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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Own Set, by Ossip Schubin
+
+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: Our Own Set
+       A Novel
+
+Author: Ossip Schubin
+
+Translator: Clara Bell
+
+Release Date: March 24, 2011 [EBook #35673]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR OWN SET ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Arcive
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://www.archive.org/details/ourownsetanovel00schugoog
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              OUR OWN SET
+
+
+                                A NOVEL
+
+
+
+                                   BY
+
+                             OSSIP SCHUBIN
+
+
+
+                     From the German by CLARA BELL
+
+
+
+               REVISED AND CORRECTED IN THE UNITED STATES
+
+
+
+                                NEW YORK
+                   WILLIAM S. GOTTSBERGER, PUBLISHER
+                            11 MURRAY STREET
+                                  1884
+
+
+
+
+
+
+         Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884
+                       by William S. Gottsberger
+       in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington
+
+
+
+
+         THIS TRANSLATION WAS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THE PUBLISHER
+
+
+
+
+                                Press of
+                         William S. Gottsberger
+                                New York
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              OUR OWN SET
+
+
+
+
+
+                                PART I.
+
+                             THE CARNIVAL.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+
+At Rome in 1870. Roman society was already divided into "_Le Monde
+noir_" and "_Le Monde blanc_" which as yet gave no sign of amalgamation
+into a "_Monde gris_." His Holiness the Pope had entrenched himself in
+the Vatican behind his prestige of martyrdom; and the King already held
+his court at the Quirinal.
+
+Among the distinguished Austrians who were spending the winter in Rome
+were the Otto Ilsenberghs. Otto Ilsenbergh, one of the leading members
+of the Austrian feudal aristocracy, was in Rome professedly for his
+health, but in reality solely in order to avail himself of the
+resources of the Vatican library in compiling that work on the History
+of Miracle which he has lately given to the world under a quaint
+pseudonym. He and his wife with a troup of red-haired Ilsenberghs, big
+and little, inhabited a straggling, historical palazzo on the Corso,
+with a glacial stone staircase and vast drawing-rooms which looked more
+fit for the meetings of conspirators than for innocent tea-drinkings
+and dances.
+
+The countess was "at home" every evening when there was no better
+amusement to be had. She was by birth a princess Auerstein, of the
+Auerstein-Zolling branch, in which--as we all know--the women are
+remarkable for their white eyebrows and their strict morality. The
+Ilsenbergh _salon_ was much frequented; the prevailing tone was by no
+means formal; smoking was allowed in the drawing-room--nay the countess
+herself smoked: to be precise she smoked _regalias_.
+
+It was in the beginning of December; a wet evening and the heavy drops
+splashed against the window panes. Count Ilsenbergh was sitting in an
+immense reception-room decorated with frescoes, at a _buhl_ table,
+evidently constructed for no more arduous duties than the evolution of
+love letters. He was absorbed in the concoction of an article for "Our
+Times." A paper of strictly aristocratic-conservative tendencies,
+patronized by himself, taken in by his fellow-aristocrats, but read by
+absolutely no one--excepting the liberal newspaper writers when in
+search of reactionary perversities. Count Ilsenbergh was in great
+trouble; the Austrian Ministry had crowned their distinguished
+achievements by one even more distinguished--for the fourth time within
+three years a new era was announced, and in defiance of prejudice a
+spick-and-span liberal ministry was being composed, destined no doubt
+to establish the prosperity of the Austrian people on a permanent
+basis--and beyond a doubt to cause a fresh importation of
+"Excellencies" into the fashionable _salons_ of the Ringstrasse at
+Vienna. Count Ilsenbergh was prophesying the end of all things.
+
+The countess was sitting at her ease on a sofa close to the fire-place,
+with its Renaissance chimaeras of white marble. The handsomest editions
+of the works of Ampère and Mommsen lay on the tables, but she held on
+her lap a ragged volume of a novel from a circulating library. She was
+a tall, fair woman with a high color and apricot-colored hair, a
+languid figure, slender extremities and insignificant features; she
+spoke French and German alike with a strong Viennese accent, dressed
+unfashionably, and moved awkwardly; still, no one who knew what was
+what, could fail to see that she was a lady and an aristocrat. At all
+court functions she was an imposing figure, she never stumbled over her
+train and wore the family diamonds with stately indifference.
+
+The portière was lifted and General von Klinger was announced. General
+von Klinger was an old Austrian soldier whose good fortune it had been
+to have an opportunity of distinguishing himself with his cavalry at
+Sadowa, after which, righteously wroth at the national disaster, he had
+laid down his sword and retired with his General's rank to devote
+himself wholly to painting. Even as a soldier he had enjoyed a
+reputation as a genius and had covered himself with glory by the way in
+which he could sketch, with his gold-cased pencil on the back of an old
+letter or a visiting-card, a galloping horse and a jockey bending over
+its mane; a work of art especially admired for the rapidity with which
+it was executed. Since then he had studied art in Paris, had three
+times had his pictures refused at the _salon_ and had succeeded in
+persuading himself that this was a distinction--in which he found a
+parallel in Rousseau, Delacroix and fifty fellow-victims who had been
+obliged to submit to a similar rebuff. Then he had come to Rome, an
+unappreciated genius, and had established himself in a magnificent
+studio in the Piazza Navona, which he threw open to the public every
+day from three till five and which became a popular rendezvous for the
+fashionable world. They laughed at the old soldier's artistic
+pretensions, but they could not laugh at him. He was in every sense of
+the word a gentleman. Like many an old bachelor who cherishes the
+memory of an unsuccessful love affair in early life, he covered a
+sentimental vein by a biting tongue--a pessimist idealist perhaps
+describes him. He was handsome and upright, with a stiffly starched
+shirt collar and romantic dark eyes--a thorough old soldier and a
+favorite with all the fine ladies of Roman society.
+
+"It is very nice of you to have thought of us," said the countess
+greeting him heartily; "it is dreadful weather too--come and warm
+yourself."
+
+The count looked up from his writing: "How are you General?" he said,
+and then went on with his article, adding: "Such an old friend as you
+are will allow me to go on with my work; only a few lines--half a dozen
+words. These are grave times, when every man must hold his own in the
+ranks!"--and the forlorn hope of the feudal cause dipped his pen in the
+ink with a sigh.
+
+The general begged him not to disturb himself, the countess said a few
+words about some musical soirée, and presently her husband ended his
+page with an emphatic flourish, exclaiming: "That will give them
+something to think about!" and came to join them by the fire.
+
+A carriage was heard to draw up in the street.
+
+"That may be Truyn, he arrived yesterday," observed the countess, and
+Count Truyn was in fact announced.
+
+Erich Truyn was at that time a man of rather more than thirty with hair
+prematurely gray and a glance of frosty indifference. People said he
+had been iced, for he always looked as though he had been frozen to the
+marrow in sublime superiority; his frigid exterior had won him a
+reputation for excessive pride, and totally belied the man. He was an
+uncommonly kind and noble-hearted soul, and what passed for pride was
+merely the shrinking of a sensitive nature which had now and again
+exposed itself to ridicule, perhaps by some outburst of high-flown
+idealism, and which now sought only to hide its sanctuary from the
+desecration of the multitude.
+
+"Ah! Truyn, at last, and how are you?" cried the countess with sincere
+pleasure.
+
+"Much as ever," replied Truyn.
+
+"And where is your wife?" asked Ilsenbergh.
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"Is she still at Nice?"
+
+"I do not know." And as he spoke his expression was colder and more set
+than before.
+
+"Are you to be long in Rome?" said the countess, anxious to divert the
+conversation into a more pleasing channel.
+
+"As long as my little companion likes and it suits her," answered
+Truyn. His 'little companion' always meant his only child, a girl of
+about twelve.
+
+"You must bring Gabrielle to see me very soon," said the lady. "My Mimi
+and Lintschi are of the same age."
+
+"I will bring her as soon as possible; unluckily she is so very shy she
+cannot bear strangers. But she has quite lost her heart to the general
+and to our cousin Sempaly."
+
+"What, Nicki!" exclaimed the countess. "Do you mean that he has the
+patience to devote himself to children?"
+
+"He has a peculiar talent for it. He dined with us to-day."
+
+"He is an unaccountable creature!" sighed the countess. "He hardly ever
+comes near us."
+
+At this moment a quick step was heard outside and Count Sempaly was
+announced.
+
+"_Lupus in Fabula!_" remarked Ilsenbergh.
+
+The new-comer was a young man of eight or nine and twenty, not tall,
+but powerfully though slightly built; his remarkably handsome, well-cut
+features and clear brown complexion were beautified by a most engaging
+smile, and by fine blue eyes with dark lashes and shaded lids. Under
+cover of that smile he could say the most audacious things, and whether
+the glance of those eyes were a lightning flash or a sunbeam no one had
+ever been quite certain. He gallantly kissed the tips of the countess's
+fingers, nodded to the men with a sort of brusque heartiness, and then
+seated himself on a cushion at the lady's feet.
+
+"Well, it is a mercy to be allowed to see you at last; you really do
+not come often enough, Nicki; and in society I hardly ever meet you,"
+complained the countess in a tone of kindly reproof. "Why do you so
+seldom appear in the respectable world?"
+
+"Because he is better amused in the other world!" said Ilsenbergh with
+a giggle in an undertone.
+
+But a reproachful glance from his wife warned him to be sober.
+
+"I simply have not the time for it," said Sempaly half laughing. "I
+have too much to do."
+
+"Too much to do!" said Truyn with his quiet irony.... "In
+diplomacy?--What is the latest news?"
+
+"A remarkable article in the '_Temps_' on the great washing-basin
+question," replied Sempaly with mock gravity.
+
+"The washing-basin question!" repeated the others puzzled.
+
+"Yes," continued Sempaly. "The state of affairs is this: When, not long
+since, the young duke of B---- was required to serve under the
+conscription, his feelings were deeply hurt by the fact that he had not
+only to live in barracks, but to wash at the pump like a common
+soldier. This so outraged his mamma that she went to the Minister of
+War to petition that her son might have a separate washing-basin; but
+after serious discussion her application was refused. It was decided
+that this separate washing-basin would be a breach of the Immortal
+Principles of '89."
+
+"It is hardly credible!" observed Truyn; Ilsenbergh shrugged his
+shoulders and the countess innocently asked:
+
+"What are the immortal principles of '89?"
+
+"A sort of ideal convention between the aristocracy and the canaille,"
+said Sempaly coolly. "Or if you prefer it, the first steps towards the
+abdication of privilege at the feet of the higher humanity," he added
+with a smile.
+
+The countess was no wiser than before, Sempaly laughed maliciously as
+he fanned himself with a Japanese screen, and Ilsenbergh said: "Then
+you are a democrat, Sempaly?"
+
+"From a bird's-eye point of view," added Truyn drily; he had not much
+faith in his cousin's liberalism.
+
+"I am always a democrat when I have just been reading 'The Dark Ages,'"
+said Sempaly--'The Dark Ages' was the name he chose to give to
+Ilsenbergh's newspaper.--"Besides, joking apart, I am really a liberal,
+though I own I am uneasy at the growing power of the radicals. By the
+bye, I had nearly forgotten to give you two items of news that will
+delight you Fritzi,"--addressing the countess. "The reds have won all
+the Paris elections, and at Madrid they have been shooting at the
+king."
+
+"Horrible!" exclaimed the countess, and she shuddered, "we shall see
+the Commune again before long."
+
+"'93," said Truyn, with his tone of dry irony.
+
+"We really ought to draw a cordon round the Austrian throne to protect
+it against the pestilential flood of democracy," said Sempaly very
+gravely. "Ilsenbergh you must petition the upper house."
+
+"Your jokes are very much out of place," said the countess, "the matter
+is serious."
+
+"Oh, no! not for us," said Truyn. "Our people are too long suffering."
+
+"They are sound at the core," interrupted Ilsenbergh with dramatic
+emphasis.
+
+"They do not yet know the meaning of liberty," said Sempaly laughing,
+"and to them equality is a mere abstraction--a metaphysical delicacy."
+
+"They are thoroughly good and loyal!" exclaimed Ilsenbergh, "and they
+know...."
+
+"Oh!" cried Sempaly, "they know very little and that is your safeguard.
+When once their eyes are opened your life will cease to be secure. If I
+had been a bricklayer I should certainly have been a socialist," and he
+crossed his arms and looked defiantly at his audience.
+
+"A socialist!" cried Ilsenbergh indignantly. "You!--never. No, you
+could not have been a socialist; your religious feelings would have
+preserved you from such wickedness!"
+
+"Hm!" replied Sempaly suspiciously, and Truyn said with a twist of his
+lips:
+
+"As a bricklayer Sempaly might not have been so religious; he might
+have found some difficulty in worshipping a God who had treated him so
+scurvily."
+
+"Hush, Truyn!" exclaimed Sempaly, somewhat anxiously to his cousin.
+"You know I dislike all such discussions."
+
+"True. I remember you wear Catholic blinkers and are always nervous
+about your beliefs; and you would not like to feel any doubt as to the
+unlimited prolongation of your comfortable little existence," said
+Truyn in a tone of grave and languid banter. For Sempaly was not
+burthened with religion, though, like many folks to whom life is easy,
+he clung desperately to a hope in a future life, for which reason he
+affected 'Catholic blinkers' and would not have opened a page of
+Strauss for the world.
+
+"The sword is at our breast!" sighed the countess still sunk in dark
+forebodings. "This new ministry!..." And she shook her head.
+
+"It will do no harm beyond producing a few dreary articles in the
+papers and inundating us with new Acts which the crown will not trouble
+itself about for a moment," observed Sempaly.
+
+"The Austrian mob are gnashing their teeth already!" said the lady.
+
+"Nonsense! The Austrian mob is a very good dog at bottom; it will not
+bite till you forbid it to lick your hands," said her cousin calmly.
+
+"I should dislike one as much as the other," said the countess, looking
+complacently at her slender white fingers.
+
+"But tell us, Nicki," asked Ilsenbergh, "has not the change of ministry
+put a stop to your chances of promotion?" Sempaly was in fact an
+apprentice in the Roman branch of the great Austrian political
+incubator.
+
+"Of course," replied Sempaly. "I had hoped to be sent to London as
+secretary; but one of our secretaries here is to go to England, and the
+democrats are sending us one of their own protégés in his place. My
+chief told me so this morning."
+
+"Oh! who is our new secretary?" asked the countess much interested. "If
+he is a protégé of those creatures he must be a terrible specimen."
+
+"He is one Sterzl--and highly recommended; he comes from Teheran where
+he has distinguished himself greatly," said Sempaly.
+
+"Sterzl!" repeated Ilsenbergh scornfully.
+
+"Sterzl!" cried the lady in disgust. "It is to be hoped he has no
+wife,--that would crown all."
+
+"On that point I can reassure you," said the general; "Sterzl is
+unmarried."
+
+"You know him?" murmured the countess slightly abashed.
+
+"He is the son of one of my dearest friends--a fellow-officer," replied
+the general, "and if he has grown up as he promised he must be a man of
+talent and character--his abilities were brilliant."
+
+"That is something at any rate," Ilsenbergh condescended to say.
+
+"Yes, so it strikes me," added Sempaly; "we require one man who knows
+what work means."
+
+"I was promised that my nephew should have the appointment," muttered
+the countess. "It is disgusting!"
+
+"Utterly!" said Sempaly with a whimsical intonation. "A foreign element
+is always intrusive; we are much more comfortable among ourselves."
+
+Tea was now brought in on a Japanese table and the secretary and his
+inferior birth were for the time forgotten.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Sempaly was not merely affecting the democrat to annoy his cousin
+the countess; he firmly believed himself to be a liberal because he
+laughed at conservatism, and regarded the nobility as a time-honored
+structure--a relic of the past, like the pyramids, only not quite so
+perdurable. But in spite of his theoretical respect for the rights of
+man and his satirical contempt for the claims of privilege, Sempaly was
+really less tolerant than his cousin of "the dark ages." Ilsenbergh,
+with all his feudal crotchets, was an aristocrat only from a sense of
+fitness while Sempaly was an aristocrat by instinct; Ilsenbergh's pride
+of rank was an affair of party and dignity, Sempaly's was a matter of
+superfine nerves.
+
+A few days after this conversation Sempaly met the general and told him
+that the new secretary had arrived, adding with a smile: "I do not
+think he will do!"
+
+"Why not?" asked the general.
+
+"He speaks very bad French and he knows nothing about _bric-à-brac_,"
+replied Sempaly with perfect gravity. "I introduced him yesterday to
+Madame de Gandry and he had hardly turned his back when she asked
+me--she is the daughter of a leather-seller at Lille, you know--'is he
+a man of family?'--and would you believe it, I could not tell her. That
+is the sort of thing I never know." Then he added with a singular
+smile: "His name is Cecil--Cecil Maria. Cecil Maria Sterzl! It sounds
+well do not you think?"
+
+Cecil Maria! It was a ridiculous name and ill-suited the man. His
+father had been an officer of dragoons who had retired early to
+become a country gentleman--the dearest dream of the retired officer;
+his mother was a faded Fräulein von ---- who had all her linen--not
+merely for her trousseau but all she ever purchased--marked with
+_her_ coronet, who stuck up a flag on the turret of their little
+country house with _her_ arms, and insisted on being addressed as
+baroness--which she never had been--by all her acquaintance. When,
+within a year of her marriage, she became the mother of a fine boy it
+was a burning question what his name should be.
+
+"Cecil Maria," lisped the lady.
+
+"Nonsense! The boy shall be called Anthony after his grandfather," said
+his father, and the mother burst into tears. What man can resist the
+tears of the mother of his first-born? The child was christened Cecil.
+
+His father died at the early age of forty; his youngest child, a little
+girl whom he worshipped, was dangerously ill of scarlet fever and he
+fell a victim to his devotion to her. Cecil was at that time a pretty
+but rather delicate boy, with an intense contempt for the French
+language which his sister's governess tried to instil into him, and a
+pronounced preference for the society of the stable-lads and peasant
+boys; the baroness was always complaining that he was dirty and did not
+care to keep his hands white. The guardianship of the orphans devolved
+on General Sterzl, their father's elder brother, who honestly did his
+best for them, managing their little fortune with care, and
+conscientiously directing their education. After a brief but keen
+inspection of the clever spoilt boy, of his silly mother, and of his
+cringing tutor, he shrugged his shoulders over this country gentleman's
+life and placed the lad in the _Theresianum_, a college which in the
+estimation of every Austrian officer is the first educational
+establishment in the world--provided, that is to say, that he himself
+was not brought up there.
+
+During the first six months Cecil was boundlessly miserable. All his
+life long till now he had been accustomed to be first; and it was hard
+suddenly to find himself last. Although his abilities were superior his
+neglected education placed him far below most of his companions, and
+besides this he was, as it happened, the only boy not of noble birth in
+this fashionable college, with the exception of a young Tyrolese whose
+descent was illegitimate, though he nevertheless was always boasting of
+his family. Then his companions laughed at his provincial accent, at
+his want of strength and at his queer name. We have all in our turn had
+to submit to this rough jesting. He could not for a long time get
+accustomed to it, and during the first half-year he incessantly plagued
+his mother and guardian to release him from what he called a prison;
+but they remained deaf to his entreaties. The visible outcome, when
+Cecil went home for the summer holidays, was a very subdued frame of
+mind, and nicely kept, long white nails. The next term began with his
+giving a sound thrashing to the odious Tyrolese who bored the whole
+school with his endless bragging and airs. This made him immensely
+popular; then he began to work in earnest; his masters praised his
+industry--and his complaints ceased. Had the subtle poison of
+pretentious vanity which infected the whole college crept into his
+veins? Had he begun to find a charm in hearing Mass read on Sundays and
+Highdays by a Bishop? To be waited on by servants in livery, to learn
+to dance from the same teacher who gave lessons at court, and to call
+the titled youth of the empire '_du_'? It is difficult to say. He
+seemed perfectly indifferent to all these privileges and assumed no
+airs or affectations.--His pride was of a fiercer temper.
+
+He finished his education by learning eastern languages, passed
+brilliantly, and, still aided by his uncle, went in for diplomacy. He
+was sent to an Asiatic capital which was just then undergoing a
+visitation of cholera and revolution; there again he distinguished
+himself and was decorated with the order of the Iron Crown.
+
+One thing was soon very evident to every one in Rome: The new secretary
+was not a man whose character could be summed up in an epigram. There
+was nothing commonplace or pretty in the man. Externally he was tall
+and broad shouldered, with a well set carriage that gave him the air of
+a soldier in _mufti_; his hair was brown and close-cropped and his
+features sharply cut. In manner he was awkward but perfectly well-bred,
+unpretentious and simple. The ambassador's verdict on the new secretary
+was very different from Sempaly's. "He is my best worker," said his
+excellency: "A wonderful worker, and a long head--extraordinarily
+capable; but not pliant enough--not pliant enough...."
+
+Nor was it only with his superiors that he found favor; the younger
+officials with whom he came in contact were soon on the best terms with
+him. He had one peculiarity, very rare in men who take life so
+seriously as he did: He never quibbled. The embassy at Rome at that
+time swarmed to such an extent with handsome, fashionable idlers that
+the Palazzo di Venezia was like a superior school for fine ladies with
+moustaches--as Sempaly aptly said. Sterzl looked on at their feeble
+doings with indulgent good humor; it was impossible to hope for any
+definite views or action from these young gentlemen; it would have been
+as wise to try to make butterflies do the work of ants. He himself was
+always ready to make good their neglect and gave them every liberty for
+their amusements. He wished to work, to make his mark--that was his
+business; to fritter away life and enjoy themselves was theirs. Thus
+they agreed to admiration.
+
+But though his subalterns were soon his devoted allies, society at
+large was still disposed to offer him a cold shoulder. His predecessor
+in office had never pretended to do anything noteworthy as a
+diplomatist, but he had been an admirable waltzer, and--which was even
+more important--he had not disdained that social diversion;
+consequently he had been a favorite with the ladies of Rome who loudly
+bewailed his departure and were not cordial to his successor. Sterzl
+took no pains to fill his place; he had no trace of that obsequious
+politeness and superficial amiability which make a man popular in
+general society. His blunt conscientiousness and quite pedantic
+frankness of speech were displeasing on first acquaintance. In a
+drawing-room he commonly stood silently observant, or, if he spoke, he
+said exactly what he thought and expected the same sincerity from
+others. He could never be brought to understand that the flattery and
+subterfuge usual in company were merely a degenerate form of love for
+your neighbor; that the uncompromising truthfulness that he required
+must result in universal warfare; that the limit-line between sincerity
+and rudeness, between deference and hypocrisy, have never been rigidly
+defined; that the naked truth is as much out of place in a drawing-room
+as a man in his shirt-sleeves; and that, considering the defects and
+deformities of our souls, we cannot be too thankful that custom
+prohibits their being displayed without a decent amount of clothing.
+Merciful Heaven! what should we see if they were laid bare?
+
+No, we cannot live without lying. A man who is used to society demands
+that it should tell lies, it is his right, and a courtesy to which he
+has every claim. When a man finds that society no longer thinks him
+worth lying to his part is played out and he had better vanish from the
+scene. In short, Sterzl had no sort of success with women; they dubbed
+him by the nickname of '_le Paysan du Danube_.' Men respected him; they
+only regretted that he had so many extravagant notions, particularly a
+morbid touchiness as to matters of honor; however, that is a fault
+which men do not seriously disapprove of. To Sterzl himself it was a
+matter of entire indifference what was said of him by people who were
+not his personal friends. For a friend he would go through fire and
+water, but he would often neglect even to bow to an acquaintance in the
+street as he walked on, straight to his destination, his head full of
+grand schemes. He was fully determined to make his mark: to do--perhaps
+to become--something great ... but....
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Princess Vulpini, who had not escaped the fashionable complaint--the
+_Morbus Schliemaniensis_, had found a treasure no further off than in
+an old-clothes shop in the Via Aracoeli, where she had bought two
+wonderful shields from designs, she was assured, of Benvenuto Cellini's
+and a fragment of tapestry said to have been designed by Raphael, and
+she had invited a few intimate friends--Truyn, Sempaly, von Klinger,
+and Count Siegburg, an Austrian attaché, to give their opinion as to
+the genuineness of her find. She was Truyn's sister and a few years
+younger than he; she had met Prince Vulpini at Vichy when spending a
+season there with her invalid father and soon afterwards had married
+him, and now for twelve years she had lived in Rome, loving it well,
+though she never ceased railing at it for sundry inconveniences, was
+always singing the praises of Vienna and would have all her shopping
+done for her "at home" because she was convinced that nothing was to be
+had in Rome but photographs, antiques and wax-matches.
+
+The company had just finished a lively dinner, throughout which they
+had unanimously abused the new Italian Ministry; but with the arrival
+of the coffee and cigarettes they turned to the consideration of the
+princess's antiquities which she had spread out on the floor for
+inspection. The gentlemen threw themselves on all-fours to examine the
+arras and the shields, and pronounced their verdict with conscientious
+frankness. No one, it seemed, was thoroughly convinced of the
+authenticity of the treasures but the Countess Marie Schalingen, a lady
+who had been for some few weeks in Rome as the princess's guest; all
+the others had doubts. The most vigorous sceptic of them all was Count
+Siegburg, who, to be sure, was the one who knew least of such matters,
+but who nevertheless spoke of "electrotype casts and modern imitations"
+with supreme decisiveness.
+
+Wips, or more correctly Wiprecht Siegburg, was the spoilt child of the
+Austrian circle; I doubt whether he could have invented gunpowder, have
+discovered America, or have proved that the earth goes round, but for
+work-a-day company he was certainly pleasanter than Schwarz, Columbus
+or Galileo. He had been attached to the embassy with no hope of his
+finding a career, but simply to get him away from Vienna, where his
+debts had at last become inconveniently heavy. His widowed mother,
+after much meditation, had hit upon this admirable plan for checking
+her son in his extravagance.
+
+"You make me quite nervous, Siegburg," said the princess at length,
+"though I know that you have not the faintest glimmering of knowledge
+on the subject."
+
+"Perhaps you are right," he answered coolly. "At any rate, I have lost
+confidence lately in my critical instincts. I always used to think that
+the genuineness of antiquities was in proportion to their dirt; but now
+that I have learnt that even the dirt is counterfeit I have lost all
+basis of judgment."
+
+They all laughed at this confession, not so much for its wit as because
+every one laughed at Siegburg's little sallies. They were in the
+smoking-room, a snug apartment, picturesquely and comfortably furnished
+with carved wood and oriental cushions. All the party were on the
+intimate terms of "just ourselves," a mixture of courteous deference
+and hearty friendliness. The conversation was not precisely learned; on
+the contrary, there was a certain frivolity in its tone; very bad jokes
+were perpetrated and some anecdotes related savoring of Saint-Simon in
+raciness without any one being scandalized, for they were not in the
+mood to run every jest to earth, to treat every point by chemical
+analysis, or take every word literally. Superficiality is sometimes a
+gracious and a blessed thing.
+
+"I feel so thoroughly at home to-day--in such an Austrian
+atmosphere...." exclaimed the hostess. "But I have a presentiment that
+it will not be of long duration. Mesdames de Gandry and Ferguson are
+dining in this neighborhood...."
+
+As she spoke the servant announced Prince Norina.
+
+"'Coming events cast their shadows before,'" quoted Sempaly; it was
+well known that when Prince Norina made his appearance the Countess de
+Gandry would soon follow. Norina was fat and fair, handsome on the
+barber's block pattern, and for the last four or five years had been
+dancing attendance on the French countess. He bowed to the princess,
+shook hands with the men and was instantly seized upon by the master of
+the house to listen to a tirade on the latest misdemeanors of the
+government. Vulpini was the blackest of the Black, a strong adherent of
+the pope, though from political rather than religious bias---chiefly
+indeed as a fanatically exclusive Roman, who scorned to make common
+cause with Italy at large, and regarded "_Italia unita_" as a wild
+chimera. Prince Norina, who had no political convictions, listened to
+him and nodded assent to anything and everything.
+
+The company now adjourned to the drawing-room, a large uncomfortable
+room furnished in a motley style, partly Louis XV. and partly Empire,
+and which opened out of the more splendid salon in which the princess
+received formally, and the boudoir to which none but her most intimate
+friends were admitted. The conversation had lost much of its
+liveliness, and had flattened to a level at which some of the company
+had taken refuge in photographs when Madame de Gandry and Mrs. Ferguson
+were announced and rustled in.
+
+Madame de Gandry--a pale brunette, interesting rather than pretty, with
+a turned-up nose and hard bright eyes, noisy and coquettish,
+inconsiderate and saucy, because she fancied it gave her style--had for
+the last five years ruled the destinies of Prince Norina. Society had,
+however, agreed, perhaps for its own convenience, to regard their
+intimacy as mere good fellowship. The lady was looked upon as one of
+those giddy creatures who love to sport on the edge of an abyss. Mrs.
+Ferguson, the daughter of a hotel-keeper at San Francisco and wife of a
+man whose wealth increased daily, was the exact opposite to Madame de
+Gandry--white and pink, with large eyes and sharp little teeth, very
+slender and flat-figured like many Americans. She dyed her hair,
+rouged, dressed conspicuously, spoke eccentric English and detestable
+French, sang Judic's songs, and had been introduced to Roman society by
+the Marchese B---- who had met her at Nice. Her friendship with Madame
+de Gandry had begun on the strength of a landau they had hired between
+them, had culminated in an opera-box on the same terms, and would
+probably be destroyed by a lover--in common too.
+
+A few gentlemen had also arrived: Count de Gandry, who looked like a
+hair-dresser and was suspected of carrying on a covert business as
+dealer in antiquities; M. Dieudonné Crespigny de Bellancourt, a
+square-built French diplomatist, the son of a butcher and son-in-law to
+a duke, etc., etc. The latest bankruptcy, the climate of Rome, the
+excavations, were all discussed. Madame de Gandry and Mrs. Ferguson
+submitted at first to the tedium of a general conversation, but
+contrived at the same time to attract as much of the men's attention as
+was possible under the circumstances. Soon after eleven the Countess
+Ilsenbergh came in; she had come from a grand dinner and looked bored
+to death.
+
+"It really is absurd how one meets every one in Rome," she said
+presently, when she had been questioned as to the how and where of the
+party she had just quitted. "Who do you think I came across to-day,
+Marie?--That Lenz girl from Vienna; now she is a duchess or a Countess
+Montidor--Heaven knows which; once, years ago, I had something to do
+with a charity sale she got up, so now she comes up to me as if I were
+an old acquaintance and pretends to be intimate, talks of 'we
+Austrians,' and 'at home at Vienna.'--Amusing, rather?"
+
+"Poor Fritzi! I feel for you!" exclaimed Sempaly with a malicious
+laugh. "But there is a greater treat in store for you. The Sterzl
+women, mother and sister, are coming in a few days."
+
+"Indeed! that is pleasant certainly!"
+
+"Why?" asked Madame de Gandry, throwing herself into the conversation.
+"Are they objectionable people?"
+
+"By no means," said the countess quickly. "I believe they are the most
+respectable people in the world, but--it is a bore to be constantly
+meeting people here whom one could not possibly recognize in Vienna.
+You should give him a hint, Nicki--tell him--explain to him...."
+
+"To be sure," said Sempaly laughing, "I might say: Look here, my good
+friend, beware of taking your mother and sister out anywhere; my cousin
+the countess would rather not meet them."
+
+The countess shrugged her shoulders and turned away from her flippant
+interlocutor, tapping her fan impatiently. "Do you mean to receive them
+Marie?" she asked.
+
+"Whom do I not receive?" said the princess in an undertone, with a
+significant glance.
+
+"Well I cannot--decidedly not," said the countess excitedly, "though I
+shall be grieved to annoy Sterzl. It will be his own fault entirely if
+he forces me to explain myself."
+
+"Do as you think proper," replied her friend, "but you know I am very
+fond of Sterzl; he stands high in my good graces."
+
+"What! _le Paysan du Danube_?" giggled Madame de Gandry, who had only
+partly understood the conversation.
+
+"Sterzl is a man of the highest respectability," said the countess
+icily; she did not intend to allow that little French woman to laugh at
+her fellow-countryman, though he was not a man of birth.
+
+"_Le Paysan du Danube_ is my particular friend," said the princess with
+the simple heartiness that was so peculiarly her own. "I am very fond
+of him; he is quite one of ourselves."
+
+"He can have no higher reward on earth," said her brother with
+good-humored irony.
+
+"When my small boy fell and broke his arm, here in this very room,
+Sterzl picked him up, and you should have seen how gently he held my
+poor darling," added the princess.
+
+"That is ample evidence in favor of the fact that his woman-kind are
+presentable," laughed Sempaly.
+
+"But allow me to ask," interposed the Madame de Gandry, "just that I
+may understand what I am about--these Sterzls, they are not in good
+society in Austria?"
+
+"Our Austrian etiquette can afford no standpoint for foreign society,"
+said Truyn with unusual sharpness, for he could not endure Madame de
+Gandry; "we receive no one who is not by birth one of ourselves."
+
+"Yes," said Sempaly with a keen glance, "Austrian society is as
+exclusive as the House of Israel, and scorns proselytes." And the
+leather-seller's daughter, who had not understood--or not chosen to
+understand Truyn's speech, replied with much presence of mind: "Ah, I
+am glad to know what I am about."
+
+Siegburg, who was sitting behind her, glanced at Sempaly and made an
+expressive grimace.
+
+Princess Vulpini looked almost spiteful. "I will not leave Sterzl in
+the lurch," she said, "and if his sister is like his description of
+her...."
+
+"He has talked to you about his sister?" interrupted Sempaly.
+
+"To be sure," said the princess with a smile, "and to you too, I should
+not wonder, Nicki?"
+
+"No indeed, he does not show me his sacred places, I am not worthy,"
+replied Sempaly. "He only told me that she was coming, and with a very
+singular smile. Hm, Hm! he seems to set great store by the young lady
+and will no doubt look out for a fine match for her. I should not
+wonder if he had got her here for that express purpose. Norina, take
+care of yourself--forewarned you know...."
+
+"Mademoiselle Sterzl will hardly aspire to a prince's crown!" exclaimed
+Madame de Gandry, up in arms to defend her property.
+
+"Sterzl will not let his sister go for less," asserted Sempaly.
+
+"Do not talk such nonsense," said Truyn, to check Sempaly's audacity.
+
+But Sempaly was leaning over a table and scribbling on the back of an
+old letter; presently he handed the half sheet to the Countess
+Ilsenbergh; Madame de Gandry peeped over her shoulder.
+
+"Capital!" she exclaimed, "delicious!" Sempaly had sketched Sterzl as
+an auctioneer, the hammer in one hand and a fashionably-dressed doll in
+the other, with all the Princes in Rome crowded round. In one corner he
+had written: "This lot--Fräulein Sterzl--once, twice, thrice...."
+
+The sketch was handed round; the likeness of Sterzl was unmistakable.
+Soon after the Countess Ilsenbergh went away, and as the company were
+not in the best of humors the two friends also withdrew shortly after
+midnight followed by those gentlemen who had come in their train.
+
+"Fritzi is really a victim to an _idée fixe_," the princess began when
+this indiscreet group had departed; "she wants me to entrench myself in
+dignified reserve against this poor little thing. What harm can the
+child do me?"
+
+"I cannot imagine," said Siegburg; "indeed, if she is pretty and has
+some money, it strikes me I will marry her myself--that will set
+matters straight" Siegburg was fond of talking of the money that his
+wife must bring him, and liked to air the selfishness of which he was
+innocent, as very rich folks sometimes make a parade of poverty.
+
+"And it was really very stupid of Fritzi to ventilate this idiotic
+nonsense before those two women," added the princess, who was apt to
+express herself strongly; but nothing that she said ever sounded badly,
+on the contrary, she lent a grace to whatever she said. "Does she think
+she can make me turn exclusive!"
+
+"I hope you observed how that pinchbeck countess was prepared to tread
+in her footsteps," said Seigburg.
+
+Truyn meanwhile was hunting eagerly about the chimney-shelf and the
+tables, assisted by the master of the house.
+
+"What are you looking for, Erich?" asked his sister.
+
+"For that sketch of Sempaly's. I should not like to leave the thing
+about. Excuse me, Nicki, the caricature was capital, I have nothing to
+say against it, if it had only been among ourselves; but you really
+ought not to have shown it to strangers. You are so heedless, you do
+not think of what you are doing."
+
+"And what have I done now?" asked Sempaly without any trace of
+annoyance.
+
+"You have simply stamped this young girl as an adventuress on the
+look-out for a husband."
+
+"Pooh! as if so trifling a jest could be taken in earnest!" said
+Sempaly. They searched everywhere for the caricature but in vain.
+
+"I am convinced that wretched woman put it in her pocket!" cried the
+princess indignantly. That wretched woman was of course Madame de
+Gandry.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+It was true that Princess Vulpini was very fond of Sterzl, and he
+returned her regard with almost rapturous devotion. In spite of an
+unpolished and absent manner he had a vein of poetic chivalry and a
+pure reverence for true and lofty womanhood. He could not think it
+worth his while to offer to any woman that flattery--often impertinent
+enough in reality--that gratifies some of the sex, and he had never
+learnt the A B C of modern gallantry; but in his intercourse with those
+whom he spoke of as "true women" there was a touch of chivalrous
+protection and reserved deference. His behavior to them was so full of
+an old-fashioned courtesy that he was certain to win their favor; he
+treated them partly like children that must be cared for, and partly
+like sacred beings before whom we must bow the knee.
+
+Immediately on his arrival in Rome the princess found great pleasure in
+their acquaintance, she confided to him all her little indignation at
+this or that grievance in Rome, and allowed him to take a variety of
+small cares off her shoulders, being, as all women of her soft nature
+are, very fastidious and utterly unpractical.
+
+There had been few sweeter girls in the Vienna world than the Countess
+Marie Truyn in her day, and there was not now in all Rome a more
+lovable woman than the Princess Vulpini. When in the afternoons she
+drove out in her open carriage, with her four or five children that
+looked as though they had been stolen straight out of one of Kate
+Greenaway's picture books, along the Corso to the Villa Borghese, her
+fashionable acquaintance, who had brought out their most recent or most
+fashionable bosom-friend instead of their children, would exclaim:
+"Here comes true happiness!" And the men bowed to her with particular
+respect, eager to win the friendly and gracious smile that warmed all
+hearts like a ray of spring sunshine. She had never been a regular
+beauty and had early lost her youthful freshness and the slim figure
+that had been almost proverbial. Nevertheless her charm was
+undiminished; her chief ornament, a wonderful abundance of bright brown
+hair, was as fine as ever and she wore it still, as when a girl of
+sixteen, simply combed back and gathered into a knot low down at the
+back. In spite of her faded complexion there was a childlike sweetness
+in her small round face, with its kind little eyes, its delicate
+turned-up nose, and soft lips that had no beauty till they smiled. All
+her movements were simple and graceful and her whole appearance
+conveyed the impression of exquisite refinement and the loftiest
+womanliness. Her dress was apt to be a little out of fashion, the
+latest _chic_ never suited her. She was a great reader, even of very
+solid books, especially affecting natural science; but she retained
+nevertheless the literal faith of her infancy, and this innocent
+orthodoxy was part and parcel of the simple fervency of her character.
+Sempaly, who was sincerely attached to her, always spoke of her devout
+piety as one of her most engaging qualities; he declared that a woman
+to be truly sympathetic must be religious; that a man may allow himself
+to profess free thought, but that a sceptical woman was as odious as a
+woman with a hump. To this observation, which Sempaly once threw out in
+the presence of Sterzl, Cecil took great exception, though he himself
+was as devoid of religious beliefs as Sempaly himself; he thought it
+impertinent.
+
+"Men do not jest about the women whose names are sacred to them," he
+said with the pedantic chivalry, which always provoked his colleague's
+opposition. However, Sempaly only retorted with a sneering smile and a
+shrug.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+A few days after the evening when Sempaly had given such brilliant
+proof of his talent as a caricaturist, General von Klinger was sitting
+in his studio on a divan covered with a picturesque Persian rug and
+endeavoring--having for the moment nothing better to do--to teach his
+parrot to sing the Austrian anthem--a loyal task which the bird,
+perched on the top of its cage, persistently refused to learn. It was a
+gorgeous studio, with a coved ceiling painted in fresco and a _rococo_
+plaster cornice, the walls hung with old tapestry, eastern stuffs and
+other "properties." It was so large that men looked like dwarfs in it,
+and the general's works of art like illustrations cut out of a picture
+book. The scirocco brooded in the atmosphere and the general was out of
+sorts; he could not get on with his painting, and though it was now a
+quarter to five not a visitor had he seen. Usually by this hour he had
+a number--nay sometimes too many. The general often grumbled--to
+himself of course--at the interruption; but he always enjoyed the
+little dissipation; it made him melancholy to be left to himself.
+
+He was thinking just now how difficult it was to get on as a painter;
+his coloring was capital--so all his artist friends assured him; but
+that his drawing left much to be desired he himself confessed. His two
+strong points were a harmonious effect of grey tone and horses seen
+from behind. All his pictures returned to him from the exhibitions
+unsold, excepting one which was purchased by the emperor in
+consideration of the general's former merits as a soldier rather than
+of his talents as an artist. The painters who came to smoke his
+cigarettes accounted for this by saying that his artistic aims were too
+independent, that he made no concessions to public taste and so could
+not hope for popularity.
+
+He was in the very act of whistling the national anthem for the
+sixteenth time to the recalcitrant bird, when he heard a knock at the
+door; he rose to open it and Sempaly came in. He had called to inform
+the general that he had discovered a very fine though much damaged
+piece of tapestry in a convent, and had bought it for a mere song; he
+had in fact purchased it for the general because he knew that it was
+just such a specimen as he had long wished for. "But if you do not care
+to take it I shall be very glad to keep it," he added. No one had the
+art of doing an obliging thing with a better grace than he; it was one
+of his little accomplishments.
+
+When they had settled their business Sempaly broke into loud
+lamentations that he was obliged to dine that day at the British
+embassy, and then to dance at the French ambassador's, and raved about
+the ideal life led by his friend--he only wished he could lead such a
+life--in which there were no evening parties, routs, balls or dinners.
+Next he wandered round the room looking at all the studies that hid
+their faces against the wall. "Charming!" "Superb!" he kept exclaiming
+in French, with his Austrian accent, from a sheer impulse to say
+something pleasant--he always tried to make himself pleasant. "Why do
+not you work that thing up?" he said at length, pointing to a sketch on
+canvas of a group of bashibazouks.
+
+"It might sell," replied the artist whose great difficulty always lay
+in the 'working up,' "but you know I am independent in my aims, I set
+my face against making concessions to the vulgar; I must work on my own
+principles and not to pander to the public."
+
+Sempaly smiled at this profession of faith.
+
+"As it is a mere whim with you ever to sell at all," he answered, "my
+advice is that you should never attempt it, but leave all your works to
+the nation, so that we may have a _Musée Wierz_ at Vienna."
+
+The general assured him that he was quite in earnest in his desire to
+sell his pictures, but Sempaly smiled knowingly.
+
+"There was once upon a time," he began, "a cobbler who was a man of
+genius, but he prided himself on his sense of beauty and his artistic
+convictions, and he heeded not the requirements of his customers--he
+would make nothing but Greek sandals. He died a beggar, but happy in
+the consciousness of never having made a concession to the vulgar."
+
+The general was on the point of making an indignant reply to this
+malicious anecdote, when the loud rap was again heard which seems to be
+traditional at a studio door; it is supposed to be necessary to arouse
+the artist from his absorption in his work. The general went to admit
+his visitor.
+
+There was a small ante-room between the studio and the stairs. The door
+was no sooner opened than in flitted a slender creature, fair and
+blooming, tall, slim, and bewitchingly pretty, in a dark dress and a
+sealskin jacket.
+
+"What, you Zinka!" cried the old general delightedly. "This is a
+surprise! How long have you been in Rome?"
+
+"Only since this morning," answered a gay voice.
+
+"And are you alone?" asked the artist in astonishment, as Zinka shut
+the door and went forward into the atelier.
+
+"Yes, quite alone," she said calmly. "I left the maid at home; she and
+mamma are fast asleep, resting after their journey. I came alone in a
+carriage--it was very nice of me do not you think?--Why, what a face to
+make!... And why have you not given me a kiss. Uncle Klinger?" She
+stood before him bright and confident, her head a little thrown back,
+her hands in a tiny muff, gazing at him with surprise in her frank grey
+eyes.
+
+"My dear Zinka...." the general began--for, like all conscientious old
+gentlemen with romantic memories, he was desperately punctilious as to
+the proprieties when any lady in whom he took an interest was
+implicated, "I am charmed, delighted to see you.... But in a strange
+place, where you know no one, and in a strange house where...."
+
+"Oh, now I understand," cried the girl. "It is not proper!... I shall
+live to be a hundred before I know exactly what is proper; it is very
+odd, but Uncle Sterzl used always to say that it was of no use to worry
+about it; that if people were ladies and gentlemen everything was
+proper, and if they were not why it was all the same. But he did not
+know what he was talking about, it would seem!" and she turned sharply
+on her heel and made for the door.
+
+"But, my dear Zinka," cried the general holding her back, "tell me at
+least where you are living before you whisk off like a whirlwind. Do
+not be so utterly unreasonable."
+
+"I am perfectly reasonable," she retorted. She was both embarrassed
+and angry; her cheeks were scarlet and her eyes full of tears. "It
+never would have occurred to me certainly that there was anything
+improper in calling on an old gentleman," and she emphasized the words
+quite viciously, "in his studio. Oh, the vanity of men! Who can
+foresee its limits!--But I am perfectly reasonable, I acknowledge my
+mistake--simpleton that I am!... And I have been looking forward all
+day to taking you by surprise. I meant to ask you to dine with us at
+the Hotel de l'Europe and to come with me first to the Pincio to see
+the sunset. And these are the thanks I get!... Do not trouble yourself
+to get your hat, it is waste of trouble; I do not want you now.
+Good-bye." And she flew off, her head in the air, without looking back
+once at the general who dutifully escorted her to the carriage.
+
+The old man came back much crest-fallen. A voice greeted him
+cheerfully:
+
+"Quite in disgrace, general!"
+
+It was Sempaly, who had witnessed the whole scene from a recess, and
+whom the general had entirely forgotten.
+
+"So it seems," said he shortly, beginning to scrape his palette.
+
+"But tell me who is this despotic little princess?"
+
+"Who? My god-daughter, Zinka Sterzl."
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+Thunderbolts are out of date, no one believes in them now-a-days;
+nevertheless it is a fact, which Sempaly himself never contradicted,
+that he fell in love with Zinka at first sight. And when a few days
+after Zinka's irruption into the general's studio the old gentleman
+accepted an invitation to dine with the Baroness Sterzl at the Hotel de
+l'Europe, on entering the room he found, eagerly employed in looking
+over a quantity of photographs with the young lady--Count Sempaly.
+
+The two gentlemen were the only guests, and yet--or perhaps in
+consequence--the little party was as gay and pleasant as was possible
+with so affected and formal a hostess as the "Baroness."
+
+This lady, a narrow and perverse soul as ever lived, was the very
+essence of vanity and affectation. She imagined--Heaven alone knows on
+what grounds--that the general had formerly loved her hopelessly, and
+she always treated him accordingly with a consideration that was
+intolerably irritating. She had made great strides in the airs of
+refinement since she and the general had last met--at a time before
+she, or rather her children, had become rich through an advantageous
+sale of part of their land, and this of course added to the charms of
+her society. She was perpetually complaining in a tone of feeble
+elegance--the sleeping-carriages were intolerable, the seats were so
+badly stuffed, Rome was so dirty, the hotels were so bad, the
+conveyances so miserable; she brought in the names of all the
+aristocratic acquaintances they had made at Nice, at Meran, and at
+Biarritz, and asked--the next day being a saint's day--which church was
+fit to go to. The vehement old general answered hotly that "God was in
+them all." But Sempaly informed her with the politest gravity that
+Cardinal X---- read mass in the morning at St. Peter's and that the
+music was splendid. "I advise you to try St. Peter's."
+
+"Indeed, is St. Peter's possible on a saint's day?" she asked. "The
+company is usually so mixed in those large churches."
+
+The general fairly blushed for her follies on her children's account.
+
+"Have you forgiven me, Zinka?" he said to change the conversation.
+
+"As if I had time to trouble myself about your strait-laced
+proprieties!" exclaimed she, coloring slightly; she evidently did not
+like this allusion to her little indiscretion: "I have something much
+worse to think about."
+
+"Why--what is the matter, sweetheart?" asked her brother, who took
+everything seriously.
+
+"I have lost something," she said in a tone of deep melancholy which
+evidently covered some jest.
+
+"Not a four-leaved shamrock or a medal blessed by the pope?" asked the
+general.
+
+"Oh, no! something much more important."
+
+"Your purse!" exclaimed the baroness hastily. But Zinka burst out
+laughing. "No, no, something much greater--you will never guess: Rome."
+
+On which Sterzl, who could never make out what his fascinating little
+sister would be at, only said: "That is beyond me."
+
+But Sempaly was sympathetic. "I see you are terribly disappointed," he
+said, and Zinka went on like a person accustomed to be listened to.
+
+"Yes, ever since I could think at all I have dreamed of Rome and longed
+to see it. My Rome was a suburb of Heaven, but this Rome is a suburb of
+Paris. My Rome was glorious and this Rome is simply hideous."
+
+"Do not be flippant, Zinka," said the general, who always upheld
+traditional worship.
+
+"Well, as a city Rome is really very ugly," interposed her brother, "it
+is more interesting as a museum of antiquities with life-size
+illustrations. Still, you do not know it yet. You have seen nothing as
+yet...."
+
+"But lodgings, you mean," retorted Zinka, casting down her eyes with
+sanctimonious sauciness.
+
+"It is dreadful!" the baroness began, "we have been here five days and
+cannot find an apartment fit to live in. Wherever we go there is some
+drawback; the stairs are too dark, or the entrance is bad, or there is
+only one door to the salon, or the servants' rooms...."
+
+"But my dear Zinka," interrupted the general, "if you really have seen
+nothing of Rome excepting the lodgings in the Corso, of course...."
+
+"Oh! but I have seen something else," cried Zinka, "indeed, I know my
+way about Rome very well."
+
+"In your dreams?"
+
+"No, I went yesterday; mamma had a sick headache."
+
+"Oh! those headaches!" sighed the baroness putting her salts to her
+nose, "I am a perfect martyr to them!"
+
+To have sick headaches and be a strict Catholic were marks of good
+style in the baroness's estimation. Sempaly put on a sympathetic
+expression, but returned at once to the subject in hand.
+
+"Yes, I know Rome very well," Zinka went on: "You have only to ask the
+driver of the street cab No. 1203, and he will tell you. I drove about
+with him for three hours yesterday. You see, to have been in Rome a
+whole week and to have seen nothing but furnished lodgings was really
+too bad, so I took advantage of the opportunity when mamma was in bed;
+I slipped out--you need not make that face, Uncle, I took the maid with
+me--we meant to walk everywhere with a map. Of course we lost our way,
+_cela va sans dire_, and as we were standing helpless, each holding the
+map by a corner, a driver signed to us--so, with his first finger. In
+we got and he asked us where we wished to go, but as I had no answer
+ready he said with the most paternal air: 'Ah! the signora wants to see
+Rome--good, I will show her Rome!' And he set off, round and round and
+in and out, all through the city. I was positively giddy with this
+waltz round all the sights of Rome. He showed me a perfect forest of
+fallen pillars, with images of gods and fragments of sculpture
+carefully heaped round them, like Christmas boxes for lovers of
+antiquities--'the _Campo Vaccino_,' he called it--I believe it was the
+Forum; then he pointed out the palace of Beatrice Cenci, the Jews'
+quarter, the Theatre of Marcellus, the Temple of Vesta; and every time
+he showed me anything he added: 'Now am I not a capital guide? Many a
+driver would only take you from place to place, and what would you see?
+Nothing ... a heap of stones ... but I tell you: that is the Colisseum,
+and this is the Portico of Octavia, and then the stones have some
+meaning.' And at last he set me down at the door of the hotel and said
+quite seriously: 'Now the signora has seen Rome.'"
+
+They were now at dessert; the baroness looked anything rather than
+pleased.
+
+"Allow me to request," she said, "that for the future in the first
+place you will not make friends with a common driver and in the second,
+that you will not drive about Rome in a _Botta_ (a one horse carriage);
+it is not at all the thing. You have no sense of fitness whatever."
+
+Zinka, who was both sensitive and spoilt, colored.
+
+"Let her be, mother, why should she not learn a little Italian and ride
+in a _Botta_? said Sterzl, who rubbed his mother the wrong way from
+morning till night. Sempaly took prompt advantage of the situation to
+whisper to Zinka:
+
+"I cannot promise to be as good company as your _Botta_ driver, but if
+you will allow me, I will do my best to help you to find the Rome you
+have lost."
+
+"Are you sure you know your way about?" asked the girl with frank
+incivility.
+
+"I am the _laquais de place_ of the Embassy I assure you," replied
+Sempaly laughing; "my only serious occupation consists in showing
+strangers the sights of Rome."
+
+After this the evening passed gaily; the baroness made a few idiotic
+speeches but Sempaly forbore to be ironical; he was on his very best
+behavior, and the baroness was quite taken in by his elaborate reserve.
+Not so Sterzl, who was himself too painfully alive to her aristocratic
+airs and pretensions. However, the society of his sister, whom he
+adored, had put him into the best of humors; he launched forth a few
+bitter epigrams against the priesthood, and was satirical about the
+society of Rome, but Zinka stopped him every time with some engaging
+nonsense, and in listening to her chatter he forgot his bitterness.
+
+At last he asked her to sing a Moravian popular song; she seated
+herself at the hotel piano and began. There was something mystical in
+the low veiled tones of her voice like an echo of the past, as she sang
+the melancholy, dreamy strains of her native land. Sterzl, who always
+yawned all through an opera, listened to her singing, his head resting
+on his hand, in a sort of ecstasy. In Sempaly too, who in spite of his
+Hungarian name was by birth a Moravian, Zinka's simple melody roused
+the half-choked echoes of his youth, and when she ceased he thanked her
+with genuine feeling.
+
+Zinka's was an April weather nature. After bringing the tears into the
+eyes of her hearers, nay into her own, with her song, she suddenly
+struck up an air by Lecocq that she had heard Judic sing at Nice. The
+words, as was perfectly evident to all the party, were Hebrew to the
+girl, but the baroness was beside herself.
+
+"Zinka!" she exclaimed in extreme consternation, "you really are
+incredible--what must these gentlemen think of you!"
+
+"Do not be in the least uneasy," said the general. But Zinka stopped
+short; her face was pale and quivering; Sterzl interposed:
+
+"It is often a little difficult to follow my sister's vagaries," he
+said turning to Sempaly; then he tenderly stroked her golden head with
+his large, firm hand, saying: "Do not be unhappy, sweetheart; but you
+are a little too much of a goose for your age."
+
+When presently Sempaly had quitted the hotel with the general his first
+words were: "Tell me, how is it that with such a fool of a mother that
+child has remained so angelically fresh--so _Botticelli_?"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+
+A mine somewhere in Poland or Bohemia came to grief about this time by
+some accidental visitation, and five hundred families were left
+destitute through the disaster. Of course the opportunity was
+immediately seized upon for charitable dissipations, for qualifying for
+Orders of Merit by liberal donations, and for attracting the eyes of
+Europe by the most extravagant display of philanthropy. After much
+deliberation Countess Ilsenbergh had arrived at the conviction that, as
+both the ambassadors' families were hindered by mourning from giving
+any public entertainment, the duty of taking the lead devolved upon
+her. The rooms in her Palazzo were made on purpose for grand
+festivities, and after endless discussion it was decided that the
+entertainment should be dramatic. An Operetta, a _Proverbe_ by Musset,
+and a series of _Tableaux Vivants_ were finally put in rehearsal and a
+collection was to be made after the performance.
+
+Madame de Gandry threw herself into the undertaking with the most
+commendable ardor. She was on intimate terms with the leading spirits
+at the Villa Medici--the French Academy of Arts at Rome--and she
+interested herself in the painting of the scenes, and in the artistic
+designing of the dresses in which she proved invaluable. Up to a
+certain point all went smoothly. The operetta--an unpublished effort of
+course--by a Russian amateur of rank who was very proud of not even
+knowing his notes, was soon cast. It needed only three performers and
+led up to the introduction of an elaborate masquerade and of certain
+suggestive French songs. Mrs. Ferguson, who never let slip an
+opportunity of powdering her hair and sticking on patches, was to sing
+the soprano part; Crespigny took that of a husband or a guardian in a
+nightcap or flowered dressing-gown, and a young French painter, M.
+Barillat, who was at all times equally ready to sketch or to wear a
+becoming costume, was to fill that of the lover. The cast of the little
+French play was equally satisfactory; but when the arrangement of the
+tableaux came to be considered difficulties arose. In the first place
+all the ladies were eager to display their charms under the becoming
+light of a tableau vivant; and the number of volunteers was quite
+bewildering to the committee of management that met every day at the
+Ilsenberghs' house. Then squabbles and dissatisfaction arose; the
+ladies did not approve of the choice of subjects, they thought their
+dresses unbecoming, their positions disadvantageous; each one to whom a
+place at the side was assigned was deeply aggrieved; an unappreciated
+beauty who prided herself on her profile from the left would not for
+worlds be seen from the right, etc., etc. And above all--an insuperable
+difficulty--almost all the available men of the set manifested the
+greatest objection to 'making themselves ridiculous' and positively
+rejected the most flattering blandishments of the ladies' committee.
