wife after my
+own heart when I have tamed you! I am a man of my word&mdash;I said I would
+marry you, and I will! Not many men would want to marry a woman of your
+temper, but you suit me!"</p>
+
+<p>In her horror Nina felt her throat grow dry. She stared at the thick,
+red, cruel, animal lips of the man with a loathing that almost paralyzed
+her power to move; while his hands pressed numbingly into the flesh of
+her arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me go! Do you hear"&mdash;her voice shook with fright and rage&mdash;"let me
+go! At once! You coward! You beast!"</p>
+
+<p>And like a beast he snarled his answer: "Scream all you please! You
+could not be heard if you had a throat of brass!" Then mockingly he
+sneered, "Come, won't you dance with me, as you did with the pretty
+Giovanni? You had his arms around you lovingly enough! But, by Bacchus!
+the way to win a woman is to seize her, after the good old customs of
+our ancestors!" And with that he drew her close to him&mdash;so close that,
+though she screamed and struggled like a fury, his lips drew
+nearer&mdash;nearer&mdash;&mdash;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then a jar struck through her blinding rage; in a daze she felt herself
+released, and realized that Giovanni had appeared; that he had gripped
+Scorpa around the throat until his eyes started out of their sockets;
+and then sent him sprawling to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>With the relief and reaction, everything seemed to recede from Nina and
+grow black. Dimly she felt that Giovanni had put his arm around her to
+support her. "Come quickly, Mademoiselle, before there is a scene"&mdash;she
+heard his voice as though it were far off. But she was perfectly
+conscious. She knew that Scorpa still lay on the floor as Giovanni
+hurried her through another set of rooms and led her down a staircase
+that brought them to a second entrance door&mdash;one by which, as it
+happened, Giovanni had come in. The footman on duty looked as though he
+were going to bar their egress, but Giovanni ordered him to open the
+door quickly. "The lady is fainting," he said, and a glance at Nina's
+face too well confirmed it. Besides, the man would hardly have dared
+disobey a Sansevero. Once in the open air, they lost no time in going
+around to the main entrance. The Sansevero carriage was waiting, and
+Giovanni put Nina in. "Wait here a moment&mdash;I will go up and tell
+Eleanor."</p>
+
+<p>Nina was shaking from head to foot. "No&mdash;no&mdash;don't leave me; take me
+away!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not seemly to drive with you, Mademoiselle; I will return in a
+moment."</p>
+
+<p>But by this time Nina was hysterical. "No&mdash;no&mdash;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>please take me home,"
+she begged. "The carriage can come back." And she began to sob.</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni hesitated, then jumped in quickly, telling the coachman to
+drive home as fast as possible.</p>
+
+<p>"It must have been a frightful experience," he said, as they started.
+"Thank God I came even when I did."</p>
+
+<p>A shudder ran through Nina. Instinctively she drew away from Giovanni,
+merely because he was a foreigner, and of the same race as Scorpa. She
+could still see those thick, loathsome lips approaching her own, and the
+recollection gave her a nauseating sense of pollution. Holding her hands
+over her face, she sobbed and sobbed.</p>
+
+<p>Giovanni let her cry it out. It was not a moment to play on her
+feelings&mdash;they were too strained to stand any other emotion. Yet had he
+considered nothing but his own advantage, he could not better have used
+his opportunity than by doing exactly what he did.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, Mademoiselle"&mdash;his voice was soothing&mdash;as kind and
+unimpassioned as though he were talking to a troubled little child.
+"Promise me that you will try not to think about this afternoon. It will
+do no good. Try to forget it, if you can. That man shall never again in
+any way enter your life. At least I can promise you that! Here we are!
+Now," he added in English, as the footman opened the door, "go upstairs
+and lie down. I will go back immediately and tell Eleanor that you felt
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>suddenly ill and that the carriage took you home. It is not likely that
+Scorpa has given any version of the affair."</p>
+
+<p>But a new fear assailed Nina. "You cannot go back! The duke will kill
+you! He would do anything, that man!"</p>
+
+<p>There was pride in Giovanni's easy answer. "He is not very agile," he
+laughed; "to stab he would have first to reach me!" Then seriously and
+very gently he added, "You are overstrung and nervous, Mademoiselle. On
+my honor I promise you need never fear him again."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by that?" Startled, she put the question.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," he rejoined lightly, "only that a man never repeats a
+performance like that of the duke. The Italian custom prevents!" he
+added, with a curious expression of whimsicality over which Nina puzzled
+as she mounted the stairs to her room. Even in her shaken state, she
+marveled at the contrast between Giovanni's finely chiseled features and
+the elastic strength that must have been necessary to overpower the bull
+force of the duke. She thought gratefully of the sympathy in his gentle
+voice, as well as in his whole manner during the ten minutes which were
+all that had elapsed since the duchess left her. She realized with what
+perfect tact and perception he had treated her on the way home. And
+suddenly her heart went out to him. She felt now, as she went through
+the long stone corridors and galleries toward <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>her room, that instead of
+drawing away from him, were he at that moment beside her, she might
+easily sob her emotions all peacefully out in his arms.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In the meantime Giovanni returned to the Palazzo Scorpa and, ascending
+the main stairway, entered the antechamber of the reception room. The
+old duchess was hovering anxiously at the entrance of the rooms leading
+to the picture gallery, the closed <i>porti&egrave;res</i> screening her from the
+guests to whom she had not dared to return without Nina. The rugs laid
+upon the marble floors dulled all sound of Giovanni's footfalls, so that
+he appeared without warning, and with his own hand hastily lifted the
+<i>porti&egrave;re</i>, disclosing her to her waiting guests. She had no choice but
+to precede him, doubtless framing an excuse for Nina's absence. If so,
+she need not have troubled, for Giovanni spoke in her stead, and with
+such distinct enunciation that the whole roomful heard:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Randolph felt suddenly ill and asked to go home. I came just as
+the carriage was disappearing, and found the duchess much disturbed over
+it, though I assured her it was quite usual for young girls to go about
+alone in America."</p>
+
+<p>His look at the duchess demanded that she corroborate his account.</p>
+
+<p>"It was too bad," she said, glibly enough. "I should have accompanied
+her as I was, without hat or mantle even, but Miss Randolph was gone
+before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> I really had time to think. It is, after all, but a step to the
+Palazzo Sansevero."</p>
+
+<p>Eleanor Sansevero arose. Through a perfect control and sweetness of
+manner the most careless observer might have read displeasure. "Of
+course," she said, enunciating each word with smoothly modulated
+distinctness, "in America there could be no impropriety in a young
+girl's driving alone, but I am sorry you did not send for me. Your son
+left the room at the same time&mdash;he has not returned."</p>
+
+<p>The American princess towered in slim height above the stolid dumpiness
+of the duchess. From appearance one would never have guessed rightly
+which of the two women could trace her lineage for over a thousand
+years.</p>
+
+<p>The mouth of the duchess went down hard in the corners, and her dull,
+turtle eyes contracted, then her lips snapped open to answer, but
+Giovanni again saved her the trouble. "I met Scorpa on the street about
+ten minutes ago. He was going toward the Circolo d'Acacia."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah yes, Todo was filled with regret, as he wanted to show Miss Randolph
+the portraits," haltingly echoed the duchess, but she glanced uneasily
+at the door. "I was glad he did not see her indisposition&mdash;he has a
+heart as tender as a woman's, and it would have distressed him greatly!
+I do hope, princess, that you will find her quite recovered on your
+return. I think it must be the effect of sirocco."</p>
+
+<p>The other guests supported her in chorus. "The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>sirocco is very
+treacherous," ventured one. "She was perhaps not acclimatized to Rome,"
+said a second. "I thought she looked pale," chimed a third.</p>
+
+<p>The princess made her adieus at once and, followed by Giovanni, left the
+palace. For a few minutes the various groups, disposed about the Scorpa
+drawing-room, conversed in low whispers, but by the time the Sanseveros
+were well out of earshot the duchess had turned to the whispering groups
+with a hauteur of expression conveying quite plainly that it was not to
+be endured that a Sansevero, born American, should imply a criticism of
+a Duchess Scorpa, born Orsonna.</p>
+
+<p>"A headstrong young barbarian from the United States is quite beyond my
+control," she shrugged. "How can I help it if she chooses to run from
+the palace, like Cinderella when the clock strikes twelve!"</p>
+
+<p>One or two of those present who were friends of the Princess Sansevero
+may have resented the implied slight to her democratic birth. But though
+there was a vague appreciation of something beneath the surface in this
+American girl's sudden departure, there was nothing to which any one
+could take exception.</p>
+
+<p>The Contessa Potensi, however, had long waited for just such an
+opportunity, and seized it. "I felt sorry for Eleanor Sansevero," she
+said sweetly. "It puts her in an unendurable position to have to defend
+such a person. Naturally she <i>has</i> to defend <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>her, since she is her
+niece. I am sure she did not want her for the winter&mdash;but her parents
+would not keep her. It is no wonder they would be willing to give her a
+big dot!"</p>
+
+<p>There was general excitement. "What do you know?" the company cried in
+chorus. "Tell us about it!"</p>
+
+<p>But the Potensi at once became very discreet. For nothing would she take
+away a young girl's character. Besides, Eleanor Sansevero was one of her
+best friends&mdash;it would not be loyal to say anything further. More
+definite information she would not disclose, but her manner left little
+to the imagination.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely you can tell us something of what is said," insinuated the old
+Princess Malio, adjusting her false teeth securely in the roof of her
+mouth as if the better to enjoy the delectable morsel of scandal that
+she felt was about to be served. But the contessa, with a
+"could-if-she-would" expression, refused to say anything more, and the
+old princess turned instead to the duchess with, "Tell us the <i>truth</i>
+about Miss Randolph's sudden illness!"</p>
+
+<p>The truth, of course, was out of the question. Public sympathy must have
+gone against her and her son, and she hedged to gain time, "It is not
+all worth the thought needed to frame words."</p>
+
+<p>The old Princess Malio made a swallowing motion, still waiting. "Yes?"
+she encouraged eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Any one could see what happened," said the duchess reluctantly, as
+though she were loath to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>speak scandal. "The American girl, through
+lack of training&mdash;it is, after all, not her fault, poor thing&mdash;knows no
+better than to try to arrange matters for herself! She wanted, of
+course, to have an opportunity of talking to my Todo alone. Her plan to
+go into the picture gallery here, however, necessitated my chaperoning
+her, and then&mdash;contrary to her expectations&mdash;Todo, who did not fall in
+with her scheme, said he had an engagement and at once left. She could
+not, of course, declare the picture gallery of no interest, so I took
+her, but in her disappointment she quite lost her temper, so much so
+that it made her ill. And then she took the matter in her own hands and
+went home&mdash;I was never so astonished in my life! She ran off with
+Giovanni Sansevero so fast I could not catch up with them. I <i>suppose</i>
+he put her in the carriage, but for all I know he took her somewhere
+else. I followed to the front door and waited, not knowing what to do.
+Just as I returned to inform Princess Sansevero, for whom I have always
+had the highest regard, Giovanni commenced with his own account. What
+could I do except agree to his statement?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked inquiringly from one to the other. "That is the whole story!
+But I have made up my mind to one thing"&mdash;she spread her fat fingers
+out&mdash;"not even her millions would induce me to countenance Todo's
+marriage with such a self-willed girl as that!"</p>
+
+<p>The old Princess Malio looked like a bird of prey <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>whose prize morsel
+had been stolen from it. "There is more in this than appears," she
+whispered to a timid little countess sitting next to her.</p>
+
+<p>The latter's half-hearted, "Do you think so, really?" voiced the
+attitude of nearly all present. The Scorpas were, to use the old Roman
+proverb, "sleeping dogs best let alone," and the Sanseveros, though not
+as rich, were none the less too great a family to side against.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>While the voice of the duchess was still echoing in the drawing-room of
+the Palazzo Scorpa, Nina had thrown herself into the corner of the sofa
+in her own room. She had a perfectly normal constitution, but she had
+been not only infuriated and horrified, but really frightened, and her
+nerves were unstrung.</p>
+
+<p>As she grew calmer, she thought more clearly; and she found that the
+afternoon's experience, horrible as it was, held some leaven&mdash;Giovanni's
+behavior stirred her deeply. She had realized the power of his muscles
+under his slight build before&mdash;when he had held the Great Dane's throat
+in his grip&mdash;and she had seen his flexibility, in turning
+instantaneously from fury to suavity. Yet his masterful attack upon her
+assailant, followed by his sympathy and comprehension on the way home,
+thrilled her as with a revelation of unguessed capacities. John Derby
+could not have come to her rescue better, nor could she have felt more
+protected and calmed with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>her childhood's friend at her side in the
+carriage, than with this alien of a foreign race.</p>
+
+<p>She went into her dressing-room and bathed her eyes and cheeks in cold
+water. Then, thinking the princess must surely have returned by this
+time, she decided to go into the drawing-room. On her way she met her
+aunt coming toward her, followed closely by Giovanni, who put his finger
+on his lips, just as the princess exclaimed, "Nina, my child, what
+happened to you? You did very wrong to run off home alone. I can't
+understand your having done such a thing. It was not only ill-mannered,
+but it put you in a very questionable light."</p>
+
+<p>Over the princess's shoulder Giovanni was making an unmistakable demand
+for silence. "I'm very sorry," Nina faltered&mdash;Giovanni was looking at
+her intensely, pleadingly, his finger on his lips&mdash;"but I&mdash;never felt
+like that before. I got terribly&mdash;nervous, and I felt that if I did not
+get away from that house I should go mad." Even the recollection made
+Nina look so distraught that her aunt's indignation turned to anxiety,
+and she put her arm around the girl and led her into the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not like you, dear, to lose control of yourself," she said
+tenderly, and then, as she scrutinized Nina's face in the better light,
+she added: "You do look white, darling. You had better lie down here on
+the sofa. I think I will prepare you some tea of camomile," and then,
+with a final touch of gentle admonition, she added, "We must not have
+any more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>such scenes!" Nina hoped for a chance to ask Giovanni why she
+might not tell the princess what had happened, but the latter did not
+leave the room. Having sent for the camomile flowers, she made Nina a
+cup of tea, and the subject of the afternoon's occurrence was dropped.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE</h3>
+
+
+<p>All that evening Nina was tense and nervous, not only because of her
+experience at the Palazzo Scorpa, but because of something portentous in
+Giovanni's unexplained demand for silence. He was not at the same dinner
+party with her, but she went on to a dance at the Marchese Valdeste's,
+feeling sure that she would have a chance to speak with him there. He
+always danced with her several times during a ball, and, as he was not
+very much taller than she, she could easily talk to him without danger
+of any one's overhearing.</p>
+
+<p>Her partners undoubtedly found her <i>distraite</i>; her attention vacillated
+from one side of the ballroom to the other, as she searched for a
+well-known, graceful figure and a small, sleek black head. All the time,
+too, she was fearful of seeing a square-jawed face that kept recurring
+to her memory as she had last seen it that afternoon&mdash;distorted, with
+mouth open, and eyes protruding from their sockets. Vivid pictures of
+the terrible incident flashed before her as she tried to listen to her
+partners; now she was swept with horror and revulsion, and again she
+felt a strange thrill at thought of the steely strength of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> Giovanni's
+arms, as he had half carried her down the stairway. But she looked in
+vain for her protector&mdash;neither he nor the duke appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Signorina?" Prince Allegro's voice broke jarringly upon her
+recollections. "I am afraid I dance too fast!"</p>
+
+<p>Nina recovered herself with a start. "Oh, no! But I feel&mdash;a little
+tired; I wish we might sit down."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me conduct you into the next room&mdash;or shall I take you to the
+princess? Perhaps it would be better for you to go home."</p>
+
+<p>Nina smiled. "No," she said, "I am all right. The room is very warm, I
+think."</p>
+
+<p>The Contessa Potensi, walking for once with her husband, passed through
+the adjoining room just as Nina had finally succeeded in focusing her
+attention upon Allegro's sprightly chatter. As they passed, the contessa
+stopped a moment to say to Nina, "I am so glad to see that you have
+recovered from your sudden indisposition of this afternoon." But her
+tone was neither solicitous nor sincere, and she hid her hands in such a
+way that she might have been making with her fingers the little horns
+that are supposed to be a protection against the evil eye.</p>
+
+<p>"I am much better, thank you," Nina answered simply.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't let me keep you standing. I merely wanted to be assured that you
+are recovered. I would not interrupt a <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>The contessa's manner suggested to Nina that it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>was perhaps
+questionable taste for a young girl to sit out part of a dance. Instead,
+therefore, of resuming her place on the sofa, she asked Allegro to take
+her to the princess.</p>
+
+<p>During the rest of the evening she had an uncomfortable conviction that
+the Contessa Potensi was talking about her. She always had this
+impression in some degree whenever the contessa was present, but
+to-night it was strong and unmistakable. And after a while she became
+aware that other people's eyes were upon her with a new expression, that
+was not idle conjecture nor unmeaning curiosity. The old ladies against
+the wall whispered together and glanced openly in her direction, as
+their gray heads bobbed above their fans.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the evening, as she was descending the staircase with her
+aunt and uncle, she was joined by Zoya Olisco, who whispered excitedly,
+"Tell me, <i>cara mia</i>&mdash;what happened this afternoon?"</p>
+
+<p>Nina started. "What have you heard?" She tried to look unconcerned, but
+her face was troubled, and she drew Zoya out of her aunt's hearing.</p>
+
+<p>"It is rumored that you lost your temper&mdash;oh, but entirely! and walked
+yourself out of the Palazzo Scorpa without so much as saying good-by or
+waiting for your chaperon."</p>
+
+<p>Nina hesitated, then said in an undertone, "Yes, I am afraid it is true.
+Was it a dreadful thing to do?"</p>
+
+<p>The contessa laughed softly. "I told you that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>you were a girl after my
+own heart. In your place I should have walked myself out of that house
+as quickly as I had entered, but all the same&mdash;that would not be my
+advice. However, this is not the serious part of the story." Even Zoya's
+buoyancy became restrained as she concluded: "All Rome is asking what
+you have done with the duke. He followed you out of the room and has not
+been seen since. Giovanni is said to have spoken of seeing him at the
+club&mdash;and that is known to be untrue. Carlo was at the Circolo d'Acacia
+all the afternoon; so was that Ugo Potensi, as well as a dozen
+others&mdash;and neither Scorpa nor Giovanni was there! So where is the duke?
+Come, tell me!"</p>
+
+<p>A look of terror came into Nina's eyes, and the young contessa darted
+her a swift returning glance of comprehension. "Listen, <i>carissima</i>,"
+she said, "I am your friend, therefore don't look so frightened&mdash;you are
+a regular baby! The situation is not difficult to read. Obviously there
+was a scene between you, the thick duke, and the agile Giovanni. Just
+what it was all about, of course, I can only surmise; but I <i>do</i> know
+that Giovanni is deep in it, and, what is more important, I know also
+that the result is likely to be troublesome for you. For men to quarrel
+between themselves is one thing; but when a <i>woman</i> comes into it, one
+can never see the end."</p>
+
+<p>"Woman? I know nothing of any woman." Nina shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I told you that you were a baby! But we can't <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>talk here. I shall come
+to see you to-morrow, but not until late in the afternoon. I shall then
+perhaps be useful, for in the meantime I am going about like the wolf in
+the sheep's pelt, to see what news I can pick up. Till then&mdash;have
+courage!"</p>
+
+<p>Just then the Sansevero carriage was announced, and Nina was obliged to
+hasten after her aunt. At the door she glanced back at Zoya with a
+half-questioning look, which the contessa answered by blowing her a
+kiss.</p>
+
+<p>That night the little sleep Nina was able to get was fitful and broken
+by dreams. The duke and his mother appeared to her as cuttlefish in a
+cave under perpendicular cliffs that ran into the sea. Nina was out in a
+little boat alone, and the waves dashed the tiny craft nearer and nearer
+to the cave where the cuttlefish were waiting; finally she came so close
+that one tentacle seized her. Terrified, she awoke. After hours of
+half-waking, half-sleeping, formless confusion, she dreamed again. In
+this dream she and Giovanni were on horseback. She was sitting in a most
+precarious position on the horse's shoulder, but was held securely by
+Giovanni's arm around her waist. Behind them she heard the pounding of
+many horses in pursuit. The whole dream had the underlying terror of a
+nightmare, and just as the distance diminished, and they were nearly
+caught, the ground gave way and they pitched over a precipice. As they
+were falling and about to be dashed on the rocks at the bottom of the
+ravine, she heard a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>woman's laugh, and recognized it as that of the
+Contessa Maria Potensi.</p>
+
+<p>She awoke, trembling, and lit her lamp. It was nearly four o'clock, and
+she had slept but half an hour. Near her bed was an American magazine;
+she read the advertisements, to fill her mind with thoughts commonplace
+and practical enough to banish dreams. The sun was rising when at last
+she fell asleep, and she did not awake until nearly noon.</p>
+
+<p>The morning's mail brought her a letter from John Derby&mdash;a good letter,
+simple and frank, like himself, full of enthusiasm and of plans for
+making the "Little Devil" a model settlement. He would arrive in Rome,
+he told her, within a week. But even John's letter gave her only a few
+moments' relief from her distressing memories.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing that she had to pay visits with her aunt again that afternoon,
+she put on her hat before lunch, in the hope of securing an opportunity
+to speak with Giovanni while waiting for Eleanor, who always dressed
+after luncheon. When she was nearly ready to go down, Celeste answered a
+knock at the door, but, instead of delivering a package or message,
+disappeared. After at least five minutes she returned, and, with a
+noticeable air of mystery, locked the door, and then gave Nina a letter.
+"I was told to give this into Mademoiselle's hands, without letting any
+one know," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Nina felt an undefined misgiving as she tore open the envelope. Though
+she had never seen Giovanni's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>handwriting, she had no doubt that it was
+his. It looked as though it might not be very legible at best; but on
+the sheet before her the shaking, uneven letters trailed off into such
+filiform indistinctness that she had to go through it several times
+before she could decipher the following, written in French:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Mademoiselle, I understand you well enough to be
+sure that you will ask for the truth at all costs,
+but in giving it to you, I also depend upon your
+honor to divulge to no one, not even Eleanor, what
+I tell you: I fought Scorpa this morning and have
+sustained a bullet wound in the arm.
+Unfortunately, it was impossible to hide, as the
+bone is broken and it had to be put in plaster.
+Scorpa's condition is, I am told, serious. If it
+goes badly, I shall have to leave the country,
+though I doubt if he allows the real cause to be
+known. I rely upon your discretion as completely
+as you may rely upon my having avenged an insult
+offered to the purest and noblest of women.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg you to believe, Mademoiselle, in the
+respectful devotion of the humblest of your
+servants. </p></div>
+
+<div class='right'>
+"<span class="smcap">Di Valdo</span>."<br />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Nina folded the letter and locked it away in her jewel case, moving as
+if in a daze. She felt faint and suffocated. Giovanni had risked his
+life&mdash;for her sake! He was hurt&mdash;what if the wound should prove serious,
+what if he should lose his arm! Oh, if only she might go to her aunt and
+pour out the whole story! But she was in honor bound to say nothing
+without Giovanni's permission, and she must master herself at once in
+order to appear as usual at luncheon.</p>
+
+<p>A little later, as she entered the dining-room, she <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>heard the prince
+saying&mdash;"Pretty serious accident." He turned at once to her:</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard?" he said, and as she merely inclined her head, he
+hastened to explain: "Giovanni, it seems, slipped this morning and broke
+his arm. But, though the fracture is a very serious one, he is in no
+danger."</p>
+
+<p>Nina tried to speak, but her tongue seemed glued to the roof of her
+mouth. Naturally enough, both Eleanor and Sansevero interpreted her
+pallor and agitation as a sign of interest in Giovanni. "He broke the
+elbow," the prince continued; "a 'T' break, it is called, which may
+leave the joint stiff. There was a piece of bone splintered." Nina
+gripped the under edge of the table&mdash;she knew what had splintered the
+bone! She almost screamed aloud, but she set her lips, held tight to the
+table, and tried to appear calm; while Sansevero, in spite of his
+anxiety for his brother's condition, could not help feeling great
+satisfaction in what looked so encouraging to Giovanni's suit.</p>
+
+<p>"Giovanni went to the surgeon's," he continued. "Imagine&mdash;he walked
+there! He should never have attempted such a thing. He had quite an
+operation, for the splintered portions of the bone had to be cut away.
+The arm is now in plaster, and they won't be able to tell for weeks
+whether he ever can move his elbow again. They brought him home a couple
+of hours ago. He is now a little feverish, but a sister has come to
+nurse him, and we have left him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>to rest." Then Sansevero turned to his
+wife: "It all sounds very queer to me, Leonora. What was the matter with
+the boy, anyway? Why did he not send for me? And why did he not go to
+bed like a sensible human being and stay there?"</p>
+
+<p>Nina was on tenterhooks. She so wanted to ask her aunt and uncle what
+they really thought! She wondered if they truly had no suspicions. Or
+were they perhaps dissimulating as she herself was trying with poor
+success to do? She could not understand how the princess, who was
+usually quick of perception, could possibly be blind to the real facts
+of the case. She felt choked&mdash;as if she herself had fired the shot that
+might bring far more horrible consequences than her aunt and uncle knew.</p>
+
+<p>The princess, seeing Nina's face grow whiter and whiter, asked anxiously
+if she felt ill.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;not a bit!" Nina answered, looking as though she were about to
+faint. After several unsuccessful attempts to turn the conversation into
+happier channels, the princess met with some success in the topic of
+John Derby and the miracles with which rumor credited him. Nina listened
+with half-pathetic interest, but her hands trembled, and the few
+mouthfuls she took almost refused to go down her throat. In her heart,
+at that moment, everything gave way to Giovanni. She reproached herself
+deeply for lack of belief in him. Always she had acknowledged that he
+was charming, but the doubt of his sincerity had weighed against her
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>really caring for him. She had accepted John Derby's casual words, "The
+Europeans do a lot of beautiful talking and picturesque posing, but when
+it comes to real devotion you will find that one of your Uncle Samuel's
+nephews will come out ahead."</p>
+
+<p>All that was ended; there was no more question about what the Europeans
+would do when it came to a test. Giovanni had done far more than say
+beautiful, graceful things&mdash;he had proved to her that her honor was
+dearer to him than his life, and she was stirred to the very depths of
+her soul. In the midst of Eleanor's talk of John Derby, she tried to
+imagine what John would have done in Giovanni's place. He would have
+thrashed the man within an inch of his life&mdash;that she knew. But, manly
+as that would have been, it could not compare with Giovanni's course in
+silently waiting fourteen or fifteen hours and then deliberately going
+out in the dull gray dawn and standing up at forty paces as a target for
+Scorpa's bullet. She thought how, while she had been merely tossing in
+her bed, unable to sleep, intent on herself, dwelling on her injured
+dignity and the horror of that brute's touch, Giovanni had been sitting
+up through the same long night, putting his affairs in order, and
+looking death in the face! And she found herself forced to realize that
+Giovanni&mdash;whose instability had been the strongest argument against
+allowing herself to love him&mdash;had paid a price so high that his right to
+her faith must henceforward be unquestioned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She had only a vague idea when luncheon ended, or what visits she and
+her uncle and aunt paid that afternoon. She went through the rest of the
+day as though dazed. Fortunately, her agitation seemed natural to the
+prince and princess, and her apparent interest in Giovanni was so near
+to the truth that she did not mind. Late that afternoon she and Zoya
+Olisco sat together behind the tea table, for most of the time alone.
+Zoya had the story pretty straight, but Nina simply looked at her
+dumbly&mdash;answering nothing. She was relieved, however, to hear that, so
+far, people had evidently not ferreted out the facts.</p>
+
+<p>They were not to find out through the papers. On the morning after the
+duel, the <i>Tribunale</i> had this paragraph:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Society of Rome will be sorry to learn that the
+Duke Scorpa is seriously ill at his Palazzo. The
+doctor's bulletins announce that their illustrious
+patient is suffering from a malignant case of
+fever which at the best will mean an illness of
+many weeks." </p></div>
+
+<p>But it was not until the next day that there was a paragraph to the
+effect that the Marchese di Valdo had met with an accident. A passer-by
+had seen him slip in front of his club, the Circolo d'Acacia. It seems
+the wind carried his hat off suddenly, and, as he put his hand out to
+catch it, he fell and broke his arm. Following this came several other
+social items, and then the second day's bulletin about the Duke Scorpa,
+saying that the gravity of his condition remained unchanged.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nina quite refused to be moved to pity by the news of Scorpa's critical
+state. Her only anxiety in connection with him was, what would they do
+to Giovanni, in case Scorpa should die? For <i>how</i> was Giovanni to be got
+out of the country, when he was said to be delirious in bed! By day she
+thought, and by night she dreamed, that they were going to cut off his
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>As the excitement was dying down, John Derby returned from Sicily. He
+noticed that Nina looked nervous and ill, but she tried to convince him
+that it was the result of late hours and dancing. Besides, he had no
+opportunity of talking to her alone, for in consequence of his success,
+all who were interested in Sicily or mines flocked to the Palazzo
+Sansevero as soon as it became known that Derby was there. The fuss made
+over him pleased him, of course; for, after all, he was quite human and
+quite young, and there was great <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'exhileration'">exhilaration</ins> in being the bearer of
+good news. He would not promise any definite amount to the holders of
+the "Little Devil." There would be some money, but that was all he could
+say. He did not yet know how much. To Nina's delight, he actually got
+Carpazzi to accept the position of Tiggs, who had to return to America.
+The plant, once started, no longer needed both engineers. And Carpazzi's
+tumble-down castle not far from Vencata, enabled him to go without hurt
+to his European ideas of dignity to "look after his own property."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In spite of her explanations, John was very much worried about Nina. She
+certainly was not herself. Several times he caught a half-appealing look
+in her eyes, as though she had something weighing on her mind. Yet she
+gave him no chance to ask her confidence. Finally he had the good luck
+to be left with her for a few moments alone, but there was a lack of
+frankness in her face that he had never seen there before, and she had
+an apprehensive, frightened manner that alarmed him.</p>
+
+<p>The question he was almost ready to put, in spite of his resolution,
+remained unasked, and he said instead: "Look here, Nina, I don't think
+you are well! You're awfully jumpy. I never saw you like this at home.
+Has anything happened?"</p>
+
+<p>Nina shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Honest and straight?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him with a distracted expression that reminded him of a
+child afraid of losing its way.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack"&mdash;she hesitated; her voice sounded constrained&mdash;"please don't look
+so&mdash;so serious. It is nothing&mdash;that I can tell you! Don't notice that I
+am any different. Really, I am not. You are my best friend, and the
+first I would go to if I needed help."</p>
+
+<p>Yet, as she said the words, she felt with a sudden, poignant pain that
+they were no longer true. Her mind was in a turmoil, and at that very
+moment, had she followed her inclination, she would have screamed aloud.
+She did not understand why she was so <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>wretched; but one thing was
+certain&mdash;it was <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Giovvanni'">Giovanni</ins> who filled her thoughts!</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Derby interpreted the change in her. He put a question suddenly,
+"Nina, you couldn't really care for an Italian, could you?"</p>
+
+<p>Nina flushed. "I don't know whether I could or not," she said. "I think
+there may be just as wonderful men over here as at home. I know there
+are some that are quite as brave."</p>
+
+<p>Derby frowned. "Nina, Nina&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But Nina did not even hear his interruption. "I wish you knew Don
+Giovanni, Jack," she said. "You would like Italians better, I think!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not that I think ill of Italians&mdash;quite the contrary; but&mdash;I
+should not like to think of your marrying Don Giovanni."</p>
+
+<p>"And why shouldn't I?" The question came near to summing up the problem
+of her own meditations, and his opposition&mdash;with its carefully
+maintained impersonal quality&mdash;piqued her and made the smoldering
+consideration of marrying Giovanni suddenly flame into a definite
+intention.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" she repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I think American men make the best husbands."</p>
+
+<p>Nina was brutal. "You say that because you are an American yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>He let the injustice of her remark pass unnoticed. "I merely repeat," he
+said calmly, "that, married to the Marchese di Valdo, you would be a
+very un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>happy woman. That is my straight opinion. If you don't like it,
+I can't help it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should I be unhappy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't let's discuss it."</p>
+
+<p>"That is just like an American. Do you wonder women care for Europeans?
+A man over here would sit down sensibly and tell you every sort of
+reason."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and one sort of reason as well as another. For, or against,
+whichever way the wind might happen to be blowing!"</p>
+
+<p>In spite of herself, Nina was disagreeably conscious of the truth of his
+judgment. But she shut her mind to it, as she exclaimed, "And you say
+you don't dislike Italian men!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't! You are altogether wrong. I have been over here often
+enough to admire them tremendously, in a great many ways. But I don't
+like to see the girl I&mdash;the girl I have known all her life, marry a man
+that I feel sure will break her heart."</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt Eleanor's heart is not broken!"</p>
+
+<p>Derby walked up and down the floor, then stood still, stuffed his hands
+into his pockets, and looked down at his shoes as though their varnish
+were the only thing in life that interested him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well? Is Aunt Eleanor's heart broken?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not; but, even so, you and she are very different women. From
+her girlhood she was more or less trained for the life she leads. She
+went from a convent school to the house of a brother-in-law&mdash;in other
+words, from one dependence to another.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> She is the type of woman who
+weathers change and storm by bending to the wind."</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt Eleanor! Hers is the strongest character I know!"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course it is! But it is exactly because she is apparently
+unresisting and pliant to surrounding conditions that her spirit is
+unassailable. You, on the contrary, would snap in the first tempest! Or,
+to change the simile, have you ever seen a young bull calf tied to a
+tree, and, in a frantic effort to get loose, wind itself up tighter,
+until its head was pulled close to the tree? That is exactly what you
+would be over here. No girl has ever had her own way all her life more
+than you! Believe me, you have no idea what it would mean to be tied to
+a rope of convention that would tighten like a noose at any struggle on
+your part. As the wife of a man like di Valdo, you would be bound by
+endless petty formalities. Another thing&mdash;which your aunt has made me
+realize&mdash;as an American, you would have to excel the Italians in dignity
+in order to be thought to equal them. Things perfectly pardonable for
+them would finish you. You need only take your aunt and Kate Masco for
+your examples. Kate's behavior is not any worse than that of plenty of
+the born countesses, even. But that's just it&mdash;she <i>isn't</i> a countess
+born, and her ways won't do! Your aunt, on the other hand, is '<i>grande
+dame</i>' in every fiber of her being. Hardly another woman in Rome has her
+graciousness and dignity. These qualities were hers, doubtless, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>from
+the beginning, but you needn't tell me even she found it as easy to be a
+princess as it would seem!"</p>
+
+<p>Nina looked up at Derby in open-eyed amazement. "Gracious, John! I never
+dreamed you were so observing! In a way, I imagine you are right, too.
+But at least, if a woman has to follow conventions to earn a position
+over here, that position is real and worth while when she does get it.
+And a woman like Aunt Eleanor is far more appreciated here than she
+would be at home."</p>
+
+<p>"Humph!" was Derby's retort. "You needn't think that all the
+appreciating of women is done in Italy, though the men at home may not
+put things so gracefully as these over here, who have nothing else to do
+but learn to turn beautiful phrases. I don't think that I am flattering
+myself in saying that if I were to give up my life to the one
+accomplishment of artistic love-making, I might make good, too! However,
+that is pretty far out of my line. I'm a blunt sort of person, but
+I&mdash;well, I care a lot for you, Nina! I'd rather see you marry&mdash;Billy
+Dalton, any day!"</p>
+
+<p>As Derby brought in Billy Dalton's name, Nina had a sense of flatness
+that she would have been at a loss to explain.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack!" she cried suddenly, her surface vanity piqued, but before even
+the sentence which crowded back of her exclamation could frame itself,
+Giovanni's image flashed before her mind and pushed out every other
+impression. She seemed to see him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>racked with suffering, and all for
+her! She hated her own vacillation. She despised herself for a fickle
+flirt. What else was she? Here she was imagining all sorts of vague
+heartaches that were utterly unworthy of her loyalty either to
+Giovanni's love or to Jack's friendship. Jack was her best friend,
+almost her brother, and she had no right to feel so limp because&mdash;she
+did not finish the sentence even to herself; yet she was swept into such
+a turmoil of emotion&mdash;friendship, love, pique, doubt&mdash;that she could
+restore nothing to order. She knew Derby thought Giovanni wanted her
+money&mdash;instinctively her mouth hardened as she thought of it&mdash;but
+then&mdash;every one wanted it except Jack! And at once, with an
+unaccountable baffling ache, she was brought face to face with the fact
+that Jack, as it happened, did not want her at all!</p>
+
+<p>Then, hating herself because she had for a moment thought of Jack as a
+possible suitor, and more especially because of the detestable and
+unworthy chagrin that his not being a suitor had caused her, she became
+hysterically erratic, aloof, and impossible, and began suddenly to talk
+like a paid guide about the sculptures at the Vatican! At the end of
+some minutes, during which Derby failed to get anything in the way of a
+natural remark from her, he arose to go. He left with a strong desire to
+send a doctor and a trained nurse to take Nina in hand.</p>
+
+<p>Down at the entrance of the palace a very pretty woman was speaking with
+the porter. She was talk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>ing vehemently and with much accompanying
+gesticulation. As Derby passed out, she looked up into his face. He put
+his hand to his hat, in a vague remembrance of her features, wondering
+where he had met her, and what her name might be. As he went through the
+archway into the street, the recognition came to him. She was the
+celebrated dancer, La Favorita.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>"THY PEOPLE SHALL BE MY PEOPLE&mdash;"</h3>
+
+
+<p>The following morning, for the first time since his injury, Giovanni was
+brought into the princess's sitting-room, and propped up on a sofa. As
+occasionally happens in early spring, midsummer seemed to have arrived
+in one day, and the windows stood wide open to the morning breeze.</p>
+
+<p>Sitting in the full light of the windows, and close by Giovanni's couch,
+Nina was making a necktie&mdash;a very smart one, of dull raspberry silk; but
+she was knitting rather because the occupation steadied her nerves than
+for any other reason, and the charmingly tranquil picture that she made
+was very far from representing her feelings. She had never been less
+happy or peaceful in her life.</p>
+
+<p>The princess, within easy earshot, was busily writing at her desk. But
+after a while, in answer to an appealing look from Giovanni, she left
+the room. Nina felt no surprise either at Giovanni's appeal or at her
+aunt's response. She knew very well what he would say, and she had long
+been trying to make up her mind what her answer should be. Yet no sooner
+had the <i>porti&egrave;res</i> closed than an unaccountable dread <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>took possession
+of her, and she had an overwhelming desire to escape.</p>
+
+<p>She knitted industriously, her head bent, her eyes intent upon her
+needles. For a while Giovanni lay back against the pillows, idly
+watching her progress; then he raised himself on his unbandaged elbow
+and leaned forward. Even this exertion revealed his weakness: an
+increasing pallor overspread his transparent features, and he spoke as
+sick people do&mdash;with difficulty and as though out of breath:
+"Mademoiselle, you know&mdash;what I have in my heart&mdash;to say&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't, ah&mdash;please&mdash;&mdash;" Nina sprang up and put out her hand in protest.</p>
+
+<p>But he paid no heed. "Donna Nina," he implored, "will you do me the
+honor to be my wife? <i>Carissima mia</i>&mdash;" she heard his voice as though
+from afar, as he fell back against the pillow&mdash;"I love you! Even a
+portion of how much I love you would fill a life!" He took her hand as
+she stood beside him, and pressed it to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>She felt how thin his hand was, and how it trembled. Her conscience
+smote her&mdash;it was all because of her! And for a moment the answer that
+he sought hung on the very tip of her tongue&mdash;hung, faltered&mdash;and then
+raced down her throat again. Her hand drew away from his clasp, and she
+almost sobbed, "I can't, I can't. Oh, I would if I could&mdash;but I can't!"</p>
+
+<p>Then she heard him say gently: "Give me an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>answer later&mdash;I am not such,
+just now, that I can hold my own&mdash;I will wait till I am strong again.
+Will you give me your answer then?" Half choking, she nodded her head in
+assent and hurried from the room.</p>
+
+<p>St. Anthony, the great Dane, who, since Giovanni's illness, had attached
+himself to Nina, stalked after her. She went through the intervening
+rooms into the picture gallery, and there dropped down upon a low marble
+seat and took the big dog's head in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>She believed in Giovanni's disinterestedness; he had given her every
+reason to think he truly loved her. It seemed to her that she had seen
+his real feeling grow gradually. If she could believe in any one <i>ever</i>,
+she must believe in him. Even the astute little Zoya Olisco had
+confirmed the impression by saying that all Rome knew that Giovanni
+cared nothing for money. There had been a very rich girl&mdash;all the
+fortune hunters were after her&mdash;and she was so strongly attracted to
+Giovanni that she made no effort to disguise her preference for him. But
+he showed no inclination to marry a rich wife.</p>
+
+<p>These and many other things were enough to convince Nina that his love
+was real, without the final proof when he had risked his life for her.
+In mere gratitude she would have made the effort to care for him. And
+yet the more she tried to encourage her sentiments, the more they
+baffled her. From the first <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>she had felt timid of something unknown in
+Giovanni. She had thought herself in danger of being attracted too much,
+but now she felt that, throughout, the fear had been of another sort, a
+fear which she could not analyze.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter with me?" she whispered brokenly to St. Anthony. "We
+love Giovanni, don't we? We do! We do!" But her words were meaningless
+sounds that echoed hollowly.</p>
+
+<p>Then slowly she noted the great gallery filled with things flawless&mdash;the
+mellow canvases of the old masters, the marvelous statuary, perfect even
+in the brilliant light streaming through the eastern windows; and her
+thoughts turned backwards to that day when the allure of antiquity had
+most strongly held her&mdash;that day when she had first seen Giovanni dance.
+As the recollection grew in vividness, she was again aware of the same
+strange sensation that she had felt then. It was as though she were
+living in a past age, with which she, as Nina Randolph, had nothing to
+do. Her name might be Tullia or Claudia!</p>
+
+<p>And then once again the memory of Giovanni's high-bred charm, no less
+than of his great estate, which she was now asked to share, seemed to
+hold a spell of enchantment. His words, "<i>Carissima</i>, I love you," swept
+through her memory with a thrill that the spoken words themselves had
+failed to carry. She laid her cheek down on the dog's great head, her
+mouth close to a pointed ear. "We <i>do</i> love <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>him, thou and I," she
+whispered in Italian, "and we will stay here always&mdash;always."</p>
+
+<p>She unclasped her arms from about the dog's neck and sat up straight,
+determined to hurry back through the rooms, before the queer fear should
+seize her anew. She would not wait to analyze her feelings again; she
+would go straight to the sofa and say to Giovanni's ardent, appealing
+eyes&mdash;his beautiful Italian eyes&mdash;"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>But even as the resolve was shaped, there followed swift upon it an
+overwhelming wave of doubt that made her clasp her hands to still the
+turmoil within her breast. It was as if an inner voice repeated, clearly
+and insistently, "You don't love him! You don't love him!"</p>
+
+<p>The dog lifted one huge paw and put it on her knee, his head went up, he
+pushed his cold nose against her cheek, and as she lifted her chin, to
+escape his over-affectionate caress, her glance fell by chance on a
+picture of Ruth and Naomi. On the day when she had first come into the
+gallery Giovanni had repeated, in French, the words of Ruth; and now, as
+she gazed absently at the picture, she found that she was saying to
+herself, not in French but in English, "Thy people shall be my
+people&mdash;&mdash;" Gradually an indescribable, comforted, soothed feeling crept
+over her, as she looked into the true, steadfast eyes of the pictured
+Ruth&mdash;hers were indeed the eyes of one who could follow faithfully to
+the ends of the earth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'Whither thou goest, I will go,'" repeated Nina&mdash;yes, that was the
+test. Giovanni away from his surroundings, and apart from his name&mdash;she
+could not picture him. And should she put her hand in his, whither would
+he lead her? Where did his path of life end? She could not with any
+certainty guess. "Thy people shall be my people"&mdash;how could they ever
+be? They were so widely different&mdash;so utterly different&mdash;she had never
+realized it before&mdash;and then without warning, as a final move in a
+puzzle snaps into place and makes the whole complete, with a little cry
+she started up. For she now knew that the more she tried to focus her
+thoughts upon Giovanni, the more they turned to another quite different
+personality. Until at last, as in a burst of light, she awoke to the
+consciousness that the words of Ruth were bringing a great longing for
+the sight of a certain pair of eyes whose expression was like those in
+the canvas! "'Whither thou goest, I will go&mdash;&mdash;' Ah!"&mdash;exultantly and
+with no fear of doubt; it was true! To the uttermost parts of the
+earth!&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</p>
+
+<p>But she must tell Giovanni&mdash;she must tell him at once, decidedly and
+finally, "No."</p>
+
+<p>Sadly, regretfully, she crossed the room again, her hand slipped through
+the great Dane's collar as though to gain encouragement from his
+presence. In the antechamber of the room where Giovanni lay, she stopped
+and kissed St. Anthony's head&mdash;as though the dog in turn might help
+Giovanni to under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>stand that she was not in truth as heartless as she
+seemed.</p>
+
+<p>The stone floors were covered with thick rugs, the hangings were heavy,
+and her light footfall made no sound. Without warning she parted the
+<i>porti&egrave;res</i>, took one step across the threshold, and halted,
+stunned&mdash;the Contessa Potensi was kneeling beside Giovanni's couch, and
+the sound of Giovanni's voice came distinctly, saying, "For her? But no!
+But because she is of the household of the Sansevero." And then with an
+ardor that made the tones which he had used to her sound flat and
+shallow by comparison, she heard him say, "<i>Carissima</i>, I swear I shall
+never love another as I love you."</p>
+
+<p>The <i>porti&egrave;res</i> fell together, and Nina fled. Two or three times she
+lost her way in the endless turnings of the palace before she finally
+reached her own room. Once there, she wrote the shortest note
+imaginable, declining in terse and positive terms Giovanni's offer of
+marriage. The pen nearly dug through the paper as she signed her name.
+Besides giving Celeste this missive to deliver, she sent her upon a tour
+of trivial shopping&mdash;anything to be left alone.</p>
+
+<p>When the door was closed, Nina threw herself across the bed, still
+hardly able to credit her senses. Giovanni had asked her, Nina, to be
+his wife, not half an hour before&mdash;he still had the effrontery to hope
+for a change in her answer. He had dared to tell her that he loved her,
+he had dared to call her, too, "<i>Carissima!</i>"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With her head buried in the pillows, she did not hear the door open, and
+the princess reached the bed and took Nina in her arms before the girl
+knew that she had entered.</p>
+
+<p>Nina poured out the whole story. The one clear idea that she had in mind
+was to leave Rome at once. She wanted to go away! Above all, she wanted
+to go away! She was by this time quite hysterical.</p>
+
+<p>The princess's coolness gradually dominated as she said finally: "The
+thing is incredible&mdash;you must have misunderstood. I don't know what the
+explanation is, myself, but the worst blunder we can make is to judge
+too hastily. I am sure it will come out differently than it seems, if
+you will but have patience."</p>
+
+<p>Savagely Nina turned on her. "Are you against me? <i>You</i>, auntie! Do you
+side with him? And that Potensi?"</p>
+
+<p>With an expression more troubled than angry, the princess answered
+gently, "Of course, my child, I don't side against you&mdash;but I can't
+believe that they were really as you thought they were."</p>
+
+<p>A sudden violent knocking interrupted, and at the same moment Sansevero,
+who had been looking for his wife everywhere, rushed in, quite beside
+himself, with the announcement that Scorpa was dead. The Sanseveros had
+for some days known the cause of his illness, and the doctor who had
+been at the duel had kept them informed of his condition. Now there was
+not a minute to lose! The news of the duke's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>death had not yet been
+made public, but Giovanni must be got out of the country at once, or
+there would be trouble! A train would go north in an hour, and the
+prince and princess hurried off to complete the arrangements for
+Giovanni's departure.</p>
+
+<p>Left alone in her room and to her own thoughts, Nina's anger gradually
+lessened. Giovanni's danger, and his having to be taken away so weak and
+ill, appealed to her humanity and helped to soften her resentment.
+Whether it had been for love of her or not, it was on her account that
+he had been placed in his present unfortunate situation. He was going
+out of her life&mdash;it was not likely that she would ever see him
+again&mdash;but it took an hour or two's turning of the subject over in her
+thoughts before she came to the conclusion that, instead of being
+resentful, she ought to be thankful for her escape. She had finally
+reached this frame of mind when there was a knock at the door.</p>
+
+<p>"May I come in, my dear?" Zoya Olisco entered as she spoke. She stood a
+second on the threshold, then, closing the door after her, crossed the
+room quickly and, taking Nina's face between her hands, looked at her
+with a half-quizzical grimace. "You silly little cat," she said softly,
+"surely you have not been melting into tears over the duke's death&mdash;nor
+yet for Giovanni's departure?"</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know about it? Aunt Eleanor <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>didn't tell you, did she? Is
+the news of the duke's death out?"</p>
+
+<p>Zoya's raised eyebrows expressed satisfaction, and she exclaimed
+triumphantly: "I knew I was right! Really, it is extraordinary how
+things come about! No one has told me a word. Yet the whole story
+unrolled itself in front of me. Listen"&mdash;she interrupted herself long
+enough to light a cigarette, then sat down tailor fashion on the foot of
+the lounge&mdash;"I was but a moment ago at the station&mdash;my sister went back
+to Russia this morning. As I was leaving, whom did I see but Giovanni
+being piloted down the trainway! He looked really ill, and it would have
+struck any one as strange that he should be traveling. Then all at once
+I thought to myself, 'Hm, Hm! Signore il duca has descended into the
+next world, and the one who sent him there is being banished into the
+next country!' Thereupon I thought further, 'That child of a Nina will
+be hiding her head under the pillows of her bed'&mdash;exactly as you have
+been doing! How do I know? Look at your hair, and look at the
+pillows&mdash;and here I am to scold you!"</p>
+
+<p>Nina looked at her in amazement. "You have put it all together, you
+wonderful Zoya! Compared to you, I never seem to see anything! Oh, but
+this whole day has been full of horrible surprises. I never dreamed what
+sort of man Giovanni is&mdash;and yet I can't help feeling sorry to think of
+his being sent off ill and alone!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How <i>very</i> pathetic!" exclaimed Zoya sarcastically. "It is the very
+saddest thing I have ever heard of." Then her tone changed. "I would not
+waste too much sympathy on him for his loneliness, however," she said
+briskly, "as he has a very charming companion, who, if accounts are
+true, is not only diverting but devoted. That spoils your sad picture
+somewhat, does it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Potensi!" escaped Nina's lips before she knew it.</p>
+
+<p>Zoya blew rings of smoke unperturbed. "So you have found <i>that</i> out,
+have you?"</p>
+
+<p>Nina colored with indignation. "Have you known that, too, and never told
+me? Zoya, you call yourself my friend!"</p>
+
+<p>But Zoya met Nina's glance squarely, as she asked in turn: "What
+difference does it make? Though, for that matter, I've made it plain all
+winter; any one but a baby would have understood long ago. But after
+all, why such an excitement over such a commonplace fact?" Then, with
+far more interest, she said: "You certainly are funny, you Americans.
+What in the world do you think men are? And since Giovanni is not even
+married? However, to finish my story: it was not the Potensi with your
+hero, but Favorita."</p>
+
+<p>"Favorita&mdash;the dancer? Zoya, what do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly what I tell you." Zoya inhaled her cigarette deeply and then
+shrugged her shoulders.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> "When I saw Giovanni, I did not believe it
+possible, that, even on so short notice, he would go off as you said,
+ill and alone. So I went back along the station and waited. In a moment,
+I saw Favorita come out on the platform and pass hurriedly down the
+train, peering into every carriage. When she came to Giovanni's she flew
+in like a bird. I waited a moment longer, and saw the guards lock the
+door and the train pull out!"</p>
+
+<p>Though Nina understood only vaguely what it all meant, she was human and
+feminine enough to find a certain grim satisfaction in the thought that
+Giovanni was no more to be trusted by the Potensi than by herself.</p>
+
+<p>A short time afterward Zoya got up to go. "I shall see you to-morrow,
+<i>cara</i>, yes? Will you lunch with me? And&mdash;I shall like very much if you
+bring the American."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean John?"</p>
+
+<p>Zoya burst out laughing and then mimicked Nina's tone. "Is it indeed
+possible that I could mean him?" She leaned over and kissed Nina
+affectionately, then hurried to the door. On the threshold she paused to
+call back, "One o'clock to-morrow, and be sure of John!" She smiled,
+blew another kiss, and was gone.</p>
+
+<p>Nina looked after her, her thoughts in strange turbulence. A moment
+later she ran a comb through her hair, pinned up one or two tumbled
+locks, washed her face, polished her nails, took out a clean
+hand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>kerchief; after which, she felt quite made over, and went in search
+of her aunt.</p>
+
+<p>If she imagined that the day's emotions were ended, she was destined to
+be mistaken, for just as she went into the princess's room, a messenger
+came with a note from the prince, saying that he had been arrested. It
+was a very cheerful note and sounded rather as though he considered the
+whole situation a joke. He begged his wife not to be alarmed. The police
+had evidently mistaken him for Giovanni, so he had given no explanation
+and refused even to tell his name. When Giovanni should have time to
+reach the frontier, he would prove his identity and return home.</p>
+
+<p>The princess's chief anxiety was therefore directed toward Giovanni, and
+she dreaded lest Sandro's identity be discovered before his brother
+should be safe. As for Nina, she cared no longer what might happen to
+Giovanni. She had had too many shocks and too little time for recovery.
+All her sympathy was for her poor Uncle Sandro who, in the meantime, was
+sitting in jail! Yet the thought of his situation in some way struck her
+as ludicrous&mdash;almost like comic opera.</p>
+
+<p>But following this there came a second letter, very different from the
+first, written by the prince in great agitation, and saying that his
+arrest was not for the death of the duke, but for the smuggling of a
+Raphael out of the country.</p>
+
+<p>At the shock of this news, the princess for once <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>lost her self-control
+and turned to Nina in frightened helplessness.</p>
+
+<p>Nina's first thought was to send for Derby, and to her relief the
+princess not only made no objection, but grasped eagerly at the
+suggestion. Fortunately, she got him on the telephone just as he was
+leaving his hotel, but in her agitation she did not stop to explain
+further than that her uncle was under arrest somewhere because of
+something to do with a picture. Derby answered that he would come at
+once, and the reassurance that she felt from the mere sound of his voice
+partly communicated itself through her to the princess, as they went
+into the sitting-room to wait for him. A few minutes later the
+<i>porti&egrave;res</i> were lifted&mdash;but instead of Derby, it was the Marchese
+Valdeste who entered.</p>
+
+<p>Happily he had been at a meeting in the Tribunale Publico when the
+prince was arrested, and, as an important official and a great personal
+friend of Sansevero's, had hurried to inform the princess what had
+happened, and to place himself at her service. The case was very serious
+not only because of the evidence against the prince, but because of the
+lofty way in which the latter had replied some weeks previously to an
+inquiry from the Ministero. Sansevero said his Raphael was in the
+possession of the Duke Scorpa, but the duke, who had been chiefly
+instrumental in discovering the sale of the picture, was unable to
+shield his friend. Sansevero was questioned again, and refused to say
+anything more. He <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>had answered once, and that, in his opinion, was
+sufficient for a gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>The government thereupon had sent a representative to the Scorpa palace,
+where Sansevero averred the picture was. The duke's servants were
+catechised, but none had ever seen it. To add to the complication, the
+duke was far too ill to be questioned further, and Sansevero was at
+present injuring the case by making every moment more and more confused
+statements about his alleged transaction with Scorpa. First he said he
+had loaned it&mdash;because Torre Sansevero was cold; then that he had sold
+it for one hundred thousand <i>lire</i>; then that no money was received;
+then that he had let the duke have it as security, and that there was an
+agreement whereby he was to get his picture back. When he was asked to
+show a receipt in writing, he went into a rage.</p>
+
+<p>The princess, quick enough to see the treachery of Scorpa and the net of
+circumstantial evidence that he had thrown about them, felt utterly
+helpless. "It is true, even I did not actually see the duke take the
+picture," she said, "and I am the only one who knew anything about it.
+As Sandro's wife&mdash;my word will have no weight at all!"</p>
+
+<p>Valdeste solemnly shook his head. "I fear it is graver <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'that'">than</ins> that&mdash;for
+even Miss Randolph's word that she had made certain unusual expenditures
+would not be believed. The picture might too easily have been sold and
+paid for through her. Unless <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>it can be produced <i>here in Italy</i>, the
+end may be bad. Somehow we must find a way to do that."</p>
+
+<p>Nina was getting every moment more and more nervous&mdash;she could not
+understand Derby's delay. Why did he not come? Since she telephoned, he
+could have covered the distance from the Excelsior half a dozen times.
+Every second of glancing at the door seemed a minute, and the minutes
+hours. After the disillusionments she had suffered she actually was
+beginning to think that he, too, would fail her in the crucial moment,
+when, at last, the <i>porti&egrave;res</i> parted, and Derby entered carrying&mdash;the
+celebrated Sansevero Madonna!</p>
+
+<p>The princess and the marchese were so astonished that only Nina seemed
+to notice Derby himself. With a cry of "<i>Jack!</i> How <i>did</i> you do it?"
+she sprang up, staring at him in bewilderment.</p>
+
+<p>The sound of Nina's voice drew the princess's attention to Derby, and
+she, too, started toward him.</p>
+
+<p>"John! What does it all mean?" she exclaimed, quite unconscious that she
+had called him by his first name.</p>
+
+<p>"It means a rotten plot&mdash;neither more nor less&mdash;to ruin Prince
+Sansevero, concocted by a man whom the prince believed to be his friend!
+The Duke Scorpa has just died, which ends the affair for him, but I have
+the whole chain of evidence that clears the prince. The picture was
+taken in exchange for a promissory note of the prince's, for one hundred
+thousand <i>lire</i>. The duke tore the paper up and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>threw it into the
+waste-paper basket. Luigi Callucci, who was his servant, gathered the
+scraps out of the basket and pasted them together. This same Luigi also
+wrapped up the picture and carried it to Shayne. That's all, officially.
+Actually, there is a good deal more. The facts are that the duke sold it
+with perfect knowledge that it was to be smuggled out of the country. I
+have all the information necessary."</p>
+
+<p>"It is incredible, incredible&mdash;the duke Scorpa!" exclaimed Valdeste.