+Sempaly, who had been asked to appear as a Roman emperor, would not
+hear of putting on flesh-colored tights and a wreath of vine; and Truyn
+had shrugged his shoulders at the proposal that he should don a wig
+with long curls.
+
+Siegburg--little Siegburg, as he was always called, though he was
+nearly six feet high--after defending himself with considerable humor,
+good-naturedly agreed to stand as _Pierrot_, in a Watteau scene in
+which the Vulpini children were to appear; and Sterzl, being personally
+requested by his ambassador, submitted, though with an ill grace, to be
+the executioner in Delaroche's picture of Lady Jane Grey. This tableau
+was to be the crowning glory of the performance; Barillat had taken
+infinitely more pains with it than with any other; the part of Lady
+Jane was to be filled by a fair English girl, Lady Henrietta Stair; and
+then, within a few days of the performance, Lady Henrietta fell ill of
+the measles.
+
+The committee were in despair when this news reached them, and all who
+were concerned in the performance were summoned to meet at the Palazzo
+that evening to talk the matter over. Hardly any one was absent; only
+Sterzl, who detested the whole charity scramble, as he called it, sent
+his excuses. Every lady present expected to find herself called upon to
+stand--or rather to kneel--as Lady Jane Grey; but Mrs. Ferguson was the
+first to give utterance to the thought, and to offer herself heroically
+as Lady Henrietta's substitute. To the astonishment of all the company
+Sempaly, whose interest in the work of benevolence had hitherto
+displayed itself only in satirical remarks, and suggestions as to the
+representation of Makart's 'entrance of Charles V.' or of Siemiradzky's
+'living torches,' took an eager part in the discussion.
+
+"Your self-sacrifice, Mrs. Ferguson," said he, "is more admirable every
+day."
+
+"Dear me," replied the lady innocently, "where is the self-sacrifice in
+having an old gown cut up into a historical costume?"
+
+"That, indeed, would be no sacrifice," said Sempaly coolly. "But it
+must be a sacrifice for a lady to appear in a part that suits her so
+remarkably ill."
+
+Mrs. Ferguson smiled rather like some pretty little wild beast showing
+its teeth.
+
+"Ah!" she said, "I suppose you think I have none of that pathetic grace
+that M. Barillat is so fond of talking about."
+
+"No more than of saving grace," said Sempaly solemnly. Then, while the
+women were disputing over the matter, he found an opportunity of
+whispering a few words to Barillat; Barillat looked up delighted. At
+this moment they were joined by Countess Ilsenbergh.
+
+"I have another suggestion to offer Madame la Comtesse; I have thought
+of some one...."
+
+"Some newly-imported American," laughed Madame de Gandry, "or a
+painter's model with studied grace and yellow hair?"
+
+"You may rest assured that I should not for an instant think of
+proposing to employ a model," Barillat emphatically declared; "no, the
+lady in question is a very charming person: Fräulein Sterzl. I saw her
+the day before yesterday at Lady Julia Ellis's; she is an Austrian--you
+must know her surely?"
+
+"I have not that pleasure," said the countess drily.
+
+"You do not think she will do?" murmured the artist abashed. The
+countess cleared her throat.
+
+"Bless me!" cried Madame de Gandry furious at the pride of her Austrian
+friend, "you take the matter really too much in earnest. Why on earth
+should not the girl act with us? On these occasions, in Vienna, as I
+have been informed, even actors are invited to help."
+
+"That is quite different," said the countess.
+
+Madame de Gandry shrugged her shoulders and turned away and the
+countess beckoned to her cousin Sempaly. "I am heartily sick of the
+whole business," she exclaimed. "At home I have got this sort of thing
+up a score of times, and everything has gone well ... while here...."
+
+"Yes, there is more method among us," replied Sempaly sympathetically.
+
+"The people here are so unmanageable; every one wants to play the best
+parts," said the countess.
+
+"That is the result of the republican element," observed Sempaly.
+
+"And now there is all this difficulty about the Lady Jane Grey
+tableau," sighed the countess. "Why need that English girl take the
+measles now, just when she is wanted."
+
+"The English are always so inconsiderate," said Sempaly gravely.
+
+"Do you happen to have met this little Sterzl girl?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What does she look like?"
+
+"Well, she looks like a very pretty girl...."
+
+"And besides that?"
+
+"Besides that she looks very much like our own girls; it is really a
+most extraordinary freak of nature! She seems to be very presentable on
+further acquaintance; Princess Vulpini is quite in love with her."
+
+"Indeed!--Well, Barillat is possessed with the idea of having her to
+play the part of Lady Jane Grey and in Heaven's name let him have his
+own way!" cried the countess. "If Marie Vulpini will bring her here I
+will make the best of it."
+
+"What, you mean to say that you will let her figure in your tableau and
+not invite her mother?" laughed Sempaly.
+
+"Invite her!--to the performance of course. I invite Tom, Dick, and
+Harry, and all the English parsons and all the foreign artists."
+
+"And all their families. Fritzi, you are an admirable woman!" retorted
+Sempaly ironically.
+
+"But the rehearsals are so perfectly intimate," she murmured. Time
+pressed however. "Well, have it so for all I care;" said the countess
+resignedly and next morning she paid a polite call on the Baroness
+Sterzl to request Zinka's assistance; and as she had as much tact as
+pride she had soon reconciled not only Zinka, but her sensitive
+thin-skinned brother, to the fact that the young girl had only been
+asked at the last moment and under the pressure of necessity to take
+part in the performance. Cecil did not altogether like the idea of
+displaying his pretty sister in a tableau and only consented because he
+did not like to deprive Zinka of the pleasure which she looked forward
+to with great delight. He adored the child and could refuse her
+nothing.
+
+The evening of the festival arrived; the performances took place in a
+vast room almost lined with mirrors and lighted by wonderful Venetian
+chandeliers that hung from the decorated ceiling where frescoes were
+framed in tasteless gilt scroll work. In spite of its size the room was
+crowded; the most illustrious of the company sat in solitary dignity in
+the front row, and behind them was packed a fashionable but somewhat
+mixed crowd. Manly forms of consummate elegance were squeezed against
+the walls, and the assembly sparkled like a sea of sheeny silks and
+glittering jewels. Princess Vulpini, who was helping the countess to do
+the honors, hovered on the margin, graceful and kindly, but a little
+pale and tired, and the countess herself reigned supreme in that regal
+dignity which she could so becomingly assume on fitting occasions.
+There were very few women who could wear a diamond coronet with such
+good grace as Fritzi Ilsenbergh--even her intractable cousin Sempaly
+did her that much justice.
+
+The great success of the evening was not the little French play, in
+which Madame de Gandry and the all-accomplished Barillat made and
+parried their hits after the accepted methods of the _Théatre
+Français_; it was not the operetta, in which Mrs. Ferguson looked
+bewitchingly pretty and sang '_le Sentier convert_' to admiration; it
+was not even the children's tableau, in which the little Vulpinis
+looked like a bunch of freshly-gathered roses; the great success of the
+evening was the tableau of Lady Jane Grey. Sterzl's face in this scene
+was a perfect tragedy, all the misery of an executioner who adores his
+victim was legible there. And Zinka!--gazing up to heaven with ecstatic
+pathos, her whole attitude expressive of sacred resignation and
+childlike awe, she was the very embodiment of the hapless and innocent
+being before whom the executioner lowers his gaze. A string quartet
+played the _allegretto_ from Beethoven's seventh symphony and the
+melancholy music heightened the effect of the poetical tableau,
+thrilling the audience like a lullaby sung by angels to soothe the
+struggling, suffering human soul.
+
+The whole artistic corps who had been invited from the Villa Medici,
+with the director at their head, unanimously decided that this
+performance far excelled all that had gone before, and Countess
+Ilsenbergh forgot in its success all the annoyance it had occasioned
+her. After the collection, which produced a magnificent sum, most of
+the company dispersed. Ilsenbergh, with his most feudal smile,
+expressed his thanks to all the performers in turn and presented
+elegant bouquets to the ladies. The entertainment lost its formal
+character and became a social gathering.
+
+Zinka was sitting in a side room, surrounded by a host of young Romans
+and Frenchmen. As she was one of those rare natures who derive not the
+smallest satisfaction from the homage of men for whom they have no
+regard, she listened to their enthusiastic compliments with absolute
+indifference.
+
+She had asked for an ice and Norina had offered it to her on his knees,
+remaining in that position to pour out a string of high-flown
+compliments. Zinka, unaccustomed to this Southern effusiveness, was
+remonstrating with some annoyance but without the slightest effect,
+when Sempaly came in and exclaimed in the abrupt tone he commonly used
+to younger men: "Get up, Norina, do you not see that your devotion is
+not appreciated."
+
+The prince rose with a scowl, Sempaly drew a seat to Zinka's side and
+in five minutes had, as usual, entirely monopolized her.
+
+"My cousin the countess owes everything to you," he said in his most
+musical tones; "you saved the whole thing. I detest all amateur
+performances, but that tableau of Lady Jane Grey was really beautiful."
+
+"I liked the French play very much. Madame de Gandry's acting was full
+of spirit."
+
+"Bah! I have had more than enough of such spirit."
+
+"Indeed!" laughed she, "it seems to me that you are suffering from
+general weariness of life. You are blasé."
+
+"What do you understand by being blasé?" he asked.
+
+"Why, that exhaustion of heart and soul which comes of the fatigue
+produced by a life of perpetual enjoyment; it is I believe an essential
+element in the character of a man of fashion."
+
+"Something between a malady and an affectation," remarked Sempaly.
+
+"Just so; in short, to be blasé is the heartsickness of a fop."
+
+Sempaly glanced at her keenly. "Your definition is admirable," he said,
+"I will make a note of it; but the cap does not fit me. I am not blasé,
+I am not indifferent to anything. Shams, hypocrisy, and
+meretriciousness irritate me, but when I meet with anything really good
+or lovely or genuine I can recognize it and admire it--more perhaps
+than most men."
+
+Meanwhile the winner of the musical prize from the Villa Medici had sat
+down to the piano and plunged straightway out of a maundering
+improvisation into a waltz by Strauss. The countess had no objection if
+they liked to dance, and several couples were soon spinning under the
+flaring candles.
+
+Sempaly rose: "May I have the honor?" he said to Zinka, and they went
+together into the dancing-room.
+
+Zinka had the pretty peculiarity of turning pale rather than red as she
+danced; her movements were not sprightly, but gliding and dreamy; in
+fact she waltzed with uncommon grace. Sempaly had long since lost the
+subaltern's delight in a dance; he only asked ladies who had some
+special interest or charm for him, and every one knew it.
+
+"Hm!" said Siegburg, shaking his head as he went up to General von
+Klinger who was watching the graceful couple from a recess, "my little
+game has come to nothing it seems to me."
+
+"Have you retired then?" asked the general.
+
+"By no means--quite the contrary; but my chances are small enough at
+present I fancy; what do you say?" He looked straight into the old
+man's eyes; he understood and said nothing.
+
+"She dances beautifully, I never saw a girl dance better. How well she
+holds her head," he murmured. Suddenly a flash of amusement lighted up
+his eyes. "Look at Fritzi's face!" he exclaimed: "What a horrified
+expression! a perfect Niobe."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+Sempaly's intimacy with the Sterzls grew daily; he did the honors of
+Rome to Zinka, and dined with them as a fourth two or three times a
+week. After the tableaux at the Ilsenberghs' Zinka was asked
+everywhere; all the men were at her feet, and all the ladies wanted to
+learn her songs. The men she treated with the utmost indifference and
+to the ladies she was always obliging, particularly to those whom no
+one else would take the pains to be civil to, all of which greatly
+added to her popularity. Truyn's little girl--a spoilt, shy thing, who
+quarrelled with her maid three times a week regularly and insisted on
+learning everything from Latin to water-color drawing, though she would
+submit to no teacher but her father, perfectly worshipped Zinka and to
+her was as docile as a lamb. Princess Vulpini was delighted at her
+influence on her little niece and declared that Zinka was a real
+treasure; and Lady Julia Ellis, who had made the young girl's
+acquaintance two years since at Meran, was proud to take her out.
+Whenever the baroness could not go the English lady was always ready to
+chaperon Zinka, and when Lady Julia was 'at home' Zinka had to help her
+to receive her guests and to make tea.
+
+Countess Schalingen, a Canoness devoted to painting, full of
+sentimentality and romance, whose ideas had not yet got beyond
+Winterhalter, called Zinka 'quite delicious,' took her on excursions,
+dragged her to all the curiosity-dealers, and finally painted her
+portrait on a handscreen for Princess Vulpini--her head and shoulders
+in gauzy drapery coming out of a lily. Before the end of a fortnight a
+rich American had enquired about her rank and extraction, and the
+handsome Crespigny had learnt all about her fortune. Norina paid his
+court to her when his tyrant's back was turned and Mrs. Ferguson did
+her the honor of being madly jealous.
+
+But all this did not turn her head, it did not seem even to astonish
+her; she had always been spoilt and wherever she had gone she had found
+friends and admirers. When people were kind to her she was delighted,
+but she would have been much more astonished if they had not been kind.
+Sempaly had called her "_a Botticelli_," but the word was only
+applicable to her mind; in appearance she had none of the ascetic grace
+of the pre-Raphaelites. She was more like the crayon figures of Latour,
+or that typical beauty of the eighteenth century, la Lamballe. She had
+not the bloom of pink and white, but was pale, even in her youthful
+freshness with soft shadows under her eyes; and her hair, which was
+thick and waved naturally had reddish lights in the brown. A tender
+down softened its outline on her temples without shading her forehead,
+and gave her face a look of peculiar innocence. She was slight but not
+angular, her arms were long and thin, her hands small and sometimes
+red. Her moods varied between dreamy thoughtfulness and saucy high
+spirits, her gait was usually free and light but occasionally a little
+awkward, "like an angel with its wings clipped," Sempaly said. She had
+a low veiled voice in speaking that reminded one of the vibrating tones
+of an Amati violin. She was as wild as a boy, as graceful as a water
+nixie, and as innocent as a child--with the crude innocence of a girl
+who has been brought up chiefly by men--and all her ideas had the stamp
+of dreamy seclusion and fervid sentiment.
+
+She had had French and English governesses and had even been to school
+in a convent for a year; still, the ruling influence in her life had
+been that of her guardian. General Sterzl--an eccentric being with an
+intense horror of sentimental school-friendships and of the
+conventional propriety that comes of too early familiarity with the
+world. It was to him that Zinka owed the one good word which Countess
+Ilsenbergh spoke in her favor:
+
+"One thing must be admitted; she is not affected, she is as natural as
+one of our own girls."
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+"Poor Coralie!" the baroness would frequently exclaim, "what a pity
+that she is not here; what a treat it would be for her!"
+
+"Yes," Sterzl would answer in his dry way, "she was in too great a
+hurry." And the baroness would cast her eyes up to heaven.
+
+Coralie was her eldest and favorite daughter. Disappointed in her
+love of some hard-hearted gentleman she had renounced the vanities of
+the world some three years since, but--like her mother's worthy
+daughter--even in the depth of her disappointment and despair she had
+taken care to choose a convent where the recluses were divided into
+ladies and sisters, where the children who came to school there played
+hide and seek under a French name, and where being a boarder was called
+being _en pension_.
+
+"Poor Coralie!" the baroness would sigh; and then seating herself at
+her writing-table she would scribble endless letters about the delights
+of a residence at Rome to all her friends in Austria, and especially to
+her sister, the Baroness Wolnitzka.
+
+Baroness Sterzl was a typical specimen of a class of nobility peculiar
+to Austria, and called there, Heaven knows why, "the onion nobility"
+(zwiebelnoblesse). It is a circle that may be described as a branch
+concern of the best society; a half-blood relation; a mixture of the
+elements that have been sifted out of the upper aristocracy and of the
+parvenus from below, who find that they can be reciprocally useful; a
+circle in which almost every man is a baron, and every woman, without
+exception, is a baroness. Its members are for the most part poor, but
+refined beyond expression. The mothers scold their children in bad
+French and talk to their friends in fashionable slang; they give
+parties, at which there is nothing to eat--but the family plate is
+displayed, and where the company always consists of the same old
+bachelors who dye their hair and know the _Almanack de Gotha_ by heart.
+Everyone is well informed about the doings of the world--how many
+shifts Minnie N. had in her trousseau, why the engagement between Fritz
+O. and Lori P. was broken off, and much more to the same effect. Of
+late years the 'onion-nobility,' with various other offshoots of the
+higher culture, has been swamped by the advance of the liberals, that
+is to say, by the progress of the financial classes.
+
+Only a year since the baroness herself had stood on the stairs of the
+opera-house to watch the occupants of the grand tier--at that time
+appropriated to the cream of the aristocracy--to take note of
+aristocratic dresses, and to hear aristocratic nothings from
+aristocratic lips. Now, in Rome, she was living in the whirl of
+society. Her satisfaction knew no bounds, and she made daily progress
+in exclusiveness; the Countess Ilsenbergh, as compared to her, was a
+mere bungler. But she was never so amusing to watch as when she met
+some fellow-countrymen of untitled rank. It happened that this winter
+there was in Rome a certain Herr Brauer, an old simpleton with a very
+handsome wife who laid herself open for the admiration of all the young
+men of any pretensions. Being furnished with a few letters of
+introduction he and his fascinating partner disported themselves very
+contentedly in the outer circle--the suburbs, so to speak--of good
+society without having a suspicion how far they were from the centre.
+Baroness Sterzl could never cease wondering "how those people could be
+tolerated."
+
+She was always well dressed, she gave capital little dinners, she had
+the neatest coupé and the most comfortable landau, and her coachman had
+the cleanest shaved imperial face and the smartest livery in Rome. Her
+manners were somewhat changeable, since she was constantly endeavoring
+to appropriate the airs and graces of the most fashionable women she
+met. She was extremely unpopular and consequently bored to death
+wherever she went; she was never quite easy as to her footing in
+society and lived in the discomfort of a person who is always trying to
+walk on tiptoe.
+
+Her sole unqualified pleasure during this period--which, however, she
+always spoke of as the happiest of her life--was the writing of the
+above-mentioned letters home, and especially as has been said, to her
+sister the Baroness Wolnitzka in Bohemia.
+
+She craved a public to witness her success and, like all mean natures,
+she knew no greater joy than that of exciting envy; she would often
+read these epistles to Zinka, for she was very proud of her wordy
+style. Zinka was somewhat disturbed by these flowery compositions which
+always ended with these words: "What a pity it is that you should not
+be here. It would give us the greatest pleasure to have you with us."
+
+"Take care, mamma," said the girl, "they will take you at your word and
+descend upon us."
+
+"What are you dreaming of?" said the baroness folding her letter with
+the utmost philosophy; "they have no money."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Hovels deep sunk in the ground, moss-grown thatched roofs, here and
+there an old lime-tree or a tall pear-tree with crabbed branches
+standing out black and bare against the wintry sky, slimy puddles, a
+pond full to the brim in which three forlorn-looking geese are sadly
+paddling, a swampy road along which a procession of ploughs are
+splashing their way at the heels of the muddy, unkempt teams--in short,
+a Bohemian village, with a shabby manor-house beyond. Over the
+tumble-down gate-way, with a pigsty on one side and a dog-kennel
+on the other, hangs a coat of arms. The mansion--a square house
+with a steep shingle roof--stands, according to the unromantic custom
+of the country, with one side looking on to the farm-yard; and the
+drawing-room windows open exactly over an enormous dung heap which a
+party of women are in the very act of turning with pitch-forks,
+under the superintendence of a short stout man in a weather-beaten
+hunting-hat and shooting-coat with padded silk sleeves out of which the
+wadding is peeping at a hundred holes. He is smoking a pipe with a
+china bowl decorated with a mincing odalisque. His face is broad and
+red, his ears purple, and his aspect is anything rather than
+aristocratic as he stands giggling and jesting with the damsels of the
+steaming midden.
+
+This is Baron Wolnitzky, a man who, like a good many others, got
+himself a good deal talked about in 1848 and then vanished from the
+scene without leaving a trace behind.
+
+Often when we see some dry and barren tree shedding its sere and mouldy
+leaves in the autumn we find it hard to believe that it bore blossoms
+in the spring; and the baron was like such a tree. In the spring-tide
+of 1848--an over-teeming spring throughout Europe--his soul too had
+blossomed. He had had patriotic visions and had uttered them in rhyme,
+and his country had hailed him as a prophet--perhaps because it needed
+an idol, or perhaps because in those agitated times it could not tell
+black from white. In those days he had displayed himself in a
+magnificent national costume with sleeves of the most elaborate cut,
+had married a patriotic wife who always dressed in the Slav colors:
+blue, white, and red, and who got two young men, also dressed in Slav
+costume, to mount guard at the door of her house. He was descended from
+a Polish family that had immigrated many generations since and his
+connections were as far as possible from being aristocratic, while he
+owed his little fortune entirely to his father who had put no 'baron'
+before his name, and who had earned it honestly as a master baker. In
+feudal times it would hardly have occurred to him to furbish up this
+very doubtful patent of nobility; but in the era of liberty it might
+pass muster and prove useful. A very shy pedigree serves to shed glory
+on a democratic martyr.
+
+During the insurrection of June he fled with his wife in picturesque
+disguise; at first to Dresden, and then to Switzerland where he lived
+for some time in a boarding-house at Geneva, receiving homage as a
+political refugee, and horrifying the mistress by his enormous
+appetite. At length he returned to Bohemia where the events of
+forty-eight and its picturesquely aparelled leaders had fallen
+into oblivion. He retired to his little estate and turned
+philosopher--philosophy, ever since the days of Diogenes, has been the
+acknowledged refuge of shipwrecked hopes and pretensions.
+
+There he went out walking in his shirt sleeves, played cards with the
+peasants and grew more vulgar, fatter, and hungrier every day; and if
+he ever had an idea it was unintentionally, in a bad dream after eating
+too much of some national delicacy.
+
+His wife, a robust and worthy soul, though full of absurdities, bore a
+strong resemblance to the mother of the Regent Orleans in as much as
+she had a sound understanding combined with a very sentimental nature,
+was utterly devoid of tact, bitter to the verge of cynicism, thoroughly
+indiscreet and a great chatterbox.
+
+She resigned herself without demur to the new order of things and
+brought a new tribe of children into the world, most of whom died
+young. Three survived; two sons, who so far broke through the
+traditions of the family as to become infantry officers, and one
+daughter, in whom patriotic romance once more flickered into
+fanaticism. This girl had been christened Bohuslawa, a name which was
+commonly shortened into Slawa, which in the more important dialects of
+the Slav tongue means Fame. She, like her mother, was of stalwart
+build, but her features were regular though statuesque and heavy--she
+was said to be like the Apollo Belvedere. She had already had four
+suitors but neither of them had met her views and now at twenty--having
+been born in forty-eight--she was spending the winter, unmarried and
+sorely discontented, in the country, where she occupied herself with
+serious studies and accepted the attentions of a needy young Pole who
+was devoted to her and in whom she condescended to take some slight
+interest.
+
+But Baron Wolnitzky is still standing by the midden; the great black
+dog, which till this moment has never ceased barking at the door of his
+kennel, now, to introduce some variety into the programme, jumps on to
+its roof, from which advantageous standpoint he still barks without
+pause. Everything is dripping from the recently-thawed snow, and the
+air is full of the splash and gurgle of dropping and trickling water;
+the grey February twilight sinks upon the world and everything looks
+dingy and soaked.
+
+A sound of creaking wheels is heard approaching, and a dung-cart
+appears in the gate-way.
+
+"Well, what is going on in the town?" says the baron to the man who
+comes up to him, wrapped in an evil-smelling sheepskin and with the
+ears of his fur cap tied under his chin, to kiss his master's elbow.
+"Have you brought the newspapers?"
+
+"Yes, your Grace, my Lord Baron," says the man, "and a letter too." And
+he draws a packet tied up in a red and white handkerchief out of a
+pocket in his sheepskin. The baron looks at the documents. "Another
+letter from Rome already," he mutters, grinning; "I must take it in at
+once that the women may have something to talk about."
+
+The women, that is to say his wife and daughter, were sitting in the
+dining-room at a long table covered with a flowered cloth, on which
+stood the tea things, a paraffine lamp, and a breadbasket of dull
+silver filagree work. The lamp was smoking and the table looked as
+uncomfortable and dingy as the village outside, half-buried in manure.
+The baroness, in a tan-colored loose gown, in which she looked squarer
+than ever, without a cap, her thin grey hair cut short, was hunting for
+the tenth time to-day, on and under every article of furniture, for the
+key of the storeroom. Bohuslawa, meanwhile sat still, with a volume of
+Mickiewicz in her hand, out of which she was reading aloud in rather
+stumbling Polish, with a harsh voice. A young man with a sharp-cut
+sallow face and long black hair, in a Polish braided coat, wide collar
+and olive-coloured satin cravat, corrected her pronunciation now and
+then. He was her Polish adorer. He was one of that familiar species,
+the teacher of languages with a romance in the background; he lived in
+the neighouring town and came every Saturday to the village, four
+railway stations off, to instruct Bohuslawa in Polish and spend Sunday
+with the family.
+
+When the union of these two patriots--which had already been secretly
+discussed--was to take place, depended on a mysterious law-suit that
+the young Pole was carrying on against the Russian government. His name
+was Vladimir de Matuschowsky, his grandmother had been a Potocka, and
+when he was not giving lessons, he was meditating conspiracies.
+
+"Is there nothing else for tea?" asked the baron, casting a doubtful
+eye on the stale-looking rolls in the bread-basket.
+
+"No, the dogs have eaten up the cakes," replied the baroness coolly.
+She was at the moment on all-fours under the piano, hunting for the key
+behind the pedal.
+
+"You will get an apoplexy," said Bohuslawa crossly but without anxiety,
+and without making the smallest attempt to assist the old lady. But at
+this instant a housemaid came in with the sought-for key on a bent and
+copper-colored britannia-metal waiter.
+
+"Oh, thank Heaven!" cried the baroness, "where was the wretched thing?"
+
+"In the dog kennel,--your grace, my lady baroness, the puppy had
+dragged it there."
+
+In her love for dogs again the baroness resembled the Duchess of
+Orleans; she always had a litter of half a dozen puppies to bring up,
+and the kennel was a well-known hiding place for everything that could
+not be found in its right place.
+
+"The little rascals!" she exclaimed, with an admiring laugh at the
+ingenious perversity of her mischievous pets. "Bring the sugar then,
+Clara."
+
+"I have a surprise for you," growled her husband, "a letter from Rome,"
+and he produced the document, with its mixed odors of patchouli and
+damp sheepskin, and pushed it across to his wife, while he took up the
+rum bottle to flavor his tea.
+
+"From Rome!" exclaimed the baroness, "that is delightful. Where, oh
+where are my spectacles?" And she felt and patted herself all over till
+the superfluous substance shook like a jelly.
+
+"Ah, here they are--I am sitting on them--now then, children," and she
+began to read the letter aloud.
+
+"Dear Lotti, you must not take it ill that I so seldom write to
+you"--the baroness looked up over her spectacles--"so seldom!... she
+never in her life wrote to me so often as from Rome"--"but you cannot
+imagine the turmoil in which we live. A dinner-party every day, two
+evening parties and a ball. We are spending the carnival with the
+_crême de la crême_ of Roman society. To-morrow we dine with Princess
+Vulpini--she was a Truyn and is the sister of Truyn of R. The next day
+we have theatricals, etc., etc. Zinka is an immense success. Nicki
+Sempaly among others--the brother of Prince Sempaly, the great landed
+proprietor--is very attentive to her...."
+
+Here she was interrupted by her husband. "Well, I never thought the old
+goose was quite such a simpleton!" he exclaimed, drumming his fingers
+angrily on the red and white flowered cloth.
+
+"I cannot imagine how Clotilde allows it!" cried the baroness--"and
+still less do I understand Cecil."
+
+"Take my advice, Lotti, go to Rome," observed the baron ironically; "go
+and set their heads straight on their shoulders."
+
+"With the greatest pleasure," replied his wife, taking his irony quite
+seriously, "but unfortunately we have not the money."
+
+Then she read the letter to the end; like all Clotilde's epistles it
+ended with the words; "What a pity it is that you should not be here
+too; it would give us the greatest pleasure to have you with us."
+
+Tea was done; the maid servant cleared the table with a great clatter
+of cups and spoons, the baron retired to play _Bulka_ with his
+neighbors in the village inn-parlor; the three who were left sat in
+meditative mood.
+
+"I must confess that I should like to go to Rome," said the baroness,
+as she swept the crumbs off her lap on to the floor, "and it would be
+pleasant, too, to have relations there--for their grand acquaintance I
+own I do not care a straw."
+
+"I do not see why we should avoid all society if we were there,"
+exclaimed Slawa hotly.
+
+"Well, you could do as you liked about it, of course," said the
+baroness, who held her daughter in the deepest respect, "I could stay
+at home; you see, my dear Vladimir," she added almost condescendingly
+to her son-in-law _in spe_, "I am uncomfortable in any company where I
+cannot get into my slippers in the evening...."
+
+"Mamma!" cried her daughter beside herself, "you really are!..."
+
+The baroness sat abashed and silent--no one spoke. There was not a
+sound in the room but the crackling of the fire in the huge tiled stove
+and the snoring of the big hunting-dog that lay sleeping on the tail of
+his mistress's skirt.
+
+"If we only could sell the Bernini!" murmured the baroness presently,
+resuming the thread of their conversation.
+
+The Bernini was a bust of Apollo that the baroness had inherited from
+her mother's family--said to be an adaptation by Bernini from the head
+of the Apollo Belvedere. Whenever the Wolnitzkys were in any financial
+straits the Bernini was packed off to some dealer in objects of
+_vertu_, from which excursions it invariably returned unsold. Not many
+days previously the travelled Apollo--he had seen New York, London, and
+St. Petersburg--had come home from a visit to Meyer of Berlin.
+
+"By the bye, Vladimir, you have not seen it yet," said Slawa, "I must
+show you the bust."
+
+"Is it the head that is said to be so strikingly like you?--that will
+interest me greatly," said the young Pole, casting an adoring eye on
+Slawa.
+
+"Bring the lamp, the bust is in the drawing-room."
+
+Vladimir, carrying the lamp, led the way into the drawing-room, a
+large, scantily-furnished room which was never dusted more than once a
+month. There, on a marble plinth in a corner, stood the radiant god--a
+copy from the Belvedere Apollo no doubt--but by Bernini...?
+
+"The likeness is extraordinary!" cried Vladimir ecstatically, and
+gazing alternately at the bust and at Slawa. "Oh, it is a gem, a
+masterpiece! you ought never to part with it."
+
+"Well, but I must say I should very much like to go to Rome," sighed
+the baroness; but Slawa only bit her lips.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+"And what shall we do to-morrow?" Sempaly would ask Zinka almost every
+evening when he met her, fresh and smiling, at some party; he had made
+it his task to help her to find her lost Rome and devoted himself to it
+with praiseworthy diligence.
+
+The disappointment that she had experienced in her expedition under the
+guidance of the _botta_ driver to the ruins of the capital of the
+Caesars is a common enough phenomenon; it comes over almost everyone
+who sets out with his fancy crammed with the mystical cobwebs that
+recent literature has spun round the name of Rome, to see for the first
+time that dense mass of splendor and rubbish among the bare modern
+houses. And the disappointment is greatest in those who come from a
+long stay in Venice or Verona. Rome has none of the seductive charm of
+those North Italian cities. Its architecture is sombre and heavy, and
+the prevailing hues in winter are a sober grey and a dull bluish-green,
+more suggestive of a subtly toned tempera picture than of a glowing oil
+painting. It is vain to look for the sheen of the shimmering lagoons or
+the fantastic outline of the campaniles against the sky of Venice; for
+the half-ruined frescoes, or amber sunshine of Verona.
+
+"After the cities of North Italy Rome has the effect of a severe choral
+by Handel after a nocturne by Chopin. The first impression is
+crushing," said Sempaly to Zinka; "but one wearies of the nocturne, and
+never of the choral."
+
+To which Zinka replied: "But the choral is so drowned by trivial
+hurdy-gurdy tunes that I find it very difficult to follow." To which he
+laughed and said: "We will speak of that again in a fortnight."
+
+By the end of the fortnight Zinka had thrown two _soldi_ into the
+Fountain of Trevi to make sure that she should some day see Rome again,
+and in fanaticism for Rome she outdid even the fanatical General von
+Klinger. Sempaly had contributed mainly to her conversion. Nothing
+could be more amusing or more interesting than to explore every nook of
+the city of ruins under his escort. He was constantly remembering this
+or that wonderful thing that he must positively show to Zinka. An
+artistic bas-relief that had been built to some queer orange-colored
+house above a tobacconist's, or a heathen divinity which had had wings
+attached to its shoulders to qualify it for admission as an angel into
+a Christian church. He rode out with her into the Campagna, and pointed
+out all the most picturesque parts of the Trastevere, and he could find
+a ridiculous suggestion even in the most reverend things. The halls of
+the Vatican in which the liberal minded Vicars of Christ have granted a
+refuge to the pensioners of antiquity, he called the Poor-house of the
+gods; and always spoke of St. Peter's, which is commonly known as _la
+Parocchia dei Forestieri_, as the Papal Grand Hotel. There was not a
+fountain, a fragment of sculpture, or a picturesque heap of ruins of
+which he could not relate some history, comic or pathetic, or he
+invented one; but he never produced the impression that he was giving a
+lecture. He had in fact a particularly unpretending way of telling an
+appropriate and not too lengthy anecdote; he never handed it round on a
+waiter, as it were, for examination, but let it drop quietly out of his
+pocket. His knowledge of art was but shallow, but his feeling for it,
+like all his instincts, was amazingly keen. His information on all
+subjects was miscellaneous and slender, not an article of his
+intellectual wardrobe--as Charles Lamb has it--was whole; but he draped
+himself in the rags with audacious grace and made no attempt to hide
+the holes.
+
+Truyn and his little daughter often joined them in these expeditions,
+and sometimes Cecil, but only when his mother did not choose to go out,
+and his demeanor on these occasions--'peripatetic æsthetics' he called
+their walks--was highly characteristic. He would walk by the side of
+his sister and Sempaly, or a few steps behind them, sunk in silence but
+always sharply observant. From time to time he would correct their
+cicerone in his dates, which Sempaly took with sublime indifference and
+for which--taking off his hat--he invariably thanked him with princely
+courtesy. Sterzl only sympathized with the classical style of the
+Renaissance; the real antiques which Zinka raved about he smiled at as
+caricatures; Guido on the other hand--for whom Sempaly had a weakness,
+as a Chopin among painters--Sterzl detested. He declared that the
+Beatrice Cenci had a cold wet bandage on her head, and that the picture
+was nothing more than a study apparently made from an idiot in a
+mad-house. When Zinka talked of her favorite antiques or other works in
+the mystical and sentimental slang of the clique, he laughed at her,
+but quite good-naturedly. He scorned all extravagance and raptures as
+cant and affectation. Still he was merciful to his sister, and when she
+turned from a Francia with tears in her eyes, or turned pale as she
+quoted Shelley, or spoke of Leonardo's Medusa in Florence, he did no
+more than shrug his shoulders and say: "Zinka, you are crazy," or
+gently pull her by the ear. Everything in Zinka was right, even her
+want of sound common sense.
+
+The baroness had at last found a lodging, almost to her mind: a small
+palazzo in a side street, off the Corso, "furnished in atrocious taste,
+but otherwise very nice." The palazetto was in fact a gem in its way,
+with a simple and elegant stone front and a court surrounded by a
+colonnade with red camellia shrubs and a fountain in the midst. There
+were several much injured antique statues too, one of which was a
+famous and very beautiful Amazon at whose feet a rose-bush bloomed
+profusely. This Amazon struck Zinka as remarkably picturesque and she
+sketched her from every point of view without ever reading the warning
+in her sad face. Alas! Zinka had gazed at the sun and it had blinded
+her.
+
+But how could Cecil allow this daily-growing intimacy between Sempaly
+and his sister? Sempaly's elder brother, Prince Sempaly, had been
+married ten years and was childless, so the attaché, as heir
+presumptive, was in duty bound to make a brilliant marriage. Did not
+Sterzl know this? Yes, he knew it, but he did not trouble his head
+about it. He was under no illusion as to the singularity, not to say
+the improbability of Sempaly marrying a girl of inferior birth; he had
+no desire that it should be otherwise. He was no democrat; on the
+contrary, his was a particularly conservative and old world nature,
+equally remote from cringing or from envy. That Sempaly should marry
+any other girl not his equal in rank would have struck him as
+altogether wrong, but Zinka--Zinka was different. He worshipped her as
+only a strong elder brother call worship a much younger weaker sister
+and there was no social elevation of which he deemed her unworthy. And
+when he saw Sempaly smile down so tenderly and at the same time so
+respectfully on his 'butterfly,' as he called her, he was rejoiced at
+her good fortune and never for an instant doubted it Zinka was not
+sentimental. For a long time there was no tinge of any feeling stronger
+than good fellowship in her intercourse with Sempaly; her talk was all
+fun, her glance saucy and wilful. By degrees, however, a change came
+over her; her whole manner softened, there was a gentle dreaminess even
+in her caprice and when she smiled it was often with tears in her eyes.
+
+Sempaly was not regular in his visits to the palazetto; sometimes for
+two or three days he failed to appear, then he would call very
+early--at noon perhaps, join the family unceremoniously at their
+breakfast, go out driving with the ladies, accept an invitation to stay
+to dinner, and if Zinka was looking pale or out of spirits, he would
+pay her fifty kind little attentions to conjure a smile to her lips.
+Occasionally he would fall into the melancholy vein and talk of his
+loveless youth, and let her pity him for it. He would tell her about
+his elder brother, praising his many noble qualities, and then add with
+a shrug: "Yes, he is a splendid fellow, but ... he has ideas!" When
+Zinka asked what sort of ideas, Sempaly sighed: "I hope you may some
+day know him and then you can judge for yourself."
+
+But this was in a low tone and he seemed to regret having said it. Then
+he would frequently allude to this or that picture in his brother's
+house at Vienna, or to some curious family relic, and say how much he
+should like some day to show it to Zinka. His favorite theme, however,
+was Erzburg, the old castle which for numberless generations had been
+the family summer-retreat of the Sempalys and of which he was
+passionately fond. Excepting as regards this estate he was singularly
+free from all false or family pride; he declared that his brother's
+Vienna palace was an unhealthy barrack, scouted at the Sempaly breed of
+horses, laughed at the Sempaly nose, and praised the traditional
+Sempaly tokay more in irony than in good faith--but then he came round
+to Erzburg again and simply raved about it Not about the oriental
+luxury with which part of the castle was fitted up--not in the best
+taste--of that he never spoke; indeed, he said more about its
+deficiencies than its perfections, but in a tone of such loving excuse!
+He talked of the large bare rooms where, for years, he had watched for
+the apparition of the white lady, half longing, half dreading to see
+her; of the doleful groaning of the weather-cock of the _rococo_
+statues in the grounds, and of the gloomy pools with their low sad
+murmur, and their carpet of white waterlilies. The statues were bad,
+the pools unhealthy he admitted, and yet, as he said it, his usually
+mocking glance was soft and almost devout Once, when Zinka had grown
+quite dismal over his reminiscences, he took her hand and pressed it
+tenderly to his lips: "You must see Erzburg some day," he murmured.
+
+His behavior to her was that of a man who is perfectly clear as to his
+own intentions but who for some reason is not immediately free to sue
+for the hand of a girl whom in his heart of hearts he already regards
+as his own. What did he mean by all this? What was he thinking of? I
+believe absolutely nothing. He went with the tide. There are many men
+like him, selfish, luxurious natures who swim with the stream of life
+and never attempt to steer; they have for the most part happy tempers,
+they are content with any harbor so long as they reach it without
+effort or damage, and if in their passive course they run down any one
+else they exclaim with their usual amiable politeness: "Oh! I beg your
+pardon!" and are quite satisfied that the mishap was due to fate and
+not to any fault of theirs.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+It was in the end of February, shortly before the close of the
+carnival. Truyn, going to the Sterzls' with his little girl to take a
+walk with Zinka, saw at the door of the palazetto a hackney carriage
+with a small portmanteau on the top. Sterzl's man-servant, an elegant
+person with close-cut hair, shaved all but a short beard, and wearing
+an impressive watch-chain, was condescending to exchange a few words
+with the driver blinking in the sunshine.
+
+The drawing-room into which Truyn and his daughter were admitted
+unannounced was in the full blaze of light. The motes danced their
+aimless rainbow-colored dance; in the middle of the room stood Zinka
+with both hands on a table over which she was bending to gaze at a
+magnificent basket of flowers. There was something in her attitude,
+quaint but graceful, in the elegant line of her bust, the pathetic joy
+of her radiant face, the soft flow of her plain long dress, which
+stamped the picture once and for ever on Truyn's memory. A sunbeam
+wantoned in her hair turning it to gold and her whole figure was the
+embodiment of sweet and happy spring delight The basket of flowers,
+too, was a masterpiece of its kind--a _capriccio_ of lilies of the
+valley, gardenias, snow-flakes, and pale-tinted roses, that looked as
+though the wayward west-wind had blown them into company. Sterzl was
+standing by, with a pleased smile, and the baroness, in an attitude of
+affected astonishment, stood a little apart with a visiting-card in her
+hand. Neither Cecil nor his sister--she absorbed in the flowers and he
+in gazing at her--had heard Truyn arrive. When he knocked at the door
+the baroness said "come in," and gave him the tips of her fingers;
+then, with a wave of her hand towards the basket, she lisped out: "Did
+you ever see such extravagance!"
+
+Zinka looked up and welcomed him and so did Sterzl. "It is perfect
+folly ... quite reckless...." sighed the baroness, "such a basket of
+flowers costs a fortune. Why, only one gardenia...."
+
+Zinka's underlip pouted impatiently and Sterzl said in his dry way:
+
+"My dear mother, do not destroy Zinka's illusions; the basket fell from
+heaven expressly for her and she does not want to believe that it was
+bought, just like any other, in the Via Condotti or Babuino. What do
+you say, Count? Sempaly sent it to her to console her for the departure
+of her brother. The reason is too absurd, do not you think? I do not
+believe you would miss me particularly for a few days, child?" and he
+put his hand affectionately under her chin.
+
+"Where are you off to so suddenly?" asked Truyn very seriously.
+
+"To Naples. Franz Arnsperg has telegraphed to me to ask me to meet him
+there; he is on his way to Paris from Constantinople, and he is a great
+friend of mine and has come by way of Naples on purpose that we may
+meet."
+
+"The Arnsperg-Meiringens; you know their property adjoins ours," the
+baroness explained. Sterzl, who knew very well that Truyn was far
+better informed as to the Arnsperg-Meiringens than his mother, was
+annoyed and uncomfortable. However, he kissed her hand and then turned
+to his sister:
+
+"God shield you, my darling butterfly--write me a few lines, or is that
+too much to ask?" Then he kissed her and whispered: "Mind you have not
+lost those bright eyes by the time I return."
+
+Truyn accompanied him to the carriage with a very long face; he and
+General von Klinger had watched Sempaly's conduct with much
+disquietude, they knew him to be susceptible but not impressionable,
+alive to every new emotion; and Truyn would ere this have spoken to
+Sempaly on the subject if he had not been sure that it would merely
+provoke and irritate him without producing any good effect; the
+general, on the other hand, could not make up his mind to open Sterzl's
+eyes to the state of affairs because, like Baron Stockmar, he had an
+invincible dislike to interfering in matters that did not concern him.
+Like that famous man, not for worlds would he have committed an
+indiscretion to save a friend for whom he would have sacrificed his
+life; and this terror of being indiscreet is a form of cowardice which
+is considered meritorious in the fashionable world.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+
+It is Shrove Tuesday. The sorriest jade of the wretchedest _botta_ has
+a paper rose stuck behind his ear, though during the hours sacred to
+the carnival they are pariahs and outcasts from the Corso. Two-horse
+carriages are dressed in garlands and the horses have plumes on their
+heads. The Piazza di Spagna is alive with pedlars and hawkers, selling
+flowers and little tapers (_moccoli_), and with buyers of every nation
+doing their best to cheapen them. Baskets full of violets, roses,
+anemones, snowflakes--baskets full of indescribable bunches of
+greenery--the ammunition of the mob which have already done duty for
+two or three days and are like nothing on earth but the wisps of rushes
+with which the boards are rubbed in some parts of Austria. The sellers
+of coral and tortoise-shell cry out to you to buy--"_e carnevale_...."
+and in the side streets--for misery dares not show its head in the main
+thoroughfares to-day--the beggars crowd more closely than ever round
+the pedestrian with their perpetual cry: "_muojo di fame_."
+
+The houses on the Corso wear their gay carnival trappings to-day for
+the last time. A smart dress flutters on every balcony, several stands
+have been erected and all the window-sills are covered, some with
+colored chintz and some with gold brocade. All Thursday, Saturday, and
+Monday Zinka and Gabrielle had driven unweariedly up and down the Corso
+with Count Truyn, flinging flowers at all their acquaintances and at a
+good many strangers. To-day, however, they had agreed to look on from
+the windows of the Palazzo Vulpini, for the close of the carnival is
+apt to be somewhat riotous. Every one who lives on the Corso seizes the
+opportunity of paying long owing debts of civility and offers a place
+in a window to as many friends as can possibly be squeezed in.
+
+There was a large party at the Vulpinis', for the most part Italians
+and relations of the prince's. Madame de Gandry and Mrs. Ferguson had
+invited themselves, and Zinka, with Gabrielle Truyn, was to see the
+turmoil in the Corso from the balcony of the palazzo. The baroness had
+"tic douloureux" which kept her at home,--and which no one regretted.
+At six o'clock, before the beginning of the _moccoli_, all the company
+were to go to the '_Falcone_,' a well-known and especially Roman
+restaurant where they would dine more comfortably and easily than at
+home. From thence they were to adjourn to the _Teatro Costanzi_. Prince
+Vulpini had drawn up this thoroughly carnival programme for the special
+benefit of the Countess Schalingen who had a passion for "local color,"
+and who was enchanted. The princess was resigned; local color had no
+interest for her and she was somewhat prejudiced against Italian native
+dishes and masked festivities of all kinds.
+
+It was three o'clock. Baskets of flowers and whole heaps of sweet
+little sugar-plum boxes were ready piled in the windows for ammunition.
+The little Vulpinis, who entirely filled the large centre window, and
+their shy English governess in her black gown, had just come into
+the room, skipping about and pulling each other's hair for sheer
+impatience and excitement; and when their governess reproved them for
+behaving so roughly "_ma è carnevale_" is thought sufficient excuse;
+the company laughed and the English girl said no more. All the party
+had assembled. Madame de Gandry and Mrs. Ferguson were both looking
+pretty and picturesque; the former had stuck on a fez, and the other a
+quaintly-folded handkerchief of oriental stuff, in honor of the
+carnival, when eccentricity of costume is admissible and conventional
+head-gear are contemned.
+
+From the windows down to the carriages, from the carriages up to the
+windows the war was eagerly waged; bunches of flowers, and bonbonnières
+from Spillman's and Nazzari's fly in all directions and scraps of
+colored paper fall like snow through the air. Then the blare and pipe
+of a military band came up from the Piazza di Venezia and the maskers
+crowded in among the carriages. One of the liveliest groups along the
+Corso was certainly that where the Vulpini children were grouped, with
+Zinka in their midst, she having undertaken the charge of them at their
+own earnest entreaty. She and Gabrielle were both laughing with glee,
+but at the height of their fun they remembered to pay all sorts of
+little civilities to the half-scared English governess and had stuck a
+splendid bunch of lilies of the valley in front of her camphor-scented
+black silk dress. What especially interested the children was watching
+for Norina's carriage, for they not only recognized the prince who was
+driving, but knew all his party: Truyn, Siegburg, Sempaly, and as it
+passed with its four bays the little Vulpinis jumped with delight and
+chirped and piped like a tree full of birds; the gentlemen waved their
+hands, smiled, and gallantly aimed bouquets without end at the windows
+of the palazzo. But all the finest flowers that day were, beyond a
+doubt, aimed at Zinka. The floor all round her was heaped with
+snowflakes, and violets, and roses. In her hand she had caught a huge
+bunch of roses flung up to her by Sempaly.
+
+"Oh, oh!" cried Madame de Gandry, retiring from the window to rest for
+a few minutes and refresh herself with a sip of wine. "Ah,
+mademoiselle!" glancing enviously at the mass of blossoms strewn round
+Zinka, "you have as many bouquets as a prima donna!" Zinka nodded;
+then, contemplating her hat, which she had thrown off in her
+excitement, with a whimsical air of regret and pulling the feather
+straight she said with a mockery of repentance:
+
+"My poor hat will be glad to rest on Ash Wednesday."
+
+"It is perfect, Marie, really perfect, this Roman carnival--a thing
+never to be forgotten!" exclaimed the Countess Schalingen, coming in
+from the window. She was a genuine Austrian, always ready to go into
+ecstasies of enthusiasm.
+
+"It is horrid," answered the princess impatiently. "Under the new
+government it is nothing but an amusement for the strangers and street
+boys."
+
+The _Barberi_ have rushed past, and the procession has once more begun
+to move on but its interest and excitement are over; the crowd in the
+road begins to thin, and Sempaly, Truyn, Norina, Siegburg, and the
+general have come in, as agreed, to escort the ladies to the 'Falcone,'
+The children have all been kissed and sent off to their dinner at home;
+Gabrielle somewhat ill-pleased at not being allowed to go with the
+elder party and Truyn himself not liking to part with his little
+companion. Zinka wishes to comfort Gabrielle by remaining with the
+little ones, but this was not to be heard of.
+
+"Only too many of us would wish to follow your example," whispers
+Princess Vulpini, to whom this dinner at a Roman restaurant is
+detestable.
+
+They are to go on foot, but they are so long getting ready after this
+little delay that the one peaceful half-hour before the _moccoli_ is
+lost; by the time they sally into the street the crowd, which had
+dispersed, is getting denser every minute. The darkness comes on
+rapidly, like a grey curtain let down suddenly from the skies; the
+gaudy hangings are being taken in from the windows lest they should
+catch fire; the carnival is putting on its ball-dress. Now the first
+twinkling tapers are seen here and there, like glow-worms in the dusk,
+and are instantly pelted with _mazetti_ and bunches of greenery, mostly
+picked up from the pavement "_Fuori! fuori!_" is the monotonous cry on
+every side, and presently: "_senza moccolo, vergogna!_"--the death
+cries of the carnival.
+
+The Austrian gentlemen find their position anything rather than
+pleasant, for it is impossible to protect the ladies effectually
+against being jostled and pushed, still less against hearing much rough
+jesting. At last they are out of the Corso and have divided in the
+narrow streets; some having turned into the Via Maddalena, while others
+have crossed the Piazza Capranica to the Piazza della Rotunda; but at
+last they are all met after various small adventures at the
+'_Falcone_.' The ladies' toilets have suffered a little and Princess
+Vulpini looks very unhappy.
+
+The '_Falcone_' is a very unpretending restaurant where the waiters
+wear white jackets; the tariff is moderate and the _risotto_
+celebrated. Vulpini orders a thoroughly Italian dinner in an upper
+room.
+
+Suddenly Truyn exclaims in dismay: "What has become of Zinka and
+Sempaly?"
+
+"They have lingered talking on the way," says Madame de Gandry with
+pinched lips as she leans back in her chair and pulls off her gloves.
+"People always walk slowly when they have so much to say to each
+other."
+
+Truyn frowned. "I am afraid they have got entangled in the crowd and
+have not been able to make their way out. I have hated this expedition
+from the first. I cannot imagine, Marie, what could have put such a
+plan into your head...."
+
+"Mine!" says his sister in an undertone and with a meaning glance. But
+she says no more. He knows perfectly well that she is as innocent of
+the scheme as the angels in heaven.
+
+"Why, what on earth is the matter?" asks Vulpini pouring huge
+quantities of grated cheese into his soup, while Mrs. Ferguson
+complains that she is dying of hunger, which is singular, considering
+the enormous number of bonbons she has eaten in the course of the day.
+Madame de Gandry asks for a series of French dishes which the
+'_Falcone_' has never heard of Countess Schalingen is loud in her
+praises of the Italian cookery and is only sorry that she has no
+appetite.
+
+Truyn and the general sat gazing at the door in growing anxiety; Zinka
+and Sempaly do not make their appearance--Truyn can hardly conceal his
+alarm.
+
+"I certainly cannot understand what you are so uneasy about," says
+Madame de Gandry with a perfidious smile; "if Fräulein Zinka has been
+mobbed and hindered Sempaly is in the same predicament and will take
+good care of her. If she were with any one less trustworthy, less
+competent, with whom she was less intimate ... then I could
+understand...." Truyn passes his hand over his grey hair in extreme
+perplexity and mutters in his mother tongue: "This woman will be the
+death of me!" and then he again blames his sister.
+
+Yet another quarter of an hour; though the waiters are not nimble they
+have got to the dessert and still no signs of Sempaly and Zinka.
+
+"I am beginning to feel very anxious," says Marie. "I only hope the
+child has not fainted in the crowd."
+
+Madame de Gandry makes a meaning grimace. "It is perhaps the cleverest
+thing she could have done," she says. Truyn hears and bites his lip.
+
+The door just now opens and Zinka and Sempaly come in; she calm and
+sweet, he dark and scowling.
+
+"Thank God!" cries Truyn.
+
+"What in the world has happened?" asks the princess, while Truyn draws
+a chair to the table for Zinka, next to himself. "What has happened?"
+repeated Sempaly. "The most obvious thing in the world. We got into the
+thick of the mob and could not get through."
+
+"I cannot understand how that should have occurred," says Madame de
+Gandry. "We all came through."
+
+"You may perhaps recollect that we were the last of the party,
+countess; we had hardly gone twenty yards when the crowd had become
+a compact mass, we pressed on, determined to get through at any
+cost--alone I could have managed it--but with a lady--suddenly we were
+in the thick of a furious squabble--curses, blows, and knives. I cannot
+tell you how miserable I was at finding myself out in the street with a
+lady--a young girl...."
+
+"Fräulein Sterzl seems to take it all much more coolly than you do.
+Count Sempaly," interposes Madame de Gandry spitefully; "she does not
+appear to have been at all terrified by the adventure."
+
+"Fräulein Zinka was very brave," replied Sempaly.
+
+"Goodness me! what was there to be afraid of;" says Zinka with the
+simplicity of childish innocence. "The responsibility was Count
+Sempaly's not mine."
+
+The French woman laughs sharply. "We must be moving now," she says, "if
+we mean to go to Costanzi's," and there is a clatter of chairs and a
+little scene of confusion in which no one can find the right shawl or
+wrap for each lady.
+
+But Princess Vulpini makes no attempt to move: "I am going nowhere else
+this evening," she says with unwonted determination. "I will not take
+Zinka to Constanzi's. I will wait till she has eaten her beef-steak and
+then I will take her home. I hope you will all enjoy yourselves."
+
+Zinka eats her beef-steak with the greatest calmness and an
+unmistakably good appetite; she is perfectly sweet and docile and
+natural; she has no suspicion that her name will to-morrow morning be
+in every mouth. Truyn is as pale as death; he has heard Madame de
+Gandry's whisper to her friend: "After this he must make her an offer."
+
+
+
+
+
+                                PART II.
+
+                                 LENT.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+
+"I am glad to have found you," cried Truyn next morning as he entered
+Sempaly's room in the Palazzo di Venezia, and discovered him sipping
+his coffee after his late breakfast, with a book in his hand.
+
+"I am delighted that you should for once have taken the trouble to
+climb up to me. I must show you my Francia--the dealer who sold it to
+me declares it is a Francia. But you look worried. What has brought you
+here?"
+
+"I only wanted to know--to ask you whether you will drive out to
+Frascati with us to-day?"
+
+"To Frascati!--This afternoon? What an idea!" exclaimed Sempaly; "and
+in any case I cannot join you for I am going to the Palatine at three
+o'clock with the Sterzls."
+
+"Yes?" said Truyn looking uncommonly grave.
+
+"May I offer you a cup of coffee?" asked Sempaly coolly.
+
+"No thank you," replied Truyn shortly. He was evidently uneasy, and
+began examining the odds and ends at the table to give himself
+countenance; by accident he took up the book that Sempaly had been
+reading when he came in. It was Charles Lamb's Essays, and on the first
+page was written in a large, firm hand: "In friendly remembrance of a
+terrible quarrel, Zinka Sterzl."
+
+"The child lost a bet with me not long since," Sempaly explained.
+"Another bet is still unsettled and is to be decided to-day at the
+Palatine." Truyn shut the book sharply and threw it down; then, setting
+his elbows on the table at which they were sitting, and fixing his eyes
+keenly on Sempaly's face he said:
+
+"Do you intend to marry Zinka Sterzl?"
+
+Sempaly started, "What do you mean?" he exclaimed; "what are you
+dreaming of?" But as Truyn said no more, simply gazing fixedly at him,
+he took up an attitude of defiance. He looked Truyn straight in the
+face with an angry glare and retorted:
+
+"And suppose I do?"
+
+"Then I can only hope you will have enough resolution to carry out your
+intentions," said Truyn, "for to stop half-way in such a case is a
+crime."
+
+He drew a deep breath and looked at the ground. But Sempaly's face,
+instead of clearing, grew darker; he was prepared for vehement
+opposition and his cousin's calm consent, not to say encouragement, put
+him in the position of a man who, after straining every muscle to lift
+a heavy weight suddenly discovers that it is a piece of painted
+pasteboard. It completely threw him off his balance.
+
+"Well, I must say!" he began in a tone of extreme annoyance, "you speak
+of it as if it were a no more serious question than the dancing of a
+cotillon. In plain terms the thing is impossible. What are we to live
+on? I have long since run through all my fortune, if I took what my
+brother would regard as so monstrous a step he would cut off all
+supplies, and Zinka is not of age. I might to be sure take to selling
+dripping to maintain my wife, which would have the additional advantage
+that my mother-in-law would cut me in consequence. Or perhaps you would
+advise me to let Dame Clotilde Sterzl keep us till Zinka comes into her
+money?"
+
+"Well," says Truyn calmly, "if you can take such a reasonable view of
+the impossibility of your marriage with Zinka Sterzl, your behavior to
+her is perfectly inexplicable."
+
+Truyn was still sitting by the little table on which the pretty coffee
+service was set out, while Sempaly, his hands in his pockets, was
+walking up and down the room, kicking and shoving the furniture with
+all the irritation of a man who knows himself to be in the wrong.
+
+"Upon my soul I cannot make out what you would be at!" he suddenly
+exclaimed, standing still and facing his cousin. "Sterzl has never
+found any fault with my behavior and it is much more his affair than
+yours."
+
+Truyn changed color a little, but did not lose his presence of mind.
+
+"Sterzl, with all his dryness of manner, is an idealist," he said, "who
+would fetch the stars from heaven for his sister if he could. He has
+never for an instant doubted that your intentions with regard to her
+were quite serious."
+
+"That is impossible!" cried Sempaly.
+
+"But it is so," Truyn asserted. "He is too blind to think his sister
+beneath any one's notice."
+
+"And he is right!" exclaimed Sempaly, "perfectly right--but the
+pressure of circumstances--of position--the duties I have
+inherited...."
+
+He had seated himself on the deep inner ledge of one of the windows,
+with his elbows on his knees and his chin between his hands, and was
+staring thoughtfully at the floor.
+
+"Allow me to ask you," he said, "what induced you to mix yourself up in
+the affair?"
+
+"It has weighed on my mind for a long time," said Truyn, "but what
+especially moved me to speak of it to-day is the circumstance that last
+evening, before you came into the '_Falcone_,' Mesdames De Gandry and
+Ferguson allowed themselves to speak in a way which convinced me that
+your constant intimacy with Zinka is beginning to do her no good."
+
+"Oh! of course, if you listen to the gossip of every washerwoman,"
+Sempaly interrupted angrily. And he muttered a long speech in which the
+words: 'Sacred responsibility--due regard for the duties imposed by
+Providence,' were freely thrown in. Truyn's handsome face flushed with
+contempt and at length he broke into his cousin's harangue, to which
+for a few minutes he had listened in silence:
+
+"No swagger nor bluster.... The matter is quiet simple: Do you love
+Zinka?" The attaché frowned:
+
+"Yes," he said fiercely.
+
+"Then it is only that you have not the courage to face the annoyances
+that a marriage with her would involve you in?"
+
+Sempaly was dumb,
+
+"Then, my dear fellow, there is no choice; you must break off the
+intimacy, as gently but as immediately as possible."
+
+"That I neither can nor will attempt," cried Sempaly, stamping his
+foot.
+
+"If within three days you have not taken the necessary steps to secure
+your removal from Rome, I shall feel myself compelled to give Sterzl a
+hint--or your brother--whichever you prefer." Truyn spoke quite firmly.
+"And now good-bye."
+
+"Good-bye," said Sempaly without moving, and Truyn went to the door;
+there he paused and said hesitatingly: "Do not take it amiss, Nicki--I
+could do no less. Remember that though the right is a bitter morsel, it
+has a good after-taste."
+
+"Poor child, poor sweet little girl!" Truyn murmured to himself as he
+descended the grey stone stairs of the Palazzo de Venezia. "Is this a
+time to be talking of inherited responsibilities and the duties of
+position--now! Good heavens!" He lighted a cigar and then flung it
+angrily away. "Good heavens! to have met a girl like Zinka--to have won
+her love--and to be free!..."
+
+He hurried out into the street, leaving the gate-porter astonished that
+the count, who was usually so courteous, should have taken no notice of
+his respectful bow; such a thing had never happened before.
+
+He was a strange man, this grey-haired young Count Truyn; he had grown
+up as one of a very happy family and when still quite young he had been
+hurried, much against his will, into a marriage with the handsome
+Gabrielle Zinsenburg. He had never been able to reconcile himself to
+the empty wordliness of his life in her society; she was a heartless,
+superficial woman, some few years older than himself, who had staked
+everything on her hope of achieving a marriage with him. Within a few
+years they had separated, quite amiably, by mutual consent; he had
+given her his name and she gave him his child. His life was spoilt. He
+had a noble and a loving heart but he might not bestow it on any woman;
+he must carry it about in his breast where it grew heavy to bear. His
+love for his little girl, devoted as he was to her, was not enough to
+live by, and a bitter sense of craving lurked in his spirit. For many
+years he had lived a great deal abroad; his mind had expanded and he
+had shed several of his purely Austrian prejudices. At home he was
+still regarded as a staunch conservative because he always passively
+voted on that side; but he was only indifferent, absolutely
+indifferent, to all political strife, and smiled alike at the
+recklessness of the 'left' and the excitability of the 'right,' while
+in his inmost soul he regarded the perfecting of government as mere
+labor lost; for he was no optimist, and thought that to heal the woes
+of humanity nothing would avail but its thorough regeneration, and that
+men have no mind for such regeneration; all they ask is to be allowed
+to cry out when they are hurt, and shift their sins on to each other's
+shoulders.
+
+It afforded him no satisfaction to cry out. His weary soul found no
+rest but in unbounded benevolence, and Sempaly's nature--experimental,
+groping his way through life--had seemed to him to-day more odious than
+ever.
+
+"How can a man be at once so tender and such a coward?" he asked
+himself, "He is the most completely selfish being I ever met with--a
+thorough epicurean in sentiment, and has only just heart enough for his
+own pleasure and enjoyment."
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+The bet outstanding between Zinka and Sempaly was not decided that
+afternoon. Sempaly did not go to the Palatine, but excused himself at
+the last moment in a little note to Zinka. Truyn's words, though he
+would not have admitted it to himself, had made a very deep impression,
+and though he fought against it he could no longer avoid looking the
+situation in the face. To get himself transferred to some other
+capital, to give up all his pleasant idle habits here--the idea was
+intolerable! He felt exactly like a man who has been suddenly roused
+from a slumber bright with pleasant dreams. He did not want to wake, or
+to rub his eyes clear of the vision.
+
+Was everything at an end then? Truyn had, to be sure, suggested an
+alternative: if he could but call up sufficient energy it rested only
+with himself to turn the sweet dream into a still sweeter and lovelier
+reality, and his whole being thrilled with ecstasy as this delightful
+possibility flattered his fancy. He was long past the age at which a
+man commits some matrimonial folly believing that he can reclaim the
+morals of some disrespectable second-rate actress, or that his highest
+happiness is to devote his life to his sister's governess who is a
+dozen years older than himself; when he contemplated the possibility of
+his marrying Zinka Sterzl after all, it was with the certainty that his
+feeling for her was not a mere transient madness, but that it had its
+roots in the depths of his nature. Every form and kind of enjoyment had
+been at his command and he had hated them all. Things in which other
+men of his age and position could find excitement and interest roused
+his fastidious nature to disgust. Life had long since become to him a
+vain and empty show, when he had met Zinka.... Then all the sweetest
+spirits of spring had descended fluttering into his vacant heart; a
+magical touch had made it a garden of flowers and filled it with fair,
+mad dreams of love. All the "sweet sorrow" of life was revealed to him
+in a new form ... And now was he to tread the blossoms into dust? "Give
+up seeing her--get myself sent away--never! I cannot and I will not do
+it," he muttered to himself indignantly as he thought it all over.
+"What business is it of Truyn's? What right has he to issue his orders
+to me?"
+
+But when he had resolved simply to go on with Zinka as he had begun, to
+sun himself as heretofore in her smile, her gentleness, and her beauty,
+he was still uncomfortable. He felt that it would not be the same. Till
+now his heart had simply been content, now it could speak and ask for
+more; to try to satisfy it with this shadow of delight was like
+attempting to slake a raging thirst with the dew off a rosebud. He
+loved her now--suddenly and madly. Interesting women had hitherto
+utterly failed to interest him; they were like brooklets filled by the
+rain: the muddiness of the water prevented their shallowness being
+immediately perceptible; the storms of life had spoilt their clearness
+and purity; Zinka, on the contrary, was like a mountain lake whose
+waters are so transparent that near the shore every pebble is visible;
+and though, in the middle, the bottom is no longer seen, it is because
+they are deep and not because they are turbid, till their crystalline
+opacity reflects the sky overhead. And in the depths of that lake, he
+thought, lay a treasure which one alone, guided and blest by God, might
+hope to find. How he longed to sound it.
+
+She was made for him; never for an instant had he been dull in her
+society; she satisfied both his head and his heart; all the bewitching
+inconsistency and contradictions of her nature captivated him; he had
+said of her that "she was like a little handbook to the study of
+women," she was made up of such a variety of characteristics. In the
+midst of her childlike moods she had such unexpected depth of thought,
+such flashes of wisdom; her wildest vagaries were so original and often
+ended so suddenly in wistful reverie; her little selfish caprices were
+the converse of such devoted self-sacrifice; her grace was so
+spontaneous, her voice so soft and appealing ... Well, but should
+he?... No, it must not be. Truyn had said it--he must quit Rome--the
+sooner the better.
+
+He took his hat and went out to call on the ambassador and discuss the
+matter with him. His excellency was not at home and Sempaly betook
+himself to the club, where he lost several games at ecarté--he was
+greatly annoyed. Then he went home and sat looking constantly at the
+clock as though he were expecting some one; his irritation increased
+every minute.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+
+           "Bright May--the sweetest month of Spring;
+            The trees and fields with flowers are strown--
+            Dear Heart, to thee Life's May I bring;
+            Take it and keep it for thine own--
+            Nay--draw the knife!--I will not start,
+            Pierce if thou wilt, my willing breast.
+            There thou shalt find my faithful heart
+            Whose truth in death shall stand confessed."
+
+
+These words, sung in the Roman dialect to a very simple air, came
+quavering out of the open window of the drawing-room of the Sterzls'
+palazetto as Sempaly passed by it that evening; he had gone out to pay
+some visits, to divert his mind, and though his way did not take him
+along the side street in which the palazetto stood, he had not been
+able to resist the temptation to make a detour. It was a mild evening
+and the tones floated down like an invitation; he recognized Zinka's
+voice as she sang one of the melancholy _Stornelli_ in which the
+peasants of the Campagna give utterance to their loves. It ceased, and
+he was just moving away, when another even sweeter and more piercing
+lament broke the warm silence.
+
+
+           "Or shall I die?--Poison itself could have
+            No terrors if I took it from thy hand.
+            Thy heart should be my death-bed and my grave."
+
+
+The passionate words were sung with subdued vehemence to a rather
+monotonous tune--like a faded wreath of spring flowers borne along by
+some murmuring stream. He turned back, and listened with suspended
+breath. The song ended on a long, full note; he felt that he would give
+God knows how much to hear the last line once more:
+
+
+           '_La sepoltura mia sara il tuo seno!_....'
+
+
+Now Zinka was speaking--it vexed him beyond measure that he could not
+hear what she was saying. It was maddening ... Good heavens! what a
+fool he was to stand fretting outside!
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+When he went into the drawing-room to his great surprise he was met by
+Sterzl.
+
+"Back so soon?" he exclaimed as he shook hands with him.
+
+"Yes, Arnstein had only two days to spare in Naples," replied Sterzl;
+"I was delighted to see him again, but--well, I must be growing very
+old, I was so glad to find myself at home again," and he drew his
+sister to him and lightly stroked her pretty brown hair. His brotherly
+caress added to Sempaly's excitement "No wonder that you like your
+home!" he was saying, when the baroness appeared with an evening wrap
+on her shoulders, a fan and scent-bottle in her hand, and, as usual,
+dying of refinement and airs.
+
+"Not ready yet, Zenaïde? Ah, my dear Sempaly, how very sweet of you!"
+and she gave him the tips of her fingers.--"We were quite anxious about
+you when you so suddenly excused yourself from joining us. Zinka was
+afraid you had taken the Roman fever," she said sentimentally.
+
+"Zinka has an imagination that feeds on horrors," said Sterzl smiling.
+
+"I did think that you must have some very urgent reason," said Zinka
+hastily and in some confusion.
+
+Sempaly looked into her eyes: "I was doing Ash-Wednesday penance, that
+was all," he said in a low voice.
+
+"Well, to complete the mortification come now to Lady Dalrymple's," the
+baroness suggested.
+
+"Oh, be merciful! Grant me a dispensation. I should so much enjoy a
+quiet evening," cried Sempaly.
+
+"And I too," added Zinka. "I am utterly sick of soirées and routs.
+These performances give me the impression of a full-dress review, at
+which such and such fashionable regiments are paraded."
+
+"Give us a holiday, mother; remember, it is Ash-Wednesday, and we are
+good Catholics," said her son.
+
+"I had some scruples myself, but the Duchess of Otranto is going,"
+lisped the baroness.
+
+However, when Sempaly had assured her that the Duchess of Otranto was
+by no means a standard authority in Roman society she yielded to the
+common desire that they should remain at home, and withdrew to her room
+to write some letters before tea.
+
+Most men have senses and nerves only in their brain while women, as is
+well known, have them all over the body; in this respect Sempaly was
+like a woman. He had senses even in his finger tips--as a Frenchman had
+once said, of him: "il avait les sens poète!" (a poet's nerves). The
+most trifling external conditions gave him disproportionate pleasure or
+pain. The smallest detail of ugliness was enough to spoil his
+appreciation of the noblest and grandest work of art; he would not have
+felt the beauty of Faust if he had first read it in a shabby or dirty
+copy. Now, when the baroness had left the room, there was no detail
+that could disturb his enjoyment in being with Zinka.
+
+Sterzl had taken up his newspaper; Zinka, at Sempaly's request, had
+seated herself at the piano. She always accompanied herself by heart
+and sat with her head bowed a little over the keys and half-shut dreamy
+eyes. The sober tone of the room, with its tapestried walls and happy
+medley of knick-knacks, broad-leaved plants, Japanese screens, and
+comfortable furniture, formed a harmonious background to her slight,
+white figure. The light of the one lamp was moderated by its
+rose-colored shade; a subdued _mezza-voce_ tone of color prevailed in
+the room which was full of the scent of roses and violets, and the
+heavy perfume seemed in sympathy with the gloomy sentiment of the
+popular love songs. Sempaly's whole nature thrilled with rapturous
+suspense, such as few men would perhaps quite understand. At his desire
+Zinka sang one after another of the _Stornelli_ ... her voice grew
+fuller and deeper ...
+
+"Do not sing too long, Zini, it will tire you," said her brother.
+
+"Only one more--the one I heard from outside," begged Sempaly, and she
+sang:
+
+
+           "_La sepoltura mia sara il tuo seno_...."
+
+
+The words trembled on her lips; her hands slipped off the last notes
+into her lap. Sempaly took the warm, soft little hands in his own; a
+sort of delightful giddiness mounted to his brain as he touched them.
+
+"Zinka," he said, "tell me, do you feel a little of what your voice
+expresses?"
+
+Her eyes met his--and she blinked, as we blink at a strong, bright
+light; she shrank back a little, as we shrink from too great and sudden
+joy. Her answer was fluttering on her lips when the door opened--the
+Italian servant pronounced some perfectly unintelligible gibberish by
+way of a name, and in marched--followed by her daughter and their
+Polish swain--the Baroness Wolnitzka.
+
+"Oh, thank goodness, I have found you at home!" she exclaimed. "We
+counted on finding you at home on Ash-Wednesday. God bless you, Zinka!"
+
+Zinka was petrified. Mamma Sterzl rushed in from an adjoining room at
+the sound of those rough tones.
+
+"Charlotte!" was all she could stammer out, "Char--lotte ... you ...
+here!"
+
+"Quite a surprise, is it not, Clotilde? Yes, the most unhoped-for
+things sometimes happen. We arrived to-day at three o'clock and called
+here this afternoon but you were out; so then we decided to try in the
+evening. It is rather late, to be sure, and I, for my part, should have
+been here long ago, but Slawa insisted on dressing--for such near
+relations! Quite absurd ... but I do not like to contradict her, she is
+so easily put out--so I waited to dress too."
+
+And the baroness, after embracing her sister and her niece, plumped
+down uninvited on a very low chair.
+
+She had dressed with a vengeance: a black lace cap was perched on the
+top of her short, grey hair, with lappets that hung down over her ears.
+Her massive person was squeezed into a violet satin gown, which she had
+evidently out-grown, and a lace scarf picturesquely thrown over her
+shoulders was intended to conceal its defects; her lavender-colored
+gloves were very short and much too tight, and burst at all the
+button-holes. Slawa had a general effect of tricolor, and she wore some
+old jewelry that she had bought of a dealer in antiquities at Verona.
+She had curled and piled up her hair after the antique and kept her
+head constantly turned over her left shoulder, to be as much like the
+Apollo as possible, at the same time making a grimace as if she were
+being photographed and wished to look bewitching.
+
+Vladimir Matuschowsky's tall, slouching figure was buttoned into a
+braided coat; he held a low-crowned hat with tassels in his hand, and
+glared at the plain dress-coats of the other two men as though they
+were a personal insult.
+
+"Monsieur Vladimir de Matuschowsky," said the baroness introducing him,
+"a ... a ... friend of the family." But she said it in French: when the
+Baroness Wolnitzka was at all at a loss she commonly spoke French.
+
+Her sister, who by this time had got over her astonishment, now began
+to wish to dazzle the new-comers.
+
+"Count Sempaly," she said, presenting the attaché; "a friend of our
+family ... my sister, the Baroness Wolnitzka. You have no doubt heard
+of the famous Slav leader Baron Wolnitzky, who was so conspicuous a
+figure in forty-eight."
+
+Sempaly bowed without speaking; Baroness Wolnitzka rose and politely
+offered him her hand: "I am delighted to make your acquaintance," she
+said. "I have heard a great deal about you; my sister has mentioned you
+in all her letters and I am quite _au courant_."
+
+Again Sempaly bowed in silence and then, retiring into the background
+while the mistress of the house turned to address Slawa, he said to
+Sterzl:
+
+"I will take an opportunity of slipping away--a stranger is always an
+intruder at a family meeting," His manner was suddenly cold and stiff
+and his tone intolerably arrogant.
+
+Sterzl nodded: "Go by all means," he replied. But Baroness Sterzl
+perceiving his purpose exclaimed:
+
+"No, no, my dear Sempaly, you really must not run away--you are not in
+the least _de trop_--and a stranger you certainly can never be."
+
+"It would look as though we had frightened you away, and that I will
+not imagine," added her sister archly.
+
+So Sempaly stayed; only, perhaps, from the impulse that so often
+prompts us to drink a bitter cup to the dregs.
+
+"Pray command yourself a little, Zini," whispered Cecil to his sister.
+"The interruption is unpleasant; but you should not show your annoyance
+so plainly."
+
+Tea was now brought in; Sterzl devoted himself in an exemplary manner
+to his cousin Slawa, so as to give his spoilt little sister as much
+liberty as possible. Slawa treated him with the greatest condescension
+and kept glancing over her huge Japanese fan at Sempaly, who was
+sitting by Zinka on a small sofa, taciturn and ill-pleased, while he
+helped her to pour out the tea.
+
+Baroness Wolnitzka gulped down one cup after another, eat up almost all
+the tea-cake, and never ceased an endless medley of chatter. The young
+Pole sat brooding gloomily, ostentatiously refused all food and spoke
+not a word; his arms crossed on his breast he sat the image of the
+Dignity of Man on the defensive.
+
+"I am desperately hungry," Madame Wolnitzka confessed. "We are at a
+very good hotel--Hotel della Stella, in Via della Pace; we were told of
+it by a priest with whom we met on our journey. It is not absolutely
+first-class--still, only people of the highest rank frequent it; two
+Polish counts dined at the table d'hôte and a French marquise;--in her
+case I must own I thought I could smell a rat--I suspect she is running
+away with her lover from her husband, or from her creditors."
+
+Out of deference to the "highest rank" the baroness had put her hand up
+to her mouth on the side nearest to the young people as she made this
+edifying communication. "The dinner was very good," she went on,
+"capital, and we pay six francs a day for our board."
+
+"Seven," corrected Slawa.
+
+"Six, Slawa."
+
+"Seven, mamma."
+
+And a discussion of the deepest interest to the rest of the party
+ensued between the mother and daughter as to this important point.
+Slawa remained master of the field; "and with wax-lights and service it
+comes to eight," she added triumphantly.
+
+"I let her talk," whispered her mother, again directing her words with
+her hand, "she is very peculiar in that way; everything cheap she
+thinks must be bad. However, what I was going to say was that, to tell
+the truth, I did not get enough to eat at dinner--there were flowers on
+the table,"--and she reached herself a slice of plum-cake.
+
+At this moment the door opened to admit Count Siegburg.
+
+"Good evening," he began--"seeing you so brightly lighted up I could
+not resist the temptation to come in and see how you were spending your
+Ash-Wednesday."
+
+He glanced around at the three strangers and instantly grasped the
+situation; but, far from taking the tragical view of it, he at once
+determined to get as much fun out of it as possible. After being
+introduced he placed himself in a position from which he could command
+the whole party, Sempaly included, and converse both with Madame
+Wolnitzka and her daughter. He addressed himself first to the latter.
+
+"The name of Wolnitzky is known to fame," he said.
+
+"Yes, my father played a distinguished part in forty-eight," replied
+Slawa.
+
+"Siegburg--Siegburg?..." Madame Wolnitzka was meanwhile murmuring to
+herself. "Which of the Siegburgs? The Siegburgs of Budow, or of Waldau,
+or ...?"
+
+"The Waldau branch," said Baroness Sterzl. "His mother was a Princess
+Hag," and she leaned back on her cushions.
+
+"Ah! the Waldau Siegburgs! quite the best Siegburgs!" remarked her
+sister in a tone of astonishment.
+
+"Of course," replied Baroness Sterzl with great coolness, as though she
+had never in her life spoken to anyone less than "the best Siegburgs."
+
+Madame Wolnitzka arranged her broad face in the most affable wrinkles
+she could command, and sat smiling at the young count, watching for an
+opportunity of putting in a word. For the present, however, this did
+not offer, for her sister addressed her, asking, in a bitter-sweet
+voice:
+
+"And what made you decide on coming to Rome?"
+
+"Can you ask? I have wished for years to see Rome, and you wrote so
+kindly and so constantly, Clotilde--so at length ..." and here followed
+the history of the Bernini. "You remember our Bernini, Clotilde?"
+
+Her sister nodded.
+
+"Well, I had the Apollo, the head only, a copy by Bernini. It is a work
+of art that has been in our family for generations," she continued,
+turning to Siegburg as she saw that he was listening to her narrative.
+
+"For centuries," added Madame Sterzl.
+
+"I must confess that I could hardly bear to part with it," her sister
+went on. "However, I made up my mind to do so when Tulpe, the great
+antiquary from Vienna, came one day and bid for it."
+
+Sterzl, to whom the god's wanderings were known, made some allusion to
+them in his dry way; on which the Baroness Wolnitzka shuffled herself a
+little nearer to Siegburg and addressed herself to him.
+
+"You see, count, it was something like what often happens with a girl:
+you drag her about to balls for years, take her from one watering-place
+to another, and never get her off your hands; then you settle down
+quietly at home and suddenly, when you least expect it, a suitor turns
+up. I could hardly bear to see the last of the bust I assure you."
+
+"It must indeed have been a harrowing parting," said Siegburg with much
+feeling.
+
+"Terrible!" said the baroness, "and doubly painful because"--and here
+she leaned over to whisper in Siegburg's ear--"Slawa is so amazingly
+like the Bernini. Does not her likeness to the Apollo strike you?"
+
+"I saw it at once--as soon as I came in," Siegburg declared without
+hesitation.
+
+"Every one says so--well then, you can understand what a sacrifice it
+was ... it cuts me to the heart only to think of it. Oh! these great
+emotions! Excuse me if I take off my cap ..." and she hastily snatched
+off the black lace structure and passing her fingers through her thin
+grey hair with the vehemence of a genius she exclaimed: "Merciful God!
+How we poor women are ill-used! crushed, fettered ..."
+
+"Yes, a woman's lot is not a happy one;" said Siegburg sympathetically.
+
+"You are quite an original!" exclaimed her sister, giggling rather
+uncomfortably--for in good society it is quite understood that when we
+are suffering under relations devoid of manners, and whom, if we dared,
+we should shut up at once in a mad-house, we may do what we can to
+render them harmless by ticketing them with this title--"Quite an
+original. Are you still always ready to break a lance for the
+emancipation of our sex?"
+
+"No," replied Madame Wolnitzka, "no, my dear Clotilde, I have given
+that up. Since I learnt by experience that every woman is ready to set
+aside the idea of emancipation as soon as she has a chance of marrying
+I have lost my sympathy with the cause."
+
+"The emancipation of women of course can only be interesting to those
+who cannot marry," observed Sterzl, who had not long since read an
+article on this much ventilated question.
+
+"And as there are undoubtedly more women than men in the world,
+legalized polygamy is the only solution of the difficulty," his aunt
+asserted.
+
+"Mamma! you really are!..." said Slawa with an angry flare.
+
+"Your views are necessarily petty and narrow," retorted her mother. "If
+I were speaking of the subject in a light and frivolous tone I could
+understand your indignation; but I am looking at the matter from a
+philosophical point of view--you understand me, I am sure, Count
+Siegburg."
+
+"Perfectly, my dear madam," Siegburg assured her with grave dignity.
+"You look at the question from the point of national and political
+economy and from that point of view improprieties have no existence."
+
+Sempaly sat twirling his moustache; Zinka first blushed and then turned
+pale, while the mistress of the house patted her sister on the
+shoulder, saying with a sharp, awkward laugh: "Quite an original--quite
+an original."
+
+But Sterzl, seeing that Siegburg was excessively entertained by the old
+woman's absurdities, and was on the point of amusing himself still
+further at her expense by laying some fresh trap for her folly, happily
+bethought him that the only way to procure silence would be to ask
+Slawa to sing. So he begged his cousin to give them some national air.
+Siegburg joined in the request, but Slawa tried to excuse herself on a
+variety of pretexts: the piano was too low, the room was bad to sing
+in, and so forth and so forth ... at last, however, she was persuaded
+to sing some patriotic songs in which Matuschowsky accompanied her.
+
+Her tall, Walkure-like figure swayed and trembled with romantic
+emotion, and faithful to the traditions of the "_art frémissant_"--the
+thrilling school--she held a piece of music fast in both hands for the
+sake of effect, though it had not the remotest connection with the song
+she was singing. Her mother sat in breathless silence; tears of
+admiration ran down her cheeks; like many other mothers, she only
+recognized those of Slawa's defects which came into conflict with her
+own idiosyncracy and admired everything else. When Slawa had shouted
+the last verse of the latest revolutionary ditty, which would have been
+prohibited in forty-eight, and Sterzl was still asking himself whether
+it was worse to listen to the mother's tongue or the daughter's
+singing, Matuschowsky, whose chagrin at the small approval bestowed on
+his and Slawa's musical efforts had reached an unendurable pitch,
+observed that it was growing late and that the ladies must be needing
+rest after all their exertions and fatigues. Madame Wolnitzka hastened
+to devour the last slice of tea-cake, brushed the crumbs away from her
+purple satin lap on to the carpet, rose slowly, and made her way with
+many bows and courtesies towards the door, taking at least half an hour
+before she was fairly gone.
+
+When his relatives had at length disappeared Sterzl accompanied the two
+gentlemen, who had also bid the ladies good-night, into the hall, and
+said good-humoredly to Siegburg:
+
+"You, I fancy, are the only one of the party who has really enjoyed the
+evening." Siegburg colored; then looking up frankly at his friend he
+said: "You are not offended?"
+
+"Well--perhaps, just a little," replied Sterzl, with a smile, "but I
+must admit that the temptation was a strong one."
+
+"And really and truly I am very sorry for you," Siegburg went on, with
+that ingenuous want of tact that never lost him a friend. "There is
+nothing in the world so odious as to have a posse of disagreeable
+relations who suddenly appear and cling on to your coat-tails. I know
+it by experience. Last spring, at Vienna, half a dozen old aunts of my
+mother's came down upon us from Bukowina like a snow-storm...." Sempaly
+meanwhile had buttoned himself into his fur-lined coat and said
+nothing.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+
+The three days have gone by in which Truyn had desired his cousin to
+make up his mind--three days since the sudden descent of Baroness
+Wolnitzka scared away the sweet vision that till then had dwelt in
+Sempaly's soul and checked the declaration actually on his lips--but he
+has not yet requested to be removed from Rome. Truyn's eye has been
+upon him all through these three days, has constantly met his own with
+grave questioning, as though to say: "Have you decided?"
+
+No, he had not decided. To a man like Sempaly there is nothing in the
+world so difficult as a decision; fate decides for him--he for himself!
+Never.
+
+His encounter with the preposterous baroness might silence the avowal
+he was on the verge of uttering, but it was not so powerful as to
+banish Zinka's image once and for all from his mind. The silly old
+woman's chatter he had by this time forgotten; the _Stornelli_ that
+Zinka had been singing still rang in his ears. For two days he had had
+the resolution to avoid the Palazetto, but he had seen Zinka for a
+moment, by accident, yesterday on the Corso. She was in the carriage
+with Marie Vulpini--she had on a grey velvet dress and a broad-brimmed
+mousquetaire hat that threw a shadow on her forehead and her
+golden-brown hair; she held a large bouquet of flowers and was chatting
+merrily with the little Vulpinis and Gabrielle Truyn; what pretty merry
+ways she had with children! His blood fired in his veins as their eyes
+met, and she blushed as she returned his bow. It was the first time she
+had blushed at seeing him. All that night he dreamed the wildest
+dreams,--and now he was taking a solitary early walk in the spring
+sunshine, on the Pincio, lost in thought, but snapping the twigs as he
+passed along to vent his irritation. More and more he felt that
+marriage with Zinka was a _sine qua non_ of his existence. He had never
+in his life denied himself a pleasure, and now....
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+The brilliant March sun flooded the Piazza di Spagna, the waters of the
+Baracaccia sparkled and danced, reflecting the radiant blue sky,
+against which the towers of the Trinita dei Monti stood out sharp and
+clear. All over the shallow steps of the church models were lounging in
+the regulation peasant costumes, and blind beggars incessantly
+muttering their prayers. In front of the Hotel de l'Europe the
+cab-drivers were sweetly slumbering under the huge patched umbrellas
+stuck up behind their coach-boxes for protection against the sun or
+rain. Flower-sellers were squatted on every door-step, and here and
+there sat a brown-eyed, snub-nosed white Pomeranian dog. The Piazza was
+swarming with tourists, and Beatrice di Cenci gazed with the saddest
+eyes in the world out of a photographer's shop at the motley crowd and
+bustle.
+
+Siegburg, in happy unconsciousness of coming evil, had just come out of
+Law's, the money changer's, and was inhaling with peculiar satisfaction
+the delicious pervading scent of hyacinths, when his eye was
+accidentally attracted by the fine figure of a young English woman who
+passed him in a closely fitting jersey. He was still watching her when
+a harsh voice close to him exclaimed:
+
+"Good morning, Count,--what luck!"
+
+He turned round and recognized, under a vast shady hat, the broad, dark
+face of the Baroness Wolnitzka. Though the day was splendidly fine she
+had on that most undressed of garments, originally meant as a
+protection against rain but subsequently adopted to conceal every
+conceivable defect of costume, and long since known to the mocking
+youth of Paris as a "_cache-misère_,' or--to render it freely--a
+slut-cover; and, though the pavement was perfectly dry, under this
+waterproof she held up the gown it hid, so high that her wide feet, in
+their untidy boots with elastic sides, were plainly displayed.
+
+"Ah, baroness!" he said lifting his hat, "I really did not ..."
+
+"No, you did not recognize me," she said calmly, "that was why I spoke
+to you. What luck! But you are in the embassy too?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"That is the very thing--I have a request to make then. My daughter is
+most anxious to have an audience of His Holiness. Slawa, you must know,
+is a fervent Catholic, though, between you and me, it is a mere matter
+of fashion. Now I, for my part, take a philosophical view of religious
+matters. At the same time I should be very much interested in seeing
+the Pope...."
+
+"But the Pope is unfortunately more inaccessible than ever," said
+Siegburg, "besides, as I do not belong to the Papal Embassy I cannot, I
+regret to say, give you the smallest assistance."
+
+"That is what my nephew says--it is disastrous, positively disastrous,"
+At this moment Slawa joined them, emerging from Piale's library, in an
+eccentric _directoire_ costume, with a peaked hat and feather, and a
+pair of gloves, no longer clean, drawn far up over her elbows.
+
+"Ah, good morning," said she, offering the count her finger tips while
+Matuschowsky, who was in attendance, sulkily bowed.
+
+By this time Siegburg, hemmed in on all sides, began to think the
+situation unpleasant.
+
+"It is so delightful to meet with a fellow-countryman in a foreign
+land...." Slawa began.
+
+"Quite delightful," replied Siegburg, thinking to himself: "How am I to
+get out of this?" when suddenly the absurdity of the thing came upon
+him afresh, for he heard the baroness once more: "Good morning, Count,
+what luck!" and at the same moment she bore down on no less a man than
+Sempaly, who had just come down the sunlit steps, and was crossing the
+Piazza lost in sullen meditation. "I beg your pardon," he muttered
+somewhat startled, "I really did not recognize you," and he gazed
+helplessly into the distance as though he looked for a rescue. But the
+baroness went on:
+
+"I am so delighted to have met you--I have a particular request to
+make: could you not procure me admission to the Farnesina? The Duke di
+Ripalda is said to be all powerful...."
+
+"I am sorry to say it is quite im----"
+
+But at this instant a party of foreigners caught Sempaly's eye--two
+young ladies with a maid. The two girls, tall and straight as
+pine-trees, both remarkably handsome and dressed in neatly-fitting
+English linen dresses, were eagerly bargaining with an Italian who had
+embroidered cambric trimmings for sale, and they seemed to think it a
+delightful adventure to buy something in the street.
+
+"Two charming girls! surely I know them," cried Madame Wolnitzka. "Are
+they not the Jatinskys?"
+
+One of the young ladies, looking up, called out: "Nicki, Nicki!" half
+across the Piazza, with the frank audacity of people who have grown up
+in the belief that the world was created expressly for their use.
+
+"Excuse me," said Sempaly with a bow to the baroness, "my cousins ..."
+and without more ado he made his escape.
+
+"How long have you been here? Where are you staying?"
+
+"We arrived this morning--Hotel de Londres--mamma wrote to you at once
+to the embassy ... Ah, here is another Austrian!" for Siegburg had
+contrived to join them. "Rome is but a suburb of Vienna after all! But
+tell me, who on earth were that old fortune-teller and her
+extraordinary daughter to whom you were both devoting yourselves so
+attentively?"
+
+The Wolnitzky trio had in the meantime moved away. The baroness very
+gracious, Slawa very haughty, as became the living representative of
+the Apollo Belvedere--past the two handsome girls and down the Via
+Condotti. Suddenly Baroness Wolnitzka stopped:
+
+"I quite forgot to ask Count Sempaly to get me an invitation to the
+international artists' festival!" she exclaimed, striking her forehead,
+and she promptly turned about, evidently intending to repair the
+omission; only Matuschowsky's decided interference preserved Sempaly
+from her return to the charge.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+The scene is now the Pincio--between five and six in the afternoon, the
+hour when the band plays every day on the great terrace, while the
+crowd collects to watch the sun set behind St. Peter's. The reflection
+of the glow gilds the gravel, glints from the lace on the uniforms and
+the brass instruments, and throws golden sparks on the water in the
+wide basin behind the bandstand. The black shadows rapidly lengthen on
+the grass, and the palmettos, yuccas, and evergreen oaks stand out in
+rich, deep tones against the sky that fades from crimson to salmon and
+grey. A special set of visitors haunt the shady side of the Pincio; not
+the fashionable world: governesses and nurses with their charges, and
+priests--priests of every degree: the illustrious Monsignori with their
+finely chiselled features, their upright bearing and their elegant
+hands; monks, with their bearded faces comfortably framed in their
+cowls, and whole regiments of priestlings from the Seminaries in their
+uniforms of every hue; lank, lean figures, with sallow, unformed
+features.
+
+Separated from these only by a leafy screen the beauty and fashion of
+Rome drive up and down--the residents in handsome private carriages,
+the foreigners in hired vehicles of varying degrees of respectability,
+or even in the humble, one-horse, hackney cab. The crowd grows denser
+every minute as the stream of Roman rank and wealth swells along the
+Via Borghese, across the Piazza del Popolo, and up the hill. On the top
+of the Pincio the carriages come to a stand-still; gentlemen on foot
+gather round them, bowing and smiling, the ladies talk across from one
+victoria to another--all sorts of trivial small-talk, unintelligible to
+the uninitiated. Up from the gardens which line the road from the Via
+Margutta, comes a fragrance of budding and growing spring; down below
+lies Rome, and lording it grandly over the labyrinthine mass of houses
+and ruins, solemn and severe, its crown touched by the last rays of the
+vanished sun, stands St Peter's.
+
+Countess Ilsenbergh's carriage was drawn up side by side with that of
+Princess Vulpini; the newly-arrived party of the Jatinskys was divided
+between them; the countess mother reclining indolently with a gracious
+smile on her lips by the side of Countess Ilsenbergh, while the
+princess had undertaken to chaperon the young ladies. On the front
+seat, by his cousin Eugénie--Nini they called her--sat Sempaly.
+Siegburg was leaning over the carriage door, talking all sorts of
+nonsense, and relating all the gossip of Rome that was fit for maiden
+ears to the two new-comers; they, infinitely amused, laughed till their
+simple merriment infected even Sempaly, who had taken the seat coveted
+of all the golden youth of Rome--the seat next his beautiful cousin--in
+a very gloomy and taciturn humor.
+
+Presently there was an evident sensation among the public; every one
+was looking in the same direction.
+
+"What is happening?" asked Polyxena, the elder of the two Jatinska
+girls.
+
+"It must be the Dorias' new drag, or the King," said Princess Vulpini,
+screwing up her short-sighted eyes. "No," said Siegburg, looking back,
+"neither. It is Baroness Wolnitzka!"
+
+And in fact, Madame Sterzl's pretty landau, which she had placed at the
+disposal of her sister for the afternoon, was coming up the road, in it
+the Wolnitzkas, mother and daughter, both in their finest array. Slawa
+was leaning back, elegantly languid, while her mother stood up in the
+carriage and surveyed the world of Rome through an opera-glass. From
+time to time, either to rest, or because she suddenly lost her balance,
+she sat down; and then she filled up her time by examining every detail
+of the trimming and lining of the landau. It was this singular
+demeanor, combined with her very conspicuous person, that attracted so
+much attention to the Sterzls' vehicle--an attention which both mother
+and daughter, of course ascribed to Slawa's extraordinary resemblance
+to the Belvedere Apollo.
+
+"Baroness Wolnitzka! the wonderful old woman we saw with you yesterday
+in the Piazza di Spagna?" cried Polyxena.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Only think, Nicki," she went on to Sempaly, "mamma knows her?"
+
+"Who is it that I know?" asked her mother from the other carriage.
+
+"Baroness Wolnitzka, mamma; do you see her--out there?"
+
+"Heaven preserve me!" exclaimed the countess fervently. "I do not feel
+secure of my life when I am near her. She fell upon me to-day in the
+Villa Wolkonsky."
+
+"How on earth do you happen to know the old woman, aunt?" asked Sempaly
+irritably.
+
+"Oh! my husband had some political connection with hers," the countess
+explained. "She is not to be borne, she stuck to me like a leech for
+half an hour."
+
+"Your conversation must have been very interesting," said Siegburg.
+
+"It did not interest me," replied the countess rather sharply. "She
+told me how much her journey had cost her, what she pays a day for
+carriage-hire, and that when she was young she had singing-lessons of
+Cicimara. And she chattered endlessly about her sister Sterzl who is
+living here 'in the first style and knows absolutely none but the crême
+de la crême'--you laugh!..."
+
+"Well, mamma, you must confess that the association of such a name as
+Sterzl with the cream of society is irresistibly funny," cried
+Polyxena.
+
+"It was anything rather than funny to me," said the countess ruefully.
+"By the way, though, she did tell me one thing--that her niece Zenaïde
+Sterzl ... Well, what is there to laugh at now?"
+
+"Zenaïde Sterzl! the name is a poem in itself," cried Polyxena; "it is
+as though an English woman were named Belinda Brown, or a French girl
+called Roxalane Dubois."
+
+"Well, it seems from what the old woman told me that the fair Zenaïde
+is about to relinquish the graceless name of Sterzl for one of the
+noblest names in Austria--that is the old idiot's story. It has not yet
+been made public, so she could not tell me the bridegroom's name, but
+Zenaïde is as good as betrothed to a young count--an attaché to the
+Austrian embassy. Who on earth can it be?--You ought to know!"
+
+"Ah, ah! Is it you?" said Polyxena turning to Siegburg. But Siegburg
+shook his head, stroking his yellow moustache to conceal a malicious
+smile as he watched Sempaly's conspicuous annoyance. "Or is it you,
+Nicki?" the young countess went on--"I congratulate you on marrying
+into such a delightful family!"
+
+But such a marked effect of embarrassment was produced by her speech
+that she was suddenly silent.
+
+"I know nothing of it," said Sempaly with a gloomy scowl. "That old
+chatterbox's imagination is positively stupendous."
+
+The play of light on the gold lace of the uniforms and the brass
+instruments is fast fading away and the sheen of the glossy-leaved
+evergreens is almost extinct. "_Gran dio morir si giovane!_" is the
+tune the band is playing. The sun is down, the day is dead, night
+shrouds the scene; the only color left is a dull glow behind St.
+Peter's like a dying fire.
+
+"At the Ellis' this evening," Siegburg calls out to the ladies as he
+lifts his hat and turns away. The carriages make their way down the
+hill, past the Villa Medici, back into Rome, and their steady roar is
+like that of a torrent rushing to join the sea.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Mr. and Lady Julia Ellis--she was an earl's daughter--English people of
+enormous wealth and amazing condescension, had for many years spent the
+winters in Rome. In former times the lady's eccentricities had given
+rise to much discussion; now she was an old lady with white hair, fine
+regular features and much too fat arms. Like all English women of her
+day she appeared in a low gown on all occasions of full dress, and was
+fond of decking her head with a pink feather. Her husband was younger
+than she was and had a handsome, thoroughly English face, with a short
+beard and very picturesque curly white hair. His profile was rather
+like that of Mendelssohn, a fact of which he was exceedingly proud.
+Besides this he was proud of two other things: of his wife, who had
+been admired in her youth by King George IV. and of a very old
+umbrella, because Felix Mendelssohn had once borrowed it. He had a
+weakness for performing on the concertina and had musical evenings once
+a week.
+
+It happened that on the occasion when the Jatinskys first went to one
+of these parties Tulpin the Russian genius whose great work had served
+as the introduction to the Ilsenbergh tableaux, was elaborating a new
+opera to a French libretto on a national Russian story. He was, of
+course, one of those Russians who combine a passionate devotion to the
+national Slav cause with a fervent wish to be mistaken for born
+Parisians wherever they appear. The piano groaned under his hands,
+while sundry favorite phrases from _Orphée aux Enfers_ and other
+well-known works were heard above the rolling sea of tremolos. From
+time to time the performer threw in a word to elucidate the situation:
+"The czar speaks...." "The bojar speaks...." "The peasant speaks...."
+"The sighing of the wind in the Caucasus...." "The foaming of the
+torrent...." While Mr. Ellis, who believed implicitly in the opera, was
+heard murmuring: "Splendid! ... magnificent! The opera must be worked
+out--it must not remain unperformed!"
+
+"Worked out!" sighed Tulpin with melancholy irony. "That is no concern
+of mine. We--we have the ideas, the working out we leave to--to--to
+others, in short. You must remember that I cannot read a note of
+music--literally, not a note," he repeated with intense and visible
+satisfaction, and he flung off a few stumbling arpeggios, while Mr.
+Ellis cried: "Astonishing!" and compared him with Mendelssohn, which
+Tulpin, who believed only in the music of the future, took very much
+amiss. A _Grand Prix de Musique_, from the French academy of arts at
+the Villa Medici, who had been waiting more than an hour to perform his
+"Arab symphony," muttered to himself: "Good heavens! leave music to us,
+and let us be thankful that we are not great folks!"
+
+At last Lady Julia took pity on her guests and invited them to go to
+take tea; every one was only too glad to accept, and in a few minutes
+the music room was almost empty. Madame Tulpin, out of devotion, the
+Grand Prix out of spite, and Mr. Ellis out of duty were all that
+remained within hearing. In the adjoining room every one had burst into
+conversation over their tea; still, a certain gloom prevailed.
+Melancholy seemed to have fallen upon the party like an epidemic, and
+the subject that was most eagerly discussed was the easiest mode of
+suicide.
+
+Tulpin rattled and thumped on; suddenly he stopped--the Jatinskys had
+come in, and their advent was such a godsend that even the genius
+abandoned the piano in their honor. They all three were smiling in the
+most friendly--it might almost be said the most reassuring manner; for
+Countess Ilsenbergh had not failed to impress upon them the very mixed
+character of Roman society, and, feeling their own superiority, they
+were able to cover their self-consciousness with the most engaging
+amiability. The two younger ladies were surrounded--besieged--and the
+strange thing was that the women paid them even greater homage than
+the men. Everything about them was admired: their small feet, their
+finely-cut profiles, their incredibly slender waists, the color of
+their hair, the artistic simplicity of their dresses--and bets were
+laid as to whether these were the production of Fanet or of Worth. But
+now there was the little commotion in the next room that is caused by
+the arrival of some very popular person. Zinka, without her mother,
+under her brother's escort only, came in and gave her slim hand with an
+affectionate greeting to the lady of the house.
+
+"You are an incorrigible truant, you always come too late;" said Lady
+Julia in loving reproach.
+
+"Like repentance and the police," said Zinka merrily; and then Lady
+Julia introduced her to Countess Jatinska.
+
+"But you must help me with the tea; you know I always reckon on you for
+that," Lady Julia went on. "Give your charming countrywomen some, will
+you?"
+
+Polyxena and Nini were sitting a yard or two off, surrounded by
+all the young men of Rome; Zinka was going towards them with her
+winning grace of manner when Sempaly happened to come up, and found
+himself so unexpectedly face to face with her that he had no
+alternative but to shake hands, and he could not avoid saying a few
+words. Of course--like any other man in his place--he made precisely
+the most unlucky speech he could possibly have hit upon:
+
+"We have not met for some time."
+
+She looked him in the face but of half-shut eyes, with her head
+slightly thrown back, and replied, with very becoming defiance:
+
+"You have carried out the penance you began on Ash-Wednesday!"
+
+"Perhaps," and he could not help smiling.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders: "I had intended to break off our
+friendship," she went on, "but now that I see the cause of your
+faithlessness,"--and she glanced at the handsome young countesses--"I
+quite understand it. Will you at any rate do me the favor of
+introducing me to the ladies?"
+
+"Fräulein Sterzl--" said Sempaly; but hardly had he uttered the words
+when a scarcely suppressed smile curled Polyxena's lip. Zinka saw the
+smile, and she saw too that Sempaly's manner instantly changed; he put
+on an artificial expression of intolerable condescension.
+
+Zinka turned very pale, her eyes flashed indignantly as she hastily
+returned the young Austrians' bow and at once went back to her post.
+Sterzl, who was talking to Truyn in a recess and saw the little scene
+from a distance, frowned darkly. Sempaly meanwhile seated himself on a
+stool by his cousins and with his back to the tea-table where Zinka was
+busying herself.
+
+"So this is the far-famed Zinka Sterzl!" exclaimed Polyxena: "She does
+credit to your taste, Nicki. But she allows herself to speak to you in
+a very extraordinary manner; it is really rather too much!" Sempaly
+made no reply. "She treats you already as if you were her own
+property."
+
+"But Xena," said Nini, trying to moderate her sister's irony, "at least
+do not speak so loud." In a few minutes Mr. Ellis came to announce that
+Monsieur B. was about to play his 'Arab symphony,' and the company
+moved back into the drawing-room.
+
+The evening had other treats in store; when Monsieur B. had done his
+place was taken by a young Belgian count who devoted all his spare time
+to the composition of funeral marches, who could also play songs and
+ballads, such as are usually confined to the streets of Florence or the
+_cafés chantants_ of Paris, arranged for the piano, and who gave a duet
+between a cock and hen with so much feeling and effect that all the
+audience applauded heartily, especially the Jatinskys to whom this
+style of thing was quite a novelty. Then Mrs. Ferguson sang her French
+couplets, Mr. Ellis played an adagio by Beethoven on the concertina,
+and then Zinka was asked to sing.
+
+"What am I to sing? You know the extent of my collection," she said
+with rather forced brightness to Mr. Ellis.
+
+"Oh! a Stornello. We beg for a Stornello," said Siegburg following her
+to the piano--"_vieni maggio, vieni primavera_," and Lady Julia
+seconded the request.
+
+Zinka laid her hands on the keys and began. Her voice sounded through
+the room a little husky at first, but very sweet, like the note of a
+forest bird.
+
+Never before had she sat down to sing without bringing _him_ to her
+side, even from the remotest corner of the room, at the very first
+notes; and now, involuntarily, she looked up to meet his gaze--but he
+was sitting by Polyxena, on a small sofa, in a very familiar attitude,
+leaning back, holding one foot on the other knee, and laughing at
+something that she was whispering to him. Zinka lost her self-command
+and was suddenly paralyzed with self-consciousness. She could not sing
+that song before him. Her voice broke; she forgot the accompaniment;
+felt about the notes, struck two or three wrong chords and at length
+rose with an awkward laugh:
+
+"I cannot remember anything this evening!" she stammered.
+
+Polyxena had some spiteful comment to make, of course, and Sempaly grew
+angry; he was on the point of rising to go to Zinka and console her for
+her failure, but before he could quite make up his mind to move, Nini
+had risen. In spite of her shyness she made her way straight across the
+room to Zinka and said something kind to her. Sempaly stayed where he
+was; but as they were leaving, he put on Nini's cloak for her, and said
+in a low tone: "Nini, you are a good fellow!" and he kissed her hand.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+Sempaly's attentions had made Zinka the fashion; his sudden
+discontinuance, not merely of attentions, but of any but the barest
+civilities, of course, made her the laughing-stock of all their circle.
+The capital caricature that Sempaly had drawn of Sterzl and his sister
+that evening at the Vulpinis' was remembered once more; Madame de
+Gandry, to whom Sempaly had been very civil till he had neglected her
+for Zinka, showed the sketch to all her acquaintance, with a plentiful
+seasoning of spiteful insinuations. Every one was ready to laugh at the
+"little adventuress" who had come to Rome to bid for a prince's coronet
+and who had been obliged to submit to such condign humiliation.
+
+The leaders of foreign society vied with each other in doing honor to
+the Jatinskys. Madame de Gandry set the example by giving a party at
+which Ristori was engaged to recite; Sterzl was of course, invited; his
+mother and sister were left out. It was the first time since Zinka's
+appearance at the Ilsenberghs' that she had been omitted from any
+entertainment, however select. Many ladies of the international circle
+followed Madame de Gandry's lead, wishing like her to make a parade
+before the Austrians of their own exclusiveness, and at the same time
+to be revenged on Zinka for many a saucy speech she had ventured to
+make when she was still one of the initiated--of the sacred inner
+circle. The Italian society of Rome did not of course trouble itself
+about all these trumpery subtleties, and behaved to Zinka with the same
+superficial politeness as before.
+
+She, for her part, took no more note of their amenities than she did of
+the pin-pricks from the other side. If her feelings had not been so
+deeply engaged by Sempaly she would no doubt have taken all these petty
+social humiliations very hardly; but her anguish of soul had dulled her
+shallower feelings. There is a form of suffering which deadens the
+senses and which mockery cannot touch. It was all the same to her
+whether she was invited or not--she could not bear to go anywhere. The
+idea of meeting Sempaly with his cousins was as terrible as death
+itself. She was an altered creature. A shy, scared smile was always on
+her lips, like the ghost of departed joys, her movements had lost all
+their elasticity, and her gait was more than ever like that of an angel
+whose wings have been clipped.
+
+Baroness Sterzl, of course, still drove out regularly on the Corso, and
+made the most praiseworthy attempts to keep up a bowing acquaintance
+with her former friends, and as often as she could she went out in the
+evening--alone. There was some consolation too in the proud
+consciousness of having quarrelled with Madame de Gandry and being on
+visiting terms with all the Roman duchesses. The only thing that caused
+her any serious discomfort was her sister Wolnitzka's persistent and
+indiscreet catechism as to the state of affairs between Zinka and
+Sempaly. She herself, out of mere idle bragging, had told Charlotte the
+first day of her arrival in Rome that Zinka's engagement was not yet
+made public.
+
+Her aunt's coarse remarks and hints were fast driving Zinka crazy when
+Siegburg fortunately--perhaps intentionally, out of compassion for
+her--so frightened the mother and daughter, one evening when he met
+them at the palazetto, by his account of the Roman fever that they were
+panic-stricken, and fled the very next morning to Naples.
+
+The member of the family who was most keenly alive to the change in
+their social relations, oddly enough, was Cecil. He had been wont to
+feel himself superior to these silly class-jealousies, and at the same
+time had a reasonable and manly dignity of his own that had preserved
+him from that morbid petulance which sometimes stands in arms against
+all friendly advances from men who, after all, cannot help the fact of
+their superior birth. Democratic touchiness is a disease to which, in
+the old-world countries where hereditary rank is still a living fact,
+every man who is not a toady is liable--from Werther downwards--when
+fate brings him into contact with aristocratic circles. Sterzl had
+moved in them so long that he was acclimatized; or rather, it had
+attacked him late in life, and, as is always the case when grown-up men
+take infantine complaints, with aggravated severity. He attributed all
+his sister's misery, not to his own want of caution and Sempaly's
+weakness of character, but to the tyranny of social prejudice; and he
+turned against society with vindictive contempt, making himself
+perfectly intolerable wherever he went. Being a well-bred man,
+accustomed all his life to the graces of politeness, he could not
+become absolutely ill-mannered--but as ill-mannered as he could be he
+certainly was: assertive, irritable, always on the defensive, he was
+constantly involved in some argument or dispute.
+
+Even at home he was not the same; his pride was deeply nettled by
+Zinka's total inability to hide her suffering, while he felt it
+humiliating to be able to do nothing to comfort her. At first, in the
+hope of diverting her thoughts, he would bring her tickets for concerts
+or the theatre, and give her a thousand costly trinkets, old treasures
+of porcelain, carved ivory, and curiosities of art, such as she had
+once loved. She used to rejoice over these pretty trifles--now she
+smiled as a sick man smiles at some dainty he no longer has any
+appetite for. He could see how sincerely she tried to be delighted, but
+the tears were in her eyes all the while.
+
+This drove Sterzl to desperation. At first he religiously avoided
+mentioning Sempaly in her presence, but as days and weeks passed and
+she brought no change in her crushed melancholy, he waxed impatient. He
+took it into his head that it would be well to open Zinka's eyes with
+regard to Sempaly. Sterzl himself was energetic, always looking to the
+future; he had it out with his disappointments and got rid of them,
+however hard he might have been hit. He had always let things roll if
+they would not stand, and then set to work to begin again. His great
+point in life was to see things as they were. Truth was his divinity,
+and he could not understand that to a creature constituted like Zinka,
+illusion was indispensable; that she still laid no blame on Sempaly,
+but only on the alteration in his circumstances--on her own
+unworthiness--on anything and everything but himself; that it was a
+necessity of her nature to be able still to love him, even though she
+knew that he was lost to her forever. His austere nature could not
+enter into Zinka's soft and impressible susceptibility.
+
+So when he took to speaking slightingly or contemptuously of Sempaly on
+every possible opportunity she never answered him, but listened in
+silence, looking at him with frightened, astonished eyes and a pale
+face, like a martyr to whom her tormentors try to prove that there is
+no God. The result of Cecil's well-meant but injudicious proceedings
+was a temporary coolness between himself and his sister--a coolness
+which, on his part, lay only on the surface, but which froze her spirit
+to its depths, and all this naturally tended to add fuel to Sterzl's
+detestation of Sempaly. The two men were in daily intercourse, and now
+in a state of constant friction. Sterzl would make biting remarks over
+the smallest negligence or oversight of which Sempaly might be guilty,
+and was bitterly sarcastic as to the incompetence of a young connection
+of the Sempalys who had not long since been attached to the embassy.
+
+"To be sure," he ended by declaring, "in Austria it is a matter of far
+greater importance that an attaché should be a man of family than that
+he should know how to spell." To such depths of clumsy rudeness could
+he descend.