+"But that the Prince Sansevero is cleared is the main thing." Then,
+turning to Derby, he continued, "I hope you will allow me to express to
+you my admiration and congratulation for the way in which you have
+brought it about."</p>
+
+<p>Upon this the princess joined the marchese by holding her hand out to
+Derby. "I never can thank you enough for what you have done! But for
+you, we should be in a very bad way. I quite agree with the Archbishop
+of Vencata that you must be a miracle worker!" Her voice was a little
+tremulous as she broke off. Then, including the marchese also, she
+added: "But now, my good, kind friends, go, please, and get Sandro out
+of his situation. My poor boy must be in a terrible state of nerves.
+And&mdash;thank you both again!"</p>
+
+<p>The marchese and Derby hurried out, Derby carrying the picture. Nina
+followed them out of the door and stood looking after them until they
+had disappeared down the vista of rooms. Then <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>she exclaimed: "Really,
+John is wonderful, isn't he? Wasn't it just like him not to say a word
+all the time! So many people talk, and do nothing!" Then Nina noticed
+that the princess was holding her hands over her face. She hurried to
+her anxiously. "Aunt Eleanor, what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>The princess put her hands down. "I am just thankful&mdash;that is all. It
+threatened to be so dreadful, I can scarcely realize the relief yet.
+What a chain of circumstances! It is almost impossible to believe that
+even Scorpa would plan them! But it is true I never trusted him. When
+there is a race feud over here it seems never to die out." She paused a
+few moments, and then continued as though half to herself, "Although, in
+this case, I think it was chiefly on account of Giovanni. If you had
+married him, and the duke had lived, I believe he would have spent the
+rest of his life in scheming to injure you and everybody connected with
+us."</p>
+
+<p>At the suggestion of the marriage which might have taken place, all the
+experiences of that varied day came rushing back to Nina&mdash;Giovanni's
+proposal, the revelation of his falseness, and the conversation with
+Zoya which had given her the true key to him who had until then been
+something of a mystery.</p>
+
+<p>With a strained intensity of tone, she suddenly demanded, "Aunt Eleanor,
+tell me, supposing I had <i>wanted</i> to marry Giovanni, would you have made
+no protest?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The princess answered thoughtfully: "I am glad you are not to marry
+Giovanni&mdash;yes, I am glad. Yet even so, he might make a good husband."</p>
+
+<p>Instantly the blood rushed to Nina's head, "Don't you love me more than
+to let me risk a life of wretchedness?" she exclaimed, but the look in
+her aunt's face brought from the girl an immediate apology, and
+presently the princess said:</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I should want you to marry over here at all. At first I
+hoped it might be possible&mdash;but I am afraid you would be unhappy. There
+are plenty of girls who might be content, but not you!" The princess
+took her sewing out of a near-by chest and began hemming a table cloth.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean," said Nina, "that when one reads of the broken hearts and
+lost illusions of Americans married to Europeans, the accounts <i>are</i>
+true? Why did you not tell me before?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, dear. Probably because such accounts are, to me, purely
+sensational writing&mdash;and yet at the bottom of them lies a certain amount
+of truth. In the majority of such cases of wretchedness, if you sift out
+the facts, you will wonder not so much at the outcome, as that such a
+marriage could ever have taken place. When it happens that a nice,
+sweet, wholesome girl marries a disreputable nobleman, who is despised
+from one end of Europe to the other, American parents seem to feel no
+horror until she has become a mental, moral, and physical wreck. To us
+over here it was un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span>believable that a decent girl could think of
+marrying him; that her parents could be so dazzled by the mere title of
+'Lady' or 'Marquise' or 'Grafin' or 'Principessa' that they were willing
+to give her into the keeping of an unspeakable cad, brute, or rake. Do
+you think that it is the fault of Europe if such girls know nothing but
+wretchedness?"</p>
+
+<p>The princess paused, then continued: "On the other hand, if a girl
+marries in Europe as good a man, regardless of his title, as the
+American she would probably have chosen at home; and, above all&mdash;for
+this is most essential&mdash;if she is adaptable enough to change herself
+into a European, rather than to expect Europe to pattern itself upon
+her, she will have as good a chance of happiness as comes to any one.
+Marriage is a lottery in any event. Of course, <i>if</i> it turns out badly
+abroad, it is worse for her than it would have been at home&mdash;much worse.
+Everything over here is, in that case, against her: custom, language,
+law, religion; she is literally thrown upon her husband's indulgence. In
+a contest against him she would have no chance at all&mdash;there is no
+divorce; there is no redress.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet, so far as my personal observation goes, numberless international
+marriages have been happy. The American wife of a European finds many
+compensations&mdash;for although her husband does not allow her freedom to
+follow her own whims, and may not even permit her to spend her own
+money, he gives her a ceaseless attentiveness that never relaxes <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>into
+the careless indifference of the husbands across the sea.</p>
+
+<p>"It is after all a question of choice&mdash;do you want the little things of
+life very perfectly polished or do you prefer rough edges and heroic
+sizes! European men know how to make themselves charming to their wives,
+because with them to be charming is an aim in itself. They have
+versatility, ease, and grace of intellect, where the American men are
+bound up in their one or two absorbing ideas, outside of which they take
+no interest. The Europeans are brilliant conversationalists, they make
+an effort to be agreeable and to take an interest in whatever occupies
+the person they are talking to&mdash;even though that person is a member of
+their family.</p>
+
+<p>"But, of course, as in everything, there is a price one has to pay. One
+can't have rigidity and flexibility both in the same person. For the
+pliancy of understanding, the easy sympathy, one has to relinquish a
+certain moral steadfastness."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the princess looked away and spoke very lightly, as though
+merely brushing over the surface of the thoughts in her mind: "What
+would you have, dear? Men are men&mdash;it is well not to question too far.
+Even the best of them have to be forgiven sometimes." Under the light
+tone, there was an unwonted vibration, and though the princess's face
+was partly averted, Nina caught a shadow of pain in her eyes. But the
+next moment she smiled. "I can tell you a story," she said, "about a
+young bride <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span>whose husband was very fascinating to women. The young
+wife, with suspicions of his devotion to another lady, went in tears to
+her mother-in-law. But the old lady asked her, 'Is not Pietro an
+admirable husband? And is he not a most devoted and attentive lover as
+well?' And the bride sobbed, 'Oh, yes, that is the worst of it&mdash;it is
+almost impossible to believe in his faithlessness, he is so adorable.'
+And her mother-in-law answered: 'Then, my child, be glad that you have
+in your husband one of the most accomplished lovers in the world, and do
+not inquire too closely where he gets his practice.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say that a woman can be happy under such circumstances?"
+Nina demanded. "If that is a typical foreigner, then I am glad American
+men are different! I'd rather my husband were less accomplished and more
+entirely mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dear, I am sure you would," the princess rejoined. "That is one of
+the reasons why I told you. For you, I think a European marriage would
+be&mdash;not best." She looked up quickly. "You ought to marry some one&mdash;I'll
+describe him&mdash;some one quite strong, quite big, quite splendid. And his
+name is easy to guess&mdash;of course it's John."</p>
+
+<p>"John!" echoed Nina dolefully. "John is just the one person above all
+others who does not want to marry me&mdash;or even my money!"</p>
+
+<p>"Your money, no! But <i>you</i>, indeed yes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nina shook her head. "No&mdash;he is not in love with me. In nothing that he
+has said or even looked, has he indicated it."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a little mole, then," said the princess, smiling. "Every look
+he gives you, even every expression of his face in speaking about you,
+tells the story."</p>
+
+<p>Like a whirlwind Nina threw herself at her aunt's knees, pulled her
+sewing away, and claimed her whole attention. "Tell me everything you
+know," she demanded hungrily. "Why haven't you told me before? Why do
+you think so? What has he said to you? Dearest auntie princess, tell me
+every word he has said. Quick! Every word&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The princess, between tears and laughter, looked down at Nina. "Every
+word? Oh, my very dear," she said tenderly, "his love is not of the
+little sort that spends itself in words."</p>
+
+<p>And then suddenly they heard the sound of two men's voices, and the next
+moment the <i>porti&egrave;res</i> parted, admitting Sansevero and Derby. Both the
+princess and Nina sprang up; the princess in her joy ran straight to her
+husband's arms. It was like a meeting after a long separation that had
+been full of perils.</p>
+
+<p>A little later she put out her hand to Derby. "I don't think I shall
+ever be able to thank you enough; it was quite worth all the anxiety and
+distress to have found such a friend." Her smile was entrancing. The
+charm of her was always not so <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>much in what she said, as in the way she
+said it&mdash;in the way she gave her hand, in the way she looked at one, in
+the varying inflection of her voice, in her sweetness, her calm, her
+dignity, and, under all these attributes, always her heart. And never
+had she shown them all more vividly than now as she put her hand into
+Derby's.</p>
+
+<p>Then they all four sat down&mdash;the princess in a big chair and her husband
+on the arm of it leaning half back of her. And nothing could stop his
+talk about his friend the American, and the effect upon the members of
+the committee when the picture was produced and Derby presented his
+chain of evidence. They had been more than polite and courteous to the
+prince, that was true, but they <i>had</i> detained him; him, a
+Sansevero!&mdash;and in the telling he again grew indignant. And yet it had
+been a terrible chain of evidence, and he had not seen how it was to be
+broken.</p>
+
+<p>Then he branched off from his own affair, and went into an account of
+all that he had just heard of the experience of Derby himself with
+Calluci; and the adventure, in spite of Derby's protests, certainly lost
+nothing in the recital. The princess and Nina had not heard of this, and
+Nina sat and gazed at the hero in mute rapture. In fact, the only one
+whose feelings were at all uncertain was Derby. Not but that it was
+pleasant to hear such praise of himself but it is very hard to be a hero
+unless one has no sense of humor at all. When the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>prince had used up
+half the adjectives of praise and admiration in the Italian language,
+and was about to begin on the other half, Derby succeeded in
+interrupting.</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, princess," he said, "I have something I meant to show you
+this morning, but the other matter put it out of my mind." He drew a
+paper out of his pocket and handed it to her. She opened it, the prince
+looking over her shoulder. It was a sheet of foolscap covered with fine
+writing and many figures in groups and in columns.</p>
+
+<p>"But what does it mean?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It is our first balance sheet at the mines. These are the tons of ore
+taken out," he answered, pointing to various totals, "this is the
+present market price paid for the first shipment, and this is the amount
+we are turning out now per day. At the same rate, the year's payment, at
+a conservative estimate, will be that amount. At all events I shall send
+you a check the first of August for fifty thousand <i>lire</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Fifty thousand <i>lire!</i> Oh, Sandro!" The instinct of the woman showed,
+in that her husband was her first thought; and her voice vibrated
+joyously. "Fifty thousand <i>lire!</i>" they both repeated as though unable
+to comprehend&mdash;and then, the full meaning of it dawning upon him, the
+prince threw his arms about her in wild exuberance.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my dear one!"&mdash;he punctuated each phrase <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span>with kisses&mdash;"now you
+shall have everything&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;everything&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;your heart can wish! Stoves you
+shall have&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;servants and dresses.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;Yes, and your emeralds! And your
+pearls! You shall have&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;emeralds set in a footstool! Every <i>soldo</i> is
+for you, <i>carissima</i>, it is all <i>yours</i>, <span class="smcap">yours</span>!"</p>
+
+<p>Gently she stopped him. "Sandro," she smiled, "Sandro <i>mio</i>, not the
+mines of the Indies could supply your plans for spending!" Then her
+voice broke, but she laughed through her tears and buried her face
+against his throat.</p>
+
+<p>After a moment the princess recovered herself. She looked up, blushing
+like a girl&mdash;a little self-conscious that any one should have witnessed
+the scene between herself and her husband. "We are very foolish," she
+laughed. "But it is good to feel so joyous as that!" She got up and, as
+she passed Nina, she put her hand caressingly under the girl's chin. "It
+has not been a bad day, after all, has it?" she said. "And when fortune
+begins to come, it always comes in waves&mdash;the difficulty is to make it
+begin." Then she looked back at her husband, "Sandro, come with me, will
+you? These children will not mind, I am sure, if we leave them for a
+little while, and I want very much to talk to you." She smiled her
+apology to Nina and Derby, who both stood up. Then she and the prince
+went out of the door together, his arm about her waist.</p>
+
+<p>When they had gone, Nina said softly: "They <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span>are dears, aren't they! Oh,
+Jack, aren't you proud to think you are the cause of every bit of the
+gladness they are feeling to-day?" She glanced up at him, her eyes
+alight with a brilliant softness and tenderness. But he did not look at
+her, and so answered merely her words: "I guess it would have worked out
+all right, anyway." And then he seemed to study the pattern of the
+carpet, and there was silence.</p>
+
+<p>Nina stood leaning against a heavy table, and Derby stood near her with
+his hands in his pockets and his attention engrossed on the floor. Both
+seemed incapable of speaking or moving, as though a hypnotic spell had
+fallen upon them. Twice, while her aunt and uncle were in the room,
+Derby had looked at her with an expression that set Nina's heart
+beating, but now they were alone it had entirely vanished and he kept
+his head persistently turned away. She wondered how she could ever have
+failed to find his profile splendid. But he seemed so detached, so
+bafflingly absorbed, that all the old ache that she had felt that day
+when he had advised her to marry Billy Dalton&mdash;and since&mdash;came
+suffocatingly back. The old doubt suddenly gripped her&mdash;could her aunt
+be mistaken?</p>
+
+<p>Finally, it came to her, intuitively, that her whole future was hanging
+on this moment, and the impulse was overwhelming to forget that she was
+the woman. It seemed that she must herself force the issue and end the
+doubt, at all hazards&mdash;this doubt which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span>hammered at the door of her
+intellect and yet which her heart refused stubbornly to accept.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack"&mdash;she tried hard to carry out her resolve not to let the false
+pride of a moment perhaps spoil her whole life; but the inborn reserve
+of generations of womanhood rebelled. In her uncertainty and anguish
+each moment of silence seemed weighted into leaden despair, but she was
+utterly unable to say what she had intended. At last her lips parted
+and, like the wail of a lost child, "Jack&mdash;&mdash;" she cried. It was all she
+could say before her eyes filled and a queer little gulp came into her
+throat; then, with superhuman effort yet hardly articulate, came the
+whisper, "H-ave you n-othing to say&mdash;to me?"</p>
+
+<p>All at once he turned and looked at her&mdash;looked again and caught her by
+the shoulders. The love and ardor of which the princess had spoken
+flamed unmistakably in his expression now&mdash;she saw him swallow hard, and
+it seemed to her as though her very soul were wandering lost in the blue
+spaces of his eyes as they searched hers, and then through it all his
+voice came huskily.</p>
+
+<p>"Nina!"</p>
+
+<p>For another long, intense moment he gazed at her earnestly, then "Nina!
+Nina!" he cried again, the wonder breaking through his tone. "Do you
+understand&mdash;do you <i>mean</i> what you are looking? Do you love me
+like&mdash;that?"</p>
+
+<p>She tried to answer, but could not, though a little smile quivered in
+the corner of her mouth, and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span>dimple in her cheek was softly
+visible. Then she looked up again through her tears. A radiance
+indescribable lit the man's face, making his rugged features
+beautiful&mdash;then swiftly he stooped and gathered her to his heart.</p>
+
+
+<h2>THE END</h2>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<div class='tnote'>
+<h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3>
+
+<p>Punctuation errors corrected.</p>
+
+<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections.
+Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Title Market, by Emily Post
+
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+
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@@ -0,0 +1,9136 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Title Market, by Emily Post
+
+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: The Title Market
+
+Author: Emily Post
+
+Illustrator: J. H. Gardner Soper
+
+Release Date: February 5, 2006 [EBook #17680]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TITLE MARKET ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Brian Janes, Emmy and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    _THE TITLE MARKET_
+
+    _By_
+    _Emily Post_
+
+    _Author of "The Flight of a Moth,"_
+    _"Woven in the Tapestry," etc._
+
+    _With Illustrations by_
+    _J. H. Gardner Soper_
+
+    _New York_
+    _Dodd, Mead and Company_
+    _1909_
+
+    Copyright, 1909, by
+    THE RIDGWAY COMPANY
+
+    Copyright, 1909, by
+    DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
+
+    Published, September, 1909
+
+[Illustration:
+
+          "'WE OF ITALY,' HE WAS SAYING, 'LIVE, ENDURE, DIE,
+                  IF NEED BE--ALWAYS FOR THE SAME
+                      REASON--WOMAN AND LOVE!'"
+
+(Page 65)]
+
+
+               As though you did not know each page,
+                     each paragraph, each word;
+          as though for months and months the Sanseveros,
+            Nina, John, and all the rest, had not been
+                     your daily companions--
+                      MADRE MIA,
+                    this book is dedicated
+                           to you.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                                   PAGE
+
+    I PRINCE SANSEVERO DIMINISHES THE FORTUNES OF HIS HOUSE   1
+
+   II THE PRINCESS PLANS TO RECEIVE THE AMERICAN HEIRESS     14
+
+  III NINA                                                   25
+
+   IV THE DUKE SCORPA MAKES A DEAL                           42
+
+    V DON GIOVANNI ARRIVES                                   48
+
+   VI LOVE, AND A GARDEN                                     64
+
+  VII ROME                                                   72
+
+ VIII OPENING DAY AT THE TITLE MARKET                        86
+
+   IX A DOOR IS OPENED THAT GIOVANNI PREFERS TO KEEP CLOSED  97
+
+    X MR. RANDOLPH SENDS FOR JOHN DERBY                     107
+
+   XI ROME GOES TO THE OPERA                                116
+
+  XII A BALL AT COURT                                       136
+
+ XIII CORONETS FOR SALE                                     142
+
+  XIV APPLES OF SODOM                                       157
+
+   XV AN OPPOSITION BOOTH IS SET UP IN THE MARKET PLACE     163
+
+  XVI A MENACE                                              173
+
+ XVII NINA DUSTS BEHIND THE COUNTER                         192
+
+XVIII FAVORITA DRIVES A BARGAIN                             214
+
+  XIX A CHALLENGE, AND AN ANSWER                            221
+
+   XX HIS EMINENCE, THE ARCHBISHOP OF VENCATA               236
+
+  XXI THE SULPHUR MINES                                     246
+
+ XXII BEFORE DAYLIGHT                                       257
+
+XXIII THE SPIDER'S WEB                                      269
+
+ XXIV WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE                                289
+
+  XXV "THY PEOPLE SHALL BE MY PEOPLE--"                     308
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"'WE OF ITALY,' HE WAS SAYING, 'LIVE, ENDURE, DIE, IF NEED
+BE--ALWAYS FOR THE SAME REASON--WOMEN AND LOVE!'"
+Page 65                                                 _Frontispiece_
+
+"AS SHE SPOKE, A DOOR OPENED OPPOSITE, AND THE PRINCE CAME
+IN"                                                      Facing page 4
+
+"FOR THE SPACE OF A SECOND SHE FACED THE AUDIENCE, STANDING
+STILL AND RIGID"                                                   134
+
+"NINA LOOKED AT HIM--'I WONDER IF YOU WOULD BE AMUSED IF
+YOU KNEW WHY I LAUGHED'"                                           184
+
+"HIS LIPS FRAMED 'GOOD-BY' AND HERS ANSWERED, BOTH SMILED
+BRIGHTLY--AND THAT WAS THE PARTING"                                232
+
+"'YOU ARE AMERICANO, ARE YOU NOT? YOUR LAND HAS DONE MUCH
+FOR MY PEOPLE!'"                                                   239
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+PRINCE SANSEVERO DIMINISHES THE FORTUNES OF HIS HOUSE
+
+
+Her excellency the Princess Sansevero sat up in bed. Reaching quickly
+across the great width of mattress, she pulled the bell-rope twice,
+then, shivering, slid back under the warmth of the covers. She drew them
+close up over her shoulders, so far that only a heavy mass of golden
+hair remained visible above the old crimson brocade of which the
+counterpane was made. The room was still darkened so that the objects in
+it were barely discernible, but presently one of the high, carved doors
+opened and a maid entered, carrying a breakfast tray. Setting the tray
+down, she crossed quickly to the windows and drew back the curtains.
+
+Sunlight flooded the black and white marble of the floor, and brought
+out in sharp detail the splendor of the apartment. The rich colors of
+the frescoed walls, the mellow crimson damask upholstering, might have
+suggested warmth and comfort, had not a little cloud of white vapor
+floating before the maid's lips proclaimed the temperature.
+
+She was a stocky peasant woman, this maid, with good red color in her
+cheeks, but she wore a dress of heavy woolen material and a cardigan
+jacket over that. Her thick felt slippers pattered briskly over the
+stone floor as she went to a clothes-press, carved and beautifully
+inlaid, took out a drab-colored woolen wrapper trimmed with common red
+fox fur, and, picking up the tray again, mounted the dais of the huge
+carved bed.
+
+"If Excellency will make haste, the coffee is good and very hot."
+
+The covers were pushed down just a little, and the princess peered out.
+
+"What sort of a day have we, Marie? Isn't it very cold?"
+
+"Oh, no! It is a beautiful day. But Excellency will say that the coffee
+is cold unless it is soon taken."
+
+So again the Princess Sansevero sat up in bed. Her maid placed the
+coffee tray before her, and wrapped her quickly in the dressing-gown.
+The plain woolen wrapper had looked ugly enough in the maid's hands, but
+its drab color and fox fur so toned in with the red-gold hair and creamy
+skin of its wearer that an artist, could he have beheld the picture,
+would have been filled with delight. It would not in the least have
+mattered to him that there was a chip in the cup into which she poured
+her coffee, nor that the linen napkin was darned in three places. The
+silver breakfast service belonged to a time when such things were
+chiseled only for great personages and by master craftsmen. That it was
+battered through several centuries of constant handling rather enhanced
+than diminished its value. Of the same antiquity was the bed--seven
+feet wide, its four posts elaborately carved with fruits and flowers,
+and with cupids grouped in the corners of the framework supporting a
+dome of crimson damask that matched the hangings. What difference could
+it make to the artist that the springless mattress was as hard as a
+rock, and lumpy as a ploughed field? With painted walls and vaulted
+ceilings that were the apotheosis of luxury, what did it matter that the
+raw chill from their stone surface penetrated to the very marrow of her
+Exalted Excellency's bones? Unfortunately, however, it was she who had
+to occupy the apartment and to her it did matter very much, for her
+American blood never had grown used to the chill of unheated rooms.
+
+"I think I can heat the bathroom sufficiently for Excellency's bath,"
+ventured the maid.
+
+The princess shivered at the mere suggestion. She knew only too well the
+feeling of the water in a room that was like an unheated cellar in the
+rainy season of late autumn. "No, no!" she exclaimed, "fill me the
+little tub, in my sitting-room."
+
+[Illustration: "AS SHE SPOKE, A DOOR OPENED OPPOSITE THE ONE THROUGH
+WHICH THE MAID HAD ENTERED, AND THE PRINCE CAME IN"]
+
+As she spoke, a door opened opposite the one through which the maid had
+entered, and the prince came in. A fresh color glowed under his olive
+skin, his hair was brushed until it was as polished as his nails; also
+he was shaved, but here his toilet for the day ended. The open "V" of
+his dressing-gown (his was made of a costly material, quite in contrast
+to the one his wife wore) showed his throat; bare ankles were visible
+above his slippers. With the raillery of a boy he cried:
+
+"Can it really be possible that you are cold! No wonder they call yours
+the nation of ice water! I know that is what you have in your veins!"
+With a spring he threw himself full length across the bed.
+
+"Sandro, be careful! See what you are doing! You have spilled the
+coffee."
+
+"Oh, that's nothing!" he said gaily; "it will wash out."
+
+"On the contrary, it is a great deal. It makes unnecessary laundry and
+uses up the linen--we can't get any more, you know."
+
+At once his gay humor changed to sulkiness. "_Va bene, va bene!_ let us
+drop that subject."
+
+Immediately the princess softened, as though she had unthinkingly hurt
+him, "I did not mean it as a complaint; but you know, dear, we do have
+to be careful."
+
+But the prince stared moodily at his finger-nails.
+
+She began a new topic cheerfully. "I hope to get a letter from Nina
+to-day; there has been time for an answer."
+
+Sansevero had been quite interested in the idea of a possible visit from
+Nina Randolph, his wife's niece, a much exploited American heiress. But
+now he paid no attention. He still stared at his nails. The princess
+scrutinized his face as though in the habit of reading its expression,
+and at last she said gently:
+
+"What have you in mind, dear? Tell me--come, out with it, I see quite
+well there is something."
+
+For answer he sat up, took a cigarette from his pocket, put it between
+his lips, searched in both pockets for a match, and, failing to find
+one, sat with the unlighted cigarette between his lips, sulkier than
+ever.
+
+He felt her looking at him, and swayed his shoulders exactly as though
+some one were trying to hold him. "Really, Leonora," he burst out, "this
+question of money all the time is far from pleasant!"
+
+A helpless, frightened look came into her face. It grew suddenly
+pinched; instinctively she put her hand over her heart.
+
+"I have not mentioned money." She made an effort to speak lightly, but
+there was a vibration in the tone. Then, as though gathering her
+strength together, she made a direct demand:
+
+"Alessandro, tell me at once, what have you done?"
+
+For a moment he looked defiant, then shrugged his shoulders. "Well,
+since you will know----" he sprang from the bed, pulled a letter out of
+his pocket, and, quite as a small boy hands over the note that his
+teacher has caught him passing in school, he tossed her the envelope,
+and left the room.
+
+Her fingers trembled a little in unfolding the paper; and she breathed
+quickly as she read. For some time she sat staring at the few lines of
+writing before her. Then suddenly thrusting her feet into fur slippers,
+she ran into the next room. "Sandro," she said, "come into my
+sitting-room; I must speak with you."
+
+He followed her through her bedroom into an apartment much smaller and,
+unlike the other two rooms, quite warm. Just now, all the articles of a
+woman's toilet were spread out on a table upon which a dressing-mirror
+had been placed; and close beside a brazier of glowing coals was a
+portable English tub; the water for the bath was heating in the kitchen.
+
+Seeing that there was no means of avoiding the inevitable, he said
+doggedly: "I thought to make, of course, or I would not have gone into
+the scheme." Then something in her face held him, and at the same time
+his impulsive boyishness--a little dramatic, perhaps, but only so much
+as is consistent with his race--carried him into a new mood.
+
+"Leonora, I suppose I am in the wrong--indeed I am sure I am utterly at
+fault; but help me. Don't you see, _carissima_, this time I did not
+_wager_--it was a business venture!"
+
+In the midst of her distress she could not help but smile at the
+absurdity.
+
+"Scorpa is doing it all," he continued--"not I. You know what a clever
+business man _he_ is! He assured me that it was a rare chance--the
+opportunity of a lifetime. It was because I wanted so to restore to you
+what my gambling had cost, that I agreed. I did not think it possible to
+lose. But help me this once; believe me, I do know, and with shame,
+that were it not for my accursed ill luck we should be living in luxury
+now. But just this once--you will help me, won't you?"
+
+His wife seated herself in a big armchair, and looked at him wearily,
+running her fingers through the heavy waves of her hair. She had
+beautiful hands--beautiful because they seemed part of her expression;
+capable hands with nothing helpless in her use of them; the kind that a
+sick person dreams of as belonging to an ideal nurse; gentle and smooth,
+but quick and firm.
+
+"It is not a question of willingness, Sandro." Her voice was as smooth
+and strong, as flexible, as her hands. "You know everything we have just
+as well as I. I never kept anything from you, and what we have is ours
+jointly--as much yours as mine. I have, as you know, only two jewels of
+value left, and they would not bring half the amount of this debt."
+
+"Leonora, no! you have sold too many already; I cannot ask such a thing
+again."
+
+His wife's smile was more sad than tears; it was not that she was making
+up her mind for some one necessary sacrifice--it was a smile of absolute
+helplessness. "If only I might believe you! We now have nothing but what
+is held in trust for me. I am not reproaching you--what is gone is gone.
+But Sandro! where will it end?"
+
+The maid knocked and entered with two pails of hot water, which she
+poured into the tub. She spread a bath towel over a chair, moved another
+chair near, put out various articles of clothing, and left the room
+again.
+
+The princess threw off her slippers, and tried the temperature of the
+water with her toes.
+
+"I think, Sandro, we had better give up Rome," she said. "The money
+saved for that will pay the greater part of the debt. It is the only way
+I can see. But go now; I want to take my bath. We can talk more by and
+by." She smiled quite brightly, and the prince, emboldened by her
+cheerfulness, would have taken her in his arms. But she turned away, her
+hand involuntarily put up as a barrier between herself and the kiss that
+at the moment she shrank from. He took the hand instead and pressed it
+to his lips.
+
+When he had gone, she bathed quickly, partially dressed herself, and
+called her maid to do her hair. Sitting before the improvised
+dressing-table, she glanced in the mirror, and her reflection caught and
+held her attention a long moment. A curious, half-wistful, half-pathetic
+expression crept into her eyes as the realization came to her sharply
+that she was fading. There were lines and shadows and pallor that ought
+not to be in the face of a woman of thirty-five. She smoothed the
+vertical lines in her forehead, and then let her hands remain over her
+face, while behind their cool smoothness her mind resumed its
+troublesome thoughts.
+
+It was not like meeting some new difficulty for which the strength is
+fresh; it was struggling again with emotions that have repeatedly
+exhausted one's endurance. Just as she had every hope that her husband
+was cured of the gambler's fever, here he was down again with an even
+more dangerous form of it. The man who knowingly risks is bad enough;
+but the man who cannot see that he risks, and cannot understand how he
+has lost is the hardest victim to cure. All of her capital was gone
+except a small property which her brother-in-law, J. B. Randolph, held
+for her in trust and on the income of which they now lived. Ten years
+before she had had considerable money, enough for them to live not only
+in comfort but in luxury. A large amount had been sunk in a Sicilian
+sulphur mine, and to this investment she had given her consent, not yet
+realizing her husband's lack of judgment. But aside from this, cards and
+horse races and trips to Monaco had limited their living in luxury to a
+periodic pleasure of three or four months. Now in order to open the
+palace in Rome, they had to practise the most rigid economics the other
+eight or nine months in their villa in the country.
+
+Yet in spite of all, her compassion went out to Sandro. He was so gay,
+so boy-like, that he acquired ascendancy over her sympathies in spite of
+her judgment. And by the time her maid had coiled her great golden waves
+of hair and helped her into a short, heavy skirt, a pair of stout boots,
+a plain shirt-waist, and a rough, short coat and cap, her feeling of
+resentment against him had passed. She drew on a pair of dogskin gloves,
+and went out.
+
+In the stables she found the prince helping to harness a pony.
+
+"Are you going to drive to the village?" she asked as cheerfully as
+though there had been no topic of distress.
+
+"Yes; will you come with me?" he returned eagerly. She nodded her assent
+and as they started down the road they talked easily of various things.
+It was the prince who finally came back to the topic that was uppermost
+in their minds. He looked at her tenderly as he said:
+
+"You do believe, my darling, don't you, that to have brought this
+additional trouble to you breaks my heart? I have taken everything from
+you--given you nothing in return. Yet--I do love you."
+
+"Oh, _va bene, va bene, caro mio_; we will talk no more about it. Do you
+really agree to stay in the country all winter and give up Rome?"
+
+"Of course," he said, with the best grace in the world. "It is all far
+too easy for me--but for you!--Ah, Leonora, no admiration, no new
+interest! no amusement! a year of your beauty wasted on only me."
+
+"Be still; you know very well that I care nothing for all that. It is
+always this horrible fear of your leaping before you look. Sandro,
+Sandro! can you really see that one more plunge--and we are done? Now
+we can give up our savings, and the jewels; another time--don't let
+there ever be another time!"
+
+He looked up the road and down; there was not even a peasant in sight.
+He put his arm about her and drew her to him. "Look at me, Leonora! On
+the name of my family and on that which I hold most sacred in the world
+I swear it: you will never again have to suffer from such a cause."
+
+She inclined toward his kiss, and love dominated the sadness in her
+eyes. Who could be angry with him--impulsive, affectionate, warm-hearted
+child of the Sun, or Italy--since both are the same.
+
+A turn in the road, around a high wall topped with orange trees, brought
+them into the little town and the village life. A couple of ragged
+urchins sitting before the door of one of the cave-like structures that
+are called dwellings, grinned as the princess looked at them. An older
+girl bobbed a courtesy and pulled one of the children to her feet,
+bidding her do the same. The men uncovered their heads, as the noble
+padrones passed.
+
+Before one house the little trap stopped. Immediately the door opened
+and a woman came out. She was young and handsome though the shadow of
+maternity was blue-stenciled under her eyes. She courtesied, then looked
+anxiously at the prince.
+
+"Excellency would speak with me?" she asked, "has Excellency decided?"
+
+"Yes," the prince answered, "Pedro will wed thee at the house of the
+good father--to-night at eight." At his first words she clasped her
+hands in thanksgiving, but when he continued that she was to wear no
+veil or wreath, her joy gave way to a wail.
+
+"Excellency would shame me," she sobbed, "I am a good girl and Pedro my
+husband by promise."
+
+Sansevero looked helpless for a moment and then seemed wavering. The
+woman caught at the opportunity and repeated her cry, this time to the
+princess, but there was no indecision in the latter's manner as she
+spoke now in her husband's stead.
+
+"Thou knowest, Marcella, that the veil and the wreath are only for such
+as are maidens! Say no more, I speak not of goodness, Pedro comes to the
+house of the padre--at eight. Be a faithful wife and mother, and so
+shalt thou have honor--better than by the wearing of a wreath."
+
+She put her hand on the girl's head, with a kindness that took away all
+sting from her words. And Marcella made no further protest, although as
+the pony-cart drove on, she remained weeping before the door.
+
+Sansevero himself looked dejected. "Don't you think, dear one," he
+protested, "that you were rather severe! What difference can it make
+after all, whether the poor girl wears a few leaves in her hair or a bit
+of tulle?"
+
+But the princess was inflexible. "It would not be just to the others,"
+she answered, "since we made this rule there has been a great difference
+in the village. It is almost rare now that the family arrives before
+the wedding. The question of irregularity never used trouble the girls
+at all. The only disgrace they seem able to feel is that they may not
+dress as brides; and that being the case, I think we have to be strict."
+
+"All right, wise one," said the prince as he drew up at the post-office,
+"I am sure you know best." He looked at her with such obvious
+satisfaction that two urchins standing by the road-side grinned. The
+post-master hurried out with the mail, and the princess looked through
+the letters. One with an American stamp held her attention. As she read,
+her cheeks flushed with pleasure, her eyes grew bright, a sweet and
+tender expression came into her face.
+
+"Nina is coming!" she cried. Gladness rang in her voice. "Coming for the
+whole winter--let me see, the letter is dated the fifteenth--she will
+sail this week. Oh, Sandro, I am so happy!"
+
+For a moment it would have been hard to say which looked more pleased,
+the prince or the princess. But then, as though by thought transference,
+in blank consternation each stared at the other, and exclaimed in the
+same breath, "But how about Rome?"
+
+In silence the prince turned the pony about and slowly they drove back
+up the hills.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE PRINCESS PLANS TO RECEIVE THE AMERICAN HEIRESS
+
+
+When the pony-cart arrived at the castle the princess alighted, too
+preoccupied with her own thoughts to notice that her husband drove off
+in the opposite direction from the stables. Her forehead was wrinkled
+and her head bent as she walked between the high hedges of ilex toward
+the south wing of the building. Her worry over their inability to pay
+the debt was increased by the fact that their creditor was the Duke
+Scorpa.
+
+There had been a feud between the Sanseveros and the Scorpas for over a
+century, and while the present generation tried to ignore it, the
+princess felt instinctively that like the people of Alsace Lorraine, who
+never really forgave the government that changed their nationality, the
+Scorpas never forgave the Sanseveros for lands which they claimed were
+unjustly lost in 1803, when a daughter of the house married a Sansevero
+and took a portion of the Scorpa property as her dowry. That these same
+lands were distant from either county seat, and of comparatively small
+value, in no way mitigated the Scorpa resentment, and every time they
+looked at the map and saw the triangular piece painted over from the
+Scorpa red to the Sansevero blue, there was bad feeling.
+
+When the old Prince Sansevero was alive, he and the present Duke, who
+was then a violent tempered youth, had several unfriendly encounters
+about the boundary line of this same property. All this had seemed very
+trivial to Alessandro, the present Prince, who looked upon the Duke as
+one of his best friends--but Alessandro had no perspicacity. He believed
+others to be as free from guile as himself.
+
+Reaching a small postern gate at the end of the path, the princess
+opened it by pressing a hidden spring. This led directly into the
+apartments at the end of the south wing next to the kitchen offices--the
+only ones at present in use. She went directly to her own sitting-room,
+from which the evidences of her toilet had meantime been removed.
+
+This room better than anything else proclaimed the manner of woman who
+occupied it. It had been arranged by one to whom comfort was of
+paramount importance, and, in spite of a certain incongruity, the whole
+effect was pleasing and harmonious. The frescoes on the walls were
+almost obliterated by age, and were partially covered by dull red stuff.
+Against this latter hung three pictures from the famous Sansevero
+collection: a Holy Family by Leonardo da Vinci, a triptych by Perugino,
+and a Madonna by Correggio. Hardly less celebrated, but sharply at odds
+with the ecclesiastical subjects of the paintings, was the mantle,
+carved in a bacchanalian procession of satyrs and nymphs--a model said
+to have been made by Niccola Pisano.
+
+The floor, of the inevitable black and white marble, was strewn with
+rugs; and in front of desk and sofa bear skins had been added as a
+double protection against the cold. The furniture was modern upholstery,
+with gay chintz slip-covers. Frilled muslin curtains were crossed over
+and draped high under outer ones of chintz. And everywhere there were
+flowers--roses, orange blossoms, and camellias; in tall jars and short,
+on every available piece of furniture. Scarcely less in evidence were
+photographs, propped against walls, ornaments, and flower jars; long,
+narrow, highly glazed European photographs with white backgrounds,
+uniformed officers, sentimentally posed engaged couples, young mothers
+in full evening dress reading to barefooted babies out of gingerly held
+picture books. There were photographs of all varieties; big ones and
+little ones, framed and unframed--the king and the queen with
+crown-surmounted settings and boldly written first names, and "_A la
+cara Eleanor_" inscribed above that of her majesty. In the other
+photographs the signatures grew in complication and length as their
+aristocratic importance diminished. Books and magazines littered the
+tables; French, Italian, and English in indiscriminate association. A
+workbasket of plain sewing lay open among the pillows on the sofa. An
+American magazine, with a paper-knife inserted between its leaves, was
+tossed beside a tooled morocco edition of Tacitus. A crucifix hung
+beneath the Correggio; a plaster model of the Discobolus stood between
+the windows.
+
+And in the midst of old and new, religious and pagan, priceless and
+insignificant, sat her Excellency, the ex-American beauty and present
+chatelaine of the great family of the princes of the Sansevero, in a
+golf skirt and walking boots, a plain starched shirtwaist and stock tie,
+adding to the wrinkles in her forehead and in the corners of her eyes by
+trying to figure out how, with forty thousand lire, she was going to pay
+a debt of sixty thousand lire and have enough left over to open the
+great palace in Rome, and realize a dream that had always been in her
+heart--to take Nina out in Roman society, to give herself the delight of
+showing Rome to Nina, and the greater delight of showing Nina to Rome.
+
+She glanced up at two photographs, the only ones on her desk. The first
+was of her husband, taken in the fancy costume of a troubadour, with the
+signature "Sandro" across the lower half, in characters symbolical of
+the song he might have sung, so gay and ascending was the handwriting.
+The other picture was of a young woman in evening dress. The face was
+bright and winning rather than pretty; the personality really chic, and
+this in spite of the fact that the girl's clothes were over-elaborate.
+Her dress was a mass of embroidery, and around her throat she wore a
+diamond collar. Diamond hairpins held the loops of waving fair
+hair--very like the princess's own--and two handsome rings were on the
+fingers of one hand. It in no way suggested the Italian idea of a young
+girl; yet there was a youthful freshness in the expression of the face,
+a girlish slimness of the figure that could not have been produced by
+touching up the negative. Under the picture was written in a clear and
+modernly square handwriting, "To my own Auntie Princess with love from
+Nina."
+
+The name "Auntie Princess" carried as much of Nina's personality to the
+mind of her aunt as the picture itself. It was the one her childish lips
+had spoken when she was told that her aunt was to marry a prince. Most
+distinct of all Eleanor Sansevero's memories of home was one of Nina
+being held up high above the crowd at the end of the pier to blow
+good-by kisses to the bride of a foreign nobleman, being carried out
+into the river whose widening water was making actual the separation
+between herself and all that till then had been her life.
+
+It was only for a little while, she had thought at the time. She would
+go back once a year or so, surely; and Nina should come over often. But
+in the intervening fifteen years, though the Randolphs had been in
+Europe many times, they had always chosen midsummer for their trip, and
+the princess had joined her sister at some northern city or
+watering-place. This visit, therefore, was to be Nina's first glimpse
+of her aunt's home, and the princess was determined that she should not
+spend the time desolately in the country! She might come here for a
+little while--for reasons that the princess would have found hard to
+explain to herself, she did not want Nina to get a false impression. Yet
+for nothing would she have exposed her husband's failing--even to her
+own family. With the weakness of a true wife, she never dreamed that all
+her world suspected, if it did not actually know, of the great inroads
+on her fortune that his gambling had made.
+
+The princess went back to her accounts, but no amount of auditing made
+the sum they had saved any larger. A large pearl pendant that had been
+the Randolphs' wedding present to her, and a ruby that had been her
+mother's, were her only remaining possessions that could bring anything
+like the sum needed; with them and perhaps notes on her next year's
+income, they might make up the full amount. But how to sell the jewels
+was the problem. There is little demand for really fine stones in Italy,
+and besides, they might be recognized. Long before, she had sold her
+emerald earrings and had false ones put in their places. She had hated
+wearing the imitations, but she had worn the real ones constantly, she
+feared their sudden absence might be noticed.
+
+Indeed, as it was, one day out in the garden, when Scorpa was sitting
+near her, she thought she saw a knowing gleam in his eyes. Afterwards
+she tried to assure herself that it was a trick of her own
+consciousness; but she had not worn the earrings again in the
+daytime--nor ever if she knew that Scorpa was to be present.
+
+She threw down her pencil. The first thing at all events was to find out
+how much she could realize on her stones, and to do that she would have
+to go to Paris. Taking a railroad gazette out of a drawer, she looked up
+trains. Eight-thirty mornings, arriving at---- The door burst open. The
+prince, exuberant, his face wreathed in smiles, skipped, rather than
+walked, into the room. In pure joyousness he pinched her cheek.
+
+"What do you think, my dear one? It is all arranged. We can have _la
+bella_ Nina; we shall go to Rome as usual. And you, you more than
+generous, shall not sell any jewels!"
+
+His wife did not at once echo his gladness; in fact she seemed
+frightened.
+
+"What has happened? You have not made a wager and won?"
+
+He looked reproachful, almost sulky. "Leonora, unjust you are. Have I
+not promised? But I will tell you. I have arranged it all with Scorpa. I
+have let him have the Raphael--as security, practically--that is, I have
+sold it to him for a hundred thousand lire--a loan merely--and he has
+given me the privilege of buying it back at any time, with added
+interest, of course. There will be no need of paying for years. He is
+enchanted, as he has always wanted the picture, and says he only hopes I
+may never wish to take it back."
+
+"No, don't let us do that," the princess broke in, then hesitated, "I
+can't tell you how I feel about it, but--I don't trust Scorpa. It is a
+hard thing to say, but I have always believed he persuaded you into
+buying the 'Little Devil' mine, knowing it could not be worked. Of
+course, dear, that heavy loss may not have been his fault, but I'd so
+much rather never have any dealings with him. Besides, the very thing I
+wish to avoid is letting people know we must get money."
+
+"But, _cara mia_, listen: It is all so well thought out, no one will
+know. You see, we go to Rome; this picture hangs in an empty house,
+which through the winter is very damp, and bad, therefore, for the
+painting. Scorpa keeps his house open and heated; he takes care of it on
+that account. Is that not a wonderful reason?"
+
+"Whose reason was that?"
+
+"Scorpa's own!" He danced a few steps in his excess of delight.
+
+His wife arose and put her hand on his arm. "To please me, do not send
+the picture. I can sell the jewels and have false stones put in their
+places. We need not have any one know. But I don't want to remain in the
+duke's debt!"
+
+"The picture is already in his possession."
+
+"In his possession? But how?"
+
+"He drove over here just now, followed me in his motor-car, and took it
+back with him."
+
+The princess was evidently frightened. "What are his reasons?" she said
+to herself, yet audibly.
+
+Her husband looked at her, his head a little on one side, then he said
+banteringly: "My dear, you Americans are too analytical. You always look
+for a motive. Life is not of motive over here. Have you not learned that
+in all these years? We act from impulse, as the mood takes us--we have
+not the hidden thought that you are always looking for."
+
+"You speak for yourself, Sandro _mio_, but all are not like you.
+However, since the picture is gone--and since you have made that
+arrangement--let it be. I may do Scorpa injustice; he has always
+professed friendship for you--as indeed who has not?" She looked at him
+with the softened glance that one sees in a mother's face.
+
+Sansevero seated himself at the desk and took up the photograph of Nina.
+"When will she arrive?" he asked buoyantly; then with sudden
+inspiration, "Write to Giovanni and ask him to hurry home. If Nina
+should fancy him, what a prize!"
+
+The princess frowned. "On account of her money, you mean?"
+
+"Ah, but one must think of that! We have no children; all this goes to
+Giovanni--with Nina's immense fortune it would be very well. We could
+all live as it used to be; there are the apartments on the second floor
+in Rome, and the west wing here. I can think of nothing more fitting or
+delightful. Has she grown pretty?"
+
+"I don't know that you would call her pretty," mused the princess.
+
+"Besides _you_, my dearest, a beauty might seem plain!" His wife tried
+to look indifferent, but she was pleased, nevertheless.
+
+"Tell me, Sandro, you flatterer, but tell me honestly, am I still
+pretty? No, really? Will Nina think me the same, or will her thought be
+'How my Aunt has gone off'?"
+
+Melodramatically he seized her wrists and drew her to the window;
+placing her in the full light of the sun, he peered with mock tragedy
+into her face. "Let me see. Your hair--no, not a gray one! The gold of
+your hair at least I have not squandered--yet."
+
+"Don't, dear." She would have moved away, but he held her.
+
+"Your face is thinner, but that only shows better its beautiful bones.
+Ah, now your smile is just as delicious--but don't wrinkle your forehead
+like that; it is full of lines. So--that is better. You make the eyes
+sad sometimes; eyes should be the windows that let light into the soul;
+they should be glad and admit only sunshine." Then with one of his
+lightning transitions of mood, he added, not without a ring of emotion,
+"_Mia povera bella_."
+
+But Eleanor reached up and took his face between her hands. "As for
+you," she said, "you are always just a boy. Sometimes it is impossible
+to believe you are older than I--I think I should have been your
+mother."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+NINA
+
+
+A ponderous, glossy, red Limousine turned in under the wrought bronze
+portico of one of the palatial houses of upper Fifth Avenue. As the car
+stopped, the face of a woman of about forty appeared at its window. Her
+expression was one of fretful annoyance, as though the footman who had
+sprung off the box and hurried up the steps to ring the front doorbell
+had, in his haste, stumbled purposely. The look she gave him, as he held
+the door open for her to alight, rebuked plainly his awkward stupidity.
+
+Yet, in spite of Mrs. Randolph's petulant expression, it was evident
+that she had distinct claims to prettiness, though of the carefully
+prolonged variety. The art of the masseuse was visible in that curious
+swollen smoothness of the skin which gives an effect of spilled
+candle-wax--its lack of wrinkles never to be mistaken for the freshness
+of youth. Much also might be said of the skill with which the "original
+color" of her hair had been preserved. She was very well "done," indeed;
+every detail proclaimed expenditure of time--other people's--and
+money--her own. She trotted, rather than walked, as though bored beyond
+the measure of endurance and yet in a hurry. Following her was a slim,
+fair-haired young girl, who, leaving the footman to gather up a number
+of parcels, turned to the chauffeur. Even in giving an order, there was
+a winning grace in her lack of self-consciousness, and her voice was
+fresh in its timbre, enthusiastic in its inflection.
+
+"Henri," she said, "you had better be here at three. The steamer sails
+at four, and an hour will not give me any too much time. Have William
+come for Celeste and the steamer things at two. The Panhard will be
+best, as there is plenty of room in the tonneau." Then she ran lightly
+up the steps and into the house.
+
+The first impression of a visitor upon entering the hall might have been
+of emptiness. In contrast to the over-elaborateness characteristic of
+all too many American homes and hotels, obtruding their highly colored,
+gold-laden ornament, the Randolph house rather inclined toward an
+austerity of decoration. But after the first general impression, more
+careful observation revealed the extreme luxury of appointments and
+details. The one flaw--if one might call it such--was that every article
+in the entire house was spotlessly, perfectly brand-new. The Persian
+rugs, pinkish red in coloring and made expressly to tone in with the
+gray white marble of the hall, were direct from the looms. The banister,
+of beautiful simplicity, was as newly wrought as the stainless velvet
+with which the hand-rail was covered. From the hall opened faultlessly
+executed rooms, each correctly adhering to the "period" that had been
+selected. The library was possibly more furnished than the rest of the
+house; but even here the touch of a magician's wand might have produced
+the bookcases of Circassian walnut ready filled with evenly matched,
+leather bound, finely tooled volumes. It would have been a relief to see
+a few shabby, old-calf folios, a few more common and every-day, in cloth
+or buckram!
+
+On the mind of a carping critic the universal newness might have forced
+the question, "Where did the family live before they came here? Did all
+their accumulation of personal belongings burn with an old homestead? Or
+did they start fresh with their new house, coming from nowhere?" One
+could imagine their having superintended the moving-in of crates and
+boxes innumerable, but the idea of vans piled with heterogeneous
+personal effects that had accumulated through years---- Impossible!
+
+As Mrs. Randolph and her daughter entered, a servant opened the doors
+leading into the dining-room, and Mrs. Randolph turned at once in that
+direction.
+
+"You don't want to go upstairs before luncheon, do you, Nina?"
+
+"Yes, for a moment, Mamma. I want to speak to Celeste about the things
+for my steamer trunk." Her mother suggested sending a servant, but Nina
+had already gone. She entered an elevator that in contrast to the
+severity of the hall looked like a gilt bird cage with mirrors set
+between the bars, pushed a button, and mounted two flights.
+
+On emerging, she went into her own bedroom, which, from the Aubusson
+carpet to the Dresden and ormolu appliques, might have arrived in a
+bonbon box direct from the avenue de l'Opera in Paris. At the present
+moment two steamer trunks stood gaping in the middle of the floor,
+tissue paper was scattered about on various chairs, the dressing-table
+was bare of silver, and a traveling bag displayed a row of gold bottle
+and brush tops. Nina threw her packages on a couch already littered with
+empty boxes, wrapping-paper, new books and various other articles.
+
+"Have the other trunks gone, Celeste?"
+
+"Yes, Mademoiselle."
+
+"Any messages for me?"
+
+"Mr. Derby telephoned that he would be here soon after lunch. Miss Lee
+also telephoned. And Mr. Travers."
+
+Nina listened, half absently, except possibly for a flickering interest
+at the mention of Mr. Derby. She went into an adjoining room that had a
+deep plunge bath of white marble, and a white bear rug on the floor. A
+sliding panel in the wall disclosed a safe, from which she gathered
+together several velvet boxes, and carried them to her maid.
+
+"Are these all that Mademoiselle will take?"
+
+"Yes, that is enough--I don't know, though, the emerald pendant looks
+well on gray dresses." She got another velvet box and threw it on the
+floor. "I ordered the Panhard to be here for you at two o'clock. They
+can put the trunks in the tonneau. My stateroom is 'B,' yours is 107."
+
+Quickly as she had entered, she was gone again, into the elevator and
+down to join her mother.
+
+"Really, Nina," Mrs. Randolph said as soon as her daughter was seated,
+"I can't see what you want to go to Rome for. I am sure it's more
+comfortable here. I hate visiting, myself." As she spoke she set
+straight a piece of silver that to her critical eye seemed an eighth of
+an inch out of line.
+
+"But, Mamma, you know how keen I have always been to see Aunt Eleanor's
+home. Being with her can hardly seem visiting; and Uncle Sandro----"
+
+"What your aunt ever saw in Sandro Sansevero," interrupted her mother,
+"I'm sure I can't imagine. He's always bobbing and bowing and
+gesticulating, and he talks broken English. He makes me nervous! I'd
+infinitely rather be without a title than have it at that price."
+
+"You have always told me that theirs was a love match, that Aunt Eleanor
+did not marry him for his title."
+
+"That is just the senseless part of it!" Mrs. Randolph retorted with a
+fine disregard for consistency. "If she had married him for his
+name--which, after all, is a good one, although princes are as common
+in Italy as 'misters' are here--that would have been one thing. But she
+was actually in love with him! She is yet, so far as I can see!"
+
+Nina burst out laughing, and, as though catching the infection, Mrs.
+Randolph laughed too. They were interrupted by the butler's announcing
+"Mr. Derby!"
+
+John Derby was a young man of twenty-five, broad shouldered and well
+over six feet. His features were a little too rugged to be strictly
+handsome, but his spare frame was as muscular as that of a young
+gladiator. So much at least our colleges do for the sons we send to
+them. John Derby had made both the 'Varsity eight and the eleven; he had
+been a young god at the end of June when, captain of the victorious
+boat, his classmates had borne him on their shoulders to their
+club-house. That night there had been toasting and speeches and what
+not--he was a very "big man" of a very big university; and perhaps
+nothing that life might ever give him in the future could overshadow
+this experience.
+
+All hail to the victor--and glorious be his remembrances. Exit our Greek
+god at the end of June, to be replaced by a young American citizen about
+the first of July--one small atom who thinks to make the same sized mark
+on the great plain of life that he made on the college campus. All the
+same, there were good clean ideals back of John Derby's blue eyes, and
+fresh, healthy young blood surged through his veins. What is the world
+for, if not for such as he to conquer?
+
+Thousands had called "Derby! Derby! Go it, Derby!" when he made his
+famous sixty-yard run down the gridiron. Yet it is well to remember that
+the victory came at the end of ten years' training at school and
+college, after many bruises, some dislocations, and not a few breaks.
+With such discipline, there was after all no reason to wonder that he
+donned overalls and went to a desolate settlement of brick chimneys,
+smelters, and shack dwellings, set on the sides of hills, which, because
+of sulphurous fumes, were bleak as sandhills in Sahara.
+
+He had taken up his work at Copper Rock exactly as he had taken up his
+practice under the athletic coaches. He gave all the best of him, from
+the earliest to the latest possible hours; and night saw him stretched
+on a bunk which would have made his mother wince, but upon which he
+slept the sleep of healthy, tired youth.
+
+Three years he had spent in this place. Twice in that time furnace
+explosions had sent him home to be nursed. But he suppressed the horrors
+and related only enthusiastic tales of metallurgical possibilities. In
+the main, however, he was strong enough to stand it. It did him a vast
+amount of good; and the end of three years saw him saying good-by with
+something akin to regret to the bleak shacks on the bleaker hills, and
+to the men he had grown to know and appreciate.
+
+An improved form of blast furnace that he had patented, eased his first
+strenuous need of money. And the present moment found him vice-president
+of a mining and smelting company, temporarily back among his old
+friends, and somewhat in his old life again. He was too busy and too
+interested in his work to spend any effort outside of it; but there were
+one or two houses where he went, and one of them was the Randolphs'. The
+Randolph and Derby country places adjoined, and since early boyhood he
+had been as much at home in one house as in the other.
+
+Mrs. Randolph had taken his college achievements complacently as a
+tribute to her discernments in having nurtured an eagle in her own
+swan's nest. But his work at Copper Rock seemed to her a fanatical whim.
+She no more appreciated the benefit of the experience than she
+understood the persevering grit that was the real reason for her liking
+him. Nina, having adored him as a Greek god, continued her allegiance to
+the workman at Copper Rock. She had written him letters regularly; she
+had even sent him provision baskets. To herself she questioned whether
+the end he was striving for might not be reached by smoother roads; but
+if any one else suggested that he was doing an irrational thing, she
+flew up in arms. And now as he came into the dining-room his "Hello,
+Nina!" was much as a brother's might have been, and he kissed Mrs.
+Randolph's cheek.
+
+"Will you have lunch, John?" she smiled up at him. "It is all cold by
+now, I dare say!"
+
+"No, thanks, I lunched downtown; but I'll sit here if I may." He picked
+up a knife from the table and cut the string of a package he held in his
+hand. "I brought you these, Nina. Have you read all of them?"
+
+Nina finished a mouthful of nectarine and picked up the books one by
+one.
+
+No, she had not read any of them. So he went on to explain: he knew the
+cowboy story was a corker, and another, of Arizona, described an Indian
+fight in the Bad Lands that was capital. He did not know much about the
+others, but the man at the shop had told him two were very funny; he had
+bought the rest on account of their illustrations.
+
+Nina laughed deliciously with real joy--she loved his selection, because
+it seemed to express him.
+
+"It was awfully sweet of you, Jack. And I shall adore them! I am so glad
+you did not bring the regular selection of 'Walks in Rome.'"
+
+"What I ought to have brought you," he answered, "was a big thick
+journal--one of those padlocked ones--to write up Italian court life as
+it really is. You mustn't miss such a chance! It could be published
+after everybody mentioned in it, is dead, including yourself. Wouldn't
+it be great!"
+
+"You need not make fun of me. I don't think you half appreciate how
+wonderful it is going to be," Nina returned enthusiastically. "Think of
+it, I am going to live in a palace!"
+
+Derby threw back his head and laughed.
+
+"What do you call this house? It is a great deal more of a palace than
+the tumble-down, musty ones of Italy."
+
+Mrs. Randolph seemed enchanted with this rejoinder, for she laughed
+rather exultantly as she exclaimed, "Nina will be ready enough to come
+home at the end of a week!"
+
+Instead of answering Nina jumped up from the table, calling "There you
+are at last, Father darling!"
+
+Her father, a man of distinguished presence, had come into the room
+looking at his watch from force of habit. And though his eyes rested
+upon his daughter with very evident pride and affection, the custom of
+quickly terminated interviews and the economy of precious time gave a
+sharp, decisive curtness to his manner. Every one who came in contact
+with him felt the impelling necessity of coming to the point as clearly
+and tersely as possible. Just now, with a "Hello, John, my boy," he held
+out his hand to Derby and shook his head negatively in answer to his
+wife's inquiry if he wanted luncheon.