+
+Sempaly, without losing his supercilious good humor, would only smile,
+or answer in his most piping tones:
+
+"You are very right; the view we take of privilege is quite
+extraordinary. We should form ourselves on the model of the French
+corps diplomatique; do not you think so?" For, a few days previously,
+the Figaro had published a satirical article on the presentation of a
+plebeian representative of the republic at some foreign court.
+
+Well, Sempaly might have retorted in a much haughtier key--but the
+lighter his irony the more it exasperated Sterzl.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Countess Jatinska spent almost the whole of her stay in Rome on her
+sofa. When she was asked what she thought of Rome she replied that she
+found it very fatiguing; when the same question was put to her
+daughters they, on the contrary, declared themselves enchanted. Sempaly
+knew full well that in all Rome there was nothing they liked better
+than their ne'er-do-weel cousin. He displayed for their benefit all his
+most amiable graces; criticised or admired their dresses, touched up
+their coiffure with his own light hand, faithfully reported to them all
+their conquests, and made them presents of cigarettes and of trinkets
+from Castellani's.
+
+When there was nothing else to be done he was ready to attend them--of
+course, under the charge of some older lady--to see galleries and
+churches, Polyxena had a way, that was highly characteristic, of
+rushing past the greatest works with her nose in the air and laughing
+as she repeated some imbecile remark that she had overheard, or pointed
+out some eccentricity of tourist costume. Nini took art more seriously,
+looked carefully at everything by the catalogue, and even kept a diary.
+Xena was commonly thought the handsomer and the more brilliant of the
+sisters, and Sempaly apparently devoted himself chiefly to her, but he
+decidedly liked Nini best. The hours that he did not spend with his
+cousins he passed at the club, where he gambled away large sums.
+Meanwhile, he was looking very ill and complained of a return of old
+Roman fever.
+
+And what did the world say to his behavior? The phlegmatic Italians did
+not trouble themselves about the matter; Madame de Gandry and Mrs.
+Ferguson laughed over it; Siegburg pronounced it disgraceful, and
+Ilsenbergh called it bad taste to say the least. That he ought to have
+arranged to leave Rome everybody agreed. Princess Vulpini held long and
+lamentable conferences with General von Klinger--reproaching herself
+bitterly for not having seen the position of affairs long ago--but she
+had never attached any importance to Sempaly's marked attentions,
+having had no eyes for anything but Siegburg's devotion to Zinka, and
+she had taken a quite motherly interest in what she regarded as a good
+match for both.
+
+Truyn was perfectly furious with Sempaly. All that he was to Zinka
+during these weeks can only be divined by those who have passed through
+such a time of grief and humiliation, with the consciousness of having
+a high-souled and tender friend in the back-ground. He was the only
+person who never aggravated her wound. He had the gentle touch, the
+delicate skill, which the best man or woman can only acquire through
+the ordeal of an aching heart. He came every afternoon with his little
+girl to take Zinka for a walk, for he knew that the regular drive on
+the Corso could only bring her added pain; and while the baroness, with
+outspread skirts, drove in the wake of fashion up to the Villa Borghese
+and the Pincio, these three--with the general, not unfrequently, for a
+fourth--would wander through silent and deserted cloisters or take long
+walks across the Campagna. Not once did Truyn bring a secret tear to
+her eye; if some accidental remark or association brought the hot color
+to her thin cheek he could always turn the subject so as to spare her.
+
+One sultry afternoon, late in spring, Truyn and his two daughters--as
+he was wont to call Zinka and Gabrielle--with the soldier-artist were
+sauntering home, after a long walk, through the sombre and picturesque
+streets that surround the Pantheon. The neighborhood is humble and
+wretched, but over a garden wall rose a mulberry tree in whose green
+branches a blackbird was singing, and a few red geraniums blazed behind
+rusty window-bars, bright specks in the monotonous brown; above the
+roofs bent the deep blue sky; the air was heavy and hot, and full of
+obscure smells of gutters and stale vegetables. Somewhere, in an
+upstairs room, a woman sang a love-song of melancholy longing. Suddenly
+the blackbird and the woman ceased singing at the same time; a dismal
+howl and groan echoed through the street, and a mass of black shadows
+darkened the scene. Zinka, who had lately become excessively nervous,
+started and shuddered.
+
+"It is nothing--only a funeral," Truyn explained, taking off his hat.
+
+That was all--a Roman funeral, grim but picturesque--a long procession
+of mysteriously-shrouded figures, only able to see through two slits in
+the sack-like cowls that covered their heads, ropes round their waists,
+and torches or mystical banners in their hands--banners with the
+emblems of death. These were followed by a troop of barefooted friars,
+and last came the bier covered with a bright yellow pall, carried by
+four more of the shrouded figures, who bent under its weight as they
+shuffled along. The ruddy flare and the black smoke wreaths, the
+groan-like chant, the uncanny glitter of the men's eyes out of the
+formless hoods--ghastly, ghostly, and exhaling a savor of mouldiness
+and incense, like the resurrection of a fragment of the middle
+ages--the procession defiled through the narrow street. Zinka,
+half-fainting, clung to Truyn; Gabrielle, whose childish nerves were
+less shocked, watched them with intense curiosity and began to question
+a woman who stood near her in the crowd that had collected, in her
+fluent, bungling Italian:
+
+"Who is it they are burying?" she asked at length.
+
+"A woman," was the answer.
+
+"Was she young?"
+
+"_Si_."
+
+"And what did she die of? of fever?"
+
+"No," said the Roman shrugging her shoulders; and then she added, in
+the slow musical drawl of the Roman peasant:
+
+"_Di passione_."
+
+The procession had passed, the chanting had died away; the blackbird
+was singing lustily once more; they went on their way--Truyn first,
+with Zinka hanging wearily on to his arm, behind them Gabrielle and the
+general.
+
+"_Passione!_ is that a Roman illness?" she asked with her insatiable
+inquisitiveness.
+
+"No, it occurs in most parts of the world," said the general drily.
+
+"But only among poor people, I suppose?" said the child.
+
+"No, it is known to the better classes too, but it is not called by the
+same name," said the old man with some bitterness, more to himself than
+to Gabrielle.
+
+"Then it is wrong--a shameful thing to die of?" she asked with wide,
+astonished eyes.
+
+Suddenly the general perceived that Zinka was listening; her head
+drooped as she heard the child's heedless catechism. He, under the
+circumstances, would have felt paralyzed--he would not have known what
+to say to the poor crushed soul; but not so Truyn. He turned to his
+companion and said something in a low tone. What, the general could not
+hear, but it must have been something kind and helpful--something
+which, without any direct reference to the past, conveyed his
+unalterable respect and regard, for she answered him almost brightly.
+Then he went on talking of trifles, remembering little incidents of his
+boyhood, characteristic anecdotes of his parents, and such small
+matters as may divert a sick and weary spirit, till, when they parted
+at the door of the palazetto, Zinka was smiling. "That he has the
+brains of a genius I will not say, but he has genius of heart, I dare
+swear!" thought the soldier.
+
+Truyn had gone out riding with her two or three times across the
+Campagna, and she had enjoyed it; but one day they met Sempaly,
+galloping with his two handsome cousins over the anemone-strewn sward.
+From that day she made excuses for avoiding the Campagna--as though she
+thus avoided the chance, almost the certainty, of meeting him and them.
+Why then did she remain in Rome at all? Sterzl would not hear of her
+quitting it, because he thought that the world of Rome would regard it
+as a flight after defeat. His mother too, on different grounds, set her
+face against any such abridgment of their stay in Rome. Had she not
+taken the palazetto till the fifteenth of May?
+
+And did Zinka, in fact, wish to go? She often spoke of longing to be at
+home again, but whenever their departure was seriously discussed it
+gave her a shock. She dreaded meeting him--and longed for it all
+the same. And in the evening when a few old friends dropped in to
+call--Truyn every evening and Siegburg very frequently--Truyn noticed
+that every time there was a ring she sat with her eyes fixed in eager
+expectation on the door. She still cherished a sort of hope--a broken,
+moribund hope that was in fact no more than unrest--the vitality of
+suffering.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               PART III.
+
+                                EASTER.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+
+Passion-week in Rome, and in all the glory and glow of an Italian
+spring. The glinting radiance brightens even the mystical gloom of St.
+Peter's, sparkles for an instant on the holy-water in the basins,
+wanders from the heads of the gigantic cherubs and the colossal
+statues down to the inlaid pavement, with the cold sheen of sunlight
+on polished marble. The hours glide on--the long solemn hours of
+Holy-Thursday in Rome; the last gleam of daylight has faded away, the
+vast cathedral is filled with almost palpable twilight and its
+magnificence seems shrouded in a transparent veil of crape. The stone
+walls look dim and distant, the fane seems built of shadows, and sacred
+mystery falls as it were from heaven, deeper and more solemn as the
+minutes slip by, to sanctify the spot.
+
+In the papal chapel Zinka is kneeling with Truyn and Gabrielle, her
+eyes fixed on her hands which are convulsively clasped, and praying
+with the passion of a youthful nature whose yearning has found no
+foothold on earth and seeks a home in heaven. On both sides sit the
+prelates and dignitaries of the church in their carved stalls,
+inquisitive and prayerless foreigners crowd at their feet. The tragedy
+of the passion is being recited in a monotonous, inconclusive chant
+that dies away in the dim corners of the chapel.
+
+The last of the twelve tapers on the altar is extinguished....
+"_Miserere mei_" the choristers cry with terrible emphasis; and then,
+awful but most sweet, beginning as a mere breath and rising to a mighty
+wail of grief, comes a voice like the utterance of the anguish of the
+God of Love over the misery from which He can never release mankind.
+And before the majesty of that divine and selfless sorrow human sorrow
+bows in silence.
+
+Zinka bends her head.--It is ended, the last sound has died away in a
+sob, the crowd rises to follow the procession which, with a cardinal at
+the head, wends its way through the church.
+
+Truyn and the two girls quit the chapel; behind them the steps of the
+priests and choristers, drowned in their own echoes, sound like the
+rustling of angelic wings; the brooding, melancholy peacefulness has
+lulled Zinka's heart to rest; for the first time for many weeks she has
+forgotten....
+
+"Most interesting, but the bass was hoarse!"
+
+It was Polyxena Jatinsky who pronounced this summary criticism of the
+solemn ceremonial, close to Zinka. Zinka looked round; Sempaly with his
+aunt and cousins were at her side. They had attended the service in
+reserved places in the choir. Involuntarily yielding to an impulse of
+pain Zinka pressed forward, but Gabrielle had flown to join them; then
+she was obliged to stay and talk. The Jatinskys were perfectly
+friendly, Polyxena giving her her hand--Sempaly alone held aloof. On
+going out the air struck' chill, almost cold, on Zinka's face and she
+shivered. A well-known voice close behind her said rather brusquely:
+
+"You are too lightly dressed and there is fever in the air. Put this
+round you," and Sempaly threw over her shoulders a scarf that he was
+carrying for one of the ladies.
+
+"Thank you, I am not cold; these ladies will want the scarf," said
+Zinka hastily and repellently.
+
+Polyxena said nothing; perhaps she may have thought it strange that in
+his anxiety for this little stranger, her cousin should forget to
+consider that one of them might take cold. But Nini exclaimed: "No, no,
+Fräulein Sterzl: we are well wrapped up."
+
+At this juncture Truyn's servant, who had been seeking them among the
+crowd, told them where the carriage was waiting.
+
+While Zinka, wrapped in Nini's China-crape shawl, is borne along
+between the splashing fountains, across the bridge of St. Angelo, and
+through the empty, ill-lighted streets to the palazetto, all her pulses
+are dancing and throbbing--and the stars in the sky overhead seem
+unnaturally bright. It is the resurrection of her pain and with it of
+the lovely mocking vision of the joys she has lost. Good God! how
+vividly she remembers them all--how keenly!--the long dreamy afternoons
+on the Palatine, the delicious hours in the Corsini garden--under the
+plane-trees by the fountain, where he talked about Erzburg while the
+perfume of violets and lilies fanned her with their intoxicating
+breath; the sound of his voice--the touch of his light, thin hand, his
+smile--his way of saying particular words, of looking at her in
+particular moments....
+
+She is walking with him once more in the Vatican, in rapt enjoyment of
+the beauty of the statues; the Belvedere fountain trickled and splashed
+in dreamy monotony; golden sunbeams fleck the pavement like footmarks
+left by the Gods before they mounted their pedestals; there is a
+mysterious rustle and whisper in the lofty corridors as of far, far
+distant ghostly voices,--and then, suddenly, she is in front of Sant'
+Onofrio's; the air is thick with a pale mist. At her feet, veiled in
+the thin haze, indistinct and mirage-like, the very ghost of departed
+splendor, lies Rome--the vast reliquary of the world; Rome, on whose
+monuments and ruins every conceivable crime and every imaginable virtue
+have set their stamp; where the tragedies of antiquity cry out to the
+Sacrifice on Calvary.
+
+They had stood together a long time looking down on it; then she had
+lost a little bunch of violets which she had been wearing and as she
+turned round to seek them she had perceived that he had picked them up
+and was holding them to his lips. Their eyes had met....
+
+Yes! he had loved her! he loved her still--he must--she knew it. She
+told herself that, impulsive and excitable as he was, the merest trifle
+would suffice to bring him back to her; but whether it was worth while
+to long so desperately for a man who could be turned by the slightest
+breath--that she did not ask herself.
+
+And through all the torturing whirl of these memories, above the
+clatter of the horses' hoofs and the rattle of the wheels over the
+wretched pavement, she heard the cry "_miserere mei_." But her thoughts
+turned no more to the God sacrificed for Man--the strongest angels'
+wings cannot bear us quite to heaven so long as our heart dwells on
+earth.
+
+"Good-night," she said, kissing Gabrielle as the carriage drew up at
+the door of the palazetto.
+
+"Will you let me have Nini's scarf for Gabrielle?" said Truyn. "I am
+afraid my little companion may catch cold."
+
+"Oh! of course," cried Zinka, and she wrapped the child carefully in
+the shawl and kissed her again; "when shall I learn to think of anyone
+but myself?" she added vexed with herself.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+Easter-Monday. All the bells in the churches of Rome are once more
+wagging their brazen tongues after their week of dumb mourning, and
+images of the Resurrection in every conceivable form--sugar, wax,
+soap--decorate all the shop windows.
+
+Baroness Wolnitzka had returned fresher, gayer and more enterprising
+than ever from her visit to Naples, where she not only had had herself
+photographed in a lyric attitude leaning on a pillar in the ruins of
+Pompeii, but, in spite of her huge size which was very much against her
+taking such excursions, she had with the help of two guides and a
+remarkably vigorous mule, reached the top of Vesuvius. Thanks, too, to
+a cardinal's nephew with whom she had scraped acquaintance on her
+journey, with a view to making him useful, she had succeeded in
+obtaining--not indeed a private audience of the pope--but leave to
+attend a private mass--and receive the communion, in company with three
+hundred other orthodox souls, from his sacred hand.
+
+This morning she had been to the palazetto to take leave of her
+sister--to ask once more after Sempaly--to give a full and particular
+account of the service at the Vatican--and to deliver a discourse on
+the philosophical value of the mass. Slawa, whose orthodoxy had been
+fanned to bigotry, and who on Easter eve had duly climbed the _santa
+scala_ on her knees, had supplemented her mother's narrative with a
+variety of interesting details:
+
+"It was most exclusive, quite our own set, and few families of the
+Polish colony--I wore my black satin dress beaded with jet and I heard
+a gentleman behind me say: 'That is the only woman whose veil is put on
+with any taste.'"
+
+Sterzl had kept out of the way during their visit; Zinka had smiled
+amiably but had not attended: Baroness Clotilde had plied her sister
+with questions. Then the Wolnitzkas had left to go to the consecration
+of a bishop--also by invitation from the cardinal's nephew--the ladies
+were to be admitted to the sacristy and be presented with flowers and
+refreshments.
+
+It was about six o'clock in the evening when General von Klinger was
+shown into the drawing-room of the palazetto. The room was not so
+pretty as it used to be; the furniture was all set out squarely against
+the walls by the symmetrical taste of the servants, and the flower
+vases that were always so gracefully arranged now never held anything
+but bunches of magnolias or violets; Zinka no longer cared to arrange
+them.
+
+"I am so glad you happen to have come to-day," she cried as he came in.
+The brilliancy of her eyes and the redness of her lips showed that she
+was already suffering from that terrible spring fever which makes havoc
+with young creatures in the warm days of April and May. She was sitting
+by her brother on a low red sofa, as she had so often sat with Sempaly;
+the baroness was lounging in an arm-chair fanning herself; there was a
+sort of triumphant solemnity in her manner. Even Cecil, too, was
+evidently in some excitement though his air was just as frank and
+natural as ever.
+
+"Good evening, general, what hot, trying weather!" drawled the
+baroness. "It is an extraordinary event to find us all at home together
+at this hour but we all have a sacred horror of the mob in the streets
+on a holiday afternoon."
+
+"Oh, mamma!" interrupted Zinka, "it is not only the crowd--we wanted to
+enjoy our good fortune together; did not we, Cecil?"
+
+He nodded and stroked her hair. "Yes, little Zini."
+
+"Only think. Uncle Klinger--you knew, of course, that Cecil's book on
+Persia had attracted a great deal of attention--but that is not all. He
+has been appointed _Chargé d'affaires_ at Constantinople."
+
+The general offered his congratulations and shook hands warmly with the
+young man.
+
+"I could wish for nothing more exactly to my mind," said Cecil. "There
+is always something to do there; a man always has a chance of making
+his mark and getting on." He was sincerely and frankly satisfied and
+affected no indifference to the distinction he had earned.
+
+"In five years we shall see you ambassador," exclaimed the general,
+with the happy exaggeration that is irresistible on such occasions.
+
+"We do not go quite so fast as that," laughed Sterzl. "However, I hope
+to rise in due time. Will not you be proud of me, Butterfly, when I am
+'your excellency!'"
+
+"I am proud of you already," said Zinka, "and you know how vain I am,
+and how much I value such things!"
+
+It was the first time for some weeks that the general had seen the two
+so happy together and it rejoiced his heart.
+
+"And the climate is good," Sterzl went on, "one of the best in Europe;
+the foreign colony is friendly and pleasant. You will enjoy studying
+oriental manners from a bird's-eye view, Zini; and the change of air
+will do you good?"
+
+"You will take me too?" she said turning pale.
+
+"Why, of course. The bay of Constantinople is lovely and we can often
+sail out on it; then, in the autumn, if I have time, we will make an
+excursion in Greece. You will be quite a travelled person." He put his
+finger under her chin and looked with tender anxiety into her thin
+face; every trace of color had suddenly faded from it, and the light
+that her brother's success had kindled in her eyes had died out.
+
+"It will be very nice--" she said wearily; "delightful--thank you,
+Cecil--you are always so kind ... when are we to start?"
+
+"You might get off in about a week; the sea-voyage will not over-tire
+you, and you can stop to rest at Athens. In the hot season we can go up
+to the hills--" then suddenly he glanced sharply in her face and his
+whole expression changed; he added roughly, with a scowl: "but you need
+not come unless you like--stay here if you choose--I do not want to
+force you."
+
+At this instant the maid appeared to announce the arrival of a case
+from the railway.
+
+"The new ball-dresses!" cried the baroness in great excitement. "I am
+thankful they have come in time. I was quite in despair for fear I
+should not have my new gown in time for the ball at the Brancaleone's.
+It would have seemed so uncourteous to the princess.... Now let us see
+what Fanet has hit upon that is new...." And she rustled out of the
+room.
+
+Zinka sat still, with a frozen smile, looking like a criminal to whom
+the day of execution had just been announced, and uneasily twisting her
+fingers.
+
+"Of course, I like it, Cecil ... how can you think ... and on Wednesday
+week we can start--Wednesday will be best ... now I must go and see
+what my new dress is like ... do not laugh at me uncle; I must make
+myself look as nice as I can for my last appearance." And she hurried
+off; but on her way she stumbled against a table and a book fell to the
+ground. She stopped, picked the book up, turned over the leaves and
+laid it down; then, as if she wished to make up to her brother for some
+unkindness, she went back to Cecil and put her hand on his shoulder.
+
+"I do really thank you very much," she said, "and I am glad--really and
+truly glad, and very proud of you...."
+
+He looked up in her face and their eyes met--his lips quivered with
+rage--the rage of a lofty, generous, and masterful nature at finding
+itself incapable of making a woman dear to it happy.
+
+Zinka shrank into herself "My ball-dress!" she faintly exclaimed, and
+she slipped out of the room.
+
+For a few minutes the two men were silent. Presently the general spoke:
+
+"Zinka is going to the Brancaleones' to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes," replied Sterzl; "at least, she has promised to go. Whether she
+will change her mind at the last moment and stay at home, of course I
+cannot foresee."
+
+"But she really seems to care about it this time," said the general.
+"At least she took an interest in her dress."
+
+"Her dress!... she did not even know what she was talking about. She
+fled that we might not see her tears...." Sterzl broke out, losing all
+his self-control. Then he looked sternly at his friend as though he
+thought he had betrayed a secret But the old man's sad face reassured
+him. "It is of no use to try to act before you," he went on; "you are
+not blind--you must see how wretched she is--it is all over, general,
+she is utterly broken...." He started to his feet and after pacing the
+room two or three times stood still and with a helpless wave of the
+hands and a desperate shrug, he exclaimed: "There is nothing to be
+done--nothing!" Then he sat down again and buried his face in his
+hands.
+
+Von Klinger cleared his throat, paused for a word and could find
+nothing better to say than: "In time--things will mend; you must have
+patience."
+
+"Patience!" echoed Sterzl with an indescribable accent.
+"Patience!--yes, if I could only hope that things would mend. At first
+it provoked me that she should let everybody see ... know ... I thought
+she might have more spirit and self-command. But now.--Good heavens!
+she does all she can and it is killing her ... that is not her fault.
+If only she were resentful--but she never complains; she is always
+content with everything, she never even contradicts my mother now. And
+then, what is worst of all, I hear her at night--her room is over
+mine--walking up and down, very softly as if she were afraid of waking
+anyone--up and down for hours; and often I hear her sobbing--she never
+sheds a tear by day!..." he sighed. "And then--if it were for a man who
+was worth it all!" he went on. "But that blue-eyed, boneless,
+good-for-nothing simpleton!... I ought never to have allowed her to
+step out of her own sphere--I ought never to have allowed them to
+become intimate! I knew he was not worthy of her, even when, as I
+believed--but you will laugh at my simplicity perhaps--he condescended
+to be in earnest.--You cannot imagine what it is now to have to
+meet him every day,--to hear him ask every day: 'how are you all at
+home?'--I feel ready to choke ... I could crush him under foot like a
+worm!... and I am bound to be civil. I may not even tell him that he
+has insulted me."
+
+The baroness here came back.
+
+"Lovely!" she exclaimed, with her affected giggle, "quite perfect!
+Zinka has never had a dress that suited her so well."
+
+"That is well!" said Sterzl vaguely, "where is she?"
+
+"She is gone to lie down; she has a bad headache," minced the baroness.
+"The young girls of the present day have no stamina. Why, at her age
+I...."
+
+The general was not in the mood to listen to her sentimental
+reminiscences and he took his leave. In the hall he once more wrung
+Cecil's hand: "Fortune has favored you," he said; "you have a splendid
+career before you, and in her new and pleasant home Zinka will
+forget.--I congratulate you on your new start in life."
+
+Aye--his new start in life!
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II.
+
+
+The Brancaleone Palace, on the slope of the Quirinal, is one of the
+finest in Rome, and particularly famous for its gardens, laid out in
+terraces down the side of the hill, with the lower rooms of the palazzo
+opening on to the uppermost level. The dancing was in a large, almost
+square, room adjoining a long vaulted corridor full of old pictures
+relieved here and there by the cold severity of an antique marble
+statue. It was lighted by marvellous chandeliers of Venetian glass that
+hung from the ceiling. At the end of the corridor two steps led down
+into an anteroom, dividing it from a smaller sanctuary where the gems
+of the Brancaleone collection were displayed--mixed up, unfortunately,
+with several modern monstrosities--and from this room a door opened
+into the garden.
+
+Zinka arrived late. A transient and feverish expectancy lent her
+pinched features the brilliancy they had lost while her timid reserve
+gave her even more charm than her former innocent self-confidence, and
+her dress was certainly wonderfully becoming. Nor had she lost all her
+old popularity, for she was soon surrounded by a little crowd of Roman
+'swells;' one or two even of the Jatinskas' admirers deserted to Zinka.
+
+Truyn was not present; the cold his little girl had caught at St.
+Peter's had developed into a serious illness, and he could not leave
+her.
+
+Zinka, with her gliding grace, her small head held a little high, and
+her softened glance, was still pretty to watch as she danced, and
+attracted general attention. The music, the splendor of the
+entertainment, the consciousness of looking well put her into unwonted
+spirits. She sent a searching glance round the room--no, he was not
+there. Sterzl stood talking with the general, delighted with her little
+triumph and charming appearance; then he was congratulated by several
+men of distinction on his recent promotion. He thanked them with
+characteristic simplicity and sincerity--the evening was a success for
+him too. Not long after midnight he left to attend to pressing
+business--matters were in a very unsettled state--and went to the
+embassy.
+
+Within a short time Sempaly came in. He had spent the previous night,
+as was very generally known, at cards--this was a new form of
+dissipation for him--he had lost a great deal of money, and he looked
+worn and out of spirits. He did not care for dancing and came so late
+to ask his handsome cousins for the cotillon that they were both
+engaged--a result to which he was so manifestly indifferent that Nini
+actually wiped away a secret tear. He was now standing with his fingers
+in his waistcoat pockets and his glass in his eye, exchanging
+impertinent comments with a number of other young men, on the figure of
+this woman or that girl, and trying to imagine himself in the position
+of the fabulous savage who found himself for the first time in a
+civilized ball-room.
+
+Suddenly he was silent--something had arrested his attention.
+
+The band was playing a waltz at that time very popular: "_Stringi mi_,"
+by Tosti. The room was very hot; it was the moment when the curls of
+the young ladies begin to straighten, and their movements--at first a
+little prim--begin to gain in freedom; when there is an electrical
+tension in the air suggestive of possible storms and the most
+indifferent looker-on is aware of an obscure excitement. Crespigny and
+Zinka spun past him--Zinka pale and cool in the midst of the emotional
+stir around her. She was not living in the present--she was in a dream.
+Suddenly Crespigny, who was not a good dancer, stumbled against another
+couple, caught his foot in a lady's train and fell with his partner.
+Sempaly pushed his way through the dancers with blind force and was the
+first to help Zinka to her feet. Without thinking for a moment of
+the hundred eyes that were fixed upon him he leaned over the young
+girl--her power over him had risen from the dead. She, bewildered by
+her fall, did not perhaps at first see who it was that had helped her
+to rise; she clung to his arm with half-shut eyes; then, as he
+whispered a few sympathizing words, she looked up, started, colored,
+and shrank from him.
+
+"A very unpleasant accident," said some of the ladies.
+
+Sempaly had taken possession of Zinka's slender hand and drew it with
+gentle insistence through his arm; then he led her out of the heated
+ball-room into the adjoining gallery.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+The accident for which she had besieged Heaven with prayers had
+happened--the accident which threw him once more in her way. His old
+passion was awake again; she saw it--she could read it in his eyes. She
+summoned up all her self-command to conceal her happiness--not so much
+out of deliberate calculation as from genuine timidity and womanly
+pride. He talked--saying all sorts of eager, sympathetic things--she
+asked only the coldest and simplest questions. He had fetched her a
+wrap and with the white shawl thrown around her he led her from one
+room to another among the fan-palms and creamy yellow statues. Now and
+then she spoke to some acquaintance whom they met wandering like
+themselves, but these were fewer and fewer. The supper-room was thrown
+open and every one was gone to the buffet.
+
+Zinka's coldness, for which he was not at all prepared, provoked
+Sempaly greatly. He felt with sudden conviction that there could be no
+joy on earth to compare with that of once holding her in his arms and
+kissing her--devouring her with kisses. This image took entire
+possession of him and beyond the possible fulfilment of that dream he
+did not look. That joy must be his at any cost, if the whole world were
+to crumble at his feet.
+
+"Zinka," he said in a low tone, "Zinka--Lent is over--Easter is come."
+
+"Yes? what do you mean?" she said coldly, almost sternly.
+
+"I mean," he said, and he looked her straight in the face, "that I have
+fasted and that now I will feast, and be happy."
+
+They were in a small room--a sort of raised recess divided from the
+ball-room by a row of pillars; they were alone.
+
+A joy so acute as to be almost pain came over Zinka. It blinded and
+stunned her; she did not speak, she did not smile, she did not even
+look up at him; she could not have stirred even if she had wished
+it--she was paralyzed. He thought she would not hear him.
+
+"Zinka," he urged, "can you not forgive me for having jingled the
+fool's cap for six weeks till I could not hear the music of the
+spheres? Can you not forgive me--for the sake of the misery I
+have endured? I can bear it no longer--I confess and yield
+unconditionally--I cannot live without you...."
+
+Zinka was not strong enough to bear such emotion; the terrible tension
+to which for the last quarter of an hour her pride had compelled her
+gave way; she tottered, put out her hands, and was falling. He put his
+arm round her and with the other hand pushed open a glass door that led
+into the garden.
+
+"Come out, the air will do you good," he said scarcely audibly, and
+they went out on to the deserted terrace. His arm clasped her more
+closely and drew her to him. Involuntarily he waited till she should
+make some effort to free herself from his hold; but she was quite
+passive; she only raised a tear-bedewed face with a blissful gaze into
+his eyes, and whispered: "I ought not to forgive you so easily...." and
+then, with no more distrust or fear than a child clinging to its
+mother, she let her head fall on his shoulder and sobbed for happiness.
+A strange reverence came over him; the sound of some church bell came
+up from the city. He kissed her with solemn tenderness on the forehead
+and only said:
+
+"My darling, my sacred treasure!" She was safe.
+
+When the general came out of the card-room to look once more at the
+dancers before he withdrew, the cotillon, with its fanciful figures and
+lavish distribution of ribbons and flowers, was nearly over.
+
+"What a cruel idea!" he heard in a lamentable voice from one of a row
+of chaperons, "to give a ball in such heat as this!"
+
+It was the baroness, who was searching all round the room with her
+eye-glass and a very sour and puckered expression of face. Siegburg,
+who, as the general knew, was to have danced the cotillon with Zinka,
+was sitting out; when von Klinger asked him the reason he answered very
+calmly, that "he believed Zinka had felt tired and had gone home," But
+the way in which he said it roused the old man's suspicions that he put
+forward this hypothesis to prevent any further search being made for
+Zinka. He had seen her last in the corridor with Sempaly, and he
+hurried off to find her. He sought in vain in all the nooks hidden by
+the plants; in vain in the recesses behind the pillars--but the door to
+the garden was open. This filled him with apprehension--he went out,
+sure that he must be following them.
+
+The air was oppressively sultry and damp; it crushed him with a sense
+of hopeless anxiety. The scirocco had cast its baleful spell over Rome.
+
+Northerners who have never been in Rome have no idea of the nature of
+the scirocco; they suppose it to be a storm of hot wind. No.... it is
+when the air is still and damp, when it distils but does not waft a
+heavy perfume that the scirocco diffuses its poison: a subtle influence
+compounded of the scent of flowers that it forces into life only to
+destroy them--of the mists from the Tiber whose yellow flood--like mud
+mixed with gold, which rolls over the corpses and treasure that lie
+buried in its depths--of the exhalations from the graves, and the
+perennial incense from all the churches of Rome. The scirocco cheats
+the soul with delusive fancies and fills the heart with gloom and
+oppression; it inspires the imagination with dreams of splendid
+achievement and stretches the limbs on a couch in languor and
+exhaustion. It penetrates even the cool seclusion of the cloister and
+breathes on the pale cheek of the young nun who is struggling for
+devout aspiration, reminding her of long forgotten dreams.
+
+All that is melancholy, all that is cruel and wicked in Rome--much,
+too, that is beautiful--is engendered by the scirocco. It is creative
+of glorious conceptions and of hideous deeds. One feels inclined to
+fancy that on the day when Caesar fell under the dagger of Brutus
+Scirocco and Tramontane fought their last fight for the mastery of
+Rome--and Scirocco won the day.
+
+A dense grey cloud hung over the city and veiled the sinking moon. A
+cascade that tumbled from basin to basin, down the terraced slope of
+the Quirinal, plashed weirdly in the deep twilight of the earliest
+dawn, which was just beginning shyly to vie with the dying moon. Light
+and shade had ceased to exist; the whole scene presented the dim,
+smudged effect of a rubbed charcoal drawing.
+
+The general sent a peering glance through the laurel-hedged alleys that
+led down the hill. Above the clipped evergreens, rose huge ilexes,
+wreathed to the very top with ivy and climbing roses. Here and there
+something white gleamed dimly in the grey--he rushed to meet it--it was
+a statue or a white blossomed shrub. Roses and magnolias opened their
+blossoms to the solitude, and the scent of orange-flowers filled the
+heavy air, stronger than all the other perfumes of the morning. Now and
+then, like a faint sigh, a shiver ran through the leaves--the fall of a
+dying flower.
+
+The old man held his breath to listen; he called: "Zinka--Sempaly!" No
+answer.
+
+Suddenly he heard low voices in a path known as the alley of the
+Sarcophagus and thither he bent his steps. The sullen light fell
+through a gap in the leafy wall on Sempaly and Zinka, seated on a
+bench, hand in hand, and talking familiarly, forgetful of all the world
+besides.
+
+Zinka was the first to see him; she was not in the least disconcerted.
+
+"Oh! Uncle Klinger!" she exclaimed. "Mamma is waiting for me, I dare
+say!--but do not scold me, I entreat you--."
+
+Thank God for those happy innocent eyes that looked so frankly into
+his!--On purity like hers Scirocco could have no power! No--he could
+not be angry with her.--But _he_!
+
+"Sempaly!" cried the old man indignantly: "What possesses you?"
+
+"I have at length made up my mind to be happy," said Sempaly with
+feeling, and he raised Zinka's hand to his lips. "That is all."
+
+"And I ought not to have forgiven him so easily--ought I?" murmured
+Zinka, quailing at the general's stern frown, and her head drooped.
+
+"Zinka has been missed, you know how spiteful people are!" exclaimed
+von Klinger angrily, ignoring the sentimentality of the situation.
+Sempaly interrupted him with vehement irritation.
+
+"What I should like to do," he said half to himself, "is to go straight
+back to the ball-room, and tell my most intimate friends at once of our
+engagement!" But even as he spoke he reconsidered the matter; "but I
+cannot," he went on, "unfortunately I cannot. I must even entreat you,
+Zinka, to keep it a secret even from your own household."
+
+"Come, at once, with me," said the general drily, "my carriage is
+waiting in the Piazza. If I am not mistaken there is a little gate here
+which leads on to it... Yes, here it is. I will tell your mother, so
+that others shall hear it, that you felt ill and left before the
+cotillon began and that Lady Julia took you home."
+
+When Zinka was safely on her way to the palazetto in charge of the
+general's trusty old coachman, the two men looked each other in the
+face.
+
+"Outrageous!" growled the general furiously. Sempaly turned upon him
+quickly:
+
+"Think what you will of me," he said, "but do not let the shadow of a
+suspicion rest on Zinka. You know that if you hold up a cross to the
+devil himself, his power is quelled."
+
+Without answering a word the general hurried past Sempaly and straight
+into the ball-room; but he found time to lock behind him the alcove
+door leading into the garden. In the ball-room he was met by the
+baroness who anxiously asked him:
+
+"Where is Zinka? have you seen Zinka?"
+
+"Zinka felt shaken and upset by her fall--she went away a long time
+since, with Lady Julia who took her home."
+
+He spoke very distinctly and in French, so that several persons who
+were standing near might hear him. "She might have let me know,"
+exclaimed the baroness peevishly.
+
+"We looked for you, but could nowhere find you," said the general.
+Never in his life before had he told a lie.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+At some unearthly hour next morning he called on Lady Julia to confide
+to her the mystery of the night's adventure, that she might not
+contradict his story; as he had actually put Zinka into her carriage
+there seemed to be no other danger. Though she disliked the falsehood
+as much as he did, she was quite ready to confirm the fiction; at the
+same time she could not help saying again and again:
+
+"Poor little thing! I hope it may all come right!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+
+"Dearest Zinka, my own sweet little love,
+
+"My brother arrived in Rome last night; he is on his way to Australia
+and I am thankful to say stays only a few days. So long as he is here I
+must make every sacrifice and hardly see you at all, for he must know
+nothing of our engagement. Now, shall I tell you the real sordid reason
+why I cannot speak to him of my happiness?--during these last few
+miserable weeks, simply and solely to kill the time, I have gambled and
+have always been unlucky, and I have got deeply into debt. My brother
+will pay, as he always has done, so long as the conditions remain
+unchanged. But ... however, it is not a matter to write about. Believe
+this much only: that his narrow views can never affect my feelings
+towards you; though I may seem to yield, for I think it useless to
+provoke his antagonism. As soon as he has sailed there will be nothing
+in the way of our engagement and we will be married immediately. To an
+accomplished fact he must surrender. If I possibly can, I will see you
+this evening at the palazetto--just to have one kiss and a loving word.
+Till then I can only implore you to keep this absolutely secret.
+
+                 "Your perfectly devoted
+
+                                         "N.S."
+
+
+This was the note that Zinka received the morning after the ball, as
+she was breakfasting alone in her own room, rather later than usual,
+but with a convalescent appetite. The color mounted to her cheeks, and
+her eyes flashed indignantly. Coldness and neglect she had borne--but
+the meanness and weakness--the moral cowardice--that this note
+betrayed, degraded him in her eyes till she almost scorned him. She
+felt as though a sudden glare had shown her the real Sempaly--as though
+the man she loved was not he, but some one else. The man she had loved
+was a lofty young god who had chosen to descend from his high estate to
+break the heart of an insignificant girl who ought to have thought
+herself happy only to have gazed upon him; but this was a boneless,
+nerveless mortal, who could stoop to petty subterfuge for fear of
+having to face the wrath of his brother.
+
+She was furious; all the pride that had been crushed into silence by
+her dejection was roused to arms. She went to her desk and wrote as
+follows:
+
+
+"I am prepared to marry you in defiance of your brother's will, but I
+could never think of becoming your wife behind his back. I am ready to
+defy him, but I do not choose to cheat him. It is of no use to come to
+the house this evening unless you are quite clear on this point. I
+could not think of marrying you unless I were perfectly sure that I was
+more indispensable to your happiness than your brother's good will. You
+must therefore consider yourself released from every tie, and regard
+the words you spoke yesterday in a moment of excitement as effaced from
+my memory. Ever yours,
+
+                                   "Zinka Sterzl."
+
+
+Zinka enclosed this peremptory note in an envelope, addressed it, rang
+for her maid and desired her to have it sent immediately to the Palazzo
+di Venezia.
+
+"And shall I say there is an answer?" asked the girl.
+
+"No," said Zinka shortly.
+
+No sooner had the maid gone on her errand than the hapless Zinka felt
+utterly wretched and almost repented of having written so
+indignantly... She might have said all that was in the note without
+expressing herself so bitterly. She thought the words over, knit her
+brows, shook her head--and at that moment her eye fell on another
+letter which had been brought to her with Sempaly's, and which she had
+forgotten to open. She saw that the writing was Truyn's. She hastily
+read the note which was a short one.
+
+
+"Dear Zinka:--My poor little girl has been much worse and the doctor
+gives me very little hope. She constantly asks for you, both when she
+is conscious and in her delirium. Come to her if you can. Your old
+friend,
+
+                                   "Truyn."
+
+"P. S. It is nothing catching--inflammation of the lungs."
+
+
+Zinka started up--she forgot everything--her happiness, her grief,
+Sempaly himself--remembering only Truyn's indefatigable kindness and
+the sorrow that threatened him.
+
+"Nothing catching...." she repeated to herself: "poor man! he thinks of
+others even now--it is just like him. While I ... I?" She colored
+deeply, for she recollected how that evening the child had sat
+shivering by her side and she had not noticed it.
+
+"I had my head turned by a kind word from him...." she thought vexed
+with her own folly.
+
+In a very few minutes she was hurrying across the Corso towards the
+Piazza di Spagna. Her maid had some difficulty in keeping up with her.
+Zinka almost flew, heeding nothing and looking at no one, till, in the
+Piazza di Spagna, she came upon a group of persons coming out of the
+Hotel de Londres and felt a light hand on her arm. Looking round she
+saw Nini.
+
+"Good-morning. Where are you off to in such a hurry?" asked the young
+countess pleasantly.
+
+"Good-morning," said Zinka hastily, "I am in a great hurry--I am going
+to the Hotel de l'Europe; Gabrielle Truyn is very ill--she wants to see
+me."
+
+But at this moment Zinka perceived a tall, broad-shouldered man, with a
+very handsome face and haughty expression, standing close to Nini. He
+was gazing at her with perfectly well-bred admiration, and Nini
+introduced him as Prince Sempaly. Then she saw that Nicklas Sempaly was
+just behind, with Polyxena. His eyes met hers with a passionate flash,
+but he only bowed with distant formality. Zinka had no time to think
+about his manner, she was hardly conscious of his presence--all she
+felt was that she was being detained.
+
+"You must excuse me," she said, smiling an apology to Nini and shaking
+hands warmly with her without stopping to think of the formalities of
+caste. "Poor Count Truyn is expecting me." And she hurried on again.
+
+"Who is that sweet-looking girl, Nini?" asked the prince, "for, of
+course, you omitted to mention her name."
+
+"Fräulein Sterzl," replied Nini, "the sister of one of the secretaries
+to the embassy."
+
+"Sterzl," repeated the prince somewhat flatly.
+
+"Zenaïde Sterzl!" said Polyxena over her shoulder.
+
+But the ironical accent emphasis she laid on the odd mixture of the
+romantic and the commonplace was thrown away upon Prince Sempaly, who
+was much too fine a gentleman to laugh at his inferiors; all he said
+was:
+
+"Sterzl? I seem to know the name. Sterzl--I served for a time under a
+Colonel Sterzl of the Uhlans. He was a very superior man."
+
+Zinka meanwhile was flying on to the Hotel de l'Europe. In the
+sun-flooded court-yard stood two rose-trees, a white and a red--two
+brown curly-headed little boys were fighting a duel with walking-sticks
+in a shady corner--two English families were packing themselves into
+roomy landaus for an excursion and sending the servants in and out to
+fetch things that they had forgotten. The air was full of the scent of
+roses, and sunshine, and laughter; but one of the Englishwomen hushed
+her companion who had laughed rather loudly and pointing up to one of
+the windows said: "Remember the sick child."
+
+A cold chill fell on Zinka's heart--she ran up the familiar stairs. In
+Truyn's drawing-room sat Gabrielle's English governess--anxious but
+helpless.
+
+"May I go in?" asked Zinka.
+
+"No, wait a minute--the doctor is there." At this moment Truyn came out
+of the child's room with Dr. E---- the German physician, and conducted
+him down-stairs. Truyn had the fixed, calm, white face of a man who is
+accustomed to bear his sorrows alone.
+
+When he returned he went up to Zinka and took her hand: "She asks for
+you constantly," he said, "but do you think you can prevent her seeing
+that you are unhappy and alarmed?"
+
+"Yes--indeed you may trust me," said Zinka bravely, wiping away her
+tears; and she went into the child's room "as silent and bright as a
+sunbeam."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Some one must have seen Zinka and Sempaly in the course of their
+moonlight walk or else have found out something about it in spite of
+the general's precautions; this was made evident by an article which
+came out on the Friday after the ball in a French 'society paper'
+published weekly in Rome. The title of the article was "a moonlight
+cotillon;" it began with an exact description of Zinka, of whom it
+spoke as Fräulein Z---- a S--l, the sister of a secretary in the
+Austrian Embassy; referred to the sensation produced by her appearance
+as Lady Jane Grey, spoke of her as an elegant adventuress--"a
+professional beauty"--and hinted at her various unsuccessful schemes
+for winning a princely coronet; schemes which had culminated in a
+moonlight walk, a few nights since, during a ball at the house of a
+distinguished member of Roman society, and which had outdone in
+audacity all that had ever been known to the _chronique scandaleuse_ of
+Rome. "Will she earn her reward in the form of a coronet and will the
+pages of 'High Life' ere long announce a fashionable marriage in which
+this young lady will fill a part?--that is the question," so the
+article ended.
+
+"High Life,"--this was the name of the paper graced by this
+effusion--was scouted, abused and condemned by everybody, covertly
+maintained by several, and read by most--with disgust and indignation
+it is true, but still read. On this fateful Friday every copy of "High
+Life" was sold in no time, and before the sun had set Zinka's name was
+in every mouth.
+
+What said the world of Rome? Lady Julia cried, had some tea, and went
+to bed; Mr. Ellis said "shocking!" assured his wife that he was
+convinced of Zinka's innocence, and that it would certainly triumph
+over calumny; after which he quietly went about his business and spent
+two whole hours in practising a difficult passage on the concertina.
+
+It was the Brauers--the Sterzls' old neighbors before mentioned--who
+contributed chiefly to the diffusion of the article, supplementing it
+with their own comments. They had some acquaintance among the "cream"
+of Rome, though they had not been invited to the ball at the
+Brancaleone palace. Frau Brauer assumed a tone of perfidious
+compassion: it was a terrible affair for a young girl's reputation,
+though, for her part, she could see nothing extraordinary in a
+moonlight wandering with an intimate friend. Her husband, to whom the
+Sterzl family had paid very little attention--the baroness out of
+conceit, and Cecil and Zinka because he was in fact intolerably
+affected, pompous and patronizing--said with a sneering smile that he
+had never seen anything to admire in that little adventuress, with her
+free and easy innocence--pushing herself into society she was not born
+to. He had always thought it most unbecoming; and it must be a pleasant
+thing indeed for the Duchess of Brancaleone to have such a scandalous
+business take place in her house--she would be more careful for the
+future whom she invited!
+
+Madame de Gandry and Mrs. Ferguson thought the article very amusingly
+written--not that they would ever have said a word about such a piece
+of imprudence--for really no one was safe! To be sure any evil that
+might be written against them would be a lie--a pure invention--which
+in Zinka's case was quite unnecessary ... So they sent the paper round
+to all their friends as a warning against rushing into acquaintance
+with strangers: "One cannot be too careful." Zinka had seemed to them
+suspicious from the first, for after all she was not "the real thing."
+
+All these spiteful and cruel insinuations they even ventured to utter
+in the presence of Princess Vulpini, in the general's atelier, the spot
+where all that circle concentrated whenever anything had occurred to
+excite or startle it, and they made the princess furious.
+
+"I am an Austrian myself," she said, "and was brought up with ideas of
+exclusiveness which are as much above suspicion as they are beyond your
+comprehension. I am strictly conservative in all my views. But Zinka is
+elect by nature--an exceptional creature before whom all such laws give
+way. I should have regarded it as pure folly to sacrifice the pleasure
+of her acquaintance for the sake of a social dogma."
+
+"Exceptions always fare badly," murmured the general.
+
+Countess Ilsenbergh, who was as strict on points of honor as she was on
+matters of etiquette, was deeply aggrieved by the article; she
+expressed herself briefly but strongly on the subject of the freedom of
+the press, and confessed that, whether Zinka were innocent or guilty,
+things looked very ugly for Sempaly.
+
+The count rushed into eloquence giving an exhaustive discourse on the
+whole social question.
+
+"Princess Vulpini is quite right," he said. "Fräulein Sterzl is a
+bewitching creature, quite an exception--and if any departure from
+traditional law is ever permissible it would be so in her case. But the
+general too is right; exceptions must always fare badly in the world,
+and we cannot endanger the very essence and being of social stability
+in order to improve the position of any single individual. Above all,
+we must never create a precedent." And he proceeded to enlarge on the
+horrible consequences which must result from such a mixture of classes,
+referred to the example of France, and proposed the introduction of the
+Hindoo system of caste, in its strictest application, as a further
+bulwark for the protection of society in Europe and the coercion of
+ambitious spirits. His wife, at this juncture, objected that European
+society had not yet reached such a summit of absolute exclusiveness as
+he would assume, and that, consequently what was immediately needed was
+not any such far-reaching scheme for its protection, but some plan for
+dealing with the disagreeable circumstances in which its imperfection
+had at this time placed them.
+
+He replied that the matter lay in a nutshell; either the story in 'High
+Life' was a lie, in which case Sempaly had nothing to do but to deny it
+categorically, to prove an alibi at the hour mentioned and to horsewhip
+the editor--or, the facts stated were true, and then--under the
+circumstances--there was nothing for it--but ... "the lady's previous
+character was quite above suspicion--there was nothing for it--but...."
+and he shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"But to make Fräulein Sterzl Countess Sempaly!" cried Madame de Gandry.
+"Well, I must say I do think it rather too much to give an adventurous
+little chit a coronet as a reward for sheer impudence. But I beg your
+pardon, general,--I had forgotten that you are a friend of the family."
+
+"And I," exclaimed the general beside himself, and quite pale with
+rage, "I, madame, was within an ace of forgetting that I was listening
+to a lady!"
+
+Princess Vulpini interposed: "You yourself said, madame, that you had
+always avoided any acquaintance with Zinka; now I have known her
+intimately, and seen her almost every day; I have observed her demeanor
+with men--with young men--and heard her conversation with other girls,
+and I can assure you that the word impudence is no more applicable to
+her conduct than to that of my little girl of three.--And if she did,
+in fact, go into the garden with my cousin the night of the ball, it is
+a proof simply of romantic thoughtlessness, of such perfect,
+unsuspicious innocence that it ought of itself avail to protect her
+against slander. I spent last night with Zinka, by the bedside of my
+little niece who is ill, and no girl with a stain on her conscience
+could look so sweetly pure or smile with such childlike sincerity. I
+would put my hand in the fire for her spotless innocence!"
+
+The princess spoke with such dignity and warmth, and while she spoke
+she fixed such a scathing eye on Madame de Gandry, that the
+Frenchwoman, abashed in spite of herself, could only mutter some
+incoherent answer and withdraw with Mrs. Ferguson in her wake.
+
+The four Austrians were alone.
+
+"The person who puzzles me in this business," said the princess, "is
+Nicki Sempaly. As soon as this wretched paper came into my hands I sent
+it to his rooms. There I heard that he had just gone out with the
+Jatinskys. I went to the Hotel de l'Europe to talk it over with my
+brother, but he had gone to lie down and I had not the heart to wake
+him. Besides, he could have done no good, and I could not bear to
+disturb his happiness over his child's amendment.--So I came to
+unburden my heart to you, general."
+
+"Sempaly cannot have seen it yet," suggested Ilsenbergh. The princess
+shrugged her shoulders. Countess Ilsenbergh once more expressed her
+opinion that "it was a very unpleasant affair and that she had foreseen
+it all from the first," after which, finding that it would be difficult
+to prevent her husband from delivering another lecture, she rose to go.
+
+At this instant Prince Vulpini came into the studio with a beaming
+countenance. "Ah! here you are! I saw the carriage at the door as I was
+passing.--Have you heard the latest news?"
+
+"Sempaly is engaged to Zinka?" cried his wife.
+
+"No!" cried the prince; "the wind last night tore down the national
+flag on the Quirinal. Hurrah for the Tramontana!"
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+A few minutes later the general was alone; after a moment's hesitation
+he took up his hat and hurried off to the palazetto to see how matters
+stood there. He was one of those who had been the latest to hear of the
+slanderous article and at the same time to be the most deeply wounded
+by it. But perhaps by this time Sempaly had engaged himself to Zinka,
+he said to himself, and he hastened his pace.
+
+It was the baroness's day at home. The silly woman was sitting dressed
+and displayed--a grey glove on one hand, while with the other she
+pretended to arrange a dish of bonbons.
+
+"How kind of you!--" she exclaimed as the general entered the room. The
+stereotyped formula came piping out of her thin lips without the
+smallest variation to every fresh visitor, as chilling and as colorless
+as snow.
+
+He had hardly greeted the baroness when he looked round for Zinka--at
+first without seeing her; it was not till a bright voice exclaimed:
+
+"Here I am, uncle, come and give me a kiss," that he discovered her, in
+the darkest corner of the room, leaning back in a deep arm-chair and
+looking rather tired and sleepy but wonderfully pretty and unwontedly
+happy.
+
+"I am so tired, so tired!--you cannot think how tired I am," she said,
+laying his hand coaxingly against her cheek, "and mamma is so cruel as
+to insist on my staying in the drawing-room because it is her day at
+home, and I was sound asleep when you came in, for thank heaven! we
+have had no visitors yet. I sat with Gabrielle all last night and the
+night before without closing my eyes; but then I was so glad to think
+that the little pet would not take her medicine from anyone but me; and
+last night, at length, in the middle of one of my stories, she fell
+asleep on my shoulder. But then in order not to disturb her I sat quite
+still for six hours. I felt as if I had been nailed to a cross--and
+to-day I am so stiff I can hardly move." And she stretched her arms and
+curled herself into her chair again with a pretty caressing action of
+her shoulders. "You ought to have stayed in bed," said the general
+paternally. "Oh dear no! why I slept on till quite late in the morning.
+Besides, my being tired is of no real importance; the great point is
+that Gabrielle is out of danger: Oh, if anything had happened to
+her!..." and she shuddered; "I cannot bear to think of it. Count Truyn
+is firmly convinced that I have contributed in some mysterious way to
+the child's amendment, and when I came away this morning he kissed my
+hands in gratitude as if I had been the holy _Bambino_ himself. I
+laughed and cried both at once, and now I am so happy--my heart feels
+as light as one of those air balls the children carry tied by a string,
+that they may not fly off up to the clouds. But why do you look so
+grave? are you not as glad as I am, uncle that...."
+
+The baroness who had been looking at her watch here expressed her
+surprise that not a living soul had come near them to-day.
+
+"You are evidently not a living soul, uncle--nothing but my dear grumpy
+old friend," said Zinka with her pathetic little laugh. There was
+something peculiarly caressing and touching about her to-day; the old
+man's eyes were moist and his heart bled for the sweet child.
+
+Outside the door they heard a heavy swift step--the step of a man in
+pressing but crushing trouble; the door was torn open and Sterzl,
+breathless, green rather than pale, foaming with rage, stormed in--a
+newspaper in his hand.
+
+"What is the matter--what has happened?" cried Zinka dismayed. He came
+straight up to her and stared at her with dreadful eyes.
+
+"Were you really in the garden with Sempaly during the cotillon?" he
+said hoarsely.
+
+"Yes," she said trembling.
+
+He gave a little start and shuddered--tottered--then he pulled himself
+up and flung the newspaper at her feet--at hers--his butterfly, his
+darling!
+
+"Read that," he said.
+
+Von Klinger tried to seize the paper, but Sterzl held him with a firm
+hand. "Your leniency is out of place," he said dully; "_she_ may read
+anything."
+
+Zinka read; suddenly she sprang up with a cry of horror and the
+paper fell out of her hand. Even now she did not understand the
+matter,--exactly what she was accused of she did not know; only that it
+was something unwomanly and disgraceful.
+
+"Cecil!" she began, looking into his face, "Cecil...." and then she
+covered her face, which from white had turned crimson, with her hands.
+He meanwhile had felt the absolute innocence of the girl, and was
+repenting of his rash and cruel wrath.
+
+"Zini," he cried, "forgive me--I was mad with rage--mad." And he tried
+to put his arm round her. But she held him off.
+
+"Leave me, leave me," she said. "No, I cannot forgive you. Oh Cecil!
+if all the newspapers in the world had said you had cheated, for
+instance--do you think I should have believed them?"
+
+He bent his head before her with a certain reverence: "But this is
+different, Zini," he said very gently; "I do not say it as an excuse
+for myself, but it is different. You do not see how different because
+you are a child--an angel--poor, sweet, little butterfly," and he drew
+her strongly to his breast and laid his lips on the golden head; she
+however would not surrender and insisted on freeing herself.
+
+"What on earth is going on?" the baroness asked again, for the
+twentieth time. Getting, even now, no reply, she picked up the
+newspaper that was lying on the floor, caught sight of the article,
+read a few lines of it, and broke out into railing complaints of
+Zinka--enumerating all the sins of which Zinka had been guilty from her
+earliest years and particularly within her recent memory, and ending
+with the words: "And you will ruin Cecil yet in his career."
+
+"Be quiet, mother;" said Cecil sternly. "My career is not the present
+question--we must think of our honor and of her happiness," and leaning
+over the fragile and trembling form of his sister, he said imploringly:
+
+"Tell me, Zini, exactly what happened."
+
+She had freed herself from his clasp and was standing before him with
+her arms folded across--rigid though tremulous--and her voice was cold
+and monotonous as she obeyed him and gave with naïve exactitude her
+short and simple report, blushing as she spoke. When she had ended
+Cecil drew a deep breath.
+
+"And since that you have heard nothing of Sempaly?" he asked.
+
+"The next morning he sent me a note."
+
+"Zinka, do not be angry with me ... show me that note."
+
+She left the room and soon returned with the letter which she handed to
+Sterzl. He read it through with great gravity and marked attention then
+knitting his brows he slowly folded it up and turned it over.
+
+"And you answered him?" he asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And what did you say?"