+
+"Well, are you ready to start?" he asked his daughter, smiling. And then
+to Derby he added, "Excuse Nina for a few moments, John; I want to speak
+with her. You are going down to the steamer with her, of course?" As
+Derby answered affirmatively, Nina picked up her books and followed her
+father.
+
+In his own study he drew her to a sofa beside him, and from a number of
+papers in his pocket he handed her an envelope.
+
+"Here is your letter of credit. I doubt if you will need the whole
+amount of it. If, on the contrary, you find you want more for anything
+special, write or cable to the office."
+
+Out of another pocket he drew a white muslin bag, such as bankers use.
+It held a quantity of Italian gold and a roll of Italian bank notes.
+This was "change" to have with her when she should arrive. He talked
+with her for some time on various topics; on the beauty of Italy, the
+charm of the people; of his admiration for Eleanor Sansevero. "But
+dearest," he ended, "one word on the subject of European men: you will
+probably have a good deal of attention. I don't want to spoil your
+enjoyment, but you must remember the hard, cold fact that it will be
+chiefly because you are Miss Millionaire."
+
+"I am sure they couldn't be any more after 'Miss Millionaire' over there
+than here." She began calmly enough, but grew vehement as she continued:
+"How many of the proposals that I have had from my own countrymen during
+the past two years have been for me, the girl, and not merely for your
+daughter?"
+
+Her father, having stirred up her resentment, now tried to soothe it
+down again.
+
+"You must not get cynical, little girl. Every advantage in this world
+must have its corresponding disadvantage. I merely want you to follow
+your extremely sensible and well-balanced head. Only, remember," he
+added with bantering good-humor, "I am not over keen about foreigners,
+so don't bring a little what-is-it back with you, and expect because it
+has a long string of titles dangling to it, that it will be welcomed
+with any enthusiasm by your doting father! So, away with you!" He again
+looked at his watch. "Better get your things together; you haven't any
+too much time."
+
+As soon as Nina left him, instead of rejoining his wife and Derby he sat
+at his desk and was immediately absorbed in making figures with the stub
+of a pencil on the back of an envelope. He was still there when Nina, in
+coat and furs, came downstairs again to the library, where her mother
+and Derby were now waiting.
+
+"Well, are you ready at last? Where is your father? What is he doing
+now?" her mother demanded with a pout, as if his absence were quite
+Nina's fault, and as if whatever his occupation might be it especially
+annoyed her. She fluttered to the doorway of his study and looked in.
+
+"James, I really think you might give some thought to your family. Nina
+is going now." She spoke in a babyish, aggrieved tone. He did not look
+up, and Mrs. Randolph did not repeat her remark; she turned instead to
+her daughter. "Go in and tell your father that I think he might pay you
+some attention."
+
+Nina went over behind his chair, and gently put her cheek down to his.
+She did not interrupt him, but let him finish the calculation he was
+doing; and he turned to her after about a minute.
+
+"All right, sweetheart, come along."
+
+Having put his envelope in his pocket, he dismissed whatever it meant
+completely from his mind, and Nina held his undivided attention as he
+went down the steps with her to the motor, into which Derby had already
+put Mrs. Randolph. As soon as they were all in and the machine started,
+Nina leaned forward and called to the butler, "Good-by, Dawson!" And for
+once the man's face lost its imperturbability, as he answered fervently,
+"Good-by, miss, and a safe return--home!"
+
+"Safe return--home." For a moment the question entered her head--was
+there any doubt of her returning? With the apprehension came also a
+slight sense of excitement--but soon she had forgotten. While they sped
+toward the dock, Mrs. Randolph, possibly a little piqued that her
+daughter could want to spend the winter away from her, showed her
+authority by endless directions and counsels. As she completely
+monopolized the conversation as far as Nina was concerned, the two men
+talked together, and Nina's responses gradually drifted into a series
+of "Yes, Mamma's," to admonitions that were but half heard, until her
+wandering attention was brought up with a sharp turn by her mother's
+impatient exclamation:
+
+"For goodness sake, Nina, try to be less monotonous!"
+
+Nina roused herself quickly. "I am sorry, Mamma dear! I did not think
+there was anything for me to say. Please don't be put out with me, just
+now when I am going away!"
+
+They had by this time arrived at the steamer, and went for a moment to
+see Nina's cabin, where they found Celeste trying to reduce to some
+semblance of order the innumerable baskets of fruit and boxes of flowers
+with which it was crowded.
+
+Derby looked perhaps a trifle chagrined at the profusion, as Nina gave a
+cursory glance at the cards that Celeste had affixed to each opened box.
+But with a curious little smile--one that had real sweetness in it--Nina
+picked up a particular bunch of violets, and looked at Derby over their
+clustered fragrance as she lifted them to her face. She let the look
+thank him--and then she pinned the flowers on.
+
+Mrs. Randolph did not see the wordless scene, as she was busy reading
+cards and making characteristic comments. Mr. Randolph had stopped to
+make sure that the luggage was attended to. He now appeared, and with
+him Mrs. Gray, with whom Nina was to make the crossing. Mrs. Gray shook
+hands with every one, called Nina a "precious child," told her where
+the steamer chairs had been placed, and disappeared. On the promenade
+deck Nina found a throng of young girls and men waiting for her. They
+all chattered together in a group and plied her with questions: Was she
+going to be presented at court? Was she going to live in an old castle?
+What was her uncle the prince like? How wonderful to spend a season in
+Rome? They wished they were going, too--and so they went on.
+
+But at a moment when the others were all talking loudly, John Derby
+managed to draw Nina aside. He looked down at her with an expression
+half-quizzical, half-serious. "This is about the time we come to the
+'great divide,'" he said. "Your trail lies to the palaces of the Old
+World; mine to dig holes in remote corners of the New. You'll write me,
+won't you? My letters will be pretty dull, I am afraid--same old story:
+a laborer's day, and occasionally a Sunday's ride to get the mail at the
+nearest ranch."
+
+"Then I'll make mine doubly thick--so they will seem like packets. I may
+even write that famous journal and send it in instalments to you!" Then
+suddenly the banter died of her eyes and voice and she said
+half-sentimentally: "Dear old Jack! Most of every one I shall miss you.
+I hope things will go famously for you. You have my address?"
+
+"Yes; and mine is Breakstone, Arizona, care of Burk Mining Company.
+Well," he smiled, "good hunting to both of us!"
+
+There was still plenty of time before the ship sailed, but Mr. Randolph
+was leaving. He had been talking with another financier who was seeing
+his own family off, and now came up between his daughter and Derby.
+
+"If you will go with me now," he said to the latter, "we can talk over
+the Louisiana sulphur proposition on the way to my office." Then he
+turned to Nina: "It is barely possible you may see John in Italy before
+the winter is over."
+
+Nina raised her eyebrows as she looked at Derby. "You said you were
+going to Arizona!" she said accusingly.
+
+But Derby's expression showed that he was as much in the dark as she.
+Mr. Randolph wagged his head as though altogether pleased with the
+situation. "Of course, he is going to Arizona, and very likely he'll
+stay there--on the other hand, maybe he won't. Now that's something for
+you to think about besides speculating on the length of name of each
+stranger you meet." He kissed her affectionately on both cheeks and,
+giving Derby barely a chance to shake hands with her, hurried him away.
+
+People were beginning their final good-byes, and from where Nina and her
+friends stood by the deck rail, there was a clear view of the gang plank
+and the ship's departing visitors. It was from this vantage that several
+pairs of envious young masculine eyes, looking downward, saw the right
+hand of the great and only James B. Randolph affectionately laid on the
+broad shoulder of an ex-oarsman and football player. And for as long as
+the two were in sight it was the ex-oarsman who talked, and the great
+financier who listened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE DUKE SCORPA MAKES A DEAL
+
+
+In the branch office of Shayne & Co., in the Via Condotti, Rome, Mr.
+Shayne arose from his desk, rearranged his diamond scarf-pin in his gray
+satin Ascot tie, flicked two imaginary particles of dust from his
+tight-fitting cutaway coat, whisked his silk handkerchief out of his
+breast pocket and in again, so that the lavender border was visible,
+cleared his throat, and stood in an attitude of agreeable expectancy.
+
+Directly the door of his private room was discreetly opened, admitting a
+square-jawed, beetle-browed man, heavy and ugly--a coarse type, yet not
+without distinction. The two men did not shake hands. Mr. Christopher
+Shayne bowed blandly, deferentially, yet not servilely, and again he
+cleared his throat. The visitor nodded as though there upon an affair of
+business that he was anxious to have terminated as speedily as possible.
+
+"Will you be seated?--I think you will find this chair comfortable." Mr.
+Shayne indicated a chair with a wave of his hand. "The letter which I
+have from your Excellency is a trifle indefinite. But I take it that you
+have something of more than ordinary importance to communicate." He
+finished his sentence by giving his mustache a thoughtful twirl upward,
+first on one side and then on the other.
+
+The Duke Scorpa let his rat-like eyes rest a moment upon the alert face
+of Mr. Shayne before he answered: "You said once in my presence that you
+had long wanted to acquire a Raphael. I am in a position at present to
+offer you one."
+
+"A Raphael!" Shayne showed genuine surprise. "I do not remember one in
+your collection."
+
+"It is not in my own collection. Before giving you further details,
+however, I must be assured that you are still anxious to purchase, and
+also that you will observe strict secrecy with regard to it."
+
+"In answer to the first, such an opportunity is beyond question of
+interest to me; in answer to the second, my reputation should be a
+guarantee of my discretion. I hope the picture you have in view is not
+the Asanai one--for there is much doubt as to its being genuine."
+
+"No, the one I speak of is the Sansevero Madonna."
+
+In spite of himself Mr. Shayne blew a long whistle. "The Sansevero
+Madonna with the doves!" he reiterated. "That _is_ a prize! I am
+astonished, though----" It was on his tongue to say that he had thought
+the Prince Sansevero beyond the suspicion of illegal sale of treasures;
+but, checking himself in time, he finished his sentence--"that he should
+be willing to part with it. Besides, it is a dangerous thing for him to
+sell, on account of its celebrity."
+
+"So I told him." The Duke Scorpa lied perfectly. "But it is better,
+after all, to sell one thing that will bring in a good price than to
+sell a number of things that bring in little, and yet incur the same
+amount of risk in getting them out of the country." Here the duke's
+manner became almost confidential. "As I told you, I am of course acting
+merely in the interest of my friend the Prince Sansevero. Selling
+against the law of my country would be abhorrent to me personally. But
+my friend, poor fellow, is hard pressed for money. And, as he argues,
+the picture is his, and has been in his family since long before our
+government ever made such laws. He considers he has a right--or should
+have--to dispose of property that is his own. The government would pay
+not more than half what you will give me, I am sure."
+
+"Of course, of course. I have long coveted that Raphael. On the other
+hand, as I said, the picture is so very well known and so excellent that
+it could hardly be palmed off as a copy. Also the canvas is large, which
+will make it very difficult to conceal. It is still at Torre Sansevero,
+I suppose?"
+
+"No, it is here in Rome. It is removed from the frame and is at present
+in my palace. I suppose the offer that you once told me you would make
+still holds good?"
+
+The American looked shrewd. "Did I name a sum? I do not remember. Ah,
+yes. But that was for a very rich man who has since bought a Velasquez.
+I doubt if he will buy any more."
+
+Scorpa rose as though to leave. "My friend wants five hundred thousand
+lire."
+
+Mr. Shayne laughed scornfully. "Preposterous!" he said, and from that
+they argued for nearly half an hour; but in the end it was settled that
+the picture should change hands, and the price agreed upon was two
+hundred and fifty thousand lire.
+
+In the matter of payment the duke was punctilious about protecting his
+friend the Prince Sansevero from the consequences of his transgression
+of the law. Shayne agreed to make his payments in cash, so that
+Sansevero's name should not appear on the checks.
+
+But Christopher Shayne was more than skeptical about the duke's
+disinterestedness. "There is a rake-off for this one somewhere," he
+thought. He also thought that for once he had been mistaken in his
+judgment of character. Sansevero had been, in his opinion, a man who
+would sooner starve than defraud the government. So strongly did he
+believe this that although he had, as the duke knew, long coveted the
+Raphael, he would never have dared to approach Sansevero.
+
+After the duke had gone Shayne went out and personally sent a code cable
+announcing his purchase.
+
+"Well," he said to himself, "it's no business of mine. But duke or no
+duke, he is a slick one. I don't like him. I can tell, though, whether
+it is the Sansevero picture as soon as I lay my eyes on it--but what
+gets me is that the prince chose such a go-between. Why didn't he come
+to me direct?" He didn't puzzle over that long, however; planning to get
+the picture out of Italy occupied his attention. An excellent idea
+presented itself: some furniture ordered by his firm should carry it in
+a sofa, and his partner should be advised by cipher letter to remove the
+picture. J. B. Randolph would buy it, without doubt--no need to tell him
+how it came into Shayne & Co.'s hands. They could swear they bought it
+in London. Plausible stories of masterpieces discovered in out of the
+way corners were easily enough manufactured. So these thoughts all being
+to his utmost satisfaction, he went whistling down the street.
+
+The Duke Scorpa at the same time was being driven cheerfully homeward.
+That had been a stroke, that idea of pretending he was merely the
+intermediary. He had got the picture for a loan of one hundred thousand,
+and had one hundred and fifty thousand clear profit. There was nothing
+to show his transaction with Sansevero. No money had passed between
+them, not even a scrap of paper. He had torn up the prince's I. O. U.,
+and that was all the evidence there had been. Christopher Shayne,
+besides, was a shrewd man and reliable, and one who never had been
+caught in a questionable transaction. To be sure, Scorpa had given
+Sansevero his word (but again there was no proof), that he would let
+him retrieve the picture at an advanced price that should be merely the
+accrued compound interest on the money lent. In case of his being able
+to reclaim it, Scorpa would pretend that the picture was burnt or
+stolen--time enough to cross bridges when he came to them. But that
+chance was beyond all probability. There was no way for Sansevero ever
+to secure enough money to get back the picture--unless, indeed, his
+younger brother Giovanni should marry the great American heiress who was
+on her way to Italy for the winter.
+
+"I hardly think that likely," said the Duke Scorpa to himself, as he
+stroked his heavy chin with his fat hand, "for I intend to annex that
+little fortune myself."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+DON GIOVANNI ARRIVES
+
+
+It was a few days after Nina's arrival in Italy; one of the glorious
+mornings when the famous Sansevero gardens were full of golden light,
+bringing into high relief the creamy marble of statues that in other
+centuries had been white. Against the deep waxy green of shrubs and
+hedges, the fountains seemed to be tossing liquid diamonds; and beyond
+the marble balustrades of the descending terraces, the hills rolled away
+in soft gray billows of young olive leaves and powdered slopes of
+blossoming orange branches. In contrast with this background of green
+and marble and roses and flowers and fountains stood Nina reaching up to
+pick a pink camellia. In front of her, the princess was looking vaguely
+into the finder of a camera.
+
+"Now what shall I do? Just press the bulb and let go?"
+
+"W-w-ait a moment until my teeth stop chattering!"
+
+Nina had taken off her coat and was wearing a dress as summery in
+appearance as the garden. "All right, Auntie. This ought to be lovely--I
+hope gooseflesh and a blue nose won't show."
+
+The picture taken, she lost no time in getting back into her long fur
+coat again and wrapping it tightly around her, still shivering.
+
+"I do hope the pictures will be good--I am going to write under them 'In
+a rose garden at Christmas Time.' I shall not tell that I never was so
+cold in my life as at this minute. What I can't understand is how the
+flowers are hypnotized into believing it warm weather. It is every bit
+as cold as New York, yet if we were to ask these same shrubs to live in
+our gardens, they would hang their heads and die at the mere
+suggestion." Nina wanted to take snap shots of the princess, but the
+latter refused to remove her coat, and the incongruity of furs dispelled
+the midsummer illusion. Slipping her hand through her aunt's arm she
+drew her into a brisk walk. The temperature of Italy is low only by
+comparison with its summery appearance, and by the time they reached the
+terrace end she was in a glow.
+
+She looked up at the irregular stone pile of the old castle, against
+which semi-tropical vines climbed so high as partially to cover even the
+great square tower; and involuntarily she exclaimed, "It is so
+beautiful, so beautiful--it almost hurts; even the color of the
+sunshine--the brilliancy, yet the softness--and then to be with you!"
+Enthusiastically she pressed her aunt's arm.
+
+"But tell me," she went on, "what rooms are these along here? Do I know
+them? Let me see--mine is far around on that side over there, isn't
+it?"
+
+"That is your room in the corner, the one by the fountain of the
+dolphins."
+
+Just then there was the sound of tramping on the gravel walk. Nina
+turned, and the next instant her curiosity was aroused. "Who in the
+world were all these people?" As her aunt paid no attention, she
+repeated her question, and the princess casually glanced in their
+direction. It was probably a party of Cook's tourists. Yes, she
+recognized the conductor.
+
+Nina watched the party with increasing interest. "Look how funny that
+little woman is. When the guide tells her anything, she follows his
+directions as though he had a string tied to her nose." Nina began to
+laugh, and the princess turned to see two of the tourists, who, like
+rodents, seemed to be judging a statue of Hermes entirely by the sense
+of smell. The party came nearer, and the princess turned away. But Nina,
+alert, exclaimed, "The guide is pointing you out to them."
+
+"Very likely; one gets used to that. Come, let us go on; they will be
+all over here in a few minutes." The crowd craned after her as she went
+down the terrace, followed by Nina.
+
+"Do you mean to say you give up your own home like this to strangers?"
+the girl asked. "It must be a perfect nuisance!"
+
+"It is all a matter of custom," the princess answered. "Besides, the
+people don't annoy us. They go usually on the lower terraces; at most
+they come up to the old courtyard galleries, perhaps mount the tower to
+see the view, or go into the catacombs."
+
+At the bare mention of catacombs Nina was greatly excited, and looked
+eagerly toward the tourists who were going under the archway where the
+drawbridge once had been, but the Princess showed very little interest.
+They were merely underground passageways that were probably used by
+slaves, although there was one that undoubtedly was built as a means of
+escape. It ran many kilometers and ended in a cave in the forest. "Oh,
+come! Please come!" Nina fairly dragged her aunt after the party to the
+steep dark entrance leading from an old stone dungeon that was falling
+in ruins. The tourists were descending in an awed silence in which
+nothing could be heard but the groping shuffle of cautious feet, broken
+by the hollow echo of the guide's voice reciting his sing-song jargon of
+what he supposed to be English. He held a lantern that revealed a long
+alleyway of crumbling, mud-colored stone. Nina tried to make out
+something of his glib discourse, but soon gave it up.
+
+"What is he talking about?" she whispered.
+
+The princess disentangled the tradition from the overburdening names and
+dates: those scratches he was pointing out on the walls were supposed to
+be a cryptic message from some refugees in need of provisions. It was
+not a very authentic story, though.
+
+As the princess spoke in English, two tourists detached themselves from
+the huddled group around the guide and sidled up to her.
+
+"Can you tell me," asked one, a wizened small person who, in the
+flickering light of the lantern, was strongly suggestive of a mouse,
+"are there many buried here? The guide has been explaining, and I am
+stupid, I know, but for the life of me I can't understand a word he
+says." Her voice was a little dejected, and altogether apologetic.
+
+"We do not think there are any," the princess answered.
+
+The little tourist blinked, hesitated, and then asked, confidentially,
+"Did the guide say you were the princess of this castle? We couldn't
+make out."
+
+By this time two others, inquisitive and gaping, joined the spokeswoman,
+who, as the princess assented, exclaimed, "My!"
+
+That ended the conversation for the time being; and the party trooped on
+in silence. But after a little the small mousy one's curiosity overcame
+her diffidence. "Land, it'd be queer to live in a place like this! Do
+you come down here much, Your Highness?"
+
+Nina nearly giggled, but the princess replied, "I have been down only
+once or twice. There is no use to which we can put these passageways
+nowadays. There was a deep pit that descended from one of the upper
+rooms of the castle through a trap in the floor. The bottom of it was
+far below here, but it is all done away with and cemented over now."
+
+"You know, Your Highness," returned the little tourist, now glibly at
+ease, "I think it'd be a good place for growing mushrooms."
+
+The guide interrupted by mounting a pair of stairs and holding up his
+lantern with the order to "come this way." They all stumbled up the
+crumbling steps after him and suddenly found themselves behind the altar
+of a chapel that stood at the far end of the garden.
+
+"For pity's sake!" cried the little tourist, her eyes again
+blinking--this time at the light. "I never was in such a wonderful place
+in all my life. My! It won't seem like anything at all to go down cellar
+at home after I get back! Is this the way you go to meeting? Oh, no--you
+said you hadn't been down often. Maybe this is the way to go when it
+rains! It don't rain much here, does it? My, but that's an idea--to go
+underground to church. I wonder how ever you get used to it." And then
+irrelevantly she added, "All these beautiful churches over here in
+Yurrup, not a pew in one of 'em."
+
+"They bring out these kneeling chairs for service," the princess said,
+pointing to a number against one wall of the chapel.
+
+Again all the tourist could say was her ever ready "My!"
+
+"Would you like to see some of the castle?" the princess asked. "There
+is a picture gallery not usually opened to visitors, also some
+apartments with frescoes that are worth seeing." Then to the guide, "You
+may take them into the west wing." The tourists looked variously,
+according to their several dispositions; the little one beamed.
+
+"Oh, that's real kind of Your Highness," she exclaimed, her small gray
+person fluttering, more than ever like a mouse. "I must say that's real
+kind. I just dote on pictures. Do you like crayons? Well, I like oils
+best myself, but there are some who have a taste for crayons. The
+photographer's son--out where I live--he is real talented. He did some
+beautiful portraits. Folks thought he ought to come over here right away
+and study art. But others thought there was just as good art right at
+home. Now, what'd you say?"
+
+Her good intention quite won the princess, and her accent warmed her
+heart in a way that Nina would have been at a loss to understand.
+
+They had reached the west door, and the Princess sent a gardener around
+to the main entrance for the porter to bring his keys. The old man came
+quickly enough, fumbling in the pocket of his greatcoat, but he did not
+look at all edified at the whim of Her Excellency which allowed a lot of
+strangers to track mud through the best rooms of the Castle. He preceded
+the party, however, with all signs of deference, unlocking doors as they
+went.
+
+The little New Englander was meekly trailing after the guide, leaving
+Nina and her aunt for the moment alone.
+
+"Oh, but these are beautiful rooms, Aunt Eleanor! Why don't you use
+them?"
+
+"We do in summer sometimes, but one needs a staff of servants to keep
+them up. Besides in winter it is impossible to get them warm."
+
+"Then why," Nina spoke as though she had discovered an obviously simple
+solution, "don't you have the proper heating put in? You won't mind if I
+ask you something, will you?"
+
+"Ask what you like, dearest."
+
+"Why don't you make yourself more comfortable? For instance, why don't
+you have modern plumbing put in? And don't you prefer electric light?"
+
+The Princess smiled as though she had never felt the need of any of
+these things. "You have left the land of modern improvements and come
+over to the land of romance!" For a moment she kept the illusion, but
+the next she seemed to change her mind, for she said practically and
+with no veiling of the facts: "Quite apart from the difficulty of
+putting pipes and wires through these thick stone walls, even if every
+modern improvement were already installed, the cost would make it
+prohibitive to attempt either heating or lighting."
+
+Nina gasped, "I don't understand! You don't have to think of such a
+thing as the expense of keeping warm, do you?"
+
+"Indeed we do. Fuel is a very serious item."
+
+"But, you have plenty of money, surely. I thought living
+abroad--especially in Italy--was cheap."
+
+"I did have a bigger income than now--one does not get as good a rate of
+interest as one used." She colored a little at the false inference and
+dwelt with more emphasis on the next sentence.
+
+"When we go to Rome we spend much more money; we have all the rooms open
+there, and we have a great number of servants--in short we live like
+princes." She smiled brightly. "But you see in order to do that we have
+to live quietly and save during the rest of the year."
+
+Nina looked perplexed. "That sounds very queer," she said. "I should
+think you would even things up and be more comfortable all the time."
+
+"Then we would have nothing. It would be additional expenditure on
+things that don't matter, and no money left for things that do. Opening
+these rooms, for instance, would not greatly add to our pleasure. After
+all, we can only sit in one room at a time. To have many guests and
+motors and horses for hunting, and to have big shooting parties--all
+that is an expense not to be thought of. It amuses us more to go to
+Rome, so we prefer to save for nine months in order to live well the
+other three."
+
+Nina was trying to do a sum in mental arithmetic; she could not quite
+make the diminished interest account for her aunt's evident lack of
+income, but did not like to ask for more details. However, something
+else happened that diverted her attention. They went through
+innumerable rooms, always to the distant droning sing-song of the
+guide's explanations.
+
+Finally they came to the picture gallery. It was not a notable
+collection, with one or two exceptions; and one of these exceptions was
+strikingly absent. The guide left the group and approached the princess,
+exclaiming, "Excellency! The Raphael!"
+
+"It has been sent to be repaired." Her hesitation was scarcely
+perceptible. "The background was sinking a little."
+
+The man quite forgot himself and in his excitement dared a retort--"It
+was one of the best preserved Raphaels extant." But the expression in
+the princess' straight-gazing eyes held his further speech in check, and
+though she said no word the man cringed.
+
+"Pardon, Excellency," he said, and went back to explain to the waiting
+group that the great painting of the Sansevero collection at that moment
+was being carefully examined, by experts, as to its preservation.
+Nevertheless, there was a look in his face that caused Nina to turn to
+her aunt with an apprehension, that gave rise to a vague suspicion that
+the princess, who was walking slowly, her head very high and her
+beautiful shoulders well back, was struggling to hide some strong
+emotion. She thought later that she might have been mistaken, for a
+moment later her aunt asked with her usual composure, "Have you a watch
+on? What time is it?"
+
+Nina consulted the diamond and enamel trinket hanging on a chain around
+her neck. "It is ten minutes to one. Is it lunch time?"
+
+"Nearly. Are you hungry? We are not having lunch to-day until half
+after. I have a surprise for you."
+
+"For me? What is it to be?"
+
+"My young brother-in-law, Giovanni, comes home to-day. I expect him on
+the twelve-thirty train. Your uncle has gone to the station to fetch
+him--they ought to arrive at any moment."
+
+Nina's face looked brightly expectant. "Tell me something about him! Is
+he half as good-looking as his pictures?"
+
+"Ah? So she has been examining his photographs!"
+
+"Of course!" Nina laughed. "Oh, please tell me something about him! Does
+he speak English? French? Or shall I have to struggle in broken Italian?
+Is he like Uncle Sandro?"
+
+"Wait until you see him."
+
+"At least tell me does he speak English?"
+
+"He speaks beautiful French."
+
+"Which means, I suppose, that he speaks monkey English!"
+
+But the princess vouchsafed no reply.
+
+"Well, but really, I _do_ think you might tell me something! Is he
+attractive?"
+
+The Princess assumed a tantalizing air--"That also I am going to leave
+you to find out when you see him. At all events he is young--that is
+compared to your uncle and me. It has been dull for you, darling, with
+no one your own age."
+
+Nina interrupted her reproachfully. "Don't you dare! To hear you, one
+might suppose you were a hundred. I don't care a bit whether Don
+Giovanni is a Calaban or an Antinous--All the same," she laughed, "had I
+better tidy my hair--or does it not matter?"
+
+The tourists were all filing out of the castle now, and as the porter
+locked the doors, the princess shook hands with the little American.
+
+"Thank you, Your Highness," she said, "you have been real kind. We--I
+didn't think, when I left home that I was going to be talking this way
+to princesses. I never dreamed they were like you; and you talk
+beautiful English, too."
+
+With a warm impulse the princess laid her left hand over the
+cotton-gloved one in her right.
+
+"Ah, but I was an American myself," she said, "and it does me good to
+see a country-woman."
+
+They parted. Again the guide made a deep reverence to "Her Excellency,"
+but to Nina the look in his eyes seemed both sly and suspicious.
+
+In the meantime, the pony-cart carrying the prince and his brother was
+jogging slowly up the hills from the station.
+
+Don Giovanni Sansevero--by his own title the Marchese di Valdo--was
+still on the hither side of thirty, but if a reputation for being
+"irresistible to women" goes for anything, he must by this time have
+had some experience in their ways. At all events, his appearance so
+tallied with hearsay that, whether founded upon fact or not, the
+reputation remained.
+
+He was supple and beautifully built, his bones were small and finely
+jointed, his features chiseled with classic regularity--later on his
+lips might grow coarse, but as yet they were merely full. The chief
+characteristic of his expression was its mobility, but it was the
+mobility of an actor who knows every emotion that the muscles of a face
+can command. Sansevero's face, also changeable as an April day, was the
+spontaneous expression of unconscious mood. Giovanni was of a type to
+smile sweetly when most angry, or to assume an air of sulkiness when at
+heart he might be well content. Just now, with an assumption of extreme
+indifference, he turned to his brother.
+
+"What is she like, this heiress of yours whom you are so anxious to have
+me marry?" he asked. "Plain, stupid, a nonentity?--So much the
+better--those make the easy wives to manage. Give me a woman with little
+real success--I mean, one who has seen only the imitation fire that is
+lighted when man pursues with reason and not with feeling. The American
+men make it easy for the rest of us--they are what you call curtain
+raisers in the play of love. They keep the gallery busy until the
+entrance of the hero. I hope she is not a beauty."
+
+"_Per Bacco_, how you do talk!" interrupted the prince. "I have no
+chance to answer. Miss Randolph is not a beauty; but she is
+_simpatica_; she has an air, a _chic_."
+
+"So much the better, so long as the _chic_ is one of appearance and not
+of personality. I don't want my wife to be a siren." Suddenly he laughed
+and hit his brother's knee. "But what nonsense! Imagine a cold American
+miss having the power to make a man's pulses leap! Oh, don't make a face
+like that--I am not speaking of my honored sister-in-law; she is indeed
+of the true type of our mother." Mechanically both men indicated the
+sign of the cross at the word "mother."
+
+"But," continued Giovanni, "I am not exactly worthy of a saint--it would
+not suit my disposition. It is bad enough associating always with good
+Brother Antonio as it is. By the way, where is he?"
+
+He gave a shrill whistle and looked back down the road for the gray
+figure of his inseparable friend and companion: not a monk as the name
+indicated, but a Great Dane. A distant cloud of dust proclaimed that the
+whistle had been heard. "Poor Sant Antonio!" he called as soon as the
+dog had caught up, "Where have you been? I suppose you were meditating
+along life's highway. No," he continued, "it were best I did not pretend
+to be better than I am; my good monk would not absolve me else. Still,
+do you know, sometimes I seriously doubt even Brother Antonio's morals!"
+He shrugged his shoulders and laughed in great delight. Sansevero seemed
+undecided whether to be shocked or amused; ordinarily he would have
+laughed easily enough, but Giovanni in some way had seemed to involve
+Eleanor in his levity.
+
+"Well," continued Giovanni, "I suppose at least Miss America, not being
+a Catholic, will make no objections to Sant Antonio's short-comings!"
+
+At this Sansevero bristled, "Giovanni, I will ask you not to air your
+irreligious remarks about that dog with an unseemly name, in connection
+with the family of my wife."
+
+For answer Giovanni blew a whistle into the air.
+
+Sansevero grew sulky. "I warn you! Don't let Leonore hear you make
+remarks that she might think slighting about her darling! She is like
+her own child to her!"
+
+For a few moments both men were silent. Giovanni's face was no longer
+mocking; he was watching the beautiful lope of his huge dog. Sansevero
+looked straight ahead, quite pensively for him. "Poor Leonore," he said
+at last. "It is often such as she who have no children!" Unconsciously
+he sighed.
+
+Giovanni smiled, "I don't see what she wants of another child than you!"
+
+"And you will inherit----"
+
+"Please! I am not quite so bad as that. Believe me, I should rejoice for
+you if you had children. Leonore would have made a wonderful mother.
+Even I might be respectable if a woman such as she loved me as she loves
+you. But," he grew flippant again, "to marry one of those
+nose-in-the-air, soulless, school-teacher prudes--Never! And in any
+event, my dear, I am not so sure I want to marry your heiress. I am very
+well as I am!" He shrugged his shoulders. A moment later, though, he put
+a question. "What is her first name?--I have forgotten."
+
+"Nina."
+
+"Nina! Really a charming name, that! One that can be said without
+breaking consonants against the teeth. There was a girl once, very
+pretty, but she was called--I can never pronounce it--E-d-i-t-h--those
+are the letters. But Ni-na! It has a delicious sound." He let it slip
+over his tongue. Then he put his head on one side and asked quizzically,
+"How much has she?"
+
+Sansevero looked up quickly; he hesitated a moment, then answered
+stiffly: "She has a great fortune, but she is also my niece."
+
+Giovanni raised his eyebrows, and then burst into shouts of laughter.
+
+"What has come over you? It was you who suggested the match! You know as
+well as I that my debts don't disturb me in the least. It is quite easy
+always to--borrow, if one must pay."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+LOVE, AND A GARDEN
+
+
+Don Giovanni arrived on Tuesday, and Saturday found him out on the
+terrace leaning over the balustrade beside Nina. His expression was
+unusually animated, for he was making the most of his first chance to
+talk to her without the presence of a third person. Not that they were
+alone--the Princess Sansevero was too much of an Italian to leave a
+young girl for a moment unchaperoned. But she was walking about with the
+head gardener, discussing the possibilities of saving a grove of cypress
+trees that showed signs of dying; and though she kept the young people
+well in sight, she could not overhear their conversation. Giovanni's big
+dog, St. Anthony, was lying outstretched in the sunshine.
+
+In the full light, Nina had ample opportunity for observing that her
+companion was quite as good-looking in detail as in general effect; and
+the rhythmic inflection of his voice--he spoke in French--she thought
+truly attuned to his surroundings. He was one of those who, like Italy
+itself, give to strangers only the suggestion of their meaning, and he
+interested Nina chiefly as a new unsolved problem.
+
+Gradually the habitual sleepy expression had returned to his eyes, and
+his voice grew dreamy. "We of Italy," he was saying, "live, endure, die,
+if need be--always for the same reason--woman and love! Your men in
+America"--his teeth glittered as he smiled--"tell me, Mademoiselle, do
+you believe they know what it is to love? Do they hide it, perhaps, from
+us Europeans?"
+
+"I should think," answered Nina sagely, "that love means more to our men
+than to you." (A remark that John Derby had made came into her mind as
+she spoke: "You will find your own countrymen go in for the real thing,
+where the foreigner spends all his time talking about it.")
+
+Don Giovanni was too thoroughly a European to become argumentative. "You
+see, I speak only from hearsay," he continued, with that air of agreeing
+with her which only the Latin possesses. "I have always been led to
+suppose that love plays a very small part in the lives of your
+countrymen." He held the thread of the conversation, but his manner said
+plainly that he only waited humbly to be enlightened. "I should have
+said," he went on, "an illustration of love in my country as contrasted
+with yours is shown in the gardens--just as our gardens bloom all the
+year, so love blooms always in our hearts; flowers and love, they go
+together; nowhere in the world are they so perfect as in Italy."
+
+"So cultivated?" asked Nina.
+
+He took no notice of the quip. "If to cultivate is to think of and to
+nurture, to strive always for greater perfection, then, yes, let us say
+cultivated."
+
+There was a challenge; there was also a look of pity that annoyed her.
+It was this that she resented. She felt that she was being enmeshed in
+an invisible web, and she sought for a means of escape. Seeing none she
+might be sure of, she dropped the figurative speech and took refuge in
+platitudes.
+
+"In America we admire a man for what he does--over here you do nothing.
+Each day for you is the same. You spend your time as a woman might,
+unless you go into the army, the church, or diplomacy. For instance,
+you, yourself, what is your ambition? Is there anything you are trying
+to do?"
+
+Indolently he shrugged his shoulders, and with a half-lazy arrogance he
+answered, "Why should I try to create a personal and trivial future,
+when I can, without striving, merely survive from a far more glorious
+past? Listen, Mademoiselle, do you think as much can be accomplished by
+one short generation as by many? For instance, could a garden such as
+this be produced in the lifetime of one man?" He waved his arm in a
+circular motion. "It is not alone its plan and its fountains, and its
+green shrubbery that make it what it is, but the history of human lives
+that is planted in its every turn and corner. The gardens of America are
+but newly born from the minds of your landscape architects; in most of
+them the trees are but newly planted. This garden was already stately
+with ilex and cypress when the first white men of North America were
+sowing a little corn. How can you feel romance in a garden where there
+is no tradition save of the hours a few laborers have spent in digging?"
+
+Suddenly a look of real ardor came into his face, an animation into his
+expression that gave a new charm to his words. "On this terrace where we
+now stand, leaning upon the marble of this very railing, countless men
+who were heroes, poets, philosophers, and fair women who were their
+sweethearts, have looked, as we do, over the hills laden with blossoming
+trees. Up that path yonder to the monastery have gone pilgrims, sinners,
+martyrs, and many lovers to have their vows blessed, or to find a haven
+for broken hearts. In the _allee_ of cypress trees have walked many of
+the great lovers of Italy's romance. From this terrace end Beatrice
+herself is said to have thrown a rose of that very bush's parent stem to
+her immortal lover. Every corner of the garden holds its story of
+meetings that made of it a paradise, of partings that made of it an
+inferno. What is paradise, but love? Inferno, but the sorrow of love?
+Down before us, and even up here on this terrace, scenes have been
+enacted in feud and in peace, horrible scenes of bloodshed and cruelty,
+and again scenes of splendor--gatherings of church, ceremonials of
+state, but chiefly scenes of love--some beautiful and happy, others no
+less beautiful because they were tragic. Shall I tell you some of the
+stories?"
+
+Nina nodded an eager assent; Giovanni's manner held her completely.
+
+"Almost where you are standing, Cecilia Sansevero was stabbed by Guido
+Corlone before he killed himself, so that they might be together in the
+next world. Out of that window, the third from the end, another daughter
+of our house descended by a silk ladder. They--she and her lover--took
+the path directly below here; the guards saw them. This happened just
+beside the statue yonder. He drew his sword and stood before her, but
+the guards were too many, and he was killed. She had poison in a locket
+that she wore, and almost before they could drag her arms from about her
+lover's neck, she also was dead."
+
+"Horrible!" cried Nina. Her face, mobile as Giovanni's own, had
+unconsciously reflected, in changing expressions, the progress of his
+narrative. "To think that in such a place as this such things really
+happened." She shuddered, then added, "But, Don Giovanni, are there no
+pleasant stories? Please think of some."
+
+"Oh, any number. Once there was a small house in the valley--a lodge it
+would be called now. A very pretty girl lived there. This time it was
+the son of our house, a young, hot-headed fellow like all of us."
+Giovanni let just enough fire gleam in his eyes to give Nina a glimpse
+of another phase of him. "Well, this son--whose name was the same as
+mine, Giovanni, a Prince Sansevero--he was mad about this girl. He
+would marry her or he would take his life. She was the star of his
+destiny, the crown of his life, and all the rest of it. They were going
+to send her away--she was to go into a cloister; he was locked up in the
+castle. But the old custodian, who adored the boy, let him escape by the
+underground passage. He came out in the church. She had gone there to
+pray, knowing nothing of the underground way--it was kept a profound
+secret in those days. As the girl knelt, Giovanni appeared suddenly
+beside the altar. Her duenna thought him an apparition, and the two fled
+up to the monastery--that one you see from here."
+
+"And then----?" said Nina breathlessly.
+
+"The Father Abbot relented and married them."
+
+Nina tried to discern the path to the monastery; in her imagination she
+saw them hurrying along on the night of their escape.
+
+"And then? In the end what became of them?"
+
+"She bore him fifteen children; thirteen of them were girls."
+
+Giovanni's manner was so casual as he said this that Nina laughed long
+and deliciously. He swung himself lightly over the balustrade and
+gathered her a long-stemmed rose from the bush whose early branches were
+supposed to have known the touch of Beatrice. Perhaps the legend was
+untrue, but his action, like the afternoon, held much that was alluring.
+Something of this allure lay in Giovanni's having the same name as the
+people he told about. Something, too, in the carelessness, and yet the
+pride, of his telling, made his tales enchanting, and seemed in some way
+to include his own personality in the chain of romance as its final
+link. The garden was spread before her. The underground passage she
+knew, and it wound directly beneath her feet. The chapel, the statue,
+the ruins of the little temple, the monastery encircling like a low
+crown the summit of the distant mountain, all were before her; and
+beside her was a son of the same race, of the same blood. She wondered
+vaguely why it was so much more apparent in Don Giovanni than in her
+uncle the prince. Prince Sansevero seemed quite modern; the Marchese di
+Valdo, though more modern actually than his brother, still seemed to
+keep his touch on the age that was past.
+
+"Do these old legends please you, Mademoiselle? Or are you too restless?
+Too progressive? Americans, like the horse Pegasus, leap into the air
+without any need of foundation to stand on. We, over here, build, like
+the coral reefs, slowly perhaps, but always from the foundation up."
+
+"I think," said Nina slowly; "it is the mystery of the past that makes
+it so wonderful. We never can know quite enough about it. All legends
+are like pictures seen through a fog; it lifts and shows a glimpse, then
+as quickly closes in again. I always want to know what happened next."
+
+As she said this, she realized that she was more or less making an
+allegorical description of Giovanni himself. He was like his country and
+its traditions, revealing himself only in glimpses. He attracted her
+immensely through his subtle impersonality underlying all that was
+seemingly personal. She could not fathom his depth, nor determine his
+shallowness--she did not even guess which it might be. She was
+irresistibly drawn to him; yet she was on her guard, as one who, looking
+down from a great height, in fear of vertigo clings to the parapet over
+which he leans. The parapet she clung to was her own good American
+common sense. Yet she feared she did not know what. A little gleam in
+Giovanni's dark eyes, a curious, deliberate, intentionally produced
+expression of his smiling lips, swept over her sensibilities with a
+feeling that was as terrifying as it was delicious--and both perhaps
+because it was strange.
+
+A little look--like triumph--flickered in his face; he laughed joyously.
+"Mademoiselle, you are--adorable!" he said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ROME
+
+
+Christmas and New Year's passed, and the Sansevero household moved to
+Rome. The princess was impatient to have Nina meet people, but from the
+first glimpse of the domed City its immortal charm claimed the American
+girl, and for a little while she had neither time nor inclination for
+anything but sight-seeing. She fairly hungered for history and
+tradition, and she soon made the discovery that if Don Giovanni _did_
+nothing, he at least _knew_ a great deal.
+
+She marveled at his memory. He seemed to have every name and date in the
+history of Rome and Italian art at the tip of his tongue. One afternoon
+they were going through the apartments of the Borgias; the princess,
+tired out with sight-seeing, was sitting at the edge of the room, and
+Giovanni was following Nina and pointing out the story illustrated in
+the frescoes.
+
+"I have found at least one thing you could do!" she laughed. "You'd make
+a wonderful guide for Cook's."
+
+But he was not at all amused by this sally; in fact, he let her see that
+he was annoyed. This same sort of unexpected response had baffled her
+several times before. Any American youth would have fallen into the
+manner of a guide at once. She remembered that John Derby on one
+occasion, at a County fair, had insisted upon climbing on the stand of a
+barker and was the success of the show. On the other hand, this Italian
+prince appreciated things which John Derby would have brushed aside. He
+was a delightful companion, the most delightful she had ever known, but
+every now and then he became suddenly and inexplicably offended--and
+always over some stupid trifle, like this suggestion of hers about
+Cook's.
+
+"I only meant," she ventured appeasingly, "that you hold all of Rome's
+history in the palm of your hand. Is there anything that you don't
+know?"
+
+His gesture was expressive. He raised his eyebrows and opened both hands
+palms upward. "I am Roman--since a thousand years."
+
+Nina changed the subject. "I wish," she said, "that they had wheeling
+chairs with head rests. I have a crick in my neck and my eyes are going
+crossed from looking so much at ceilings."
+
+Giovanni's ill temper had been for a moment only. He smiled now and
+whimsically suggested that they write to the director of the Vatican
+asking that litters be provided. Why not? He grew quite enthusiastic
+over his description of how charming she would look between tall negro
+bearers, with a little black boy trotting beside her, carrying a long
+fan--no, in place of the fan he should carry a little stove.
+
+"My idea was not half so picturesque," she laughed in answer. "I think I
+had a dentist's chair in mind--a red fuzzy plush one on wheels."
+
+"And with me to push it?" He said it eagerly enough. Here was a
+contradiction of his late irritation! She did not dare, as a matter of
+fact, to answer; his melodies and his discords were too easily
+transposed.
+
+She turned her attention to the fresco before her; it was one with the
+portrait of the kneeling Borgia.
+
+"He looks like a burglar!" she exclaimed with a shudder. Then she
+hesitated, but Giovanni's mood being too uncertain to take into
+consideration she finished her sentence, "Do you know who he looks
+like--? The Duke Scorpa."
+
+Again he was angry. "Please, Miss Randolph, do not say anything of that
+sort."
+
+"But why shouldn't I?" She colored under his reproof, but held to her
+point.
+
+"Because you are of the household of the Sansevero. A little
+remark--even so little as a tenth of that, might be imprudent. Rome is
+to-day almost what it was. There still is a very frail bridge uniting
+the Scorpas and the Sanseveros; the ravine is always there; a torrent
+from the glacier may descend at any time."
+
+"Then I shall say it in a whisper! He looks like a burglar, and like a
+cut-throat and--like Scorpa!"
+
+Giovanni scowled. "I warn you, Mademoiselle, be prudent!" A note of
+tension in his voice brought Nina to a sudden halt.
+
+"There is no one here but Aunt Eleanor--I doubt if even she can hear."
+
+"In Rome it would not be the first time if walls had ears."
+
+"I am sorry," she said so simply, so candidly, that Giovanni was
+charmed. He became light and amusing. He elaborated the legends of the
+frescoes with the lives of the painters' until she felt as though they
+were yet living. Finally they reached the side of the room where the
+princess was waiting. There was no impatience in her voice, but she
+looked tired, and Nina cried penitently:
+
+"Ah, Aunt Eleanor! Why did you not call me sooner? I get so carried away
+by all the things I see, and the tales Don Giovanni tells me, that I
+have no sense of time."
+
+They descended the stairs to the inner court of the Vatican, where they
+found their carriage, an old-fashioned C-spring landeau, all very
+dignified and perfectly appointed, and in striking contrast to the
+pony-cart in which the princess was trundled about at Torre Sansevero.
+
+By the time they crossed the Ponte S. Angelo the color had come back a
+little into the princess's face. Nina, with no sign of fatigue, sat
+brightly alert, while Giovanni opposite, prattled ceaselessly, except
+for the interruption necessitated by his constantly taking off his hat
+as his sister-in-law bowed to passing acquaintances.
+
+They had not far to go along the Corso Vittorio Emanuele before they
+came to the dingy pile of yellow stone that for centuries had borne the
+name of Palazzo Sansevero. The landeau turned under one of its three
+broad archways, and entered the courtyard. A plain stone stairway, worn
+and dingy like the rest of the facade, led into a vestibule of
+unpromising darkness. The _portiere_, however, was very gorgeous and
+imposing in his knee breeches, white silk stockings, gold-trimmed coat,
+and his three-cornered hat with the prince's cockade at the side. He
+moved majestically down the steps, carrying a silver-headed mace, like a
+drum-major's, and saluted as the "nobilities" entered the palace. They
+ascended to a vast stone hall with a grand stairway at its further end,
+that quickly effaced the impression of the entrance. From an
+antechamber, they passed through five or six rooms hung with tapestries
+and paintings, and adorned with sculptures, until they arrived at the
+one where the princess really lived. This last was a huge, dignified,
+mellow, and splendid apartment, in every way worthy of the palace in
+which it stood, and of the great lady who occupied it now, no less than
+of all the great ladies who had occupied it in the past. In its present
+furnishings there were deep sofas with light and table arrangement, so
+that one might lounge and read and at the same time be near the great
+open fire. Many bibelots of silver and porcelain made a contrast to the
+other rooms, that were more like museum galleries; and everywhere--here
+as in the country--were flowers and the army of autographed photographs
+marching across tables and banked high against the walls.
+
+As soon as the family had entered, the tea-tray was brought in and
+placed near the fire. Following the Roman custom, according to which the
+daughter of the house pours the tea, the princess motioned Nina to fill
+the office, and she herself sat at her desk and began rapidly writing on
+a pad of paper. Giovanni carried tea and muffins to her, while Nina
+poured out her own cup and helped herself to a third cake.
+
+"Are these really so good?" she asked half wistfully. "Or are even these
+little cakes seemingly delicious only because they are in Rome? I am
+sure the cook at home made plenty that were every bit as good!" She said
+this last as though to convince herself.
+
+"They are wonderful little cakes--they are very celebrated!" Giovanni
+said it with an aggrieved air that made Nina laugh. As though wilfully
+misunderstanding her, he turned to his sister-in-law.
+
+"Such curious ideas Miss Randolph has about Rome! One would suppose, to
+hear her, that it was a land of witchcraft--even our food is to be
+taken with suspicion."
+
+"Not at all," retorted Nina, with a turn of manner that would have done
+credit to an Italian, "a land of enchantment, which makes ordinary
+cakes--very ordinary little cakes, I tell you!--seem small squares and
+rounds of ambrosia. And, furthermore--I can assure you it is much more
+comfortable here than in the country."
+
+If Giovanni thought she was going to stay sentimental very long, he did
+not know the American temperament. For she now went into a long
+dissertation upon the discomfort of Torre Sansevero, where she nearly
+froze to death. Candle light she had not minded, though she much
+preferred electricity.
+
+"Have you entirely obliterated the gardens from your memory,
+Mademoiselle?" Giovanni asked in an undertone, and with a romantic
+inflection. But Nina's mood was not, at that moment, attuned to gardens.
+
+"Ah, I love Rome--just Rome itself! There is no other such place in all
+the world! I thought I loved Paris. Paris is gay and beautiful. But Rome
+is glorious--splendid!"
+
+Giovanni's chagrin at her apparent indifference to the gardens was
+changed to enthusiasm at her appreciation of his beloved city, for to
+have her love Rome was like having her love the greater portion of
+himself--who was but part of Rome.
+
+"The only detriment is," continued Nina, "that at night I dream of
+marble statues parading against backgrounds of cobalt blue under groined
+arches of gold--like the ceilings in the rooms of the Borgias and--this
+one! Why this is exactly like them! There is the same face as the St.
+Catherine----" then suddenly she sat up, leaning eagerly
+forward--"Auntie Princess, I don't want to have a party at all! I don't
+want to meet people! I like to think of Rome as inhabited with those of
+long ago." Then with one of her sudden checks upon a tendency to become
+over sentimental, she added gaily, "The little cakes of to-day, are good
+at all events! Give me another, please!"
+
+Giovanni slid out of the corner of the sofa like smooth steel springs
+unfolding; neither hastily, nor with effort. She watched him; fascinated
+by his grace and litheness. Suddenly, though, she felt uncomfortably
+certain that he knew what was passing in her mind, and this conviction
+immediately put her out of humor. For the space of a few minutes she
+disliked him. He seemed to know that too, for his next sentence was:
+
+"Are all young girls in America so unreasonably capricious, so
+whimsically balanced mentally as--a young girl I once met?"
+
+"How was she?" Nina's curiosity was aroused in spite of her.
+
+"Very inexperienced, and therefore uncertain. Like the person who in
+dancing counts one, two, three--one, two, three, for fear of losing
+time--or like the inexperienced swimmer who measures constantly the
+distance to shore."
+
+"Children, you are chattering nonsense," the princess interfered. "Here,
+you lazy ones, help me to write the invitations!"
+
+Nina arose and went to look over her aunt's shoulder. "Oh, but it is for
+day after to-morrow!" she exclaimed. "Do you mean to say that any one
+will come at such short notice?" That the invitations were merely
+visiting cards with "Informal Dance" written in the corner, and a date
+not forty-eight hours ahead, astonished her. She asked about the
+details. How could they arrange for the decorations, favors, supper? But
+the princess smiled complacently. Candles were all the decoration
+necessary! the favors would be trifles that could be bought in half an
+hour; and as for supper--what could young people want more than lemonade
+or tea, sandwiches, and cakes? The only question was where they should
+dance.
+
+The princess turned to Giovanni. "I think it is best in the picture
+gallery, don't you?"
+
+"The floor is not so smooth as in the Room of the Aenead, but come, let
+us go and decide." He led the way, and they followed. The Room of the
+Aenead was next that in which they were sitting. The portrait gallery,
+filled with treasures from the days of Italy's grandeur, was still
+beyond. It was this apartment of all others that most appealed to Nina.
+For a moment she forgot why they had come into the gallery, and her
+attention remained fixed upon the canvases. With the ever-vigilant
+Giovanni at her side, she seemed to be walking in a day that was past,
+to be enveloped in a fairy mantle! She put her hand on a group said to
+be the work of Michelangelo, running her fingers over the face of one of
+the figures with awe in her touch.
+
+"To think," she said very softly, the wonder breaking through the low
+tone of her voice, "to think that Michelangelo's own living hand has
+been where mine is now--still more, he has been in this very room! Not
+alone he, but Raphael, Correggio, and Pinturicchio! And all this is
+called home by my own aunt. _Mine!_" A little quiver had come into her
+throat. "It is too wonderful! Yet it gives me the strangest sensation--I
+can't exactly explain it, but it is as though I were not born at all. Do
+you know," she had turned to Giovanni wistfully, "I think I can
+understand just a little of the way you feel--it is as though you were
+securely planted like a tree. In the beginning, long ago, you were put
+into the earth with the first things sown. I am merely a leaf, blown
+from what branch I do not even know--belonging nowhere, coming from
+nothing. I think I see for the first time what you mean, over here, but
+just _being_ and not caring to do more than survive from the
+gloriousness of all this." She spread her arms out as though
+bewildered.
+
+"Now you see," Giovanni answered her, as though there were a new and
+strong bond of sympathy between them, "why decorations are unnecessary.
+Can you imagine these walls, which for centuries have looked down upon
+every great personage of Rome, being decked up like a Christmas tree
+because a number of people whose achievements are in no way illustrious
+are coming for an hour or two?"
+
+"I think," said Nina, "that I shall dance like a wraith. It seems almost
+a sacrilege to bob around and prattle in such surroundings. How silly
+their sainted ghosts might think us!"
+
+"I never thought of the old masters as saints exactly. But come,
+Mademoiselle--let us pretend--in each of those chandeliers are burning a
+hundred wax candles. It is the night of the ball--we open it so--will
+you dance?"
+
+Again there appeared a Giovanni that she had never seen before, his lazy
+arrogance vanished, as, whisking a handkerchief out of his pocket to
+wave in his hand, he became a sprite--a dancing faun, a reincarnation of
+the spirit of Donatello.
+
+Twice he traversed the length of the gallery, and then, with a vigor
+added to his grace, he caught Nina and swung her with him into his
+whirling dance. It had been perfectly done; even in his _abandon_ there
+was no lack of ceremony. There was none of the "come along" spirit of
+youth in America. He was in this, just as he was in everything else, a
+remnant of a past age; he had merely been transformed into a Bacchant!
+He was in no way a mere young man who had grabbed a young girl around
+the waist and made her dance.
+
+But as the princess watched them, her feelings were strongly at
+variance. Admiration played the greater part. Even a much less biased
+mind than hers could not have failed to appreciate the wonderful grace
+of the man and the girl, for Nina was as graceful as he. Yet the
+princess looked vaguely troubled, too, at the thought that Giovanni was
+perhaps overstepping his privilege.
+
+"Giovanni! Nina!" she called, but she might as well have appealed to the
+wind that blew through the courtyard below, and instead of their heeding
+she felt her own waist encircled as Sansevero, who had entered by the
+door behind her, swept her into the dance with him. "But, Sandro!" she
+exclaimed, resisting, "it is . . . not seemly! What if . . . the servants
+. . . should . . . see us?" But, joining Giovanni in the tune he was
+whistling, Sansevero seemed to have caught some of his brother's humor.
+If Giovanni had become the spirit of grace, Alessandro had become the
+spirit of recklessness, and Eleanor was whirled, breathless, not as one
+dances usually, but madly, so that her feet barely touched the floor. To
+add to the revelry of the scene, the Great Dane, who was never far from
+Giovanni's side, now joined the general whirl and leaped round and round
+as though he had but newly come from a bath, his deep bark punctuating
+the valse the two men were whistling. The princess felt an apprehensive
+dread of a servant's intrusion, and again a breathless "Sandro, stop!"
+escaped her lips just as----
+
+The portiere was lifted and the footman announced, "_Suo Eccellenza il
+Duca di Scorpa!_"
+
+"Ah, I hope I do not intrude upon the family gaiety!" The duke's face
+was insinuatingly bland and his manner smooth as an eel.
+
+The dancers stopped instantly. The princess flushed, but otherwise only
+one who knew her intimately might have guessed that she was conscious of
+having been put in the position of a careless and undignified chaperon.
+But she winced inwardly, and felt no reassurance in the knowledge that
+the duke's tongue was known to be more skillful in the art of
+embroidering than the fingers of the most expert needlewoman. Sansevero
+followed his wife's cue, but without feeling her dismay, for he, it must
+be remembered, liked Scorpa. He had the naive manner of a child caught
+doing something foolish, but that was all. Giovanni welcomed the duke
+suavely, yet, as the princess led Scorpa into the living rooms, Nina had
+an exhibition of a real side of Giovanni that she was destined to
+remember ever after.
+
+She never in her life had imagined that such fury could be depicted in
+the human countenance. His nostrils dilated, and his jaw was squared.
+
+"I'll kill that viper yet!" he muttered between his teeth, and, reaching
+out for the first thing to hand, his long smooth fingers locked around
+the neck of the Great Dane--so tight that the dog, half strangled and
+snarling, lunged at his tormenter. Nina cried out in horror, but
+instantly Giovanni's temper vanished as it had come. He relaxed his
+fingers with a caress; and the animal fawned on him.
+
+"Forgive me, Mademoiselle." He said it as lightly as though there had
+been only some trivial inattention to overlook.
+
+The whole scene had taken place in a moment--so quickly, in fact, that
+as Nina and he followed the princess through the adjoining rooms, she
+half wondered if her senses had deceived her. What manner of man was
+this indolent, graceful descendant of a feudal race? As he approached
+the duke, Nina unconsciously held her breath. Half expecting to see them
+draw daggers then and there, she glanced fearfully from one to the
+other; but Giovanni, smiling his sleepy-eyed smile, talked as though he
+thought the duke the most charming man in the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+OPENING DAY AT THE TITLE MARKET
+
+
+On the evening of the dance the Princess Malio, stiff, thin, and sour,
+and the old Duchess Scorpa, stolid, ugly, and squat, sat together in a
+corner of the ballroom--that is to say, the picture gallery--of the
+Palazzo Sansevero.
+
+"So that is the new American heiress!" said the duchess. "Very
+presentable, I call her. My Todo might do worse than marry her--but of
+course"--her face drew itself into the grimace that did duty for a
+smile--"my Todo would have little chance for her favor in competition
+with your nephew."
+
+The princess bowed in acknowledgment and strongly protested against the
+idea of any one's being able to compete with a Duke Scorpa.
+
+The conversation between these two old women was always forced into just
+such channels of conscious politeness. It was rarely that they disclosed
+the antagonism that formed the chief spice of their lives. But the
+princess could not control an impulse to destroy, if possible, the
+satisfaction of her rival.
+
+"My dear Duchess," she insinuated dulcetly, "do you really credit her
+fabulous fortune?" Her manner expressed her pity for the other's
+credulity. "Such a sum as five hundred thousand _lire_ a year too much
+oversteps the mark of probability."
+
+But the complacency of the duchess was not so easily disturbed. "Oh, no,
+that is not right!" she broke in. "I have been assured that she has five
+hundred thousand _dollars_ a year. Dollars! And there are five _lire_ in
+every dollar, remember."
+
+"Dollars!" echoed the princess--and her voice rose several notes above
+normal pitch; in fact, she nearly screamed. "I am very certain you are
+misinformed." But her skepticism barely covered her real chagrin because
+her nephew was a cadaverous nonentity, with little to recommend him to a
+title hunter. As she looked at the girl in question, however, there was
+a decided relish in her next remark:
+
+"I think Giovanni Sansevero will carry off that prize! See the way she
+is smiling up at him. Ah! and now they are dancing together. Certainly
+they make a suitable looking couple."
+
+The duchess straightened her dumpy figure to its greatest possible
+height. For once she forgot herself. "Would any one marry a Sansevero
+when there is a Scorpa to choose!"
+
+"It has happened," chuckled the princess.
+
+The threatening break in their habitual politeness was averted by the
+arrival of a third old lady, the Marchesa Valdeste. As her husband was
+the receiver of the "_Gran Collare de l'Anunziata_," a distinction that
+gave him the rank of cousin to the king, the duchess and the princess
+both rose for a moment in deference. The "collaress" seated herself with
+them. In contrast to theirs, her face was sweet and fresh, with an
+expression almost like that of a young girl. Her whole personality was
+gentle, and she punctuated what she said by a curious little swaying
+motion, a bending of the body from the waist, very suggestive of the way
+a flower bends on its stalk to the breeze.
+
+The marchesa was also much interested in the new heiress, and although a
+certain finish of demeanor now modified their remarks, none of them
+attempted to conceal her ambition to secure Nina's money for her own
+family.
+
+The Princess Malio was more eager than skeptical as she asked the
+marchesa, "Have you heard the story of her half a million dollar income?
+Do you believe it possible!"
+
+The marchesa turned her little hands over, palms up. "She has something
+incredible, but I cannot say how much. Maria Potensi asked the American
+ambassador if the celebrated James Randolph was as rich as reputed, and
+he said----"
+
+The duchess became almost apoplectic in her eagerness. "He said----"
+
+The marchesa looked for all the world like a young girl telling a fairy
+tale. "He said"--she breathed it in wonder--"that Mr. Randolph's wealth
+was so fabulous that it was beyond computing! And _this_ is his _only
+child_!"
+
+An awed stillness fell upon the group, each old lady looking and longing
+according to her own nature. It was the marchesa who at last broke the
+silence. "I cannot deny that I should like my Cesare to be so fortunate
+as to win her, but I must confess she and Giovanni Sansevero make a
+charming couple!"
+
+"Dancing, yes," snapped the duchess, "but for my taste they dance too
+fast!"
+
+"She is doubtless thinking of her tub of a son, who moves with about the
+grace of an elephant," whispered the Princess Malio behind her fan.
+
+"I can imagine nothing more graceful than the picture they make at this
+moment," the marchesa answered, wistfully regarding the two slim figures
+whirling down the length of the room, dancing, dancing on! as though it
+were the first, and not the tenth, time they had traversed the great
+gallery; the elastic poise of each the same, the gold-colored gauze of
+Nina's dress exactly matching the rippling waves of glorious hair only a
+shade below the sleek black head of her partner.
+
+Yet the marchesa was perhaps no more anxious than either of the others
+to have Giovanni bear off the American prize. "My Cesare does not return
+from England for another month," she added only half audibly, and then
+she sighed.
+
+Suddenly the old princess pounced like a lean cat upon a new thought.
+"Ah, ha! There is some trouble brewing! Maria Potensi has found your
+picture of dancing grace a bit too charming. Di Valdo is biting his
+mustache, and she is giving herself away! I always thought the wind sat
+in that quarter. Now--she is losing her temper--and with it her
+discretion!"
+
+"Maria Potensi is above suspicion," interrupted the marchesa. "I do not
+believe there is a word of truth in what you imply."
+
+"But how do you account for her jewels? I am interested to hear. There
+were none in the Potensi family, nor in her own!"
+
+"She says quite frankly that they were given her by an old Russian who
+is her god-father."
+
+"Every one knows," rejoined the princess, "that di Valdo has made heavy
+debts, yet he is not a gambler like his brother Sansevero, and he has no
+personal extravagances that account for the sums borrowed."
+
+The "collaress" answered nothing, and the fat duchess, who had so far
+been only a listener, drew her head in like a snapping turtle as she
+made the satisfactory observation that her "Todo" was now the partner of
+the heiress.
+
+The Duke Scorpa and Nina, standing for the commencement of a quadrille,
+suggested rather a brigand and a princess than a duke and a titleless
+daughter of the democracy. Nina was holding her head very high, yet
+easily and unconsciously, because it was her natural way of standing.
+The dancing had brought color to her cheeks, and her eyes were
+sparkling; but it was at the evening in general, not at the man who at
+that moment was trying to please her. She could not bear the duke's
+sharp little black eyes, his brutal square jaw, his unctuous manners;
+and as he took her hand to lead her down a figure of the quadrille, its
+thickness felt to her imagination like a paw.
+
+Dancing vis-a-vis were Giovanni and the Contessa Potensi. Nina did not
+know her name or anything about her, but she felt at first sight a
+subtle antagonism, and, following an instinct that she would have found
+difficult to account for, she turned her attention away toward a second
+personality, which fascinated her in as great a degree as that of the
+Potensi had repelled.
+
+"Who is that over there?" she asked of the duke. "I mean the slender
+girl in black."
+
+"The Contessa Olisco. She was a Russian princess. Her name was Zoya
+Kromitskoff. I thought the name of Zoya pretty once--that is, until I
+heard the name of N-i-n-a!"
+
+As he said her name they were just turning around the last figure, and
+she might not, without attracting attention, snatch her hand from his;
+but his familiarity in using her Christian name made her cheeks burn. In
+the final courtesy she barely inclined her head, and at the close of the
+dance went in quest of her aunt without noticing his proffered arm. At
+this unheard-of behavior, the duke hurried after her, biting his
+mustache.
+
+"Ah, ha!" ejaculated the old princess in the ear of the Marchesa
+Valdeste, "that cuttlefish of a Scorpa has thrown his tentacles out too
+far, and the goldfish is scurrying away in alarm." She fanned herself in
+agitated satisfaction at her triumph over the duchess--who was
+pretending that she had noticed no coolness in the American's treatment
+of her son.
+
+The next moment the Princess Sansevero brought Nina to present her to
+the marchesa. Nina had been dancing at the time of the arrival of the
+"collaress" and must therefore be presented at the first opportunity.
+The marchesa, with a few kindly remarks about her dancing, would have
+let her return to her partners, but the duchess moved ponderously aside
+on the sofa, making a place for Nina. Without prelude she began, "Is it
+true that you have five hundred thousand dollars a year? Or is rumor
+mistaken--is it only five hundred thousand _lire_?"
+
+The baldness of the question left Nina for the moment speechless; then
+presently, "I have what father gives me," she answered evasively.
+
+"But you are the only child of the American multimillionaire, 'Jemmes
+Ronadolf,' yes?"
+
+Nina nodded in affirmative.
+
+"The Duke Scorpa, with whom you danced just now, is my son!" Her manner
+clearly demanded that the American girl recognize the great favor that
+she had received. "He is my only son," she reiterated, "and the head of
+the family of the Scorpa. You must come to tea to-morrow. I especially
+invite you, though we are regularly at home."
+
+The condescension of her demeanor can hardly be described. Nina turned
+helplessly toward the Princess Malio, but found in her a new inquisitor:
+"American fathers are proverbially generous"--her ingratiating smile so
+ill suited her features that it seemed almost not to belong to her--"of
+course your dot will be colossal?"
+
+Again Nina gasped, but before she was obliged to answer the Marchesa
+Valdeste laid her hand upon her arm. "Come, my dear," she said, with her
+soft Sicilian accent, "it is a pity to miss so much dancing. It is not
+right for a young girl to sit with old ladies at a ball," and, holding
+Nina's hand in hers, she led her away. They had taken only half a dozen
+steps when she tapped a young officer lightly with her fan.
+
+He wheeled quickly. "Ah, Marchesa!" He bowed ceremoniously.
+
+"Count Tornik," said the marchesa, "will you take Miss Randolph to the
+Princess Sansevero, or where her numerous partners may find her?"
+
+Count Tornik bowed again, this time to Nina. "Will you dance? I don't
+dance as well as di Valdo." Nina looked up at him, suspicious and
+displeased, but there was no conscious deprecation in his manner, which
+indeed proclaimed that whether he danced well or badly was a matter
+unlike unimportant to him.
+
+"Yes, let us dance," she said.
+
+As he put his arm around her it seemed to her that "an animated tin
+soldier" expressed him perfectly. He held her stiffly, and so closely
+that her nose was crushed against the gold braiding of his uniform. He
+was so tall, and his shoulders were so square, that she could not see
+over them, and to add to her discomfort, he danced, not as did the
+Italians, but round and round like a whirling dervish. Before they had
+gone ten yards she was so dizzy and uncomfortable that she stopped.
+
+Again Tornik bowed, offered his arm, and without addressing a further
+remark to her, led her to the Princess Sansevero. As he took leave of
+her his expression showed a glimpse of understanding, a momentary
+illumination. She felt for an instant a possibility of his
+attractiveness, but just as she became curious he was gone.
+
+The men she met after this were a mere succession of dancing figures,
+and at the end of the evening, when her aunt came into her room to kiss
+her good night, she could sleepily distinguish only one or two people
+out of the kaleidoscope of confused impressions. And even these few
+melted off into shadows as she danced on and on through dreamland with
+Giovanni, amid gardens and marble statues, to the magic rhythm of
+wonder-world music.
+
+But while Nina slept with a happy little smile still lying in the
+corners of her mouth, the princess in her own room was having an
+animated conversation with her husband.
+
+"Leonora, my treasure!" he exclaimed joyously, "things go well for
+Giovanni with _la bella_ Nina? _Hein?_ With her fortune! And to have
+such an air and grace, too--it is really Giovanni that is a lucky one!"
+Before his wife could interrupt he went on, "Five hundred thousand
+dollars income--that is to be her dot, isn't it? Why, we can have all
+the rooms at Torre Sansevero opened, and you, my beautiful one, shall
+have again the comfort that your wretch of a husband has deprived you
+of!"
+
+His excited appropriation of Nina's fortune for the general family
+coffers jarred; and the princess at once checked his rapidly soaring
+imaginings.
+
+"Not so fast! Not so fast! Remember the American girl is used to
+arranging her own marriage, and besides . . . for nothing in the world
+would I try to influence her. Should it turn out unhappily I could never
+forgive myself . . . never!"
+
+Sansevero looked at his wife in open-eyed amazement. "What has come over
+you, my dear! I am not proposing to sell your Miss Millions to a rag
+gatherer. She has no amount of beauty--yes (as he followed Eleanor's
+expression), she has a charming countenance--_molto simpatica_--also a
+distinction that is really rarer in your country of beautiful women.
+Giovanni, on his side, certainly has all that one could ask in the way
+of good looks and intelligence. He is young, and he is the sole heir to
+my titles and estates--She would be getting a very good exchange for her
+dollars, I am thinking. There is no use to make a face like that; I am
+not trying to sell her to an ogre. Why, he does not even gamble----"
+
+"No--but do you think Giovanni can be true to a woman?"
+
+Sansevero laughed. "What would you have? Are you becoming a Puritan
+miss, Leonora _mia_?" He shrugged his shoulders. "He is young and he has
+heart! Would you have for a nephew-in-law a St. Anthony?"
+
+As the princess still looked worried, he seemed afraid that he had hurt
+his project. "Giovanni is of a type that women like," he said
+reassuringly, "and probably he has had his successes--that is all I
+meant. Don't be so suspicious! I want merely to further the interests of
+two young people who are in every way suited to each other. Giovanni may
+be an anchorite, for all I know."
+
+Eleanor stood turning her wedding ring round and round on her finger.
+Then she looked anxiously into her husband's face. He was puffing at a
+cigarette that he had lighted, and his eyes looked back into hers with
+the perfectly innocent expression of a child's.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A DOOR IS OPENED THAT GIOVANNI PREFERS TO KEEP CLOSED
+
+
+The eyes of La Favorita boded good to no one! As a hostess her
+deportment left much to be desired, but since her visitors were limited
+to her very intimate friends it mattered, perhaps, little. At all
+events, as guest after guest arrived in her over-decorated salon, she
+looked up expectantly, and then resumed her expression of ugly
+indifference.
+
+"_Per Bacco!_" she muttered quite audibly enough for one to overhear,
+"this crowd seems to think I have asked all Rome to supper!"
+
+She attacked two young men of fashion as they entered. Fortunately, her
+manner somewhat modified the rudeness of her words--and the ill humor of
+her tone carried no conviction. "You cannot come in. I did not invite
+you! I have no room!"
+
+Instead of being angry, one, the Count Rosso, answered her in a voice
+that was half jesting, half conciliatory, in the familiar second person
+singular: "But thou art quite mad, my dear! We were all asked at Zizi's
+supper. I, for one, call it very ungracious of you to try to dispense
+with our agreeable society."
+
+La Favorita lapsed once more into indifference. "Oh well, I don't
+care"--she shrugged her shoulders--"I don't care whether you all go or
+stay!"
+
+A moment later a group that had formed at the end of the room made a
+great noise, and the hostess, suddenly rousing again, swept toward them
+with the floating motion of the professional dancer. "I wish you to
+understand," she said in a fury, "that you are to comport yourselves in
+my house as you would in the palaces of the nobility!"
+
+The group fell into a half-sympathetic hush as she moved back again to
+the door of the entrance. A little woman--a _cafe_ singer--broke into a
+snatch of song:
+
+          "The moon has two sides, a black and a white,
+           When the heart is dark there can be no light."
+
+Laughing, she snapped her fingers. "Fava has been in a bad temper ever
+since that American heiress came to Rome. She fears that Miss America
+will cut the leading strings of Giovanni."
+
+"Why pout at that? Giovanni will then be rich--a rich lover is better
+than a poor one any day!" laughed another soubrette.
+
+"What is the matter with Fava, anyway?" put in a third. "She was quite
+delighted with the American's arrival at first. Now she might draw a
+stiletto at any time."
+
+"The matter is that she has heard the millionairess is pretty, and she
+fears she will take Giovanni's heart as well as his name!"
+
+"Fava jealous! A delicious thought that! Yet I am not sure that I should
+care to be in Giovanni's shoes if he wants to get away from her,"
+observed Rigolo, the actor.
+
+Favorita again swept toward the group, her voice strident: "_Per Dio!_
+Do you suppose I can't imagine what you are all talking about, with your
+long ears together like so many donkeys chewing in a cabbage patch? You
+need not imagine to yourselves that I am jealous. No novice could hold
+Giovanni long. It is I who can tell you that, for I know such men and
+their ways fairly well--I have had experience! Me!"
+
+The others took it up in chorus: "Favorita has had some experience,
+_hein_! A race between the countries! Italy and America at the barrier.
+Holla, zip! they are off! La Favorita in the lead--America second,
+coming strong." And so it went on. Favorita had returned to her position
+by the door. She was more quiet, and in repose it might be seen that her
+face looked drawn--her eyes, if one observed closely, beneath the black
+penciling showed traces of recent weeping. "Tell me something," she said
+to Count Rosso. "What is she like, this Miss Randolph? Is it true"--her
+breath came short--"that Giovanni is trailing after her?"
+
+"Say after her millions, rather! I hope he gets them for your sake,
+Fava. Then you can have the house in the country that you have always
+wanted."
+
+"I'd rather he got his money some other way. It does not please me that
+he should marry!"
+
+"Aren't you unreasonable? Can't you give him up for a few weeks?"
+
+"If you call marriage a few weeks."
+
+Rosso, laughing, threw his hand up. "How long does a honeymoon last? A
+few weeks and he will be back."
+
+But the dancer's eyes filled, and she set her sharp little teeth
+together. "I cannot bear it! _Ah Dio!_ I cannot! She is young--and
+surely she loves him."
+
+"Every woman thinks the man she prefers is alike beloved by every other
+woman he meets! I have not heard that she loves him!"
+
+"Be quiet about what you have heard--what I want to know is, does he
+return it? I am told she is attractive; if she is--I shall----"
+
+Count Rosso chanced upon the right remark in answering, "Could a man, do
+you, think, who has had your favor, be satisfied with a cold American
+girl? Do not be stupid!"
+
+Favorita was slightly pacified. "Is she at all like me? Paint me her
+portrait!"
+
+"Her eyes are--m--m--rather nice; her skin--yes, good; her
+features--imperfect; she holds herself haughtily--chin out, and her back
+very straight, and"--as a last assurance, he added, "she speaks broken
+Italian."
+
+La Favorita's coal-black eyes lit with a new light, and her whole body
+seemed to flutter. Her carmine lips parted as, with an expression of
+quick joy, she clapped her hands together and exclaimed, "American
+accent! _Per Dio!_ She has an American accent!"
+
+In her delight she threw her arms about the count's neck and kissed him
+on the lips. With perfect impartiality she turned to two other men
+standing near and kissed them also, repeating to herself the while, "An
+American accent!"
+
+The next arrivals she received as though they were both expected and
+welcome; greeting them with the unintelligible exclamation, "Imagine
+speaking the only language in the world worth speaking with an American
+accent!"
+
+"But why do we not go into the dining-room?" asked her stage manager, a
+heavy puff of a man. "I have a void within."
+
+"May the void always stay, great beef!" she laughed. Then, with a shrug
+and a wave of her arms, as though to sweep every one out of the room,
+she cried petulantly, "Go! and eat, all of you. I am glad, if only you
+go!"
+
+The company, for the most part, laughed and went into the dining-room,
+whence the sound of revelry gradually grew louder. The Count Rosso alone
+remained with the hostess. "Come, Fava, don't be so headstrong--you're
+spoiling the party."
+
+"Spoiling the party! Do you hear the noise they are making? Is that the
+way to conduct one's self in a lady's house--I said a lady's house! Why
+do you look at me like that? Am I not a lady just as much as that
+daughter of an Indian squaw from over the Atlantic? Those in there"--she
+pointed with her thumb toward the dining-room--"they would not behave so
+in the Palazzo Sansevero!" Then, without another word, she followed
+where she had pointed, so fast that her thin draperies fluttered behind
+the lithe lines of her figure like butterfly wings. On the threshold of
+the dining-room she paused, like the bad fairy at the christening.
+
+"Why should you think you can behave in my house as you would not behave
+in the house of a princess?"
+
+The count, who had followed her, seemed relieved that she mentioned no
+specific name. Her remark seemed to touch a chord of sympathy in the
+company, for the women, especially, became very quiet. Favorita sat down
+at the end of the table between the manager and an empty place.
+
+"Eat something, my girl!" he said to her. "It will be the best thing you
+can do!"
+
+"My need is not the same as yours--I have emptiness of heart."
+
+Her alert hearing caught a footfall, and she was looking eagerly at the
+door when Giovanni Sansevero entered. At once her face became
+transfigured. "Ah, there thou art, my mouse!" she said, pulling out the
+chair beside her for him.
+
+He smiled and nodded familiarly to all at the table.
+
+"At least it is good for the rest of us that you come, Prince!" said the
+manager. "Fava is in a frightful mood." But there was that in Giovanni's
+expression that made the manager's speech turn quickly from any too
+personal allusion, and a qualifying clause was trailed at the end of his
+sentence, "She may show you more politeness."
+
+Giovanni looked annoyed. The dancer, to appease him, said gently: "You
+know I am nervous from overwork. The rehearsals have been doubled
+lately. If you don't come when I expect you, I imagine horrors!" The
+manager was about to put his fork into a grilled quail, when she whisked
+it away and put it on Giovanni's plate. The former was obliged to vent
+his indignation against her obstinately turned back and deaf ears. She
+was conscious of nothing and of no one but Giovanni, whom she was
+feeding with her own fork. His appetite, however, paying small
+compliment to her attention, she arose, and he followed her into the
+other room. Whereupon her guests, less constrained without her, drank
+and were merry.
+
+In the salon Giovanni's musical, caressing voice was saying, "You look
+bewitching to-night, Fava _mia_!" He covered her with his glance, so
+that she preened herself. He laughed lightly at her vanity, and, leaning
+over, kissed her lovely shoulder. Quickly, with both hands she held him
+close, her cheek against his.
+
+"_Carissimo_," she said tensely, "if you ever love any other woman----"
+
+"I love you," he said, against her lips; "let there be no doubt of
+that." And there was a long silence between them.
+
+Giovanni was not one of those who can withstand a woman of beauty. He
+loved La Favorita passionately; she perhaps more than any one else could
+hold him--a Griselda one day, a fury the next, but always alive and
+always beautiful.
+
+Yet he might have indulged his curiosity as to what she would do if
+seriously aroused to jealousy, had it not been for his innate hatred of
+all exhibitions of feeling, which seemed to him _bourgeois_. He knew
+that if the dancer had an idea that he might be falling in love with
+Nina, she would be capable of any scandal. On the other hand, he could
+not imagine Favorita's being jealous of the American girl. He had often
+congratulated himself that she was not jealous of her only real rival,
+the Contessa Potensi, his devotion to whom, however, he had managed to
+keep so quiet that very few persons in Rome had a suspicion of it.
+
+The contessa, on the other hand, looked upon Giovanni's attention to the
+dancer as an artifice practised solely on her account, so that the world
+would the less suspect his attachment to herself. Neither woman had
+until now felt any jealousy of Nina. To their Italian temperament she
+had seemed too cold a type, too antipathetic, to be a danger. The
+contessa was quite willing to have Giovanni marry the heiress, for she
+never doubted that the end of the honeymoon would find him tied more
+securely than ever to her own footstool.
+
+Giovanni, at present, with his arms about the dancer, was raining a
+succession of kisses upon her lips, her eyes, her hair. He could feel
+that she was all on edge about something, but, man-like, he preferred to
+keep things on the surface and not stir depths that might be turbulent.
+His efforts, however, were of small avail.
+
+"Swear to me by the Madonna, and by your ancestors, that you will not
+marry!"
+
+With sudden coldness Giovanni drew away from her. He let both arms hang
+limp at his sides. "Why let this thought come always between us!" Then,
+exasperated into taking up the discussion, he crossed his arms and faced
+her: "We might as well have this out. I am not engaged--I swear that;
+but whether I ever shall be or not, you have no cause for jealousy.
+Marriage in my world, you know very well, is not a matter of
+inclination, but of advantageous arrangement. There is every reason why
+I ought to marry, and if that is the case why not one as well as
+another? My brother has no children; I am the last of my name."
+
+With a cry she flung her arms around his neck and broke into a storm of
+weeping. "You shan't marry her! You shan't. She shall not have your
+children for you!"
+
+But Giovanni grew impatient. He unclasped her hands and pushed her away.
+"If you make these scenes all the time, I won't come near you! Please,
+once for all, let us have this ended. If there is one thing I can't
+endure, it is a woman who cries. Here, take my handkerchief. Come
+now--that is right, be reasonable." His tone modified, and he lightly
+and more affectionately laid his hand upon her shoulder. "Come here a
+minute, I want to show you a picture." He led her, as he spoke, before a
+long mirror.
+
+"Now, _cara mia_, tell me, do you think that a man who possessed the
+love of such a woman as that would be apt to run seeking elsewhere?"
+
+La Favorita looked at her own reflection, at the slender yet full
+perfection of southern beauty, and she saw also the returning ardor in
+the face of her lover as he, too, looked at her image. Her black eyes
+grew soft, her lips parted slightly--with a sudden exuberance he caught
+her to him, and this time he held her so tensely that, although her
+plaint was the same, her tone was altogether different. "But I don't
+want you to marry--even without love, I don't want you to," she pouted
+softly.
+
+"You are an idiot, Fava!" But the words were whispered caressingly. "It
+would be much better for you if I did."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MR. RANDOLPH SENDS FOR JOHN DERBY
+
+
+Meanwhile, one morning in New York, the express elevator of the American
+Trust Building shot skyward without stop to the twentieth story, at
+which John Derby alighted. He emerged upon a broad space of marble
+corridor, leading to the offices of J. B. Randolph & Co. Derby, being
+known--and, moreover, on the list of those expected--escaped the
+catechism to which visitors usually were subjected, and was shown into
+the waiting room without question. When, some minutes later, he was
+admitted to Mr. Randolph's private office, he caught the sign of battle
+in the ruffled effect of the great financier's hair, for he had a habit,
+when excited, of running his fingers up over his right temple until his
+iron gray locks bristled. But, whatever the cause of his annoyance, it
+was put aside as he held out his hand in unmistakable welcome to Derby.
+"Hello, John, good work! You have got here nearly a day ahead of the
+time I expected you. What is the latest news? Did you have any trouble
+in the swamp district?"
+
+"None at all. We find the quick sands average only about thirty feet,
+and the tubes go easily below. Everything is going along splendidly.
+Better than I had ever dared to hope."
+
+Mr. Randolph nodded his satisfaction. "And now," he said, "I'll tell you
+why I wired for you. The Volcano Sulphur Company is buying every
+available mine, and it is time for us to look into the Sicilian
+possibility. How soon can you leave for Italy?"
+
+"As soon as you say, sir."
+
+"Have you secured your assistant engineers?"
+
+"Jenkins came on with me, for one, and I am pretty sure I can get a man
+named Tiggs--a good mechanic, who was with me at Copper Rock."
+
+"And how soon can you get your machinery? You'll have to take everything
+in that line with you. Otherwise, you might get off by--to-morrow? The
+_Lusitania_ sails in the afternoon." He added this last with impatient
+regret.
+
+Derby pondered a moment, and then answered briskly: "I can make it.
+Jenkins can follow with the machinery on a Mediterranean boat. There
+will be no delay over there, as I'll have time to make my arrangements."
+
+"Good!" Mr. Randolph seemed pleased, then asked abruptly, "How well do
+you speak Italian?"
+
+"Fluently, very; grammatically, not at all."
+
+Mr. Randolph smiled. "Fluently will be good enough. Especially if you
+pick up an assortment of expletives in the Sicilian vernacular. Go to
+Rome first. Look about and get information on the Sicilian mines,
+especially those that are unproductive by the present mining system.
+Lease one and try your process. If it works--we have the biggest thing
+in the way of a sulphur control imaginable. You'd better get an option
+on every sulphur mine you can, to lease on a royalty basis. Our Italian
+correspondent will be notified to honor your drafts. You will have to
+use your own discretion as to necessary expenses--of course, you are to
+send a weekly statement to the office. The royalty to you on your
+inventions will be ten per cent. on the net, not the gross, earnings.
+Still, if it all turns out well, you ought to make a nice thing out of
+it."
+
+A swift gleam of eagerness leaped into the young man's face. Mr.
+Randolph looked at him sharply. "I did not know that you were so
+mercenary, John."
+
+"In my place any man would want millions, or else that----" He broke off
+abruptly, leaving his meaning unexpressed. But his eyes had something
+wistful in their direct appeal, which perhaps the older man understood,
+for his expression was unusually kind as he asked with apparent
+irrelevancy, "Have you heard from Nina?"
+
+Derby flushed even under his tan, but he answered frankly: "Yes, I have
+had letters regularly--bully ones--full of Italy and the high nobility.
+Isn't it just like her to remember her friends at home!" Then he added
+ardently, "There was never any one like Nina--never! Of course, every
+man in Italy is in love with her by now."
+
+"Humph!" was Mr. Randolph's answer, as his hand went up through his hair
+until it stood straight on end. "Had she the disposition of Xantippe and
+the ugliness of Medusa she would be called a goddess divine by the
+titled sellers. But what can I do? I can't keep her locked up at
+home--for the matter of that, she is run after about as badly over
+here----" and he added gently in an altered tone, "My poor little girl!
+Sometimes I think how much better off she would have been as the
+daughter of a man without money. At present, of course, she is beset
+with every possible danger. I don't think Nina will lose her heart
+easily, mind you, but there is an underlying excitement in her letters
+that gives me some uneasiness as to the state of her emotions. I do not
+relish the possibility of her marrying one of those ingratiating,
+cold-hearted, and seemingly ardent noblemen." Then, as though to qualify
+his general statement, he continued, "My sister-in-law married a decent
+sort of a man, and I imagine they are happy--but she'd have done much
+better if she had married your uncle. He never cared for any one else,
+and I hoped it would be a match. But Alessandro Sansevero came along and
+swept her off her feet. She was a great beauty, and I believe he married
+her for love--which is more than I can hope in Nina's case."
+
+Into Derby's face there came a look like that of the small boy who gazes
+hungrily into a bakery shop window as he protested. "No one could know
+Nina well and not love her. She is the squarest, the truest, just as she
+is the most beautiful, girl in the world."
+
+"No,"--Mr. Randolph spoke quite slowly, for him--"Nina is not
+beautiful--sweet, and unspoiled, and lovable, yes; but she is not a
+beauty."
+
+Derby's face kindled with indignation, and he retorted unguardedly,
+"I grant you she hasn't one of those pleased-with-itself,
+don't-disturb-the-placidity-of-my-peerless-perfection sort of faces; the
+valentine sort that strikes a man at first sight, but that at the end of
+a week he would do anything for the sake of varying its monotony. But
+Nina--the more you look at her the more lovely she becomes, _unless_ she
+gets the notion that some man wants to marry her money--and then it is
+time for me to take to the prairies! Her eyes get hard, her mouth goes
+up on one side and her features seem to set and freeze. She has only one
+hard side, but that is adamant! Poor girl, I can hardly blame her. As
+she says herself, there are proposals on her breakfast tray every
+morning--with all the other advertisements."
+
+Mr. Randolph looked directly into the blue eyes before him, as though to
+probe their depths. "I want my girl to marry a man whom she can look up
+to because he is trying to accomplish something himself," he said
+emphatically, "and not one who will lay his hat down in the front hall
+of my house instead of at his own office. And," he added grimly, "a
+coronet in place of the hat is still less to my liking."
+
+A curiously restrained, almost diffident, expression, which in no way
+suited his personality, came into Derby's face, and he abruptly rose to
+take leave.
+
+Mr. Randolph rose also, but, instead of terminating the interview,
+crossed the room, saying, "Before you go, John, I want to show you a
+prize I have found." He turned a canvas that stood face to the wall, and
+lifted it to a sofa for a better view.
+
+It was a marvelous picture: a Madonna and child; and on the shoulder of
+the Madonna was a dove.
+
+"It is supposed to be a Raphael," said Randolph, "and I am convinced
+that it is. The story is rather interesting. Raphael painted two
+pictures that were almost identical. One is in the Sansevero family.
+Their collection in Rome I have seen, but this picture has always hung
+at Torre Sansevero, their country estate, and I have never been there.
+However, as I said, Raphael painted two. The second belonged to the
+Belluno family and was sold long ago into France. There it became the
+property of a Duc du Richeur, and during the Revolution it was
+supposedly destroyed. Some time ago Christopher Shayne, the dealer,
+bought among other things at an auction a nearly black canvas. On having
+it cleaned, this was the result--without doubt the lost Raphael!"
+
+"Jove, that's interesting!" exclaimed Derby. "I'd like to see the
+other. Perhaps I'll have the chance, although Nina wrote that they were
+leaving for Rome, and that was several weeks ago. But now good-by, sir.
+Tiggs and Jenkins are to meet me at the Engineers' Club at noon. I am
+sure I can get off to-morrow."
+
+Mr. Randolph held the younger man's hand in a long clasp as he said,
+"Good-by, my boy, and--luck to you!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As Derby left the office, the sudden prospect of seeing Nina so soon set
+his thoughts in a turmoil unusual to the condition in which he managed
+pretty steadily to keep them. Of all the things that this young man had
+accomplished, none had been more difficult than preserving the attitude
+toward Nina that he had after careful deliberation determined upon. To
+his chagrin the task became more, instead of less, difficult, as time
+went on. In the long ago, it had been she who adored and he who accepted
+the adoration--in the way common with the big boy and the little girl.
+He had taught her to swim, and to ride, and to shoot. And--though he did
+not realize it--from his own precepts she had acquired a directness of
+outlook and a sense of truth that embodied justice as well as candor,
+and that was in quality much more like that of a boy than a girl.
+
+Then came the time when he was no longer a boy. He went out West, and
+work made him serious, and absence made him realize that he loved her as
+that rare type of man loves who loves but one woman in his life. But
+she, never dreaming of any change in his feelings, went on thinking of
+him always as of a brother. Often, when he returned from a long absence,
+and she ran to meet him with both hands outstretched, he looked for some
+sign from her--some fleeting gleam such as he had caught in other
+women's eyes. But always Nina's glance had met his own affectionately,
+but squarely and tranquilly. His coming, or his going, brought smiles or
+gravity to her lips, but her eyes showed no sudden veiling of feeling,
+no new consciousness of meaning unexpressed. When she laughed, they
+danced as though the sunlight were caught under their hazel surface.
+When she was serious, they were velvety soft. To John hers was the
+sweetest, brightest, and assuredly the most expressive face in the
+world. But he knew the distrust and coldness that would undoubtedly be
+his portion should he ever forget the role that up to the present he had
+played to perfection--that of her brotherly, affectionate friend. Her
+very expression, "Dear old John"--generally she said "Jack"--her entire
+lack of reserve or self-consciousness in his presence, put him where he
+belonged.
+
+And the other women--undoubtedly there were lots of the every-day kind,
+waiting all along the stream, just as there always are when a man is
+young and fairly good to look upon. And there were the different, and
+far more dangerous, "other women," who wait at the whirlpools for a man
+who has that elusive but distinctly felt magnetism which some
+personalities exert, seemingly with indifference, and quite apart from
+any effort or intent. But John Derby lashed his heart to the mast of
+hard work and resolutely turned his eyes and ears from the sirens. And
+so he saw the years stretching on, always crammed with tasks that he was
+to accomplish, but without hope of ever winning the girl he loved,
+because of the barrier of her money.
+
+Only a short time before, when a letter from her had come to
+Breakstone--a long letter full of the beauty and charm of Italy and the
+Italians--Derby had gone to the edge of the forest and--for no reason
+that any one could see, save the apparent joy of swinging an
+axe--chopped a tree into fire-wood.
+
+"D--n it all," he muttered as the chips flew, "I could support a
+wife--if she wasn't so all-fired rich." Later he carried a load of his
+wood across the clearing to the camp and slammed it down. "Oh, h----, I
+hate money!" he exclaimed vehemently to Jenkins.
+
+Jenkins, a Southerner, took the statement placidly. "Looks like you're
+workin' powerful hard to get what you don't care for. Some of that
+kindlin' 'd go good under this soup pot."
+
+Derby laughed and fed the fire. But "Shut up, Jenkins, you ass!" was all
+the latter got for a retort courteous.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+ROME GOES TO THE OPERA
+
+
+On the evening of the first court ball, the Sanseveros gave a small
+dinner, after which they went to the opera. The guests were the Count
+and Countess Olisco, Count Tornik, Don Cesare Carpazzi, and Prince
+Minotti. Don Cesare Carpazzi, a thin swarthy youth, sat just across the
+corner of the table from Nina. Although his appearance was one of great
+neatness, it was all too evident, if one observed with good eyes, that
+the edges of his shirt had been trimmed with the scissors until the hem
+narrowed close to the line of stitching; and his evening clothes in a
+strong light would have revealed not only the fatal gloss of long use,
+but also careful darning. The old saying that "Clothes make the man" was
+refuted in his case, however, as his arrogance was proclaimed in every
+gesture.
+
+Sitting next to him was the Countess Olisco, the Russian whom Nina had
+noted and admired at her aunt's ball. As there were but nine at dinner,
+and the conversation was general, Nina had time to observe closely her
+appearance. She had the broad Russian brow, the Egyptian eyes and
+unbroken bridge of the nose. She was the most slender woman imaginable,
+and her slenderness was exaggerated by the fashion of wearing her hair
+piled up so high and so far forward that at a distance it might be taken
+for a small black fur toque tipped over her nose. She rarely wore
+colors, but to-night, because of the etiquette against wearing black at
+court, her long-trained dress was of sapphire blue velvet, as severe and
+as clinging as possible.
+
+Nina divined better than she knew, when she put the little Russian and
+Carpazzi in the same category. Fundamentally they were much the same,
+but whereas he was always bursting into flame, the contessa suggested a
+well banked fire that burned continually, but within destroyed itself
+rather than others. Thin, white, and self-consuming, she was like the
+small Russian cigarettes that were never out of her lips. Fragile as she
+looked, she had a will that brooked no obstacle, an energy that knew no
+fatigue.
+
+Aside from her appearance, the story that Giovanni had related of the
+contessa's marriage was in itself enough to arouse the interest of any
+girl alive to romance. According to him, she was the daughter of a
+Russian nobleman of great family and wealth. The Count Olisco (a
+mild-eyed Italian boy, he looked) had been attached to the legation at
+St. Petersburg. Zoya was only sixteen years old when she announced her
+intention of marrying him. Her father, furious that the Italian had
+dared approach his daughter, demanded his recall, whereupon she told him
+the astonishing news that Olisco had never, to her knowledge, even seen
+her. But she declared that if her father did not marry her to him, she
+would kill herself.
+
+She did take poison but, being saved by the doctors, who discovered it
+through her maid, she sent the same maid to tell the Count Olisco the
+whole story. The romance of her act, coupled with her beauty and her
+birth, naturally so flattered the young Italian that he offered himself
+as a suitor, and, her father relenting, they were married.
+
+Nina was left for some time to her own thoughts, as her Italian (not
+particularly fluent at best) was altogether lacking in idiom, and she
+missed the point of most that was said. In the first lull, the Count
+Olisco asked her the usual question put to every stranger, "How do you
+like Rome?"
+
+The Countess Olisco, like an echo, caught and repeated her husband's
+inquiry, "Ah, and do you like Rome?"
+
+And then Carpazzi hoped she liked Rome--and this very harmless subject
+was tossed gently back and forth, until Prince Minotti gave it an
+unexpectedly violent fling by remarking, "I suppose Signorina, that you
+have been impressed"--he held the pause with evident satisfaction--"with
+the great history of the Carpazzi, without which there would be no
+Rome!"
+
+All at once the young man in the threadbare coat became like a live
+wire! His hair, which already was _en brosse_, seemed to rise still
+higher on his head, his thin lips quivered, and his hands worked in a
+complete language of their own. He put up an immediate barrier with his
+palms held rigidly outward. All the table stopped to look, and to
+listen.
+
+"Does a Principe Minotti"--he pronounced the word "_Principe_" with a
+sneering curl of the lips--"dare to criticize a Carpazzi?" He threw back
+his head with a jerk.
+
+"What is he?" whispered Nina to Tornik, who was sitting next her. "Is he
+a duke?"
+
+"A Don, that is all, I believe."
+
+Softly as the question was put and answered, Carpazzi heard. Showing
+none of the fury of a moment before he spoke suavely, though still with
+arrogance.
+
+"Signorina is a stranger in Rome; the Count Tornik also is a foreigner,
+which excuses an ignorance that would be unpardonable in an Italian."
+
+Tornik at that moment pulled his mustache, looking at it down the length
+of his nose. It was impossible to tell whether the movement hid
+annoyance or amusement. Nina was keen with curiosity.
+
+"Of course," Nina said sweetly, eager to soothe his over-sensitive
+pride, "I have heard of the Carpazzi, but I do not know what is the
+title of your house. I asked Count Tornik whether you were a duke."
+
+"I am Cesare di Carpazzi!" He said it as though he had announced that he
+was the Emperor of China.
+
+"The Carpazzi are of the oldest nobility," Giovanni interposed. "Such a
+name is in itself higher than a title."
+
+Don Cesare bowed to Don Giovanni as though to say, "You see! thus it
+is!"
+
+The subject would have simmered down, had not Tornik at this point set
+it boiling, by saying in an undertone to Nina, "Why all this fuss? It is
+stupid, don't you think?"
+
+He spoke in French, carelessly articulated, but the sharp ears of
+Carpazzi overheard.
+
+"Why all this fuss!" he repeated. "It is insupportable that an upstart
+of 'nobility' styled p-r-ince"--he snarled the word--"a title that was
+_bought_ with a tumbledown estate, _dares_ to speak lightly the great
+name of the Carpazzi, a name that is higher than that of the reigning
+family."
+
+His flexible fingers flashed and grew stiff by turns. Nina had seen a
+good deal of gesticulating since she had come to Rome; she had even been
+told that the different expressions of the hand had meanings quite as
+distinct as smiles or frowns or spoken words, and Carpazzi's fingers
+certainly looked insulting, as with each snap he also snapped his lips.
+
+"You know whereof I speak, Alessandro and Giovanni--not even the
+Sansevero have the lineage of the Carpazzi!"
+
+"Certainly, certainly, my friend," answered Giovanni. "No one is
+disputing the fact with you."
+
+"But I should think," ventured Nina, her velvety eyes looking
+wonderingly into his flashing black ones, "that you would accept a
+title, it would make it so much simpler--especially among strangers who
+do not know the family history. A duke is a duke and a prince for
+instance----"
+
+Up went his hand, rigid, palm outward, and at right angles to his wrist,
+"There you are wrong. A duke or a prince may be a parvenu. For me to
+accept a title--Non! It would mean that the name of _Carpazzi_,"--he
+lingered on the pronunciation--"could be improved! The name of Minotti,
+for instance, what does it say? Nothing! It is the name of a peasant. It
+may be dressed up to masquerade as noble, if it has 'Principe' pushed
+along before it. But it could not deceive a Roman. It is not the
+'Principe' before Sansevero that gives it renown. Don Giovanni Sansevero
+is a greater title than the Marchese Di Valdo, by which Giovanni is
+generally known. Yet Di Valdo is a good name, too, let me tell you."
+
+The Princess Sansevero kept Minotti's attention as much as possible, so
+that it might appear that Carpazzi's arraignment had not been heard. All
+that Carpazzi said was perfectly true. There was little therefore that
+Minotti could have answered. He was a man of plebeian origin. His
+father, a rich speculator, had bought a piece of property and assumed
+the title that went with it. To a Roman the name Carpazzi was a great
+deal higher than that of any number of dukes and princes.
+
+The question of "Good Taste," however, was another matter and the
+princess changed the subject by asking:
+
+"Does any one know what the opera is to-night?"
+
+The Contessa Olisco announced: "La Traviata." "They are to have a
+special scene in the third act," she said, "to introduce a new dance of
+Favorita's." She did not look at Giovanni, and yet she seemed to be
+aiming her remarks at him. To Nina it all meant nothing. Once or twice
+she had heard the name of the celebrated dancer, but it merely brushed
+through her perceptions like other fleeting suggestions; nothing ever
+had brought it to a full stop.
+
+The talk turned on other topics, and as the meal was very short, only
+five courses, the princess, the contessa, and Nina soon withdrew to
+another room. The conversation there, as it happened, came back to the
+subject of Carpazzi.
+
+Zoya Olisco lit her cigarette and spoke with it pasted on her lower lip.
+She smoked like this continually, and never touched the cigarette except
+to light it and put a new one in its place.
+
+"Though I see what he means," she said, "I should, were I in his place,
+claim a title! They need not take a new one. My husband told me that the
+Carpazzi were of the genuine optimates of the Roman Duchy."
+
+"I think Cesare regrets in his heart," said the Princess Sansevero,
+"that his ancestors did not accept one, but I agree with him now."
+
+She stirred her coffee slowly and then added, "I am fond of the boy, but
+I do not think I shall have him to dinner soon again. He is too
+uncontrolled."
+
+The contessa agreed. And then, with her eyes half shut to avoid the
+smoke of her cigarette, she stared with fixed curiosity at Nina.
+
+"Do you find people here like those in America?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, some are quite like Americans," Nina answered, and added frankly,
+"but you at least are altogether different from any one I have ever
+seen!"
+
+"Really, am I?" The contessa raised her eyebrows and laughed. "I know of
+what you are thinking!" She said it with a deliciously impulsive candor.
+"You are thinking of my marriage. Yes, it is true! The instant my father
+said 'no,' I took poison. It was the only way. Had fate willed it, I
+would have died. But fate willed that I should be--just married." She
+laughed again.
+
+Nina glanced at her aunt, whose answering smile said clearly, "I told
+you she was like this."
+
+The contessa lit another cigarette--everything she said and did seemed
+incongruous with her appearance, she was so fragile and so young. Nina
+became more and more fascinated as she watched her.
+
+"But supposing that, after meeting him, you had not liked him?" she
+asked.
+
+"That is impossible. I know always if I like people. I like people at
+sight--or I detest them! For instance, I detest Donna Francesca Dobini.
+She is a beauty, I know. She has charming manners; so has a cat. She is
+all soft sweetness. Ugh! I hate her!--But I like you."
+
+Nina was delighted, but she could not help being amused. "You don't know
+me in the least," she laughed. "I may be a perfectly horrid person."
+
+The contessa shrugged her shoulders. "That is nothing to me. No doubt I
+adore some very horrid persons!" Then impetuously she ran her arm
+through Nina's as they walked through the long row of rooms to the one
+where their wraps were. "I _like_ you!" she repeated; "that is all there
+is to it!"
+
+In the hall they were joined by the men, and started for the opera.
+
+Here, Nina had an unusual opportunity to see Roman Society, as the house
+that night was brilliant with the people who were going afterwards to
+the Court Ball. Donna Francesca Dobini, a celebrated beauty, was rather
+affectedly draped in a tulle arrangement around her shoulders. The
+Contessa Olisco, who for the time being was forced to do without her
+cigarette, said to Nina:
+
+"Look at her, there she is! She is 'going off,' so that she has to wrap
+tulle about her old neck to hide the wrinkles."
+
+She moved the column of her young throat with conscious triumph as she
+spoke. A moment later, as though Nina would understand, she whispered:
+"There is the Potensi! No! In the box opposite. She has on a dress of
+purple velvet. Sitting very straight, and quantities of diamonds."
+
+Nina put up her opera glass and encountered an insolent stare, as
+though the Contessa Potensi were purposely disdainful of the American
+girl.
+
+"She is the same one with whom Don Giovanni danced opposite in the
+quadrille! Heavens! but she is a disagreeable person!"
+
+"She has reason for looking disagreeable," announced the Contessa Zoya
+with a meaning laugh; but more she would not say.
+
+Giovanni leaned over Nina's chair. "Do you find the Romans attractive?
+How does our opera compare with that of New York?"
+
+"The house seems made of cardboard," Nina answered. "I never thought our
+opera houses especially wonderful----"
+
+"No?" Giovanni rallied her. "Is it possible that you have anything in
+America that is not the most wonderful in the world! I am sure you will
+say your opera house is bigger! And richer! and more comfortable! Yes?
+Of course it is!" He laughed. "My apple is bigger than your apple. My
+doll is bigger than your doll! What children you are, you Americans!"
+
+"If we are children," retorted Nina, piqued by his laughter, "we must be
+granted the advantages of youth!"
+
+With a sudden gravity, but none the less mockingly, Giovanni besought
+her for enlightenment.
+
+"We gain in enthusiasm, energy, and honesty," she announced
+sententiously. "A country and a people never attain perfection of finish
+until they have begun to grow decadent. I'd rather have my doll and my
+big apple than sit, like an old cynic, in the corner, watching the
+children play!"
+
+She was immensely pleased with this speech,--mentally she quite preened
+herself. Giovanni looked amused, but the Contessa Potensi caught his
+glance from across the house, and his smile faded as he bowed. Nina, who
+had good eyes, saw a complete change in her face as she returned his
+salutation.
+
+"Do you like that woman?"
+
+"She is one of the beauties of Rome," he said evasively.
+
+"No, but do you like her?" Nina could not herself have told why she was
+so insistent.
+
+"She is an old friend of mine," he said lightly; then changed the
+subject. "Do you follow the hounds, Miss Randolph?"
+
+"At home, yes." But she came back to the former topic. "Does she ride
+very well, the Contessa Potensi?"
+
+"Wonderfully." This time he answered her easily. "But I am sure you ride
+well, too. Any one who dances as you do, must also be a horsewoman."
+
+There was something in Giovanni's manner that excited suspicion, but she
+did not know of what. She half wondered if there had been a love affair
+between him and the Contessa. Maybe he had wanted to marry her and she
+had accepted Potensi instead. She wondered if Giovanni still cared; and
+for a while her sympathy was quite aroused.
+
+The curtain went up and every one stopped talking. At the beginning of
+the _entr'acte_ Giovanni left the box, and Count Tornik took his chair.
+He was a strange man, but Nina was beginning to like him.
+Notwithstanding his brusque indifference, he had a charm that he could
+exert when he chose. Giovanni's speeches were no more flattering than
+Tornik's lapses from boredom.
+
+As a matter of fact, in spite of his assumed bad manners, the social
+instinct was so strong in him that, just as a vulgar person shows his
+origin in every unguarded moment or unexpected situation, Tornik's good
+breeding was constantly revealed. And in appearance, he was an
+attractive contrast to the Italians, tall, broad-shouldered, very blond,
+and high cheekboned; he might have been taken for an Englishman.
+
+Presently her Majesty, the Dowager Queen, appeared in the royal box, and
+every one in the audience arose.
+
+"Shall we see both queens to-night at the ball?" Nina asked the Princess
+Sansevero.
+
+"No; only Queen Elena. The Queen Mother has never been present at a ball
+since King Umberto's tragic death."
+
+"I wish this evening were over," said Nina, with a half-frightened sigh.
+
+The Contessa Olisco, who had caught the remark and the sigh, asked
+sympathetically, "But why?"
+
+"I was nervous enough over going alone to the presentation the other
+afternoon, but to go to a ball is much worse."
+
+"But you won't be alone. We shall be there! You may have your endurance
+put to the test, though. Are you very strong?"
+
+Nina laughed. "You mean, have I the strength to stand indefinitely
+without dropping to the floor?"
+
+"Ah! you know, then, how it is. Still--if it is hard for us, think what
+it must be for their Majesties. To-night, for instance, the King does
+not once sit down!"
+
+Nina opened her eyes wide. "I thought the King and Queen sat on their
+throne. But then--I had an idea the presentation would be like that,
+too--and that I should have to courtesy all across a room, and back out
+again."
+
+The Contessa Zoya seemed to be occupied with a reminiscence that amused
+her. "If you have a special audience, you do, or if you go to take tea.
+We had a private audience yesterday with Queen Margherita and--I had on
+a long train--and clinging. Of course, entering the room is not hard--I
+made my three reverences very nicely, very gracefully, I thought,--one
+at the door, one half-way across the room, and one directly before the
+Queen, as I kissed her hand. But when the audience was over, the
+distance between where her Majesty sat and the door of exit--my dear, it
+seemed leagues! One must back all the way and make three deep
+courtesies! The first was simple, the second, half-way across the room,
+was difficult. I was already standing on nearly a meter of train, and
+when I got to the door--well, I just walked all the way up the back of
+my dress, lost my balance and _fell out_!"
+
+Nina laughed at the picture, but was glad the presentation had not been
+like that.
+
+"When you go to take tea with the Queen it is difficult, too," Zoya,
+having begun to explain, went on with all the details that came to mind.
+"Since two years Queen Elena has given 'tea parties' of about thirty or
+forty people. Her Majesty talks to every one separately, or in very
+small groups, while tea and cake and chocolate and iced drinks are
+served by the ladies in waiting--there are never any servants present.
+It is of course charming, and the Queen puts every one at ease, but
+there is always a feeling that you may do something dreadful--such as
+drop a spoon or have your mouth full just at the moment when her Majesty
+addresses a remark to you. At the Queen Mother's Court things are more
+formal--more ceremonious. I always feel timid before I go. And yet no
+sovereign could be more gracious, and her memory is extraordinary. She
+forgets nothing. Yesterday she asked me how the baby was. She knew his
+age, even his name and all about him. She asked me if he had recovered
+from the bronchitis he was subject to. Think of it!"
+
+Nina looked long at the royal box, and could well believe the contessa's
+account. Her Majesty was talking to the Marchesa Valdeste.
+
+Of all the older ladies to whom she had been presented, Nina liked the
+marchesa best. Her face had the sweet expression that can come only from
+genuine kindness and innate dignity. At a short distance from the royal
+box Don Cesare Carpazzi was talking to a young girl. Don Cesare's
+expression was for the moment transfigured; instead of arrogance, it
+suggested rather humility; both he and the young girl seemed deeply
+engrossed.
+
+Tornik told Nina that she was Donna Cecilia Potensi, the little
+sister-in-law of the contessa in the box opposite. He also added that
+Carpazzi was supposed to be in love with her, and she with him, but they
+had not a lira to marry on. There were no poorer families in Italy than
+the Carpazzis and the Potensis.
+
+Certainly there was nothing in the appearance of the young girl to
+indicate wealth, but her plain white dress with a bunch of flowers at
+her belt, and her hair as simply arranged as possible, only increased
+her Madonna-like beauty.
+
+Nina was enchanted with her, and instinctively compared her appearance
+with that of the sister-in-law, glittering with diamonds. "The Contessa
+Potensi was a rich girl in her own right, I suppose," Nina remarked
+aloud.
+
+With a suspicion of awkwardness Tornik glanced at Giovanni, who had
+returned to the box. The latter began to screw up his mustache as he
+replied in Tornik's stead. "The Contessa Potensi inherited some very
+good jewels from her mother's family, I am told."
+
+"Her mother was an Austrian, a cousin of mine," Tornik drawled. "I never
+heard of that branch of the family's having anything but stubble lands
+and debts. However, it is evident she has got the jewels! I felicitate
+her on her valuable possessions. _Elle a de la chance!_" He shrugged his
+shoulders. Tornik's detached and impersonal manner gave no effect of
+insult, and Giovanni, beyond looking annoyed, made no further remark.
+But the Princess Sansevero interposed:
+
+"Maria Potensi has a passion for jewels, as a child might have for toys,
+and she accepts them in the same way. She tells every one about it quite
+frankly; in that lies the proof of her innocence."
+
+But the Contessa Zoya showed neither sympathy nor credulity, and there
+was no misinterpreting her meaning as she said:
+
+"It is true, Princess, you know the Potensi well, and I only
+slightly--but if my husband offered a diamond ornament----"
+
+"He would never give her another! Is that it?" put in Tornik.
+
+"No--nor any one!" The intensity of her tone alarmed Nina, who was
+beginning to feel confused by the succession of violent impressions.
+Scorpa, Giovanni, Carpazzi, Zoya Olisco, all struck such strident notes
+that their vibrations jangled.
+
+Another act and _entr'acte_ passed. Nina saw Giovanni enter the box of
+the Contessa Potensi. In contrast to her greeting across the house, she
+seemed now scarcely to speak to him. He talked to her companion, the
+Princess Malio, who bobbed her head and prattled at a great rate; but as
+he left the box Nina saw him lean toward the Contessa Potensi as though
+saying something in an undertone. She answered rapidly, behind her fan.
+Giovanni inclined his head and left.
+
+This small incident made a greater impression on Nina than its
+importance warranted. And the Contessa Potensi occupied her thoughts far
+more than the various men who had come into the box, and who seemed
+little more than so many varieties of faces and shirt-fronts. She
+noticed that many of the older men wore Father Abraham beards and
+clothes several sizes too big. On account of the Court Ball those who
+had orders wore them, frequently so carelessly pinned to their coats
+that the decorations seemed likely to fall off. The Marchese Valdeste--a
+really imposing man--had two huge ones dangling from the flapping lapel
+of his coat, and a sash with a bow on the hip that would put any man's
+dignity to a supreme test.
+
+"The ballet is very important to-night," Nina heard the marchese saying
+to the Princess Sansevero. "La Favorita is to appear in the Birth of
+Venus. She does another dance first--a Spanish one, I think."
+
+As he spoke, the ballet music had already begun, and the Spanish
+_coryphees_ were twisting and bowing, and straightening their spines as
+they danced to the beat of their castanettes. Then they moved aside for
+the _ballerina_.
+
+It may have been intended as a Spanish dance, or Eastern, or gypsy--but
+it was more likely a dance of La Favorita's own imagination. She
+appeared clad in a thin slip of transparent and jetted gauze. Upon her
+feet were socks and ballet slippers of black satin. A black mask covered
+the upper part of her face, and her black hair was drawn high and held
+with a diamond bracelet; she wore a diamond collar, long diamond
+earrings, and the gauze of her upper garment--which could hardly be
+called a bodice--was held on one shoulder with a band of diamonds. For
+the space of a second she faced the audience, standing still and rigid;
+then, with a quiver, the rigidity was shattered! A serpent's coiling was
+not more swift than the movement of her dazzling, glittering form, which
+twirled and turned and bent, while the twinkling rapidity of her steps
+was faster than the eye could follow. A twirl, another twirl, a
+flash--and she was gone.
+
+[Illustration: "FOR THE SPACE OF A SECOND SHE FACED THE AUDIENCE,
+STANDING STILL AND RIGID"]
+
+The _coryphees_, who had seemingly danced well before, were now so
+awkward by comparison that Nina and Tornik laughed aloud.
+
+"They look like cows," commented Tornik.
+
+"Or nailed to the ground," Nina rejoined. She leaned forward, eager for
+Favorita's reappearance.