+
+"Very little--that I was quite prepared to marry him without his
+brother's consent, but behind his brother's back?--No!"
+
+In the midst of his trouble a flash of pride lighted up Sterzl's weary
+eyes. "Bravo, Zini!" he murmured, "and he took this answer in silence?"
+
+Zinka paused to think:
+
+"Yes...." she said; "but no.--He sent me a note to the Hotel de
+l'Europe."
+
+"And what does he say in that?"
+
+"I have not read it yet; it came just at the moment when Gabrielle was
+at the worst and then I forgot it--but here it is...." and she drew it
+out of the pocket of her blue serge dress. Sterzl shook his head and
+glanced with a puzzled air at his sister; then he opened the note. It
+was as follows:
+
+
+"My darling little treasure, my haughty indignant little sweetheart:
+
+"Immediately on the receipt of your note I rushed to see you. The
+porter told me that you were not at home but with your poor little
+friend Gabrielle. Of course I cannot think of intruding on you there,
+though I would this day give a few years of my life for a sight of
+you--for one kiss. Sooner than lose you I am ready to throw up
+everything. Command and I obey ... but no, I must be wise for us both;
+I must wait till my affairs are somewhat in order. There is no help for
+it--I can only ask your forgiveness. I kiss your hands and the hem of
+your garment--I am utterly unworthy of you, but I love you beyond
+words.
+
+                                         "Sempaly."
+
+
+When Sterzl had read this highly characteristic letter he slowly paced
+the room two or three times, and finally stood still in front of his
+sister. Then, taking her hand and kissing it fondly, he said:
+
+"Forgive me, Zini--I am really proud of you. You have behaved like an
+angel ... but he--he is a contemptible sneak."
+
+But this she could not stand. "I do not defend him," she exclaimed
+vehemently, "but at any rate he loves me, and he understands me.--He,
+at any rate, would never have suspected me ... and ... and...." But it
+was in vain that she paused for a word--she could say nothing more in
+his favor; but she called up all her pride, and holding her head very
+high she left the room; as soon as she was outside they could hear her
+sob convulsively.
+
+The baroness rose to follow her, but Cecil stood in her way.
+
+"Where are you going?" he asked sternly.
+
+"To Zinka; I really must make her see what mischief she has done. It is
+outrageous ... why, at thirteen I should have known better!" Sterzl
+smiled bitterly:
+
+"Very likely," he said, "but I must beg you to leave Zinka to herself;
+she is miserable enough without that."
+
+"And are we to submit to her heedlessness without even reproving her
+for it?" said the baroness indignantly.
+
+"Yes, mother," he said decidedly; "our business now is not to reprove
+her, but to protect and comfort her."
+
+At this juncture dinner was announced. Sterzl begged the general to
+remain and dine with them, for he had, he said, several things to talk
+over with him. He evidently wished above everything to avoid being
+alone with his mother. Before sitting down he went to Zinka's room to
+see whether she would not eat at least a little soup; but he came back
+much distressed.
+
+"She would hardly speak to me," he said; "she is quite beside herself."
+And he himself sat in silence, eating nothing, drinking little,
+crumbling his bread and playing with his napkin. Each time the door
+opened he looked anxiously round.
+
+The meal was short and uncomfortable; when they had returned to the
+drawing-room and were drinking their coffee the servant brought Sterzl
+a letter. Cecil took it hastily, looked at the address, and, not
+recognizing the writing, at last opened it. It contained only a
+half-sheet of note-paper, with a cleverly sketched caricature: Sterzl
+himself as auctioneer, the hammer in one hand a doll in the other, and
+before him the coroneted heads of Rome. Sterzl at once recognized the
+likeness, though his lank figure was absurdly exaggerated, and his
+whole appearance made as grotesque as possible. He only shrugged his
+shoulders and said indifferently:
+
+"Does any one really think that such a thing as this can hurt or vex me
+now? Look, general--Sempaly, no doubt, is the ingenious artist of this
+masterpiece."
+
+The general took the paper, and would have torn it across to prevent
+Sterzl from examining it any further; but before he could do so Cecil,
+looking over his shoulder, had snatched it out of his hand.
+
+"There is something written on it!" he said, deciphering the scribble
+in one corner, in Sempaly's weak, illegible hand-writing: "Mademoiselle
+Sterzl, going--going--gone--!... Ah! I understand!"
+
+His face grew purple and he breathed with difficulty.
+
+"To send you this is contemptible," cried the general; "Sempaly drew
+this before he had ever seen Zinka.... I know it, I was present at the
+time."
+
+"What difference does that make?" said Sterzl; "if this is the view
+people took of me and my proceedings! Well, and after all they were
+right--I should have liked to see my sister brilliantly married--I
+meant it well ... and I have made myself ridiculous and have been the
+ruin of the poor child."
+
+His rage and misery were beyond control; he walked up and down, then
+suddenly stood still, looking out of the open window; then again he
+paced the room.
+
+"Sempaly is incomprehensible," he began, "quite incomprehensible! I had
+no very high opinion of his character--particularly lately; but I could
+not have supposed him capable of such baseness and cruelty. What do you
+gather from his not coming here to-day?"
+
+"He simply has not happened to see the paper," the general suggested.
+"He is gone on some expedition with his brother and his cousins."
+
+"Well, but even supposing that he has not read this article," said
+Sterzl, "it still is very strange that, as matters stand between him
+and Zinka, he should have let two days go by without making any attempt
+to see her."
+
+The general was silent.
+
+"You know him better than I do," Cecil began again presently, "and, as
+Zinka tells me, you were present during some part of this romantic
+moonlight promenade. Do you think he seriously intends to marry her?"
+
+"I know that he is madly in love with her, and even the Ilsenberghs,
+who were discussing the matter at my house with the Princess Vulpini,
+saw no alternative for him--irrespective of his attachment to her--but
+to make her an offer."
+
+"We shall see," murmured Sterzl. He looked at the clock: "half past
+nine!" he exclaimed. "This is becoming quite mysterious. I will try
+once more to see him at his rooms; his chasseur will perhaps know when
+he is expected to return home. Would you mind remaining here?" he added
+in a low voice; "keep my mother from going to Zinka; the poor child
+cannot bear it;" and he hurried off.
+
+In about half an hour he returned.
+
+"Well?" asked the general.
+
+"He set out at one o'clock for Frascati, with the prince, the
+Jatinskys, and Siegburg," said Sterzl gloomily. "When I asked whether
+he was to be back this evening the man said certainly, for he was to
+set off to-morrow morning with his excellency the ambassador. He has
+been afraid to declare his engagement for fear of a scene with his
+brother--he is gone out of Rome for fear of a scene with me--'High
+Life' was lying open on his writing-table."
+
+They heard the light rustle of a dress. Sterzl looked round--behind him
+stood Zinka with tumbled hair and anxious, eager, tear-dimmed eyes.
+
+"Zinka!" he cried, stepping forward to catch her; for her gaze was
+fixed, she staggered, put out her hands with a helpless gesture and
+fell into his arms. He laid her head tenderly on his shoulder and
+carried her away.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Sempaly's nervous system was very sensitive and his ear remarkably
+delicate; he had in consequence a horror--a perfect mania of
+aversion--for any scene which might involve excitement and loud
+talking. Besides this he had the peculiarity--common enough with the
+spoilt children of fortune--of always ignoring as far as possible the
+inevitable difficulties of life in the hope that some _deus ex machina_
+would interfere to set matters straight for him.
+
+His passion for Zinka was perfectly genuine, at once vehement and
+tender; far from diminishing, it had, if possible, increased during
+these last three days. Though that hour of sentimental and guileless
+talk with Zinka under the midnight moon had for the time satisfied her,
+it had only fevered him; and while his cowardly double-dealing had
+lowered him in her esteem, her straightforward pride had raised her
+infinitely in his. He was utterly miserable, but this did not prevent
+him from allowing his good-natured senior to pay his enormous debts,
+nor--in order to propitiate him--from paying specious attentions to his
+cousins. It must, however, be said in extenuation, that this flirtation
+was not so much deliberate as instinctive, for he was a man whose
+untutored and unbounded impulse to make himself agreeable led him
+irresistibly to do his utmost to produce a pleasant impression, even at
+the sacrifice of his honor. If, only once, during these three days, he
+had had an opportunity of speaking to Zinka all might perhaps have
+turned out differently. He would probably have found it easy, with his
+wonderful fascination of person, to recover the ground he had lost; and
+her proud rectitude might possibly have influenced him to take a bolder
+course of action. But, in the first instance, he could not intrude on
+Zinka while she was sitting by her little friend Gabrielle, and the
+idea of rushing into an explanation with Sterzl did not smile on his
+fancy.
+
+Thus he let the hours slip by, till, on the Friday morning, the
+luckless copy of 'High Life' was brought into him addressed in a
+feigned hand. This made him furious, and he was on the point of rushing
+off to the palazetto when he remembered that he had promised to be
+ready to join the party to Frascati at one o'clock. He had dipped his
+pen and prepared the paper to send an excuse to the Hotel de Londres
+when there was a knock, and Prince Sempaly, with his two cousins,
+walked in, half an hour before the appointed time.
+
+"What a surprise!... An unexpected honor!" he exclaimed somewhat
+disconcerted.
+
+"That is what we intended," said Polyxena laughing. "Hum! there is a
+rather pronounced perfume of latakia in your room--but the whole effect
+is pretty, very pretty," while Nini looked timidly about her with her
+fawn-like eyes. A bachelor's quarters are, as is well known, one of the
+most interesting mysteries that ever exercise the curious imagination
+of a young lady.
+
+"The girls insisted on seeing your den," the prince explained, "so I
+had to bring them, whether or no, while Siegburg amuses their mamma."
+
+"Why, you yourself proposed it, Oscar!" cried Nini.
+
+Sempaly bowed. "From this time henceforth this room is consecrated
+ground," he said gallantly--and "High Life" was lying on his desk all
+the time and an iron fist seemed clenched upon his heart. If his
+brother had but come alone ... but with these two girls ... it was
+crucial.
+
+Xena began to touch and examine all his odds and ends, to open his
+books, and at last to hover round his writing-table where, with
+graceful impertinence, she was about to take up the fatal sheet.
+
+"Stop, stop!" cried Nicki, "that is not for your eyes, Xena."
+
+"Look, but touch not," said the prince, with a good-natured laugh;
+"young maidens like you are not permitted to inspect the secrets of a
+bachelor's rooms too closely. You might seize a scorpion before we
+could interfere. Besides, we must not keep your mother waiting any
+longer, children; make haste and get ready, Nicki."
+
+For a moment Sempaly tried to think of an excuse; then he reflected
+that it really was not worth while to spoil the pleasure of Oscar's
+last day--all might be set right afterwards. So he only asked for time
+to write a note, and scribbled a few lines to Sterzl in which he
+formally proposed for Zinka. This note he confided to a porter desiring
+him to carry it at once to the secretary's office.
+
+After this he was for a time very much pleased with himself; but, as
+the afternoon wore on, the more uneasy he became, and it was to this
+unrest that most of the tender glances were due that the prince cast
+alternately on him and on Nini. He felt more and more as if he were
+being driven into a trap; in the Villa Aldobrandini he found an issue
+from some of his difficulties. Suddenly, as they were standing by the
+great fountain, Nini and he found themselves _tête-à-tête_, a
+circumstance arising from the consentaneous willingness of the rest of
+the party to give them such an opportunity. He seized the propitious
+moment to disburden his soul. He addressed her as his sister, confessed
+his secret betrothal, and implored her kind interest for Zinka. Nini,
+who felt as though she had been stabbed to the heart, was brave as
+became her and for sheer dread of betraying her own feelings, she tried
+to take a pleasure she was far from feeling in the success of his love
+affair. He kissed her hand and kept near her for the rest of the day.
+His brother, who perceived that the young couple had come to an
+understanding, communicated his observations to Countess Jatinska with
+extreme satisfaction. He was himself a man of strong and lofty feeling,
+free from all duplicity, and he could not conceive that a young man
+could have anything to say to a very handsome girl in private but to
+make love to her.
+
+The day was at an end. With that want of precaution of which only
+foreigners in Rome can be guilty, they set out homewards much too late
+and did not reach the hotel before ten. Here Nemesis overtook Sempaly.
+At the end of supper, which the little party had served to them in the
+countess' private sitting-room, and at which the confidential footing
+on which Sempaly stood with regard to his cousin was thrown into
+greater relief, the prince, with a frank smile of self-satisfaction at
+his powers of divination, raised his glass and said: "To the health of
+the happy couple."
+
+Nini turned crimson; Nicki turned pale. He was in the trap now. Brought
+to bay he could do nothing but turn upon the foe whom he could not
+evade. He was possessed by a wild impulse to snatch the odious mask
+from his own face.
+
+"And who are the happy couple?" he asked.
+
+"You need not be so mysterious about it, Nicki," cried his brother
+warmly. "Of you and...." but a glance at Nini reduced him to silence.
+
+"Of me and Fräulein Zinka Sterzl," said Sempaly with vehement emphasis.
+
+The blood flew to the prince's head; rage and horror fairly deprived
+him of speech. Countess Jatinska laughed awkwardly, Polyxena pursed her
+lips disdainfully while Nini gave her cousin her hand and said loyally:
+
+"Your bride shall always find a friend in me."
+
+But now the prince's wrath broke loose--he was furious; he swore that
+this insane marriage should never take place, and could not conceive
+how his brother--a man old enough to know better--could have allowed
+such a piece of madcap folly to enter his head.
+
+The ladies rose and withdrew; Sempaly, who till within a few minutes
+had been so weak and vacillating, had suddenly become rigid in
+obstinacy and he desired the waiter to bring him the fateful number of
+'High Life'. The prince read it, but his first observation was: "Well!
+and a pretty state the world would soon come to if every man who lets a
+charming adventuress entrap him into an indiscretion were to pay for it
+by marrying her!"
+
+At this insulting epithet applied to Zinka, Sempaly fired up. He did
+not attempt to screen himself, he defended Zinka as against himself,
+with the most unsparing self-accusation. Egotistical, sensitive, and
+morally effete as he was, he was still a gentleman, and he now set no
+limits to his self-indictment; it seemed as though he thought that by
+heaping invective on his own head he could expiate the baseness into
+which he had been betrayed during the last few days. He told the whole
+story: that he had loved Zinka from the first time of seeing her: that
+he had been on the point of making her an offer when an accidental
+interruption had suddenly snatched him from the heaven of hope and
+bliss: that he had neglected and forsaken her: that his constant
+intimacy with his handsome cousins had raised a barrier between him and
+Zinka; then, how he had met her that night at the Brancaleones', and
+how, as he helped her to rise after her tumble, his passion had taken
+entire possession of him--all this he told, down to the moment when she
+had laid her head on his shoulder. "And before such guileless trust
+what man is there that would not bow in reverence!" he ended, "all
+Rome can bear witness to her sweetness and goodness; ask whom you
+will--Marie Vulpini, Truyn, even the Ilsenberghs--or Siegburg here."
+
+The prince turned to Siegburg.
+
+"I can make neither head nor tail of the matter," he said. "Is all he
+says of this girl true, or mere raving?"
+
+Siegburg's answer was simple, eager, and plain; it is, at all times, a
+difficult thing for a young man to praise a girl without reflecting on
+her in any way, but Siegburg's testimony in Zinka's favor was a little
+masterpiece of genuine and respectful enthusiasm. Prince Sempaly's face
+grew darker as he spoke.
+
+"And the young lady in question is the girl we met the other day in the
+Piazzi?" he said.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"The sister of the secretary of legation whom the ambassador introduced
+to me yesterday, and the niece of my old colonel?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And from what you tell me not only an absolutely blameless creature,
+but universally beloved?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+For a minute the prince was silent. Every fibre of his being had its
+root in the traditions of the caste into which he had been born, and a
+connection between Zinka Sterzl and a Sempaly was to him simply
+monstrous. He had in the highest degree a respect for his past--"le
+respect des ruines"--but they must be grand ruins, of a noble past, or
+they did not touch him at all. With his head resting on his hand he sat
+silent by the supper-table, which was not yet cleared and where the
+lights sparkled in the half-empty champagne-glasses, and the flowers
+placed for the ladies still lay by their plates. Suddenly he looked up,
+and pointing to the newspaper, he asked:
+
+"Had you seen that article when we came to fetch you from your rooms
+this morning?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The prince sat bolt upright.
+
+"And you did not stay in Rome to defend the girl?" His black eyes
+looked straight into his brother's blue ones. "You came with us? You
+left this young lady to be, for the whole day, the victim of the
+slander of all the evil tongues of Rome, for fear of an unpleasant
+explanation--for fear of a few high words with me?--You have behaved in
+a base and unmanly way throughout this affair, both to this young lady
+and to the poor sweet creature in there...." and he pointed to the door
+behind which the two young countesses disappeared with their mother.
+"Of course I shall not let you starve; your allowance shall be paid to
+you regularly as heretofore--but beyond that we have no further
+connection; we have nothing in common, you and I. Go!"
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+The _deus ex machina_ had failed to appear. The dreaded scene with his
+brother had been postponed for a few hours, but it had come at last and
+Sempaly had gained nothing by his procrastination and duplicity. He had
+provoked not merely his brother's anger but his scorn as well, while
+his marriage with Zinka, when he had at last found himself compelled to
+announce it to his brother, had altogether lost its startling and
+interesting aspect as a chivalrous romance, and had come down to a mere
+act of reparation to satisfy his conscience.
+
+Sempaly rose rather earlier than usual next morning, his nerves still
+conscious of the remembrance of this unsatisfactory scene and of the
+sleepless night that had been the consequence. Vexed with himself; at
+once surprised and touched by his brother's lofty indignation; ashamed
+to think of the calumny to which his irresolution and his absence must
+have exposed Zinka--he was in that state of sensitive irritability in
+which a man holds all the world in some degree responsible for his own
+shortcomings, and is ready to revenge himself on the first man he meets
+for the misery he is enduring.
+
+While he was waiting for his breakfast, walking up and down the
+sitting-room--half drawing-room, half smoking-room--the general came
+in. For the first time in his life Sempaly greeted the old man as an
+intruder.
+
+"Good-morning," he cried, "what procures me the honor of such an early
+visit?"
+
+"Well," said Von Klinger hotly, "it can scarcely surprise you that I,
+as Zinka's god-father and oldest friend, should come to ask you what
+you mean by your extraordinary conduct."
+
+"That, it seems to me, is her brother's business," said Sempaly
+roughly.
+
+"It is on purpose to prevent a collision between you and Sterzl that I
+have come so early," replied the general, who was cut out for an
+officer of dragoons rather than for a diplomatist. "Sterzl is beside
+himself with fury, and I know that your intentions with regard to Zinka
+are perfectly honorable, and so...."
+
+But at this moment the general's eye fell on a travelling-bag that the
+luxurious young attaché was wont to carry with him on short journeys,
+and which lay packed on the divan. "You are going away?" asked the old
+man surprised.
+
+"I had intended to accompany my brother as far as Ostia to-day and
+return early to-morrow; but that is at an end--the prince and I have
+quarrelled--yes, I have quarrelled past all possibility of a
+reconciliation with my noble and generous brother. Are you satisfied?"
+and he stamped with rage.
+
+"And is the want of judgment that has led to your parting any fault of
+mine pray?" exclaimed the general angrily.
+
+There was a hasty rap at the door; on Sempaly's answering: "come in,"
+Sterzl walked in. He did not take Sempaly's offered hand but drew a
+newspaper out of his pocket, held it out in front of Sempaly, and asked
+abruptly:
+
+"Have you read this article?"
+
+"Yes," said Sempaly from between his teeth.
+
+"Yesterday--before you went out?" Sterzl went on.
+
+This word-for-word repetition of the prince's question touched all
+Sempaly's most painful and shameful recollections of the scene to the
+quick. His eyes flashed, but he said nothing.
+
+Sterzl could contain himself no longer. All the bitter feelings of the
+last six weeks seethed in his blood, and the luckless travelling-bag
+caught his eye. This was too much...
+
+What happened next?...
+
+The general saw it all in a flash of time--unexpected, and inevitable.
+
+Sterzl took one stride forward and struck Sempaly in the face with the
+newspaper. At the same moment Sempaly's servant came in with the
+breakfast tray.
+
+A few minutes later Sterzl and the general went down the stairs of the
+embassy in silence, not even looking at each other. When they were
+outside the younger man stopped and drew a deep breath:
+
+"Sempaly will send you his seconds in the course of the morning," he
+said; "I must ask you to act for me."
+
+The general nodded but did not speak.
+
+"I will send word to Crespigny too, and then you can do whatever you
+think proper."
+
+Still the general said nothing, and his silence irritated Sterzl.
+
+"I could bear it no longer," he muttered as if in delirium; "what ...
+do you suppose ... too much...."
+
+By this time they were in the Corso. Towards them came Siegburg, as
+bright and gay as ever, his hat pushed back on his head.
+
+"I am happy to be the first to congratulate you, Sterzl," he cried.
+
+"On what pray?" said Sterzl fiercely.
+
+"On your sister's engagement to Sempaly--what! then you really did know
+nothing about it?"
+
+Sterzl was bewildered: "What is it--what are you talking about?--I do
+not understand," he stammered.
+
+"What, have you not heard?" Siegburg began; "the bomb fell last
+evening; Nicki declared his engagement. Oscar, to whom the whole
+business was news ... come into this café and I will tell you exactly
+all about it; it does not do to discuss such things in the street."
+
+"I--I have not time," muttered Sterzl with a fixed vacant stare; and,
+as he spoke, he shot past Siegburg; but his gait was unsteady and he
+ran up against a passer-by.
+
+"What on earth ails him?" said Siegburg looking after him. "I thought
+he would be pleased and--well! the ways of man are past finding out.
+This marriage will create a sensation in Vienna, eh, general? But I
+approve--I entirely approve. We are on the threshold of a new era, as
+Schiller--or some one has said, Bismarck very likely--and we shall live
+to tell our children how we stood by and looked on. But what is the
+matter with you both--you and Sterzl? To be sure--you were coming from
+the Palazzo di Venezia--have Nicki and Sterzl quarrelled--a challenge!"
+The general nodded. "But it can be amicably arranged now," said
+Siegburg consolingly.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+On his return home Sterzl found Sempaly's note of the day before. The
+porter had taken it, as he was ordered, to the secretary's office, but
+as Sterzl had not gone there all day it had lain unopened; till, this
+morning, one of the messengers had thought it well to bring it to the
+palazetto. Sterzl read it and hid his face in his hands.
+
+Within a short time Sempaly's seconds were announced--Siegburg and a
+military attaché from the Russian embassy.
+
+No, it could not be amicably arranged--under the circumstances there
+was but one way of satisfying the point of honor. This point of
+honor--what is it? A social dogma of the man of the world, and the
+whole creed of the southern aristocrat.
+
+Sterzl was to start that night by the eleven o'clock train for Vienna,
+on matters of business, before setting out for Constantinople. The
+affair must therefore be settled at once. Beyond fixing the hour Sterzl
+left everything to his seconds. Swords, at seven that evening, among
+the ruins opposite the tomb of the Metellas was finally agreed on.
+
+Soon after six, Sterzl and his seconds set out. The carriage bore them
+swiftly along, through the gloomy, stuffy streets which lead to the
+Forum, along the foot of the Palatine, and past the Colosseum, through
+the arch of Constantine into the Via Appia, on and on, between grey
+moss-grown walls, over which they caught glimpses of ruins and tall
+dark cypresses. Then the walls disappeared and bushy green hedge-rows,
+covered with creepers, bordered the road, and presently the Campagna
+lay before them, an endless, rolling, green carpet, with its attractive
+melancholy, and the poisonous beauty of orchids and asphodels with
+which each returning spring decks its waste monotony, like a wilderness
+in a fevered dream.
+
+Sterzl sat in silence on the back seat, facing his two friends. He did
+not even pretend to be cheerful. A brave man may sometimes face death
+with indifference, but hardly with a light heart. Death is a great king
+to whom we must need do homage. His soul was heavy; but his two
+companions, who knew not only his staunch nature but all the
+circumstances of the duel, knew that it was not from anxiety as to his
+own fate. He could not forget that this catastrophe was, at last, due
+solely and entirely to his own violence and loss of self-command. He
+never once reflected that this engagement--brought about by a series of
+makeshifts and accidents--could hardly have resulted in a happy
+marriage; he had forgotten Sempaly's sins and remembered one thing
+only: that his sister might have had the moon she had longed for, and
+that he alone had snatched it from her grasp.
+
+A powerful fragrance filled the air, coming up from the orchids, from
+the blossoming hedges, from the fresh greenery of the gardens, like the
+very soul of the spring, bringing a thousand memories to his brooding
+brain and aching heart. It reminded him of the great untended orchard
+at home, and of one morning in the last May he had spent there before
+going to school. The apple-trees were clothed with rosy blossom;
+butterflies were flitting through the air, and the first forget-me-nots
+peeped bluely among the trailing brambles on the brink of the brook
+that danced across the garden, murmuring sleepily to the shadowy,
+whispering alders. There was a fragrance of the soil, of the trees, of
+the flowers--just as there was now--and Zinka, then a mere baby, had
+come tripping to meet him and had said with her little confidential and
+important air:
+
+"I do believe that God must have set the gates of heaven open for once,
+there is such a good smell." He could see her now, in her white
+pinafore and long golden hair, clinging to her big brother with her
+soft, weak little hands. And he had lifted her up and said: "Yes, God
+left the door open and you slipped out my-little cherub." With what
+large, wondering eyes she had looked into his face.
+
+She had always been his particular pet; his father had given her into
+his special charge and now ... "poor, sweet butterfly!" he said to
+himself, half audibly.
+
+"Do not be too strict in your fence," said a deep voice close to him.
+It was Crespigny who thus startled him from his dream of the past:--"Do
+not be too scientific. You have everything in your favor--practice,
+skill, and strength; but Sempaly--I know his sword-play well--has one
+dangerous peculiarity: you never know what he will be at." Sterzl
+looked over his shoulder. The tomb of Cecilia Metella was standing
+before them.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+Opposite the tomb of Cecilia Metella is a deserted and half-ruined
+early Gothic structure, a singular mixed character of heathen grandeur
+and of mediæval strength, lonely and roofless under the blue sky. A
+weather-beaten cross, let into the crumbling stone-work above the
+door-way, betokens it a sanctuary of the primitive Christian times; on
+entering we see a still uninjured apse where the altar table once
+stood. No ornament of any kind, not even a scrap of bas-relief, is to
+be seen; nothing but frail ferns--light plumes of maiden hair that deck
+the old walls with their emerald fronds. The floor is smooth and
+covered with fine turf, from which, in spring-time, white and red
+daisies smile up at the sky, and dead nettles grow from every chink and
+along the foot of the walls.
+
+The other party were already on the spot; Sempaly was talking
+unconcernedly, but with no affectation of levity, to the Russian, and
+bowed politely to the three men as they came in. His manner and conduct
+were admirable; in spite of his irritable nervousness, there were
+moments when he had--and in the highest degree--that unshaken
+steadfastness which is part of the discipline of a man of the world, to
+whom it is a matter of course that under certain circumstances he must
+fight, just as under certain others he must take off his hat.
+
+Siegburg changed color a good deal; the others were quite cool. They
+made a careful survey lest some intruding listener should be within
+hearing, but all was still as death. The vineyard behind the little
+chapel was deserted.
+
+The formalities were soon got through; Sempaly and Sterzl took off
+their coats and waistcoats, and took the places assigned to them by
+their seconds.
+
+The signal was given.--The word of command was heard in the silence
+and, immediately after, the first click of the swords as they engaged.
+
+Any one who has lived through the prolonged anticipation of a known
+peril or ordeal, knows that, when the decisive moment has arrived, the
+tension of the nerves suddenly relaxes; anxiety seems lifted from the
+soul, fear vanishes and all that remains is a sort of breathless
+curiosity. This was the case with the general and Siegburg; they
+watched the sword-play attentively, but almost calmly. Sempaly was the
+first to attack, and was extraordinarily nimble. Sterzl stood strictly
+on the defensive. He fenced in the German fashion, giving force to his
+lunge with the whole weight of his body; and this, with his skill and
+care, gave him a marked advantage over his lighter adversary. The sense
+of superior strength seemed at first to hinder his freedom; in fact,
+the contest, from a mere technical point of view, was remarkably
+interesting. Sempaly displayed a marvellous and--as Crespigny had
+said--quite irresponsible suppleness, which had no effect against
+Sterzl's imperturbable coolness. It was evident that he hoped to weary
+out his antagonist and then to end the duel by wounding him slightly.
+He had pricked Sempaly just under the arm, but Sempaly would not be
+satisfied; it was nothing he said, and after a short pause they began
+again.
+
+Sempaly was beginning to look pale and exhausted, his feints were
+short, straight, and violent; Sterzl, on the contrary, looked fresher.
+Like every accomplished swordsman, in the course of a long fight he had
+warmed to his work and was fighting as he would have done with the
+foils, without duly calculating the strength of his play; things looked
+ill for Sempaly.
+
+Suddenly, through the silence, a song was heard in the distance, in a
+boy's thin piping soprano:
+
+
+           "Bright May--the sweetest month of Spring;
+            The trees and fields with flowers are strown--"
+
+
+It sent a thrill through Sterzl's veins, reminding him of the evening
+when Zinka had sung those words to Sempaly. The romantic element that
+was so strong in him surged to his brain; he lost his head; fearing to
+wound Sempaly mortally, he forgot to cover himself and for a second he
+suddenly stood as awkward and exposed as though he had never had a
+sword in his hand.
+
+The seconds rushed forward--too late.
+
+With the scarcely audible sound that the sharp steel makes as it
+pierces the flesh, Sempaly's sword ran into his adversary's side.
+Sterzl's flannel shirt was dyed with blood--his eyes glazed--he
+staggered forward a step or two--then he fell senseless. The duel was
+over.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+A quarter of an hour later and the wound had been bound up as best it
+might, and in the closed landau, which they had made as comfortable as
+they could by arranging the cushions so as to form a couch--the general
+supporting the groaning man's head on his arm, and opposite to him the
+surgeon--they were driving homewards' slowly--slowly.
+
+Dusk had fallen on the Campagna, from time to time the general looked
+out anxiously to see how far they were still from Rome. The road was
+emptier and more deserted every minute; a cart rattled past them full
+of peasants, shouting and singing at the top of their voices; then they
+met a few white-robed monks, wending their way with flaring torches to
+some church; and then the road was perfectly empty. The cypresses stood
+up tall and black against the dull-hued sky and the wide plain was one
+stretch of grey.
+
+At last the arch of Constantine bends over them for a minute and the
+horses hoofs clatter on the stones--slowly--slowly.... The lamps of
+Rome twinkle in the distance--they have reached the Corso, at this hour
+almost empty of vehicles but crowded with idlers, and the cafés are
+brilliantly lighted up. The slowly-moving landau excites attention, the
+gapers crowd into knots, and stare and whisper. At last they reach the
+palazetto, turn into the court-yard and get out. The porter comes out
+of his den, his dog at his heels barking loudly.
+
+"Hush, silence!" says the general--the servants come rushing down, the
+women begin to sob and cry, and again the general says:
+
+"Hush, hush!" as if it were worth while to keep Zinka in ignorance for
+a minute more or less.
+
+With some difficulty the heavy man is lifted out and carried
+up-stairs--the heavy shuffling steps sound loud in the silence.
+Suddenly they hear Zinka's voice loud in terror, then the baroness's
+in harsh reproof--a door is flung open and Zinka rushes out to meet
+them--a half-smothered cry of anguish breaks from her very heart--the
+cry with which we wake from a hideous dream.
+
+They carried him into his room, and while they carefully settled him in
+bed the servant announced Dr. E----, the famous German physician of
+whom mention has already been made. Sempaly, who had driven back at
+full speed and had reached Rome more than an hour sooner than the
+general with the wounded man, had sent him at once. Dr. E---- examined
+the patient with the greatest care, adjusted the bandage with admirable
+skill, wrote a prescription, and ordered the application of ice. He
+gave a sympathetic hand to each of the ladies, who were standing
+anxiously at the door as he left the room, and reassured them with an
+encouraging smile; promising them, with that kindly hopefulness to
+which he owed half his fashionable practice, that the wounded man would
+pass a quiet night.
+
+But when he was face to face with the general, who escorted him down
+stairs, the smile vanished.
+
+"The wound is dangerous?" asked the old man with a trembling heart. The
+surgeon shook his head.
+
+"Are you a relation?" he asked.
+
+"No, but a very old friend."
+
+"It is mortal," said Dr. E---- "I maybe mistaken--of course, I may be
+wrong ... nature sometimes works miracles and the patient has a
+splendid physique. What fine limbs! I have rarely seen so powerful a
+man--but so far as human science can foresee ..." and he left the
+death-warrant unspoken. "It is always a comfort to the survivors to
+know that all that can be done has been done; I will come early
+to-morrow morning to enquire. Send the prescription to the French
+chemist's--it is the best. Good-night." And he got into the carriage
+that was waiting for him.
+
+The general gave the prescription to the porter, who, with the
+readiness and simplicity that are so characteristic of the Italians,
+rushed off at once without his hat. As if there were really any
+hurry!...
+
+The old soldier, composing himself by an effort, returned to the
+bedroom. Zinka was standing very humbly at the foot of the bed, pale
+and tearless, but trembling from head to foot. The baroness was pacing
+the room and sobbing violently, wringing her hands and pushing her hair
+back from her temples. Of course she flew at the general with questions
+as to the surgeon's prognosis. His evasive answers were enough to fill
+her with unreasonable hope and to revive the worldly instincts which
+her terrors had for a moment cast into the background.
+
+"Yes, yes, he will pass a quiet night," she whimpered; "he will get
+well again--it would have been too bad with such a brilliant career
+before him;--but this is an end to Constantinople ..."
+
+Zinka, on the contrary, had turned still paler at the general's report
+but she said nothing.
+
+That there had been a duel she and her mother had of course understood.
+What did she infer from that? What did she think--what did she feel?
+She herself never rightly knew; in her soul all was dark--in her heart
+all was cold. Her whole being was concentrated in horror.
+
+After much and urgent persuasion the general succeeded in inducing the
+baroness to leave the room and to lie down for a time, "to spare
+herself for her son's sake."
+
+She had hardly closed the door when the servant came quietly in and
+said that Count Truyn had come. Zinka looked up.
+
+"Shall I let him come in?" asked the general. Zinka nodded.
+
+Siegburg had told him, and though it was now eleven Truyn had hurried
+off to the palazetto. He came into the room without speaking and
+straight up to Zinka. The simple feeling with which he took her hands
+in both his, the deep and tender sorrow at being unable to help or to
+reassure her that spoke in his eyes comforted and warmed her heart; the
+frozen horror that had held her in its clasp seemed to thaw; tears
+started to her eyes, a tremulous sob died on her lips; then,
+controlling herself with great difficulty, she murmured intelligibly:
+"There is no hope--no hope!"
+
+His mother's loud lamentations had not roused the wounded man but the
+first sound from Zinka recalled him to consciousness; he began to move
+uneasily and opened his sunken eyes. The whites shone dimly, like
+polished silver, as he fixed them on his sister's face; from thence
+they wandered to a blood-stained handkerchief that had been forgotten,
+and then to the general. Slowly and painfully he seemed to comprehend
+the situation. He struggled for breath, with an impatient movement of
+his hands and shoulders, and then shivered as with a spasm. He was
+conscious now, and sighed deeply.
+
+The first thing that occurred to him was his official duty:
+
+"Have you sent word to the ambassador?" he asked the general almost
+angrily.
+
+"No, not yet."
+
+"Then make haste, pray; they must telegraph to Vienna."
+
+"Yes, yes," said Von Klinger soothingly, "I will see to it at once.
+Would you be good enough to stay till I return?" he added to Truyn and
+he hurried away.
+
+For a few minutes not a word was spoken, then Sterzl began:
+
+"Do you know how it all happened, Count?" Truyn bowed. "And you, Zini?"
+asked Cecil, looking sadly at the girl's white face. "I know that you
+are suffering--that is all I want to know," she replied.
+
+"Oh! Zini...." Sterzl struggled for breath and held out his hand
+to Zinka, then he went on in a hoarse and hardly audible voice: "Zini
+... Butterfly ... it was all my doing ... I have spoilt your life ... I
+did it...."
+
+She tried to stop him: "You must not excite yourself," she said,
+leaning over him tenderly; "forget all that till you are better--I know
+that you have always loved me and that you would have fetched the stars
+from heaven for me if you could have reached them."
+
+He shuddered convulsively: "No, Zini, no ... you might have had the
+stars," he said in a panting staccato; "the finest stars. Sempaly was
+not to blame ... only I ... the prince had agreed ... but I ... I
+forgot myself ... and I spoilt it all ... oh, a drink of water, Zini,
+please!..."
+
+She gave him the water and he drank it greedily; but when she gently
+tried to stop his mouth with her hand he pushed it away, and went on
+eagerly, though with a fast failing voice: "No ... I must tell you ...
+it is a weight upon my soul. There, in my desk ... Count ... in the
+little pocket on the left ... there is a letter for Zinka.--Give it
+her...."
+
+Truyn did his bidding. The letter was sealed and addressed to Zinka in
+Cecil's fine firm hand. She opened it; it contained the note that
+Sempaly had written before starting for Frascati and Sterzl had added a
+few words of explanation in case it should not fall into Zinka's hands
+till after his death.
+
+She read it all while the dying man anxiously watched her face, but her
+expression did not alter by a shade. Sempaly's words glided over her
+heart without touching it; even when she had read both notes she did
+not speak. Two red flames burnt in her pale cheeks.
+
+"I got ... the note ... too late," said Sterzl sadly, "the general ...
+can tell you how ... how it all happened ... I lost my head ... but he
+... he is safe, so you must forgive me ... and do ... act ... as if I
+had never existed ... then ... I shall rest ... in peace ... and be
+happy in ... my grave ... if I know ... that you are ... happy."
+
+Still she did not speak; her eyes were strangely overcast; but it was
+not with grief for her lost happiness. Suddenly she tore the note
+across and dropped the pieces on the floor.
+
+"If he had written ten letters," she cried, "it would have made no
+difference now; do not let that worry you, Cecil--it is all at an end.
+Even if there were no gulf between us I could never be his wife! I have
+ceased to love him.--How mean he is in my eyes--compared with you!"
+
+And so the brother and sister were at one again; the discord was
+resolved.
+
+For more than four and twenty hours Cecil wrestled with death and Zinka
+never left his side. The certainty of their mutual and complete
+devotion was a melancholy consolation in the midst of this cruel
+parting. The pain he suffered was agonizing; particularly during the
+night and the early morning; but he bore it with superb fortitude and
+it was only by the nervous clenching of his hands and the involuntary
+distortion of his features that he betrayed his suffering. He hardly
+for a moment slept; he refused the opiate sent by the surgeon; he
+wished to "keep his head" as long as possible.
+
+When Zinka--with a thousand tender circumlocutions--suggested to him
+that he should receive the last sacraments of the Church he agreed. "If
+it will be any comfort to you, Butterfly," he sighed; and he received
+the priest with reverent composure.
+
+In the afternoon he was easier--Zinka began to hope.
+
+"You are better," she whispered imploringly, "you are better, are you
+not?"
+
+"I am in less pain," he said, and then she began making plans for the
+future--he smiled sadly.
+
+No man could die with a better grace, and yet it was hard to die.
+
+The catastrophe had roused universal sympathy. The terrible news had
+spread like wildfire through the city and a sort of panic fell on the
+rank and fashion of Rome. No one, that day, who had ever spoken a
+spiteful or a flippant word against Sterzl or his sister, failed to
+feel a prick of remorse. Every one came or sent to the palazetto to
+enquire for them. Now and again the baroness would come in
+triumphantly, in her hand a particularly distinguished visiting-card
+with its corner turned down, and rustle up to the bedside: "Ilsenbergh
+came himself to the door to ask after you!"
+
+Late in the day he fell into an uneasy sleep; Zinka and the general did
+not quit the room. The window was open but the air that blew in through
+the Venetian blinds was damp and sultry. The street was strewn with
+straw; the roll of the carriages in the Corso came, dulled by distance,
+up to the chamber of death. Then twilight fell and the rumbling echoes
+were still. Presently, the slow irregular tramp of a crowd broke the
+silence, with the accompaniment of a solemn but dismal chant Zinka
+sprang up to close the window; but she was not quick enough. The
+sleeper had opened his weary eyes and was listening--: "A funeral!" he
+muttered.
+
+After this he could not rest, and his sufferings began once more. He
+tossed on his pillow, talked of his will, begging the general to make a
+note of certain trifling alterations; and when Zinka entreated him not
+to torment himself but to think of that by-and-bye, he shook his head,
+and murmured in a voice that was hoarse and tremulous with pain: "No, I
+am in a hurry ... time presses ... railway fever ... railway fever ..."
+
+When Zinka, unable to control herself, was leaving the room to hide her
+tears, he desired her to remain:
+
+"Only stop by me ... do not leave me, Zini," he said. "Cry if it is a
+relief to you ... but stay here ... poor little Butterfly!... yes, you
+will miss me...."
+
+Once only did he lose his self-command. It was late in the evening. He
+had begged them to send to the embassy for an English newspaper which
+would give some information as to a certain political matter in which
+he was particularly interested; the ambassador himself brought it to
+his bedside.
+
+"How are you?... how are you now?" he asked with sincere emotion ...
+"You were quite right, Sterzl. Ignatiev has done exactly as you said;
+you have a wonderful power of divination ... I shall miss you
+desperately when you go to Constantinople...." and his excellency
+fairly broke down.
+
+There was a painful pause. "I am going further than Constantinople...."
+Sterzl murmured at length. "I should like to know who will get my
+place...." His voice failed him and he groaned as he hid his face in
+the pillow.
+
+The end came at midnight. Dr. E---- had warned the general that it
+would be terrible; but it was in vain that they tried to persuade Zinka
+to leave the room. The whole night through she knelt by the dying man's
+bed in her tumbled white dressing-gown--praying.
+
+At about five in the morning his moaning ceased. Was all over? No, he
+spoke again; a strange, far-away look, peculiar to the dying, came into
+his eyes. "Do not cry, little one--it will all come right...." and then
+he felt about with his hands as if he were seeking for something--for
+some idea that had escaped him. He gazed at his sister. "Go to bed,
+Zini--I am better ... sleepy ... Constanti...." He turned his head to
+the wall and breathed deeply. He had started on his journey.
+
+The general closed his eyes and drew Zinka away. Outside in the
+corridor stood a crushed and miserable man--it was Sempaly. Pale,
+wretched, and restless, he had stolen into the palazetto, and as he
+stood aside his hands trembled, his eyes were haggard. She did not
+shrink from him as she went by--she did not see him!
+
+A glorious morning shone on the little garden-court. In a darkly-shady
+corner a swarm of blue butterflies were fluttering over the grass like
+atoms fallen from the sky. It was the corner in which the Amazon stood.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Thanks to Siegburg's always judicious indiscretion all Rome knew ere
+long that Prince Sempaly had consented to Zinka's marriage with his
+brother the evening before the duel, and at the same time it heard of
+Sterzl's burst of anger and its fearful expiation. Princess Vulpini's
+unwavering friendship, which during these few days she took every
+opportunity of displaying, silenced evil tongues and saved Zinka's good
+name. Now, indeed, there was a general and powerful revulsion of
+feeling in Sterzl's favor. It suddenly became absurd, petty, in the
+very worst taste, to doubt Zinka--Zinka and Cecil had always been
+exceptional natures....
+
+Sterzl had expressed a wish to be buried at home; the body was embalmed
+and laid in a large empty room, where, once upon a time, the baroness
+had wanted to give a ball. There were flowers against the wall, and on
+the floor. The bier was covered with them; it was a complete Roman
+_Infiorata_, The windows were darkened with hangings and the dim ruddy
+light of dozens of wax-tapers filled the room. Countess Ilsenbergh and
+the Jatinskys came to this lying in state; distinguished company, in
+ceremonial black, crowded round the coffin. Never had the baroness had
+so full a 'day' and her sentimental graces showed that, even under
+these grim circumstances, she felt this as a satisfaction. She stood by
+the bier in flowing robes loaded with crape, a black-bordered
+handkerchief in her hand, and a tear on each cheek, and--received her
+visitors. They pressed her hand and made sympathetic speeches and she
+murmured feebly: "You are so good--it is so comforting."
+
+Having spoken to the mother, they turned to look for the sister; every
+one longed to express, or at least to show, their sincere sympathy for
+her dreadful sorrow. But she was not in the crowd--not to be seen, till
+a lady whispered: "There she is," and in a dark recess. Princess
+Vulpini was discovered with a quivering, sobbing creature, as pale as
+death and drowned in tears; but no one ventured to intrude on her grief
+No one but Nini, who looked almost as miserable as Zinka herself, and
+who went up to her, and put her arms round her, and kissed her.
+
+Next day mass was performed in the chapel of San-Marco, adjoining the
+embassy, and a quartette of voices sang the same pathetic allegretto
+from the seventh symphony that had been played, hardly three months
+since, for the 'Lady Jane Grey' tableau.
+
+A week later the Sterzls quitted Rome. Up to the very last the baroness
+was receiving visits of condolence, and to the very last she repeated
+her monotonous formula of lament:
+
+"And on the threshold of such a splendid career!"
+
+Zinka was never in the drawing-room, and very few ventured to go to her
+little boudoir. Wasted to a shadow, with sunken, cried-out eyes and
+pinched features, it was heart-rending to see her; and after the first
+violence of her grief was spent she seemed even more inconsolable. It
+is so with deep natures. Our first sorrow over the dead is always mixed
+with a certain rebellion against fate--it is a paroxysm in which we
+forget everything--even the cause of our passionate tears. It is not
+till we have dried our eyes and our heart has raged itself into
+weariness--not till we have at last said to ourselves: "submit," that
+we can measure the awful gap that death has torn in our life, or know
+how empty and cold and silent the world has become.
+
+Every day made Zinka feel more deeply what it was that she had lost.
+She was always feeling for the strong arm which had so tenderly
+supported her. The general and Princess Vulpini did everything in their
+power to help her through this trying phase, but the person with whom
+she felt most at her ease was Truyn; and very often, after seven in the
+evening, when she was sure of meeting no one, she stole off to visit
+Gabrielle; it was touching to see how the little girl understood the
+trouble of her older friend, and how sweetly she would caress and pet
+her.
+
+On the morning of their departure Truyn and the general saw them off
+from the station. After the ladies were in the carriage Truyn got in
+too, to open or close the windows and blinds; when he had done this
+Zinka put out her hand:
+
+"God bless you, for all your kindness," she said, and as she spoke she
+put up her face to give him a kiss.
+
+For an instant he hesitated then he signed her forehead with a cross,
+and bending down touched her hair with his lips.
+
+"_Au revoir_," he murmured in a half-choked voice, he bowed to the
+baroness and jumped out. As he watched the train leave the station his
+face was crimson and his eyes sparkled strangely; and he stood
+bareheaded to catch the last glimpse of a pale little face at the
+window.
+
+"If only I had the right to care for her and protect her," he muttered.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+And now to conclude.
+
+Baroness Sterzl was one of those happily rare natures who have not one
+redeeming point. In her Moravian estate, whither they now retired, she
+was sick of her life, and treated Zinka with affectionate austerity.
+Bored and embittered, she was always bewailing herself and made every
+one miserable by her sour mien and doleful, appearance. When the year
+of mourning was ended she began to crave for some excitement; she made
+excursions to watering places, and to Vienna, where she gathered round
+her the fragmentary remains of her old circle of acquaintance and tried
+to astonish them by magnificent reminiscences of her sojourn in Rome.
+At the same time she still wore deep furbelows of crape, and wrote her
+invitations on black-edged paper; she talked incessantly of her broken
+mother's-heart wearing, as it were, a sort of Niobe nimbus; while, in
+fact, her display of mourning was nothing more than a last foothold for
+her vanity. General von Klinger always declared that at the bottom of
+her heart she was very proud of her son having been run through by a
+Sempaly.
+
+She died, about three years after the catastrophe, of bronchitis, which
+only proved fatal because, though she already had a severe cold,
+nothing could dissuade her from going on a keen April morning to see
+the ceremony of washing the beggars feet at the Burg, with a friend
+from the convent of the Sacred Heart.
+
+Zinka felt the loss of her mother more deeply than could have been
+expected. Year after year she spent summer and winter in her country
+house, where Gabrielle Truyn, with her English governess, sometimes
+passed a few weeks with her--her only visitors. Truyn very rarely went
+to see her, and never stayed more than a few hours; and the sacrifice
+it was to him to lend his little companion for those visits can only be
+appreciated by those who have understood how completely his life was
+bound up in hers.
+
+With Princess Vulpini Zinka kept up an affectionate correspondence.
+Very, very, slowly did her grief fade into the background; but--as is
+always the case with a noble nature--it elevated and strengthened her.
+She gave up her whole time to acts of kindness and benevolence; the
+only pleasure in which, for years, she could find any real comfort was
+alleviating the woes of others.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+Not long after the death of the baroness, General von Klinger left
+Europe to travel, and did not return till the following spring
+twelvemonths. He disembarked at Havre and proceeded to Paris, where he
+proposed spending a few days to see the Salon before going home. By the
+obliging intervention of a friend he was admitted to the "_vernis
+sage_"--varnishing day, or, more properly, the private view--the day
+before the galleries were opened to the public. Among the little crowd
+of fashionable ladies who had gained admittance by the good offices of
+a drawing-master or an artist friend, he observed a remarkably pretty
+young girl who, with her nose in the air, was skipping from one picture
+to another with a light and vigorous step, and pronouncing judgment on
+the works exhibited with the inexorable severity and innocent conceit
+of a fanatical novice. This fair young critic was so thoroughly
+aristocratic in her bearing, there was something so engaging in her
+girlish arrogance, so like a spoilt child in her confidential chat with
+her companion--an elderly man, and one of the best known artists of
+Paris--that the old soldier-painter could not help watching her with
+kindly interest. Presently she happened to see him; scrutinized him for
+a moment, and came to meet him with gay familiarity.
+
+"Why, General! are you back at last? How glad papa will be--and you
+have not altered in the very least!..."
+
+"I cannot say the same of you, Countess Gabrielle," he replied.
+
+"Well, of course. We last met four years ago at Zini's I think, ..."
+she chattered on. "Then I was a child, and now I am grown up; and I
+will tell you something. General, I have exhibited a picture--quite a
+small water color drawing," and she blushed, which made her look like
+her father, "you will come and look at it will you not?"
+
+"Of course," he declared; and then, glancing at her dress: "You are in
+mourning?" he said hesitatingly.
+
+"Yes," she replied, "in half mourning now--for poor mamma; it is nearly
+a year since she died...." and a shade crossed her face--"ah, there is
+papa!" she exclaimed, suddenly brightening, "we are always losing each
+other--our tastes are different--papa is old fashioned you know--quite
+behind the times ..."
+
+Truyn greeted the general very heartily; Gabrielle stood looking from
+one to the other; little roguish dimples played in her cheeks, and at
+last she stood on tiptoe and whispered something to her father. At
+first he seemed doubtful, and it was not without a shade of
+embarrassment that he said:
+
+"We are going on to the Hotel Bristol, where we are to breakfast with
+my sister. It will, I am sure, give her the greatest pleasure if you
+will join her party."
+
+The general made some excuses--it was an intrusion, and so forth--but
+he allowed himself to be persuaded and drove off with them through the
+flowery and well-watered alleys of the Champs Elysées to the hotel in
+the Place Vendôme.
+
+"Aunt Marie," said Gabrielle as she danced into the room, "guess who is
+here with us!"
+
+"Ah, General!" said the princess warmly, "you are the right man in the
+right place."
+
+But another figure caught his eye--a little way behind his hostess
+stood Zinka. The sorrow she had experienced had stamped its lines
+indelibly on her face; still, there was in her eyes a light of calm and
+assured happiness that blended very sweetly with the traces of past
+grief. The bright May-morning of her life had been brief and it was
+past, but there was so tender a charm in her face and manner that even
+Gabrielle, with the radiance of eighteen, could not vie with her.
+
+Truyn went up to her and there was an awkward silence. Then Gabrielle
+began to laugh heartily.
+
+"And cannot you guess, General?" she exclaimed.
+
+"It is not yet announced to the world," Truyn stammered out, "but you
+have always taken such a kind interest ..." and he took Zinka's hand.
+The old man's face beamed--he positively hugged Zinka and shook hands
+vehemently with Truyn.
+
+But Zinka burst into tears--: "Oh, uncle," she said, "if only Cecil
+were here!"
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+And Sempaly?
+
+After the catastrophe he vanished from the scene--went to the East, and
+there again came to the surface. A Sempaly may do anything. He is now
+considered one of our most brilliant diplomatists.
+
+But he has gone through a singular change; from a dandified, frivolous
+attaché he became a hard-and-fast official. He looks if possible more
+distinguished than ever and his features are more sharply cut. He is
+irritable, arrogant and ruthless; never sparing man or woman the biting
+sarcasms that dwell on the tip of his tongue, and yet, still--nay, more
+than ever--he exercises an almost irresistible spell over all who come
+in contact with him.
+
+One day, when the general was waiting at some frontier station in
+Hungary for a train to Vienna, he was struck by the full rich voice of
+a traveller in a seal-skin coat, with a fur cap pulled down over his
+brows, who was giving peremptory orders to his servant. The old man
+looked round and his eyes met those of the stranger--it was Sempaly,
+also on his way to Vienna, from the East. They spoke--exchanging a few
+commonplace remarks, but without any cordiality. Presently Sempaly
+began with the abruptness for which his name was a by-word:
+
+"You have just come from Paris. You were present at the wedding? What
+do you think of Truyn's marriage?"
+
+"I am delighted at it," said the general.
+
+"Well, everybody seems satisfied. Marie Vulpini is enchanted, and
+Gabrielle pleaded for her papa--so I hear.--So everything is for the
+best in this best of all possible worlds!" he added in his sharp, hasty
+tones--"and Zinka--how is she looking? The papers said she was lovely."
+
+"She is still very charming," said the general, with the facile
+garrulity of old age, "and happiness always beautifies a woman--she had
+but one regret: that Cecil had not lived to see it."
+
+He was suddenly conscious of his stupendous want of tact; so, to put
+the conversation on neutral ground, he eagerly began to compliment
+Sempaly on the wonderful rapidity of his advancement, remarking that it
+must afford him great satisfaction to have so fitting a sphere for the
+exercise of his peculiar talents.
+
+Sempaly looked at him keenly, and shrugging his shoulders, with a
+singular smile, he said:
+
+"It is a strange thing, General--when we are young we claim happiness
+at the hands of Destiny, as if it were our right; as we grow older we
+humbly sue, only for peace, as an alms.--We get what we demand more
+easily than what we beg for--but it slips through our fingers."
+
+
+
+                                THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             ________________
+                            | ADVERTISEMENTS |
+                            |________________|
+
+
+THE AMAZON.--An Art-Novel, by Carl Vosmaer, from the Dutch by E. J.
+Irving, with frontispiece by Alma Tadema, R. A., and preface by Georg
+Ebers. In one vol. Paper, 40 cts. Cloth, 75 cts.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+"Among the poets who never overstep the limits of probability and yet
+aspire to realize the ideal, in whose works we breathe a purer air, who
+have power to enthral and exalt the reader's soul, to stimulate and
+enrich his mind, we must number the Netherlander Vosmaer.
+
+"The Novel 'Amazon,' which attracted great and just attention in the
+author's fatherland, has been translated into our tongue at my special
+request. In Vosmaer we find no appalling incident, no monstrous or
+morbid psychology, neither is the worst side of human nature portrayed
+in glaring colors. The reader is afforded ample opportunity of
+delighting himself with delicate pictures of the inner life and
+spiritual conflicts of healthy-minded men and women. In this book a
+profound student of ancient as well as modern art conducts us from
+Paestum to Naples, thence to Rome, making us participators in the
+highest and greatest the Eternal City can offer to the soul of man.
+
+"Vosmaer is a poet by the grace of God, as he has proved by poems both
+grave and gay; by his translation of the Iliad into Dutch hexameters,
+and by his lovely epos 'Nanno,' His numerous essays on æsthetics, and
+more especially his famous 'Life of Rembrandt,' have secured him an
+honorable place among the art-historians of our day. As Deputy Recorder
+of the High Court of Justice he has, during the best years of his life
+(he was born March 20, 1826), enjoyed extensive opportunities of
+acquiring a thorough insight into the social life of the present,
+and the labyrinths of the human soul. That 'The Amazon,' perhaps
+the maturest work of this author, should--like Vosmaer's other
+writings--be totally unknown outside Holland, is owing solely to the
+circumstance that most of his works are written in his mother-tongue,
+and are therefore accessible only to a very small circle of readers.
+
+"It is a painful thing for a poet to have to write in a language
+restricted to a small area; and it is the bounden duty of the lover of
+literature to bring what is excellent in the literature of other lands
+within the reach of his own countrymen. Among these excellent works
+Vosmaer's 'Amazon' must unquestionably be reckoned. It introduces us to
+those whom we cannot fail to consider an acquisition to our circle of
+acquaintances. It permits us to be present at conversations which--and
+not least when they provoke dissent--stimulate our minds to reflection.
+No one who listens to them can depart without having gained something;
+for Vosmaer's novel is rich in subtle observations and shrewd remarks,
+in profound thoughts and beautifully-conceived situations." _Extract
+from Georg Ebers' Preface to the German Edition_.
+
+
+
+FRIDOLIN'S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE.--A Study of an Original, founded on
+Reminiscences of a Friend, by Adolf Wilbrandt, from the German by Clara
+Bell. One vol. Paper, 50 cts. Cloth, 90 cts.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+"One of the most entertaining of the recent translations of German
+fiction is 'Fridolin's Mystical Marriage,' by Adolf Wilbrandt. The
+author calls it 'a study of an original, founded on reminiscences of a
+friend,' and one may easily believe that the whimsical, fascinating,
+brilliant heir must have been drawn more largely from life than fancy.
+He is a professor of art, who remains single up to his fortieth year
+because he is, he explains to a friend 'secretly married.' 'When you
+consider all the men of your acquaintance,' he says, 'does it strike
+you that every man is thoroughly manly and every woman thoroughly
+womanly? Or, on the contrary, do you not find singular deviations and
+exceptions to the normal type? If we place all the men on earth in a
+series, sorting them by the shades of difference in their natural
+dispositions, from the North Pole, so to speak, of stalwart manliness
+to the South Pole of perfect womanhood, and if you then cast a piercing
+glance into their souls, you would perceive ... beings with masculine
+intellect and womanly feelings, or womanly gifts and masculine
+character.' The idea is very cleverly worked out that in these divided
+souls marriage is possible only between the two natures, and that
+whenever one of the unfortunates given this mixed nature, cannot
+contract an outward alliance. How the events of the story overthrow
+this ingenious theory need not be told here, but the reader will find
+entertainment in discovery for himself."--_Courier, Boston_.
+
+"A quaint, dry and highly diverting humor pervades the book, and the
+characters are sketched with great force and are admirably contrasted.
+The unceasing animation of the narrative, the crispness of the
+conversations, and the constant movement of the plot hold the interest
+of the reader in pleasant attention throughout. It provides very bright
+and unfatiguing reading for a dull summer day."--_Gazette, Boston_.
+
+"The scenes which are colored by the art atmosphere of the studio of
+Fridolin, a professor of art and the principal character, are full of
+pure humor, through the action and situations that the theory brings
+about. But no point anywhere for effective humor is neglected. It runs
+through the story, or comedy, from beginning to end, appearing in every
+available spot. And the characterization is evenly strong. It is an
+uncommonly clever work in its line, and will be deliciously enjoyed by
+the best readers." _Globe, Boston_.
+
+
+
+CLYTIA.--A Romance of the Sixteenth Century, by George Taylor, from the
+German by Mary J. Safford, in one vol. Paper, 50 cts. Cloth, 90 cts.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+"If report may be trusted 'George Taylor,' though writing in German, is
+an Englishman by race, and not merely by the assumption of a pseudonym.
+The statement is countenanced by the general physiognomy of his novels,
+which manifest the artistic qualities in which German fiction, when
+extending beyond the limits of a short story, is usually deficient.
+'Antinous' was a remarkable book; 'Clytia' displays the same talent,
+and is, for obvious reasons, much better adapted for general
+circulation. Notwithstanding its classical title, it is a romance of
+the post-Lutheran Reformation in the second half of the sixteenth
+century. The scene is laid in the Palatinate; the hero, Paul
+Laurenzano, is, like John Inglesant, the pupil, but, unlike John
+Inglesant, the proselyte and emissary, of the Jesuits, who send him to
+do mischief in the disguise of a Protestant clergyman. He becomes
+confessor to a sisterhood of reformed nuns, as yet imperfectly detached
+from the old religion, and forms the purpose of reconverting them.
+During the process, however, he falls in love with one of their number,
+the beautiful Clytia, the original, Mr. Taylor will have it, of the
+lovely bust in whose genuineness he will not let us believe. Clytia, as
+is but reasonable, is a match for Loyola; the man in Laurenzano
+overpowers the priest, and, after much agitation of various kinds, the
+story concludes with his marriage. It is an excellent novel from every
+point of view, and, like 'Antinous' gives evidence of superior culture
+and thoughtfulness."--_The London Saturday Review_.
+
+
+             _William S, Gottsberger, Publisher, New York_.
+
+
+
+TRAFALGAR.--A Tale, by B. Perez Galdós, from the Spanish by Clara Bell,
+in one vol. Paper, 50 cents. Cloth, 90 cents.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+"This is the third story by Galdós in this series, and it is not
+inferior to those which have preceded it, although it differs from them
+in many particulars, as it does from most European stories with which
+we are acquainted, its interest rather depending upon the action with
+which it deals than upon the actors therein. To subordinate men to
+events is a new practice in art, and if Galdós had not succeeded we
+should have said that success therein was impossible. He has succeeded
+doubly, first as a historian, and then as a novelist, for while the
+main interest of his story centres in the great sea-fight which it
+depicts--the greatest in which the might of England has figured since
+her destruction of the Grand Armada--there is no lack of interest in
+the characters of his story, who are sharply individualized, and
+painted in strong colors. Don Alonso and his wife Doña Francisca--a
+simple-minded but heroic old sea-captain, and a sharp-minded, shrewish
+lady, with a tongue of her own, fairly stand out on the canvas. Never
+before have the danger and the doom of battle been handled with such
+force as in this spirited and picturesque tale. It is thoroughly
+characteristic of the writer and of his nationality."--_The Mail and
+Express, New York_.
+
+
+             _William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York_.
+
+
+
+A GRAVEYARD FLOWER.--By Wilhelmine von Hillern, from the German by
+Clara Bell, in one vol., Paper, 40 cts. Cloth, 75 cts.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+"The pathos of this story is of a type too delicate to be depressing.
+The tale is almost a poem, so fine is its imagery, so far removed from
+the commonplace. The character of Marie is merely suggested, and yet
+she has a most distinct and penetrating individuality. It is a fine
+piece of work to place, without parade or apparent intention, at the
+feet of this ideal woman, three loves so widely different from each
+other. There is clever conception in the impulse that makes Marie turn
+from the selfish, tempestuous love of the Count, and the generous, holy
+passion of Anselmo, to the narrower but nearer love of Walther, who had
+perhaps fewer possibilities in his nature than either of the other two.
+The quality of the story is something we can only describe by one
+word--spirituelle. It has in it strong suggestions of genius coupled
+with a rare poetic feeling, which comes perhaps more frequently from
+Germany than from anywhere else. The death of Marie and the sculpture
+of her image by Anselmo, is a passage of great power. The tragic end of
+the book does not come with the gloom of an unforeseen calamity; it
+leaves with it merely a feeling of tender sadness, for it is only the
+fulfilment of our daily expectations. It is in fact the only end which
+the tone of the story would render fitting or natural."--_Godeys Lady's
+Book_.
+
+
+             _William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York_.
+
+
+
+PRUSIAS.--A Romance of Ancient Rome under the Republic, by Ernst
+Eckstein, from the German by Clara Bell. Authorized edition. In two
+vols. Paper, $1.00. Cloth, $1.75.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+"The date of 'Prusias' is the latter half of the first century B. C.
+Rome is waging her tedious war with Mithridates. There are also risings
+in Spain, and the home army is badly depleted. Prusias comes to Capua
+as a learned Armenian, the tutor of a noble pupil in one of the
+aristocratic households. Each member of this circle is distinct. Some
+of the most splendid traits of human nature develop among these grand
+statesmen and their dignified wives, mothers, and daughters. The ideal
+Roman maiden is Psyche; but she has a trace of Greek blood and of the
+native gentleness. Of a more interesting type is Fannia, who might,
+minus her slaves and stola, pass for a modern and saucy New York
+beauty. Her wit, spirit, selfishness, and impulsive magnanimity might
+easily have been a nineteenth-century evolution. In the family to which
+Prusias comes are two sons, one of military leanings, the other a
+student. Into the ear of the latter Prusias whispers the real purpose
+of his coming to Italy. He is an Armenian and in league with
+Mithridates for the reduction of Roman rule. The unity which the Senate
+has tried to extend to the freshly-conquered provinces of Italy is a
+thing of slow growth. Prusias by his strategy and helped by
+Mithridates's gold, hopes to organize slaves and disaffected
+provincials into a force which will oblige weakened Rome to make terms,
+one of which shall be complete emancipation and equality of every man
+before the law. His harangues are in lofty strain, and, save that he
+never takes the coarse, belligerent tone of our contemporaries, these
+speeches might have been made by one of our own Abolitionists. The one
+point that Prusias never forgets is personal dignity and a regal
+consideration for his friends. But after all, this son of the gods is
+befooled by a woman, a sinuous and transcendently ambitious Roman
+belle, the second wife of the dull and trustful prefect of Capua; for
+this tiny woman had all men in her net whom she found it useful to have
+there.
+
+"The daughter of the prefect--hard, homely-featured, and hating the
+supple stepmother with an unspeakable hate, tearing her beauty at last
+like a tigress and so causing her death--is a repulsive but very strong
+figure. The two brothers who range themselves on opposite sides in the
+servile war make another unforgettable picture; and the beautiful slave
+Brenna, who follows her noble lover into camp, is a spark of light
+against the lurid background. The servile movement is combined with the
+bold plans of the Thracian Spartacus. He is a good figure and
+perpetually surprises us with his keen foresight and disciplinary
+power.
+
+"The book is stirring, realistic in the even German way, and full of
+the fibre and breath of its century." _Boston Ev'g Transcript_.
+
+
+
+QUINTUS CLAUDIUS.--A Romance of Imperial Rome, by Ernst Eckstein, from
+the German by Clara Bell, in two vols. Paper, $1.00. Cloth, $1.75.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+"We owe to Eckstein the brilliant romance of 'Quintus Claudius,' which
+Clara Bell has done well to translate for us, for it is worthy of place
+beside the Emperor of Ebers and the Aspasia of Hamerling. It is a story
+of Rome in the reign of Domitian, and the most noted characters of the
+time figure in its pages, which are a series of picturesque
+descriptions of Roman life and manners in the imperial city, and in
+those luxurious retreats at Baiae and elsewhere to which the wealthy
+Romans used to retreat from the heats of summer. It is full of stirring
+scenes in the streets, in the palaces, in the temples, and in the
+amphitheatre, and the actors therein represent every phase of Roman
+character, from the treacherous and cowardly Domitian and the vile
+Domitia down to the secret gatherings of the new sect and their exit
+from life in the blood-soaked sands of the arena, where they were torn
+in pieces by the beasts of the desert. The life and the manners of all
+classes at this period were never painted with a bolder pencil than by
+Eckstein in this masterly romance, which displays as much scholarship
+as invention."--_Mail and Express, N. Y_.
+
+"These neat volumes contain a story first published in German. It is
+written in that style which Ebers has cultivated so successfully. The
+place is Rome; the time, that of Domitian at the end of the first
+century. The very careful study of historical data, is evident from the
+notes at the foot of nearly every page. The author attempted the
+difficult task of presenting in a single story the whole life of Rome,
+the intrigues of that day which compassed the overthrow of Domitian,
+and the deep fervor and terrible trials of the Christians in the last
+of the general persecutions. The court, the army, the amphitheatre, the
+catacombs, the evil and the good of Roman manhood and womanhood--all
+are here. And the work is done with power and success. It is a book for
+every Christian and for every student, a book of lasting value,
+bringing more than one nation under obligation to its author."--_New
+Jerusalem Magazine, Boston, Mass_.
+
+"_A new Romance of Ancient Times!_ The success of Ernst Eckstein's new
+novel, 'Quintus Claudius,' which recently appeared in Vienna, may
+fairly be called phenomenal, critics and the public unite in praising
+the work."--_Grazer Morgenpost_.
+
+"'Quintus Claudius' is a finished work of art, capable of bearing any
+analysis, a literary production teeming with instruction and interest,
+full of plastic forms, and rich in the most dramatic changes of
+mood."--_Pester Lloyd_.
+
+
+             _William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Own Set, by Ossip Schubin
+
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Own Set, by Ossip Schubin
+
+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: Our Own Set
+       A Novel
+
+Author: Ossip Schubin
+
+Translator: Clara Bell
+
+Release Date: March 24, 2011 [EBook #35673]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR OWN SET ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Arcive
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Note:<br>
+<br>
+1. Page scan source:
+http://www.archive.org/details/ourownsetanovel00schugoog
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>OUR OWN SET</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>A NOVEL</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h5>BY</h5>
+
+<h3>OSSIP SCHUBIN</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4><span class="sc">From the German by</span> CLARA BELL</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h5>REVISED AND CORRECTED IN THE UNITED STATES</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>NEW YORK<br>
+<span class="sc2">WILLIAM S. GOTTSBERGER, PUBLISHER<br>
+11 MURRAY STREET<br>
+1884</span></h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h5>Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884</h5>
+<h4><span class="sc">by William S. Gottsberger</span></h4>
+<h5>in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h5>THIS TRANSLATION WAS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THE PUBLISHER</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>Press of<br>
+William S. Gottsberger<br>
+New York</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>OUR OWN SET</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>PART I.</h2>
+<h3>THE CARNIVAL.</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">At Rome in 1870. Roman society was already divided into &quot;<i>Le Monde
+noir</i>&quot; and &quot;<i>Le Monde blanc</i>&quot; which as yet gave no sign of amalgamation
+into a &quot;<i>Monde gris</i>.&quot; His Holiness the Pope had entrenched himself in
+the Vatican behind his prestige of martyrdom; and the King already held
+his court at the Quirinal.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Among the distinguished Austrians who were spending the winter in Rome
+were the Otto Ilsenberghs. Otto Ilsenbergh, one of the leading members
+of the Austrian feudal aristocracy, was in Rome professedly for his
+health, but in reality solely in order to avail himself of the
+resources of the Vatican library in compiling that work on the History
+of Miracle which he has lately given to the world under a quaint
+pseudonym. He and his wife with a troup of red-haired Ilsenberghs, big
+and little, inhabited a straggling, historical palazzo on the Corso,
+with a glacial stone staircase and vast drawing-rooms which looked more
+fit for the meetings of conspirators than for innocent tea-drinkings
+and dances.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess was &quot;at home&quot; every evening when there was no better
+amusement to be had. She was by birth a princess Auerstein, of the
+Auerstein-Zolling branch, in which--as we all know--the women are
+remarkable for their white eyebrows and their strict morality. The
+Ilsenbergh <i>salon</i> was much frequented; the prevailing tone was by no
+means formal; smoking was allowed in the drawing-room--nay the countess
+herself smoked: to be precise she smoked <i>regalias</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was in the beginning of December; a wet evening and the heavy drops
+splashed against the window panes. Count Ilsenbergh was sitting in an
+immense reception-room decorated with frescoes, at a <i>buhl</i> table,
+evidently constructed for no more arduous duties than the evolution of
+love letters. He was absorbed in the concoction of an article for &quot;Our
+Times.&quot; A paper of strictly aristocratic-conservative tendencies,
+patronized by himself, taken in by his fellow-aristocrats, but read by
+absolutely no one--excepting the liberal newspaper writers when in
+search of reactionary perversities. Count Ilsenbergh was in great
+trouble; the Austrian Ministry had crowned their distinguished
+achievements by one even more distinguished--for the fourth time within
+three years a new era was announced, and in defiance of prejudice a
+spick-and-span liberal ministry was being composed, destined no doubt
+to establish the prosperity of the Austrian people on a permanent
+basis--and beyond a doubt to cause a fresh importation of
+&quot;Excellencies&quot; into the fashionable <i>salons</i> of the Ringstrasse at
+Vienna. Count Ilsenbergh was prophesying the end of all things.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess was sitting at her ease on a sofa close to the fire-place,
+with its Renaissance chimaeras of white marble. The handsomest editions
+of the works of Ampère and Mommsen lay on the tables, but she held on
+her lap a ragged volume of a novel from a circulating library. She was
+a tall, fair woman with a high color and apricot-colored hair, a
+languid figure, slender extremities and insignificant features; she
+spoke French and German alike with a strong Viennese accent, dressed
+unfashionably, and moved awkwardly; still, no one who knew what was
+what, could fail to see that she was a lady and an aristocrat. At all
+court functions she was an imposing figure, she never stumbled over her
+train and wore the family diamonds with stately indifference.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The portière was lifted and General von Klinger was announced. General
+von Klinger was an old Austrian soldier whose good fortune it had been
+to have an opportunity of distinguishing himself with his cavalry at
+Sadowa, after which, righteously wroth at the national disaster, he had
+laid down his sword and retired with his General's rank to devote
+himself wholly to painting. Even as a soldier he had enjoyed a
+reputation as a genius and had covered himself with glory by the way in
+which he could sketch, with his gold-cased pencil on the back of an old
+letter or a visiting-card, a galloping horse and a jockey bending over
+its mane; a work of art especially admired for the rapidity with which
+it was executed. Since then he had studied art in Paris, had three
+times had his pictures refused at the <i>salon</i> and had succeeded in
+persuading himself that this was a distinction--in which he found a
+parallel in Rousseau, Delacroix and fifty fellow-victims who had been
+obliged to submit to a similar rebuff. Then he had come to Rome, an
+unappreciated genius, and had established himself in a magnificent
+studio in the Piazza Navona, which he threw open to the public every
+day from three till five and which became a popular rendezvous for the
+fashionable world. They laughed at the old soldier's artistic
+pretensions, but they could not laugh at him. He was in every sense of
+the word a gentleman. Like many an old bachelor who cherishes the
+memory of an unsuccessful love affair in early life, he covered a
+sentimental vein by a biting tongue--a pessimist idealist perhaps
+describes him. He was handsome and upright, with a stiffly starched
+shirt collar and romantic dark eyes--a thorough old soldier and a
+favorite with all the fine ladies of Roman society.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is very nice of you to have thought of us,&quot; said the countess
+greeting him heartily; &quot;it is dreadful weather too--come and warm
+yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The count looked up from his writing: &quot;How are you General?&quot; he said,
+and then went on with his article, adding: &quot;Such an old friend as you
+are will allow me to go on with my work; only a few lines--half a dozen
+words. These are grave times, when every man must hold his own in the
+ranks!&quot;--and the forlorn hope of the feudal cause dipped his pen in the
+ink with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The general begged him not to disturb himself, the countess said a few
+words about some musical soirée, and presently her husband ended his
+page with an emphatic flourish, exclaiming: &quot;That will give them
+something to think about!&quot; and came to join them by the fire.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A carriage was heard to draw up in the street.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That may be Truyn, he arrived yesterday,&quot; observed the countess, and
+Count Truyn was in fact announced.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Erich Truyn was at that time a man of rather more than thirty with hair
+prematurely gray and a glance of frosty indifference. People said he
+had been iced, for he always looked as though he had been frozen to the
+marrow in sublime superiority; his frigid exterior had won him a
+reputation for excessive pride, and totally belied the man. He was an
+uncommonly kind and noble-hearted soul, and what passed for pride was
+merely the shrinking of a sensitive nature which had now and again
+exposed itself to ridicule, perhaps by some outburst of high-flown
+idealism, and which now sought only to hide its sanctuary from the
+desecration of the multitude.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah! Truyn, at last, and how are you?&quot; cried the countess with sincere
+pleasure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Much as ever,&quot; replied Truyn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And where is your wife?&quot; asked Ilsenbergh.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is she still at Nice?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know.&quot; And as he spoke his expression was colder and more set
+than before.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you to be long in Rome?&quot; said the countess, anxious to divert the
+conversation into a more pleasing channel.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As long as my little companion likes and it suits her,&quot; answered
+Truyn. His 'little companion' always meant his only child, a girl of
+about twelve.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You must bring Gabrielle to see me very soon,&quot; said the lady. &quot;My Mimi
+and Lintschi are of the same age.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will bring her as soon as possible; unluckily she is so very shy she
+cannot bear strangers. But she has quite lost her heart to the general
+and to our cousin Sempaly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What, Nicki!&quot; exclaimed the countess. &quot;Do you mean that he has the
+patience to devote himself to children?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He has a peculiar talent for it. He dined with us to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is an unaccountable creature!&quot; sighed the countess. &quot;He hardly ever
+comes near us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At this moment a quick step was heard outside and Count Sempaly was
+announced.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>Lupus in Fabula!</i>&quot; remarked Ilsenbergh.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The new-comer was a young man of eight or nine and twenty, not tall,
+but powerfully though slightly built; his remarkably handsome, well-cut
+features and clear brown complexion were beautified by a most engaging
+smile, and by fine blue eyes with dark lashes and shaded lids. Under
+cover of that smile he could say the most audacious things, and whether
+the glance of those eyes were a lightning flash or a sunbeam no one had
+ever been quite certain. He gallantly kissed the tips of the countess's
+fingers, nodded to the men with a sort of brusque heartiness, and then
+seated himself on a cushion at the lady's feet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, it is a mercy to be allowed to see you at last; you really do
+not come often enough, Nicki; and in society I hardly ever meet you,&quot;
+complained the countess in a tone of kindly reproof. &quot;Why do you so
+seldom appear in the respectable world?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because he is better amused in the other world!&quot; said Ilsenbergh with
+a giggle in an undertone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But a reproachful glance from his wife warned him to be sober.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I simply have not the time for it,&quot; said Sempaly half laughing. &quot;I
+have too much to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Too much to do!&quot; said Truyn with his quiet irony.... &quot;In
+diplomacy?--What is the latest news?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A remarkable article in the '<i>Temps</i>' on the great washing-basin
+question,&quot; replied Sempaly with mock gravity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The washing-basin question!&quot; repeated the others puzzled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; continued Sempaly. &quot;The state of affairs is this: When, not long
+since, the young duke of B---- was required to serve under the
+conscription, his feelings were deeply hurt by the fact that he had not
+only to live in barracks, but to wash at the pump like a common
+soldier. This so outraged his mamma that she went to the Minister of
+War to petition that her son might have a separate washing-basin; but
+after serious discussion her application was refused. It was decided
+that this separate washing-basin would be a breach of the Immortal
+Principles of '89.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is hardly credible!&quot; observed Truyn; Ilsenbergh shrugged his
+shoulders and the countess innocently asked:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What are the immortal principles of '89?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A sort of ideal convention between the aristocracy and the canaille,&quot;
+said Sempaly coolly. &quot;Or if you prefer it, the first steps towards the
+abdication of privilege at the feet of the higher humanity,&quot; he added
+with a smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess was no wiser than before, Sempaly laughed maliciously as
+he fanned himself with a Japanese screen, and Ilsenbergh said: &quot;Then
+you are a democrat, Sempaly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;From a bird's-eye point of view,&quot; added Truyn drily; he had not much
+faith in his cousin's liberalism.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am always a democrat when I have just been reading 'The Dark Ages,'&quot;
+said Sempaly--'The Dark Ages' was the name he chose to give to
+Ilsenbergh's newspaper.--&quot;Besides, joking apart, I am really a liberal,
+though I own I am uneasy at the growing power of the radicals. By the
+bye, I had nearly forgotten to give you two items of news that will
+delight you Fritzi,&quot;--addressing the countess. &quot;The reds have won all
+the Paris elections, and at Madrid they have been shooting at the
+king.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Horrible!&quot; exclaimed the countess, and she shuddered, &quot;we shall see
+the Commune again before long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;'93,&quot; said Truyn, with his tone of dry irony.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We really ought to draw a cordon round the Austrian throne to protect
+it against the pestilential flood of democracy,&quot; said Sempaly very
+gravely. &quot;Ilsenbergh you must petition the upper house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your jokes are very much out of place,&quot; said the countess, &quot;the matter
+is serious.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no! not for us,&quot; said Truyn. &quot;Our people are too long suffering.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They are sound at the core,&quot; interrupted Ilsenbergh with dramatic
+emphasis.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They do not yet know the meaning of liberty,&quot; said Sempaly laughing,
+&quot;and to them equality is a mere abstraction--a metaphysical delicacy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They are thoroughly good and loyal!&quot; exclaimed Ilsenbergh, &quot;and they
+know....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh!&quot; cried Sempaly, &quot;they know very little and that is your safeguard.
+When once their eyes are opened your life will cease to be secure. If I
+had been a bricklayer I should certainly have been a socialist,&quot; and he
+crossed his arms and looked defiantly at his audience.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A socialist!&quot; cried Ilsenbergh indignantly. &quot;You!--never. No, you
+could not have been a socialist; your religious feelings would have
+preserved you from such wickedness!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hm!&quot; replied Sempaly suspiciously, and Truyn said with a twist of his
+lips:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As a bricklayer Sempaly might not have been so religious; he might
+have found some difficulty in worshipping a God who had treated him so
+scurvily.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hush, Truyn!&quot; exclaimed Sempaly, somewhat anxiously to his cousin.
+&quot;You know I dislike all such discussions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;True. I remember you wear Catholic blinkers and are always nervous
+about your beliefs; and you would not like to feel any doubt as to the
+unlimited prolongation of your comfortable little existence,&quot; said
+Truyn in a tone of grave and languid banter. For Sempaly was not
+burthened with religion, though, like many folks to whom life is easy,
+he clung desperately to a hope in a future life, for which reason he
+affected 'Catholic blinkers' and would not have opened a page of
+Strauss for the world.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The sword is at our breast!&quot; sighed the countess still sunk in dark
+forebodings. &quot;This new ministry!...&quot; And she shook her head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It will do no harm beyond producing a few dreary articles in the
+papers and inundating us with new Acts which the crown will not trouble
+itself about for a moment,&quot; observed Sempaly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The Austrian mob are gnashing their teeth already!&quot; said the lady.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nonsense! The Austrian mob is a very good dog at bottom; it will not
+bite till you forbid it to lick your hands,&quot; said her cousin calmly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should dislike one as much as the other,&quot; said the countess, looking
+complacently at her slender white fingers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But tell us, Nicki,&quot; asked Ilsenbergh, &quot;has not the change of ministry
+put a stop to your chances of promotion?&quot; Sempaly was in fact an
+apprentice in the Roman branch of the great Austrian political
+incubator.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course,&quot; replied Sempaly. &quot;I had hoped to be sent to London as
+secretary; but one of our secretaries here is to go to England, and the
+democrats are sending us one of their own protégés in his place. My
+chief told me so this morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! who is our new secretary?&quot; asked the countess much interested. &quot;If
+he is a protégé of those creatures he must be a terrible specimen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is one Sterzl--and highly recommended; he comes from Teheran where
+he has distinguished himself greatly,&quot; said Sempaly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sterzl!&quot; repeated Ilsenbergh scornfully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sterzl!&quot; cried the lady in disgust. &quot;It is to be hoped he has no
+wife,--that would crown all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On that point I can reassure you,&quot; said the general; &quot;Sterzl is
+unmarried.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You know him?&quot; murmured the countess slightly abashed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is the son of one of my dearest friends--a fellow-officer,&quot; replied
+the general, &quot;and if he has grown up as he promised he must be a man of
+talent and character--his abilities were brilliant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is something at any rate,&quot; Ilsenbergh condescended to say.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, so it strikes me,&quot; added Sempaly; &quot;we require one man who knows
+what work means.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I was promised that my nephew should have the appointment,&quot; muttered
+the countess. &quot;It is disgusting!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Utterly!&quot; said Sempaly with a whimsical intonation. &quot;A foreign element
+is always intrusive; we are much more comfortable among ourselves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Tea was now brought in on a Japanese table and the secretary and his
+inferior birth were for the time forgotten.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly was not merely affecting the democrat to annoy his cousin
+the countess; he firmly believed himself to be a liberal because he
+laughed at conservatism, and regarded the nobility as a time-honored
+structure--a relic of the past, like the pyramids, only not quite so
+perdurable. But in spite of his theoretical respect for the rights of
+man and his satirical contempt for the claims of privilege, Sempaly was
+really less tolerant than his cousin of &quot;the dark ages.&quot; Ilsenbergh,
+with all his feudal crotchets, was an aristocrat only from a sense of
+fitness while Sempaly was an aristocrat by instinct; Ilsenbergh's pride
+of rank was an affair of party and dignity, Sempaly's was a matter of
+superfine nerves.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A few days after this conversation Sempaly met the general and told him
+that the new secretary had arrived, adding with a smile: &quot;I do not
+think he will do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why not?&quot; asked the general.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He speaks very bad French and he knows nothing about <i>bric-à-brac</i>,&quot;
+replied Sempaly with perfect gravity. &quot;I introduced him yesterday to
+Madame de Gandry and he had hardly turned his back when she asked
+me--she is the daughter of a leather-seller at Lille, you know--'is he
+a man of family?'--and would you believe it, I could not tell her. That
+is the sort of thing I never know.&quot; Then he added with a singular
+smile: &quot;His name is Cecil--Cecil Maria. Cecil Maria Sterzl! It sounds
+well do not you think?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Cecil Maria! It was a ridiculous name and ill-suited the man. His
+father had been an officer of dragoons who had retired early to
+become a country gentleman--the dearest dream of the retired officer;
+his mother was a faded Fräulein von ---- who had all her linen--not
+merely for her trousseau but all she ever purchased--marked with
+<i>her</i> coronet, who stuck up a flag on the turret of their little
+country house with <i>her</i> arms, and insisted on being addressed as
+baroness--which she never had been--by all her acquaintance. When,
+within a year of her marriage, she became the mother of a fine boy it
+was a burning question what his name should be.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Cecil Maria,&quot; lisped the lady.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nonsense! The boy shall be called Anthony after his grandfather,&quot; said
+his father, and the mother burst into tears. What man can resist the
+tears of the mother of his first-born? The child was christened Cecil.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His father died at the early age of forty; his youngest child, a little
+girl whom he worshipped, was dangerously ill of scarlet fever and he
+fell a victim to his devotion to her. Cecil was at that time a pretty
+but rather delicate boy, with an intense contempt for the French
+language which his sister's governess tried to instil into him, and a
+pronounced preference for the society of the stable-lads and peasant
+boys; the baroness was always complaining that he was dirty and did not
+care to keep his hands white. The guardianship of the orphans devolved
+on General Sterzl, their father's elder brother, who honestly did his
+best for them, managing their little fortune with care, and
+conscientiously directing their education. After a brief but keen
+inspection of the clever spoilt boy, of his silly mother, and of his
+cringing tutor, he shrugged his shoulders over this country gentleman's
+life and placed the lad in the <i>Theresianum</i>, a college which in the
+estimation of every Austrian officer is the first educational
+establishment in the world--provided, that is to say, that he himself
+was not brought up there.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">During the first six months Cecil was boundlessly miserable. All his
+life long till now he had been accustomed to be first; and it was hard
+suddenly to find himself last. Although his abilities were superior his
+neglected education placed him far below most of his companions, and
+besides this he was, as it happened, the only boy not of noble birth in
+this fashionable college, with the exception of a young Tyrolese whose
+descent was illegitimate, though he nevertheless was always boasting of
+his family. Then his companions laughed at his provincial accent, at
+his want of strength and at his queer name. We have all in our turn had
+to submit to this rough jesting. He could not for a long time get
+accustomed to it, and during the first half-year he incessantly plagued
+his mother and guardian to release him from what he called a prison;
+but they remained deaf to his entreaties. The visible outcome, when
+Cecil went home for the summer holidays, was a very subdued frame of
+mind, and nicely kept, long white nails. The next term began with his
+giving a sound thrashing to the odious Tyrolese who bored the whole
+school with his endless bragging and airs. This made him immensely
+popular; then he began to work in earnest; his masters praised his
+industry--and his complaints ceased. Had the subtle poison of
+pretentious vanity which infected the whole college crept into his
+veins? Had he begun to find a charm in hearing Mass read on Sundays and
+Highdays by a Bishop? To be waited on by servants in livery, to learn
+to dance from the same teacher who gave lessons at court, and to call
+the titled youth of the empire '<i>du</i>'? It is difficult to say. He
+seemed perfectly indifferent to all these privileges and assumed no
+airs or affectations.--His pride was of a fiercer temper.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He finished his education by learning eastern languages, passed
+brilliantly, and, still aided by his uncle, went in for diplomacy. He
+was sent to an Asiatic capital which was just then undergoing a
+visitation of cholera and revolution; there again he distinguished
+himself and was decorated with the order of the Iron Crown.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">One thing was soon very evident to every one in Rome: The new secretary
+was not a man whose character could be summed up in an epigram. There
+was nothing commonplace or pretty in the man. Externally he was tall
+and broad shouldered, with a well set carriage that gave him the air of
+a soldier in <i>mufti</i>; his hair was brown and close-cropped and his
+features sharply cut. In manner he was awkward but perfectly well-bred,
+unpretentious and simple. The ambassador's verdict on the new secretary
+was very different from Sempaly's. &quot;He is my best worker,&quot; said his
+excellency: &quot;A wonderful worker, and a long head--extraordinarily
+capable; but not pliant enough--not pliant enough....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Nor was it only with his superiors that he found favor; the younger
+officials with whom he came in contact were soon on the best terms with
+him. He had one peculiarity, very rare in men who take life so
+seriously as he did: He never quibbled. The embassy at Rome at that
+time swarmed to such an extent with handsome, fashionable idlers that
+the Palazzo di Venezia was like a superior school for fine ladies with
+moustaches--as Sempaly aptly said. Sterzl looked on at their feeble
+doings with indulgent good humor; it was impossible to hope for any
+definite views or action from these young gentlemen; it would have been
+as wise to try to make butterflies do the work of ants. He himself was
+always ready to make good their neglect and gave them every liberty for
+their amusements. He wished to work, to make his mark--that was his
+business; to fritter away life and enjoy themselves was theirs. Thus
+they agreed to admiration.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But though his subalterns were soon his devoted allies, society at
+large was still disposed to offer him a cold shoulder. His predecessor
+in office had never pretended to do anything noteworthy as a
+diplomatist, but he had been an admirable waltzer, and--which was even
+more important--he had not disdained that social diversion;
+consequently he had been a favorite with the ladies of Rome who loudly
+bewailed his departure and were not cordial to his successor. Sterzl
+took no pains to fill his place; he had no trace of that obsequious
+politeness and superficial amiability which make a man popular in
+general society. His blunt conscientiousness and quite pedantic
+frankness of speech were displeasing on first acquaintance. In a
+drawing-room he commonly stood silently observant, or, if he spoke, he
+said exactly what he thought and expected the same sincerity from
+others. He could never be brought to understand that the flattery and
+subterfuge usual in company were merely a degenerate form of love for
+your neighbor; that the uncompromising truthfulness that he required
+must result in universal warfare; that the limit-line between sincerity
+and rudeness, between deference and hypocrisy, have never been rigidly
+defined; that the naked truth is as much out of place in a drawing-room
+as a man in his shirt-sleeves; and that, considering the defects and
+deformities of our souls, we cannot be too thankful that custom
+prohibits their being displayed without a decent amount of clothing.
+Merciful Heaven! what should we see if they were laid bare?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">No, we cannot live without lying. A man who is used to society demands
+that it should tell lies, it is his right, and a courtesy to which he
+has every claim. When a man finds that society no longer thinks him
+worth lying to his part is played out and he had better vanish from the
+scene. In short, Sterzl had no sort of success with women; they dubbed
+him by the nickname of '<i>le Paysan du Danube</i>.' Men respected him; they
+only regretted that he had so many extravagant notions, particularly a
+morbid touchiness as to matters of honor; however, that is a fault
+which men do not seriously disapprove of. To Sterzl himself it was a
+matter of entire indifference what was said of him by people who were
+not his personal friends. For a friend he would go through fire and
+water, but he would often neglect even to bow to an acquaintance in the
+street as he walked on, straight to his destination, his head full of
+grand schemes. He was fully determined to make his mark: to do--perhaps
+to become--something great ... but....</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Princess Vulpini, who had not escaped the fashionable complaint--the
+<i>Morbus Schliemaniensis</i>, had found a treasure no further off than in
+an old-clothes shop in the Via Aracoeli, where she had bought two
+wonderful shields from designs, she was assured, of Benvenuto Cellini's
+and a fragment of tapestry said to have been designed by Raphael, and
+she had invited a few intimate friends--Truyn, Sempaly, von Klinger,
+and Count Siegburg, an Austrian attaché, to give their opinion as to
+the genuineness of her find. She was Truyn's sister and a few years
+younger than he; she had met Prince Vulpini at Vichy when spending a
+season there with her invalid father and soon afterwards had married
+him, and now for twelve years she had lived in Rome, loving it well,
+though she never ceased railing at it for sundry inconveniences, was
+always singing the praises of Vienna and would have all her shopping
+done for her &quot;at home&quot; because she was convinced that nothing was to be
+had in Rome but photographs, antiques and wax-matches.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The company had just finished a lively dinner, throughout which they
+had unanimously abused the new Italian Ministry; but with the arrival
+of the coffee and cigarettes they turned to the consideration of the
+princess's antiquities which she had spread out on the floor for
+inspection. The gentlemen threw themselves on all-fours to examine the
+arras and the shields, and pronounced their verdict with conscientious
+frankness. No one, it seemed, was thoroughly convinced of the
+authenticity of the treasures but the Countess Marie Schalingen, a lady
+who had been for some few weeks in Rome as the princess's guest; all
+the others had doubts. The most vigorous sceptic of them all was Count
+Siegburg, who, to be sure, was the one who knew least of such matters,
+but who nevertheless spoke of &quot;electrotype casts and modern imitations&quot;
+with supreme decisiveness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Wips, or more correctly Wiprecht Siegburg, was the spoilt child of the
+Austrian circle; I doubt whether he could have invented gunpowder, have
+discovered America, or have proved that the earth goes round, but for
+work-a-day company he was certainly pleasanter than Schwarz, Columbus
+or Galileo. He had been attached to the embassy with no hope of his
+finding a career, but simply to get him away from Vienna, where his
+debts had at last become inconveniently heavy. His widowed mother,
+after much meditation, had hit upon this admirable plan for checking
+her son in his extravagance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You make me quite nervous, Siegburg,&quot; said the princess at length,
+&quot;though I know that you have not the faintest glimmering of knowledge
+on the subject.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps you are right,&quot; he answered coolly. &quot;At any rate, I have lost
+confidence lately in my critical instincts. I always used to think that
+the genuineness of antiquities was in proportion to their dirt; but now
+that I have learnt that even the dirt is counterfeit I have lost all
+basis of judgment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They all laughed at this confession, not so much for its wit as because
+every one laughed at Siegburg's little sallies. They were in the
+smoking-room, a snug apartment, picturesquely and comfortably furnished
+with carved wood and oriental cushions. All the party were on the
+intimate terms of &quot;just ourselves,&quot; a mixture of courteous deference
+and hearty friendliness. The conversation was not precisely learned; on
+the contrary, there was a certain frivolity in its tone; very bad jokes
+were perpetrated and some anecdotes related savoring of Saint-Simon in
+raciness without any one being scandalized, for they were not in the
+mood to run every jest to earth, to treat every point by chemical
+analysis, or take every word literally. Superficiality is sometimes a
+gracious and a blessed thing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I feel so thoroughly at home to-day--in such an Austrian
+atmosphere....&quot; exclaimed the hostess. &quot;But I have a presentiment that
+it will not be of long duration. Mesdames de Gandry and Ferguson are
+dining in this neighborhood....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As she spoke the servant announced Prince Norina.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;'Coming events cast their shadows before,'&quot; quoted Sempaly; it was
+well known that when Prince Norina made his appearance the Countess de
+Gandry would soon follow. Norina was fat and fair, handsome on the
+barber's block pattern, and for the last four or five years had been
+dancing attendance on the French countess. He bowed to the princess,
+shook hands with the men and was instantly seized upon by the master of
+the house to listen to a tirade on the latest misdemeanors of the
+government. Vulpini was the blackest of the Black, a strong adherent of
+the pope, though from political rather than religious bias---chiefly
+indeed as a fanatically exclusive Roman, who scorned to make common
+cause with Italy at large, and regarded &quot;<i>Italia unita</i>&quot; as a wild
+chimera. Prince Norina, who had no political convictions, listened to
+him and nodded assent to anything and everything.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The company now adjourned to the drawing-room, a large uncomfortable
+room furnished in a motley style, partly Louis XV. and partly Empire,
+and which opened out of the more splendid salon in which the princess
+received formally, and the boudoir to which none but her most intimate
+friends were admitted. The conversation had lost much of its
+liveliness, and had flattened to a level at which some of the company
+had taken refuge in photographs when Madame de Gandry and Mrs. Ferguson
+were announced and rustled in.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame de Gandry--a pale brunette, interesting rather than pretty, with
+a turned-up nose and hard bright eyes, noisy and coquettish,
+inconsiderate and saucy, because she fancied it gave her style--had for
+the last five years ruled the destinies of Prince Norina. Society had,
+however, agreed, perhaps for its own convenience, to regard their
+intimacy as mere good fellowship. The lady was looked upon as one of
+those giddy creatures who love to sport on the edge of an abyss. Mrs.
+Ferguson, the daughter of a hotel-keeper at San Francisco and wife of a
+man whose wealth increased daily, was the exact opposite to Madame de
+Gandry--white and pink, with large eyes and sharp little teeth, very
+slender and flat-figured like many Americans. She dyed her hair,
+rouged, dressed conspicuously, spoke eccentric English and detestable
+French, sang Judic's songs, and had been introduced to Roman society by
+the Marchese B---- who had met her at Nice. Her friendship with Madame
+de Gandry had begun on the strength of a landau they had hired between
+them, had culminated in an opera-box on the same terms, and would
+probably be destroyed by a lover--in common too.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A few gentlemen had also arrived: Count de Gandry, who looked like a
+hair-dresser and was suspected of carrying on a covert business as
+dealer in antiquities; M. Dieudonné Crespigny de Bellancourt, a
+square-built French diplomatist, the son of a butcher and son-in-law to
+a duke, etc., etc. The latest bankruptcy, the climate of Rome, the
+excavations, were all discussed. Madame de Gandry and Mrs. Ferguson
+submitted at first to the tedium of a general conversation, but
+contrived at the same time to attract as much of the men's attention as
+was possible under the circumstances. Soon after eleven the Countess
+Ilsenbergh came in; she had come from a grand dinner and looked bored
+to death.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It really is absurd how one meets every one in Rome,&quot; she said
+presently, when she had been questioned as to the how and where of the
+party she had just quitted. &quot;Who do you think I came across to-day,
+Marie?--That Lenz girl from Vienna; now she is a duchess or a Countess
+Montidor--Heaven knows which; once, years ago, I had something to do
+with a charity sale she got up, so now she comes up to me as if I were
+an old acquaintance and pretends to be intimate, talks of 'we
+Austrians,' and 'at home at Vienna.'--Amusing, rather?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poor Fritzi! I feel for you!&quot; exclaimed Sempaly with a malicious
+laugh. &quot;But there is a greater treat in store for you. The Sterzl
+women, mother and sister, are coming in a few days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed! that is pleasant certainly!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why?&quot; asked Madame de Gandry, throwing herself into the conversation.
+&quot;Are they objectionable people?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;By no means,&quot; said the countess quickly. &quot;I believe they are the most
+respectable people in the world, but--it is a bore to be constantly
+meeting people here whom one could not possibly recognize in Vienna.
+You should give him a hint, Nicki--tell him--explain to him....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To be sure,&quot; said Sempaly laughing, &quot;I might say: Look here, my good
+friend, beware of taking your mother and sister out anywhere; my cousin
+the countess would rather not meet them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess shrugged her shoulders and turned away from her flippant
+interlocutor, tapping her fan impatiently. &quot;Do you mean to receive them
+Marie?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Whom do I not receive?&quot; said the princess in an undertone, with a
+significant glance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well I cannot--decidedly not,&quot; said the countess excitedly, &quot;though I
+shall be grieved to annoy Sterzl. It will be his own fault entirely if
+he forces me to explain myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do as you think proper,&quot; replied her friend, &quot;but you know I am very
+fond of Sterzl; he stands high in my good graces.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! <i>le Paysan du Danube</i>?&quot; giggled Madame de Gandry, who had only
+partly understood the conversation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sterzl is a man of the highest respectability,&quot; said the countess
+icily; she did not intend to allow that little French woman to laugh at
+her fellow-countryman, though he was not a man of birth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>Le Paysan du Danube</i> is my particular friend,&quot; said the princess with
+the simple heartiness that was so peculiarly her own. &quot;I am very fond
+of him; he is quite one of ourselves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He can have no higher reward on earth,&quot; said her brother with
+good-humored irony.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;When my small boy fell and broke his arm, here in this very room,
+Sterzl picked him up, and you should have seen how gently he held my
+poor darling,&quot; added the princess.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is ample evidence in favor of the fact that his woman-kind are
+presentable,&quot; laughed Sempaly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But allow me to ask,&quot; interposed the Madame de Gandry, &quot;just that I
+may understand what I am about--these Sterzls, they are not in good
+society in Austria?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Our Austrian etiquette can afford no standpoint for foreign society,&quot;
+said Truyn with unusual sharpness, for he could not endure Madame de
+Gandry; &quot;we receive no one who is not by birth one of ourselves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; said Sempaly with a keen glance, &quot;Austrian society is as
+exclusive as the House of Israel, and scorns proselytes.&quot; And the
+leather-seller's daughter, who had not understood--or not chosen to
+understand Truyn's speech, replied with much presence of mind: &quot;Ah, I
+am glad to know what I am about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Siegburg, who was sitting behind her, glanced at Sempaly and made an
+expressive grimace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Princess Vulpini looked almost spiteful. &quot;I will not leave Sterzl in
+the lurch,&quot; she said, &quot;and if his sister is like his description of
+her....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He has talked to you about his sister?&quot; interrupted Sempaly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To be sure,&quot; said the princess with a smile, &quot;and to you too, I should
+not wonder, Nicki?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No indeed, he does not show me his sacred places, I am not worthy,&quot;
+replied Sempaly. &quot;He only told me that she was coming, and with a very
+singular smile. Hm, Hm! he seems to set great store by the young lady
+and will no doubt look out for a fine match for her. I should not
+wonder if he had got her here for that express purpose. Norina, take
+care of yourself--forewarned you know....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mademoiselle Sterzl will hardly aspire to a prince's crown!&quot; exclaimed
+Madame de Gandry, up in arms to defend her property.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sterzl will not let his sister go for less,&quot; asserted Sempaly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not talk such nonsense,&quot; said Truyn, to check Sempaly's audacity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Sempaly was leaning over a table and scribbling on the back of an
+old letter; presently he handed the half sheet to the Countess
+Ilsenbergh; Madame de Gandry peeped over her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Capital!&quot; she exclaimed, &quot;delicious!&quot; Sempaly had sketched Sterzl as
+an auctioneer, the hammer in one hand and a fashionably-dressed doll in
+the other, with all the Princes in Rome crowded round. In one corner he
+had written: &quot;This lot--Fräulein Sterzl--once, twice, thrice....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The sketch was handed round; the likeness of Sterzl was unmistakable.
+Soon after the Countess Ilsenbergh went away, and as the company were
+not in the best of humors the two friends also withdrew shortly after
+midnight followed by those gentlemen who had come in their train.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fritzi is really a victim to an <i>idée fixe</i>,&quot; the princess began when
+this indiscreet group had departed; &quot;she wants me to entrench myself in
+dignified reserve against this poor little thing. What harm can the
+child do me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot imagine,&quot; said Siegburg; &quot;indeed, if she is pretty and has
+some money, it strikes me I will marry her myself--that will set
+matters straight&quot; Siegburg was fond of talking of the money that his
+wife must bring him, and liked to air the selfishness of which he was
+innocent, as very rich folks sometimes make a parade of poverty.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And it was really very stupid of Fritzi to ventilate this idiotic
+nonsense before those two women,&quot; added the princess, who was apt to
+express herself strongly; but nothing that she said ever sounded badly,
+on the contrary, she lent a grace to whatever she said. &quot;Does she think
+she can make me turn exclusive!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I hope you observed how that pinchbeck countess was prepared to tread
+in her footsteps,&quot; said Seigburg.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Truyn meanwhile was hunting eagerly about the chimney-shelf and the
+tables, assisted by the master of the house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What are you looking for, Erich?&quot; asked his sister.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For that sketch of Sempaly's. I should not like to leave the thing
+about. Excuse me, Nicki, the caricature was capital, I have nothing to
+say against it, if it had only been among ourselves; but you really
+ought not to have shown it to strangers. You are so heedless, you do
+not think of what you are doing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what have I done now?&quot; asked Sempaly without any trace of
+annoyance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have simply stamped this young girl as an adventuress on the
+look-out for a husband.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pooh! as if so trifling a jest could be taken in earnest!&quot; said
+Sempaly. They searched everywhere for the caricature but in vain.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am convinced that wretched woman put it in her pocket!&quot; cried the
+princess indignantly. That wretched woman was of course Madame de
+Gandry.</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">It was true that Princess Vulpini was very fond of Sterzl, and he
+returned her regard with almost rapturous devotion. In spite of an
+unpolished and absent manner he had a vein of poetic chivalry and a
+pure reverence for true and lofty womanhood. He could not think it
+worth his while to offer to any woman that flattery--often impertinent
+enough in reality--that gratifies some of the sex, and he had never
+learnt the A B C of modern gallantry; but in his intercourse with those
+whom he spoke of as &quot;true women&quot; there was a touch of chivalrous
+protection and reserved deference. His behavior to them was so full of
+an old-fashioned courtesy that he was certain to win their favor; he
+treated them partly like children that must be cared for, and partly
+like sacred beings before whom we must bow the knee.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Immediately on his arrival in Rome the princess found great pleasure in
+their acquaintance, she confided to him all her little indignation at
+this or that grievance in Rome, and allowed him to take a variety of
+small cares off her shoulders, being, as all women of her soft nature
+are, very fastidious and utterly unpractical.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There had been few sweeter girls in the Vienna world than the Countess
+Marie Truyn in her day, and there was not now in all Rome a more
+lovable woman than the Princess Vulpini. When in the afternoons she
+drove out in her open carriage, with her four or five children that
+looked as though they had been stolen straight out of one of Kate
+Greenaway's picture books, along the Corso to the Villa Borghese, her
+fashionable acquaintance, who had brought out their most recent or most
+fashionable bosom-friend instead of their children, would exclaim:
+&quot;Here comes true happiness!&quot; And the men bowed to her with particular
+respect, eager to win the friendly and gracious smile that warmed all
+hearts like a ray of spring sunshine. She had never been a regular
+beauty and had early lost her youthful freshness and the slim figure
+that had been almost proverbial. Nevertheless her charm was
+undiminished; her chief ornament, a wonderful abundance of bright brown
+hair, was as fine as ever and she wore it still, as when a girl of
+sixteen, simply combed back and gathered into a knot low down at the
+back. In spite of her faded complexion there was a childlike sweetness
+in her small round face, with its kind little eyes, its delicate
+turned-up nose, and soft lips that had no beauty till they smiled. All
+her movements were simple and graceful and her whole appearance
+conveyed the impression of exquisite refinement and the loftiest
+womanliness. Her dress was apt to be a little out of fashion, the
+latest <i>chic</i> never suited her. She was a great reader, even of very
+solid books, especially affecting natural science; but she retained
+nevertheless the literal faith of her infancy, and this innocent
+orthodoxy was part and parcel of the simple fervency of her character.
+Sempaly, who was sincerely attached to her, always spoke of her devout
+piety as one of her most engaging qualities; he declared that a woman
+to be truly sympathetic must be religious; that a man may allow himself
+to profess free thought, but that a sceptical woman was as odious as a
+woman with a hump. To this observation, which Sempaly once threw out in
+the presence of Sterzl, Cecil took great exception, though he himself
+was as devoid of religious beliefs as Sempaly himself; he thought it
+impertinent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Men do not jest about the women whose names are sacred to them,&quot; he
+said with the pedantic chivalry, which always provoked his colleague's
+opposition. However, Sempaly only retorted with a sneering smile and a
+shrug.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">A few days after the evening when Sempaly had given such brilliant
+proof of his talent as a caricaturist, General von Klinger was sitting
+in his studio on a divan covered with a picturesque Persian rug and
+endeavoring--having for the moment nothing better to do--to teach his
+parrot to sing the Austrian anthem--a loyal task which the bird,
+perched on the top of its cage, persistently refused to learn. It was a
+gorgeous studio, with a coved ceiling painted in fresco and a <i>rococo</i>
+plaster cornice, the walls hung with old tapestry, eastern stuffs and
+other &quot;properties.&quot; It was so large that men looked like dwarfs in it,
+and the general's works of art like illustrations cut out of a picture
+book. The scirocco brooded in the atmosphere and the general was out of
+sorts; he could not get on with his painting, and though it was now a
+quarter to five not a visitor had he seen. Usually by this hour he had
+a number--nay sometimes too many. The general often grumbled--to
+himself of course--at the interruption; but he always enjoyed the
+little dissipation; it made him melancholy to be left to himself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was thinking just now how difficult it was to get on as a painter;
+his coloring was capital--so all his artist friends assured him; but
+that his drawing left much to be desired he himself confessed. His two
+strong points were a harmonious effect of grey tone and horses seen
+from behind. All his pictures returned to him from the exhibitions
+unsold, excepting one which was purchased by the emperor in
+consideration of the general's former merits as a soldier rather than
+of his talents as an artist. The painters who came to smoke his
+cigarettes accounted for this by saying that his artistic aims were too
+independent, that he made no concessions to public taste and so could
+not hope for popularity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was in the very act of whistling the national anthem for the
+sixteenth time to the recalcitrant bird, when he heard a knock at the
+door; he rose to open it and Sempaly came in. He had called to inform
+the general that he had discovered a very fine though much damaged
+piece of tapestry in a convent, and had bought it for a mere song; he
+had in fact purchased it for the general because he knew that it was
+just such a specimen as he had long wished for. &quot;But if you do not care
+to take it I shall be very glad to keep it,&quot; he added. No one had the
+art of doing an obliging thing with a better grace than he; it was one
+of his little accomplishments.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When they had settled their business Sempaly broke into loud
+lamentations that he was obliged to dine that day at the British
+embassy, and then to dance at the French ambassador's, and raved about
+the ideal life led by his friend--he only wished he could lead such a
+life--in which there were no evening parties, routs, balls or dinners.
+Next he wandered round the room looking at all the studies that hid
+their faces against the wall. &quot;Charming!&quot; &quot;Superb!&quot; he kept exclaiming
+in French, with his Austrian accent, from a sheer impulse to say
+something pleasant--he always tried to make himself pleasant. &quot;Why do
+not you work that thing up?&quot; he said at length, pointing to a sketch on
+canvas of a group of bashibazouks.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It might sell,&quot; replied the artist whose great difficulty always lay
+in the 'working up,' &quot;but you know I am independent in my aims, I set
+my face against making concessions to the vulgar; I must work on my own
+principles and not to pander to the public.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly smiled at this profession of faith.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As it is a mere whim with you ever to sell at all,&quot; he answered, &quot;my
+advice is that you should never attempt it, but leave all your works to
+the nation, so that we may have a <i>Musée Wierz</i> at Vienna.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The general assured him that he was quite in earnest in his desire to
+sell his pictures, but Sempaly smiled knowingly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There was once upon a time,&quot; he began, &quot;a cobbler who was a man of
+genius, but he prided himself on his sense of beauty and his artistic
+convictions, and he heeded not the requirements of his customers--he
+would make nothing but Greek sandals. He died a beggar, but happy in
+the consciousness of never having made a concession to the vulgar.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The general was on the point of making an indignant reply to this
+malicious anecdote, when the loud rap was again heard which seems to be
+traditional at a studio door; it is supposed to be necessary to arouse
+the artist from his absorption in his work. The general went to admit
+his visitor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a small ante-room between the studio and the stairs. The door
+was no sooner opened than in flitted a slender creature, fair and
+blooming, tall, slim, and bewitchingly pretty, in a dark dress and a
+sealskin jacket.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What, you Zinka!&quot; cried the old general delightedly. &quot;This is a
+surprise! How long have you been in Rome?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only since this morning,&quot; answered a gay voice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And are you alone?&quot; asked the artist in astonishment, as Zinka shut
+the door and went forward into the atelier.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, quite alone,&quot; she said calmly. &quot;I left the maid at home; she and
+mamma are fast asleep, resting after their journey. I came alone in a
+carriage--it was very nice of me do not you think?--Why, what a face to
+make!... And why have you not given me a kiss. Uncle Klinger?&quot; She
+stood before him bright and confident, her head a little thrown back,
+her hands in a tiny muff, gazing at him with surprise in her frank grey
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear Zinka....&quot; the general began--for, like all conscientious old
+gentlemen with romantic memories, he was desperately punctilious as to
+the proprieties when any lady in whom he took an interest was
+implicated, &quot;I am charmed, delighted to see you.... But in a strange
+place, where you know no one, and in a strange house where....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, now I understand,&quot; cried the girl. &quot;It is not proper!... I shall
+live to be a hundred before I know exactly what is proper; it is very
+odd, but Uncle Sterzl used always to say that it was of no use to worry
+about it; that if people were ladies and gentlemen everything was
+proper, and if they were not why it was all the same. But he did not
+know what he was talking about, it would seem!&quot; and she turned sharply
+on her heel and made for the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, my dear Zinka,&quot; cried the general holding her back, &quot;tell me at
+least where you are living before you whisk off like a whirlwind. Do
+not be so utterly unreasonable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am perfectly reasonable,&quot; she retorted. She was both embarrassed
+and angry; her cheeks were scarlet and her eyes full of tears. &quot;It
+never would have occurred to me certainly that there was anything
+improper in calling on an old gentleman,&quot; and she emphasized the words
+quite viciously, &quot;in his studio. Oh, the vanity of men! Who can
+foresee its limits!--But I am perfectly reasonable, I acknowledge my
+mistake--simpleton that I am!... And I have been looking forward all
+day to taking you by surprise. I meant to ask you to dine with us at
+the Hotel de l'Europe and to come with me first to the Pincio to see
+the sunset. And these are the thanks I get!... Do not trouble yourself
+to get your hat, it is waste of trouble; I do not want you now.