+
+To make a background for the second dance, the stage hands had moved in
+folding wings or screens of sea green. The calciums had gradually been
+turning to the blue of moonlight, and now, at the back of the stage,
+Venus arose, veiled in a mist of foam.
+
+Seeming scarcely to touch her feet to the ground, the dancer was a puff
+of the foam itself, a living fragment of green and white spray. She
+caught her arms full of the sea-colored gauze, like a great billow above
+her head, and then with a swirl she bent her body and drew the
+diaphanous film out sideways, like a wave that had run up on the sands.
+Drawing it together again, she seemed to produce another breaker.
+
+So perfectly was the fabric handled that it seemed exactly like the
+spray of the sea, which, in its freshness, clung to her, and at the
+last, by a wonderful illusion, she gave the appearance of having gone
+under the waves.
+
+For several seconds the house remained absolutely hushed, and in that
+moment Nina found herself vaguely groping through a confusion of
+ecstatic, yet slightly shocked, sensations. She wondered whether La
+Favorita had really nothing on except a number of yards of tulle which
+she held in her hands.
+
+But the verdict of the audience was voiced by a torrent of bravos and
+handclappings that thundered until La Favorita, having thrown a long
+mantle about her, came out into the glare of the footlights.
+
+She bowed and kissed her hands, her smiles of acknowledgment sweeping
+the house from left to right, but at the box of the Sanseveros her
+smile faded, and she threw back her head with a movement of triumph.
+
+Nina was startled into fancying that she looked long, directly, and
+particularly at her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A BALL AT COURT
+
+
+The Sansevero party left the opera shortly after ten o'clock, and a
+little while later drove into the courtyard of the Quirinal. Entering a
+side door, they ascended a long staircase, upon each step of which was
+stationed a royal cuirassier, all resplendent in embroidered coats,
+polished high boots, and veritable Greek helmets, which seemed to add
+still further to their unusual height. Between their immovable ranks the
+guests thronged up the stairway to the Cuirassiers' Hall. Here, at the
+long benches provided for the purpose, they left their wraps in charge
+of innumerable flunkies in the royal livery--which consists of a red
+coat, embroidered either in gold or in silver, powdered hair, blue plush
+breeches, and pink stockings.
+
+Nina followed her aunt and uncle through an antechamber into the throne
+room and beyond again into the vast yellow _sala di ballo_. Here also
+the cuirassiers, who were stationed everywhere, added a martial dignity
+to the splendor of the scene. The people were all massed against the
+sides of the room; and although certain important personages had seats
+upon the long red silk benches placed in set rows, the great majority of
+those present stood, and stood, and stood. In contrast to her weary
+waiting at the afternoon reception when, a few days before, she had been
+presented at court, Nina found so much to interest her to-night that she
+did not remark the time. One side of the room was quite empty save for
+the big gilt chair reserved for the Queen, and the stools grouped around
+it for ladies in waiting. Three especial stools were placed at the left
+of the queen for the three "collaresses"--those whose husbands held the
+highest order in Italy, the Grand Collar of the Annunciation.
+
+It was the most brilliant gathering that Nina had ever seen, chiefly
+made so by the gold-embroidered uniforms and court orders of the men.
+The dresses and jewels of the women differed very little from those seen
+at social functions elsewhere. With a rare exception, such as the
+Duchessa Astarte and the Princess Vessano, whose toilettes were the most
+_chic_ imaginable, the great ladies of Italy followed fashions very
+little. Not that Nina found them dowdy--far from it: they had a
+distinction of their own, which, like that of their ancient palaces,
+seemed to remain superior to modern decrees of fashion. Nearly all of
+them had lovely figures, which they did not strive to force into newly
+prescribed outlines.
+
+A remark that a foreigner in New York had made to Nina came back to her,
+and she now realized its truth. It was that the one great difference
+between the women of Europe and those of America was that in Europe one
+noticed the women, while in America too often one noticed merely the
+clothes. The Roman ladies wore plain princesse dresses, the majority of
+velvet or brocade, and with little or no trimming save enormous jewels
+often clumsily set, but barbarically magnificent.
+
+Here and there, to Nina's intense interest, she found, strangely mingled
+with the others, people of the provinces, who, because of distinguished
+names, had the right to appear at court, yet who looked as though they
+were wearing evening dress for the first time in their lives. Near by,
+for instance, was a lady whose rotund person was buttoned into a
+tight-fitting red velvet basque of ancient cut, above a skirt of pink
+satin. A court train, evidently constructed out of curtain material, was
+suspended from her shoulders. Broad gold bracelets clasped her plump
+wrists at the point where her gloves terminated, and a high comb of
+Etruscan gold ornamented the hard knob into which her hair was screwed.
+
+Princess Vessano represented the other extreme--that of fashion. She was
+in an Empire "creation" of green liberty satin with an over-tunic of
+silver-embroidered gauze. Her hair was arranged in a fillet of diamonds,
+which joined a small banded coronet, also of diamonds, set with three
+enormous emeralds. Around her throat she had a narrow band of green
+velvet bordered with diamonds and with a pendant emerald in the center
+that matched pear-shaped earrings nearly an inch long. Yet in a crowd
+of three thousand persons neither the grotesque lady nor the princess
+was remarkable.
+
+The crush of people became greater and greater until it seemed
+impossible to admit another person without filling the center of the
+ballroom and the royal space. As there was no music, the chatter of
+voices made an insistent humming din. At last! the Prefetto di Palazzo
+sounded three loud strokes, with the ferule of his mace, upon the floor,
+the sound of voices ceased, the doors into the royal apartments were
+thrown open, the band struck up the royal march, and their Majesties
+entered, followed by the members of their suite. Every one made a deep
+reverence, and the Queen seated herself upon the gold chair. The King
+stood at her left. As soon as the Queen had taken her place, the dancing
+commenced, led by the Prefetto di Palazzo and the French ambassadress.
+But as a wide space before the Queen's chair was reserved out of
+deference to their Majesties, the rest of the ballroom was so crowded
+that dancing was next to impossible. Presently the King made a tour of
+the room--followed always by two gentlemen of his suite, with whom he
+stopped continually to ask who this person or that might be, sometimes
+speaking to special guests.
+
+The Queen likewise singled out certain strangers of distinction. In this
+way she sent for a United States senator, who was making a short visit
+in Rome, and kept him talking with her for a considerable time. Her
+Majesty sat through the first waltz and quadrille. Then she and the
+King promenaded slowly through the assemblage, speaking to many people
+as they passed. Some careless foot went through Nina's dress, tearing a
+great rent, just as she made her reverence to their Majesties, who were
+approaching. The Queen smiled sympathetically and held out her hand for
+Nina to kiss, at the same time exclaiming her sympathy, then, quite at
+length, her admiration for the lovely dress. Nina flushed with pleasure,
+feeling that the damage to her prettiest frock had been more than
+repaid.
+
+Giovanni was standing with Nina at the time, and after their Majesties
+had passed, he looked quizzically at the torn hem that Nina held in her
+hand. "Is it altogether spoiled?"
+
+Nina laughed. "If I were sentimental, I should keep it always in tatters
+in memory of the Queen!"
+
+"But as you are not sentimental--I hope it can be mended. May I tell you
+that her Majesty's admiration was well deserved? It is a most charming
+costume and not too elaborate. The touch of silver in the dress is just
+enough to go with the silver fillet over your hair. White is seldom
+becoming to blondes, but it suits you admirably."
+
+She looked up, frankly pleased. "It is nice, really? I am so glad!" She
+was perfectly happy, and her smile showed it. The whole evening had been
+delightful. The disagreeable impressions made by the Contessa Potensi
+and Favorita were forgotten as she danced with Giovanni, who performed a
+feat of rare ability in finding a passage through the crush.
+
+Presently he said to her, "When their Majesties have gone into an
+adjoining room, then the rest of us can go to supper."
+
+As he spoke, Nina saw them disappear through the doorway. "Are they not
+coming back?" she asked.
+
+"No. They have gone."
+
+"But do they never dance?"
+
+"Never! Queen Margherita and King Humbert always opened the ball by the
+_quadrille d'honneur_, with the ambassadors and important court ladies
+and gentlemen. But the present King abolished all that."
+
+At the end of the waltz Tornik managed to find Nina and announced
+supper. In the stampede for food there was such a crush that people
+stepped on her slippers and literally swept up the floor with her train.
+Tornik, being a giant, and able to reach over any number of smaller
+persons, finally secured a _pate_ and an ice. Standing near her, two
+young men were stuffing cakes and sandwiches into their pockets. Amazed,
+she drew Tornik's attention. He shrugged his shoulders. "Who are they?"
+she whispered. "Princes, for all I know," was his rejoinder. "Poor
+devils, many of them never get such a feast as this."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+CORONETS FOR SALE
+
+
+According to Italian etiquette, strangers must leave cards within
+twenty-four hours upon every person to whom they have been introduced.
+Therefore the afternoon of the day following the ball was necessarily
+spent by Nina in three hours of steady driving from house to house.
+Finally, as she and the princess were alighting at the Palazzo
+Sansevero, Count Tornik drove into the courtyard, and together they
+mounted to the apartments used by the family.
+
+Nina settled herself in the corner of a sofa, pulling off her gloves.
+Tornik dropped into a loose-jointed heap in a big chair opposite.
+Suddenly he sat up straight, his eyebrows lifted.
+
+"I did not know!" he said. "May I felicitate you, mademoiselle?"
+
+"On what?" she asked, puzzled.
+
+"Since you wear a ring, it is evident that your engagement is to be
+announced. Will you tell me who is the fortunate man?"
+
+She saw that he was gazing at the emerald she wore on her little finger.
+"Is there reason to think I am engaged--because of _this_?"
+
+"Certainly, what else? A young girl's wearing a ring can mean but one
+thing."
+
+"On my little finger? How ridiculous! My father gave it to me.
+Sometimes, at home, I wear several rings. Does that mean I am engaged to
+several men?"
+
+"Then you are still free?"
+
+He hesitated as though under an impulse to say something sentimental,
+then apparently changed his mind, and relapsed into his habitually
+detached indifference of manner.
+
+"They have curious customs in your country," he said casually. "A friend
+of mine was in America last year. He told me many things!"
+
+"Did he? What, for instance?"
+
+"He said that the women sat in chairs that balanced back and forth----"
+
+"Chairs that----" she interrupted. "Oh, you mean rocking-chairs! That's
+true, you don't have them over here, do you? I did not mean to
+interrupt. You said we rock----"
+
+"Not you, it's the older women who balance all day on verandas, and let
+their daughters do whatever they please! In an American family, I am
+told, the young girl is supreme ruler. Is that true?"
+
+Nina, laughing, shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know--I never thought
+about it! But over here I suppose a girl does not count at all? Tell me,
+according to your ideas, what her place should be."
+
+"Oh, I do not say _should_. I merely state the fact: over here, a young
+girl plays a very small role. But then, for the matter of that, most
+people belong naturally in the background, and very few, whether they
+are women or men, have their names on the program."
+
+"And you? What part do you play?"
+
+For a moment his eyes gleamed. "That depends upon whether fate shall
+cast me to support a _diva_ or to occupy an empty stage."
+
+"And if fate allowed you to choose, I could easily imagine that you
+would prefer a part with very little action and as few lines as
+possible."
+
+"You are quite wrong. I do not object to saying all that a part calls
+for, and, above all, I like action."
+
+"That's true; I had forgotten! You are a soldier! I wonder why you went
+into the army?"
+
+"It is the only career open to me."
+
+Nina was thinking of Giovanni and his point of view as she asked, "Why
+are you not content to be merely Count Tornik?"
+
+"You mean that I, like Carpazzi, should live on the illustriousness of
+my name? If I were very poor, perhaps I should."
+
+"How curious!" Nina exclaimed. "Does not a career mean making money?"
+
+"On the contrary, it means spending it! One must have a great deal of
+money to go to any height in diplomacy."
+
+"Then you are rich?" Nina already had acquired a brutal frankness of
+direct interrogation through her Italian sojourn.
+
+"Not exactly." He looked bored again. "But I have a little--though
+perhaps not enough for my ambition. If only there were a serious war,
+I'd have a good chance." Then he added simply, "I am a good soldier!"
+
+The princess, who had been summoned to the telephone, now returned and
+seated herself beside Nina on the sofa. "I have just been talking with
+the Marchesa Valdeste, and she told me that the Queen said most gracious
+things of you, dear; called you the 'charming little American.'" The
+prince entered while the princess was speaking. He kissed his wife's
+hand and began, at great length, to tell her exactly where and how he
+had spent the afternoon. After a while, however, as one or two other
+friends dropped in, Sansevero talked aside with Tornik.
+
+"You were not at Savini's last night, were you?" he asked.
+
+Tornik looked interested. "No," he said, "but I hear they had a very
+high game."
+
+"Yes. Young Allegro was practically cleaned out."
+
+"Who won?"
+
+"Who, indeed, but Scorpa! He has the luck, that man!"
+
+"Were you there? I thought you never played any more; have you taken it
+up again?"
+
+Sansevero, glancing apprehensively at his wife, answered quickly, "I
+never play." Fortunately, just then the dangerous conversation was ended
+by the arrival of the Contessa Potensi. She smiled graciously upon the
+prince as he pressed her hand to his lips, and bestowed the left-over
+remnant of the same smile, upon Tornik. She also kissed the air on
+either side of the princess with much affection, and shook hands
+cordially with two other ladies who were present, but she directed
+toward Nina the barest glance.
+
+She and Nina, by the way, furnished at the moment a typical illustration
+of the difference in appearance between European and American women.
+
+The contessa was wearing an untrimmed, black tailor-made costume with a
+very long train, a little fur toque to match a small neck piece, and a
+little sausage-shaped muff. Her diamond earrings were enormous, but not
+very good stones. Nina's dress was of raspberry cloth, cut in the latest
+exaggeration of fashion--her skirt was short and skimp as her hat was
+huge. Her muff of sables as big and soft as a pillow--she could easily
+have buried her arms in it to the shoulder. The elaborateness of Nina's
+clothes filled the contessa with satisfaction, for she thought them
+barbarously inappropriate, and she knew that Giovanni was a martinet so
+far as "fitness" went.
+
+Presently, in spite of her more than rude greeting, she coolly sat down
+beside Nina. "Will you make me a cup of tea? I like it without sugar
+and with very little cream." She did not smile, and she did not say
+"please." Her bearing was a fair example of the cold, impersonal
+insolence of which Italian women of fashion are capable when
+antagonistic.
+
+After a time she leaned over and scrutinized Nina's watch, as though it
+were in a show case. "Do many young girls in America wear jewels?"
+
+Nina found herself congealing; instead of answering, she handed the
+contessa her tea, and expressed a hope that she had not put in too much
+cream.
+
+Taking no notice of Nina's evasion, the contessa, talking
+indiscriminately about people, arrived finally at the subject of
+Giovanni. In her opinion, the Marchese di Valdo ought to marry money!
+Unfortunately, however, she feared he had loved too many women to be
+capable now of caring for one alone. From this she went to generalities.
+A man had but one grand passion in a lifetime, didn't Nina think so?
+
+Nina's thoughts were very hazy, indeed, about grand passions, which were
+associated dimly in her mind with the seven deadly sins--in the category
+of things one didn't speak of. So she answered vaguely, feeling like a
+stupid child being cross-examined by the school commissioner.
+
+"Still, he is very attractive, don't you find? Of course, he says the
+same things to all of us--but then no one understands how to make love
+as well as he, so what does it matter whether he means it or not? It
+takes a woman of great experience," insinuated the contessa, "to parry
+Giovanni's fencing with the foils of love."
+
+Nina was goaded into answering. "You seem to know a great deal about his
+love-making," she said at last, with the breathy calm of controlled
+temper.
+
+Half shutting her eyes, the contessa replied: "It is common hearsay. One
+has only to follow the list of his conquests to know that he must be a
+past master in the art of making women care for him. That he is fickle
+is evident; he is constantly changing his attentions from one woman to
+another, and leaving with a crisis of the heart her whom he has lately
+adored. I am sorry for the woman he marries--still, perhaps she would
+not know the difference! He might even be devoted, from force of habit."
+
+Nina, furious, told herself that she did not believe one word that this
+spiteful woman was saying, but it made an impression all the same, which
+was, of course, exactly what the contessa wanted.
+
+"Tornik, too, needs a fortune badly," Maria Potensi went on piercing
+neatly. "It is hard, over here with us, that men acquire fortunes only
+by marriage. In America, it must be better, for there they can earn
+their money, and marry for love."
+
+Nina felt her cheeks burn as she listened, but there was nothing she
+could say. She knew only too well how hard it would be to believe
+herself loved.
+
+But not all of the women were like the Contessa Potensi, and by the time
+Nina had been a month in Rome, she had, with the responsiveness of
+youth, formed several friendships that were rapidly drifting into
+intimacies, though she chose as her associates, for the most part, young
+married women rather than girls. Her particular friend was Zoya Olisco,
+really six months younger than herself, but of a precocious worldly
+experience that gave her at least ten years' advantage.
+
+The young girls were to Nina quite incomprehensible. Their curiously
+negative behavior in public, their self-conscious diffidence, seemed to
+her stupid; but their education filled her with envy and shame. Nearly
+all spoke several languages, not in her own fashion of broken French,
+broken German, and baby-talk Italian, but with perfect facility and
+correctness of grammar. Nearly all were thoroughly grounded in
+mathematics, history, literature, and science. And yet their whole
+attitude toward life seemed out of balance; they were like pedagogues
+never out of the schoolroom--one moment discoursing learnedly, the next
+prattling like little children. The end and aim of life to them was
+marriage. Each talked of her dot and of what it might buy her in the way
+of a husband, very much as girls in America might plan the spending of
+their Christmas money.
+
+In spite of the unusual liberty allowed Nina, as an American, it seemed
+to her that she was very restricted. She had, for instance, suggested
+that they ask Carpazzi to dine with them alone and go to the opera. But
+the princess had said, "Impossible. Carpazzi, finding no one but the
+family, would naturally suppose we wish to arrange a marriage between
+you."
+
+Marry Carpazzi! It was ridiculous; she never had heard of such customs!
+"Well, then, why not ask Tornik?" she suggested. "He is not an Italian."
+The princess demurred. It might be possible to ask Tornik--still it was
+better not. Unless Nina wanted to marry Tornik? Apparently there was
+little use in pursuing this subject further, so she laughed and gave it
+up.
+
+They were in the princess's room, at the time, and Nina, dressed for the
+street, was pulling on new gloves of fawn-colored _suede_. Her brown
+velvet and fox furs, her big hat with a fox band fastened with an
+osprey, were all that the modeste's art could achieve.
+
+The princess fastened a little yellow mink collar around her throat over
+her black cloth dress, selected the better of two pairs of cleaned white
+kid gloves, picked up her hard, round, little yellow muff, and then went
+over and sat on the sofa beside Nina. "By the way, darling, I have
+something to say to you. The Marchese Valdeste has approached your
+uncle in regard to a marriage between his son Carlo and you. Not being
+an Italian, I suppose you want to give your answer yourself. What do you
+say?"
+
+"What do I say!" Nina's eyes and mouth opened together. "Why, I have
+never seen the man!"
+
+The princess smiled. "The offer is made in the same way in which it
+would be if you were an Italian. Your parents not being here, I ask you
+in their stead--or as I might ask you if you were a widow. To begin,
+then,--no, I am perfectly in earnest--I am authorized to offer you a
+young man of unquestionable birth. He has in his own right three
+castles. Two will need a great deal of repair, but one is in excellent
+condition and contains three hundred rooms, more than half of which are
+furnished. He has an annual income of twenty thousand _lire_ and
+no--debts! That he is fairly good-looking, medium-sized, has black hair
+and brown eyes, and is said to have a very amiable disposition, are
+details."
+
+As the princess concluded, Nina added: "And he has also a most charming
+mother. My answer is--my regret that I cannot marry her instead."
+
+"You are sure you do not care to consider this offer?"
+
+Nina looked steadily into her aunt's eyes. "I am sure you married Uncle
+Sandro through no such courtship as this!"
+
+"I did not think you would accept, my dear child; yet such marriages
+often turn out for the best--at least it was my duty to ask for your
+answer. You have given it--and now let us go out. The carriage has been
+waiting some time."
+
+Shortly afterward they were in the Pincio--for the custom still prevails
+among Roman ladies and gentlemen of slowly driving up and down or
+standing for a chat with friends. The dome of St. Peter's looked like a
+globe of gold set in the center of the celebrated frame of the Pincio
+trees, but as the sun went down it grew chilly, and the Sansevero landau
+rolled briskly up the Corso. At Nina's suggestion they stopped at a tea
+shop.
+
+No sooner were they seated at a little table when they were joined by
+the Duchess Astarte. The duchess had most graceful manners, but she
+talked to the princess across Nina, and about her, as though she were an
+article of furniture, or at least a small child who could not understand
+what was said. She spoke frankly of Nina's suitors. Scorpa's was an
+excellent title, but Scorpa was a widower and no longer young. Then she
+begged the princess to consider her nephew, the young Prince Allegro.
+
+It would be a brilliant match, for he was one of the mediatized princes
+and ranked with royalty. But his properties took such an immense amount
+of money to keep up that an added fortune would be a great relief to the
+whole family. Her consummate naturalness did away with much of the
+bluntness of her speech; but even so, this was too much for Nina's
+calmness.
+
+"But, Duchessa," she broke in, "have the Prince Allegro and I nothing to
+do with the arranging of our own future?"
+
+The duchess observed her in as much astonishment as though a baby of six
+months had broken into the conversation. A moment or two elapsed before
+she said smoothly: "Oh, the Prince is enchanted at the idea. He danced
+with you at Court and finds you _molto simpatica_. It is a great name,
+my dear, that he has to offer you----" and then with a condescension,
+yet a courteousness that prevented offense: "We shall all be willing,
+nay, delighted, to receive you with open arms. Your position will be in
+every way as though you had been born into the nobility."
+
+"Thank you," said Nina quietly, "but I don't think I am quite used to
+the European marriage of arrangement."
+
+"Ah, but it need not be a marriage of arrangement. If you will permit
+Allegro to pay his addresses to you, he will consider himself the most
+fortunate of men. May I tell him?"
+
+"Please not!" said Nina. Quite at bay, she longed wildly for some means
+of escape. To her relief, two Americans whom she knew, young Mrs. Davis
+and her sister, entered the shop. Nina rose abruptly, apologizing to the
+duchess, and ran to them. How long had they been in Rome? Where were
+they stopping? What was the news from New York? They told her all they
+could think of. The Tony Stuarts had a son--they thought it the only
+baby that had ever been born; and as for old Mr. Stuart, he was nearly
+insane with joy. Billy Rivers had lost every cent of his money; and
+then--but, of course, Nina had heard about John Derby.
+
+In her fear that some accident had happened to him, Nina's heart seemed
+to miss two beats. But Mrs. Davis merely meant his success in mining. By
+the way, she had seen him in New York, as she was driving to the
+steamer. He was striding up Fifth Avenue, and was "too good-looking for
+words."
+
+The princess was leaving the shop and, as Nina followed her into the
+carriage, her mind was full of Derby. It was very strange--she had had a
+letter the day before from Arizona, in which John had said nothing about
+going to New York. Then she remembered that her father had hinted at a
+possibility that John might be sent to Italy later in the winter. Her
+pulse quickened at the thought, but with no consciousness of sentiment
+deepened or changed by absence.
+
+Arrived at the palace, she found a note from Zoya Olisco, who was coming
+to spend the next day with her. Nina handed the note to the princess. "I
+thought we could go out in the car and lunch somewhere. Or is it not
+allowed?" Her eyes twinkled as she questioned.
+
+"That depends," the princess answered in the same spirit, "upon whether
+you are counting upon including me. I am a very disagreeable tyrant when
+it comes to being left out of a party."
+
+The automobile in question was Nina's. She had wanted one, and with her
+"to want" meant "to get." Nearly every one thought it belonged to the
+princess, as it would not have occurred to many in Rome to suppose it
+was owned by a young girl.
+
+That night another extravagance of Nina's came to light. In the morning
+they had been at an exhibition of furs brought to Rome by a Russian
+dealer. Among them was a set of superb sables, and Nina, throwing the
+collar around her aunt's shoulders, had exclaimed at their becomingness.
+
+The princess unconsciously stroked the furs as she put them down. "I
+have never seen anything more lovely," she said wistfully, and with no
+idea that she had sighed. A sable collar and muff had been one of the
+desired things of her life, but it was utterly impossible now to think
+of so much as one skin, and in the piece and muff in question there were
+more than thirty.
+
+That evening, upon their return, the princess found the furs in her room
+when she went to dress. At first she felt that they were too much to
+accept, but when Nina's hazel eyes implored, and her lips begged her
+aunt to take "just one present to remember her by," the princess for
+once gave free reign to her emotions and was as wildly delighted as a
+child.
+
+The very next afternoon, however, Scorpa saw the sables, and on a slip
+of paper made the following note:
+
+          Sables                  80,000 lire
+          60 H. P. motor car      30,000 lire
+
+With a smile that would have done no discredit to his Satanic Majesty,
+he put the paper in his pocket.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+APPLES OF SODOM
+
+
+"It amounts to this: do you take a fitting interest in the name you
+bear, or do you not?" Sansevero was the speaker, and beneath his usual
+volubility there was an unwonted eagerness. The two brothers were in
+Giovanni's apartment on the second floor, which in Roman palaces usually
+belongs to the eldest son, and Giovanni sat astride a chair, his arms
+crossed over the back.
+
+"I don't think you can ask such a question," he retorted hotly. "I am as
+much a Sansevero as you! But I really see no reason why--just because
+you have got a notion in your head that a pile of gold dollars would
+look well in our strong box--I should tie myself up for life. I am well
+enough as I am. My income is not regal, but it suffices."
+
+Sansevero, like many talkative persons, was too busy thinking of what he
+was going to say next himself, to listen attentively to his brother's
+responses. He was merely aware that Giovanni's manner proclaimed
+opposition, so, when the sound of his voice ceased, Sansevero continued:
+"Nina is all the most fastidious could ask. _Noblesse oblige_--are you
+going to keep our name among the greatest in Rome, or are you going to
+let it fall like that of the Carpazzi? Shall they say of us in the near
+future, as they say of them to-day: 'Ah, yes, the Sanseveros were a
+great family once, but they are all dead or beggared now'?"
+
+"_Per Dio!_ What an orator we are becoming!" mocked Giovanni, looking
+out of half-shut eyes like a cat. But after a moment, also like a cat,
+he opened them wide and stared coolly at his brother. "Out of the mouth
+of babes----" he said impertinently. "My child, thou hast spoken much
+wisdom! It is, after all, a proposition that has, possibly, sense in it.
+_La Nina_ is a woman such as any man might be glad to make his wife, and
+yet--this very fact that she is not an insignificant personality, is
+what I object to! I doubt her developing into either a blinded saint or
+a coquette with amiable complacence for others. We should lead a peppery
+life, I fear. But don't you think, my brother, that we are a bit
+hysterical over our family's extermination? After all, I am only
+twenty-eight; and in my opinion thirty-five is a suitable age for a man
+to marry. How old are you, Sandro--thirty-seven, is it not? And Leonora
+is nearly three years less. Of a truth, you are young!"
+
+He rested his cheek in the hollow of his hand, looking up sideways. "It
+would be a great amusement if I should marry because I am the heir to
+the estates, and then you should have a large family--so----" He made
+steps with his unoccupied hand to indicate a succession of children.
+Then he laughed, without seeming to consider the difference that the
+birth of an heir to his brother would make to himself. He arose, lit a
+cigarette, and, smoking, threw himself into an easy chair on the other
+side of the room. The great Dane, which had been lying beside him as
+usual, now slowly got up, crossed the room, and dropped down again at
+his master's feet.
+
+Meanwhile the prince, hands in pockets, had unaccountably become as
+silent as he had before been talkative, and Giovanni, upon observing his
+brother's sulky expression, leaned forward.
+
+"Well?" he questioned, with a new ring in his voice, for Sansevero's
+moodiness was never a good omen. "What are you thinking of? Come, say
+it!"
+
+Sansevero paced the length of the room and back; then he burst out:
+"Very well, it is this--everything is as bad as can be--so bad that if
+you don't marry money, and at once, the Sansevero burial will take place
+before you and I are dead. _Nome di Dio!_ how are we to live with no
+money?"
+
+"Since you ask my opinion, I have long wondered why you do not live
+better than you do," Giovanni answered. "Your income, added to Leonora's
+money, must make a very handsome sum. But one of the faults of the
+American women is that they are seldom good managers. Leonora is either
+no exception to the rule--or else she is getting very miserly. Why, an
+Italian on Leonora's income would live like a queen!"
+
+"Be silent!" Sansevero, flushing darkly, flamed into speech. "Before
+you dare to criticise the woman who adorns our house! Here is the truth
+for you: I haven't one cent of private fortune--I gambled it all away
+long ago! More than half of Leonora's money is lost--I lost it. Some of
+it she paid out for my debts; the greater portion I put into the 'Little
+Devil' mine. I might much better have shoveled it into the Tiber. Do you
+know what she has done--the woman whom you criticise as a bad manager
+and stigmatize as mean--I would not care what you said, if you had not
+thought Leonora mean! _Dio mio_, MEAN! Know, then, that the very jewels
+she wears are false; that the real ones have been sold--to pay the debts
+of the man standing before you--the gambling debts of the head of one of
+the noblest houses in Italy!"
+
+Giovanni was deeply moved, for this was a wound in his one vulnerable
+point, his pride of birth. The cigarette dropped to the floor unheeded.
+He moistened his lips as Alessandro continued:
+
+"They were Leonora's own jewels that were sold, mark you. The Sansevero
+heirlooms will go to your son's wife intact, as they came to mine! But
+that is not all: I have given my oath to Leonora never again to go into
+a game of chance, and really I want to keep it! Yet you know--no, you
+don't; no one can who hasn't the fever in his veins--if I see a game, it
+is as though an unseen force had me in its grip, drawing me against my
+will; I can't resist! At Savini's I was dining, and I did not know they
+were going to play--I won a very little; enough to pay the interest on
+what I owe Meyer. But it makes me cold all over to think--_if_ I had
+lost! An enviable inheritance you will get, when it is known what a mess
+of things the present holder of the title has made!" He dropped into a
+chair opposite his brother, and buried his face in his hands; between
+his slim fingers his forehead looked dark, and his temple veins swollen.
+For a long time Giovanni sat immovable, staring fixedly, but when at
+last he broke the silence, he spoke almost lightly:
+
+"It is not a very charming history that you have given me--even though
+it increases my admiration for the woman who has, it seems, been more
+worthy of the name she bears than has the man who conferred his titles
+upon her. I wish you had told me before." Then, with a queerly whimsical
+smile, he said musingly: "To marry the girl with the golden hair--and
+purse? Not such a terrible fate to look forward to, after all! She would
+demand a great deal, and I should have to keep the brakes on.
+Still--that would do me no harm! You look as though you had been down a
+sulphur mine. Come, cheer up--all may yet be well." Suddenly he laughed
+out loud. "Funny thing," he observed further--"you know, I am not so
+sure that I am not rather in love."
+
+He leaned to St. Anthony, and, putting his hand through the dog's collar
+beneath the throat, lifted the head on the back of his wrist. "Tell me,
+_padre_, am I in love? Do you advise the marriage?" The dog put his paw
+up, fanned the air once in missing, and let it rest on his master's
+knee.
+
+Giovanni laughed aloud "_Ecco!_ Sandro, he consents!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+AN OPPOSITION BOOTH IS SET UP IN THE MARKET PLACE
+
+
+While Sansevero and Giovanni were in their imaginations refurbishing
+their escutcheon, two other men, with the opposite intent, stood on the
+front steps of the agency of "Thomas Cook and Sons." One was proclaimed
+by the regulation "Cook's" badge on his cap to be a guide; the other, by
+his military cloak, might have been recognized as an official of the
+Italian government. Both had shown covert interest in the Princess
+Sansevero, who, looking particularly lovely in her magnificent set of
+sables, had crossed the sidewalk with the light, buoyant carriage
+characteristic of her.
+
+"There, you may see for yourself if it is I who speak the truth." This
+was said by the guide.
+
+The official looked at him askance as he drew his bushy brows together
+and pulled at his beard. "I confess it looks serious--and strongly
+favors your supposition."
+
+"But what else? It is as plain as the nose on your face, I should say!
+At Torre Sansevero they have been living on next to nothing--my cousin
+is cook, and I know that every _soldo_ is counted. They come to Rome and
+spend their savings. You will say they have done that for years; but
+tell me this, should their savings in this year treble the savings of
+other years?"
+
+Triumphantly he looked at his companion and, throwing back his head, put
+his hands on his hips. Then, with a return to his confidential manner,
+he laid his finger against his nose. "I know it for a fact," he
+continued--"Luigi heard it at the key-hole--that their excellencies
+contemplated staying at Torre Sansevero all this winter! Her excellency
+had the look--Maria, the maid, told the servants that much--that her
+excellency always has when _signore_, the prince, has cut the strings
+and left the purse empty."
+
+"Furthermore?" The official twirled his mustache with an air of
+incredulity.
+
+"Furthermore, the great Raphael disappears! Her excellency's renovation
+story was a little weak for my digestion, and, unless my eyes played me
+false, she was well frightened. I'll take my oath she was at a loss what
+to answer."
+
+"You say you taxed her with it?"
+
+"As I told you. She answered that the picture was being renovated. An
+answer for an idiot--the picture is one of the best canvases extant; in
+perfect repair."
+
+"Did you tell her that?"
+
+"Partially. I am sure she saw my suspicion."
+
+"I should doubt her carrying out the sale after that. There is where
+your story fails."
+
+"Ah, but it had already gone! It was perhaps by then in the house of a
+foreign millionaire. No, no, my story hangs together: The great picture
+disappears! A month later--time exactly for its arrival in America and
+the payment for it to be sent over here--her excellency of no money
+comes out in such a motor-car as that! And sables! I have an eye for
+furs. My father was in the business. The value of those she has on runs
+easily into the seventy or eighty thousand _lire_. Here she comes now,
+out of the banker's where American money is most often paid! Do you want
+better evidence?"
+
+He had been punctuating all he said with his fingers, and now, with a
+final snap of arms and a shrug of shoulders, he looked up in keen
+triumph at his companion.
+
+The other--slower and less excited than the narrator (probably because
+he was not the discoverer of the plot)--nevertheless showed lively
+interest. "It is very grave," he admitted at last. "But the Sansevero
+family is illustrious. We may not proceed against them without due
+consideration. I shall report the case to the chief of our secret
+service, and the prince must be----"
+
+A tall, athletic young man who had been changing some foreign gold into
+Italian, came into the open doorway of the office. A carriage, passing
+at that moment close to the curb, had prevented the two men from hearing
+the stranger's footfall, and as the latter stood on the top step,
+searching in his pocket for matches, he happened to catch the name
+"Sansevero." At once his attention was arrested, but as the conversation
+was carried on in an undertone, he caught only vague, detached words.
+Still, he was sure that he had heard "Raphael" after the name,
+"Sansevero," "disappearance," and then something like "secret service."
+But his presence evidently had become known, for as he passed on out
+into the street the two in blue coats were talking loudly about the
+excursion to Tivoli and the scenery _en route_.
+
+Walking out into the middle of the square where the cabs stand, he
+jumped into the first one, but he looked cautiously back toward the men
+in front of Cook's, before telling the driver to take him to the Palazzo
+Sansevero.
+
+Here the _portiere_ in his morning clothes, very different from the
+gorgeous apparel of afternoon, was sweeping out the courtyard. Holding
+his broom handle with exactly the same dignity with which, later in the
+day, he would hold his mace, he informed the stranger that his
+excellency the prince was not at home--neither was her excellency the
+princess. Upon being asked whether Miss Randolph were perhaps at home,
+he altogether forgot his imperturbability. That a _signore_ should send
+in his card to a _signorina_ was so far outside the range of his
+experience that the man stood with his mouth open, unable even to think
+what answer to give. As though he were a somnambulist, the man took the
+card and slowly read the name on its face; then he looked the stranger
+over from head to foot, read the name a second time, and finally entered
+the palace.
+
+The young man watched his retreating figure, and then, throwing back his
+head, laughed long and heartily. After which he fell to studying the
+details of the courtyard. He noted with keen interest the deep ruts worn
+in the solid stone paving under the massive arches of the gateways, and
+glanced up at the bas-reliefs between the windows. At the sound of
+footsteps he turned and encountered Nina's maid, Celeste.
+
+Mademoiselle had sent her to bid him mount to the _salon_. Through the
+green baize doors--it was the shorter way--and then, if monsieur would
+go straight on to the very last of the rooms-- His striding pace made
+Celeste fairly trot along at his heels. He went through room after room.
+Was there no end to them? At last Nina's slight, girlish figure was seen
+silhouetted against a broad window at the end--the light at her back
+hazing the gold of her hair, like a nimbus, about her face.
+
+She ran toward him, both hands out. "Jack! Dear Jack! Is it you, really,
+or am I dreaming? When did you come? Oh, I _am_ so glad to see you; but
+what a surprise! Why did you not send word?"
+
+For a moment a light leaped into Derby's eyes. It seemed as though Nina
+was looking at him exactly as he, in his day dreams, had seen her. But
+his prudence steadied his first impulse, and he put down her gladness as
+merely the joy of a person who, far from home, sees suddenly a familiar
+face in the midst of strangers; and they sat on the sofa just as they
+had sat on the railing of the veranda in the country, ever since they
+were children.
+
+In Derby's account of himself, Nina could easily read the confidence
+that had led her father to send him to Italy. But their talk had gone
+little further than the barest outline of his mission when the prince
+and princess returned. At the sight of Nina sitting alone with a man,
+the princess came forward quickly with the question, "My child, what
+does this mean?" as plainly asked in her eyes as it could have been by
+spoken words. But at Nina's "John Derby, Aunt Eleanor!" the princess put
+out her hand with all the grace in the world, and as she returned the
+straight, frank look of his blue eyes, her whole expression became
+youthful, as if reflecting some pleasant memory of her girlhood.
+
+"I knew your uncle very, very well!" She smiled entrancingly. It was a
+smile that irresistibly attracted to her all who ever saw it. "You are
+like him." Then she added softly, dreamingly, as though half speaking to
+herself, "You remind me of so many things--at home!"
+
+The next minute she had turned to present Derby to her husband, and the
+conversation became general. But, finally, in a pause, Nina said, "Jack,
+tell Uncle Sandro what father sent you over to do. Or is it a secret?"
+
+Derby looked toward Sansevero as though measuring the man. "It is no
+great secret--but I would rather it was not spoken of yet."
+
+"My ears are deaf, and my tongue is dumb." Sansevero put his hand over
+his ear, his mouth, and finally his heart.
+
+"I have come over to buy, or to lease--at all events, to work--sulphur
+mines."
+
+As though an electric current had been turned on, Sansevero sat up
+straight, and his levity vanished. "To work sulphur mines! Will you tell
+me more? I have a particular reason for wanting to know."
+
+Derby answered willingly. "I can give you a general idea. I was forced
+into inventing a new method of mining on account of the quicksands,
+which are found all through our mines at home. Taking a suggestion from
+the oil wells, I bored just such a well down into the sulphur beds.
+Ordinarily the sulphur is brought up in powder or rock form, and refined
+in vats on the surface, so that not only do the miners have to go down
+into the sulphurous heat, but the caldrons in which the sulphur is
+refined give out gases that are unendurable to human throats and lungs.
+In our mines, the sulphur is now refined sixty or a hundred feet below
+the surface of the ground, and pours out in an already purified state,
+at the top of the well."
+
+Sansevero looked incredulous. "But sulphur is almost impossible to
+liquefy. Unlike metals, it congeals again when it has been heated beyond
+the proper temperature. Also it corrodes any metal it touches, so that a
+pipe would be eaten away immediately."
+
+"To get over those difficulties is exactly what I am trying to do by my
+new process," Derby answered. "The sulphur is melted by hot water sent
+down the pipes, followed by sand, and then sawdust--the sand to carry
+the heat to the cooler edges, and the wet sawdust to check the heat at
+the center."
+
+Even the princess drew nearer and laid her hand on her husband's arm as
+Derby made his explanation. Sansevero trembled with excitement. "But
+according to that," he cried, turning to his wife; "our mine would be
+practicable!" Then to Derby: "I ought to explain to you that we have a
+sulphur mine in Sicily, near Vencata. So far as I know, the sulphur
+does, as you say, lie in a bed some twenty meters down. Above it are
+rock and alluvial soil. The volcanic neighborhood makes the temperature
+below ground higher than can be borne, yet we know that the sulphur
+deposit is immense."
+
+"Give me more details. From what you say, it sounds as though this mine
+of yours might be exactly what we are looking for. Does Mr. Randolph
+know of it, or that you are the owner?"
+
+"No; no one knows it excepting one small group of sulphur owners. I
+unwisely went into it on the advice of--some one who is very good at
+all these things; yet the best are liable to mistake. Other mines in the
+neighborhood, owned by friends of mine, have brought in a fortune. Ours
+has, so far, been a failure."
+
+The talk lasted until luncheon was served. Giovanni put in an
+appearance, and Derby was pressed to stay. As di Valdo and the American
+met, there was a barely perceptible coldness under the Italian's good
+manners, while Derby's greeting showed a momentary curiosity. Two more
+sharply contrasted beings could hardly have been brought together. But
+gradually Giovanni also became interested in the mining plans, and, as
+the reason for the American's coming to Europe very evidently was
+business and not the pursuit of the heiress, Giovanni's affability
+became genuine.
+
+The end of the matter was that Derby agreed to take up the Sansevero
+mine, commonly known as the "Little Devil"; to be worked on a "royalty"
+basis. Derby, representing his company, was to pay all expenses, take
+all responsibility, and to return to Sansevero a percentage of the
+market price on every ton of sulphur taken out of it.
+
+Furthermore, Sansevero insisted upon giving him a letter to the
+Archbishop of Vencata, who lived about eight hours on muleback from the
+mining settlement. The Sicilians, he declared, were a dangerous people
+for strangers who tried to interfere in their established order of
+things.
+
+"So then I am likely to have adventures! It sounds exciting!" The
+American laughed light-heartedly at the sport of it. However, he
+accepted the letter to the archbishop.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A MENACE
+
+
+Derby did not realize until afterward that the entire conversation at
+the Palazzo Sansevero had been about his projects, and that, aside from
+a few generalities, he really knew nothing of Nina's winter or of her
+Italian experiences. He returned to his hotel at about five o'clock, and
+was striding directly toward the smoking-room without glancing to right
+or left among the attractive groups that characterize the tea hour at
+the Excelsior, when he was arrested by some one's calling, "Why, John
+Derby!"
+
+In the crowd of persons and tables he looked blankly for a familiar
+face, but, as his name was repeated, he recognized Mrs. Bobby Davis and
+her sister, Mildred Hoyt. As soon as Derby reached their table, Mrs.
+Davis glibly rattled off the names of the four or five men who comprised
+their party. They were all Europeans, who, in regular afternoon
+attire--frock coats, and flower in buttonhole--were sipping tea and
+eating cake. Derby was in tweeds, and afternoon tea was by no means part
+of his daily program.
+
+However, he made the best of it, and also of the remarks that followed,
+for he was sooner seated than Mrs. Davis turned all her powers of
+sprightly conversation upon the subject of Nina. Half of the nobility of
+Italy, she averred, were sighing--or busily doing sums--at the feet of
+the American heiress. There was a particularly fascinating Sansevero--he
+was not called Sansevero, but di Valdo (curious custom of having half a
+dozen names for one person!), who, it was rumored, was simply mad about
+Nina! People said she was going to marry him--either him or Duke
+something. And there were crowds of others. That was one of her suitors
+now--she pointed out Tornik, who was taking tea with a group from the
+Austrian Embassy. He was most attractive, didn't John think so? In
+Nina's place, she would have her head turned!
+
+This idea seemed to be a new one to Derby. "Should you?" The question
+was asked so reflectively that Mrs. Davis almost stopped to think; but
+the habit of prattling carried her on.
+
+"To have men like that sighing for one--I should call it thrilling, to
+say the least."
+
+Derby's look questioned. "I wonder why the Europeans make such a hit
+with you women," he said. "Why, for instance, do you find that man over
+there attractive? What do you like about him?"
+
+"Seriously?" Mrs. Davis patted her hair up the back with a little
+smoothing movement of satisfaction. "I don't know how to put it--it is
+very indefinable; but a man like that has a quality--a polish, I
+suppose it is, really--that is quite irresistible."
+
+Derby looked rather disgusted. "And you think that is why Nina likes
+them?"
+
+"Oh, there are other reasons--lots of them. In the first place, Nina has
+a bad case of '_allure de noblesse_.' In her case I don't wonder! You
+can't imagine anything so heavenly as her aunt's palace; it is every bit
+as fine as any of the galleries or museums."
+
+As though this remark added a new link to a chain of old impressions,
+Derby found himself asking: "By the way--they have a famous picture
+gallery out in the country somewhere, haven't they?"
+
+Mrs. Davis turned for information to Prince Minotti, sitting next to
+her; who, as he was not especially welcomed by the Romans, much affected
+the society of Americans, since to them, as a rule, a prince is a
+prince, and the name that follows of comparative unimportance.
+
+"Torre Sansevero," he said pompously, "is one of the finest estates we
+have in Italy. In fact, the gardens are hardly less celebrated than
+those of the Villa d'Este, and there are a few excellent paintings. Do
+you ask for any special reason?"
+
+"No," replied Derby casually. "I heard they had a Raphael that was
+especially beautiful; I should like to see it--that is all."
+
+"Do you, by chance, know the Princess Sansevero's niece, from America,
+who is captivating Rome this winter?"
+
+"Miss Randolph? Yes."
+
+"Ah, then it will be easy for you to get permission to see the painting.
+The gallery is not open to the public, though Cook's, I believe, send a
+party out once a week, to see the gardens."
+
+To Derby the suspicion at once became a certainty that, in overhearing
+the talk between the Cook's guide and the official, he had by accident
+stumbled upon something of serious importance to the Sanseveros. He was
+puzzling over it when, in the smoking-room, a few moments later, he
+encountered Eliot Porter, an American writer who was making a study of
+Roman life. At sight of Derby he called out heartily, "Hello, Jack, when
+did you come over?"
+
+Derby drew up a chair beside him, and briefly sketched the object of his
+visit.
+
+"Negotiating with Scorpa, I suppose?" asked Porter.
+
+"The Sulphur King?" Derby shook his head. "No, I don't think I shall
+need him. I have my hands on a property that promises to be what I am
+looking for. The duke wants to work his mines himself and in his own
+way. I am merely trying a scheme; if it turns out well, good! If not, I
+shall have tested it."
+
+"When do you begin operations? I suppose you realize, my friend, that it
+is no joke to interfere with the Sicilians? They are as suspicious of a
+new face as a tribe of savages. Savages is just about what they are,
+too! And there is another element that you should not lose sight of: If
+you are going to upset Scorpa's methods, it is not the Sicilians alone
+that you will have to deal with, but also the duke himself."
+
+"I am not going to try his property."
+
+"No, but he controls the sulphur output. If you come into his
+market--well, I'd not give a _soldo_ for your skin. Besides, that would
+be the second grudge he'd have against you!"
+
+"Second? I don't understand----"
+
+"He wants to marry your best girl! Oh, hold on--no offense meant. She is
+having a splendid time of it, if a string of satellites as long as the
+Ponte San Angelo constitutes a woman's joy. All the same, my boy; put
+this in your pipe and smoke it: 'Ware Scorpa, don't turn your back to
+any one who might be in his employ, and bolt your door at night. Will
+you have my Winchester?"
+
+Derby smoked on, unperturbed. "It sounds as though it might be
+interesting. I had expected a mere proposition of machinery; the human
+element always adds. Wasn't it you who told me that?"
+
+"In a book, decidedly!" and then with a sudden impulse, "By Jove, Jack,
+I believe it would be a good thing for me to go along with you! I might
+get new copy."
+
+Derby laughed incredulously. "Well, if you mean it, come along! I wish
+you would." Porter meant it enough to be interested in the project, at
+any rate, for later the two men dined together, and they discussed
+arrangements and expedients all the evening.
+
+Derby went to the Palazzo Sansevero the next day, but again he had much
+to talk over with the prince, and saw little of Nina. In some
+unaccountable way she seemed changed; nothing definite happened to mark
+the difference that he vaguely felt, but Mrs. Davis's remark came back
+to him--"The Europeans are so finished," and he wondered whether Nina
+found him unfinished; he even wondered whether he was or not--which was
+a good deal of wondering for him.
+
+At first, Sansevero's investment in the "Little Devil" had seemed to
+Derby merely the unfortunate venture the prince thought it, but when, in
+the course of their talk, it came out that Scorpa was the "friend" who
+had sold him the mine, Derby was sure that the duke had deliberately
+saddled him with a property which he knew to be useless. And yet every
+word that Scorpa had urged as a reason for the mine's value, was--taken
+literally--true. The mine was in close proximity to his own; the
+surveys, furthermore, showed the "Little Devil" to be the richest in
+sulphur deposit of any in the region. But if the mine was as valuable as
+Scorpa declared, it was scarcely compatible with all that was known of
+his character that out of purely disinterested friendship, he should put
+such a prize in Sansevero's hands, while he bought up for himself less
+valuable mines at higher prices. Derby kept his opinions to himself;
+but his blood boiled with indignation and, mentally, he resolved to beat
+Scorpa if it was humanly possible.
+
+As Derby was leaving, Nina deliberately went from the room with him. "I
+want to speak with John a few minutes," she said to her aunt. "We are
+both Americans, you know," she added, laughing. In the adjoining room
+she motioned him to sit beside her, but he stood instead, leaning
+against the window frame. She looked up with something like apology. "Am
+I keeping you?" she asked quickly. "Are you in a hurry?"
+
+Almost with the manner of Mr. Randolph, he pulled out his watch. "Not
+especially. I have an appointment with the Duke Scorpa--but not for half
+an hour." She had not noticed before the nervously hurried manner of her
+countrymen. There were many things she wanted to talk to John about--but
+she might as well have tried to carry on a restful conversation at a
+railroad station, when the train was coming in.
+
+"With Scorpa?" She tried to hold his attention. "What are you going to
+see _him_ about?"
+
+Derby seemed preoccupied.
+
+"I don't think I'm very sure myself--further than that he wants to buy
+my patents, which I have no intention of selling, and I want to rent his
+mines, which he has no intention of renting. Rather asinine, going to
+see him! Still, as he insists----" There was an eagerness in Derby's
+face inconsistent with the shrugging of his shoulders.
+
+But Nina's thoughts were not on the processes of mining just then,
+though they were on Scorpa. She looked at Derby appealingly.
+
+"Jack!"
+
+"Yes, Nina?"
+
+"Do you know what I think?--Aunt Eleanor won't say a word; she hides it
+all she can, but she must have lost almost her entire fortune. Jack, do
+you think that Duke Scorpa could be at the bottom of it?"
+
+Derby gave her a glance of keen interest, but he expressed no surprise
+and asked her no questions. As a matter of fact, the gossip of the
+Cook's guide had partly prepared him for Nina's revelation about her
+aunt's fortune, and he had his own theories about Scorpa. "Quite
+likely," he answered dryly, "but it is also quite likely that we shall
+get the better of him----" Then, with a sudden change in his manner he
+looked at her steadily. "But perhaps you don't want us to get the better
+of him?"
+
+"Do you mean----?"
+
+"I hear he is very devoted--and he has not only the handle to his name
+that you women seem to be keen about, but he is too rich to be after
+your money." Derby had no sooner said the words than he regretted them.
+But seeing Nina color, he misinterpreted her feelings, and spoke under a
+sudden flash of jealousy. "And I suppose the title of duchess is
+irresistible."
+
+Nina was deeply hurt. "That is pretty blunt," she said, the pupils of
+her eyes contracted as though the sun blinded them. "Have you ever seen
+the man you speak of? No? Well, you would not say such a thing if you
+had. I _hate_ him!"
+
+Derby seemed fated to blunder. Again he made the wrong remark. "Hate,
+they say, is next to love."
+
+His lack of insight, so palpable in contrast with Giovanni's keenness of
+perception, was too much for Nina's new sensitiveness. She suddenly
+congealed, and stood up, very straight, with the little upward tilt of
+the chin that indicated fast approaching temper.
+
+Derby knew this symptom well enough, but he had not the slightest idea
+that his own obtuseness was the cause. Without analyzing, he accepted
+her starting up as a signal to leave, and promptly said good-by.
+"Good-by, then!" Nina said frigidly; and, turning on her heel, she
+abruptly left him.
+
+Under the spur of her anger against him, the words framed themselves in
+her mind--"How unfinished he is!" But down in her heart there was an
+ache, deeper than could have been caused by mere irritation, or even
+disappointment. Never before in her life had there been a breach between
+John and her. She felt it was all the fault of his own density--or was
+it lack of feeling?
+
+She went to her room to put on her riding habit, for she was going to
+the meet. Then, as she dressed, the thought came to her that John, a
+foreigner, and the most venturesome person in the world, was going off
+to Sicily, into the very center of one of the wildest districts. And
+gradually fear for him made her forget her resentment.
+
+Just as she was leaving her room a big cornucopia of roses was brought
+in, to which was appended the following note:
+
+          "If we weren't such old friends and you didn't
+          know what a blundering fool I am, I wouldn't dare
+          to apologize for this morning. Judge me by intent,
+          though, won't you--and forgive me?
+
+          "JACK."
+
+Nina broke off a rose and fastened it to the lapel of her habit; but the
+note she tucked in between the buttonholes. Suddenly humming a gay
+little song, she ran through the rooms and corridors to join her aunt
+and uncle, who were waiting for her to motor out to the hunt, the horses
+having been sent ahead with the grooms. As they drove out of the
+courtyard she noticed that the sun was brilliantly shining.
+
+At the meet the scene was really animated, for the day was perfect, and
+the Via Appia was a bright moving picture of carriages, large and small,
+big motors and little runabouts, the road dotted here and there with the
+brilliant scarlet coats of those who were to hunt and the bright colors
+of women's dresses in the various conveyances.
+
+There was apparently much lack of system: the huntsmen chatted aimlessly
+with persons in the carriages; while the hounds scurried around
+according to their own inclinations, paying little attention to the snap
+of the whip. The Contessa Potensi, who had appeared in a pink hunting
+coat, was the cynosure of all eyes. The innovation created quite a stir
+and no little admiration. She bowed to Nina with unusual civility, and
+made a formal acknowledgment of the pleasure of riding with her. Yet
+shortly after, when she joined a group of friends a distance farther on,
+she was laughing and glancing back as she spoke, in a way that left
+little doubt that she was making disparaging remarks.
+
+Sansevero and Giovanni had mounted their hunters, and now joined Nina,
+but that gave her little pleasure, for the contessa immediately
+returned. Nina was glad when Donna Francesca Dobini and the young Prince
+Allegro cantered up. Donna Francesca was soon talking with Sansevero,
+leaving Nina to Allegro--an attractive youth, but light as a bit of
+fluff.
+
+As for Giovanni, she felt that he was as unstable as the dead leaves
+which the wind at that moment was blowing around and around. They were
+graceful, too, those leaves, and Giovanni was fascinating, agile,
+charming--but in case one counted upon him seriously, where would he be?
+Smiling sweetly, no doubt, at some other woman, and telling her that
+her eyes were twin lakes of heaven's blue, or forest pools in which his
+heart was lost forever.
+
+The contrasting image of John Derby came sharply to mind. John was going
+to Sicily to do a man's work in a man's way. A little later she noticed
+Tornik, who was cantering ahead of her: his figure was not unlike
+John's--he was strong and masculine. She wondered aimlessly if they
+might be in any other way alike. Supposing, in some unaccountable
+situation she were to be thrown upon his chivalry for protection, what
+would he do? Shrug his shoulders and look bored? Or detail a company
+from his regiment to stand guard over her? The idea made her laugh.
+
+"You are gay this morning," observed Giovanni, light-heartedly joining
+in her laughter.
+
+With a quizzical little expression Nina looked at him--"I wonder if you
+would be amused if you knew why I laughed."
+
+[Illustration: "NINA LOOKED AT HIM--'I WONDER IF YOU WOULD BE AMUSED IF
+YOU KNEW WHY I LAUGHED'"]
+
+"If it gives you pleasure--it is delicious, whatever it is!"
+
+All the softness went out of the girl's brown eyes; they glittered
+curiously. "Yes," she said, "that is just what I thought." After which
+ambiguous remark she returned to her former gayety--"Come," she said,
+"let's go fast; we shall be the last!" Urging her horse, she galloped
+across the fields.
+
+She would have been at a loss to understand her own vacillations of mood
+that day: she seemed to feel an unaccountable revulsion against every
+one. The gesticulations of the men around her, their airs and
+blandishments, annoyed her. Not an hour earlier she had found John dull
+and flat by comparison with Europeans. Now suddenly they were effeminate
+dandies, and John alone was a real man.
+
+But the exhilaration of jumping brought her to a more equable frame of
+mind, and at the first check she and the Prince Allegro were in the
+lead. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes bright from the long gallop.
+
+They had stopped on a knoll out on the Campagna, and Nina remained apart
+from the other hunters, walking her horse slowly, while Allegro went
+over to the carriage to get a handkerchief for her from the Princess
+Sansevero. She drew in deep breaths of the fresh air, as she gazed out
+over the rolling hills to the snowclad tops of the Albanian mountains
+glistening in the sunshine.
+
+Then suddenly a deep, oily voice jarred through her wandering thoughts.
+"You are very pensive!" exclaimed the Duke Scorpa, appearing beside her.
+
+Nina started violently, for, besides his unexpected appearance, there
+was something in this man's personality that always sent a shudder
+through her.
+
+"The Marchese di Valdo has been telling me that I am very gay," she
+answered, not so much to give the duke the information as to contradict
+him.
+
+"Then I am doubly sad, since you are gay with others, and absent-minded
+when I come." A lurking familiarity in his smile made Nina wince. He
+ranged his horse so close that his boots brushed against hers, and she
+pulled aside quickly; he did not move close again, but he checked her
+attempt to pass him, keeping between her and the other riders.
+
+"Why are you so cruel?" he murmured. "Diana never had so many votaries
+as Venus."
+
+"I am not interested in mythology," said Nina, her heart fluttering with
+fright. "Please allow me to pass--I want to join my uncle."
+
+"Sweet, pale little Diana,"--he leaned over in his saddle and purred the
+words at her--"where mythology failed was in not marrying Diana to Mars.