+Good-bye.&quot; And she flew off, her head in the air, without looking back
+once at the general who dutifully escorted her to the carriage.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man came back much crest-fallen. A voice greeted him
+cheerfully:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite in disgrace, general!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was Sempaly, who had witnessed the whole scene from a recess, and
+whom the general had entirely forgotten.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So it seems,&quot; said he shortly, beginning to scrape his palette.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But tell me who is this despotic little princess?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who? My god-daughter, Zinka Sterzl.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">Thunderbolts are out of date, no one believes in them now-a-days;
+nevertheless it is a fact, which Sempaly himself never contradicted,
+that he fell in love with Zinka at first sight. And when a few days
+after Zinka's irruption into the general's studio the old gentleman
+accepted an invitation to dine with the Baroness Sterzl at the Hotel de
+l'Europe, on entering the room he found, eagerly employed in looking
+over a quantity of photographs with the young lady--Count Sempaly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The two gentlemen were the only guests, and yet--or perhaps in
+consequence--the little party was as gay and pleasant as was possible
+with so affected and formal a hostess as the &quot;Baroness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This lady, a narrow and perverse soul as ever lived, was the very
+essence of vanity and affectation. She imagined--Heaven alone knows on
+what grounds--that the general had formerly loved her hopelessly, and
+she always treated him accordingly with a consideration that was
+intolerably irritating. She had made great strides in the airs of
+refinement since she and the general had last met--at a time before
+she, or rather her children, had become rich through an advantageous
+sale of part of their land, and this of course added to the charms of
+her society. She was perpetually complaining in a tone of feeble
+elegance--the sleeping-carriages were intolerable, the seats were so
+badly stuffed, Rome was so dirty, the hotels were so bad, the
+conveyances so miserable; she brought in the names of all the
+aristocratic acquaintances they had made at Nice, at Meran, and at
+Biarritz, and asked--the next day being a saint's day--which church was
+fit to go to. The vehement old general answered hotly that &quot;God was in
+them all.&quot; But Sempaly informed her with the politest gravity that
+Cardinal X---- read mass in the morning at St. Peter's and that the
+music was splendid. &quot;I advise you to try St. Peter's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed, is St. Peter's possible on a saint's day?&quot; she asked. &quot;The
+company is usually so mixed in those large churches.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The general fairly blushed for her follies on her children's account.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you forgiven me, Zinka?&quot; he said to change the conversation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As if I had time to trouble myself about your strait-laced
+proprieties!&quot; exclaimed she, coloring slightly; she evidently did not
+like this allusion to her little indiscretion: &quot;I have something much
+worse to think about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why--what is the matter, sweetheart?&quot; asked her brother, who took
+everything seriously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have lost something,&quot; she said in a tone of deep melancholy which
+evidently covered some jest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not a four-leaved shamrock or a medal blessed by the pope?&quot; asked the
+general.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no! something much more important.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your purse!&quot; exclaimed the baroness hastily. But Zinka burst out
+laughing. &quot;No, no, something much greater--you will never guess: Rome.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">On which Sterzl, who could never make out what his fascinating little
+sister would be at, only said: &quot;That is beyond me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Sempaly was sympathetic. &quot;I see you are terribly disappointed,&quot; he
+said, and Zinka went on like a person accustomed to be listened to.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, ever since I could think at all I have dreamed of Rome and longed
+to see it. My Rome was a suburb of Heaven, but this Rome is a suburb of
+Paris. My Rome was glorious and this Rome is simply hideous.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not be flippant, Zinka,&quot; said the general, who always upheld
+traditional worship.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, as a city Rome is really very ugly,&quot; interposed her brother, &quot;it
+is more interesting as a museum of antiquities with life-size
+illustrations. Still, you do not know it yet. You have seen nothing as
+yet....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But lodgings, you mean,&quot; retorted Zinka, casting down her eyes with
+sanctimonious sauciness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is dreadful!&quot; the baroness began, &quot;we have been here five days and
+cannot find an apartment fit to live in. Wherever we go there is some
+drawback; the stairs are too dark, or the entrance is bad, or there is
+only one door to the salon, or the servants' rooms....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But my dear Zinka,&quot; interrupted the general, &quot;if you really have seen
+nothing of Rome excepting the lodgings in the Corso, of course....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! but I have seen something else,&quot; cried Zinka, &quot;indeed, I know my
+way about Rome very well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In your dreams?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I went yesterday; mamma had a sick headache.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! those headaches!&quot; sighed the baroness putting her salts to her
+nose, &quot;I am a perfect martyr to them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">To have sick headaches and be a strict Catholic were marks of good
+style in the baroness's estimation. Sempaly put on a sympathetic
+expression, but returned at once to the subject in hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I know Rome very well,&quot; Zinka went on: &quot;You have only to ask the
+driver of the street cab No. 1203, and he will tell you. I drove about
+with him for three hours yesterday. You see, to have been in Rome a
+whole week and to have seen nothing but furnished lodgings was really
+too bad, so I took advantage of the opportunity when mamma was in bed;
+I slipped out--you need not make that face, Uncle, I took the maid with
+me--we meant to walk everywhere with a map. Of course we lost our way,
+<i>cela va sans dire</i>, and as we were standing helpless, each holding the
+map by a corner, a driver signed to us--so, with his first finger. In
+we got and he asked us where we wished to go, but as I had no answer
+ready he said with the most paternal air: 'Ah! the signora wants to see
+Rome--good, I will show her Rome!' And he set off, round and round and
+in and out, all through the city. I was positively giddy with this
+waltz round all the sights of Rome. He showed me a perfect forest of
+fallen pillars, with images of gods and fragments of sculpture
+carefully heaped round them, like Christmas boxes for lovers of
+antiquities--'the <i>Campo Vaccino</i>,' he called it--I believe it was the
+Forum; then he pointed out the palace of Beatrice Cenci, the Jews'
+quarter, the Theatre of Marcellus, the Temple of Vesta; and every time
+he showed me anything he added: 'Now am I not a capital guide? Many a
+driver would only take you from place to place, and what would you see?
+Nothing ... a heap of stones ... but I tell you: that is the Colisseum,
+and this is the Portico of Octavia, and then the stones have some
+meaning.' And at last he set me down at the door of the hotel and said
+quite seriously: 'Now the signora has seen Rome.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They were now at dessert; the baroness looked anything rather than
+pleased.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Allow me to request,&quot; she said, &quot;that for the future in the first
+place you will not make friends with a common driver and in the second,
+that you will not drive about Rome in a <i>Botta</i> (a one horse carriage);
+it is not at all the thing. You have no sense of fitness whatever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka, who was both sensitive and spoilt, colored.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let her be, mother, why should she not learn a little Italian and ride
+in a <i>Botta</i>? said Sterzl, who rubbed his mother the wrong way from
+morning till night. Sempaly took prompt advantage of the situation to
+whisper to Zinka:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot promise to be as good company as your <i>Botta</i> driver, but if
+you will allow me, I will do my best to help you to find the Rome you
+have lost.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you sure you know your way about?&quot; asked the girl with frank
+incivility.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am the <i>laquais de place</i> of the Embassy I assure you,&quot; replied
+Sempaly laughing; &quot;my only serious occupation consists in showing
+strangers the sights of Rome.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After this the evening passed gaily; the baroness made a few idiotic
+speeches but Sempaly forbore to be ironical; he was on his very best
+behavior, and the baroness was quite taken in by his elaborate reserve.
+Not so Sterzl, who was himself too painfully alive to her aristocratic
+airs and pretensions. However, the society of his sister, whom he
+adored, had put him into the best of humors; he launched forth a few
+bitter epigrams against the priesthood, and was satirical about the
+society of Rome, but Zinka stopped him every time with some engaging
+nonsense, and in listening to her chatter he forgot his bitterness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At last he asked her to sing a Moravian popular song; she seated
+herself at the hotel piano and began. There was something mystical in
+the low veiled tones of her voice like an echo of the past, as she sang
+the melancholy, dreamy strains of her native land. Sterzl, who always
+yawned all through an opera, listened to her singing, his head resting
+on his hand, in a sort of ecstasy. In Sempaly too, who in spite of his
+Hungarian name was by birth a Moravian, Zinka's simple melody roused
+the half-choked echoes of his youth, and when she ceased he thanked her
+with genuine feeling.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka's was an April weather nature. After bringing the tears into the
+eyes of her hearers, nay into her own, with her song, she suddenly
+struck up an air by Lecocq that she had heard Judic sing at Nice. The
+words, as was perfectly evident to all the party, were Hebrew to the
+girl, but the baroness was beside herself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Zinka!&quot; she exclaimed in extreme consternation, &quot;you really are
+incredible--what must these gentlemen think of you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not be in the least uneasy,&quot; said the general. But Zinka stopped
+short; her face was pale and quivering; Sterzl interposed:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is often a little difficult to follow my sister's vagaries,&quot; he
+said turning to Sempaly; then he tenderly stroked her golden head with
+his large, firm hand, saying: &quot;Do not be unhappy, sweetheart; but you
+are a little too much of a goose for your age.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When presently Sempaly had quitted the hotel with the general his first
+words were: &quot;Tell me, how is it that with such a fool of a mother that
+child has remained so angelically fresh--so <i>Botticelli</i>?&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">A mine somewhere in Poland or Bohemia came to grief about this time by
+some accidental visitation, and five hundred families were left
+destitute through the disaster. Of course the opportunity was
+immediately seized upon for charitable dissipations, for qualifying for
+Orders of Merit by liberal donations, and for attracting the eyes of
+Europe by the most extravagant display of philanthropy. After much
+deliberation Countess Ilsenbergh had arrived at the conviction that, as
+both the ambassadors' families were hindered by mourning from giving
+any public entertainment, the duty of taking the lead devolved upon
+her. The rooms in her Palazzo were made on purpose for grand
+festivities, and after endless discussion it was decided that the
+entertainment should be dramatic. An Operetta, a <i>Proverbe</i> by Musset,
+and a series of <i>Tableaux Vivants</i> were finally put in rehearsal and a
+collection was to be made after the performance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame de Gandry threw herself into the undertaking with the most
+commendable ardor. She was on intimate terms with the leading spirits
+at the Villa Medici--the French Academy of Arts at Rome--and she
+interested herself in the painting of the scenes, and in the artistic
+designing of the dresses in which she proved invaluable. Up to a
+certain point all went smoothly. The operetta--an unpublished effort of
+course--by a Russian amateur of rank who was very proud of not even
+knowing his notes, was soon cast. It needed only three performers and
+led up to the introduction of an elaborate masquerade and of certain
+suggestive French songs. Mrs. Ferguson, who never let slip an
+opportunity of powdering her hair and sticking on patches, was to sing
+the soprano part; Crespigny took that of a husband or a guardian in a
+nightcap or flowered dressing-gown, and a young French painter, M.
+Barillat, who was at all times equally ready to sketch or to wear a
+becoming costume, was to fill that of the lover. The cast of the little
+French play was equally satisfactory; but when the arrangement of the
+tableaux came to be considered difficulties arose. In the first place
+all the ladies were eager to display their charms under the becoming
+light of a tableau vivant; and the number of volunteers was quite
+bewildering to the committee of management that met every day at the
+Ilsenberghs' house. Then squabbles and dissatisfaction arose; the
+ladies did not approve of the choice of subjects, they thought their
+dresses unbecoming, their positions disadvantageous; each one to whom a
+place at the side was assigned was deeply aggrieved; an unappreciated
+beauty who prided herself on her profile from the left would not for
+worlds be seen from the right, etc., etc. And above all--an insuperable
+difficulty--almost all the available men of the set manifested the
+greatest objection to 'making themselves ridiculous' and positively
+rejected the most flattering blandishments of the ladies' committee.
+Sempaly, who had been asked to appear as a Roman emperor, would not
+hear of putting on flesh-colored tights and a wreath of vine; and Truyn
+had shrugged his shoulders at the proposal that he should don a wig
+with long curls.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Siegburg--little Siegburg, as he was always called, though he was
+nearly six feet high--after defending himself with considerable humor,
+good-naturedly agreed to stand as <i>Pierrot</i>, in a Watteau scene in
+which the Vulpini children were to appear; and Sterzl, being personally
+requested by his ambassador, submitted, though with an ill grace, to be
+the executioner in Delaroche's picture of Lady Jane Grey. This tableau
+was to be the crowning glory of the performance; Barillat had taken
+infinitely more pains with it than with any other; the part of Lady
+Jane was to be filled by a fair English girl, Lady Henrietta Stair; and
+then, within a few days of the performance, Lady Henrietta fell ill of
+the measles.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The committee were in despair when this news reached them, and all who
+were concerned in the performance were summoned to meet at the Palazzo
+that evening to talk the matter over. Hardly any one was absent; only
+Sterzl, who detested the whole charity scramble, as he called it, sent
+his excuses. Every lady present expected to find herself called upon to
+stand--or rather to kneel--as Lady Jane Grey; but Mrs. Ferguson was the
+first to give utterance to the thought, and to offer herself heroically
+as Lady Henrietta's substitute. To the astonishment of all the company
+Sempaly, whose interest in the work of benevolence had hitherto
+displayed itself only in satirical remarks, and suggestions as to the
+representation of Makart's 'entrance of Charles V.' or of Siemiradzky's
+'living torches,' took an eager part in the discussion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your self-sacrifice, Mrs. Ferguson,&quot; said he, &quot;is more admirable every
+day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dear me,&quot; replied the lady innocently, &quot;where is the self-sacrifice in
+having an old gown cut up into a historical costume?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That, indeed, would be no sacrifice,&quot; said Sempaly coolly. &quot;But it
+must be a sacrifice for a lady to appear in a part that suits her so
+remarkably ill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Mrs. Ferguson smiled rather like some pretty little wild beast showing
+its teeth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah!&quot; she said, &quot;I suppose you think I have none of that pathetic grace
+that M. Barillat is so fond of talking about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No more than of saving grace,&quot; said Sempaly solemnly. Then, while the
+women were disputing over the matter, he found an opportunity of
+whispering a few words to Barillat; Barillat looked up delighted. At
+this moment they were joined by Countess Ilsenbergh.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have another suggestion to offer Madame la Comtesse; I have thought
+of some one....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Some newly-imported American,&quot; laughed Madame de Gandry, &quot;or a
+painter's model with studied grace and yellow hair?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You may rest assured that I should not for an instant think of
+proposing to employ a model,&quot; Barillat emphatically declared; &quot;no, the
+lady in question is a very charming person: Fräulein Sterzl. I saw her
+the day before yesterday at Lady Julia Ellis's; she is an Austrian--you
+must know her surely?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have not that pleasure,&quot; said the countess drily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do not think she will do?&quot; murmured the artist abashed. The
+countess cleared her throat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Bless me!&quot; cried Madame de Gandry furious at the pride of her Austrian
+friend, &quot;you take the matter really too much in earnest. Why on earth
+should not the girl act with us? On these occasions, in Vienna, as I
+have been informed, even actors are invited to help.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is quite different,&quot; said the countess.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame de Gandry shrugged her shoulders and turned away and the
+countess beckoned to her cousin Sempaly. &quot;I am heartily sick of the
+whole business,&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;At home I have got this sort of thing
+up a score of times, and everything has gone well ... while here....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, there is more method among us,&quot; replied Sempaly sympathetically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The people here are so unmanageable; every one wants to play the best
+parts,&quot; said the countess.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is the result of the republican element,&quot; observed Sempaly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And now there is all this difficulty about the Lady Jane Grey
+tableau,&quot; sighed the countess. &quot;Why need that English girl take the
+measles now, just when she is wanted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The English are always so inconsiderate,&quot; said Sempaly gravely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you happen to have met this little Sterzl girl?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What does she look like?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, she looks like a very pretty girl....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And besides that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Besides that she looks very much like our own girls; it is really a
+most extraordinary freak of nature! She seems to be very presentable on
+further acquaintance; Princess Vulpini is quite in love with her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed!--Well, Barillat is possessed with the idea of having her to
+play the part of Lady Jane Grey and in Heaven's name let him have his
+own way!&quot; cried the countess. &quot;If Marie Vulpini will bring her here I
+will make the best of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What, you mean to say that you will let her figure in your tableau and
+not invite her mother?&quot; laughed Sempaly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Invite her!--to the performance of course. I invite Tom, Dick, and
+Harry, and all the English parsons and all the foreign artists.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And all their families. Fritzi, you are an admirable woman!&quot; retorted
+Sempaly ironically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But the rehearsals are so perfectly intimate,&quot; she murmured. Time
+pressed however. &quot;Well, have it so for all I care;&quot; said the countess
+resignedly and next morning she paid a polite call on the Baroness
+Sterzl to request Zinka's assistance; and as she had as much tact as
+pride she had soon reconciled not only Zinka, but her sensitive
+thin-skinned brother, to the fact that the young girl had only been
+asked at the last moment and under the pressure of necessity to take
+part in the performance. Cecil did not altogether like the idea of
+displaying his pretty sister in a tableau and only consented because he
+did not like to deprive Zinka of the pleasure which she looked forward
+to with great delight. He adored the child and could refuse her
+nothing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The evening of the festival arrived; the performances took place in a
+vast room almost lined with mirrors and lighted by wonderful Venetian
+chandeliers that hung from the decorated ceiling where frescoes were
+framed in tasteless gilt scroll work. In spite of its size the room was
+crowded; the most illustrious of the company sat in solitary dignity in
+the front row, and behind them was packed a fashionable but somewhat
+mixed crowd. Manly forms of consummate elegance were squeezed against
+the walls, and the assembly sparkled like a sea of sheeny silks and
+glittering jewels. Princess Vulpini, who was helping the countess to do
+the honors, hovered on the margin, graceful and kindly, but a little
+pale and tired, and the countess herself reigned supreme in that regal
+dignity which she could so becomingly assume on fitting occasions.
+There were very few women who could wear a diamond coronet with such
+good grace as Fritzi Ilsenbergh--even her intractable cousin Sempaly
+did her that much justice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The great success of the evening was not the little French play, in
+which Madame de Gandry and the all-accomplished Barillat made and
+parried their hits after the accepted methods of the <i>Théatre
+Français</i>; it was not the operetta, in which Mrs. Ferguson looked
+bewitchingly pretty and sang '<i>le Sentier convert</i>' to admiration; it
+was not even the children's tableau, in which the little Vulpinis
+looked like a bunch of freshly-gathered roses; the great success of the
+evening was the tableau of Lady Jane Grey. Sterzl's face in this scene
+was a perfect tragedy, all the misery of an executioner who adores his
+victim was legible there. And Zinka!--gazing up to heaven with ecstatic
+pathos, her whole attitude expressive of sacred resignation and
+childlike awe, she was the very embodiment of the hapless and innocent
+being before whom the executioner lowers his gaze. A string quartet
+played the <i>allegretto</i> from Beethoven's seventh symphony and the
+melancholy music heightened the effect of the poetical tableau,
+thrilling the audience like a lullaby sung by angels to soothe the
+struggling, suffering human soul.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The whole artistic corps who had been invited from the Villa Medici,
+with the director at their head, unanimously decided that this
+performance far excelled all that had gone before, and Countess
+Ilsenbergh forgot in its success all the annoyance it had occasioned
+her. After the collection, which produced a magnificent sum, most of
+the company dispersed. Ilsenbergh, with his most feudal smile,
+expressed his thanks to all the performers in turn and presented
+elegant bouquets to the ladies. The entertainment lost its formal
+character and became a social gathering.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka was sitting in a side room, surrounded by a host of young Romans
+and Frenchmen. As she was one of those rare natures who derive not the
+smallest satisfaction from the homage of men for whom they have no
+regard, she listened to their enthusiastic compliments with absolute
+indifference.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had asked for an ice and Norina had offered it to her on his knees,
+remaining in that position to pour out a string of high-flown
+compliments. Zinka, unaccustomed to this Southern effusiveness, was
+remonstrating with some annoyance but without the slightest effect,
+when Sempaly came in and exclaimed in the abrupt tone he commonly used
+to younger men: &quot;Get up, Norina, do you not see that your devotion is
+not appreciated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The prince rose with a scowl, Sempaly drew a seat to Zinka's side and
+in five minutes had, as usual, entirely monopolized her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My cousin the countess owes everything to you,&quot; he said in his most
+musical tones; &quot;you saved the whole thing. I detest all amateur
+performances, but that tableau of Lady Jane Grey was really beautiful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I liked the French play very much. Madame de Gandry's acting was full
+of spirit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Bah! I have had more than enough of such spirit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed!&quot; laughed she, &quot;it seems to me that you are suffering from
+general weariness of life. You are blasé.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do you understand by being blasé?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, that exhaustion of heart and soul which comes of the fatigue
+produced by a life of perpetual enjoyment; it is I believe an essential
+element in the character of a man of fashion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Something between a malady and an affectation,&quot; remarked Sempaly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just so; in short, to be blasé is the heartsickness of a fop.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly glanced at her keenly. &quot;Your definition is admirable,&quot; he said,
+&quot;I will make a note of it; but the cap does not fit me. I am not blasé,
+I am not indifferent to anything. Shams, hypocrisy, and
+meretriciousness irritate me, but when I meet with anything really good
+or lovely or genuine I can recognize it and admire it--more perhaps
+than most men.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile the winner of the musical prize from the Villa Medici had sat
+down to the piano and plunged straightway out of a maundering
+improvisation into a waltz by Strauss. The countess had no objection if
+they liked to dance, and several couples were soon spinning under the
+flaring candles.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly rose: &quot;May I have the honor?&quot; he said to Zinka, and they went
+together into the dancing-room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka had the pretty peculiarity of turning pale rather than red as she
+danced; her movements were not sprightly, but gliding and dreamy; in
+fact she waltzed with uncommon grace. Sempaly had long since lost the
+subaltern's delight in a dance; he only asked ladies who had some
+special interest or charm for him, and every one knew it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hm!&quot; said Siegburg, shaking his head as he went up to General von
+Klinger who was watching the graceful couple from a recess, &quot;my little
+game has come to nothing it seems to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you retired then?&quot; asked the general.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;By no means--quite the contrary; but my chances are small enough at
+present I fancy; what do you say?&quot; He looked straight into the old
+man's eyes; he understood and said nothing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She dances beautifully, I never saw a girl dance better. How well she
+holds her head,&quot; he murmured. Suddenly a flash of amusement lighted up
+his eyes. &quot;Look at Fritzi's face!&quot; he exclaimed: &quot;What a horrified
+expression! a perfect Niobe.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly's intimacy with the Sterzls grew daily; he did the honors of
+Rome to Zinka, and dined with them as a fourth two or three times a
+week. After the tableaux at the Ilsenberghs' Zinka was asked
+everywhere; all the men were at her feet, and all the ladies wanted to
+learn her songs. The men she treated with the utmost indifference and
+to the ladies she was always obliging, particularly to those whom no
+one else would take the pains to be civil to, all of which greatly
+added to her popularity. Truyn's little girl--a spoilt, shy thing, who
+quarrelled with her maid three times a week regularly and insisted on
+learning everything from Latin to water-color drawing, though she would
+submit to no teacher but her father, perfectly worshipped Zinka and to
+her was as docile as a lamb. Princess Vulpini was delighted at her
+influence on her little niece and declared that Zinka was a real
+treasure; and Lady Julia Ellis, who had made the young girl's
+acquaintance two years since at Meran, was proud to take her out.
+Whenever the baroness could not go the English lady was always ready to
+chaperon Zinka, and when Lady Julia was 'at home' Zinka had to help her
+to receive her guests and to make tea.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Countess Schalingen, a Canoness devoted to painting, full of
+sentimentality and romance, whose ideas had not yet got beyond
+Winterhalter, called Zinka 'quite delicious,' took her on excursions,
+dragged her to all the curiosity-dealers, and finally painted her
+portrait on a handscreen for Princess Vulpini--her head and shoulders
+in gauzy drapery coming out of a lily. Before the end of a fortnight a
+rich American had enquired about her rank and extraction, and the
+handsome Crespigny had learnt all about her fortune. Norina paid his
+court to her when his tyrant's back was turned and Mrs. Ferguson did
+her the honor of being madly jealous.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But all this did not turn her head, it did not seem even to astonish
+her; she had always been spoilt and wherever she had gone she had found
+friends and admirers. When people were kind to her she was delighted,
+but she would have been much more astonished if they had not been kind.
+Sempaly had called her &quot;<i>a Botticelli</i>,&quot; but the word was only
+applicable to her mind; in appearance she had none of the ascetic grace
+of the pre-Raphaelites. She was more like the crayon figures of Latour,
+or that typical beauty of the eighteenth century, la Lamballe. She had
+not the bloom of pink and white, but was pale, even in her youthful
+freshness with soft shadows under her eyes; and her hair, which was
+thick and waved naturally had reddish lights in the brown. A tender
+down softened its outline on her temples without shading her forehead,
+and gave her face a look of peculiar innocence. She was slight but not
+angular, her arms were long and thin, her hands small and sometimes
+red. Her moods varied between dreamy thoughtfulness and saucy high
+spirits, her gait was usually free and light but occasionally a little
+awkward, &quot;like an angel with its wings clipped,&quot; Sempaly said. She had
+a low veiled voice in speaking that reminded one of the vibrating tones
+of an Amati violin. She was as wild as a boy, as graceful as a water
+nixie, and as innocent as a child--with the crude innocence of a girl
+who has been brought up chiefly by men--and all her ideas had the stamp
+of dreamy seclusion and fervid sentiment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had had French and English governesses and had even been to school
+in a convent for a year; still, the ruling influence in her life had
+been that of her guardian. General Sterzl--an eccentric being with an
+intense horror of sentimental school-friendships and of the
+conventional propriety that comes of too early familiarity with the
+world. It was to him that Zinka owed the one good word which Countess
+Ilsenbergh spoke in her favor:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;One thing must be admitted; she is not affected, she is as natural as
+one of our own girls.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poor Coralie!&quot; the baroness would frequently exclaim, &quot;what a pity
+that she is not here; what a treat it would be for her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; Sterzl would answer in his dry way, &quot;she was in too great a
+hurry.&quot; And the baroness would cast her eyes up to heaven.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Coralie was her eldest and favorite daughter. Disappointed in her
+love of some hard-hearted gentleman she had renounced the vanities of
+the world some three years since, but--like her mother's worthy
+daughter--even in the depth of her disappointment and despair she had
+taken care to choose a convent where the recluses were divided into
+ladies and sisters, where the children who came to school there played
+hide and seek under a French name, and where being a boarder was called
+being <i>en pension</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poor Coralie!&quot; the baroness would sigh; and then seating herself at
+her writing-table she would scribble endless letters about the delights
+of a residence at Rome to all her friends in Austria, and especially to
+her sister, the Baroness Wolnitzka.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Baroness Sterzl was a typical specimen of a class of nobility peculiar
+to Austria, and called there, Heaven knows why, &quot;the onion nobility&quot;
+(zwiebelnoblesse). It is a circle that may be described as a branch
+concern of the best society; a half-blood relation; a mixture of the
+elements that have been sifted out of the upper aristocracy and of the
+parvenus from below, who find that they can be reciprocally useful; a
+circle in which almost every man is a baron, and every woman, without
+exception, is a baroness. Its members are for the most part poor, but
+refined beyond expression. The mothers scold their children in bad
+French and talk to their friends in fashionable slang; they give
+parties, at which there is nothing to eat--but the family plate is
+displayed, and where the company always consists of the same old
+bachelors who dye their hair and know the <i>Almanack de Gotha</i> by heart.
+Everyone is well informed about the doings of the world--how many
+shifts Minnie N. had in her trousseau, why the engagement between Fritz
+O. and Lori P. was broken off, and much more to the same effect. Of
+late years the 'onion-nobility,' with various other offshoots of the
+higher culture, has been swamped by the advance of the liberals, that
+is to say, by the progress of the financial classes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Only a year since the baroness herself had stood on the stairs of the
+opera-house to watch the occupants of the grand tier--at that time
+appropriated to the cream of the aristocracy--to take note of
+aristocratic dresses, and to hear aristocratic nothings from
+aristocratic lips. Now, in Rome, she was living in the whirl of
+society. Her satisfaction knew no bounds, and she made daily progress
+in exclusiveness; the Countess Ilsenbergh, as compared to her, was a
+mere bungler. But she was never so amusing to watch as when she met
+some fellow-countrymen of untitled rank. It happened that this winter
+there was in Rome a certain Herr Brauer, an old simpleton with a very
+handsome wife who laid herself open for the admiration of all the young
+men of any pretensions. Being furnished with a few letters of
+introduction he and his fascinating partner disported themselves very
+contentedly in the outer circle--the suburbs, so to speak--of good
+society without having a suspicion how far they were from the centre.
+Baroness Sterzl could never cease wondering &quot;how those people could be
+tolerated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was always well dressed, she gave capital little dinners, she had
+the neatest coupé and the most comfortable landau, and her coachman had
+the cleanest shaved imperial face and the smartest livery in Rome. Her
+manners were somewhat changeable, since she was constantly endeavoring
+to appropriate the airs and graces of the most fashionable women she
+met. She was extremely unpopular and consequently bored to death
+wherever she went; she was never quite easy as to her footing in
+society and lived in the discomfort of a person who is always trying to
+walk on tiptoe.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her sole unqualified pleasure during this period--which, however, she
+always spoke of as the happiest of her life--was the writing of the
+above-mentioned letters home, and especially as has been said, to her
+sister the Baroness Wolnitzka in Bohemia.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She craved a public to witness her success and, like all mean natures,
+she knew no greater joy than that of exciting envy; she would often
+read these epistles to Zinka, for she was very proud of her wordy
+style. Zinka was somewhat disturbed by these flowery compositions which
+always ended with these words: &quot;What a pity it is that you should not
+be here. It would give us the greatest pleasure to have you with us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Take care, mamma,&quot; said the girl, &quot;they will take you at your word and
+descend upon us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What are you dreaming of?&quot; said the baroness folding her letter with
+the utmost philosophy; &quot;they have no money.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Hovels deep sunk in the ground, moss-grown thatched roofs, here and
+there an old lime-tree or a tall pear-tree with crabbed branches
+standing out black and bare against the wintry sky, slimy puddles, a
+pond full to the brim in which three forlorn-looking geese are sadly
+paddling, a swampy road along which a procession of ploughs are
+splashing their way at the heels of the muddy, unkempt teams--in short,
+a Bohemian village, with a shabby manor-house beyond. Over the
+tumble-down gate-way, with a pigsty on one side and a dog-kennel
+on the other, hangs a coat of arms. The mansion--a square house
+with a steep shingle roof--stands, according to the unromantic custom
+of the country, with one side looking on to the farm-yard; and the
+drawing-room windows open exactly over an enormous dung heap which a
+party of women are in the very act of turning with pitch-forks,
+under the superintendence of a short stout man in a weather-beaten
+hunting-hat and shooting-coat with padded silk sleeves out of which the
+wadding is peeping at a hundred holes. He is smoking a pipe with a
+china bowl decorated with a mincing odalisque. His face is broad and
+red, his ears purple, and his aspect is anything rather than
+aristocratic as he stands giggling and jesting with the damsels of the
+steaming midden.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This is Baron Wolnitzky, a man who, like a good many others, got
+himself a good deal talked about in 1848 and then vanished from the
+scene without leaving a trace behind.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Often when we see some dry and barren tree shedding its sere and mouldy
+leaves in the autumn we find it hard to believe that it bore blossoms
+in the spring; and the baron was like such a tree. In the spring-tide
+of 1848--an over-teeming spring throughout Europe--his soul too had
+blossomed. He had had patriotic visions and had uttered them in rhyme,
+and his country had hailed him as a prophet--perhaps because it needed
+an idol, or perhaps because in those agitated times it could not tell
+black from white. In those days he had displayed himself in a
+magnificent national costume with sleeves of the most elaborate cut,
+had married a patriotic wife who always dressed in the Slav colors:
+blue, white, and red, and who got two young men, also dressed in Slav
+costume, to mount guard at the door of her house. He was descended from
+a Polish family that had immigrated many generations since and his
+connections were as far as possible from being aristocratic, while he
+owed his little fortune entirely to his father who had put no 'baron'
+before his name, and who had earned it honestly as a master baker. In
+feudal times it would hardly have occurred to him to furbish up this
+very doubtful patent of nobility; but in the era of liberty it might
+pass muster and prove useful. A very shy pedigree serves to shed glory
+on a democratic martyr.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">During the insurrection of June he fled with his wife in picturesque
+disguise; at first to Dresden, and then to Switzerland where he lived
+for some time in a boarding-house at Geneva, receiving homage as a
+political refugee, and horrifying the mistress by his enormous
+appetite. At length he returned to Bohemia where the events of
+forty-eight and its picturesquely aparelled leaders had fallen
+into oblivion. He retired to his little estate and turned
+philosopher--philosophy, ever since the days of Diogenes, has been the
+acknowledged refuge of shipwrecked hopes and pretensions.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There he went out walking in his shirt sleeves, played cards with the
+peasants and grew more vulgar, fatter, and hungrier every day; and if
+he ever had an idea it was unintentionally, in a bad dream after eating
+too much of some national delicacy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His wife, a robust and worthy soul, though full of absurdities, bore a
+strong resemblance to the mother of the Regent Orleans in as much as
+she had a sound understanding combined with a very sentimental nature,
+was utterly devoid of tact, bitter to the verge of cynicism, thoroughly
+indiscreet and a great chatterbox.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She resigned herself without demur to the new order of things and
+brought a new tribe of children into the world, most of whom died
+young. Three survived; two sons, who so far broke through the
+traditions of the family as to become infantry officers, and one
+daughter, in whom patriotic romance once more flickered into
+fanaticism. This girl had been christened Bohuslawa, a name which was
+commonly shortened into Slawa, which in the more important dialects of
+the Slav tongue means Fame. She, like her mother, was of stalwart
+build, but her features were regular though statuesque and heavy--she
+was said to be like the Apollo Belvedere. She had already had four
+suitors but neither of them had met her views and now at twenty--having
+been born in forty-eight--she was spending the winter, unmarried and
+sorely discontented, in the country, where she occupied herself with
+serious studies and accepted the attentions of a needy young Pole who
+was devoted to her and in whom she condescended to take some slight
+interest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Baron Wolnitzky is still standing by the midden; the great black
+dog, which till this moment has never ceased barking at the door of his
+kennel, now, to introduce some variety into the programme, jumps on to
+its roof, from which advantageous standpoint he still barks without
+pause. Everything is dripping from the recently-thawed snow, and the
+air is full of the splash and gurgle of dropping and trickling water;
+the grey February twilight sinks upon the world and everything looks
+dingy and soaked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A sound of creaking wheels is heard approaching, and a dung-cart
+appears in the gate-way.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, what is going on in the town?&quot; says the baron to the man who
+comes up to him, wrapped in an evil-smelling sheepskin and with the
+ears of his fur cap tied under his chin, to kiss his master's elbow.
+&quot;Have you brought the newspapers?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, your Grace, my Lord Baron,&quot; says the man, &quot;and a letter too.&quot; And
+he draws a packet tied up in a red and white handkerchief out of a
+pocket in his sheepskin. The baron looks at the documents. &quot;Another
+letter from Rome already,&quot; he mutters, grinning; &quot;I must take it in at
+once that the women may have something to talk about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The women, that is to say his wife and daughter, were sitting in the
+dining-room at a long table covered with a flowered cloth, on which
+stood the tea things, a paraffine lamp, and a breadbasket of dull
+silver filagree work. The lamp was smoking and the table looked as
+uncomfortable and dingy as the village outside, half-buried in manure.
+The baroness, in a tan-colored loose gown, in which she looked squarer
+than ever, without a cap, her thin grey hair cut short, was hunting for
+the tenth time to-day, on and under every article of furniture, for the
+key of the storeroom. Bohuslawa, meanwhile sat still, with a volume of
+Mickiewicz in her hand, out of which she was reading aloud in rather
+stumbling Polish, with a harsh voice. A young man with a sharp-cut
+sallow face and long black hair, in a Polish braided coat, wide collar
+and olive-coloured satin cravat, corrected her pronunciation now and
+then. He was her Polish adorer. He was one of that familiar species,
+the teacher of languages with a romance in the background; he lived in
+the neighouring town and came every Saturday to the village, four
+railway stations off, to instruct Bohuslawa in Polish and spend Sunday
+with the family.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When the union of these two patriots--which had already been secretly
+discussed--was to take place, depended on a mysterious law-suit that
+the young Pole was carrying on against the Russian government. His name
+was Vladimir de Matuschowsky, his grandmother had been a Potocka, and
+when he was not giving lessons, he was meditating conspiracies.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is there nothing else for tea?&quot; asked the baron, casting a doubtful
+eye on the stale-looking rolls in the bread-basket.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, the dogs have eaten up the cakes,&quot; replied the baroness coolly.
+She was at the moment on all-fours under the piano, hunting for the key
+behind the pedal.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will get an apoplexy,&quot; said Bohuslawa crossly but without anxiety,
+and without making the smallest attempt to assist the old lady. But at
+this instant a housemaid came in with the sought-for key on a bent and
+copper-colored britannia-metal waiter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, thank Heaven!&quot; cried the baroness, &quot;where was the wretched thing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In the dog kennel,--your grace, my lady baroness, the puppy had
+dragged it there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In her love for dogs again the baroness resembled the Duchess of
+Orleans; she always had a litter of half a dozen puppies to bring up,
+and the kennel was a well-known hiding place for everything that could
+not be found in its right place.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The little rascals!&quot; she exclaimed, with an admiring laugh at the
+ingenious perversity of her mischievous pets. &quot;Bring the sugar then,
+Clara.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have a surprise for you,&quot; growled her husband, &quot;a letter from Rome,&quot;
+and he produced the document, with its mixed odors of patchouli and
+damp sheepskin, and pushed it across to his wife, while he took up the
+rum bottle to flavor his tea.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;From Rome!&quot; exclaimed the baroness, &quot;that is delightful. Where, oh
+where are my spectacles?&quot; And she felt and patted herself all over till
+the superfluous substance shook like a jelly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, here they are--I am sitting on them--now then, children,&quot; and she
+began to read the letter aloud.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dear Lotti, you must not take it ill that I so seldom write to
+you&quot;--the baroness looked up over her spectacles--&quot;so seldom!... she
+never in her life wrote to me so often as from Rome&quot;--&quot;but you cannot
+imagine the turmoil in which we live. A dinner-party every day, two
+evening parties and a ball. We are spending the carnival with the
+<i>crême de la crême</i> of Roman society. To-morrow we dine with Princess
+Vulpini--she was a Truyn and is the sister of Truyn of R. The next day
+we have theatricals, etc., etc. Zinka is an immense success. Nicki
+Sempaly among others--the brother of Prince Sempaly, the great landed
+proprietor--is very attentive to her....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Here she was interrupted by her husband. &quot;Well, I never thought the old
+goose was quite such a simpleton!&quot; he exclaimed, drumming his fingers
+angrily on the red and white flowered cloth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot imagine how Clotilde allows it!&quot; cried the baroness--&quot;and
+still less do I understand Cecil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Take my advice, Lotti, go to Rome,&quot; observed the baron ironically; &quot;go
+and set their heads straight on their shoulders.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With the greatest pleasure,&quot; replied his wife, taking his irony quite
+seriously, &quot;but unfortunately we have not the money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then she read the letter to the end; like all Clotilde's epistles it
+ended with the words; &quot;What a pity it is that you should not be here
+too; it would give us the greatest pleasure to have you with us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Tea was done; the maid servant cleared the table with a great clatter
+of cups and spoons, the baron retired to play <i>Bulka</i> with his
+neighbors in the village inn-parlor; the three who were left sat in
+meditative mood.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I must confess that I should like to go to Rome,&quot; said the baroness,
+as she swept the crumbs off her lap on to the floor, &quot;and it would be
+pleasant, too, to have relations there--for their grand acquaintance I
+own I do not care a straw.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not see why we should avoid all society if we were there,&quot;
+exclaimed Slawa hotly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, you could do as you liked about it, of course,&quot; said the
+baroness, who held her daughter in the deepest respect, &quot;I could stay
+at home; you see, my dear Vladimir,&quot; she added almost condescendingly
+to her son-in-law <i>in spe</i>, &quot;I am uncomfortable in any company where I
+cannot get into my slippers in the evening....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mamma!&quot; cried her daughter beside herself, &quot;you really are!...&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baroness sat abashed and silent--no one spoke. There was not a
+sound in the room but the crackling of the fire in the huge tiled stove
+and the snoring of the big hunting-dog that lay sleeping on the tail of
+his mistress's skirt.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If we only could sell the Bernini!&quot; murmured the baroness presently,
+resuming the thread of their conversation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Bernini was a bust of Apollo that the baroness had inherited from
+her mother's family--said to be an adaptation by Bernini from the head
+of the Apollo Belvedere. Whenever the Wolnitzkys were in any financial
+straits the Bernini was packed off to some dealer in objects of
+<i>vertu</i>, from which excursions it invariably returned unsold. Not many
+days previously the travelled Apollo--he had seen New York, London, and
+St. Petersburg--had come home from a visit to Meyer of Berlin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;By the bye, Vladimir, you have not seen it yet,&quot; said Slawa, &quot;I must
+show you the bust.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is it the head that is said to be so strikingly like you?--that will
+interest me greatly,&quot; said the young Pole, casting an adoring eye on
+Slawa.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Bring the lamp, the bust is in the drawing-room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Vladimir, carrying the lamp, led the way into the drawing-room, a
+large, scantily-furnished room which was never dusted more than once a
+month. There, on a marble plinth in a corner, stood the radiant god--a
+copy from the Belvedere Apollo no doubt--but by Bernini...?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The likeness is extraordinary!&quot; cried Vladimir ecstatically, and
+gazing alternately at the bust and at Slawa. &quot;Oh, it is a gem, a
+masterpiece! you ought never to part with it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, but I must say I should very much like to go to Rome,&quot; sighed
+the baroness; but Slawa only bit her lips.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what shall we do to-morrow?&quot; Sempaly would ask Zinka almost every
+evening when he met her, fresh and smiling, at some party; he had made
+it his task to help her to find her lost Rome and devoted himself to it
+with praiseworthy diligence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The disappointment that she had experienced in her expedition under the
+guidance of the <i>botta</i> driver to the ruins of the capital of the
+Caesars is a common enough phenomenon; it comes over almost everyone
+who sets out with his fancy crammed with the mystical cobwebs that
+recent literature has spun round the name of Rome, to see for the first
+time that dense mass of splendor and rubbish among the bare modern
+houses. And the disappointment is greatest in those who come from a
+long stay in Venice or Verona. Rome has none of the seductive charm of
+those North Italian cities. Its architecture is sombre and heavy, and
+the prevailing hues in winter are a sober grey and a dull bluish-green,
+more suggestive of a subtly toned tempera picture than of a glowing oil
+painting. It is vain to look for the sheen of the shimmering lagoons or
+the fantastic outline of the campaniles against the sky of Venice; for
+the half-ruined frescoes, or amber sunshine of Verona.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;After the cities of North Italy Rome has the effect of a severe choral
+by Handel after a nocturne by Chopin. The first impression is
+crushing,&quot; said Sempaly to Zinka; &quot;but one wearies of the nocturne, and
+never of the choral.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">To which Zinka replied: &quot;But the choral is so drowned by trivial
+hurdy-gurdy tunes that I find it very difficult to follow.&quot; To which he
+laughed and said: &quot;We will speak of that again in a fortnight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">By the end of the fortnight Zinka had thrown two <i>soldi</i> into the
+Fountain of Trevi to make sure that she should some day see Rome again,
+and in fanaticism for Rome she outdid even the fanatical General von
+Klinger. Sempaly had contributed mainly to her conversion. Nothing
+could be more amusing or more interesting than to explore every nook of
+the city of ruins under his escort. He was constantly remembering this
+or that wonderful thing that he must positively show to Zinka. An
+artistic bas-relief that had been built to some queer orange-colored
+house above a tobacconist's, or a heathen divinity which had had wings
+attached to its shoulders to qualify it for admission as an angel into
+a Christian church. He rode out with her into the Campagna, and pointed
+out all the most picturesque parts of the Trastevere, and he could find
+a ridiculous suggestion even in the most reverend things. The halls of
+the Vatican in which the liberal minded Vicars of Christ have granted a
+refuge to the pensioners of antiquity, he called the Poor-house of the
+gods; and always spoke of St. Peter's, which is commonly known as <i>la
+Parocchia dei Forestieri</i>, as the Papal Grand Hotel. There was not a
+fountain, a fragment of sculpture, or a picturesque heap of ruins of
+which he could not relate some history, comic or pathetic, or he
+invented one; but he never produced the impression that he was giving a
+lecture. He had in fact a particularly unpretending way of telling an
+appropriate and not too lengthy anecdote; he never handed it round on a
+waiter, as it were, for examination, but let it drop quietly out of his
+pocket. His knowledge of art was but shallow, but his feeling for it,
+like all his instincts, was amazingly keen. His information on all
+subjects was miscellaneous and slender, not an article of his
+intellectual wardrobe--as Charles Lamb has it--was whole; but he draped
+himself in the rags with audacious grace and made no attempt to hide
+the holes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Truyn and his little daughter often joined them in these expeditions,
+and sometimes Cecil, but only when his mother did not choose to go out,
+and his demeanor on these occasions--'peripatetic æsthetics' he called
+their walks--was highly characteristic. He would walk by the side of
+his sister and Sempaly, or a few steps behind them, sunk in silence but
+always sharply observant. From time to time he would correct their
+cicerone in his dates, which Sempaly took with sublime indifference and
+for which--taking off his hat--he invariably thanked him with princely
+courtesy. Sterzl only sympathized with the classical style of the
+Renaissance; the real antiques which Zinka raved about he smiled at as
+caricatures; Guido on the other hand--for whom Sempaly had a weakness,
+as a Chopin among painters--Sterzl detested. He declared that the
+Beatrice Cenci had a cold wet bandage on her head, and that the picture
+was nothing more than a study apparently made from an idiot in a
+mad-house. When Zinka talked of her favorite antiques or other works in
+the mystical and sentimental slang of the clique, he laughed at her,
+but quite good-naturedly. He scorned all extravagance and raptures as
+cant and affectation. Still he was merciful to his sister, and when she
+turned from a Francia with tears in her eyes, or turned pale as she
+quoted Shelley, or spoke of Leonardo's Medusa in Florence, he did no
+more than shrug his shoulders and say: &quot;Zinka, you are crazy,&quot; or
+gently pull her by the ear. Everything in Zinka was right, even her
+want of sound common sense.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baroness had at last found a lodging, almost to her mind: a small
+palazzo in a side street, off the Corso, &quot;furnished in atrocious taste,
+but otherwise very nice.&quot; The palazetto was in fact a gem in its way,
+with a simple and elegant stone front and a court surrounded by a
+colonnade with red camellia shrubs and a fountain in the midst. There
+were several much injured antique statues too, one of which was a
+famous and very beautiful Amazon at whose feet a rose-bush bloomed
+profusely. This Amazon struck Zinka as remarkably picturesque and she
+sketched her from every point of view without ever reading the warning
+in her sad face. Alas! Zinka had gazed at the sun and it had blinded
+her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But how could Cecil allow this daily-growing intimacy between Sempaly
+and his sister? Sempaly's elder brother, Prince Sempaly, had been
+married ten years and was childless, so the attaché, as heir
+presumptive, was in duty bound to make a brilliant marriage. Did not
+Sterzl know this? Yes, he knew it, but he did not trouble his head
+about it. He was under no illusion as to the singularity, not to say
+the improbability of Sempaly marrying a girl of inferior birth; he had
+no desire that it should be otherwise. He was no democrat; on the
+contrary, his was a particularly conservative and old world nature,
+equally remote from cringing or from envy. That Sempaly should marry
+any other girl not his equal in rank would have struck him as
+altogether wrong, but Zinka--Zinka was different. He worshipped her as
+only a strong elder brother call worship a much younger weaker sister
+and there was no social elevation of which he deemed her unworthy. And
+when he saw Sempaly smile down so tenderly and at the same time so
+respectfully on his 'butterfly,' as he called her, he was rejoiced at
+her good fortune and never for an instant doubted it Zinka was not
+sentimental. For a long time there was no tinge of any feeling stronger
+than good fellowship in her intercourse with Sempaly; her talk was all
+fun, her glance saucy and wilful. By degrees, however, a change came
+over her; her whole manner softened, there was a gentle dreaminess even
+in her caprice and when she smiled it was often with tears in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly was not regular in his visits to the palazetto; sometimes for
+two or three days he failed to appear, then he would call very
+early--at noon perhaps, join the family unceremoniously at their
+breakfast, go out driving with the ladies, accept an invitation to stay
+to dinner, and if Zinka was looking pale or out of spirits, he would
+pay her fifty kind little attentions to conjure a smile to her lips.
+Occasionally he would fall into the melancholy vein and talk of his
+loveless youth, and let her pity him for it. He would tell her about
+his elder brother, praising his many noble qualities, and then add with
+a shrug: &quot;Yes, he is a splendid fellow, but ... he has ideas!&quot; When
+Zinka asked what sort of ideas, Sempaly sighed: &quot;I hope you may some
+day know him and then you can judge for yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But this was in a low tone and he seemed to regret having said it. Then
+he would frequently allude to this or that picture in his brother's
+house at Vienna, or to some curious family relic, and say how much he
+should like some day to show it to Zinka. His favorite theme, however,
+was Erzburg, the old castle which for numberless generations had been
+the family summer-retreat of the Sempalys and of which he was
+passionately fond. Excepting as regards this estate he was singularly
+free from all false or family pride; he declared that his brother's
+Vienna palace was an unhealthy barrack, scouted at the Sempaly breed of
+horses, laughed at the Sempaly nose, and praised the traditional
+Sempaly tokay more in irony than in good faith--but then he came round
+to Erzburg again and simply raved about it Not about the oriental
+luxury with which part of the castle was fitted up--not in the best
+taste--of that he never spoke; indeed, he said more about its
+deficiencies than its perfections, but in a tone of such loving excuse!
+He talked of the large bare rooms where, for years, he had watched for
+the apparition of the white lady, half longing, half dreading to see
+her; of the doleful groaning of the weather-cock of the <i>rococo</i>
+statues in the grounds, and of the gloomy pools with their low sad
+murmur, and their carpet of white waterlilies. The statues were bad,
+the pools unhealthy he admitted, and yet, as he said it, his usually
+mocking glance was soft and almost devout Once, when Zinka had grown
+quite dismal over his reminiscences, he took her hand and pressed it
+tenderly to his lips: &quot;You must see Erzburg some day,&quot; he murmured.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His behavior to her was that of a man who is perfectly clear as to his
+own intentions but who for some reason is not immediately free to sue
+for the hand of a girl whom in his heart of hearts he already regards
+as his own. What did he mean by all this? What was he thinking of? I
+believe absolutely nothing. He went with the tide. There are many men
+like him, selfish, luxurious natures who swim with the stream of life
+and never attempt to steer; they have for the most part happy tempers,
+they are content with any harbor so long as they reach it without
+effort or damage, and if in their passive course they run down any one
+else they exclaim with their usual amiable politeness: &quot;Oh! I beg your
+pardon!&quot; and are quite satisfied that the mishap was due to fate and
+not to any fault of theirs.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">It was in the end of February, shortly before the close of the
+carnival. Truyn, going to the Sterzls' with his little girl to take a
+walk with Zinka, saw at the door of the palazetto a hackney carriage
+with a small portmanteau on the top. Sterzl's man-servant, an elegant
+person with close-cut hair, shaved all but a short beard, and wearing
+an impressive watch-chain, was condescending to exchange a few words
+with the driver blinking in the sunshine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The drawing-room into which Truyn and his daughter were admitted
+unannounced was in the full blaze of light. The motes danced their
+aimless rainbow-colored dance; in the middle of the room stood Zinka
+with both hands on a table over which she was bending to gaze at a
+magnificent basket of flowers. There was something in her attitude,
+quaint but graceful, in the elegant line of her bust, the pathetic joy
+of her radiant face, the soft flow of her plain long dress, which
+stamped the picture once and for ever on Truyn's memory. A sunbeam
+wantoned in her hair turning it to gold and her whole figure was the
+embodiment of sweet and happy spring delight The basket of flowers,
+too, was a masterpiece of its kind--a <i>capriccio</i> of lilies of the
+valley, gardenias, snow-flakes, and pale-tinted roses, that looked as
+though the wayward west-wind had blown them into company. Sterzl was
+standing by, with a pleased smile, and the baroness, in an attitude of
+affected astonishment, stood a little apart with a visiting-card in her
+hand. Neither Cecil nor his sister--she absorbed in the flowers and he
+in gazing at her--had heard Truyn arrive. When he knocked at the door
+the baroness said &quot;come in,&quot; and gave him the tips of her fingers;
+then, with a wave of her hand towards the basket, she lisped out: &quot;Did
+you ever see such extravagance!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka looked up and welcomed him and so did Sterzl. &quot;It is perfect
+folly ... quite reckless....&quot; sighed the baroness, &quot;such a basket of
+flowers costs a fortune. Why, only one gardenia....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka's underlip pouted impatiently and Sterzl said in his dry way:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear mother, do not destroy Zinka's illusions; the basket fell from
+heaven expressly for her and she does not want to believe that it was
+bought, just like any other, in the Via Condotti or Babuino. What do
+you say, Count? Sempaly sent it to her to console her for the departure
+of her brother. The reason is too absurd, do not you think? I do not
+believe you would miss me particularly for a few days, child?&quot; and he
+put his hand affectionately under her chin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where are you off to so suddenly?&quot; asked Truyn very seriously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To Naples. Franz Arnsperg has telegraphed to me to ask me to meet him
+there; he is on his way to Paris from Constantinople, and he is a great
+friend of mine and has come by way of Naples on purpose that we may
+meet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The Arnsperg-Meiringens; you know their property adjoins ours,&quot; the
+baroness explained. Sterzl, who knew very well that Truyn was far
+better informed as to the Arnsperg-Meiringens than his mother, was
+annoyed and uncomfortable. However, he kissed her hand and then turned
+to his sister:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God shield you, my darling butterfly--write me a few lines, or is that
+too much to ask?&quot; Then he kissed her and whispered: &quot;Mind you have not
+lost those bright eyes by the time I return.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Truyn accompanied him to the carriage with a very long face; he and
+General von Klinger had watched Sempaly's conduct with much
+disquietude, they knew him to be susceptible but not impressionable,
+alive to every new emotion; and Truyn would ere this have spoken to
+Sempaly on the subject if he had not been sure that it would merely
+provoke and irritate him without producing any good effect; the
+general, on the other hand, could not make up his mind to open Sterzl's
+eyes to the state of affairs because, like Baron Stockmar, he had an
+invincible dislike to interfering in matters that did not concern him.
+Like that famous man, not for worlds would he have committed an
+indiscretion to save a friend for whom he would have sacrificed his
+life; and this terror of being indiscreet is a form of cowardice which
+is considered meritorious in the fashionable world.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">It is Shrove Tuesday. The sorriest jade of the wretchedest <i>botta</i> has
+a paper rose stuck behind his ear, though during the hours sacred to
+the carnival they are pariahs and outcasts from the Corso. Two-horse
+carriages are dressed in garlands and the horses have plumes on their
+heads. The Piazza di Spagna is alive with pedlars and hawkers, selling
+flowers and little tapers (<i>moccoli</i>), and with buyers of every nation
+doing their best to cheapen them. Baskets full of violets, roses,
+anemones, snowflakes--baskets full of indescribable bunches of
+greenery--the ammunition of the mob which have already done duty for
+two or three days and are like nothing on earth but the wisps of rushes
+with which the boards are rubbed in some parts of Austria. The sellers
+of coral and tortoise-shell cry out to you to buy--&quot;<i>e carnevale</i>....&quot;
+and in the side streets--for misery dares not show its head in the main
+thoroughfares to-day--the beggars crowd more closely than ever round
+the pedestrian with their perpetual cry: &quot;<i>muojo di fame</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The houses on the Corso wear their gay carnival trappings to-day for
+the last time. A smart dress flutters on every balcony, several stands
+have been erected and all the window-sills are covered, some with
+colored chintz and some with gold brocade. All Thursday, Saturday, and
+Monday Zinka and Gabrielle had driven unweariedly up and down the Corso
+with Count Truyn, flinging flowers at all their acquaintances and at a
+good many strangers. To-day, however, they had agreed to look on from
+the windows of the Palazzo Vulpini, for the close of the carnival is
+apt to be somewhat riotous. Every one who lives on the Corso seizes the
+opportunity of paying long owing debts of civility and offers a place
+in a window to as many friends as can possibly be squeezed in.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a large party at the Vulpinis', for the most part Italians
+and relations of the prince's. Madame de Gandry and Mrs. Ferguson had
+invited themselves, and Zinka, with Gabrielle Truyn, was to see the
+turmoil in the Corso from the balcony of the palazzo. The baroness had
+&quot;tic douloureux&quot; which kept her at home,--and which no one regretted.