+Exactly as--you are going to marry me!"
+
+"I will not! I told you before I would not! Let me pass!" She pulled the
+reins so taut that her horse reared as she urged him forward, but again
+the duke ranged his horse close beside her, heading off her attempt to
+get past.
+
+"A woman's 'won't' as often means she will," he answered deliberately.
+"It is when she says she is not certain that her irrevocable decision is
+made."
+
+"I hate you, I utterly hate you!" cried Nina, her anger getting the
+better of her fear.
+
+The duke laughed maliciously. "I had scarcely hoped to make so deep a
+mark on your emotions! If you hate me, then truly you will marry
+me!--against your will, if need be," he added, reining back his horse at
+last. "I will wait to make you love me afterward."
+
+At this point Allegro returned with the handkerchief, and the duke let
+Nina pass. Tornik, also, now joined her, the master of the hounds gave
+the signal, and again the riders were off. Nina, between Tornik and
+Allegro, was protected from the duke's approach, but she kept
+apprehensively glancing back. She looked about for her uncle, but could
+not see him.
+
+As a matter of fact, Sansevero's horse had strained itself slightly in
+one of the jumps, and he had thought it best to drop out of the hunt. He
+had gone only a short distance on his way toward Rome when he was joined
+by Scorpa, who said that he did not care to ride farther but would go
+back with Sansevero. The prince was glad of his company until Scorpa
+began:
+
+"You have not yet given me a favorable answer to my proposal for Miss
+Randolph's hand."
+
+The abruptness with which the subject was introduced irritated
+Sansevero, and he answered sulkily: "I told you, when you first spoke to
+me, that it was a matter Miss Randolph would have to decide for herself.
+An American girl never allows other people to arrange her marriage for
+her, and I found my niece not at all disposed to reconsider her answer."
+
+An ugly light shone in the duke's eyes. "I do not want to seem
+importunate," he said, "but--I would do very much for the man who
+furthered my marriage with Miss Randolph, and you would find the
+alliance of our families of great advantage. I am a hot-blooded fellow,
+but I'm not such a bad lot. I cannot help being wounded, though, by your
+niece's indifference, and in jealousy of a rival I might do things that
+otherwise would not enter my head. This is--eh--not a threat--but it is
+a family trait--the Scorpas stop at nothing once their hearts are
+aflame! Think it over, my friend, before you decide not to help me."
+
+He sighed deeply and then, as though turning his attention to the first
+trivial thought that came to mind, he said casually: "By the way, I have
+been reading lately an extremely interesting book on celebrated criminal
+cases, and I was particularly impressed by the way in which
+circumstantial evidence can be built up out of harmless trifles. Since
+reading it I have been rather amusing myself by constructing
+hypothetical cases. For instance"--Scorpa pursed his lips and lowered
+his eyes, as though trying to invent a fanciful story--"take a
+transaction such as your letting me have that picture. One could build a
+very stirring case upon that!"
+
+"Yes?" encouraged the prince. "How do you mean?"
+
+"Well, to begin, we would send word to the government that your Raphael
+Madonna had been sold out of the country."
+
+"I don't think that a good beginning, because it is easy enough to prove
+it is in your palace."
+
+"Ah, of course. But for the amusement of the argument we will say that I
+_want_ to do you an injury and so smuggle it out of the country! Then
+when I am questioned, I deny all knowledge of it. Yes, I would have you
+there! It would be quite feasible, because no one saw the picture change
+hands, and your notes to me--the only proof of the transfer--could
+easily be destroyed. You see? This really grows interesting! Then comes
+all the cumulative evidence of the type I was speaking about; for
+instance: After the supposed sale of the picture, you indulge in
+unwonted expenditures--of course, it is easy to say that they are those
+of the American heiress stopping with you"--he paused, in apparent
+thoughtfulness--"but when, in addition, an enemy buys in Paris a pair of
+earrings, matchless emeralds, that are recognized as having been
+worn----"
+
+"_Dio mio!_ My wife's emeralds!" Sansevero was startled into exclaiming.
+Then suddenly he blazed out: "What do you mean by your story? If you
+have anything to say, say it so I can follow you."
+
+From the gross lips of the duke his apology fell like drops of thickest
+oil: "I regret you take my pleasantry so ill, and I ask your pardon as
+many times as you require, my friend! It happened by chance that I saw a
+pair of emeralds in Paris that were duplicates of the magnificent gems I
+have often admired when the princess wore them, and the jeweler told me
+that they had been sold at a sacrifice by a noble lady in urgent need of
+money. The curious coincidence came to my mind in illustration of the
+problems I was talking of. Further than that I meant nothing--except
+that I was serious in what I said about repaying the man who should
+bring about my marriage."
+
+They had long since passed through the Porta San Giovanni and had
+arrived at the Coliseum. Scorpa gave Sansevero little chance to answer,
+but with a friendly good-by, he turned toward the Monte Quirinal.
+Sansevero pursued his way along the foot of the Palatine. He was
+disturbed; but he could not bring himself to read into the duke's words
+a covert threat. His first impulse was to repeat the conversation to
+Eleanor, but he knew how the mere suspicion that Scorpa had detected her
+false stones had worried her. Curiously enough, in Sansevero's mind the
+larger issue of the picture was quite overlooked in the more immediate
+consideration of the jewels. By the time he reached home he had decided
+to wait until further events should show Scorpa's intentions. And until
+then he would say nothing to any one--least of all to Eleanor.
+
+In the meantime Nina was galloping across the Campagna. For a while the
+fear of Scorpa remained, but when she realized that he was no longer
+with the hunt, she breathed more freely, and again began to enjoy the
+day. It was almost as though she were riding through the country at
+home. She might have been hunting in Westchester, or on Long Island,
+for any actual difference that there was, and the finish, as at home,
+was merely anise seed, and the hounds were fed raw meat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+NINA DUSTS BEHIND THE COUNTER
+
+
+Kate Titherington, daughter of Alonzo K. Titherington, the Pittsburg
+iron magnate, had some six years before married the Count Masco. After a
+short experience of living in his ancestral palace, they had moved into
+an apartment out in the new part of the city; very handsome, very
+luxurious and modern in every way. "Deliver me from these musty old
+dungeons!" she had exclaimed to her husband. "I will give a free deed of
+gift to the rats, who are really, my dear, the only beings I can think
+of to whom this tumbledown barracks of yours would be comfortable." Her
+husband was a meek and inoffensive appendage, who had been well brought
+up by an overbearing mother and turned over, perfectly trained, to the
+strenuous requirements of the bonny Kate.
+
+The vivid Countess Masco, _nee_ Titherington, was looked upon with
+disfavor by the more conservative Romans, and her position was rather,
+one might say, on the outer edge of the inner circle. There were those
+who liked her, and who found her amusing and lively; indeed, that was
+the trouble--it was her liveliness that had banished her to the outer
+edge, instead of making a place for her in the inmost circle, where
+Eleanor Sansevero, for instance, was so securely established.
+
+Nina had known Kate Titherington one summer at Bar Harbor, but her first
+encounter with this flamboyant personality in Italy was at the Grand
+Hotel a few days before the hunt. Nina was serving at one of the tables
+of a charity tea, when she saw a very highly-colored, plump figure, with
+draperies in full sail, bearing down upon her from the top of the wide
+steps, at the back of the big red hall. The red of the hall paled beside
+the cerise costume of the approaching lady. In a voice loud and
+high-keyed, yet not unmusical, she cried:
+
+"Well, I declare if it isn't little Nina Randolph!" And then with
+exuberant good humor she called to her husband, who followed lamb-like
+in her wake, "You see, Gio, it _is_ the little Randolph--I told you so!
+
+"This is my husband." She presented him as though he were some inanimate
+personal possession. "We have been in Paris and Monte Carlo all winter.
+Got back yesterday. Nice old place, Rome, don't you think so? I dote on
+it, but of course it gets provincial if you stay too long!" At the same
+moment she caught sight of Zoya Olisco, and waved to her. To Nina's
+surprise, the young Russian came forward with both hands outstretched.
+"Ah, you are back? What was the news in Monte Carlo?"
+
+"Nothing much. They still talk of the _coup_ that Tornik----" But before
+Nina could hear the end of the sentence, the old Princess Malio handed
+her a five-_lire_ note for tea, and Nina had to get change. Then the
+whole family of the Rosenbaums, eight in number, demanded her services
+for many cups of tea and as many plates of sandwiches and cakes, and
+when their change was counted, the Countess Kate and her attendant
+husband were leaving. The countess, however, called back over her
+shoulder, "You are dining with me on Friday; the princess said yes for
+you!"
+
+And so it was that on the evening of the hunt Nina, alone with her
+uncle--her aunt having stayed at home on account of a headache--found
+herself entering a big new apartment house, and going up in an elevator,
+quite as though she were at home in one of the most modern, instead of
+one of the most ancient, cities in the world.
+
+The Masco apartment was all brand-new--so new that there was still about
+it an odor of fresh paint and plaster, and the pungency of raw textiles.
+The Countess Kate, not to be outdone by her decorator, was as new as her
+surroundings--in the latest style of sheath dress, of a brilliant blue,
+which she wore triumphantly, regardless of the strain with which it
+stretched across the amplitude of her bosom.
+
+The company consisted of the Oliscos, Count Tornik, Prince Minotti,
+Count Rosso, Prince Allegro, Eliot Porter, and John Derby. It gave Nina
+a sudden feeling of satisfaction to see how attractive John was by
+comparison with the others. He had a quiet reserve and a forcefulness
+that Nina thought very effective in this foreign surrounding, and she
+was ashamed of herself for having judged him by the shallow standard of
+mere social grace.
+
+The Countess Masco's parties were renowned for their gayety. She was one
+of those hostesses whose vivacity never relaxes, and whose ready answers
+pass for sparkling wit. According to her own standard, a party was a
+success or a failure as it was noisy or quiet. Consequently she talked
+and laughed continuously. Startling colors were her particular weakness,
+and by the scent of extract of tuberose she could be traced for days.
+
+Nina sat between Eliot Porter and the young Prince Allegro; but her
+attention wandered across the table to John Derby so constantly that the
+Prince Allegro remarked, "You seem to be entranced by that American!"
+
+"Mr. Derby happens to be my oldest and my best friend!" Nina answered.
+Then, realizing that she had made the statement sententiously, she
+smiled brightly. "You Europeans so often say that American men are
+unattractive," she said. "Over there you may behold one of 'our best!'"
+
+Without rancor or jealousy, the young prince seemed entirely to agree
+with her opinion. "Why is it we so seldom meet those Americans you call
+'best'?" he asked, between spoonfuls of _puree d'ecrevisse_.
+
+"Because they are those who have to stay at home and work." And then she
+added, "They are saints--don't you think?"
+
+"They are very stupid, I should say."
+
+Nina let her spoon rest on the rim of her plate. "That's not polite of
+you."
+
+"Why? Since it is true. Of course they are stupid! They let their women,
+who are adorable, come over to us. Would I, do you think, if you were my
+wife, allow you so much as to go out for an afternoon's drive without
+me? Never! To prove further that your men are stupid--in no country are
+there so many divorces as in America!"
+
+"It is not because our men are stupid, at all events!"
+
+"Then why is it?"
+
+"Chiefly because our men have too little time to give us." And then she
+spoke under sudden stress of feeling, without perhaps knowing the full
+wisdom of what she said: "Do you suppose that if our men at home had
+time for us, we _would_ come over here, to you?"
+
+"Then all the more are the Americans fools!" He raised his champagne
+glass. "Signorina," he said, "may you find the American who _has_ the
+time."
+
+Involuntarily her glance went toward John. Allegro saw it and laughed.
+"Ah, ha! So that is why we have no chance? Still," he added on second
+thought, "your choice does you credit."
+
+"He is not my choice, he is my friend. You don't understand! At home a
+girl has men friends exactly as she has girl friends. I wonder how I can
+make it clear to you--we are all like a big family. They might as well
+be my brothers, many of the men I know; there is not a bit of sentiment
+in our liking for each other."
+
+"There is no sentiment between you and the man over there?" Allegro
+twisted the blond down on his upper lip, laughing at her out of the
+corners of his eyes. "I may be little more than a boy, signorina, but
+there is one thing that I know quite well when I see it, and that is a
+person who is in love. Human nature is the same all over the world. Your
+American men can, after all, have only the same emotions that we have
+over here. It is as plain as the dome on St. Peter's--you may see it
+from every direction. That man over there is in love with you! _Ecco!_"
+
+"He is nothing of the sort! You Italians are mad on the subject. I told
+you you could not understand. You are different, that is all."
+
+Allegro shrugged his shoulders. "As you please! I tell you he is! And
+what is more, you are in love with him. After all"--he put up his hand
+to ward off interruption--"I had much rather think you declined my own
+suit because your affections were already given before I was so unhappy
+as to see you, than that, while your heart was still free, you would
+not consider me."
+
+Nina was so surprised that for a few minutes she was unable to answer.
+Allegro had never said a word to her about the proposal which had been
+made by his family. Up to that moment she had thought he did not himself
+know of it.
+
+"Heart?" she said, bewildered. "Did you put any heart into the offer
+that was made? None has ever been shown to me."
+
+"Is there a chance of your considering my suit?" He asked it very
+seriously.
+
+Nina shook her head, and Allegro sighed as though dejected; then, having
+paid her this compliment, he became cheerful again and his candor was as
+delicious as it was astonishing.
+
+"Shall I tell you? Yes, I will! If you had said 'yes,' I should have
+found it very easy to love you. As you won't accept my name,
+however----"
+
+"You don't love me, is that it?" Nina burst out laughing, and Allegro
+joined light-heartedly, as he nodded his agreement. Their gayety
+attracted the attention of their neighbors, and for a while the
+conversation became general. It was suggestive of the Tower of Babel.
+Nina had turned to Porter with a remark in English, but Allegro added to
+it in Italian. Tornik, whose Italian was only slightly more villainous
+than his English, chimed in across the corner of the table in French,
+but he soon forgot himself and broke into German. Nina found herself
+mixing her sentences like Neapolitan ice cream into four languages,
+until finally she put her hands over her ears and exclaimed, "_Attendez,
+aspetarre, warten sie nur_, oh, do let us decide on one tongue at a
+time!" They all laughed, and then, as is usual among a group of various
+nationalities, the conversation went on in French.
+
+Finally, Tornik and Allegro got into a discussion about the Austrian
+influence in Italy, and Nina was left _tete-a-tete_ with Eliot Porter.
+
+She had not met him before coming to Rome. He was a Californian. A
+Westerner, she put it, but he answered her, "Not at all! I am from the
+Pacific coast!" He was an agreeable man, much liked in Rome, and he was
+writing a book on Roman society, a fact that greatly amused the
+Italians. There was some mild and good-naturedly satirical speculation
+about what he was going to put in it, but beyond the fact that he
+acknowledged his subject, nothing was known of either his plot or his
+characters.
+
+"_Do_ tell me what you are going to put in your book. Is it of to-day,
+or long ago?"
+
+"The story is to be laid in Rome, the theme society, the time the
+present."
+
+"How fascinating! Ah, please tell me from whom you have drawn your
+heroine," Nina continued. "Is she rich or poor? Italian, I suppose, and
+of course young and beautiful! Is the hero a noble duke or an American
+on the Prisoner of Zenda or Graustark model?"
+
+"Supposing I should tell you that they were yourself, for the one, and
+our friend Jack over the way, for the other!"
+
+The coupling of her name with Derby's for the second time in less than
+half an hour struck Nina, and she became absent-minded; then she said
+vaguely, "But we are not Italians, either of us."
+
+"Neither are my characters! I will tell you," he said, admitting her to
+his confidence, "I am going to write of the Expatriates--the people who,
+to those at home, are always said to be 'abroad.' The story from this
+side of the water is interesting to me. And the Excelsior is an ideal
+field for observing them."
+
+"I see!" Then ingenuously, "Are you really going to put Jack in your
+book?"
+
+Porter smiled, amused. "He hardly corresponds to my aimless nomad
+wandering hither and yon, with neither ambition nor destination! By the
+way," he added abruptly, "what do you _think_ of Jack? I am not asking
+this, mind you, just to make conversation, but because I am interested
+in him as a national type. I confess I was beginning to think that no
+woman could care for the men at home as any woman might for the
+Europeans, until he came along the other day." There was no doubting
+Porter's enthusiasm as he added, "He gave me back my ideals of my own
+country! He is _real_, I tell you. But this trip he is going to take
+into Sicily----"
+
+"There is no danger in this day, surely!" she interrupted.
+
+"I am not so sure of it, they are pesky devils!" Then, appreciating her
+uneasiness, he tried to reassure her. "Jack will be all right, he will
+be well protected. In fact, to show you how little I really fear from
+the adventure, I am thinking of going with him. My work is getting
+stale, and a week or two of change of scene would set me up."
+
+"I don't see that your going proves there is no danger. I should never
+imagine you the type of a coward."
+
+Porter laughed. "Thank you for your good opinion of my type. But I am
+not at all certain about it myself. If I thought I was going to run any
+risk of being stabbed in the ribs, or riddled with bullets, I assure you
+I would preserve my skin very carefully by staying right here. But to go
+back to John: Did you ever study physiognomy?" He glanced across at
+Derby as he spoke.
+
+Nina's lips broke into a smile, as she answered, "No. Did you?"
+
+"Yes. I studied that, and palmistry, and graphology, too. Look at
+John--he has a remarkably interesting head and hand. You are quite
+wrong," he answered an interjection of Nina's, "his hands are far from
+ugly! Spatulate fingers show invention and energy. Just look at his
+thumb! Did you ever see such cool-headed logic or a better balanced
+will? Why, all in all, I consider him the best-looking man I know! There
+are plenty with better features, no doubt, but if I'd had my choice as
+to looks, I should have been his twin."
+
+Nina laughed joyously. "Do you mean it?" It sounded incredible to her,
+yet she felt strangely pleased--she looked at John from a new point of
+view. "I think he has a great many good points; there is something
+strong and admirable about him, but good-looking--never! His features
+are too uneven, too big-boned."
+
+"Just like a woman!" exclaimed Porter testily. "I suppose you think that
+apology on your other side a beau ideal!"
+
+Nina glanced critically toward the small features and blond curls of
+Allegro. "No," she said, "he is much too effeminate."
+
+"Then who is your Adonis?"
+
+"The best-looking man I have ever seen? Well--I think I'd choose the
+Marchese di Valdo." The pink mounted over her cheeks into her hair, for
+she thought Porter was going to deride. To her surprise he agreed with
+her.
+
+"Of his type, yes, he certainly is good; but I prefer John's. I can see
+how di Valdo would appeal to a girl, though personally I should ask more
+masculinity, more bone and sinew."
+
+Nina remembered how Giovanni had nearly choked the Great Dane, and she
+shuddered slightly. "Oh, but he is strong," she exclaimed; "he is strong
+as a panther! He always makes me think of Bagheera in the Jungle Book."
+
+"Bagheera was warm-blooded; there was truth and affection in him--for
+Mowgli, at all events. Your friend di Valdo is as cold a proposition as
+you could find."
+
+Nina thought this last characterization absurd, and said so.
+
+"All right!" Porter answered. "You mark my word. He is a man swayed by
+the emotions of the moment. He has feeling, yes--but no heart; he has
+certain inborn principles, but they are racial rather than ethical. His
+is the code of _Noblesse oblige_, not of the Golden Rule. In a point of
+honor he is irreproachable, but it is he, himself, who defines the
+boundaries of his code."
+
+He paused a moment and continued in a more personal tone: "I don't know
+you very well, Miss Randolph, but you are a girl from home. And--excuse
+my frankness--you are one of our great heiresses. I am a stranger to
+you, and that is why I am going to say something--perhaps all the more
+forcefully because I have only a racial and not a personal interest: but
+between marrying Giovanni Sansevero--or that Austrian over yonder--or
+the golden-headed ornament on your right, and such a man as John Derby,
+no woman with an ounce of sense could for one minute hesitate. The
+first, by the gift of kings, are noblemen, but John over there, by the
+grace of God, is a _man_!"
+
+Nina was so deeply stirred by his words that she sat for a little while
+quite motionless, looking down at her hands, which were clasped in her
+lap. Then, before she either looked up or answered, the women left the
+table.
+
+In the drawing-room, as the other women lighted their cigarettes, Nina
+stood leaning her cheek on her hand as it rested against the mantel--and
+for some time she gazed down into the fire, while Porter's words echoed
+and reechoed through her mind. When she turned away from the fire her
+attention was caught by an Englishwoman who had thrown herself full
+length on the sofa. Her person was a curious mixture of cleanliness and
+untidiness, her face was even polished by soap and scrubbing, but her
+frock, although probably quite clean, looked anything but fresh, and
+lying down among the cushions had not improved her hair, which had been
+frowzily frizzed anyway. Nina would have thought Lady Dorothy an
+impossible person were it not for the "Lady" which, as Carpazzi put it,
+"was pushed before the name."
+
+In the meanwhile Lady Dorothy went off into a long disquisition upon the
+advisability of having couches at formal banquets as in the old Roman
+days. The illustration which she was at the moment affording was
+scarcely, to Nina's mind, encouraging to her proposition. She smoked
+rapidly and let the cigarette ashes spill all down the side of her
+neck.
+
+"Isn't it funny what a little place the world is?" babbled the late Miss
+Titherington, cutting short Lady Dorothy's discourse. "Here we are, you
+and I and John--just the same as though we were back in Bar Harbor! What
+a lamb of a child you used to be! Only do you remember the day you
+nearly drowned me? And he had to rescue us both!"
+
+"Just fancy that!" said the Lady Dorothy from her corner of the sofa.
+"However did it happen?"
+
+"The water in Maine is so cold one dare hardly go in. Nina was a little
+girl, she got a cramp, and clutched me around the neck."
+
+"The water cold! How very odd! I had a friend in St. Augustine, who said
+the water was positively hot. I am sure it must have been, as my friend
+has rheumatism and could never have ventured into a cold bath."
+
+Lady Dorothy lighted a fresh cigarette and waved the old one helplessly
+around in her fingers. Nina, afraid that she would let it fall upon the
+trail of ashes down the front of her dress, went to take it from her.
+
+"Oh, thanks." She threw herself even further back into the cushions and
+now addressed her remarks to the Countess Kate. She was glad to get away
+from home. She declared London was overrun this season with enormously,
+disgustingly, rich Americans. No offense to her hostess was meant, but
+it was really quite shameful whom one got down to associating with, and
+yet they were so overloaded with dollars that one might as well, she
+supposed, gather in some of the surplus! Then she coolly asked Nina's
+name, which she had not caught. Its announcement had the effect of an
+electric battery. She raised herself on her elbows.
+
+"The Earl of Eagon is looking for a wife," she announced, and then as
+though the idea of Nina's wealth were still more felt, she continued
+almost with enthusiasm, "And there is the Duke of Norchester--his
+estates need a fortune to keep up, but there are none finer in England."
+
+Nina's expression had a curious little note in it that made the Countess
+Zoya cross the room and sit on the arm of her chair. Her slim fingers
+ran lightly over Nina's hair, "You poor child!" she said. "Ah, I am glad
+I was never so rich. If I were so rich I should be dreadful! I would
+never believe in any one's caring for me. I should doubt even my Carlo!
+I could not help it!"
+
+"Don't," Nina said, as though in pain. Zoya impulsively put her arms
+about her and quickly changed the subject.
+
+"I want to tell you," she said, "I like your friend the engineer--is
+that what he is? He is very clever, is he not? I am told he is going to
+relieve the sufferings of the poor Sicilian miners--is he?"
+
+"Suffering?" Nina repeated, wondering. "I don't know. But it is only a
+business venture, his mining--not a philanthropic one. At least I have
+not heard about any poor people who are to be relieved."
+
+Zoya put her hands over her eyes and then her ears as though to shut out
+both sight and sound. "Oh, it is horrible--horrible in the sulphur
+mines! You have no idea! Nowhere in all the world is life so dreadful."
+She shuddered, "But I feel sure, somehow, that your friend the American
+will be able to do something."
+
+They went on talking until their _tete-a-tete_ was interrupted by the
+men coming in from the dining-room. The servants brought in a big card
+table.
+
+"Are you going to play bridge?" Nina asked, feeling that the answer was
+obvious.
+
+But the Contessa Masco, taking her cognac at a swallow, glanced at
+Tornik with a laugh. "Oh, lord, no! Nothing so dull, I hope, in this
+house!"
+
+Derby joined Nina, and she looked up at him with pride. "I am glad you
+are here to-night; I seem to be especially glad----" She broke off, but
+her intonation conveyed unspoken thoughts.
+
+Derby's eyes kindled. "Why especially? Have you a particular reason,
+really?" His heart beat so hard, because of the sweetness in her
+expression, that it seemed to him she must hear it pounding, that she
+must look through the mask he wore, and read his love for her.
+
+But his mask was impenetrable, and Nina answered lightly: "I wonder
+which reason you would like me to give? I wonder if it would make any
+real difference to you whether I said just _glad_--or glad because of
+something?"
+
+He forced himself to speak with a stolidity that walled in securely his
+threatening emotions. "I am not a bit good at guessing the meaning of
+sentences that have no direct statement in them. You see, they are not
+the kind my grammar book taught me!"
+
+Nina smiled. "You like a regular, straight-out, simple sentence with one
+subject and one predicate, don't you?"
+
+"That's it! And as few qualifying clauses as possible."
+
+"And as your speech is, so are your actions. No time for trivialities.
+Big, serious things!" To her surprise she felt a sharp pain in her
+throat.
+
+"What an old bear I must seem to you----" His sentence broke off as the
+Countess Masco interrupted them.
+
+"Come along, John--you'll play, won't you? We are waiting!" Count Rosso
+had already deserted Zoya for the green table.
+
+"Do you need me?" Derby asked.
+
+"Of course we do! The more the jollier; it is dreadfully dull without a
+lot."
+
+Nina and the Countess Zoya sat apart talking together until nearly
+midnight. Finally, with a yawn, Zoya suggested that they try to break up
+the party. For a little while they looked on. Not understanding the
+game of baccarat, Nina watched the faces of the players.
+
+Suddenly she felt uneasy about her uncle, who had taken a place at the
+table. Knowing no reason why he should not play, she had thought nothing
+of that. But now he was flushed, and seemed very excited. Unconsciously
+taking a leaf out of her aunt's book, she laid her hand on his shoulder.
+Her touch was, in fact, so like that of his wife that the prince started
+violently, and a short while later relinquished his place.
+
+After the prince dropped out of the game Nina still stood watching. The
+Countess Kate played as placidly as though she were dealing cards for
+"old maid," while her husband reminded Nina of a squirrel sitting up and
+nibbling at a nut. Carlo Olisco was excited but not unnatural. Porter
+looked gloomy and taciturn. Minotti and Allegro were both tense and
+keen, the former arrogant, the latter flushed and excited. John Derby,
+like the Countess Kate, played exactly as he used to play Jack Straws or
+_besique_, on rainy days in the country.
+
+From where she had been standing Nina could see only the top of Tornik's
+head and, obeying an idle impulse of curiosity, she crossed to the
+opposite side of the table. But no sooner had she caught sight of his
+face than she started as though some one had dashed cold water over her.
+Tornik! It was unbelievable! His eyes glowed like coals; his lips, half
+opened, looked dry and burnt, as with that drawing-in motion of the
+confirmed gambler he stretched out his trembling fingers to grasp the
+last of the evening's winnings.
+
+Nina was not in love with him--she had never even for a moment fancied
+that she was. But nevertheless the revelation of his greed struck at her
+pride, and she seemed to see herself, or rather her own fortune, being
+grasped with precisely that avidity by those same long, eager fingers.
+"He, too!" were the words that framed themselves in her thoughts.
+Tornik, at least, had seemed disinterested, but it was only her gold
+that he was after--like all the rest.
+
+She turned away abruptly. The Count Olisco left the table and, as her
+uncle was already waiting, Zoya and she said good-night to the Mascos
+and left.
+
+On the way home, Sansevero was decidedly nervous. Something was wrong,
+that was certain--he was as transparent as crystal; a child could not
+have shown trouble more plainly. They drove the Oliscos home, but after
+they had left them, Nina put her hand on her uncle's coat sleeve.
+
+"Can't you--tell me?" she asked him.
+
+Sansevero started, then shook his head. "It is nothing!" he said. But he
+changed his mind almost immediately, took his breath as though to speak,
+and stopped again. Nina's manner had been very sweet, very sympathetic.
+The thought of confiding in the girl beside him had not entered his
+head; but he might as well have tried to dam up a spring, as to keep
+his confidence from overflowing at the first words of kindness. He
+seized her hand, and his fingers during a moment of nervous indecision
+beat a tattoo upon her glove--then he let her hand drop again.
+
+"I am in the most difficult situation."
+
+"Yes----?" Nina encouraged. "Can't I help?--Oh, I wish I _could_!"
+
+"No!" He threw himself into the farthest possible corner of the
+carriage. "No, no! I could not let you do that!"
+
+Quickly a suspicion of the difficulty crossed her mind. "Uncle Sandro, I
+want you to tell me! You know that I love Aunt Eleanor better than
+almost any one in the world. If to help you is to help her--and it is in
+my power--I really think you ought to tell me."
+
+He weakened, hesitated. "Give me your promise you will not tell
+Leonora----?"
+
+"You have it!" She put her hand back into his.
+
+"It is this, then: I am the weakest man imaginable. To-night I had no
+idea of playing; I held out for some time, but the temptation was too
+strong at the end. Also what I lost was very little, but the money was a
+sum we had put aside to pay household expenses. If I do not pay them,
+Leonora must know of it."
+
+Between the lines Nina divined a good deal of the whole story. Other
+vague suspicions that had come to her here and there helped somewhat to
+the conclusion.
+
+Already they had driven into the courtyard and the footman was holding
+open the door. Nina jumped out quickly and entered the palace. In the
+antechamber she stopped for her uncle to catch up with her. "Just wait a
+moment," she said; "we can finish our conversation quickly." She spoke
+rapidly and in English.
+
+"How much is it?"
+
+"Five hundred _lire_."
+
+She caught her breath. "Do you mean to say that _you_--the Prince
+Sansevero, the owner of this palace, are in need of a hundred dollars,
+and don't know where to get it? You shall have it to-morrow, the first
+thing."
+
+Then suddenly she added: "Uncle Sandro--I want you to tell me something!
+Will you swear on your honor to answer the truth? If you deceive me, I
+will never forgive you to my dying day!"
+
+He looked at her, puzzled. There was no doubt as to the gravity of her
+tone. "I will answer if I can." He said it not without alarm.
+
+"Does your brother gamble? Is he also like Tornik and you?" She had no
+thought for the stigma of her words, and Sansevero was not so small that
+he resented them.
+
+"No. I can answer that easily enough. Giovanni has not one drop of the
+gambling blood. That I can swear to you by the name of my mother!" He
+made the sign of the cross.
+
+Nina sighed with relief. "I'll send Celeste to you with the money in the
+morning, and you can trust me--I will never let Aunt Eleanor know!" She
+said it sympathetically and kindly enough, but her tone was a little
+constrained. "Good-night!"
+
+And then quickly she left him. She felt sure that her uncle had spoken
+the truth, and that Giovanni was not a gambler; but as she went down the
+long corridors she felt a sharp contraction in her throat.
+"Dear--poor--precious Auntie Princess!" she whispered to herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+FAVORITA DRIVES A BARGAIN
+
+
+As the winter progressed, Favorita's temper showed so little improvement
+that those whose duty brought them in contact with her at the theatre
+were on the verge of resigning their posts. Her dresser had a thoroughly
+cowed expression; her manager consumed more black cigars than were good
+for him; the _corps de ballet_ had hysterics singly and indignation
+councils _en masse_. In fact, the call-boy, who seemed to enjoy
+tormenting her, was the only member of the company who took her rages
+cheerfully.
+
+Finally even Giovanni became uneasy; a well-bred woman could be counted
+on in given circumstances to do thus and so, but Favorita was of lowest
+peasant birth: her people were of the mountain districts, so primitive
+in thought and habit that her early training had taught her obedience to
+nothing higher than impulse. Superficially, she submitted to the
+dictates of civilization, just as a half-wild animal submits to the
+control of his trainer. And in a very real sense Giovanni occupied, in
+relation to her, the trainer's position. He was the force that held her
+in check; but though to the audience of the world he appeared perfectly
+at ease, a definite apprehensiveness underlay his seeming composure.
+
+Matters at last came to a crisis. Giovanni was about to leave the palace
+one morning a day or two after the Masco dinner, when a neatly dressed
+woman passed him on the grand stairway. She was wearing a thick veil,
+but he had an eye for outline and he knew that there was only one woman
+in Rome with just that half-floating lightness of movement. At once he
+blocked her way.
+
+She was forced to halt; but her feet did not stand quite still, and
+there was an effect of briefly suspended motion in her attitude, as
+though she sought a chance to dart past him.
+
+"Good-morning, signorina!" Giovanni's urbanity was for the benefit of
+the footmen. For a few seconds there was a straightening of her figure;
+poised for flight, she held her head a little to one side as she swiftly
+scanned his face.
+
+Giovanni dropped his voice. "I was just on my way to see you. Come,
+_cara mia_," he said persuasively. "I have something I want to talk over
+with you--it is impossible here with lackeys listening to everything we
+may say. Come, dear."
+
+She looked at him a moment, wavering, then shrugged her shoulders. "Very
+well," she said, and descended the stairs at his side. They crossed the
+wide hall, and she stopped to gaze about it in wonder and curiosity,
+even though she did not appreciate the splendor of its proportions. The
+great _baldachino_, of blue and silver, surmounting the Sansevero arms,
+held her attention.
+
+"Do the broken silver chains in your coat of arms represent mercy or
+weakness?" she asked.
+
+"Both, probably," he answered grimly, as he caught the sound of an
+automobile chugging in the courtyard. Feeling sure that it was Nina's
+car, he slipped his arm through Favorita's to urge her forward,
+whereupon she grew suspicious and lagged purposely. She looked
+deliberately about, as though she were a tourist intent upon finding
+every object starred in Baedeker. To his inward rage and chagrin,
+Giovanni realized his mistake in having attempted to hurry her, and now
+changed his tactics. Although his every nerve was strained to catch the
+sound of Nina's approaching footfall, he went into a long, prosy
+dissertation upon the history of the ceiling, dwelling purposely upon
+the dullest facts he could think of, until his tormentor was glad enough
+to leave.
+
+Once outside the building, Giovanni breathed more freely, although the
+sight of the automobile confirmed his apprehension. Hailing a cab, he
+put Favorita into it and got in after her. They had not gone more than
+five hundred yards when Nina, alone in the car, passed them. Giovanni
+had stooped over quickly so that she might not recognize him; but
+Favorita took no notice of this, or anything else, and they drove on in
+a silence broken only by occasional and casual remarks. It was not
+until they were safely within her apartment that he demanded:
+
+"And now, Fava, perhaps you will have the goodness to explain to me what
+you were doing at the Palazzo Sansevero when I saw you, and how you got
+past the _portiere_?"
+
+"At least it shows you that what I try to do I accomplish," she retorted
+with an air of bravado. She leaned her elbows on a little table, looking
+across at Giovanni, her lips parted, her eyes dancing. "Do you wish to
+hear? Very well. I have a friend who gives the American heiress lessons
+in Italian. She says it is easy--one has only to talk Italian and make
+her talk, and tell her when she makes mistakes. My friend is sick. She
+sent a letter, which I intercepted, and I went in her place. Why not?"
+Then suddenly her little teeth locked tightly, and she spoke between
+them savagely--"I'd be a teacher worth employing. I could talk Italian
+to her that she would never forget! Nor would she forget _me_, either!"
+
+Giovanni's teeth locked quite as tightly as hers. "Will you hush? You
+must be insane! I told you from the beginning that I would not advertise
+myself with you. I told you also that if you made a scene, or if you
+ever tried to interfere with my family or my private life, at that
+moment all would end between us." As he spoke, Favorita looked
+frightened, but in a flash her manner changed completely. Long
+association with him had not been without its lessons, and she answered
+as sweetly as though no disagreement had ever come between them; as
+though there were no incongruity between their suspended discussion and
+her interrupting sentence. "Giovannino," she cooed, "I have had a great
+offer, an astounding offer from Vienna."
+
+He saw his opportunity. His manner therefore, changed as rapidly as hers
+had done, and with every appearance of sympathy and interest he asked
+for her news. She told him with triumph the details of her offer from
+the manager of a Viennese theatre for a ten weeks' engagement at a
+stupendous salary.
+
+"You must accept--by all means!" Not a trace of the relief he felt crept
+into his expression; he looked sad, but thoroughly resigned. "It is
+time," he added cleverly, "that you should make a name for yourself that
+is cosmopolitan and not alone of Italy."
+
+So far they had been sitting on either side of a small table, but now
+Favorita arose and went around to him. Pushing the table away, she sat
+on his knee, and, with one arm about his neck, held up his chin with her
+other hand. Then, deliberately, she looked into his eyes with that
+level, determined steadiness which makes no compromise. She spoke very
+quietly, so quietly that he was more than ever uneasy. Her turbulence
+was annoying, but this calmness was ominous.
+
+"I shall accept the offer on one condition:--you go to Vienna with me!"
+
+Giovanni looked quite as though the gates of Paradise were opening
+before him. Even Favorita believed his enthusiasm genuine as he
+exclaimed, "Ah, that would be charming!" Then he seemed to be
+considering the matter eagerly. "That I _want_ to go with you--of that
+there can be no doubt! I am merely wondering how it can be managed."
+
+Now that she seemed to be getting her own way, and her jealousy was
+allayed, Favorita was soft, and sweet, and affectionate as a little
+black cat. "Rosso is going to Hungary," she purred. "You can easily say
+you are going with him on his trip, whereas you can really be in
+Vienna!"
+
+"That sounds perfect!" he returned gayly; "at least you can accept the
+manager's offer!"
+
+"Do you promise to go with me? You must swear it!" He hesitated as he
+rapidly turned the situation over in his mind. Now that he had
+determined to marry Nina, the main thing was to keep Favorita away, for,
+should she have an opportunity to unburden her heart to the heiress,
+that would be the end of his matrimonial chances. But if he could get
+the dancer to Vienna, and keep her there, then find an excuse for at
+least a short absence from her, he could come back to Rome, win Nina, be
+married at once--and then let come what would! An independent American
+girl would throw him over, he knew that; but a wife would be different!
+A wife would have to forgive.
+
+"Will you promise?" repeated Favorita.
+
+"Yes, I promise," he said. "Come, we will fill in the contract!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A CHALLENGE, AND AN ANSWER
+
+
+Nina had intended taking her Italian teacher out with her in the
+automobile. She did this quite often, as it was as easy to practice
+Italian conversation in a motor-car as anywhere else. But after half an
+hour--Favorita was nearly that late--she had given up waiting and
+telephoned Zoya Olisco suggesting that they two spend the day at Tivoli.
+Zoya agreed, and Nina was on her way to fetch her when she passed
+Giovanni and Favorita. But she neither saw the former nor recognized the
+latter.
+
+It was after six o'clock when Nina returned from Tivoli, and she had to
+hurry to dress for an early dinner, as it was the Sanseveros' regular
+Lenten evening at home.
+
+Nina particularly liked these informal receptions, where the company was
+composed, for the most part, of really interesting, agreeable people.
+There was always music, generally by amateur performers; occasionally
+there was some other form of impromptu entertainment, an impersonation
+or a recitation. Throughout the evening there was the simplest sort of
+buffet supper: tea, bouillon--a claret cup, perhaps, and possibly
+chocolate, little cakes, and sandwiches; never more. But the princess
+was one of those hostesses whose personality thoroughly pervades a
+house; a type which is becoming rare with every change in our modern
+civilization, and without which people might as well congregate in a
+hotel parlor. Each guest at the Palazzo Sansevero carried away the
+impression that not only had he been welcome himself, but that his
+presence had added materially to the enjoyment of others.
+
+Early in the evening Nina was standing with Giovanni a little apart.
+Giovanni was unusually quiet, and both had fallen into reverie, from
+which Nina was aroused by the sudden announcement of a jarring name.
+Like the ceaseless beating of the waves upon a beach, she had heard the
+long rolling titles, "Sua Excellenza la principessa di Malio," "Il Conte
+e la Contessa Casabella," "Donna Francesca Dobini," "Sua Excellenza il
+Duca e la Duchessa Astarte," and then--"Messa Smeet!"
+
+Nina felt a swift pity for the beautiful woman who was forced to suffer
+the ignominy of being thus announced. She had herself been daily
+conscious of that same flatness when, after the long announcement of her
+aunt's and uncle's names, came the blankness of "Messa Randolf."
+
+And in that moment, divining the impression made upon her mind, Giovanni
+seized his opportunity. His eyes looked ardently into hers, his smile
+was transporting as, with all the warmth of which his voice was
+capable, he said, "Donna Nina Sansevero, Marchesa di Valdo!"
+
+Nina's heart fluttered strangely, her will was swayed by the moment's
+thrill, as she heard him continuing: "It can surely not surprise you to
+hear in spoken words what has long been in my heart to----" But his
+sentence was broken off abruptly, for a sudden thinning of the crush
+revealed the Contessa Potensi close beside them. Heedless of Nina, the
+contessa demanded that Giovanni take her into the supper room for a cup
+of tea, and Nina was left with Carpazzi, who had at that moment also
+joined them. He took no notice of her absent-mindedness and kept the
+conversation going briskly without much help from her, until gradually
+she became able to focus her attention upon him.
+
+He talked of many things and finally of Cecelia Potenzi. That he should
+have spoken the name of the girl he loved was quite foreign to his, or
+in fact to any, Italian nature. But by now Nina had become thoroughly
+interested in what he was telling her and her sympathetic eyes had a way
+of urging confidences, and besides, as Carpazzi knew, she was very fond
+of Cecelia. He spoke quite frankly therefore of his hopes and plans. He
+was desperately interested in Derby's mining project because he owned a
+piece of property within a few miles of Vencata and if the Sansevero
+sulphur mines turned out well probably all the land in the neighborhood
+would also be leased by Derby's company, and it might be that he and
+Cecelia could be married.
+
+Nina had already observed the young girl in question and she and
+Carpazzi made their way toward her. Gradually other young people joined
+them until a merry group was formed at that side of the room.
+
+The music at that moment was by a young violinist, a _protege_ of the
+Princess Sansevero's (a brother, by the way, of the peasant Marcella,
+whose marriage to Pedro the princess had arranged). The boy had real
+talent, and the princess had denied herself not a few things in order to
+help him complete his education.
+
+At the close of his second selection the young violinist came over to
+her, with that look of devoted allegiance which cannot be imitated, and
+the princess held out her hand for him to kiss. "I am so pleased with
+your success," she said to him. "Come, I want to present you to the
+Duchessa Astarte, who was much delighted with your playing." Smiling,
+she led him away.
+
+The young man traversed the rooms with perfect ease and
+unconsciousness--this peasant boy who four years previously had run
+ragged and barefooted, begging for soldos from the tourists who were
+driving out to Torre Sansevero! From one of the doorways Sansevero
+watched them. "_Per Dio_, she is wonderful, my Leonora!" he exclaimed to
+the Countess Masco, whom he had taken to the supper room. "Look what
+she has made of that ragamuffin! You Americans are an extraordinary
+people." The countess, as she watched the prince's open admiration of
+his wife, showed the finest, the most generous side of her cheerful
+nature. Her expression was scarcely less admiring than his own.
+
+"I'd like well enough to take all the credit for my country," she
+returned, with her usual good humor, "but in Eleanor's case it is the
+woman and not the nationality that is wonderful----" Then she added
+brusquely, "I'm glad you appreciate her." The next moment she tossed the
+topic aside and discoursed noisily of the latest Roman gossip.
+
+About this time the Count and Countess Olisco were announced. Seeing
+Derby, who had arrived just ahead of them, Zoya walked up to him without
+hesitation or manoeuvre. "I should like to talk to you," she said; "will
+you take me to a seat? There is one over there."
+
+He gave her his arm and led her to a sofa at the far end of the room.
+"Have you been out to Torre Sansevero?" she asked when they had sat
+down.
+
+"No. We had planned to motor out next week, but I must go to Sicily
+to-morrow, so the motor trip is postponed until I come back. You asked
+as though you had something special in mind. Had you?"
+
+"Yes. I might as well tell you--though maybe you know--there is a rumor
+that a Sansevero painting--the Raphael Madonna--has been sold out of the
+country. The way I know is secret; but through somebody connected with
+the Government I have learned that there are grave suspicions against
+the prince."
+
+Derby gave her his full attention, but said nothing. "Everybody knows,"
+continued the contessa, "that he has spent all his wife's money in
+gambling, and that they have sold everything that is not covered by the
+family entail." Her listener did not know it, but his face betrayed no
+surprise. "This picture, they say, has been smuggled out of the country
+to a rich American." Her face grew troubled and she spoke lower and more
+distinctly. "I do not find it possible to think that Sansevero did such
+a thing. He is weak, if you like; he would fall into temptation; he
+might gamble or make love to a pretty woman"--she shrugged her
+shoulders--"but that he would do anything really against the law, I
+don't believe. Yet--I have never seen such furs as the princess wears
+this winter. Can't you find out about the picture? Everybody believes it
+is in America. Think what it would be if Sansevero were put in prison!
+But I am sure you will set everything straight."
+
+"Your faith in me is flattering, to say the least," he laughed. "But you
+seem to think that finding an object in America is as simple as though
+it were mislaid in a fishing village. Do you realize the vastness of
+the territory which I am to search in the twinkling of an eye?"
+
+"No, no! You must not laugh. I am very serious. I know that America is a
+land in which everything may be accomplished, even though I may have a
+false idea of its size. And in you, as an American, my faith is
+unbounded. You see, I feel convinced that it all depends on you!" Then,
+under the impulsion of her enthusiasm she clapped her hands together as
+she exclaimed: "Oh, I am sure you will clear the prince! And then, like
+the hero in all good story books, win the reward."
+
+"And the reward?" he queried. "What is it to be? Unfortunately, you are
+asking me to save a prince--a poor prince at that, with no favors to
+bestow. In the good story books it is always a beautiful princess. To be
+sure," he added, "the princess is as beautiful as one could wish, but
+alas! she is married."
+
+"I do not find you at all amiable," the contessa pouted. "I am
+serious--very serious, and you make fun."
+
+"Not at all. I am very serious, and you talk of fairy tales. Still, if
+you are my fairy godmother, there is no knowing what stroke of fortune
+may await me in Sicily." Then, changing his tone, he said earnestly: "I
+am really sorry, but I am afraid I shall have to leave the picture
+question until I come back."
+
+"You are going straight off to Sicily?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"To be gone how long?"
+
+"I don't know; I have no idea. Weeks, perhaps. Months, very likely; why
+do you ask?"
+
+"May I say something--something very frank to you?" Zoya leaned forward
+with a sudden direct impulse.
+
+"Say what you please, by all means!" Derby braced himself for her
+remark, but even so he colored as she said: "Are you in love with Nina?
+Please, don't be angry; I don't ask you to answer. But if you are, I
+can't see why you go away to work mines and such things. I should have
+married her long ago had I been you."
+
+Derby's eyes blazed. "Do you mean I should try to marry her and live on
+her money?"
+
+"Why not? Since she has enough for two--enough for twenty! There is no
+need to be so furious. _Per l'amore di Dio!_ You Americans have always
+the ears up, listening for a sound that you can fly at!" Languorously
+she leaned back among the cushions of the sofa. "It is all so
+silly--your idea of life." And then she stopped and looked at him
+curiously. "What _is_ your idea of life?"
+
+"Life? One might put it in three words: One must work!"
+
+Zoya shook her head--she did it charmingly. "No, no," she said softly;
+"you are altogether wrong--though I also can put it in three words.
+Life lies in this: One must love. That's all there is!"
+
+The conversation ended there, for the Duke Scorpa and Count Masco came
+up to speak to the contessa. Derby arose and was about to leave when the
+duke stopped him. Masco sat down to talk with Zoya, and Scorpa spoke to
+Derby in an undertone. "I hear you are going to Sicily to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes, I leave early in the morning."
+
+"Take my advice"--his glance was sinister--"and stay away."
+
+Derby smiled frankly. "May I ask why?"
+
+"Because your process will not work."
+
+"That might be taken in two ways," Derby rejoined: "either that you
+believe my patents useless, or else that some means will be taken to
+prevent my trying them. I rather wonder--after our conversation on the
+subject--if you intend a threat?" He spoke without stress of feeling,
+quite simply, in fact.
+
+The duke's unctuous smile was not wholly pleasant to see. "That is for
+you to decide. To-morrow morning you intend to go. That is not far off;
+but you have until then to reconsider your refusal to sell me your
+patents. I made you a fair offer, which I should in your place accept.
+However, if you go to Sicily"--he spread out his hands with a shrug--"I
+shall have warned you, and whatever comes will be off my conscience."
+
+For answer Derby spoke quietly, but with clear, level distinctness. "I
+go to-morrow to Vencata, to work a piece of land which is the property
+of the Prince and Princess Sansevero. As their representative, I am
+vested with every legal right to apply my invention to the mine known as
+the 'Little Devil.' And I may add"--he put it casually--"that back of me
+is the full strength and protection of the United States Government." He
+looked straight into the small rat-like eyes nearly a foot below his
+own. Then with a smile he bowed to the Contessa Zoya and went in search
+of the Princess Sansevero, to say good-by.
+
+He found her in the adjoining room, absorbed in the music; and luckily
+there was an empty chair beside her, into which he quietly dropped. She
+smiled her welcome as he sat down beside her, but she had accepted her
+young countryman into too good a friendship to make either of them feel
+the need of rushing into speech. After a little she turned to him; even
+then her sentence seemed to complete a conversation interrupted rather
+than a new one begun, "Above all, do not forget to present Sandro's
+letter to the Archbishop! I know you will be drawn to him. His Eminence
+is one of those rare persons who have not waited to die to become
+angels." She smiled. "I am sure you will be safe under his protection."
+
+"I wish you would tell me, Princess, why there is so much talk of
+protection--it sounds as though I were going to explore the interior of
+Africa! I shall be, at most, twenty-four hours away from Rome."
+
+"There is no knowing what you are going to explore"--a shade of anxiety
+had come into her face. "The Mafia is there, the people are ignorant,
+and the lava wastes are as desolate and wild as any spot in Africa. I
+hope there will be no danger, but it is well to take precautions before
+going into such a country. You will promise me won't you?--to follow the
+directions of his Eminence." Unconsciously she put her hand against her
+heart.
+
+Derby gave his promise easily, and she held out her hand. He kissed it
+after the European custom; and as he did so he felt her fingers tighten
+over his, as she whispered with a little underlying emotional vibration,
+"God bless you, my dear boy!--and a safe return."
+
+Vaguely, as he went through the rooms in search of Nina, the princess's
+words echoed through his mind, and through some unknown train of
+suggestion he remembered that Miller, the butler in New York, had wished
+Nina a "safe return." The association of the two seemed ridiculous, yet
+a thought held: Was it at all certain that she was going to return home?
+Was he, perhaps, not going to return from Sicily? He put himself in the
+category of idiots and banished the idea. But the echo of the blessing
+that the princess had given him settled softly upon his sensibilities.
+"God bless _her_!" he said almost aloud.
+
+Presently he found Nina, unapproachably hemmed in, and too near the
+music to talk. For a moment she hesitated, on the verge of extricating
+herself or encouraging him to enter the circle despite the general
+disturbance it must cause. But the moment passed. His lips framed
+"Good-by" and hers answered, both smiled brightly--and that was the
+parting.
+
+[Illustration: "HIS LIPS FRAMED 'GOOD-BY' AND HERS ANSWERED, BOTH SMILED
+BRIGHTLY--AND THAT WAS THE PARTING"]
+
+Derby was in many ways a fatalist--not one of those who thought that by
+sitting still the gifts from the horn of fortune would tumble into his
+lap; but one of those who believe (to use his own expression), in
+pegging away at the thing in hand; further than that, what was to be,
+would be.
+
+As Derby descended the stairs he encountered the Countess Masco. "Hello,
+John!" she exclaimed, and then as she held him by the arm, her voice
+came down to what for her was a low whisper; at twenty feet any one
+could have overheard her, but fortunately the hall was deserted, save
+for a couple of footmen standing at the green baize door that led to the
+outer stairs of the courtyard. "Have you heard the news? Giovanni
+Sansevero agreed to go on a cruise to Malta with Rosso, and Rosso won't
+let him out of it! You may imagine he does not relish leaving Rome just
+now, especially with you again out of the field!"
+
+Derby was not given an opportunity either to accept or to resent her
+intrusion into his affairs, for the dashing lady immediately fled, and
+Derby went on. As he waited for his cab, he felt inclined to go back and
+try to see Nina. He was letting her drift very, very far away. But while
+he was hesitating, his cab drove up, and without more ado he jumped into
+it and drove to his hotel. As soon as he reached his room, he began a
+letter to Nina; but all the things he had vowed to himself not to say,
+swarmed to the very tip of his pen. He threw it down, therefore, and
+tore up the paper that showed, under "Dear Nina," an erased "Darl--"
+After pacing the floor a while, he again picked up the pen, but this
+time he wrote to Mr. Randolph. At the end of a letter of details
+relating to the mines, he added:
+
+          "There are rumors now agitating people over here
+          and likely to become public property, that the
+          Sansevero Madonna has been smuggled out of the
+          country. I have reason to believe that the Raphael
+          you showed me in New York is not the duplicate you
+          were led to suppose, but the Sansevero picture.
+          How it was sold, I have not yet discovered, though
+          I do not believe the prince guilty of violating
+          the laws. But I know the Government has its secret
+          agents at work upon the case because of the
+          seeming luxury of the princess, whose new furs and
+          automobile are known to be far beyond her present
+          income. I more than suspect that these luxuries
+          are the result of Nina's generosity, but if the
+          Sansevero picture _is_ the one you have, the
+          affair will end badly for the prince. At all
+          events, I consider it best to carry the matter
+          direct to you."
+
+While Derby was writing to Mr. Randolph, an animated conversation was
+taking place in a little room on the ground floor of the gigantic palace
+of the Scorpas. The doors were bolted, and the two inmates of the
+apartment talked in whispers.
+
+"You understand your instructions?"
+
+"Yes, Excellency."
+
+"Repeat them."
+
+"I take the boat to-morrow--go to Vencata. Keep watch upon the
+Americano--the one whose name I have here."
+
+"John Derby, yes. But he is very big--a giant. Make no mistake, find the
+one who is the _padrone_! And----? Continue!"
+
+"I am to watch if it is true that he begins working the 'Little Devil,'
+and if so--I know the rest. It is nothing! A pig's skin is thick--a
+man's thin!" As he said this he glanced at the duke, and there was a
+sinister gleam in the man's deep-set eyes, and beneath the sharp nose
+the mouth was hard and straight, like a seam across the face.
+
+The duke nodded as though satisfied. "It may be well for you to
+remember," he observed impressively, "that the reward will make you and
+yours easy for life."
+
+The man saluted respectfully, but with a dogged surliness that revealed
+no loyalty. Yet there was in his look a hint of fanatical intensity.
+Outside in the passageway he smiled grimly. For once the errand on which
+the duke had sent him fell in with his own inclinations. He opened a
+window and looked out through the gratings into the night. In his heart
+he bore no love for the duke, but he was by race and inheritance a
+dependent of the house of Scorpa. It had always been so--the dukes had
+been masters since time immemorial. The present duke had made the lives
+of Sicilians terrible enough, but he, Luigi Calluci, would have no
+stranger Americano forcing his people to work that hell-mine of the
+"Little Devil"!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+HIS EMINENCE THE ARCHBISHOP OF VENCATA
+
+
+Barely two days after the evening at the Palazzo Sansevero, Derby was
+driving up the Sicilian hills towards the palace--courtesy gave it the
+name--of the venerable Archbishop of Vencata. Porter, in company with
+Tiggs and Jenkins--Derby's American assistants--had been left at the inn
+in the town, but Derby was anxious to present his letter as soon as
+possible, in order that there might be no delay in commencing work at
+the mines.
+
+The carriage in which Derby sat had at first sight seemed liable to
+tumble apart, like so many separate pieces of mosaic puzzle, and he had
+taken his place on the old cloth cushion rather dubiously. But the
+driver gayly, and with every appearance of confidence in himself and his
+equipage, had cracked his whip and shouted all the names in the calendar
+to the horses, whose muscles gradually became sufficiently taut to impel
+them onward. A few dozen yards having been made without mishap, Derby
+felt that the special protection of Providence must be over them, and he
+leaned back contentedly, puffing at his pipe and enjoying to the full
+the witchery of a Sicilian sunset. The rickety conveyance clattered
+slowly up a winding road that seemed like a white band tied about the
+mountainside, holding here little terraced vineyards, there a huddling
+group of houses that else would surely have slipped into the ravine. For
+a short distance it hung out over the sea, then cut inward, as though
+the band of white had been laced in and out among the silvery sprays of
+the olive leaves.
+
+Below it all, and beyond, lay the Mediterranean, its blue waters now
+deepened to indigo, shading into wide lakes of purple, under the
+reflection of the setting sun, which, like a great red lantern, seemed
+sinking into the sea. A sharp turn inward and upward brought the
+conveyance shambling into a little courtyard. It halted before the
+doorway of a low, white-washed house smothered in semi-tropical vines,
+which extended from the eaves over a pergola built along the wall at the
+terrace edge. Beneath this arbor was a rustic seat, on the cushions of
+which a big gray cat sat up slowly, and stared at the intruders with
+insolent, unwinking eyes.
+
+A woman's voice droned a dirgeful song that had a half Oriental, half
+negro suggestion in its monotonous pitch, while from afar, like an echo
+over the mountainside, came faintly the wailing cadence of the
+_caramella_ of some shepherd boy, and the tinkle of goat bells,
+interrupted by the hoot of little owls crying through the dusk.
+
+The bells of the flapping harness settled into silence, the droning
+sing-song ceased, and from the stone flagging within came the shuffle
+of wooden shoes. An old woman, in the inevitable dark stuff dress of her
+class, and the blue apron gay-bordered with red and white, stood in the
+doorway. Her big hoop earrings fell to her shoulders, but were partly
+hidden by the kerchief which she held over her head with one hand, as if
+in fear of a draught, while with the other she still grasped the door
+latch.
+
+To Derby's inquiry as to whether His Eminence were at home, she
+responded suspiciously--almost contemptuously, as she looked him over
+from head to toe. Certainly, His Exaltedness was at home. What should
+one of his venerability be doing abroad at such an hour!
+
+Derby's bow was apologetic. Would Signora have the kindness to deliver
+the letter which he tendered her?
+
+She turned the envelope over in her hands, looked again at the stranger,
+and at last stood aside so that he might enter.
+
+Derby waited in the dim, low-ceilinged passageway, which suggested
+anything but the antechamber of an archbishop's palace. Presently a door
+opened, a feeble yellow haze filtered into the corridor, and the old
+woman reappeared and led Derby into a small, stone-paved apartment
+illumined by a single flickering lamp of the most primitive design, by
+the light of which the archbishop had evidently been reading. As soon as
+Derby entered, the venerable prelate arose. In his long _sottana_ of
+violet he looked strangely diminutive and feminine; his pale skin and
+mild eyes, and the soft white hair like a fringe beneath his velvet
+cap--all gave an impression of great gentleness, an impression
+heightened by contrast with the bare, white-washed walls and rigorously
+meager furnishing of the cell-like room. With the courteous manner of
+all southern countries, the archbishop placed the best chair for his
+guest, and said smilingly:
+
+"Do you speak Italian? Ah--I am glad you understand that language! My
+French is very failing, and as for Inglese--_non lo conosco_. It is too
+difficult at my age. If I were younger I should like to learn your
+tongue." He said this with inimitable grace, and added with a gentle
+inclination: "You are Americano, are you not? Your land has done much
+for my people! But tell me, Signore, in what way may I serve you? Sua
+Eccellenza il Principe Sansevero places you under our protection, but he
+does not tell us what it is that has brought you to us." The archbishop,
+leaning back in his chair, might so have sat for his portrait--his white
+hands folded one over the other, and the great amethyst ring on the
+third finger of his right hand seeming to reflect the paler shadings in
+the folds of his gown.
+
+[Illustration: "'YOU ARE AMERICANO, ARE YOU NOT? YOUR LAND HAS DONE MUCH
+FOR MY PEOPLE!'"]
+
+"I have come, your Eminence," said Derby, going to the point at once,
+"to work the 'Little Devil' mine." Before the archbishop could utter a
+protest, he continued very quickly and distinctly: "I know just such
+mines as that which are being operated now without danger or suffering
+to the miners."
+
+Then, briefly as possible, he went on to outline his system of mining.
+There was no necessity, he said, for miners to descend below the surface
+of the earth, and he would need only a dozen men--instead of the many
+workers, including women and children, that were now employed. To
+Derby's surprise, the old man seemed troubled.
+
+"I grow old, Signore; one does not easily take in new ideas! By your
+method--am I right?--you will employ a dozen men in place of a hundred.
+That troubles me, though your plan seems good. If there are but a small
+handful needed, it must put the others out of work. The mines are hard.
+A harder existence cannot well be imagined--but the good God must know
+it is for the best, since he allows it to continue. To be sure," he
+interrupted himself sadly, "he calls them to him soon!"
+
+"You mean they die young in the mines? That is what I have been told."
+
+"Yes, Signore, in their twenty-eighth year the people are at the end of
+life; at the age of twelve they are already stooped and wrinkled old men
+and women. For the children it is most terrible; it is they who climb up
+the high ladders out of the pits in the earth--it gives one a foretaste
+of inferno to see such things. _Cosi Dio, m' ajuti_, it is true! Yet so
+they live--otherwise they must die. What can we do? Since the Santa
+Maria does not intervene, the poor must work or starve. They have not
+the money to go away to the country beyond the sea, to America, the land
+of plenty! If some of the rich abundance might be brought to my
+people----" He shook his head, looking, it seemed, beyond the white
+walls of the room, as though he saw a vision.
+
+Then slowly, carefully, Derby explained. It was to bring some of the
+customs of the land of plenty that he had come. He would pay the
+men--the father, the brother, the big son--more money than had been
+earned hitherto by the whole family. No, His Eminence did not
+understand--the work was not to be harder, but easier! And for the
+reason that he had already explained: Machinery would take the place of
+children's hands; steel pipes, and not human beings, would descend into
+the stifling fumes. He wanted to get a few intelligent men to go with
+their families to the deserted village clustered about the "Little
+Devil."
+
+Still the old man sat, looking straight before him.
+
+"All that you tell me, Signore," he said at last, his voice echoing a
+sweetness, a cheerful patience that was doubtless the keynote to his
+nature--"it all sounds very beautiful; but, indeed, it cannot be! The
+great Duke Scorpa has given the matter much thought. The mine owners
+cannot pay the people more--there is scarcely any profit as it is. The
+duke has often told me this himself, so I know it to be true."
+
+Derby thereupon said that the great Duke Scorpa had doubtless done
+everything possible, and that under the old method there had been no
+help for the conditions, but--and again he expressed himself as clearly
+as possible--with the new method and with machinery, one man could do
+the work of many. So the wages might be trebled and yet the mines be
+made to pay.
+
+As Derby talked, a faint color mounted in the cheeks of the
+archbishop--his eyes grew eagerly wistful, and at last he leaned forward
+in his chair, his voice almost breathless as he asked, "Can such a thing
+be true--that in your country the father can earn sufficient that the
+little children need not work? Ah, Signore--who knows?--who knows?--may
+be at last the cry of the _bambinos_ has reached the throne of the Santa
+Vergine!" He sat again silent, but this time with a smile on his lips.
+Then the old woman appeared in the doorway and the archbishop arose.
+
+"It is the hour for my supper," he said. "I shall esteem it an honor if
+you will break bread with me." Derby was about to decline, thinking it
+better to return later, but the manner of the old man left no doubt as
+to the genuineness of his invitation, and Derby accepted. In the
+adjoining room a small table was set with very few utensils. Two plates,
+two forks, two spoons, a cup, and a wine glass apiece--that was all.
+After the blessing, they were served a frugal meal of bread and goats'
+milk, a pudding of macaroni, and a plate of figs; there was also wine,
+acid and thin, which the good Marianna--for so the housekeeper was
+called--had doubtless pressed herself.
+
+Her son Teobaldo, who waited at table, was dressed in some semblance of
+a livery--black broadcloth and a white tie. The archbishop ate
+sparingly--he drank a little of the milk, and tasted a piece of fruit,
+but his conversation with his guest seemed to satisfy him far more than
+food could do.
+
+Full of the hope of relief for his people, he now turned to plans for
+the Signore Americano's protection. Throughout the mountains, the hard
+life had made a hard people, he said, and unfriendly to foreigners. What
+could they expect from the hands of strangers when their own nobility,
+even their priests, were powerless to help! But the Signore should be
+put under the guidance of Padre Filippo--and also there should be two
+_carabinieri_ for protection. Besides, Padre Filippo would recommend
+carpenters and mechanics of Vencata Minore--the village nearest the
+"Little Devil"--good men and honest, who would help in the work.
+
+The meal ended, they returned to the living room. The old woman fussed
+at the wick of the lamp and then placed a book close to the light and
+opened it at the page marked by a bit of paper. The archbishop smiled.
+"She takes good care of me, my Marianna. Once she lost my place, but
+she is very careful."
+
+Derby looked at the page beneath the flickering dimness. "Does Your
+Eminence read by this light?"
+
+"Oh, yes, a little. By day I can see nearly as well as ever, but in the
+evening I can read only the books that have large print--and only for a
+little time. But what would you have, Signore? My eyesight may not any
+longer be like that of a boy." Then he added: "The good sun brings now
+each day a longer time to read, and perhaps by the time another winter
+makes the days again grow short, I shall be near the Great Light that
+knows no setting."
+
+"You might have a good lamp and see very well," suggested Derby.
+
+"A lamp? But in this I burn olive oil. It is very good oil, Signore--no
+one makes it better than Marianna! The reading at night is only for
+young eyes." Again he smiled.
+
+With difficulty he wrote a letter of direction to Padre Filippo and
+affixed his seal. Also he promised that two _carabinieri_ should be at
+the inn at eight o'clock on the following morning, to accompany the
+expedition to the mines. And they should carry a letter to Donna
+Marcella--in her house the Americans had better lodge. From there they
+could with ease go each day on muleback to the "Little Devil."
+
+At last Derby arose to leave. And then, although he was not of the Roman
+faith, he swiftly bent and kissed the ring on the thin, white hand that
+had been placed in his own. Into the archbishop's eyes came a look of
+tenderness that yet seemed tinged by a vague fear, as he laid his free
+hand on the bent head and gave his blessing, "_Deus te benedicet, meum
+filium._ May you fulfil your hopes for my people in safety!" Very
+slightly the old man's voice broke.
+
+Derby stood at his full height, towering by head and shoulders over the
+archbishop as he again thanked him for his hospitality and his
+protection. He walked back to the inn, his mind full of many things. At
+the _ufficio della posta_ he glanced up, hesitated, and then, with a
+smile, went in and wrote out the following telegram:
+
+          "MISS NINA RANDOLPH,
+                 "Palazzo Sansevero,
+                             "Rome.
+
+          "Send immediately by express one good Rochester
+          burner lamp and barrel of kerosene to
+
+               "Sua Eminenza,
+                       "L'Arcivescovo di Vencata,
+                                             "JOHN."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE SULPHUR MINES
+
+
+It was nearly nine o'clock the next morning before Derby's party was
+ready to start. The pack mules, with a bulging load on either side,
+looked like great bales on legs. Long steel pieces needed for the drills
+were strapped lengthwise between two mules. The saddled animals, which
+were to carry the members of the party were held at a short distance
+while the men were seeing to the final preparations. Four horses had
+been procured for Derby, Porter, Tiggs, and Jenkins; the _carabinieri_
+had their own horses, and Padre Filippo his mule.
+
+As it happened, the priest had come to Vencata the evening before, so
+that the archbishop had been able to turn over at once to his especial
+guidance the Americanos who had been sent by the Blessed Virgin to
+rescue the _bambinos_ from the inferno of the mines. Padre Filippo was
+short, rotund, with a ruddy complexion and a cheerful crop of
+carrot-colored hair. The two _carabinieri_ were splendid specimens of
+men, but after all, to say _carabinieri_ is enough: for the Italian
+cavalry must stand not only a physical, but also a moral examination
+that goes back three generations. It is not sufficient for a candidate
+to be above suspicion himself; his father and his father's father must
+have been so as well. These two men were both over six feet, lean and
+dark-skinned, with that trace of the Arab which one sees all through the
+people of Sicily; and they were silent and serious, in great contrast to
+another type of Sicilians who smile much. They wore the _carabiniere_
+uniform for the mountain districts--a double-breasted coat with two rows
+of silver buttons, coat tails bordered with red, two strips of red down
+the trouser seams, a visored cap, and high black boots. They were
+mounted on magnificent black horses, with rifles hung across their
+saddles.
+
+Finally, as the procession started and the hoofs clattered on the hard
+road leading up over the mountain, people crowded out on the little iron
+balconies, heads appeared at the windows--heads that seemed gigantic by
+comparison with the miniature houses, which were painted brilliant pink
+and blue, mauve and Naples yellow.
+
+As the road ascended, it turned inward away from the sea, and after a
+short distance narrowed into a rocky mountain path that looked like the
+dry bed of a stream, winding through the wilderness. After an hour's
+ride the character of the landscape changed. The semi-tropical
+vegetation grew gradually sparse, and after a while in the distance,
+seemingly in the midst of the path, a great rock loomed gigantic and
+gaunt, cutting in two the blue dome of the sky. Still farther on, they
+came upon stretches of straggling wild peach, olive, and lemon trees.
+Beyond again, tangles of hawthorn were interspersed with patches of
+dried weeds and grass. But as they neared the mining district the soil
+was bleak and barren. The mountain rivers were dry, and their beds made
+yawning gaps as though the earth had violently shuddered at her own
+desolation.
+
+At last, about noon, they came to the village of Vencata Minore, which
+stood in a little plain of green. The house of Donna Marcella was set on
+a slight eminence and, compared with the surrounding habitations, was
+quite pretentious. It was kalsomined white, had a courtyard of its own,
+and back of it was a little fruit and flower garden. Donna Marcella was
+a buxom, thrifty, and dominating woman. Had she been a man she would
+assuredly have migrated to America and become a captain of industry;
+however, circumstances having placed her under heavier responsibilities,
+she came smiling to the door, followed by a troop of brown-skinned and
+curly-haired babies. She courtesied and beamed and gesticulated her
+delighted welcome of the strangers and, upon being shown the
+archbishop's missive, kissed the red seal. A few words were intelligible
+to her, but the reading of a whole letter was beyond the measure of her
+accomplishments, and she looked to Padre Filippo to explain. She could
+write the few nouns and do sums quite well enough, though, to make out
+the bills for her occasional guests,--if in doubt she added another
+figure.
+
+Sometimes she had guests--ah, but illustrious! The Gran Signore, Sua
+Eccellenza il Duca di Scorpa--that name to be whispered, and yet to be
+dwelt upon--no less a personage than such an exaltedness had come to
+sleep a night under her humble roof! The distinguished _forestieri_
+should have the very room His _Eccellentissimo_ had occupied! She seemed
+to choose among the Americans by instinct, assigning to Derby and Porter
+this apartment in which she took such evident pride.
+
+It was, in fact, airy and good sized, scantily furnished, but
+scrupulously clean, and with two great beds heaped high with the red and
+yellow flowered quilts which in Sicilian houses serve the double purpose
+of warmth and decoration: not alone do they lend supreme elegance to the
+bedrooms, but suspended from the windows, they most gayly embellish the
+house front on days of _festa_.
+
+As soon as his belongings were unpacked, Porter, with an eye for beauty
+as well as a view to making himself popular, began to draw a pencil
+sketch of the little Marcella, a witch of five and beautiful as a doll.
+Tiggs and Jenkins saw to the unloading of the mules. But Derby and the
+_carabinieri_, with Padre Filippo, after a hasty luncheon of bread,
+figs, and goats' milk, pushed on to the mines. Beyond the outskirts of
+the little village the land soon grew dead again--not a bird fluttered,
+not a living thing was heard. A few patches of green had sprouted here
+and there in the lava blackness of the soil, but otherwise the country
+seemed under a curse.
+
+A new bend in the road brought them close to a small abandoned
+settlement whose windowless houses gaped, staring like lidless eyes, at
+the pits which had been dug and left like caverns of the dead--as, in
+truth, they were. Yet nature had softened the graveyard with straggling
+spots of new green. A vapor rose from one of the pits as though a
+monster lay in wait below to destroy his victims with the poison of his
+breath. This was "Little Devil," the priest told Derby. Through the jaws
+of that yawning hole many had entered the gates of paradise! His lips
+muttered a fragment of the prayer for the dead; he crossed himself, and
+Derby noticed that the _carabinieri_ did the same.
+
+During the day Derby had been slowly unfolding to Padre Filippo his
+plans, and now the priest looked anxiously into the American's
+face--could he still be hopeful of such a cemetery as this? Derby rode
+slowly, making a cursory survey of the conditions. It was much as he had
+expected to find it, he told the priest; he was not disheartened.
+
+They did not stop, as Derby was anxious to go to the Scorpa mines, where
+he expected to secure his men. He had heard enough to know what lay
+before him; and even in anticipation he felt oppressed. Another sudden
+turn in the road gave them a near view of the settlement. Over the arid
+earth spread a dense haze of smoke and yellow vapor, and down in it--in
+this vapor whose metallic fumes gripped lungs and throat and burned like
+fire--crawled human beings! Close to the earth they crept, so that the
+rising smoke might spend its worst above them.
+
+Derby had thought himself prepared, but with the horrors actually before
+him, he shuddered uncontrollably; unconsciously, he gripped the pommel
+of the saddle so tensely that his knuckles whitened. The mine of "Golden
+Plenty!" From the horrible mockery of the name, the devil might well
+have taken notes in planning hell! Copper Rock was paradise indeed,
+compared to this inferno.
+
+Little forms passed by him with faces wizened and wrinkled--were they
+gnomes?--or what? Surely not children! Small, narrow, stooped shoulders,
+backs bent under loads buckled to tottering legs. Ragged the creatures
+were to the point of nakedness, and on their arms and legs were scars
+fresh and scarlet from the torches of the overseers. Women and men
+crawled near the caldrons, and down the ladders into the hell pits went
+the children--up with the heavy loads past the torch and lash of the
+devil servers, whose duty it was to see that no panting being loitered.
+Day in, day out, these miserable wretches stumbled under the stinging
+pain of burning flesh--and once in a while a child's faltering feet
+slipped from the ladder rungs, his weak hands lost hold--a cry, a fall,
+and the "Golden Plenty" had swallowed one more victim.
+
+As Derby's party drew near, a straggling group gathered around the
+strangers. They stared dully and without intelligence, and yet like
+animals in whom savagery is ever ready to burst restraints. The stronger
+men among them glowered at the intruders, turning against a strange face
+with the snarl they dared not show to one grown familiar. Beyond the
+mines, ranged at different heights on the barren mountain slope, were
+huts much like the abandoned ones at "Little Devil"--black caverns,
+smoke-stained and gaping, where stooping human beings moved in and out,
+maimed and broken like insects whose wings some brutal boy has pulled.
+
+And yet the priest affirmed that to get half a dozen families to leave
+this place and go to the new settlement would be no easy task. They were
+too dull to grasp the promise of betterment, and the very mention of
+"Little Devil" filled them with alarm. It would need many days and much
+patient handling to convince them that the _forestieri_ meant them good
+instead of harm.
+
+Padre Filippo was the one who most persuaded them--he and a Sicilian
+workman, a native of Vencata who had lately returned from America.
+Between these two the miners' fears were partly allayed, and in less
+than a week's time Derby received a small company of men, women, and
+children into his new settlement. They came like prisoners, under the
+guard of the _carabinieri_, and so feeble and debilitated were the
+wretched creatures that, for a few weeks after their arrival, Derby
+turned his settlement into a hospital.
+
+Yet suspicion surrounded him on every side. It was one of the
+_carabinieri_--the taller one--who ventured his opinions one day:
+"Signore does not know these people! Signore is letting them grow strong
+that they may the better use their fangs. They cannot believe that
+Signore is not the devil in paying such wages--in pretending to give
+them a life of ease. The great Duke Scorpa is their friend--he has been
+able to do nothing. The good and honorable His Eminence the Archbishop,
+not even he may help--none in this world; not even the Holy Virgin on
+her throne in heaven. If any one comes to interfere it must be the
+devil--since none but the devil comes to such a land."
+
+"That's all right, my friend," Derby answered. "Just you wait and see.
+Animals never resent kindness, and that's all these poor creatures
+are--just animals."
+
+In the meantime he and the engineers and the carpenters from Vencata
+Minore had worked day and night getting up the scaffolding for the first
+well. The first boiler was set up in a shanty, and pens were hammered
+together to hold the molten sulphur.
+
+From the moment of Derby's arrival in the Vencata mines, the
+_carabinieri_ kept him under the closest guard and accompanied him
+wherever he went. But in spite of this there were a few mild outbreaks.
+One day a stone was hurled at him. Another time some half-crazed wretch
+tried to stab him; and once a pit was dug across the road, in which his
+horse broke a leg, so that it had to be shot. This last nearly brought
+Derby to the point of meting out punishment to the offenders. Yet when
+he realized again the sufferings of these people, his anger gradually
+subsided.
+
+However, these disturbances had all taken place within the week after
+his arrival in Sicily, and at the end of the second week he strongly
+objected to being guarded. Each day he knew he gained in the confidence
+of the people, and each day he knew also that they must be improving. He
+felt sure that as their bodies were put in something like human
+condition, their intellects must follow. The _carabinieri_ protested
+that he would be making a needless target of himself should he attempt
+to ride alone in the early dawn from the village of Vencata Minore to
+the mines. The road led between rocks and underbrush where a man might
+hide with perfect safety. But the apprehension of the _carabinieri_ did
+not trouble Derby in the least. "Nonsense," he said. "Why, the miners
+are all beginning to like me--I can see it in their faces."
+
+What he said was true, and under the new treatment the people were
+beginning to look and act like human beings. Even two weeks were enough
+to show a settlement beyond Padre Filippo's highest hopes. No child was
+employed in the mines, neither were the women allowed to work outside
+their huts and plots of ground. They might dig and plant the soil, but
+they were barred out of the mines. With the elimination of the refining
+vats and the reduction of the scorching heat, and with the presence of
+moisture from the steam and water required in the new mining, conditions
+became favorable for luxuriant vegetation.
+
+Besides, Derby had received by cable approval of certain quixotic
+measures: Each family was given a milk goat. The houses were furnished
+with cook stoves, beds, chairs, and tables. And although it would be
+some time before "Little Devil" would seem inappropriate as a name, less
+than three weeks had passed when Derby, sitting in the tent which served
+as his office, felt a real thrill as he footed up assets and
+liabilities. One well had been sunk, and the boilers and engines needed
+to operate it were going full blast. The scaffoldings for two more were
+nearly up.
+
+In the doorway near him Porter lounged, drawing a picture of Padre
+Filippo, who, in turn, was writing on his knees, his fine penmanship
+covering page after page--all about the miracles of the Americano, and
+addressed to the archbishop.
+
+But his Eminence needed no letters from Padre Filippo to announce
+miracles, since a miracle had happened in his own house--a marvel that
+had made Marianna cross her hands in speechless wonder. The new lamp
+burned on the table, the green reading shade reflected almost as much
+light on the page as the sun itself, and His Eminence might now read any
+book he pleased. The archbishop thoughtfully stroked the cat that lay
+curled on his lap.
+
+"It is not in this world," he mused, "that we shall journey, thou and I,
+to the land of the Americanos, the miracle workers; but assuredly the
+Santa Vergine sent the young Signore Americano to bless our people with
+his miracles--even as he has sent this one to thee and me."
+
+But beyond the bright radius of the good archbishop's lamp a figure
+waited and watched in the darkness--the figure of a man with a sinister
+face and across it a mouth that looked like a seam.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+BEFORE DAYLIGHT
+
+
+In the purple dawn of a morning two or three days later, Derby emerged
+from the house of Donna Marcella, saddled his horse and for the first
+time without his attendant _carabinieri_, started for the mines. The
+faint light showed him only a blurred and indistinct landscape; and in
+the crisp stillness the leather of his saddle creaked a monotonous
+accompaniment to the horse's hoofs, which struck the road with clean-cut
+staccato sharpness.
+
+Meanwhile, in the big best room on the ground floor of Donna Marcella's
+house, Porter slept. A man's step outside and the fingering of a
+shutter-latch disturbed him not at all; even when there came a nervous
+tap on the window frame, Porter slept on. A moment of silence followed,
+and then a voice breathed stridently, "_Signore!_" Porter stirred in his
+sleep. A man's head and shoulders appeared over the sill of the open
+window. "_Signore! Signore l'Americano!_" The tone was louder and very
+urgent. Porter awoke with a start and seized his revolver. "_Pax, pax!_"
+came the voice as the man dropped out of sight.
+
+"_Signore, Signore._ It is a friend who would speak to the _Signore
+l'Americano_!" The syllables were whispered with ringing distinctness.
+Porter jumped out of bed, revolver in hand. Close to the window, he
+demanded who was there.
+
+"It is a matter of life and death! May I show myself?"
+
+"Certainly!" said Porter. "For heaven's sake, stand up and let me have a
+look at you! And give an account of why you are getting a Christian out
+of his bed at this unearthly hour!" In the glimmering dawn he could see
+the outline of the man's figure, but he could not recognize him.
+
+"_Signore_, I would speak with the big _Americano_, the one who sent the
+daylight miracle to the palace of the archbishop. I am sent by His
+Eminence the Archbishop. I am Teobaldo his servant. See, I carry the
+archbishop's holy ring to show I speak the truth."
+
+Porter saw the ring distinctly, held between the man's fingers--"Yes! I
+believe you. Be quick!"
+
+"I have ridden through the night, but I arrive late because I lost my
+path in the blackness. Last night by chance it became known to the
+archbishop that there is a plot to assassinate the Americano. I am come
+secretly to warn him. The assassin is waiting along the road to the
+mine; it is to be there, and the hour is now!"
+
+Porter sprang back into the room. "Jack, Jack! For God's sake, are you
+there?" He tore back the covers of Derby's bed, but it was empty. He
+remembered with horror that the _carabinieri_ were not to accompany
+Derby that morning. He had insisted that they were no longer necessary.
+Scrambling into his clothes any fashion--his trousers over his pajamas,
+his shoes over stocking less feet--he strapped on his revolvers, and
+took the window ledge at a bound.
+
+He jumped astride his horse without stopping for a saddle, and beat and
+kicked the poor beast along the road as though the very fiends were
+after him. The horse rocked on his legs and breathed hard, but Porter
+had no consideration for that. The pale dawn revealed an empty road,
+along which he sped at breakneck pace, while beads of perspiration
+gathered on his forehead in his impatience at the seeming slowness of
+his progress. At last the road cut through a tangled bit of forest with
+a sharp bend at the end. Just as he reached the turn two shots rang out
+in quick succession. With his heart almost frozen, he dashed around the
+corner in time to see Derby plunging into the underbrush. Like a wild
+man Porter shouted, "I'm coming, Jack, I'm coming!"--impelling his
+already spent horse to the spot where Derby had disappeared into the
+thicket.
+
+Derby, like all men who live much in the woods, had almost an animal's
+instinct for danger, and his ears, supersensitive to wood sounds, had
+caught a moving in the bushes. To get his revolver in hand and drop
+forward behind his horse's shoulders had been the act of a second, and
+the bullet whistled over his head. But the immediate effect of the
+attack had been to enrage him out of all prudence. Firing point-blank at
+the smudge of smoke, he jumped from his horse and rushed in pursuit of
+his assailant.
+
+A second shot Derby thought had grazed his coat; he emptied two barrels
+of his revolver in the direction from which it came. Another bullet
+whistled close to his ear, then two shots went entirely wide of him, and
+the next moment he reached a man lying prone--with blood gushing from
+his head. Derby knocked the rifle out of his hands, but there was no
+further danger of its being fired, for the man had fainted.
+
+In a second Porter dashed up, in a frenzy of terror. When he found Derby
+safe, his fright turned to rage, and he was impatient to put the
+prisoner into the hands of the _carabinieri_. "Our friend Basso will
+make short work of him, I'm thinking!" he said grimly.
+
+But Derby had no intention of making such a disposition of his prisoner.
+"Not at all," he said deliberately; "we will hand him over to Padre
+Filippo. Priests are better for such creatures than police. Come, help
+me tie up his head--my shirt will do!" Suiting the action to his words,
+he pulled off his coat. His shirt was scarlet!
+
+"Great Heavens, man, why didn't you say you were hit?" Porter gasped.
+
+Derby looked down at his shirt and then quizzically at Porter. "Funny,"
+he remarked indifferently; "I thought the bullet had only grazed my
+coat. It can't be much, as I didn't even feel it; however, you might tie
+me up, too." He pulled off his shirt. Porter tore it up and bound
+Derby's shoulder. Then together they made a bandage for the bandit's
+head.
+
+"He's got an ugly mug!" said Porter, as he wiped the man's face. "By
+Jove--it's the brigand I noticed coming down on the boat! I told you he
+looked like a cutthroat."
+
+"Your natural intuition for character?" Derby smiled, but the next
+minute added soberly enough: "If he came from the mainland we must be up
+against a good deal more than the poor devils here! Who the deuce can he
+be? He's no miner, that's certain!"
+
+They had dragged their prisoner out to the side of the road and laid him
+down. And as Derby insisted, Porter rode off for the priest. Derby sat
+near his charge, who showed no signs of returning consciousness. His own
+shoulder ached now, and he gradually became aware of slight weakness. He
+felt in his pockets for a flask, but found he had forgotten to carry
+one, so he lit his pipe instead, and fell to scrutinizing the man before
+him. He was of small stature, but there was great endurance in the long,
+pointed nose, the strong, lantern jaw; and the face, sinister though it
+was, retained, even in unconsciousness, an expression of grim
+fortitude. The more Derby studied the man, the more certain he became
+that he was no mere skulking coward.
+
+At last Porter and the _padre_ appeared over the hill. No sooner had the
+priest caught sight of the prisoner than he exclaimed, "_Per l'amor di
+Dio!_ It is Luigi Calluci!" There was added horror in his tone as he
+whispered, "Signore, Signore, he is the body servant of the Duca di
+Scorpa!"
+
+At this even Derby started, but he said quite calmly, "Poor devil! The
+question is, what will you do with him?"
+
+"He must be put under the arrest----"
+
+"Well, naturally," chimed in Porter.
+
+But Derby interposed: "He shall be put under nothing of the kind until
+he can give an account of himself. There is no knowing what fancied
+grievance he may have against me. Wait until he has been heard. The
+question of punishment can be considered then. But in the meantime he
+must be nursed!"
+
+"You have his brother in the settlement--Salvatore Calluci, the man to
+whom you have given special duty in the night shaft." The priest's red
+head wagged mournfully: "It was to the wife of Salvatore you gave an
+extra goat because of her children!" But then he added, brightening a
+little at the thought, "I am sure--of a truth I am sure, Signore, that
+the brother had no hand in this!"
+
+"Very well, then; we will take him to the house of Salvatore. We will
+say merely that an accident has happened--do you hear? I do not want the
+story of an attempted assassination to get about." Derby's voice had
+grown quite weak as he spoke, and the priest and Porter were both too
+concerned for him to think of opposing any wish he might express in
+regard to the prisoner. So they laid the man across the saddle of Padre
+Filippo's horse, and Porter and the _padre_ walked on either side of him
+into camp. Derby rode his own horse, but by the time he reached the
+mine, he had lost so much blood that he was pretty fit for the doctor
+himself. Tiggs, a lean, wiry Yankee, sandy-haired and resourceful, was a
+tolerable surgeon, and he plastered Derby up, pronouncing the injury
+nothing more serious than a flesh wound.
+
+Luigi Calluci meanwhile was carried into the hut of his brother and put
+to bed. If Salvatore and his wife had any idea of the cause of his
+"accident," they said nothing. They were among the most intelligent of
+the miners, and their gratitude to Derby for the change in their
+condition, was proportionate.
+
+But it was not alone the Callucis who had made fast strides. The whole
+settlement had undergone a change that was nothing short of
+transformation. One reason for the rapid improvement was doubtless the
+influence exerted by the Sicilian carpenter who had been to America and
+who had returned a "great man" and rich. Through him as interpreter,
+all things the American did were good; and the "land of plenty" lost
+nothing in the telling. The people began to look upon the new mining
+process as a miracle, and the American as sent by the Blessed Virgin.
+The wages were stupendous--as much as sixty cents a day! But best of
+all, they were wages for work that a human being could do. Around the
+miners' houses were the beginnings of gardens, and several families had,
+in addition to the goat, a few chickens.
+
+Every day Derby went to the hut of the Calluci. Gradually consciousness
+came back to Luigi. Slowly, as reason returned, the events of the past
+weeks formed themselves in distinct sequence. He knew where he was
+now--at the "Little Devil." Had he not himself descended its ladders
+into the mine's burning pits? Was not that why he was undersized and
+weak of lungs? He bore scars that had seared even deeper than through
+the flesh. He knew the huts, too: caves in which men lived like beasts.
+It was all clear except the surroundings in which he found himself. The
+haggard faces of his brother and his sister-in-law were familiar, yet
+not as he remembered them. The withered bodies of the children seemed
+not nearly so pathetic! Then, full of bewilderment, he heard his
+sister-in-law singing. Singing! Could it be possible that a voice could
+sing in the "Little Devil" settlement! Distinctly he heard another
+sound, the voices of children at play.
+
+Thinking all this must be merely the creation of his brain, he raised
+himself on his elbow and made a careful survey of the room. There was no
+doubt that he was in a good bed, covered by a thick new quilt, and the
+walls were cleanly white-washed. The air held none of the foul and
+strangling odors which never had been, and never could be, forgotten.
+That his brother had moved and had become a well-to-do peasant of the
+mountain slopes and vineyards was the only explanation possible. He
+tried to get out of bed, but fell back dizzy, and his mind wandered off
+again to the semi-conscious vagaries of illness.
+
+In this state of mind, he had become used to a new presence--a very big,
+very kind personality that hauntingly resembled the Americano--it was,
+of course, one of those phantoms that appear before fevered
+imaginations. He realized that, and now he made an effort to detach the
+dream from the reality.
+
+But even as he was trying to put his thoughts in order, the door
+opened--and he vividly saw the figure of his vision followed by his
+sister-in-law. Thinking that his mind was wandering, he lay quite still.
+Then he heard a kindly voice saying, "I have brought soup for him with
+me--in this jar. You have only to heat it."
+
+Luigi felt a strong hand clasp his wrist and feel for his pulse. Then
+came the full belief that this was no dream, but reality, and that it
+was the Tyrant, the Americano himself, who laid hands on him. With a
+frantic effort he sprang up and tried to close his fingers around his
+enemy's throat! But firm, powerful hands gripped his shoulders and
+forced him quietly down in his bed. Then he lost consciousness.
+
+When he came to, he thought he had dreamed the whole occurrence. His
+brother and Padre Filippo were sitting beside him, and they would not
+let him talk. But gradually, as his strength returned, he took in the
+story. From his brother, from the neighbors, from the priest most of
+all, he heard, bit by bit, of the work that the Americano had
+accomplished--the Americano whom he, Luigi, had nearly slain. Slowly,
+slowly, he understood that the "Little Devil" mine had been
+re-christened "The Paradise"--not by the nobles who owned it, but by the
+people who worked in it. And then little by little the resentment, the
+bitterness, the grievances of his long, hard life turned him against the
+Duke Scorpa just as his realization of what Derby was doing won him over
+to the American.
+
+That Scorpa should have sent a man to stab him was, curiously enough, a
+fact that did not seem to trouble Derby in the least. It was, after all,
+no more than he might have expected. Before he had left Rome, Scorpa had
+warned him. He rather admired him for that.
+
+Derby was heart and soul interested in his settlement. In the short
+space of time since he had arrived in Sicily, the incredible had
+already come to pass--and to Derby, as he looked forward, there was
+every reason to feel assured that the settlement would develop as he had
+planned. The output of the mines promised to be up to the most sanguine
+expectation. The whole scheme was organized and started--there was
+nothing to do now but to keep it going.
+
+In the meantime he received a cable which, when deciphered, ran:
+
+          "Telegraph _Celtic_ at Gibraltar, giving Hobson
+          instructions where to find you. Put package he
+          carries in safe keeping. In case of serious
+          development use own judgment."
+
+Hobson was one of J. B. Randolph's secretaries. Derby at once wired to
+Hobson to await him in Naples. Then, leaving Tiggs and Jenkins in
+charge, he and Porter embarked.
+
+As they leaned over the deck rail watching the blue shallows where the
+waters of the Mediterranean curled away from the ship's prow, Porter
+said:
+
+"It must be good to be going back to Rome with the feeling that you have
+carried out what you started to do. It's a big feather in your cap, and
+now there is only one thing needed to make the whole episode a romance
+from start to finish!"
+
+Derby interrogated good-humoredly, "And that is----?"
+
+"You will probably go up in the air if I tell you."
+
+Derby looked up from the water. "Go ahead--say what you like----"
+
+"You ought to marry Miss Randolph!" Porter declared abruptly, and before
+Derby could protest he hurried on: "Yes, I know what you would say--she
+is too rich and she is scheduled to marry a title. But I don't think she
+is the sort of girl that really puts as much stock in titles as it would
+seem; and as for money, by the time you have two or three mines like the
+'Little Devil' going, you will be pretty rich yourself. Even with your
+present prospects, no one could accuse you of marrying her for her
+fortune."
+
+"Prospects are very different from actual money, and compared to her I'm
+a pauper," Derby answered. "I don't care what people accuse me of, but
+to marry a girl like Nina Randolph--even assuming the unlikelihood that
+she'd have me--would be a fatal mistake, unless I had a fortune to match
+her own. Every changing hour of the day would bring fresh doubt; she
+would never believe in a poor man's love. How could she!"
+
+Derby stood up straight, thrust his hands into the pockets of his
+ulster, and as Porter tried to protest, he withdrew from the discussion
+by declaring that there was nothing to discuss. For himself--he was but
+a human machine that God had set upon the earth to bore holes in it, and
+to set swarms of human ants working.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE SPIDER'S WEB
+
+
+In Rome, after Easter, society blossomed out afresh. Giovanni Sansevero
+had returned, and to Nina the commencement of the spring season promised
+a repetition of the winter.
+
+Nina's antipathy to the Duke Scorpa remained unchanged, and to her
+annoyance it had happened frequently, when dining out, that he had taken
+her in to dinner. Each time his unctuous, "It is my pleasure, Signorina,
+to conduct you," gave her so strong a feeling of resentment that she had
+to exert a real effort to put her finger tips on his coat sleeve. She
+always kept the distance between them as wide as possible by the angle
+at which her arm was bent.
+
+On looking back, however, she had to acknowledge that his manner had
+undergone a radical change. He no longer alarmed her by aggressive
+pursuit, nor sought to lead the conversation to those personal topics
+which she had found so repellent. Furthermore, he never alluded to the
+threat he had made to her that day at the hunt, nor even mentioned his
+rejected suit. And yet she felt apprehensively that he had not given up
+his original determination.
+
+In the meantime he was untiring in his efforts to interest her, and
+evinced an ability to keep the conversation going with great skill--even
+more skill than Giovanni, whose natural attractiveness could afford to
+do without the effort that Scorpa found necessary. He flattered her by
+his assumption that she was a woman of the world, and he disguised the
+exaggeration of his expressions in such a way that she thought he was
+speaking but the barest truth. For instance, he dilated upon the
+particular qualities for which Nina herself adored the princess, until
+it became apparent to her that, after all, Scorpa must be a man of
+sensitive perceptions.
+
+Nevertheless, the underlying feeling of terror with which he filled her
+at the first moment of each encounter was far worse than mere dislike.
+Intuitively, she regarded him as a menace, and, through his unvarying
+politeness, she found herself trying to fathom his real intentions. What
+object could he have had in ranging himself with the suitors for her
+hand? He was very rich himself. Aside from his own fortune, "poor
+Jane"--as every one called his first wife--had left a handsome amount,
+which, according to European custom, was entirely in his control.
+Perhaps he wanted still more money, and thought that he could find in
+her another source of supply to be exhausted and practically thrust
+aside. Many tales that Nina had heard, many things that she had observed
+were not good for the girl's all too ready cynicism--and the hard little
+lines around her mouth that the princess so disliked to see, were
+growing deeper.
+
+The question of international marriage was one on which Nina found
+herself becoming quite skeptical. She admitted that there were happy
+examples. Her aunt, for instance. Surely no wife was ever more loved and
+appreciated than the princess, even though her husband had one serious
+failing. But then, did not some American husbands also gamble?
+
+In the Masco household too, the bonny Kate was certainly in no need of
+sympathy. That her position was not as good as her husband's name should
+have given her was her own fault. She was not one of those gifted with
+the chameleon faculty of harmonizing with her background. Among the
+mellow pigments of the Roman canvas she was a glaring splotch of primary
+color. But she was far from unhappy.
+
+Indeed, so far as Nina's observation could penetrate, the general
+impression of the average Americo-Italian marriage was of sympathetic
+comradeship between husband and wife; in nearly every household she had
+found the indescribably charming atmosphere of a harmonious home.
+
+Yet proposals for the hand of the American heiress were so common that,
+in spite of the delightful households of her countrywomen, Nina had long
+since begun to think--first in fun and then more seriously--of the
+palaces of Italy as so many spider webs waiting for the American gilded
+fly. It was at the Palazzo Scorpa that her theory became actuality.
+
+The princess had, very much against Nina's will, taken her to see the
+duchess on the day after their own dance. But a serious indisposition
+had prevented the duchess from receiving--not only on that particular
+day, but for the rest of the winter. Toward the end of March, however,
+in response to a note, Nina was finally obliged to enter the Palazzo
+Scorpa.
+
+It was a rugged gray stone fortress of a place, "like a monster," Nina
+said, "of the dragon age, that sulkily remained asleep and hidden among
+the narrow, twisted streets that had crept around it."
+
+Through the yawning gateway they entered a sunless courtyard. Even the
+porter at the door, notwithstanding his gold lace and crimson livery,
+was austere and forbidding. Within, the palace had been refurnished in
+the most lavish Florentine period, but the effect of the high-vaulted
+rooms was that of a prison.
+
+One room, however, through which they passed to reach the reception
+apartments of the duchess, gave Nina a little thrill in spite of her
+antipathy. The Scorpas had belonged to the "Blacks," that is to the
+ecclesiasticals, and this room was not repaired in modern fashion, but
+hung in tattered purple silk. On one side stood a solitary piece of
+furniture--a great gilt throne upholstered in red velvet, and above it
+hung a portrait of Pope Alexander VI, the whole surmounted by a canopy
+of red velvet.
+
+"Was he a relation of the duke?" Nina whispered, aghast at the
+resemblance.
+
+"Who, child?" asked the princess.
+
+"Rodrigo Borgia."
+
+"No one knows. Hush!"
+
+"But why the throne? Were the Scorpas kings--or what?"
+
+"Before the secular unification of Italy," the princess answered, "the
+Holy Fathers used to visit the Scorpa cardinals. There has always been a
+Scorpa among the cardinals. The one now is Monsignore Gamba del Sati.
+Del Sati is one of the numerous names of the Scorpa family."
+
+Nina cast another glance at the portrait of Alexander VI. The sinister
+face was so like the present duke's that it made her shudder, and her
+imagination at once pictured slaves and prisoners being dragged along
+these same stone floors. At the end of ten or twelve rooms, each gloomy,
+yet over-rich with architectural adornments and modern elaboration, two
+lackeys lifted the hangings covering the last doorway, and announced:
+
+"Sua Eccellenza la Principessa Sansevero!"
+
+"Messa Randolph."
+
+The Duchess Scorpa was very gracious to the American heiress. But,
+unaccountably, Nina had a strangled feeling, as though she were a bird
+and had been enticed into a cage. It was a ridiculous notion, for, even
+following out the simile, the door was open, she knew; and, for that
+matter, the bars were too far apart to hold her, as soon as she should
+choose to slip through. But the feeling of the cage was oppressively
+vivid, and she clung as closely to her aunt's side as she could. Friends
+of the princess rather monopolized her, however, while the duchess
+neglected her other guests to talk to Nina. To add to the girl's
+distress, the duke, stroking his heavy chin with his fat hand, stood
+beside her chair with what seemed a proprietary air, and a smile that
+was intolerable. "Well, my guests," his manner seemed to say, "how do
+you like my choice? She is not all that I might ask for, but she will
+do--quite nicely."
+
+Nina glanced appealingly at her aunt, but Eleanor's back was turned.
+Involuntarily she looked toward the doorway--Giovanni was to meet them
+there, and she longed to see his slender figure appear between the
+_portieres_, to hear the announcement of the well-known name which was
+no less great than that of the odious man who was trying to compromise
+her by his air of proprietorship.
+
+Nina could stand it no longer, and sprang to her feet, in the very midst
+of a long-winded story about--she had no idea what the duchess was
+saying to her, but she realized that she had done an inexcusably
+_gauche_ thing, not only interrupting, but in starting to go before her
+chaperon made the move. And her discomfiture was increased by a quick
+sense of the Potensi's derisive criticism. Recovering herself, she
+exclaimed rapidly: "I am so much interested in sculpture; may I look at
+that statue?"
+
+The duchess, far from showing resentment at the interruption, was
+apparently delighted with the opportunity of impressing upon her guest
+the greatness of the palace and the family of the Scorpas. "Certainly,"
+she cooed, as nearly as a snapping turtle can imitate a turtledove;
+"that is a genuine Niccola Pisano. The original document is still intact
+in which he agreed with the cardinal of our house to execute it himself.
+The portrait of our ancestor who ordered the statue is in the gallery."
+
+Before Nina could resist, she found herself being conducted between
+mother and son through the numerous rooms which terminated finally in
+the gallery. Unlike most of the collections of Italy, this included many
+modern canvases.
+
+Before the portrait of a thin, heavy-boned, frightened-looking English
+girl, the duke assumed a deeply sentimental air, sighing as though out
+of breath. "That is the portrait of my beloved Jane," he said. "It was
+painted by Sargent while we were on our honeymoon." The artist, with his
+consummate skill of characterization, had transferred a crushed,
+fatalistic helplessness to the canvas. Nina found herself, partly in
+pity, partly in contempt, scrutinizing the face of the woman who had
+brought herself to marry such a man.
+
+Suddenly an indescribable feeling of oppression seized her. She looked
+away from the picture, and then, glancing around to speak to the
+duchess, she saw the edge of her dress disappearing through the hangings
+of the doorway, while between herself and her retreating hostess stood
+the stolid figure of the duke, with the most odious smile imaginable
+upon his horrid face.
+
+With a flush of anger that made her temples throb, Nina realized that a
+dastardly trap had been sprung upon her. To leave a young girl even for
+a moment unchaperoned was against the strictest rule of Italian
+propriety. The duchess had brought her all this distance on purpose to
+leave her with the villainous duke--in a situation that, should it
+become known, would so compromise an Italian girl that there would be no
+place for her in the social system of her world afterward outside of a
+convent. Her marriage with the duke would be almost inevitable.
+
+Determined to give no evidence of the terror that gripped her, with the
+most fearless air she could assume she attempted to pass the duke; but
+he blocked her way so that her manoeuvres came down to the indignity of
+a game of blind man's buff. Nina held her head very high and looked
+straight at her tormentor. "Please allow me to pass." She tried hard to
+speak quietly and to keep the tremulousness out of her voice.
+
+For answer Scorpa quickly closed the intervening distance between them,
+and the next thing she knew the grasp of his thick, hot hands burned
+through the sleeve of her coat, and his face was thrust near to her
+own. In a frenzy of fury she wrenched herself free, and without thought
+or even consciousness of what she was doing, she struck him full in the
+face.
+
+Instead of recoiling, he caught and pinned her arms in a grip like a
+vice. "Ah, ha, so that is the mettle you are made of, is it, you little
+fiend! Don't think that I mind your fury--you will be a wife after my
+own heart when I have tamed you! I am a man of my word--I said I would
+marry you, and I will! Not many men would want to marry a woman of your
+temper, but you suit me!"
+
+In her horror Nina felt her throat grow dry. She stared at the thick,
+red, cruel, animal lips of the man with a loathing that almost paralyzed
+her power to move; while his hands pressed numbingly into the flesh of
+her arms.
+
+"Let me go! Do you hear"--her voice shook with fright and rage--"let me
+go! At once! You coward! You beast!"
+
+And like a beast he snarled his answer: "Scream all you please! You
+could not be heard if you had a throat of brass!" Then mockingly he
+sneered, "Come, won't you dance with me, as you did with the pretty
+Giovanni? You had his arms around you lovingly enough! But, by Bacchus!
+the way to win a woman is to seize her, after the good old customs of
+our ancestors!" And with that he drew her close to him--so close that,
+though she screamed and struggled like a fury, his lips drew
+nearer--nearer----
+
+Then a jar struck through her blinding rage; in a daze she felt herself
+released, and realized that Giovanni had appeared; that he had gripped
+Scorpa around the throat until his eyes started out of their sockets;
+and then sent him sprawling to the floor.
+
+With the relief and reaction, everything seemed to recede from Nina and
+grow black. Dimly she felt that Giovanni had put his arm around her to
+support her. "Come quickly, Mademoiselle, before there is a scene"--she
+heard his voice as though it were far off. But she was perfectly
+conscious. She knew that Scorpa still lay on the floor as Giovanni
+hurried her through another set of rooms and led her down a staircase
+that brought them to a second entrance door--one by which, as it
+happened, Giovanni had come in. The footman on duty looked as though he
+were going to bar their egress, but Giovanni ordered him to open the
+door quickly. "The lady is fainting," he said, and a glance at Nina's
+face too well confirmed it. Besides, the man would hardly have dared
+disobey a Sansevero. Once in the open air, they lost no time in going
+around to the main entrance. The Sansevero carriage was waiting, and
+Giovanni put Nina in. "Wait here a moment--I will go up and tell
+Eleanor."
+
+Nina was shaking from head to foot. "No--no--don't leave me; take me
+away!"
+
+"It is not seemly to drive with you, Mademoiselle; I will return in a
+moment."
+
+But by this time Nina was hysterical. "No--no--please take me home,"
+she begged. "The carriage can come back." And she began to sob.
+
+Giovanni hesitated, then jumped in quickly, telling the coachman to
+drive home as fast as possible.
+
+"It must have been a frightful experience," he said, as they started.
+"Thank God I came even when I did."
+
+A shudder ran through Nina. Instinctively she drew away from Giovanni,
+merely because he was a foreigner, and of the same race as Scorpa. She
+could still see those thick, loathsome lips approaching her own, and the
+recollection gave her a nauseating sense of pollution. Holding her hands
+over her face, she sobbed and sobbed.
+
+Giovanni let her cry it out. It was not a moment to play on her
+feelings--they were too strained to stand any other emotion. Yet had he
+considered nothing but his own advantage, he could not better have used
+his opportunity than by doing exactly what he did.
+
+"Listen, Mademoiselle"--his voice was soothing--as kind and
+unimpassioned as though he were talking to a troubled little child.
+"Promise me that you will try not to think about this afternoon. It will
+do no good. Try to forget it, if you can. That man shall never again in
+any way enter your life. At least I can promise you that! Here we are!
+Now," he added in English, as the footman opened the door, "go upstairs
+and lie down. I will go back immediately and tell Eleanor that you felt
+suddenly ill and that the carriage took you home. It is not likely that
+Scorpa has given any version of the affair."
+
+But a new fear assailed Nina. "You cannot go back! The duke will kill
+you! He would do anything, that man!"
+
+There was pride in Giovanni's easy answer. "He is not very agile," he
+laughed; "to stab he would have first to reach me!" Then seriously and
+very gently he added, "You are overstrung and nervous, Mademoiselle. On
+my honor I promise you need never fear him again."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" Startled, she put the question.
+
+"Nothing," he rejoined lightly, "only that a man never repeats a
+performance like that of the duke. The Italian custom prevents!" he
+added, with a curious expression of whimsicality over which Nina puzzled
+as she mounted the stairs to her room. Even in her shaken state, she
+marveled at the contrast between Giovanni's finely chiseled features and
+the elastic strength that must have been necessary to overpower the bull
+force of the duke. She thought gratefully of the sympathy in his gentle
+voice, as well as in his whole manner during the ten minutes which were
+all that had elapsed since the duchess left her. She realized with what
+perfect tact and perception he had treated her on the way home. And
+suddenly her heart went out to him. She felt now, as she went through
+the long stone corridors and galleries toward her room, that instead of
+drawing away from him, were he at that moment beside her, she might
+easily sob her emotions all peacefully out in his arms.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the meantime Giovanni returned to the Palazzo Scorpa and, ascending
+the main stairway, entered the antechamber of the reception room. The
+old duchess was hovering anxiously at the entrance of the rooms leading
+to the picture gallery, the closed _portieres_ screening her from the
+guests to whom she had not dared to return without Nina. The rugs laid
+upon the marble floors dulled all sound of Giovanni's footfalls, so that
+he appeared without warning, and with his own hand hastily lifted the
+_portiere_, disclosing her to her waiting guests. She had no choice but
+to precede him, doubtless framing an excuse for Nina's absence. If so,
+she need not have troubled, for Giovanni spoke in her stead, and with
+such distinct enunciation that the whole roomful heard:
+
+"Miss Randolph felt suddenly ill and asked to go home. I came just as
+the carriage was disappearing, and found the duchess much disturbed over
+it, though I assured her it was quite usual for young girls to go about
+alone in America."
+
+His look at the duchess demanded that she corroborate his account.
+
+"It was too bad," she said, glibly enough. "I should have accompanied
+her as I was, without hat or mantle even, but Miss Randolph was gone
+before I really had time to think. It is, after all, but a step to the
+Palazzo Sansevero."
+
+Eleanor Sansevero arose. Through a perfect control and sweetness of
+manner the most careless observer might have read displeasure. "Of
+course," she said, enunciating each word with smoothly modulated
+distinctness, "in America there could be no impropriety in a young
+girl's driving alone, but I am sorry you did not send for me. Your son
+left the room at the same time--he has not returned."
+
+The American princess towered in slim height above the stolid dumpiness
+of the duchess. From appearance one would never have guessed rightly
+which of the two women could trace her lineage for over a thousand
+years.
+
+The mouth of the duchess went down hard in the corners, and her dull,
+turtle eyes contracted, then her lips snapped open to answer, but
+Giovanni again saved her the trouble. "I met Scorpa on the street about
+ten minutes ago. He was going toward the Circolo d'Acacia."
+
+"Ah yes, Todo was filled with regret, as he wanted to show Miss Randolph
+the portraits," haltingly echoed the duchess, but she glanced uneasily
+at the door. "I was glad he did not see her indisposition--he has a
+heart as tender as a woman's, and it would have distressed him greatly!
+I do hope, princess, that you will find her quite recovered on your
+return. I think it must be the effect of sirocco."
+
+The other guests supported her in chorus. "The sirocco is very
+treacherous," ventured one. "She was perhaps not acclimatized to Rome,"
+said a second. "I thought she looked pale," chimed a third.
+
+The princess made her adieus at once and, followed by Giovanni, left the
+palace. For a few minutes the various groups, disposed about the Scorpa
+drawing-room, conversed in low whispers, but by the time the Sanseveros
+were well out of earshot the duchess had turned to the whispering groups
+with a hauteur of expression conveying quite plainly that it was not to
+be endured that a Sansevero, born American, should imply a criticism of
+a Duchess Scorpa, born Orsonna.
+
+"A headstrong young barbarian from the United States is quite beyond my
+control," she shrugged. "How can I help it if she chooses to run from
+the palace, like Cinderella when the clock strikes twelve!"
+
+One or two of those present who were friends of the Princess Sansevero
+may have resented the implied slight to her democratic birth. But though
+there was a vague appreciation of something beneath the surface in this
+American girl's sudden departure, there was nothing to which any one
+could take exception.
+
+The Contessa Potensi, however, had long waited for just such an
+opportunity, and seized it. "I felt sorry for Eleanor Sansevero," she
+said sweetly. "It puts her in an unendurable position to have to defend
+such a person. Naturally she _has_ to defend her, since she is her
+niece. I am sure she did not want her for the winter--but her parents
+would not keep her. It is no wonder they would be willing to give her a
+big dot!"
+
+There was general excitement. "What do you know?" the company cried in
+chorus. "Tell us about it!"
+
+But the Potensi at once became very discreet. For nothing would she take
+away a young girl's character. Besides, Eleanor Sansevero was one of her
+best friends--it would not be loyal to say anything further. More
+definite information she would not disclose, but her manner left little
+to the imagination.
+
+"Surely you can tell us something of what is said," insinuated the old
+Princess Malio, adjusting her false teeth securely in the roof of her
+mouth as if the better to enjoy the delectable morsel of scandal that
+she felt was about to be served. But the contessa, with a
+"could-if-she-would" expression, refused to say anything more, and the
+old princess turned instead to the duchess with, "Tell us the _truth_
+about Miss Randolph's sudden illness!"
+
+The truth, of course, was out of the question. Public sympathy must have
+gone against her and her son, and she hedged to gain time, "It is not
+all worth the thought needed to frame words."
+
+The old Princess Malio made a swallowing motion, still waiting. "Yes?"
+she encouraged eagerly.
+
+"Any one could see what happened," said the duchess reluctantly, as
+though she were loath to speak scandal. "The American girl, through
+lack of training--it is, after all, not her fault, poor thing--knows no
+better than to try to arrange matters for herself! She wanted, of
+course, to have an opportunity of talking to my Todo alone. Her plan to
+go into the picture gallery here, however, necessitated my chaperoning
+her, and then--contrary to her expectations--Todo, who did not fall in
+with her scheme, said he had an engagement and at once left. She could
+not, of course, declare the picture gallery of no interest, so I took
+her, but in her disappointment she quite lost her temper, so much so
+that it made her ill. And then she took the matter in her own hands and
+went home--I was never so astonished in my life! She ran off with
+Giovanni Sansevero so fast I could not catch up with them. I _suppose_
+he put her in the carriage, but for all I know he took her somewhere
+else. I followed to the front door and waited, not knowing what to do.
+Just as I returned to inform Princess Sansevero, for whom I have always
+had the highest regard, Giovanni commenced with his own account. What
+could I do except agree to his statement?"
+
+She looked inquiringly from one to the other. "That is the whole story!
+But I have made up my mind to one thing"--she spread her fat fingers
+out--"not even her millions would induce me to countenance Todo's
+marriage with such a self-willed girl as that!"
+
+The old Princess Malio looked like a bird of prey whose prize morsel
+had been stolen from it. "There is more in this than appears," she
+whispered to a timid little countess sitting next to her.
+
+The latter's half-hearted, "Do you think so, really?" voiced the
+attitude of nearly all present. The Scorpas were, to use the old Roman
+proverb, "sleeping dogs best let alone," and the Sanseveros, though not
+as rich, were none the less too great a family to side against.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+While the voice of the duchess was still echoing in the drawing-room of
+the Palazzo Scorpa, Nina had thrown herself into the corner of the sofa
+in her own room. She had a perfectly normal constitution, but she had
+been not only infuriated and horrified, but really frightened, and her
+nerves were unstrung.
+
+As she grew calmer, she thought more clearly; and she found that the
+afternoon's experience, horrible as it was, held some leaven--Giovanni's
+behavior stirred her deeply. She had realized the power of his muscles
+under his slight build before--when he had held the Great Dane's throat
+in his grip--and she had seen his flexibility, in turning
+instantaneously from fury to suavity. Yet his masterful attack upon her
+assailant, followed by his sympathy and comprehension on the way home,
+thrilled her as with a revelation of unguessed capacities. John Derby
+could not have come to her rescue better, nor could she have felt more
+protected and calmed with her childhood's friend at her side in the
+carriage, than with this alien of a foreign race.
+
+She went into her dressing-room and bathed her eyes and cheeks in cold
+water. Then, thinking the princess must surely have returned by this
+time, she decided to go into the drawing-room. On her way she met her
+aunt coming toward her, followed closely by Giovanni, who put his finger
+on his lips, just as the princess exclaimed, "Nina, my child, what
+happened to you? You did very wrong to run off home alone. I can't
+understand your having done such a thing. It was not only ill-mannered,
+but it put you in a very questionable light."
+
+Over the princess's shoulder Giovanni was making an unmistakable demand
+for silence. "I'm very sorry," Nina faltered--Giovanni was looking at
+her intensely, pleadingly, his finger on his lips--"but I--never felt
+like that before. I got terribly--nervous, and I felt that if I did not
+get away from that house I should go mad." Even the recollection made
+Nina look so distraught that her aunt's indignation turned to anxiety,
+and she put her arm around the girl and led her into the drawing-room.
+
+"It is not like you, dear, to lose control of yourself," she said
+tenderly, and then, as she scrutinized Nina's face in the better light,
+she added: "You do look white, darling. You had better lie down here on
+the sofa. I think I will prepare you some tea of camomile," and then,
+with a final touch of gentle admonition, she added, "We must not have
+any more such scenes!" Nina hoped for a chance to ask Giovanni why she
+might not tell the princess what had happened, but the latter did not
+leave the room. Having sent for the camomile flowers, she made Nina a
+cup of tea, and the subject of the afternoon's occurrence was dropped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE
+
+
+All that evening Nina was tense and nervous, not only because of her
+experience at the Palazzo Scorpa, but because of something portentous in
+Giovanni's unexplained demand for silence. He was not at the same dinner
+party with her, but she went on to a dance at the Marchese Valdeste's,
+feeling sure that she would have a chance to speak with him there. He
+always danced with her several times during a ball, and, as he was not
+very much taller than she, she could easily talk to him without danger
+of any one's overhearing.
+
+Her partners undoubtedly found her _distraite_; her attention vacillated
+from one side of the ballroom to the other, as she searched for a
+well-known, graceful figure and a small, sleek black head. All the time,
+too, she was fearful of seeing a square-jawed face that kept recurring
+to her memory as she had last seen it that afternoon--distorted, with
+mouth open, and eyes protruding from their sockets. Vivid pictures of
+the terrible incident flashed before her as she tried to listen to her
+partners; now she was swept with horror and revulsion, and again she
+felt a strange thrill at thought of the steely strength of Giovanni's
+arms, as he had half carried her down the stairway. But she looked in
+vain for her protector--neither he nor the duke appeared.
+
+"What is it, Signorina?" Prince Allegro's voice broke jarringly upon her
+recollections. "I am afraid I dance too fast!"
+
+Nina recovered herself with a start. "Oh, no! But I feel--a little
+tired; I wish we might sit down."
+
+"Let me conduct you into the next room--or shall I take you to the
+princess? Perhaps it would be better for you to go home."
+
+Nina smiled. "No," she said, "I am all right. The room is very warm,
+I think."
+
+The Contessa Potensi, walking for once with her husband, passed through
+the adjoining room just as Nina had finally succeeded in focusing her
+attention upon Allegro's sprightly chatter. As they passed, the contessa
+stopped a moment to say to Nina, "I am so glad to see that you have
+recovered from your sudden indisposition of this afternoon." But her
+tone was neither solicitous nor sincere, and she hid her hands in such a
+way that she might have been making with her fingers the little horns
+that are supposed to be a protection against the evil eye.
+
+"I am much better, thank you," Nina answered simply.
+
+"Don't let me keep you standing. I merely wanted to be assured that you
+are recovered. I would not interrupt a _tete-a-tete_!"
+
+The contessa's manner suggested to Nina that it was perhaps questionable
+taste for a young girl to sit out part of a dance. Instead, therefore, of
+resuming her place on the sofa, she asked Allegro to take her to the
+princess.
+
+During the rest of the evening she had an uncomfortable conviction that
+the Contessa Potensi was talking about her. She always had this impression
+in some degree whenever the contessa was present, but to-night it was
+strong and unmistakable. And after a while she became aware that other
+people's eyes were upon her with a new expression, that was not idle
+conjecture nor unmeaning curiosity. The old ladies against the wall
+whispered together and glanced openly in her direction, as their gray
+heads bobbed above their fans.
+
+At the end of the evening, as she was descending the staircase with her
+aunt and uncle, she was joined by Zoya Olisco, who whispered excitedly,
+"Tell me, _cara mia_--what happened this afternoon?"
+
+Nina started. "What have you heard?" She tried to look unconcerned, but
+her face was troubled, and she drew Zoya out of her aunt's hearing.
+
+"It is rumored that you lost your temper--oh, but entirely! and walked
+yourself out of the Palazzo Scorpa without so much as saying good-by or
+waiting for your chaperon."
+
+Nina hesitated, then said in an undertone, "Yes, I am afraid it is true.
+Was it a dreadful thing to do?"
+
+The contessa laughed softly. "I told you that you were a girl after my
+own heart. In your place I should have walked myself out of that house
+as quickly as I had entered, but all the same--that would not be my
+advice. However, this is not the serious part of the story." Even Zoya's
+buoyancy became restrained as she concluded: "All Rome is asking what
+you have done with the duke. He followed you out of the room and has not
+been seen since. Giovanni is said to have spoken of seeing him at the
+club--and that is known to be untrue. Carlo was at the Circolo d'Acacia
+all the afternoon; so was that Ugo Potensi, as well as a dozen others--and
+neither Scorpa nor Giovanni was there! So where is the duke? Come, tell
+me!"
+
+A look of terror came into Nina's eyes, and the young contessa darted
+her a swift returning glance of comprehension. "Listen, _carissima_,"
+she said, "I am your friend, therefore don't look so frightened--you are
+a regular baby! The situation is not difficult to read. Obviously there
+was a scene between you, the thick duke, and the agile Giovanni. Just
+what it was all about, of course, I can only surmise; but I _do_ know
+that Giovanni is deep in it, and, what is more important, I know also
+that the result is likely to be troublesome for you. For men to quarrel
+between themselves is one thing; but when a _woman_ comes into it, one
+can never see the end."
+
+"Woman? I know nothing of any woman." Nina shook her head.
+
+"I told you that you were a baby! But we can't talk here. I shall come
+to see you to-morrow, but not until late in the afternoon. I shall then
+perhaps be useful, for in the meantime I am going about like the wolf in
+the sheep's pelt, to see what news I can pick up. Till then--have
+courage!"
+
+Just then the Sansevero carriage was announced, and Nina was obliged to
+hasten after her aunt. At the door she glanced back at Zoya with a
+half-questioning look, which the contessa answered by blowing her a
+kiss.
+
+That night the little sleep Nina was able to get was fitful and broken
+by dreams. The duke and his mother appeared to her as cuttlefish in a
+cave under perpendicular cliffs that ran into the sea. Nina was out in a
+little boat alone, and the waves dashed the tiny craft nearer and nearer
+to the cave where the cuttlefish were waiting; finally she came so close
+that one tentacle seized her. Terrified, she awoke. After hours of
+half-waking, half-sleeping, formless confusion, she dreamed again. In
+this dream she and Giovanni were on horseback. She was sitting in a most
+precarious position on the horse's shoulder, but was held securely by
+Giovanni's arm around her waist. Behind them she heard the pounding of
+many horses in pursuit. The whole dream had the underlying terror of a
+nightmare, and just as the distance diminished, and they were nearly
+caught, the ground gave way and they pitched over a precipice. As they
+were falling and about to be dashed on the rocks at the bottom of the
+ravine, she heard a woman's laugh, and recognized it as that of the
+Contessa Maria Potensi.
+
+She awoke, trembling, and lit her lamp. It was nearly four o'clock, and
+she had slept but half an hour. Near her bed was an American magazine;
+she read the advertisements, to fill her mind with thoughts commonplace
+and practical enough to banish dreams. The sun was rising when at last
+she fell asleep, and she did not awake until nearly noon.
+
+The morning's mail brought her a letter from John Derby--a good letter,
+simple and frank, like himself, full of enthusiasm and of plans for
+making the "Little Devil" a model settlement. He would arrive in Rome,
+he told her, within a week. But even John's letter gave her only a few
+moments' relief from her distressing memories.
+
+Knowing that she had to pay visits with her aunt again that afternoon,
+she put on her hat before lunch, in the hope of securing an opportunity
+to speak with Giovanni while waiting for Eleanor, who always dressed
+after luncheon. When she was nearly ready to go down, Celeste answered a
+knock at the door, but, instead of delivering a package or message,
+disappeared. After at least five minutes she returned, and, with a
+noticeable air of mystery, locked the door, and then gave Nina a letter.
+"I was told to give this into Mademoiselle's hands, without letting any
+one know," she said.
+
+Nina felt an undefined misgiving as she tore open the envelope. Though
+she had never seen Giovanni's handwriting, she had no doubt that it was
+his. It looked as though it might not be very legible at best; but on
+the sheet before her the shaking, uneven letters trailed off into such
+filiform indistinctness that she had to go through it several times
+before she could decipher the following, written in French:
+
+         "Mademoiselle, I understand you well enough to be
+         sure that you will ask for the truth at all costs,
+         but in giving it to you, I also depend upon your
+         honor to divulge to no one, not even Eleanor, what
+         I tell you: I fought Scorpa this morning and have
+         sustained a bullet wound in the arm. Unfortunately,
+         it was impossible to hide, as the bone is broken
+         and it had to be put in plaster. Scorpa's condition
+         is, I am told, serious. If it goes badly, I shall
+         have to leave the country, though I doubt if he
+         allows the real cause to be known. I rely upon your
+         discretion as completely as you may rely upon my
+         having avenged an insult offered to the purest and
+         noblest of women.
+
+          "I beg you to believe, Mademoiselle, in the
+          respectful devotion of the humblest of your
+          servants.
+
+                                            "DI VALDO."
+
+
+Nina folded the letter and locked it away in her jewel case, moving as
+if in a daze. She felt faint and suffocated. Giovanni had risked his
+life--for her sake! He was hurt--what if the wound should prove serious,
+what if he should lose his arm! Oh, if only she might go to her aunt and
+pour out the whole story! But she was in honor bound to say nothing
+without Giovanni's permission, and she must master herself at once in
+order to appear as usual at luncheon.
+
+A little later, as she entered the dining-room, she heard the prince
+saying--"Pretty serious accident." He turned at once to her:
+
+"You have heard?" he said, and as she merely inclined her head, he
+hastened to explain: "Giovanni, it seems, slipped this morning and broke
+his arm. But, though the fracture is a very serious one, he is in no
+danger."
+
+Nina tried to speak, but her tongue seemed glued to the roof of her
+mouth. Naturally enough, both Eleanor and Sansevero interpreted her
+pallor and agitation as a sign of interest in Giovanni. "He broke the
+elbow," the prince continued; "a 'T' break, it is called, which may
+leave the joint stiff. There was a piece of bone splintered." Nina
+gripped the under edge of the table--she knew what had splintered the
+bone! She almost screamed aloud, but she set her lips, held tight to the
+table, and tried to appear calm; while Sansevero, in spite of his
+anxiety for his brother's condition, could not help feeling great
+satisfaction in what looked so encouraging to Giovanni's suit.
+
+"Giovanni went to the surgeon's," he continued. "Imagine--he walked
+there! He should never have attempted such a thing. He had quite an
+operation, for the splintered portions of the bone had to be cut away.
+The arm is now in plaster, and they won't be able to tell for weeks
+whether he ever can move his elbow again. They brought him home a couple
+of hours ago. He is now a little feverish, but a sister has come to
+nurse him, and we have left him to rest." Then Sansevero turned to his
+wife: "It all sounds very queer to me, Leonora. What was the matter with
+the boy, anyway? Why did he not send for me? And why did he not go to
+bed like a sensible human being and stay there?"
+
+Nina was on tenterhooks. She so wanted to ask her aunt and uncle what
+they really thought! She wondered if they truly had no suspicions. Or
+were they perhaps dissimulating as she herself was trying with poor
+success to do? She could not understand how the princess, who was
+usually quick of perception, could possibly be blind to the real facts
+of the case. She felt choked--as if she herself had fired the shot that
+might bring far more horrible consequences than her aunt and uncle knew.
+
+The princess, seeing Nina's face grow whiter and whiter, asked anxiously
+if she felt ill.
+
+"No--not a bit!" Nina answered, looking as though she were about to
+faint. After several unsuccessful attempts to turn the conversation into
+happier channels, the princess met with some success in the topic of
+John Derby and the miracles with which rumor credited him. Nina listened
+with half-pathetic interest, but her hands trembled, and the few
+mouthfuls she took almost refused to go down her throat. In her heart,
+at that moment, everything gave way to Giovanni. She reproached herself
+deeply for lack of belief in him. Always she had acknowledged that he
+was charming, but the doubt of his sincerity had weighed against her
+really caring for him. She had accepted John Derby's casual words, "The
+Europeans do a lot of beautiful talking and picturesque posing, but when
+it comes to real devotion you will find that one of your Uncle Samuel's
+nephews will come out ahead."
+
+All that was ended; there was no more question about what the Europeans
+would do when it came to a test. Giovanni had done far more than say
+beautiful, graceful things--he had proved to her that her honor was
+dearer to him than his life, and she was stirred to the very depths of
+her soul. In the midst of Eleanor's talk of John Derby, she tried to
+imagine what John would have done in Giovanni's place. He would have
+thrashed the man within an inch of his life--that she knew. But, manly
+as that would have been, it could not compare with Giovanni's course in
+silently waiting fourteen or fifteen hours and then deliberately going
+out in the dull gray dawn and standing up at forty paces as a target for
+Scorpa's bullet. She thought how, while she had been merely tossing in
+her bed, unable to sleep, intent on herself, dwelling on her injured
+dignity and the horror of that brute's touch, Giovanni had been sitting
+up through the same long night, putting his affairs in order, and
+looking death in the face! And she found herself forced to realize that
+Giovanni--whose instability had been the strongest argument against
+allowing herself to love him--had paid a price so high that his right to
+her faith must henceforward be unquestioned.
+
+She had only a vague idea when luncheon ended, or what visits she and
+her uncle and aunt paid that afternoon. She went through the rest of the
+day as though dazed. Fortunately, her agitation seemed natural to the
+prince and princess, and her apparent interest in Giovanni was so near
+to the truth that she did not mind. Late that afternoon she and Zoya
+Olisco sat together behind the tea table, for most of the time alone.
+Zoya had the story pretty straight, but Nina simply looked at her
+dumbly--answering nothing. She was relieved, however, to hear that, so
+far, people had evidently not ferreted out the facts.
+
+They were not to find out through the papers. On the morning after the
+duel, the _Tribunale_ had this paragraph:
+
+          "Society of Rome will be sorry to learn that the
+          Duke Scorpa is seriously ill at his Palazzo. The
+          doctor's bulletins announce that their illustrious
+          patient is suffering from a malignant case of
+          fever which at the best will mean an illness of
+          many weeks."
+
+But it was not until the next day that there was a paragraph to the
+effect that the Marchese di Valdo had met with an accident. A passer-by
+had seen him slip in front of his club, the Circolo d'Acacia. It seems
+the wind carried his hat off suddenly, and, as he put his hand out to
+catch it, he fell and broke his arm. Following this came several other
+social items, and then the second day's bulletin about the Duke Scorpa,
+saying that the gravity of his condition remained unchanged.
+
+Nina quite refused to be moved to pity by the news of Scorpa's critical
+state. Her only anxiety in connection with him was, what would they do
+to Giovanni, in case Scorpa should die? For _how_ was Giovanni to be got
+out of the country, when he was said to be delirious in bed! By day she
+thought, and by night she dreamed, that they were going to cut off his
+arm.
+
+As the excitement was dying down, John Derby returned from Sicily. He
+noticed that Nina looked nervous and ill, but she tried to convince him
+that it was the result of late hours and dancing. Besides, he had no
+opportunity of talking to her alone, for in consequence of his success,
+all who were interested in Sicily or mines flocked to the Palazzo
+Sansevero as soon as it became known that Derby was there. The fuss made
+over him pleased him, of course; for, after all, he was quite human and
+quite young, and there was great exhilaration in being the bearer of
+good news. He would not promise any definite amount to the holders of
+the "Little Devil." There would be some money, but that was all he could
+say. He did not yet know how much. To Nina's delight, he actually got
+Carpazzi to accept the position of Tiggs, who had to return to America.
+The plant, once started, no longer needed both engineers. And Carpazzi's
+tumble-down castle not far from Vencata, enabled him to go without hurt
+to his European ideas of dignity to "look after his own property."
+
+In spite of her explanations, John was very much worried about Nina. She
+certainly was not herself. Several times he caught a half-appealing look
+in her eyes, as though she had something weighing on her mind. Yet she
+gave him no chance to ask her confidence. Finally he had the good luck
+to be left with her for a few moments alone, but there was a lack of
+frankness in her face that he had never seen there before, and she had
+an apprehensive, frightened manner that alarmed him.
+
+The question he was almost ready to put, in spite of his resolution,
+remained unasked, and he said instead: "Look here, Nina, I don't think
+you are well! You're awfully jumpy. I never saw you like this at home.
+Has anything happened?"
+
+Nina shook her head.
+
+"Honest and straight?"
+
+She looked at him with a distracted expression that reminded him of a
+child afraid of losing its way.
+
+"Jack"--she hesitated; her voice sounded constrained--"please don't look
+so--so serious. It is nothing--that I can tell you! Don't notice that I
+am any different. Really, I am not. You are my best friend, and the
+first I would go to if I needed help."
+
+Yet, as she said the words, she felt with a sudden, poignant pain that
+they were no longer true. Her mind was in a turmoil, and at that very
+moment, had she followed her inclination, she would have screamed aloud.
+She did not understand why she was so wretched; but one thing was
+certain--it was Giovanni who filled her thoughts!
+
+Perhaps Derby interpreted the change in her. He put a question suddenly,
+"Nina, you couldn't really care for an Italian, could you?"
+
+Nina flushed. "I don't know whether I could or not," she said. "I think
+there may be just as wonderful men over here as at home. I know there
+are some that are quite as brave."
+
+Derby frowned. "Nina, Nina----"
+
+But Nina did not even hear his interruption. "I wish you knew Don
+Giovanni, Jack," she said. "You would like Italians better, I think!"
+
+"It is not that I think ill of Italians--quite the contrary; but--I
+should not like to think of your marrying Don Giovanni."
+
+"And why shouldn't I?" The question came near to summing up the problem
+of her own meditations, and his opposition--with its carefully
+maintained impersonal quality--piqued her and made the smoldering
+consideration of marrying Giovanni suddenly flame into a definite
+intention.
+
+"Well?" she repeated.
+
+"Because I think American men make the best husbands."
+
+Nina was brutal. "You say that because you are an American yourself!"
+
+He let the injustice of her remark pass unnoticed. "I merely repeat," he
+said calmly, "that, married to the Marchese di Valdo, you would be a
+very unhappy woman. That is my straight opinion. If you don't like it,
+I can't help it."
+
+"Why should I be unhappy?"
+
+"Don't let's discuss it."
+
+"That is just like an American. Do you wonder women care for Europeans?
+A man over here would sit down sensibly and tell you every sort of
+reason."
+
+"Yes, and one sort of reason as well as another. For, or against,
+whichever way the wind might happen to be blowing!"
+
+In spite of herself, Nina was disagreeably conscious of the truth of his
+judgment. But she shut her mind to it, as she exclaimed, "And you say
+you don't dislike Italian men!"
+
+"No, I don't! You are altogether wrong. I have been over here often
+enough to admire them tremendously, in a great many ways. But I don't
+like to see the girl I--the girl I have known all her life, marry a man
+that I feel sure will break her heart."
+
+"Aunt Eleanor's heart is not broken!"
+
+Derby walked up and down the floor, then stood still, stuffed his hands
+into his pockets, and looked down at his shoes as though their varnish
+were the only thing in life that interested him.
+
+"Well? Is Aunt Eleanor's heart broken?"
+
+"Perhaps not; but, even so, you and she are very different women. From
+her girlhood she was more or less trained for the life she leads. She
+went from a convent school to the house of a brother-in-law--in other
+words, from one dependence to another. She is the type of woman who
+weathers change and storm by bending to the wind."
+
+"Aunt Eleanor! Hers is the strongest character I know!"
+
+"Of course it is! But it is exactly because she is apparently
+unresisting and pliant to surrounding conditions that her spirit is
+unassailable. You, on the contrary, would snap in the first tempest! Or,
+to change the simile, have you ever seen a young bull calf tied to a
+tree, and, in a frantic effort to get loose, wind itself up tighter,
+until its head was pulled close to the tree? That is exactly what you
+would be over here. No girl has ever had her own way all her life more
+than you! Believe me, you have no idea what it would mean to be tied to
+a rope of convention that would tighten like a noose at any struggle on
+your part. As the wife of a man like di Valdo, you would be bound by
+endless petty formalities. Another thing--which your aunt has made me
+realize--as an American, you would have to excel the Italians in dignity
+in order to be thought to equal them. Things perfectly pardonable for
+them would finish you. You need only take your aunt and Kate Masco for
+your examples. Kate's behavior is not any worse than that of plenty of
+the born countesses, even. But that's just it--she _isn't_ a countess
+born, and her ways won't do! Your aunt, on the other hand, is '_grande
+dame_' in every fiber of her being. Hardly another woman in Rome has her
+graciousness and dignity. These qualities were hers, doubtless, from
+the beginning, but you needn't tell me even she found it as easy to be a
+princess as it would seem!"
+
+Nina looked up at Derby in open-eyed amazement. "Gracious, John! I never
+dreamed you were so observing! In a way, I imagine you are right, too.
+But at least, if a woman has to follow conventions to earn a position
+over here, that position is real and worth while when she does get it.
+And a woman like Aunt Eleanor is far more appreciated here than she
+would be at home."
+
+"Humph!" was Derby's retort. "You needn't think that all the
+appreciating of women is done in Italy, though the men at home may not
+put things so gracefully as these over here, who have nothing else to do
+but learn to turn beautiful phrases. I don't think that I am flattering
+myself in saying that if I were to give up my life to the one
+accomplishment of artistic love-making, I might make good, too! However,
+that is pretty far out of my line. I'm a blunt sort of person, but
+I--well, I care a lot for you, Nina! I'd rather see you marry--Billy
+Dalton, any day!"
+
+As Derby brought in Billy Dalton's name, Nina had a sense of flatness
+that she would have been at a loss to explain.
+
+"Jack!" she cried suddenly, her surface vanity piqued, but before even
+the sentence which crowded back of her exclamation could frame itself,
+Giovanni's image flashed before her mind and pushed out every other
+impression. She seemed to see him racked with suffering, and all for
+her! She hated her own vacillation. She despised herself for a fickle
+flirt. What else was she? Here she was imagining all sorts of vague
+heartaches that were utterly unworthy of her loyalty either to
+Giovanni's love or to Jack's friendship. Jack was her best friend,
+almost her brother, and she had no right to feel so limp because--she
+did not finish the sentence even to herself; yet she was swept into such
+a turmoil of emotion--friendship, love, pique, doubt--that she could
+restore nothing to order. She knew Derby thought Giovanni wanted her
+money--instinctively her mouth hardened as she thought of it--but
+then--every one wanted it except Jack! And at once, with an
+unaccountable baffling ache, she was brought face to face with the fact
+that Jack, as it happened, did not want her at all!
+
+Then, hating herself because she had for a moment thought of Jack as a
+possible suitor, and more especially because of the detestable and
+unworthy chagrin that his not being a suitor had caused her, she became
+hysterically erratic, aloof, and impossible, and began suddenly to talk
+like a paid guide about the sculptures at the Vatican! At the end of
+some minutes, during which Derby failed to get anything in the way of a
+natural remark from her, he arose to go. He left with a strong desire to
+send a doctor and a trained nurse to take Nina in hand.
+
+Down at the entrance of the palace a very pretty woman was speaking with
+the porter. She was talking vehemently and with much accompanying
+gesticulation. As Derby passed out, she looked up into his face. He put
+his hand to his hat, in a vague remembrance of her features, wondering
+where he had met her, and what her name might be. As he went through the
+archway into the street, the recognition came to him. She was the
+celebrated dancer, La Favorita.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+"THY PEOPLE SHALL BE MY PEOPLE--"
+
+
+The following morning, for the first time since his injury, Giovanni was
+brought into the princess's sitting-room, and propped up on a sofa. As
+occasionally happens in early spring, midsummer seemed to have arrived
+in one day, and the windows stood wide open to the morning breeze.
+
+Sitting in the full light of the windows, and close by Giovanni's couch,
+Nina was making a necktie--a very smart one, of dull raspberry silk; but
+she was knitting rather because the occupation steadied her nerves than
+for any other reason, and the charmingly tranquil picture that she made
+was very far from representing her feelings. She had never been less
+happy or peaceful in her life.
+
+The princess, within easy earshot, was busily writing at her desk. But
+after a while, in answer to an appealing look from Giovanni, she left
+the room. Nina felt no surprise either at Giovanni's appeal or at her
+aunt's response. She knew very well what he would say, and she had long
+been trying to make up her mind what her answer should be. Yet no sooner
+had the _portieres_ closed than an unaccountable dread took possession
+of her, and she had an overwhelming desire to escape.
+
+She knitted industriously, her head bent, her eyes intent upon her
+needles. For a while Giovanni lay back against the pillows, idly
+watching her progress; then he raised himself on his unbandaged elbow
+and leaned forward. Even this exertion revealed his weakness: an
+increasing pallor overspread his transparent features, and he spoke as
+sick people do--with difficulty and as though out of breath:
+"Mademoiselle, you know--what I have in my heart--to say----"
+
+"Don't, ah--please----" Nina sprang up and put out her hand in protest.
+
+But he paid no heed. "Donna Nina," he implored, "will you do me the
+honor to be my wife? _Carissima mia_--" she heard his voice as though
+from afar, as he fell back against the pillow--"I love you! Even a
+portion of how much I love you would fill a life!" He took her hand as
+she stood beside him, and pressed it to his lips.
+
+She felt how thin his hand was, and how it trembled. Her conscience
+smote her--it was all because of her! And for a moment the answer that
+he sought hung on the very tip of her tongue--hung, faltered--and then
+raced down her throat again. Her hand drew away from his clasp, and she
+almost sobbed, "I can't, I can't. Oh, I would if I could--but I can't!"
+
+Then she heard him say gently: "Give me an answer later--I am not such,
+just now, that I can hold my own--I will wait till I am strong again.
+Will you give me your answer then?" Half choking, she nodded her head in
+assent and hurried from the room.
+
+St. Anthony, the great Dane, who, since Giovanni's illness, had attached
+himself to Nina, stalked after her. She went through the intervening
+rooms into the picture gallery, and there dropped down upon a low marble
+seat and took the big dog's head in her arms.
+
+She believed in Giovanni's disinterestedness; he had given her every
+reason to think he truly loved her. It seemed to her that she had seen
+his real feeling grow gradually. If she could believe in any one _ever_,
+she must believe in him. Even the astute little Zoya Olisco had
+confirmed the impression by saying that all Rome knew that Giovanni
+cared nothing for money. There had been a very rich girl--all the
+fortune hunters were after her--and she was so strongly attracted to
+Giovanni that she made no effort to disguise her preference for him. But
+he showed no inclination to marry a rich wife.
+
+These and many other things were enough to convince Nina that his love
+was real, without the final proof when he had risked his life for her.
+In mere gratitude she would have made the effort to care for him. And
+yet the more she tried to encourage her sentiments, the more they
+baffled her. From the first she had felt timid of something unknown in
+Giovanni. She had thought herself in danger of being attracted too much,
+but now she felt that, throughout, the fear had been of another sort, a
+fear which she could not analyze.
+
+"What is the matter with me?" she whispered brokenly to St. Anthony. "We
+love Giovanni, don't we? We do! We do!" But her words were meaningless
+sounds that echoed hollowly.
+
+Then slowly she noted the great gallery filled with things flawless--the
+mellow canvases of the old masters, the marvelous statuary, perfect even
+in the brilliant light streaming through the eastern windows; and her
+thoughts turned backwards to that day when the allure of antiquity had
+most strongly held her--that day when she had first seen Giovanni dance.
+As the recollection grew in vividness, she was again aware of the same
+strange sensation that she had felt then. It was as though she were
+living in a past age, with which she, as Nina Randolph, had nothing to
+do. Her name might be Tullia or Claudia!
+
+And then once again the memory of Giovanni's high-bred charm, no less
+than of his great estate, which she was now asked to share, seemed to
+hold a spell of enchantment. His words, "_Carissima_, I love you," swept
+through her memory with a thrill that the spoken words themselves had
+failed to carry. She laid her cheek down on the dog's great head, her
+mouth close to a pointed ear. "We _do_ love him, thou and I," she
+whispered in Italian, "and we will stay here always--always."
+
+She unclasped her arms from about the dog's neck and sat up straight,
+determined to hurry back through the rooms, before the queer fear should
+seize her anew. She would not wait to analyze her feelings again; she
+would go straight to the sofa and say to Giovanni's ardent, appealing
+eyes--his beautiful Italian eyes--"Yes."
+
+But even as the resolve was shaped, there followed swift upon it an
+overwhelming wave of doubt that made her clasp her hands to still the
+turmoil within her breast. It was as if an inner voice repeated, clearly
+and insistently, "You don't love him! You don't love him!"
+
+The dog lifted one huge paw and put it on her knee, his head went up, he
+pushed his cold nose against her cheek, and as she lifted her chin, to
+escape his over-affectionate caress, her glance fell by chance on a
+picture of Ruth and Naomi. On the day when she had first come into the
+gallery Giovanni had repeated, in French, the words of Ruth; and now, as
+she gazed absently at the picture, she found that she was saying to
+herself, not in French but in English, "Thy people shall be my
+people----" Gradually an indescribable, comforted, soothed feeling crept
+over her, as she looked into the true, steadfast eyes of the pictured
+Ruth--hers were indeed the eyes of one who could follow faithfully to
+the ends of the earth.
+
+"'Whither thou goest, I will go,'" repeated Nina--yes, that was the
+test. Giovanni away from his surroundings, and apart from his name--she
+could not picture him. And should she put her hand in his, whither would
+he lead her? Where did his path of life end? She could not with any
+certainty guess. "Thy people shall be my people"--how could they ever
+be? They were so widely different--so utterly different--she had never
+realized it before--and then without warning, as a final move in a
+puzzle snaps into place and makes the whole complete, with a little cry
+she started up. For she now knew that the more she tried to focus her
+thoughts upon Giovanni, the more they turned to another quite different
+personality. Until at last, as in a burst of light, she awoke to the
+consciousness that the words of Ruth were bringing a great longing for
+the sight of a certain pair of eyes whose expression was like those in
+the canvas! "'Whither thou goest, I will go----' Ah!"--exultantly and
+with no fear of doubt; it was true! To the uttermost parts of the
+earth! . . .
+
+But she must tell Giovanni--she must tell him at once, decidedly and
+finally, "No."
+
+Sadly, regretfully, she crossed the room again, her hand slipped through
+the great Dane's collar as though to gain encouragement from his
+presence. In the antechamber of the room where Giovanni lay, she stopped
+and kissed St. Anthony's head--as though the dog in turn might help
+Giovanni to understand that she was not in truth as heartless as she
+seemed.
+
+The stone floors were covered with thick rugs, the hangings were heavy,
+and her light footfall made no sound. Without warning she parted the
+_portieres_, took one step across the threshold, and halted,
+stunned--the Contessa Potensi was kneeling beside Giovanni's couch, and
+the sound of Giovanni's voice came distinctly, saying, "For her? But no!
+But because she is of the household of the Sansevero." And then with an
+ardor that made the tones which he had used to her sound flat and
+shallow by comparison, she heard him say, "_Carissima_, I swear I shall
+never love another as I love you."
+
+The _portieres_ fell together, and Nina fled. Two or three times she
+lost her way in the endless turnings of the palace before she finally
+reached her own room. Once there, she wrote the shortest note
+imaginable, declining in terse and positive terms Giovanni's offer of
+marriage. The pen nearly dug through the paper as she signed her name.
+Besides giving Celeste this missive to deliver, she sent her upon a tour
+of trivial shopping--anything to be left alone.
+
+When the door was closed, Nina threw herself across the bed, still
+hardly able to credit her senses. Giovanni had asked her, Nina, to be
+his wife, not half an hour before--he still had the effrontery to hope
+for a change in her answer. He had dared to tell her that he loved her,
+he had dared to call her, too, "_Carissima!_"
+
+With her head buried in the pillows, she did not hear the door open, and
+the princess reached the bed and took Nina in her arms before the girl
+knew that she had entered.
+
+Nina poured out the whole story. The one clear idea that she had in mind
+was to leave Rome at once. She wanted to go away! Above all, she wanted
+to go away! She was by this time quite hysterical.
+
+The princess's coolness gradually dominated as she said finally: "The
+thing is incredible--you must have misunderstood. I don't know what the
+explanation is, myself, but the worst blunder we can make is to judge
+too hastily. I am sure it will come out differently than it seems, if
+you will but have patience."
+
+Savagely Nina turned on her. "Are you against me? _You_, auntie! Do you
+side with him? And that Potensi?"
+
+With an expression more troubled than angry, the princess answered
+gently, "Of course, my child, I don't side against you--but I can't
+believe that they were really as you thought they were."
+
+A sudden violent knocking interrupted, and at the same moment Sansevero,
+who had been looking for his wife everywhere, rushed in, quite beside
+himself, with the announcement that Scorpa was dead. The Sanseveros had
+for some days known the cause of his illness, and the doctor who had
+been at the duel had kept them informed of his condition. Now there was
+not a minute to lose! The news of the duke's death had not yet been
+made public, but Giovanni must be got out of the country at once, or
+there would be trouble! A train would go north in an hour, and the
+prince and princess hurried off to complete the arrangements for
+Giovanni's departure.
+
+Left alone in her room and to her own thoughts, Nina's anger gradually
+lessened. Giovanni's danger, and his having to be taken away so weak and
+ill, appealed to her humanity and helped to soften her resentment.
+Whether it had been for love of her or not, it was on her account that
+he had been placed in his present unfortunate situation. He was going
+out of her life--it was not likely that she would ever see him
+again--but it took an hour or two's turning of the subject over in her
+thoughts before she came to the conclusion that, instead of being
+resentful, she ought to be thankful for her escape. She had finally
+reached this frame of mind when there was a knock at the door.
+
+"May I come in, my dear?" Zoya Olisco entered as she spoke. She stood a
+second on the threshold, then, closing the door after her, crossed the
+room quickly and, taking Nina's face between her hands, looked at her
+with a half-quizzical grimace. "You silly little cat," she said softly,
+"surely you have not been melting into tears over the duke's death--nor
+yet for Giovanni's departure?"
+
+"How do you know about it? Aunt Eleanor didn't tell you, did she? Is
+the news of the duke's death out?"
+
+Zoya's raised eyebrows expressed satisfaction, and she exclaimed
+triumphantly: "I knew I was right! Really, it is extraordinary how
+things come about! No one has told me a word. Yet the whole story
+unrolled itself in front of me. Listen"--she interrupted herself long
+enough to light a cigarette, then sat down tailor fashion on the foot of
+the lounge--"I was but a moment ago at the station--my sister went back
+to Russia this morning. As I was leaving, whom did I see but Giovanni
+being piloted down the trainway! He looked really ill, and it would have
+struck any one as strange that he should be traveling. Then all at once
+I thought to myself, 'Hm, Hm! Signore il duca has descended into the
+next world, and the one who sent him there is being banished into the
+next country!' Thereupon I thought further, 'That child of a Nina will
+be hiding her head under the pillows of her bed'--exactly as you have
+been doing! How do I know? Look at your hair, and look at the
+pillows--and here I am to scold you!"
+
+Nina looked at her in amazement. "You have put it all together, you
+wonderful Zoya! Compared to you, I never seem to see anything! Oh, but
+this whole day has been full of horrible surprises. I never dreamed what
+sort of man Giovanni is--and yet I can't help feeling sorry to think of
+his being sent off ill and alone!"
+
+"How _very_ pathetic!" exclaimed Zoya sarcastically. "It is the very
+saddest thing I have ever heard of." Then her tone changed. "I would not
+waste too much sympathy on him for his loneliness, however," she said
+briskly, "as he has a very charming companion, who, if accounts are
+true, is not only diverting but devoted. That spoils your sad picture
+somewhat, does it not?"
+
+"The Potensi!" escaped Nina's lips before she knew it.
+
+Zoya blew rings of smoke unperturbed. "So you have found _that_ out,
+have you?"
+
+Nina colored with indignation. "Have you known that, too, and never told
+me? Zoya, you call yourself my friend!"
+
+But Zoya met Nina's glance squarely, as she asked in turn: "What
+difference does it make? Though, for that matter, I've made it plain all
+winter; any one but a baby would have understood long ago. But after
+all, why such an excitement over such a commonplace fact?" Then, with
+far more interest, she said: "You certainly are funny, you Americans.
+What in the world do you think men are? And since Giovanni is not even
+married? However, to finish my story: it was not the Potensi with your
+hero, but Favorita."
+
+"Favorita--the dancer? Zoya, what do you mean?"
+
+"Exactly what I tell you." Zoya inhaled her cigarette deeply and then
+shrugged her shoulders. "When I saw Giovanni, I did not believe it
+possible, that, even on so short notice, he would go off as you said,
+ill and alone. So I went back along the station and waited. In a moment,
+I saw Favorita come out on the platform and pass hurriedly down the
+train, peering into every carriage. When she came to Giovanni's she flew
+in like a bird. I waited a moment longer, and saw the guards lock the
+door and the train pull out!"
+
+Though Nina understood only vaguely what it all meant, she was human and
+feminine enough to find a certain grim satisfaction in the thought that
+Giovanni was no more to be trusted by the Potensi than by herself.
+
+A short time afterward Zoya got up to go. "I shall see you to-morrow,
+_cara_, yes? Will you lunch with me? And--I shall like very much if you
+bring the American."
+
+"Do you mean John?"
+
+Zoya burst out laughing and then mimicked Nina's tone. "Is it indeed
+possible that I could mean him?" She leaned over and kissed Nina
+affectionately, then hurried to the door. On the threshold she paused to
+call back, "One o'clock to-morrow, and be sure of John!" She smiled,
+blew another kiss, and was gone.
+
+Nina looked after her, her thoughts in strange turbulence. A moment
+later she ran a comb through her hair, pinned up one or two tumbled
+locks, washed her face, polished her nails, took out a clean
+handkerchief; after which, she felt quite made over, and went in search
+of her aunt.
+
+If she imagined that the day's emotions were ended, she was destined to
+be mistaken, for just as she went into the princess's room, a messenger
+came with a note from the prince, saying that he had been arrested. It
+was a very cheerful note and sounded rather as though he considered the
+whole situation a joke. He begged his wife not to be alarmed. The police
+had evidently mistaken him for Giovanni, so he had given no explanation
+and refused even to tell his name. When Giovanni should have time to
+reach the frontier, he would prove his identity and return home.
+
+The princess's chief anxiety was therefore directed toward Giovanni, and
+she dreaded lest Sandro's identity be discovered before his brother
+should be safe. As for Nina, she cared no longer what might happen to
+Giovanni. She had had too many shocks and too little time for recovery.
+All her sympathy was for her poor Uncle Sandro who, in the meantime, was
+sitting in jail! Yet the thought of his situation in some way struck her
+as ludicrous--almost like comic opera.
+
+But following this there came a second letter, very different from the
+first, written by the prince in great agitation, and saying that his
+arrest was not for the death of the duke, but for the smuggling of a
+Raphael out of the country.
+
+At the shock of this news, the princess for once lost her self-control
+and turned to Nina in frightened helplessness.
+
+Nina's first thought was to send for Derby, and to her relief the
+princess not only made no objection, but grasped eagerly at the
+suggestion. Fortunately, she got him on the telephone just as he was
+leaving his hotel, but in her agitation she did not stop to explain
+further than that her uncle was under arrest somewhere because of
+something to do with a picture. Derby answered that he would come at
+once, and the reassurance that she felt from the mere sound of his voice
+partly communicated itself through her to the princess, as they went
+into the sitting-room to wait for him. A few minutes later the
+_portieres_ were lifted--but instead of Derby, it was the Marchese
+Valdeste who entered.
+
+Happily he had been at a meeting in the Tribunale Publico when the
+prince was arrested, and, as an important official and a great personal
+friend of Sansevero's, had hurried to inform the princess what had
+happened, and to place himself at her service. The case was very serious
+not only because of the evidence against the prince, but because of the
+lofty way in which the latter had replied some weeks previously to an
+inquiry from the Ministero. Sansevero said his Raphael was in the
+possession of the Duke Scorpa, but the duke, who had been chiefly
+instrumental in discovering the sale of the picture, was unable to
+shield his friend. Sansevero was questioned again, and refused to say
+anything more. He had answered once, and that, in his opinion, was
+sufficient for a gentleman.
+
+The government thereupon had sent a representative to the Scorpa palace,
+where Sansevero averred the picture was. The duke's servants were
+catechised, but none had ever seen it. To add to the complication, the
+duke was far too ill to be questioned further, and Sansevero was at
+present injuring the case by making every moment more and more confused
+statements about his alleged transaction with Scorpa. First he said he
+had loaned it--because Torre Sansevero was cold; then that he had sold
+it for one hundred thousand _lire_; then that no money was received;
+then that he had let the duke have it as security, and that there was an
+agreement whereby he was to get his picture back. When he was asked to
+show a receipt in writing, he went into a rage.
+
+The princess, quick enough to see the treachery of Scorpa and the net of
+circumstantial evidence that he had thrown about them, felt utterly
+helpless. "It is true, even I did not actually see the duke take the
+picture," she said, "and I am the only one who knew anything about it.
+As Sandro's wife--my word will have no weight at all!"
+
+Valdeste solemnly shook his head. "I fear it is graver than that--for
+even Miss Randolph's word that she had made certain unusual expenditures
+would not be believed. The picture might too easily have been sold and
+paid for through her. Unless it can be produced _here in Italy_, the
+end may be bad. Somehow we must find a way to do that."
+
+Nina was getting every moment more and more nervous--she could not
+understand Derby's delay. Why did he not come? Since she telephoned, he
+could have covered the distance from the Excelsior half a dozen times.
+Every second of glancing at the door seemed a minute, and the minutes
+hours. After the disillusionments she had suffered she actually was
+beginning to think that he, too, would fail her in the crucial moment,
+when, at last, the _portieres_ parted, and Derby entered carrying--the
+celebrated Sansevero Madonna!
+
+The princess and the marchese were so astonished that only Nina seemed
+to notice Derby himself. With a cry of "_Jack!_ How _did_ you do it?"
+she sprang up, staring at him in bewilderment.
+
+The sound of Nina's voice drew the princess's attention to Derby, and
+she, too, started toward him.
+
+"John! What does it all mean?" she exclaimed, quite unconscious that she
+had called him by his first name.
+
+"It means a rotten plot--neither more nor less--to ruin Prince
+Sansevero, concocted by a man whom the prince believed to be his friend!
+The Duke Scorpa has just died, which ends the affair for him, but I have
+the whole chain of evidence that clears the prince. The picture was
+taken in exchange for a promissory note of the prince's, for one hundred
+thousand _lire_. The duke tore the paper up and threw it into the
+waste-paper basket. Luigi Callucci, who was his servant, gathered the
+scraps out of the basket and pasted them together. This same Luigi also
+wrapped up the picture and carried it to Shayne. That's all, officially.
+Actually, there is a good deal more. The facts are that the duke sold it
+with perfect knowledge that it was to be smuggled out of the country. I
+have all the information necessary."
+
+"It is incredible, incredible--the duke Scorpa!" exclaimed Valdeste.
+"But that the Prince Sansevero is cleared is the main thing." Then,
+turning to Derby, he continued, "I hope you will allow me to express to
+you my admiration and congratulation for the way in which you have
+brought it about."
+
+Upon this the princess joined the marchese by holding her hand out to
+Derby. "I never can thank you enough for what you have done! But for
+you, we should be in a very bad way. I quite agree with the Archbishop
+of Vencata that you must be a miracle worker!" Her voice was a little
+tremulous as she broke off. Then, including the marchese also, she
+added: "But now, my good, kind friends, go, please, and get Sandro out
+of his situation. My poor boy must be in a terrible state of nerves.
+And--thank you both again!"
+
+The marchese and Derby hurried out, Derby carrying the picture. Nina
+followed them out of the door and stood looking after them until they
+had disappeared down the vista of rooms. Then she exclaimed: "Really,
+John is wonderful, isn't he? Wasn't it just like him not to say a word
+all the time! So many people talk, and do nothing!" Then Nina noticed
+that the princess was holding her hands over her face. She hurried to
+her anxiously. "Aunt Eleanor, what is it?"
+
+The princess put her hands down. "I am just thankful--that is all. It
+threatened to be so dreadful, I can scarcely realize the relief yet.
+What a chain of circumstances! It is almost impossible to believe that
+even Scorpa would plan them! But it is true I never trusted him. When
+there is a race feud over here it seems never to die out." She paused a
+few moments, and then continued as though half to herself, "Although, in
+this case, I think it was chiefly on account of Giovanni. If you had
+married him, and the duke had lived, I believe he would have spent the
+rest of his life in scheming to injure you and everybody connected with
+us."
+
+At the suggestion of the marriage which might have taken place, all the
+experiences of that varied day came rushing back to Nina--Giovanni's
+proposal, the revelation of his falseness, and the conversation with
+Zoya which had given her the true key to him who had until then been
+something of a mystery.
+
+With a strained intensity of tone, she suddenly demanded, "Aunt Eleanor,
+tell me, supposing I had _wanted_ to marry Giovanni, would you have made
+no protest?"
+
+The princess answered thoughtfully: "I am glad you are not to marry
+Giovanni--yes, I am glad. Yet even so, he might make a good husband."
+
+Instantly the blood rushed to Nina's head, "Don't you love me more than
+to let me risk a life of wretchedness?" she exclaimed, but the look in
+her aunt's face brought from the girl an immediate apology, and
+presently the princess said:
+
+"I don't think I should want you to marry over here at all. At first I
+hoped it might be possible--but I am afraid you would be unhappy. There
+are plenty of girls who might be content, but not you!" The princess
+took her sewing out of a near-by chest and began hemming a table cloth.
+
+"You mean," said Nina, "that when one reads of the broken hearts and
+lost illusions of Americans married to Europeans, the accounts _are_
+true? Why did you not tell me before?"
+
+"I don't know, dear. Probably because such accounts are, to me, purely
+sensational writing--and yet at the bottom of them lies a certain amount
+of truth. In the majority of such cases of wretchedness, if you sift out
+the facts, you will wonder not so much at the outcome, as that such a
+marriage could ever have taken place. When it happens that a nice,
+sweet, wholesome girl marries a disreputable nobleman, who is despised
+from one end of Europe to the other, American parents seem to feel no
+horror until she has become a mental, moral, and physical wreck. To us
+over here it was unbelievable that a decent girl could think of
+marrying him; that her parents could be so dazzled by the mere title of
+'Lady' or 'Marquise' or 'Grafin' or 'Principessa' that they were willing
+to give her into the keeping of an unspeakable cad, brute, or rake. Do
+you think that it is the fault of Europe if such girls know nothing but
+wretchedness?"
+
+The princess paused, then continued: "On the other hand, if a girl
+marries in Europe as good a man, regardless of his title, as the
+American she would probably have chosen at home; and, above all--for
+this is most essential--if she is adaptable enough to change herself
+into a European, rather than to expect Europe to pattern itself upon
+her, she will have as good a chance of happiness as comes to any one.
+Marriage is a lottery in any event. Of course, _if_ it turns out badly
+abroad, it is worse for her than it would have been at home--much worse.
+Everything over here is, in that case, against her: custom, language,
+law, religion; she is literally thrown upon her husband's indulgence. In
+a contest against him she would have no chance at all--there is no
+divorce; there is no redress.
+
+"Yet, so far as my personal observation goes, numberless international
+marriages have been happy. The American wife of a European finds many
+compensations--for although her husband does not allow her freedom to
+follow her own whims, and may not even permit her to spend her own
+money, he gives her a ceaseless attentiveness that never relaxes into
+the careless indifference of the husbands across the sea.
+
+"It is after all a question of choice--do you want the little things of
+life very perfectly polished or do you prefer rough edges and heroic
+sizes! European men know how to make themselves charming to their wives,
+because with them to be charming is an aim in itself. They have
+versatility, ease, and grace of intellect, where the American men are
+bound up in their one or two absorbing ideas, outside of which they take
+no interest. The Europeans are brilliant conversationalists, they make
+an effort to be agreeable and to take an interest in whatever occupies
+the person they are talking to--even though that person is a member of
+their family.
+
+"But, of course, as in everything, there is a price one has to pay. One
+can't have rigidity and flexibility both in the same person. For the
+pliancy of understanding, the easy sympathy, one has to relinquish a
+certain moral steadfastness."
+
+Suddenly the princess looked away and spoke very lightly, as though
+merely brushing over the surface of the thoughts in her mind: "What
+would you have, dear? Men are men--it is well not to question too far.
+Even the best of them have to be forgiven sometimes." Under the light
+tone, there was an unwonted vibration, and though the princess's face
+was partly averted, Nina caught a shadow of pain in her eyes. But the
+next moment she smiled. "I can tell you a story," she said, "about a
+young bride whose husband was very fascinating to women. The young
+wife, with suspicions of his devotion to another lady, went in tears to
+her mother-in-law. But the old lady asked her, 'Is not Pietro an
+admirable husband? And is he not a most devoted and attentive lover as
+well?' And the bride sobbed, 'Oh, yes, that is the worst of it--it is
+almost impossible to believe in his faithlessness, he is so adorable.'
+And her mother-in-law answered: 'Then, my child, be glad that you have
+in your husband one of the most accomplished lovers in the world, and do
+not inquire too closely where he gets his practice.'"
+
+"Do you mean to say that a woman can be happy under such circumstances?"
+Nina demanded. "If that is a typical foreigner, then I am glad American
+men are different! I'd rather my husband were less accomplished and more
+entirely mine."
+
+"Yes, dear, I am sure you would," the princess rejoined. "That is one of
+the reasons why I told you. For you, I think a European marriage would
+be--not best." She looked up quickly. "You ought to marry some one--I'll
+describe him--some one quite strong, quite big, quite splendid. And his
+name is easy to guess--of course it's John."
+
+"John!" echoed Nina dolefully. "John is just the one person above all
+others who does not want to marry me--or even my money!"
+
+"Your money, no! But _you_, indeed yes."
+
+Nina shook her head. "No--he is not in love with me. In nothing that he
+has said or even looked, has he indicated it."
+
+"You are a little mole, then," said the princess, smiling. "Every look
+he gives you, even every expression of his face in speaking about you,
+tells the story."
+
+Like a whirlwind Nina threw herself at her aunt's knees, pulled her
+sewing away, and claimed her whole attention. "Tell me everything you
+know," she demanded hungrily. "Why haven't you told me before? Why do
+you think so? What has he said to you? Dearest auntie princess, tell me
+every word he has said. Quick! Every word----"
+
+The princess, between tears and laughter, looked down at Nina. "Every
+word? Oh, my very dear," she said tenderly, "his love is not of the
+little sort that spends itself in words."
+
+And then suddenly they heard the sound of two men's voices, and the next
+moment the _portieres_ parted, admitting Sansevero and Derby. Both the
+princess and Nina sprang up; the princess in her joy ran straight to her
+husband's arms. It was like a meeting after a long separation that had
+been full of perils.
+
+A little later she put out her hand to Derby. "I don't think I shall
+ever be able to thank you enough; it was quite worth all the anxiety and
+distress to have found such a friend." Her smile was entrancing. The
+charm of her was always not so much in what she said, as in the way she
+said it--in the way she gave her hand, in the way she looked at one, in
+the varying inflection of her voice, in her sweetness, her calm, her
+dignity, and, under all these attributes, always her heart. And never
+had she shown them all more vividly than now as she put her hand into
+Derby's.
+
+Then they all four sat down--the princess in a big chair and her husband
+on the arm of it leaning half back of her. And nothing could stop his
+talk about his friend the American, and the effect upon the members of
+the committee when the picture was produced and Derby presented his
+chain of evidence. They had been more than polite and courteous to the
+prince, that was true, but they _had_ detained him; him, a
+Sansevero!--and in the telling he again grew indignant. And yet it had
+been a terrible chain of evidence, and he had not seen how it was to be
+broken.
+
+Then he branched off from his own affair, and went into an account of
+all that he had just heard of the experience of Derby himself with
+Calluci; and the adventure, in spite of Derby's protests, certainly lost
+nothing in the recital. The princess and Nina had not heard of this, and
+Nina sat and gazed at the hero in mute rapture. In fact, the only one
+whose feelings were at all uncertain was Derby. Not but that it was
+pleasant to hear such praise of himself but it is very hard to be a hero
+unless one has no sense of humor at all. When the prince had used up
+half the adjectives of praise and admiration in the Italian language,
+and was about to begin on the other half, Derby succeeded in
+interrupting.
+
+"By the way, princess," he said, "I have something I meant to show you
+this morning, but the other matter put it out of my mind." He drew a
+paper out of his pocket and handed it to her. She opened it, the prince
+looking over her shoulder. It was a sheet of foolscap covered with fine
+writing and many figures in groups and in columns.
+
+"But what does it mean?" she asked.
+
+"It is our first balance sheet at the mines. These are the tons of ore
+taken out," he answered, pointing to various totals, "this is the
+present market price paid for the first shipment, and this is the amount
+we are turning out now per day. At the same rate, the year's payment, at
+a conservative estimate, will be that amount. At all events I shall send
+you a check the first of August for fifty thousand _lire_."
+
+"Fifty thousand _lire_! Oh, Sandro!" The instinct of the woman showed,
+in that her husband was her first thought; and her voice vibrated
+joyously. "Fifty thousand _lire_!" they both repeated as though unable
+to comprehend--and then, the full meaning of it dawning upon him, the
+prince threw his arms about her in wild exuberance.
+
+"Oh, my dear one!"--he punctuated each phrase with kisses--"now you
+shall have everything . . . everything . . . your heart can wish! Stoves
+you shall have . . . servants and dresses. . . . Yes, and your emeralds!
+And your pearls! You shall have . . . emeralds set in a footstool! Every
+_soldo_ is for you, _carissima_, it is all _yours_, YOURS!"
+
+Gently she stopped him. "Sandro," she smiled, "Sandro _mio_, not the
+mines of the Indies could supply your plans for spending!" Then her
+voice broke, but she laughed through her tears and buried her face
+against his throat.
+
+After a moment the princess recovered herself. She looked up, blushing
+like a girl--a little self-conscious that any one should have witnessed
+the scene between herself and her husband. "We are very foolish," she
+laughed. "But it is good to feel so joyous as that!" She got up and, as
+she passed Nina, she put her hand caressingly under the girl's chin. "It
+has not been a bad day, after all, has it?" she said. "And when fortune
+begins to come, it always comes in waves--the difficulty is to make it
+begin." Then she looked back at her husband, "Sandro, come with me, will
+you? These children will not mind, I am sure, if we leave them for a
+little while, and I want very much to talk to you." She smiled her
+apology to Nina and Derby, who both stood up. Then she and the prince
+went out of the door together, his arm about her waist.
+
+When they had gone, Nina said softly: "They are dears, aren't they! Oh,
+Jack, aren't you proud to think you are the cause of every bit of the
+gladness they are feeling to-day?" She glanced up at him, her eyes
+alight with a brilliant softness and tenderness. But he did not look at
+her, and so answered merely her words: "I guess it would have worked out
+all right, anyway." And then he seemed to study the pattern of the
+carpet, and there was silence.
+
+Nina stood leaning against a heavy table, and Derby stood near her with
+his hands in his pockets and his attention engrossed on the floor. Both
+seemed incapable of speaking or moving, as though a hypnotic spell had
+fallen upon them. Twice, while her aunt and uncle were in the room,
+Derby had looked at her with an expression that set Nina's heart
+beating, but now they were alone it had entirely vanished and he kept
+his head persistently turned away. She wondered how she could ever have
+failed to find his profile splendid. But he seemed so detached, so
+bafflingly absorbed, that all the old ache that she had felt that day
+when he had advised her to marry Billy Dalton--and since--came
+suffocatingly back. The old doubt suddenly gripped her--could her aunt
+be mistaken?
+
+Finally, it came to her, intuitively, that her whole future was hanging
+on this moment, and the impulse was overwhelming to forget that she was
+the woman. It seemed that she must herself force the issue and end the
+doubt, at all hazards--this doubt which hammered at the door of her
+intellect and yet which her heart refused stubbornly to accept.
+
+"Jack"--she tried hard to carry out her resolve not to let the false
+pride of a moment perhaps spoil her whole life; but the inborn reserve
+of generations of womanhood rebelled. In her uncertainty and anguish
+each moment of silence seemed weighted into leaden despair, but she was
+utterly unable to say what she had intended. At last her lips parted
+and, like the wail of a lost child, "Jack----" she cried. It was all she
+could say before her eyes filled and a queer little gulp came into her
+throat; then, with superhuman effort yet hardly articulate, came the
+whisper, "H-ave you n-othing to say--to me?"
+
+All at once he turned and looked at her--looked again and caught her by
+the shoulders. The love and ardor of which the princess had spoken
+flamed unmistakably in his expression now--she saw him swallow hard, and
+it seemed to her as though her very soul were wandering lost in the blue
+spaces of his eyes as they searched hers, and then through it all his
+voice came huskily.
+
+"Nina!"
+
+For another long, intense moment he gazed at her earnestly, then "Nina!
+Nina!" he cried again, the wonder breaking through his tone. "Do you
+understand--do you _mean_ what you are looking? Do you love me
+like--that?"
+
+She tried to answer, but could not, though a little smile quivered in
+the corner of her mouth, and the dimple in her cheek was softly
+visible. Then she looked up again through her tears. A radiance
+indescribable lit the man's face, making his rugged features
+beautiful--then swiftly he stooped and gathered her to his heart.
+
+
+THE END
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors corrected.
+
+Page 18, "personailty" changed to "personality" (personality to the
+mind).
+
+Page 132, "acount" changed to "account" (On account of the).
+
+Page 148, "flckle" changed to "fickle" (that he is fickle).
+
+Page 154, "Suarts" changed to "Stuarts" (Stuarts had a son).
+
+Page 158, "look" changed to "looked" (He looked bored).
+
+Page 194, the word "bosom" was presumed. Text was obscurred. (amplitude
+of her bosom)
+
+Page 208, "trivalities" changed to "trivialities" (time for
+trivialities).
+
+Page 236, "himeslf" changed to "himself" (in himself and).
+
+Page 240, "fortaste" changed to "foretaste" (a foretaste of inferno).
+
+Page 302, "Giovvanni" changed to "Giovanni" (it was Giovanni).
+
+Page 319, "exhileration" changed to "exhilaration" (great exhilaration
+in).
+
+Page 322, "that" changed to "than" (graver than that).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Title Market, by Emily Post
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