+At six o'clock, before the beginning of the <i>moccoli</i>, all the company
+were to go to the '<i>Falcone</i>,' a well-known and especially Roman
+restaurant where they would dine more comfortably and easily than at
+home. From thence they were to adjourn to the <i>Teatro Costanzi</i>. Prince
+Vulpini had drawn up this thoroughly carnival programme for the special
+benefit of the Countess Schalingen who had a passion for &quot;local color,&quot;
+and who was enchanted. The princess was resigned; local color had no
+interest for her and she was somewhat prejudiced against Italian native
+dishes and masked festivities of all kinds.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was three o'clock. Baskets of flowers and whole heaps of sweet
+little sugar-plum boxes were ready piled in the windows for ammunition.
+The little Vulpinis, who entirely filled the large centre window, and
+their shy English governess in her black gown, had just come into
+the room, skipping about and pulling each other's hair for sheer
+impatience and excitement; and when their governess reproved them for
+behaving so roughly &quot;<i>ma è carnevale</i>&quot; is thought sufficient excuse;
+the company laughed and the English girl said no more. All the party
+had assembled. Madame de Gandry and Mrs. Ferguson were both looking
+pretty and picturesque; the former had stuck on a fez, and the other a
+quaintly-folded handkerchief of oriental stuff, in honor of the
+carnival, when eccentricity of costume is admissible and conventional
+head-gear are contemned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">From the windows down to the carriages, from the carriages up to the
+windows the war was eagerly waged; bunches of flowers, and bonbonnières
+from Spillman's and Nazzari's fly in all directions and scraps of
+colored paper fall like snow through the air. Then the blare and pipe
+of a military band came up from the Piazza di Venezia and the maskers
+crowded in among the carriages. One of the liveliest groups along the
+Corso was certainly that where the Vulpini children were grouped, with
+Zinka in their midst, she having undertaken the charge of them at their
+own earnest entreaty. She and Gabrielle were both laughing with glee,
+but at the height of their fun they remembered to pay all sorts of
+little civilities to the half-scared English governess and had stuck a
+splendid bunch of lilies of the valley in front of her camphor-scented
+black silk dress. What especially interested the children was watching
+for Norina's carriage, for they not only recognized the prince who was
+driving, but knew all his party: Truyn, Siegburg, Sempaly, and as it
+passed with its four bays the little Vulpinis jumped with delight and
+chirped and piped like a tree full of birds; the gentlemen waved their
+hands, smiled, and gallantly aimed bouquets without end at the windows
+of the palazzo. But all the finest flowers that day were, beyond a
+doubt, aimed at Zinka. The floor all round her was heaped with
+snowflakes, and violets, and roses. In her hand she had caught a huge
+bunch of roses flung up to her by Sempaly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, oh!&quot; cried Madame de Gandry, retiring from the window to rest for
+a few minutes and refresh herself with a sip of wine. &quot;Ah,
+mademoiselle!&quot; glancing enviously at the mass of blossoms strewn round
+Zinka, &quot;you have as many bouquets as a prima donna!&quot; Zinka nodded;
+then, contemplating her hat, which she had thrown off in her
+excitement, with a whimsical air of regret and pulling the feather
+straight she said with a mockery of repentance:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My poor hat will be glad to rest on Ash Wednesday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is perfect, Marie, really perfect, this Roman carnival--a thing
+never to be forgotten!&quot; exclaimed the Countess Schalingen, coming in
+from the window. She was a genuine Austrian, always ready to go into
+ecstasies of enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is horrid,&quot; answered the princess impatiently. &quot;Under the new
+government it is nothing but an amusement for the strangers and street
+boys.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The <i>Barberi</i> have rushed past, and the procession has once more begun
+to move on but its interest and excitement are over; the crowd in the
+road begins to thin, and Sempaly, Truyn, Norina, Siegburg, and the
+general have come in, as agreed, to escort the ladies to the 'Falcone,'
+The children have all been kissed and sent off to their dinner at home;
+Gabrielle somewhat ill-pleased at not being allowed to go with the
+elder party and Truyn himself not liking to part with his little
+companion. Zinka wishes to comfort Gabrielle by remaining with the
+little ones, but this was not to be heard of.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only too many of us would wish to follow your example,&quot; whispers
+Princess Vulpini, to whom this dinner at a Roman restaurant is
+detestable.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They are to go on foot, but they are so long getting ready after this
+little delay that the one peaceful half-hour before the <i>moccoli</i> is
+lost; by the time they sally into the street the crowd, which had
+dispersed, is getting denser every minute. The darkness comes on
+rapidly, like a grey curtain let down suddenly from the skies; the
+gaudy hangings are being taken in from the windows lest they should
+catch fire; the carnival is putting on its ball-dress. Now the first
+twinkling tapers are seen here and there, like glow-worms in the dusk,
+and are instantly pelted with <i>mazetti</i> and bunches of greenery, mostly
+picked up from the pavement &quot;<i>Fuori! fuori!</i>&quot; is the monotonous cry on
+every side, and presently: &quot;<i>senza moccolo, vergogna!</i>&quot;--the death
+cries of the carnival.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Austrian gentlemen find their position anything rather than
+pleasant, for it is impossible to protect the ladies effectually
+against being jostled and pushed, still less against hearing much rough
+jesting. At last they are out of the Corso and have divided in the
+narrow streets; some having turned into the Via Maddalena, while others
+have crossed the Piazza Capranica to the Piazza della Rotunda; but at
+last they are all met after various small adventures at the
+'<i>Falcone</i>.' The ladies' toilets have suffered a little and Princess
+Vulpini looks very unhappy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The '<i>Falcone</i>' is a very unpretending restaurant where the waiters
+wear white jackets; the tariff is moderate and the <i>risotto</i>
+celebrated. Vulpini orders a thoroughly Italian dinner in an upper
+room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly Truyn exclaims in dismay: &quot;What has become of Zinka and
+Sempaly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They have lingered talking on the way,&quot; says Madame de Gandry with
+pinched lips as she leans back in her chair and pulls off her gloves.
+&quot;People always walk slowly when they have so much to say to each
+other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Truyn frowned. &quot;I am afraid they have got entangled in the crowd and
+have not been able to make their way out. I have hated this expedition
+from the first. I cannot imagine, Marie, what could have put such a
+plan into your head....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mine!&quot; says his sister in an undertone and with a meaning glance. But
+she says no more. He knows perfectly well that she is as innocent of
+the scheme as the angels in heaven.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, what on earth is the matter?&quot; asks Vulpini pouring huge
+quantities of grated cheese into his soup, while Mrs. Ferguson
+complains that she is dying of hunger, which is singular, considering
+the enormous number of bonbons she has eaten in the course of the day.
+Madame de Gandry asks for a series of French dishes which the
+'<i>Falcone</i>' has never heard of Countess Schalingen is loud in her
+praises of the Italian cookery and is only sorry that she has no
+appetite.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Truyn and the general sat gazing at the door in growing anxiety; Zinka
+and Sempaly do not make their appearance--Truyn can hardly conceal his
+alarm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I certainly cannot understand what you are so uneasy about,&quot; says
+Madame de Gandry with a perfidious smile; &quot;if Fräulein Zinka has been
+mobbed and hindered Sempaly is in the same predicament and will take
+good care of her. If she were with any one less trustworthy, less
+competent, with whom she was less intimate ... then I could
+understand....&quot; Truyn passes his hand over his grey hair in extreme
+perplexity and mutters in his mother tongue: &quot;This woman will be the
+death of me!&quot; and then he again blames his sister.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Yet another quarter of an hour; though the waiters are not nimble they
+have got to the dessert and still no signs of Sempaly and Zinka.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am beginning to feel very anxious,&quot; says Marie. &quot;I only hope the
+child has not fainted in the crowd.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame de Gandry makes a meaning grimace. &quot;It is perhaps the cleverest
+thing she could have done,&quot; she says. Truyn hears and bites his lip.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The door just now opens and Zinka and Sempaly come in; she calm and
+sweet, he dark and scowling.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank God!&quot; cries Truyn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What in the world has happened?&quot; asks the princess, while Truyn draws
+a chair to the table for Zinka, next to himself. &quot;What has happened?&quot;
+repeated Sempaly. &quot;The most obvious thing in the world. We got into the
+thick of the mob and could not get through.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot understand how that should have occurred,&quot; says Madame de
+Gandry. &quot;We all came through.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You may perhaps recollect that we were the last of the party,
+countess; we had hardly gone twenty yards when the crowd had become
+a compact mass, we pressed on, determined to get through at any
+cost--alone I could have managed it--but with a lady--suddenly we were
+in the thick of a furious squabble--curses, blows, and knives. I cannot
+tell you how miserable I was at finding myself out in the street with a
+lady--a young girl....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fräulein Sterzl seems to take it all much more coolly than you do.
+Count Sempaly,&quot; interposes Madame de Gandry spitefully; &quot;she does not
+appear to have been at all terrified by the adventure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fräulein Zinka was very brave,&quot; replied Sempaly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Goodness me! what was there to be afraid of;&quot; says Zinka with the
+simplicity of childish innocence. &quot;The responsibility was Count
+Sempaly's not mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The French woman laughs sharply. &quot;We must be moving now,&quot; she says, &quot;if
+we mean to go to Costanzi's,&quot; and there is a clatter of chairs and a
+little scene of confusion in which no one can find the right shawl or
+wrap for each lady.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Princess Vulpini makes no attempt to move: &quot;I am going nowhere else
+this evening,&quot; she says with unwonted determination. &quot;I will not take
+Zinka to Constanzi's. I will wait till she has eaten her beef-steak and
+then I will take her home. I hope you will all enjoy yourselves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka eats her beef-steak with the greatest calmness and an
+unmistakably good appetite; she is perfectly sweet and docile and
+natural; she has no suspicion that her name will to-morrow morning be
+in every mouth. Truyn is as pale as death; he has heard Madame de
+Gandry's whisper to her friend: &quot;After this he must make her an offer.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>PART II.</h2>
+
+<h3>LENT.</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am glad to have found you,&quot; cried Truyn next morning as he entered
+Sempaly's room in the Palazzo di Venezia, and discovered him sipping
+his coffee after his late breakfast, with a book in his hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am delighted that you should for once have taken the trouble to
+climb up to me. I must show you my Francia--the dealer who sold it to
+me declares it is a Francia. But you look worried. What has brought you
+here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I only wanted to know--to ask you whether you will drive out to
+Frascati with us to-day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To Frascati!--This afternoon? What an idea!&quot; exclaimed Sempaly; &quot;and
+in any case I cannot join you for I am going to the Palatine at three
+o'clock with the Sterzls.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes?&quot; said Truyn looking uncommonly grave.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;May I offer you a cup of coffee?&quot; asked Sempaly coolly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No thank you,&quot; replied Truyn shortly. He was evidently uneasy, and
+began examining the odds and ends at the table to give himself
+countenance; by accident he took up the book that Sempaly had been
+reading when he came in. It was Charles Lamb's Essays, and on the first
+page was written in a large, firm hand: &quot;In friendly remembrance of a
+terrible quarrel, Zinka Sterzl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The child lost a bet with me not long since,&quot; Sempaly explained.
+&quot;Another bet is still unsettled and is to be decided to-day at the
+Palatine.&quot; Truyn shut the book sharply and threw it down; then, setting
+his elbows on the table at which they were sitting, and fixing his eyes
+keenly on Sempaly's face he said:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you intend to marry Zinka Sterzl?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly started, &quot;What do you mean?&quot; he exclaimed; &quot;what are you
+dreaming of?&quot; But as Truyn said no more, simply gazing fixedly at him,
+he took up an attitude of defiance. He looked Truyn straight in the
+face with an angry glare and retorted:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And suppose I do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I can only hope you will have enough resolution to carry out your
+intentions,&quot; said Truyn, &quot;for to stop half-way in such a case is a
+crime.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He drew a deep breath and looked at the ground. But Sempaly's face,
+instead of clearing, grew darker; he was prepared for vehement
+opposition and his cousin's calm consent, not to say encouragement, put
+him in the position of a man who, after straining every muscle to lift
+a heavy weight suddenly discovers that it is a piece of painted
+pasteboard. It completely threw him off his balance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I must say!&quot; he began in a tone of extreme annoyance, &quot;you speak
+of it as if it were a no more serious question than the dancing of a
+cotillon. In plain terms the thing is impossible. What are we to live
+on? I have long since run through all my fortune, if I took what my
+brother would regard as so monstrous a step he would cut off all
+supplies, and Zinka is not of age. I might to be sure take to selling
+dripping to maintain my wife, which would have the additional advantage
+that my mother-in-law would cut me in consequence. Or perhaps you would
+advise me to let Dame Clotilde Sterzl keep us till Zinka comes into her
+money?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well,&quot; says Truyn calmly, &quot;if you can take such a reasonable view of
+the impossibility of your marriage with Zinka Sterzl, your behavior to
+her is perfectly inexplicable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Truyn was still sitting by the little table on which the pretty coffee
+service was set out, while Sempaly, his hands in his pockets, was
+walking up and down the room, kicking and shoving the furniture with
+all the irritation of a man who knows himself to be in the wrong.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Upon my soul I cannot make out what you would be at!&quot; he suddenly
+exclaimed, standing still and facing his cousin. &quot;Sterzl has never
+found any fault with my behavior and it is much more his affair than
+yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Truyn changed color a little, but did not lose his presence of mind.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sterzl, with all his dryness of manner, is an idealist,&quot; he said, &quot;who
+would fetch the stars from heaven for his sister if he could. He has
+never for an instant doubted that your intentions with regard to her
+were quite serious.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is impossible!&quot; cried Sempaly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But it is so,&quot; Truyn asserted. &quot;He is too blind to think his sister
+beneath any one's notice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And he is right!&quot; exclaimed Sempaly, &quot;perfectly right--but the
+pressure of circumstances--of position--the duties I have
+inherited....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had seated himself on the deep inner ledge of one of the windows,
+with his elbows on his knees and his chin between his hands, and was
+staring thoughtfully at the floor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Allow me to ask you,&quot; he said, &quot;what induced you to mix yourself up in
+the affair?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It has weighed on my mind for a long time,&quot; said Truyn, &quot;but what
+especially moved me to speak of it to-day is the circumstance that last
+evening, before you came into the '<i>Falcone</i>,' Mesdames De Gandry and
+Ferguson allowed themselves to speak in a way which convinced me that
+your constant intimacy with Zinka is beginning to do her no good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! of course, if you listen to the gossip of every washerwoman,&quot;
+Sempaly interrupted angrily. And he muttered a long speech in which the
+words: 'Sacred responsibility--due regard for the duties imposed by
+Providence,' were freely thrown in. Truyn's handsome face flushed with
+contempt and at length he broke into his cousin's harangue, to which
+for a few minutes he had listened in silence:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No swagger nor bluster.... The matter is quiet simple: Do you love
+Zinka?&quot; The attaché frowned:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; he said fiercely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then it is only that you have not the courage to face the annoyances
+that a marriage with her would involve you in?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly was dumb,</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then, my dear fellow, there is no choice; you must break off the
+intimacy, as gently but as immediately as possible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That I neither can nor will attempt,&quot; cried Sempaly, stamping his
+foot.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If within three days you have not taken the necessary steps to secure
+your removal from Rome, I shall feel myself compelled to give Sterzl a
+hint--or your brother--whichever you prefer.&quot; Truyn spoke quite firmly.
+&quot;And now good-bye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-bye,&quot; said Sempaly without moving, and Truyn went to the door;
+there he paused and said hesitatingly: &quot;Do not take it amiss, Nicki--I
+could do no less. Remember that though the right is a bitter morsel, it
+has a good after-taste.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poor child, poor sweet little girl!&quot; Truyn murmured to himself as he
+descended the grey stone stairs of the Palazzo de Venezia. &quot;Is this a
+time to be talking of inherited responsibilities and the duties of
+position--now! Good heavens!&quot; He lighted a cigar and then flung it
+angrily away. &quot;Good heavens! to have met a girl like Zinka--to have won
+her love--and to be free!...&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He hurried out into the street, leaving the gate-porter astonished that
+the count, who was usually so courteous, should have taken no notice of
+his respectful bow; such a thing had never happened before.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was a strange man, this grey-haired young Count Truyn; he had grown
+up as one of a very happy family and when still quite young he had been
+hurried, much against his will, into a marriage with the handsome
+Gabrielle Zinsenburg. He had never been able to reconcile himself to
+the empty wordliness of his life in her society; she was a heartless,
+superficial woman, some few years older than himself, who had staked
+everything on her hope of achieving a marriage with him. Within a few
+years they had separated, quite amiably, by mutual consent; he had
+given her his name and she gave him his child. His life was spoilt. He
+had a noble and a loving heart but he might not bestow it on any woman;
+he must carry it about in his breast where it grew heavy to bear. His
+love for his little girl, devoted as he was to her, was not enough to
+live by, and a bitter sense of craving lurked in his spirit. For many
+years he had lived a great deal abroad; his mind had expanded and he
+had shed several of his purely Austrian prejudices. At home he was
+still regarded as a staunch conservative because he always passively
+voted on that side; but he was only indifferent, absolutely
+indifferent, to all political strife, and smiled alike at the
+recklessness of the 'left' and the excitability of the 'right,' while
+in his inmost soul he regarded the perfecting of government as mere
+labor lost; for he was no optimist, and thought that to heal the woes
+of humanity nothing would avail but its thorough regeneration, and that
+men have no mind for such regeneration; all they ask is to be allowed
+to cry out when they are hurt, and shift their sins on to each other's
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It afforded him no satisfaction to cry out. His weary soul found no
+rest but in unbounded benevolence, and Sempaly's nature--experimental,
+groping his way through life--had seemed to him to-day more odious than
+ever.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How can a man be at once so tender and such a coward?&quot; he asked
+himself, &quot;He is the most completely selfish being I ever met with--a
+thorough epicurean in sentiment, and has only just heart enough for his
+own pleasure and enjoyment.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">The bet outstanding between Zinka and Sempaly was not decided that
+afternoon. Sempaly did not go to the Palatine, but excused himself at
+the last moment in a little note to Zinka. Truyn's words, though he
+would not have admitted it to himself, had made a very deep impression,
+and though he fought against it he could no longer avoid looking the
+situation in the face. To get himself transferred to some other
+capital, to give up all his pleasant idle habits here--the idea was
+intolerable! He felt exactly like a man who has been suddenly roused
+from a slumber bright with pleasant dreams. He did not want to wake, or
+to rub his eyes clear of the vision.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Was everything at an end then? Truyn had, to be sure, suggested an
+alternative: if he could but call up sufficient energy it rested only
+with himself to turn the sweet dream into a still sweeter and lovelier
+reality, and his whole being thrilled with ecstasy as this delightful
+possibility flattered his fancy. He was long past the age at which a
+man commits some matrimonial folly believing that he can reclaim the
+morals of some disrespectable second-rate actress, or that his highest
+happiness is to devote his life to his sister's governess who is a
+dozen years older than himself; when he contemplated the possibility of
+his marrying Zinka Sterzl after all, it was with the certainty that his
+feeling for her was not a mere transient madness, but that it had its
+roots in the depths of his nature. Every form and kind of enjoyment had
+been at his command and he had hated them all. Things in which other
+men of his age and position could find excitement and interest roused
+his fastidious nature to disgust. Life had long since become to him a
+vain and empty show, when he had met Zinka.... Then all the sweetest
+spirits of spring had descended fluttering into his vacant heart; a
+magical touch had made it a garden of flowers and filled it with fair,
+mad dreams of love. All the &quot;sweet sorrow&quot; of life was revealed to him
+in a new form ... And now was he to tread the blossoms into dust? &quot;Give
+up seeing her--get myself sent away--never! I cannot and I will not do
+it,&quot; he muttered to himself indignantly as he thought it all over.
+&quot;What business is it of Truyn's? What right has he to issue his orders
+to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But when he had resolved simply to go on with Zinka as he had begun, to
+sun himself as heretofore in her smile, her gentleness, and her beauty,
+he was still uncomfortable. He felt that it would not be the same. Till
+now his heart had simply been content, now it could speak and ask for
+more; to try to satisfy it with this shadow of delight was like
+attempting to slake a raging thirst with the dew off a rosebud. He
+loved her now--suddenly and madly. Interesting women had hitherto
+utterly failed to interest him; they were like brooklets filled by the
+rain: the muddiness of the water prevented their shallowness being
+immediately perceptible; the storms of life had spoilt their clearness
+and purity; Zinka, on the contrary, was like a mountain lake whose
+waters are so transparent that near the shore every pebble is visible;
+and though, in the middle, the bottom is no longer seen, it is because
+they are deep and not because they are turbid, till their crystalline
+opacity reflects the sky overhead. And in the depths of that lake, he
+thought, lay a treasure which one alone, guided and blest by God, might
+hope to find. How he longed to sound it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was made for him; never for an instant had he been dull in her
+society; she satisfied both his head and his heart; all the bewitching
+inconsistency and contradictions of her nature captivated him; he had
+said of her that &quot;she was like a little handbook to the study of
+women,&quot; she was made up of such a variety of characteristics. In the
+midst of her childlike moods she had such unexpected depth of thought,
+such flashes of wisdom; her wildest vagaries were so original and often
+ended so suddenly in wistful reverie; her little selfish caprices were
+the converse of such devoted self-sacrifice; her grace was so
+spontaneous, her voice so soft and appealing ... Well, but should
+he?... No, it must not be. Truyn had said it--he must quit Rome--the
+sooner the better.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He took his hat and went out to call on the ambassador and discuss the
+matter with him. His excellency was not at home and Sempaly betook
+himself to the club, where he lost several games at ecarté--he was
+greatly annoyed. Then he went home and sat looking constantly at the
+clock as though he were expecting some one; his irritation increased
+every minute.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Bright May--the sweetest month of Spring;
+The trees and fields with flowers are strown--
+Dear Heart, to thee Life's May I bring;
+Take it and keep it for thine own--
+Nay--draw the knife!--I will not start,
+Pierce if thou wilt, my willing breast.
+There thou shalt find my faithful heart
+Whose truth in death shall stand confessed.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">These words, sung in the Roman dialect to a very simple air, came
+quavering out of the open window of the drawing-room of the Sterzls'
+palazetto as Sempaly passed by it that evening; he had gone out to pay
+some visits, to divert his mind, and though his way did not take him
+along the side street in which the palazetto stood, he had not been
+able to resist the temptation to make a detour. It was a mild evening
+and the tones floated down like an invitation; he recognized Zinka's
+voice as she sang one of the melancholy <i>Stornelli</i> in which the
+peasants of the Campagna give utterance to their loves. It ceased, and
+he was just moving away, when another even sweeter and more piercing
+lament broke the warm silence.</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-5pt">&quot;Or shall I die?--Poison itself could have<br>
+No terrors if I took it from thy hand.<br>
+Thy heart should be my death-bed and my grave.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="normal">The passionate words were sung with subdued vehemence to a rather
+monotonous tune--like a faded wreath of spring flowers borne along by
+some murmuring stream. He turned back, and listened with suspended
+breath. The song ended on a long, full note; he felt that he would give
+God knows how much to hear the last line once more:</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">'<i>La sepoltura mia sara il tuo seno!</i>....'</p>
+
+
+<p class="normal">Now Zinka was speaking--it vexed him beyond measure that he could not
+hear what she was saying. It was maddening ... Good heavens! what a
+fool he was to stand fretting outside!</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">When he went into the drawing-room to his great surprise he was met by
+Sterzl.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Back so soon?&quot; he exclaimed as he shook hands with him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Arnstein had only two days to spare in Naples,&quot; replied Sterzl;
+&quot;I was delighted to see him again, but--well, I must be growing very
+old, I was so glad to find myself at home again,&quot; and he drew his
+sister to him and lightly stroked her pretty brown hair. His brotherly
+caress added to Sempaly's excitement &quot;No wonder that you like your
+home!&quot; he was saying, when the baroness appeared with an evening wrap
+on her shoulders, a fan and scent-bottle in her hand, and, as usual,
+dying of refinement and airs.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not ready yet, Zenaïde? Ah, my dear Sempaly, how very sweet of you!&quot;
+and she gave him the tips of her fingers.--&quot;We were quite anxious about
+you when you so suddenly excused yourself from joining us. Zinka was
+afraid you had taken the Roman fever,&quot; she said sentimentally.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Zinka has an imagination that feeds on horrors,&quot; said Sterzl smiling.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I did think that you must have some very urgent reason,&quot; said Zinka
+hastily and in some confusion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly looked into her eyes: &quot;I was doing Ash-Wednesday penance, that
+was all,&quot; he said in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, to complete the mortification come now to Lady Dalrymple's,&quot; the
+baroness suggested.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, be merciful! Grant me a dispensation. I should so much enjoy a
+quiet evening,&quot; cried Sempaly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And I too,&quot; added Zinka. &quot;I am utterly sick of soirées and routs.
+These performances give me the impression of a full-dress review, at
+which such and such fashionable regiments are paraded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Give us a holiday, mother; remember, it is Ash-Wednesday, and we are
+good Catholics,&quot; said her son.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I had some scruples myself, but the Duchess of Otranto is going,&quot;
+lisped the baroness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">However, when Sempaly had assured her that the Duchess of Otranto was
+by no means a standard authority in Roman society she yielded to the
+common desire that they should remain at home, and withdrew to her room
+to write some letters before tea.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Most men have senses and nerves only in their brain while women, as is
+well known, have them all over the body; in this respect Sempaly was
+like a woman. He had senses even in his finger tips--as a Frenchman had
+once said, of him: &quot;il avait les sens poète!&quot; (a poet's nerves). The
+most trifling external conditions gave him disproportionate pleasure or
+pain. The smallest detail of ugliness was enough to spoil his
+appreciation of the noblest and grandest work of art; he would not have
+felt the beauty of Faust if he had first read it in a shabby or dirty
+copy. Now, when the baroness had left the room, there was no detail
+that could disturb his enjoyment in being with Zinka.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sterzl had taken up his newspaper; Zinka, at Sempaly's request, had
+seated herself at the piano. She always accompanied herself by heart
+and sat with her head bowed a little over the keys and half-shut dreamy
+eyes. The sober tone of the room, with its tapestried walls and happy
+medley of knick-knacks, broad-leaved plants, Japanese screens, and
+comfortable furniture, formed a harmonious background to her slight,
+white figure. The light of the one lamp was moderated by its
+rose-colored shade; a subdued <i>mezza-voce</i> tone of color prevailed in
+the room which was full of the scent of roses and violets, and the
+heavy perfume seemed in sympathy with the gloomy sentiment of the
+popular love songs. Sempaly's whole nature thrilled with rapturous
+suspense, such as few men would perhaps quite understand. At his desire
+Zinka sang one after another of the <i>Stornelli</i> ... her voice grew
+fuller and deeper ...</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not sing too long, Zini, it will tire you,&quot; said her brother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only one more--the one I heard from outside,&quot; begged Sempaly, and she
+sang:</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">&quot;<i>La sepoltura mia sara il tuo seno</i>....&quot;</p>
+
+
+<p class="continue">The words trembled on her lips; her hands slipped off the last notes
+into her lap. Sempaly took the warm, soft little hands in his own; a
+sort of delightful giddiness mounted to his brain as he touched them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Zinka,&quot; he said, &quot;tell me, do you feel a little of what your voice
+expresses?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her eyes met his--and she blinked, as we blink at a strong, bright
+light; she shrank back a little, as we shrink from too great and sudden
+joy. Her answer was fluttering on her lips when the door opened--the
+Italian servant pronounced some perfectly unintelligible gibberish by
+way of a name, and in marched--followed by her daughter and their
+Polish swain--the Baroness Wolnitzka.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, thank goodness, I have found you at home!&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;We
+counted on finding you at home on Ash-Wednesday. God bless you, Zinka!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka was petrified. Mamma Sterzl rushed in from an adjoining room at
+the sound of those rough tones.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Charlotte!&quot; was all she could stammer out, &quot;Char--lotte ... you ...
+here!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite a surprise, is it not, Clotilde? Yes, the most unhoped-for
+things sometimes happen. We arrived to-day at three o'clock and called
+here this afternoon but you were out; so then we decided to try in the
+evening. It is rather late, to be sure, and I, for my part, should have
+been here long ago, but Slawa insisted on dressing--for such near
+relations! Quite absurd ... but I do not like to contradict her, she is
+so easily put out--so I waited to dress too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And the baroness, after embracing her sister and her niece, plumped
+down uninvited on a very low chair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had dressed with a vengeance: a black lace cap was perched on the
+top of her short, grey hair, with lappets that hung down over her ears.
+Her massive person was squeezed into a violet satin gown, which she had
+evidently out-grown, and a lace scarf picturesquely thrown over her
+shoulders was intended to conceal its defects; her lavender-colored
+gloves were very short and much too tight, and burst at all the
+button-holes. Slawa had a general effect of tricolor, and she wore some
+old jewelry that she had bought of a dealer in antiquities at Verona.
+She had curled and piled up her hair after the antique and kept her
+head constantly turned over her left shoulder, to be as much like the
+Apollo as possible, at the same time making a grimace as if she were
+being photographed and wished to look bewitching.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Vladimir Matuschowsky's tall, slouching figure was buttoned into a
+braided coat; he held a low-crowned hat with tassels in his hand, and
+glared at the plain dress-coats of the other two men as though they
+were a personal insult.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Monsieur Vladimir de Matuschowsky,&quot; said the baroness introducing him,
+&quot;a ... a ... friend of the family.&quot; But she said it in French: when the
+Baroness Wolnitzka was at all at a loss she commonly spoke French.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her sister, who by this time had got over her astonishment, now began
+to wish to dazzle the new-comers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Count Sempaly,&quot; she said, presenting the attaché; &quot;a friend of our
+family ... my sister, the Baroness Wolnitzka. You have no doubt heard
+of the famous Slav leader Baron Wolnitzky, who was so conspicuous a
+figure in forty-eight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly bowed without speaking; Baroness Wolnitzka rose and politely
+offered him her hand: &quot;I am delighted to make your acquaintance,&quot; she
+said. &quot;I have heard a great deal about you; my sister has mentioned you
+in all her letters and I am quite <i>au courant</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again Sempaly bowed in silence and then, retiring into the background
+while the mistress of the house turned to address Slawa, he said to
+Sterzl:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will take an opportunity of slipping away--a stranger is always an
+intruder at a family meeting,&quot; His manner was suddenly cold and stiff
+and his tone intolerably arrogant.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sterzl nodded: &quot;Go by all means,&quot; he replied. But Baroness Sterzl
+perceiving his purpose exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no, my dear Sempaly, you really must not run away--you are not in
+the least <i>de trop</i>--and a stranger you certainly can never be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It would look as though we had frightened you away, and that I will
+not imagine,&quot; added her sister archly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So Sempaly stayed; only, perhaps, from the impulse that so often
+prompts us to drink a bitter cup to the dregs.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray command yourself a little, Zini,&quot; whispered Cecil to his sister.
+&quot;The interruption is unpleasant; but you should not show your annoyance
+so plainly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Tea was now brought in; Sterzl devoted himself in an exemplary manner
+to his cousin Slawa, so as to give his spoilt little sister as much
+liberty as possible. Slawa treated him with the greatest condescension
+and kept glancing over her huge Japanese fan at Sempaly, who was
+sitting by Zinka on a small sofa, taciturn and ill-pleased, while he
+helped her to pour out the tea.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Baroness Wolnitzka gulped down one cup after another, eat up almost all
+the tea-cake, and never ceased an endless medley of chatter. The young
+Pole sat brooding gloomily, ostentatiously refused all food and spoke
+not a word; his arms crossed on his breast he sat the image of the
+Dignity of Man on the defensive.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am desperately hungry,&quot; Madame Wolnitzka confessed. &quot;We are at a
+very good hotel--Hotel della Stella, in Via della Pace; we were told of
+it by a priest with whom we met on our journey. It is not absolutely
+first-class--still, only people of the highest rank frequent it; two
+Polish counts dined at the table d'hôte and a French marquise;--in her
+case I must own I thought I could smell a rat--I suspect she is running
+away with her lover from her husband, or from her creditors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Out of deference to the &quot;highest rank&quot; the baroness had put her hand up
+to her mouth on the side nearest to the young people as she made this
+edifying communication. &quot;The dinner was very good,&quot; she went on,
+&quot;capital, and we pay six francs a day for our board.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Seven,&quot; corrected Slawa.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Six, Slawa.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Seven, mamma.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And a discussion of the deepest interest to the rest of the party
+ensued between the mother and daughter as to this important point.
+Slawa remained master of the field; &quot;and with wax-lights and service it
+comes to eight,&quot; she added triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I let her talk,&quot; whispered her mother, again directing her words with
+her hand, &quot;she is very peculiar in that way; everything cheap she
+thinks must be bad. However, what I was going to say was that, to tell
+the truth, I did not get enough to eat at dinner--there were flowers on
+the table,&quot;--and she reached herself a slice of plum-cake.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At this moment the door opened to admit Count Siegburg.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good evening,&quot; he began--&quot;seeing you so brightly lighted up I could
+not resist the temptation to come in and see how you were spending your
+Ash-Wednesday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He glanced around at the three strangers and instantly grasped the
+situation; but, far from taking the tragical view of it, he at once
+determined to get as much fun out of it as possible. After being
+introduced he placed himself in a position from which he could command
+the whole party, Sempaly included, and converse both with Madame
+Wolnitzka and her daughter. He addressed himself first to the latter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The name of Wolnitzky is known to fame,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, my father played a distinguished part in forty-eight,&quot; replied
+Slawa.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Siegburg--Siegburg?...&quot; Madame Wolnitzka was meanwhile murmuring to
+herself. &quot;Which of the Siegburgs? The Siegburgs of Budow, or of Waldau,
+or ...?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The Waldau branch,&quot; said Baroness Sterzl. &quot;His mother was a Princess
+Hag,&quot; and she leaned back on her cushions.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah! the Waldau Siegburgs! quite the best Siegburgs!&quot; remarked her
+sister in a tone of astonishment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course,&quot; replied Baroness Sterzl with great coolness, as though she
+had never in her life spoken to anyone less than &quot;the best Siegburgs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame Wolnitzka arranged her broad face in the most affable wrinkles
+she could command, and sat smiling at the young count, watching for an
+opportunity of putting in a word. For the present, however, this did
+not offer, for her sister addressed her, asking, in a bitter-sweet
+voice:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what made you decide on coming to Rome?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Can you ask? I have wished for years to see Rome, and you wrote so
+kindly and so constantly, Clotilde--so at length ...&quot; and here followed
+the history of the Bernini. &quot;You remember our Bernini, Clotilde?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her sister nodded.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I had the Apollo, the head only, a copy by Bernini. It is a work
+of art that has been in our family for generations,&quot; she continued,
+turning to Siegburg as she saw that he was listening to her narrative.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For centuries,&quot; added Madame Sterzl.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I must confess that I could hardly bear to part with it,&quot; her sister
+went on. &quot;However, I made up my mind to do so when Tulpe, the great
+antiquary from Vienna, came one day and bid for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sterzl, to whom the god's wanderings were known, made some allusion to
+them in his dry way; on which the Baroness Wolnitzka shuffled herself a
+little nearer to Siegburg and addressed herself to him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You see, count, it was something like what often happens with a girl:
+you drag her about to balls for years, take her from one watering-place
+to another, and never get her off your hands; then you settle down
+quietly at home and suddenly, when you least expect it, a suitor turns
+up. I could hardly bear to see the last of the bust I assure you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It must indeed have been a harrowing parting,&quot; said Siegburg with much
+feeling.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Terrible!&quot; said the baroness, &quot;and doubly painful because&quot;--and here
+she leaned over to whisper in Siegburg's ear--&quot;Slawa is so amazingly
+like the Bernini. Does not her likeness to the Apollo strike you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I saw it at once--as soon as I came in,&quot; Siegburg declared without
+hesitation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Every one says so--well then, you can understand what a sacrifice it
+was ... it cuts me to the heart only to think of it. Oh! these great
+emotions! Excuse me if I take off my cap ...&quot; and she hastily snatched
+off the black lace structure and passing her fingers through her thin
+grey hair with the vehemence of a genius she exclaimed: &quot;Merciful God!
+How we poor women are ill-used! crushed, fettered ...&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, a woman's lot is not a happy one;&quot; said Siegburg sympathetically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are quite an original!&quot; exclaimed her sister, giggling rather
+uncomfortably--for in good society it is quite understood that when we
+are suffering under relations devoid of manners, and whom, if we dared,
+we should shut up at once in a mad-house, we may do what we can to
+render them harmless by ticketing them with this title--&quot;Quite an
+original. Are you still always ready to break a lance for the
+emancipation of our sex?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No,&quot; replied Madame Wolnitzka, &quot;no, my dear Clotilde, I have given
+that up. Since I learnt by experience that every woman is ready to set
+aside the idea of emancipation as soon as she has a chance of marrying
+I have lost my sympathy with the cause.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The emancipation of women of course can only be interesting to those
+who cannot marry,&quot; observed Sterzl, who had not long since read an
+article on this much ventilated question.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And as there are undoubtedly more women than men in the world,
+legalized polygamy is the only solution of the difficulty,&quot; his aunt
+asserted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mamma! you really are!...&quot; said Slawa with an angry flare.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your views are necessarily petty and narrow,&quot; retorted her mother. &quot;If
+I were speaking of the subject in a light and frivolous tone I could
+understand your indignation; but I am looking at the matter from a
+philosophical point of view--you understand me, I am sure, Count
+Siegburg.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perfectly, my dear madam,&quot; Siegburg assured her with grave dignity.
+&quot;You look at the question from the point of national and political
+economy and from that point of view improprieties have no existence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly sat twirling his moustache; Zinka first blushed and then turned
+pale, while the mistress of the house patted her sister on the
+shoulder, saying with a sharp, awkward laugh: &quot;Quite an original--quite
+an original.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Sterzl, seeing that Siegburg was excessively entertained by the old
+woman's absurdities, and was on the point of amusing himself still
+further at her expense by laying some fresh trap for her folly, happily
+bethought him that the only way to procure silence would be to ask
+Slawa to sing. So he begged his cousin to give them some national air.
+Siegburg joined in the request, but Slawa tried to excuse herself on a
+variety of pretexts: the piano was too low, the room was bad to sing
+in, and so forth and so forth ... at last, however, she was persuaded
+to sing some patriotic songs in which Matuschowsky accompanied her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her tall, Walkure-like figure swayed and trembled with romantic
+emotion, and faithful to the traditions of the &quot;<i>art frémissant</i>&quot;--the
+thrilling school--she held a piece of music fast in both hands for the
+sake of effect, though it had not the remotest connection with the song
+she was singing. Her mother sat in breathless silence; tears of
+admiration ran down her cheeks; like many other mothers, she only
+recognized those of Slawa's defects which came into conflict with her
+own idiosyncracy and admired everything else. When Slawa had shouted
+the last verse of the latest revolutionary ditty, which would have been
+prohibited in forty-eight, and Sterzl was still asking himself whether
+it was worse to listen to the mother's tongue or the daughter's
+singing, Matuschowsky, whose chagrin at the small approval bestowed on
+his and Slawa's musical efforts had reached an unendurable pitch,
+observed that it was growing late and that the ladies must be needing
+rest after all their exertions and fatigues. Madame Wolnitzka hastened
+to devour the last slice of tea-cake, brushed the crumbs away from her
+purple satin lap on to the carpet, rose slowly, and made her way with
+many bows and courtesies towards the door, taking at least half an hour
+before she was fairly gone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When his relatives had at length disappeared Sterzl accompanied the two
+gentlemen, who had also bid the ladies good-night, into the hall, and
+said good-humoredly to Siegburg:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You, I fancy, are the only one of the party who has really enjoyed the
+evening.&quot; Siegburg colored; then looking up frankly at his friend he
+said: &quot;You are not offended?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well--perhaps, just a little,&quot; replied Sterzl, with a smile, &quot;but I
+must admit that the temptation was a strong one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And really and truly I am very sorry for you,&quot; Siegburg went on, with
+that ingenuous want of tact that never lost him a friend. &quot;There is
+nothing in the world so odious as to have a posse of disagreeable
+relations who suddenly appear and cling on to your coat-tails. I know
+it by experience. Last spring, at Vienna, half a dozen old aunts of my
+mother's came down upon us from Bukowina like a snow-storm....&quot; Sempaly
+meanwhile had buttoned himself into his fur-lined coat and said
+nothing.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The three days have gone by in which Truyn had desired his cousin to
+make up his mind--three days since the sudden descent of Baroness
+Wolnitzka scared away the sweet vision that till then had dwelt in
+Sempaly's soul and checked the declaration actually on his lips--but he
+has not yet requested to be removed from Rome. Truyn's eye has been
+upon him all through these three days, has constantly met his own with
+grave questioning, as though to say: &quot;Have you decided?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">No, he had not decided. To a man like Sempaly there is nothing in the
+world so difficult as a decision; fate decides for him--he for himself!
+Never.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His encounter with the preposterous baroness might silence the avowal
+he was on the verge of uttering, but it was not so powerful as to
+banish Zinka's image once and for all from his mind. The silly old
+woman's chatter he had by this time forgotten; the <i>Stornelli</i> that
+Zinka had been singing still rang in his ears. For two days he had had
+the resolution to avoid the Palazetto, but he had seen Zinka for a
+moment, by accident, yesterday on the Corso. She was in the carriage
+with Marie Vulpini--she had on a grey velvet dress and a broad-brimmed
+mousquetaire hat that threw a shadow on her forehead and her
+golden-brown hair; she held a large bouquet of flowers and was chatting
+merrily with the little Vulpinis and Gabrielle Truyn; what pretty merry
+ways she had with children! His blood fired in his veins as their eyes
+met, and she blushed as she returned his bow. It was the first time she
+had blushed at seeing him. All that night he dreamed the wildest
+dreams,--and now he was taking a solitary early walk in the spring
+sunshine, on the Pincio, lost in thought, but snapping the twigs as he
+passed along to vent his irritation. More and more he felt that
+marriage with Zinka was a <i>sine qua non</i> of his existence. He had never
+in his life denied himself a pleasure, and now....</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">The brilliant March sun flooded the Piazza di Spagna, the waters of the
+Baracaccia sparkled and danced, reflecting the radiant blue sky,
+against which the towers of the Trinita dei Monti stood out sharp and
+clear. All over the shallow steps of the church models were lounging in
+the regulation peasant costumes, and blind beggars incessantly
+muttering their prayers. In front of the Hotel de l'Europe the
+cab-drivers were sweetly slumbering under the huge patched umbrellas
+stuck up behind their coach-boxes for protection against the sun or
+rain. Flower-sellers were squatted on every door-step, and here and
+there sat a brown-eyed, snub-nosed white Pomeranian dog. The Piazza was
+swarming with tourists, and Beatrice di Cenci gazed with the saddest
+eyes in the world out of a photographer's shop at the motley crowd and
+bustle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Siegburg, in happy unconsciousness of coming evil, had just come out of
+Law's, the money changer's, and was inhaling with peculiar satisfaction
+the delicious pervading scent of hyacinths, when his eye was
+accidentally attracted by the fine figure of a young English woman who
+passed him in a closely fitting jersey. He was still watching her when
+a harsh voice close to him exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good morning, Count,--what luck!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He turned round and recognized, under a vast shady hat, the broad, dark
+face of the Baroness Wolnitzka. Though the day was splendidly fine she
+had on that most undressed of garments, originally meant as a
+protection against rain but subsequently adopted to conceal every
+conceivable defect of costume, and long since known to the mocking
+youth of Paris as a &quot;<i>cache-misère</i>,' or--to render it freely--a
+slut-cover; and, though the pavement was perfectly dry, under this
+waterproof she held up the gown it hid, so high that her wide feet, in
+their untidy boots with elastic sides, were plainly displayed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, baroness!&quot; he said lifting his hat, &quot;I really did not ...&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, you did not recognize me,&quot; she said calmly, &quot;that was why I spoke
+to you. What luck! But you are in the embassy too?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is the very thing--I have a request to make then. My daughter is
+most anxious to have an audience of His Holiness. Slawa, you must know,
+is a fervent Catholic, though, between you and me, it is a mere matter
+of fashion. Now I, for my part, take a philosophical view of religious
+matters. At the same time I should be very much interested in seeing
+the Pope....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But the Pope is unfortunately more inaccessible than ever,&quot; said
+Siegburg, &quot;besides, as I do not belong to the Papal Embassy I cannot, I
+regret to say, give you the smallest assistance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is what my nephew says--it is disastrous, positively disastrous,&quot;
+At this moment Slawa joined them, emerging from Piale's library, in an
+eccentric <i>directoire</i> costume, with a peaked hat and feather, and a
+pair of gloves, no longer clean, drawn far up over her elbows.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, good morning,&quot; said she, offering the count her finger tips while
+Matuschowsky, who was in attendance, sulkily bowed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">By this time Siegburg, hemmed in on all sides, began to think the
+situation unpleasant.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is so delightful to meet with a fellow-countryman in a foreign
+land....&quot; Slawa began.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite delightful,&quot; replied Siegburg, thinking to himself: &quot;How am I to
+get out of this?&quot; when suddenly the absurdity of the thing came upon
+him afresh, for he heard the baroness once more: &quot;Good morning, Count,
+what luck!&quot; and at the same moment she bore down on no less a man than
+Sempaly, who had just come down the sunlit steps, and was crossing the
+Piazza lost in sullen meditation. &quot;I beg your pardon,&quot; he muttered
+somewhat startled, &quot;I really did not recognize you,&quot; and he gazed
+helplessly into the distance as though he looked for a rescue. But the
+baroness went on:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am so delighted to have met you--I have a particular request to
+make: could you not procure me admission to the Farnesina? The Duke di
+Ripalda is said to be all powerful....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am sorry to say it is quite im----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But at this instant a party of foreigners caught Sempaly's eye--two
+young ladies with a maid. The two girls, tall and straight as
+pine-trees, both remarkably handsome and dressed in neatly-fitting
+English linen dresses, were eagerly bargaining with an Italian who had
+embroidered cambric trimmings for sale, and they seemed to think it a
+delightful adventure to buy something in the street.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Two charming girls! surely I know them,&quot; cried Madame Wolnitzka. &quot;Are
+they not the Jatinskys?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">One of the young ladies, looking up, called out: &quot;Nicki, Nicki!&quot; half
+across the Piazza, with the frank audacity of people who have grown up
+in the belief that the world was created expressly for their use.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Excuse me,&quot; said Sempaly with a bow to the baroness, &quot;my cousins ...&quot;
+and without more ado he made his escape.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How long have you been here? Where are you staying?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We arrived this morning--Hotel de Londres--mamma wrote to you at once
+to the embassy ... Ah, here is another Austrian!&quot; for Siegburg had
+contrived to join them. &quot;Rome is but a suburb of Vienna after all! But
+tell me, who on earth were that old fortune-teller and her
+extraordinary daughter to whom you were both devoting yourselves so
+attentively?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Wolnitzky trio had in the meantime moved away. The baroness very
+gracious, Slawa very haughty, as became the living representative of
+the Apollo Belvedere--past the two handsome girls and down the Via
+Condotti. Suddenly Baroness Wolnitzka stopped:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I quite forgot to ask Count Sempaly to get me an invitation to the
+international artists' festival!&quot; she exclaimed, striking her forehead,
+and she promptly turned about, evidently intending to repair the
+omission; only Matuschowsky's decided interference preserved Sempaly
+from her return to the charge.</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">The scene is now the Pincio--between five and six in the afternoon, the
+hour when the band plays every day on the great terrace, while the
+crowd collects to watch the sun set behind St. Peter's. The reflection
+of the glow gilds the gravel, glints from the lace on the uniforms and
+the brass instruments, and throws golden sparks on the water in the
+wide basin behind the bandstand. The black shadows rapidly lengthen on
+the grass, and the palmettos, yuccas, and evergreen oaks stand out in
+rich, deep tones against the sky that fades from crimson to salmon and
+grey. A special set of visitors haunt the shady side of the Pincio; not
+the fashionable world: governesses and nurses with their charges, and
+priests--priests of every degree: the illustrious Monsignori with their
+finely chiselled features, their upright bearing and their elegant
+hands; monks, with their bearded faces comfortably framed in their
+cowls, and whole regiments of priestlings from the Seminaries in their
+uniforms of every hue; lank, lean figures, with sallow, unformed
+features.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Separated from these only by a leafy screen the beauty and fashion of
+Rome drive up and down--the residents in handsome private carriages,
+the foreigners in hired vehicles of varying degrees of respectability,
+or even in the humble, one-horse, hackney cab. The crowd grows denser
+every minute as the stream of Roman rank and wealth swells along the
+Via Borghese, across the Piazza del Popolo, and up the hill. On the top
+of the Pincio the carriages come to a stand-still; gentlemen on foot
+gather round them, bowing and smiling, the ladies talk across from one
+victoria to another--all sorts of trivial small-talk, unintelligible to
+the uninitiated. Up from the gardens which line the road from the Via
+Margutta, comes a fragrance of budding and growing spring; down below
+lies Rome, and lording it grandly over the labyrinthine mass of houses
+and ruins, solemn and severe, its crown touched by the last rays of the
+vanished sun, stands St Peter's.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Countess Ilsenbergh's carriage was drawn up side by side with that of
+Princess Vulpini; the newly-arrived party of the Jatinskys was divided
+between them; the countess mother reclining indolently with a gracious
+smile on her lips by the side of Countess Ilsenbergh, while the
+princess had undertaken to chaperon the young ladies. On the front
+seat, by his cousin Eugénie--Nini they called her--sat Sempaly.
+Siegburg was leaning over the carriage door, talking all sorts of
+nonsense, and relating all the gossip of Rome that was fit for maiden
+ears to the two new-comers; they, infinitely amused, laughed till their
+simple merriment infected even Sempaly, who had taken the seat coveted
+of all the golden youth of Rome--the seat next his beautiful cousin--in
+a very gloomy and taciturn humor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Presently there was an evident sensation among the public; every one
+was looking in the same direction.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is happening?&quot; asked Polyxena, the elder of the two Jatinska
+girls.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It must be the Dorias' new drag, or the King,&quot; said Princess Vulpini,
+screwing up her short-sighted eyes. &quot;No,&quot; said Siegburg, looking back,
+&quot;neither. It is Baroness Wolnitzka!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And in fact, Madame Sterzl's pretty landau, which she had placed at the
+disposal of her sister for the afternoon, was coming up the road, in it
+the Wolnitzkas, mother and daughter, both in their finest array. Slawa
+was leaning back, elegantly languid, while her mother stood up in the
+carriage and surveyed the world of Rome through an opera-glass. From
+time to time, either to rest, or because she suddenly lost her balance,
+she sat down; and then she filled up her time by examining every detail
+of the trimming and lining of the landau. It was this singular
+demeanor, combined with her very conspicuous person, that attracted so
+much attention to the Sterzls' vehicle--an attention which both mother
+and daughter, of course ascribed to Slawa's extraordinary resemblance
+to the Belvedere Apollo.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Baroness Wolnitzka! the wonderful old woman we saw with you yesterday
+in the Piazza di Spagna?&quot; cried Polyxena.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only think, Nicki,&quot; she went on to Sempaly, &quot;mamma knows her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who is it that I know?&quot; asked her mother from the other carriage.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Baroness Wolnitzka, mamma; do you see her--out there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Heaven preserve me!&quot; exclaimed the countess fervently. &quot;I do not feel
+secure of my life when I am near her. She fell upon me to-day in the
+Villa Wolkonsky.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How on earth do you happen to know the old woman, aunt?&quot; asked Sempaly
+irritably.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! my husband had some political connection with hers,&quot; the countess
+explained. &quot;She is not to be borne, she stuck to me like a leech for
+half an hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your conversation must have been very interesting,&quot; said Siegburg.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It did not interest me,&quot; replied the countess rather sharply. &quot;She
+told me how much her journey had cost her, what she pays a day for
+carriage-hire, and that when she was young she had singing-lessons of
+Cicimara. And she chattered endlessly about her sister Sterzl who is
+living here 'in the first style and knows absolutely none but the crême
+de la crême'--you laugh!...&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, mamma, you must confess that the association of such a name as
+Sterzl with the cream of society is irresistibly funny,&quot; cried
+Polyxena.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It was anything rather than funny to me,&quot; said the countess ruefully.
+&quot;By the way, though, she did tell me one thing--that her niece Zenaïde
+Sterzl ... Well, what is there to laugh at now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Zenaïde Sterzl! the name is a poem in itself,&quot; cried Polyxena; &quot;it is
+as though an English woman were named Belinda Brown, or a French girl
+called Roxalane Dubois.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, it seems from what the old woman told me that the fair Zenaïde
+is about to relinquish the graceless name of Sterzl for one of the
+noblest names in Austria--that is the old idiot's story. It has not yet
+been made public, so she could not tell me the bridegroom's name, but
+Zenaïde is as good as betrothed to a young count--an attaché to the
+Austrian embassy. Who on earth can it be?--You ought to know!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, ah! Is it you?&quot; said Polyxena turning to Siegburg. But Siegburg
+shook his head, stroking his yellow moustache to conceal a malicious
+smile as he watched Sempaly's conspicuous annoyance. &quot;Or is it you,
+Nicki?&quot; the young countess went on--&quot;I congratulate you on marrying
+into such a delightful family!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But such a marked effect of embarrassment was produced by her speech
+that she was suddenly silent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know nothing of it,&quot; said Sempaly with a gloomy scowl. &quot;That old
+chatterbox's imagination is positively stupendous.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The play of light on the gold lace of the uniforms and the brass
+instruments is fast fading away and the sheen of the glossy-leaved
+evergreens is almost extinct. &quot;<i>Gran dio morir si giovane!</i>&quot; is the
+tune the band is playing. The sun is down, the day is dead, night
+shrouds the scene; the only color left is a dull glow behind St.
+Peter's like a dying fire.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At the Ellis' this evening,&quot; Siegburg calls out to the ladies as he
+lifts his hat and turns away. The carriages make their way down the
+hill, past the Villa Medici, back into Rome, and their steady roar is
+like that of a torrent rushing to join the sea.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Mr. and Lady Julia Ellis--she was an earl's daughter--English people of
+enormous wealth and amazing condescension, had for many years spent the
+winters in Rome. In former times the lady's eccentricities had given
+rise to much discussion; now she was an old lady with white hair, fine
+regular features and much too fat arms. Like all English women of her
+day she appeared in a low gown on all occasions of full dress, and was
+fond of decking her head with a pink feather. Her husband was younger
+than she was and had a handsome, thoroughly English face, with a short
+beard and very picturesque curly white hair. His profile was rather
+like that of Mendelssohn, a fact of which he was exceedingly proud.
+Besides this he was proud of two other things: of his wife, who had
+been admired in her youth by King George IV. and of a very old
+umbrella, because Felix Mendelssohn had once borrowed it. He had a
+weakness for performing on the concertina and had musical evenings once
+a week.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It happened that on the occasion when the Jatinskys first went to one
+of these parties Tulpin the Russian genius whose great work had served
+as the introduction to the Ilsenbergh tableaux, was elaborating a new
+opera to a French libretto on a national Russian story. He was, of
+course, one of those Russians who combine a passionate devotion to the
+national Slav cause with a fervent wish to be mistaken for born
+Parisians wherever they appear. The piano groaned under his hands,
+while sundry favorite phrases from <i>Orphée aux Enfers</i> and other
+well-known works were heard above the rolling sea of tremolos. From
+time to time the performer threw in a word to elucidate the situation:
+&quot;The czar speaks....&quot; &quot;The bojar speaks....&quot; &quot;The peasant speaks....&quot;
+&quot;The sighing of the wind in the Caucasus....&quot; &quot;The foaming of the
+torrent....&quot; While Mr. Ellis, who believed implicitly in the opera, was
+heard murmuring: &quot;Splendid! ... magnificent! The opera must be worked
+out--it must not remain unperformed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Worked out!&quot; sighed Tulpin with melancholy irony. &quot;That is no concern
+of mine. We--we have the ideas, the working out we leave to--to--to
+others, in short. You must remember that I cannot read a note of
+music--literally, not a note,&quot; he repeated with intense and visible
+satisfaction, and he flung off a few stumbling arpeggios, while Mr.
+Ellis cried: &quot;Astonishing!&quot; and compared him with Mendelssohn, which
+Tulpin, who believed only in the music of the future, took very much
+amiss. A <i>Grand Prix de Musique</i>, from the French academy of arts at
+the Villa Medici, who had been waiting more than an hour to perform his
+&quot;Arab symphony,&quot; muttered to himself: &quot;Good heavens! leave music to us,
+and let us be thankful that we are not great folks!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At last Lady Julia took pity on her guests and invited them to go to
+take tea; every one was only too glad to accept, and in a few minutes
+the music room was almost empty. Madame Tulpin, out of devotion, the
+Grand Prix out of spite, and Mr. Ellis out of duty were all that
+remained within hearing. In the adjoining room every one had burst into
+conversation over their tea; still, a certain gloom prevailed.
+Melancholy seemed to have fallen upon the party like an epidemic, and
+the subject that was most eagerly discussed was the easiest mode of
+suicide.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Tulpin rattled and thumped on; suddenly he stopped--the Jatinskys had
+come in, and their advent was such a godsend that even the genius
+abandoned the piano in their honor. They all three were smiling in the
+most friendly--it might almost be said the most reassuring manner; for
+Countess Ilsenbergh had not failed to impress upon them the very mixed
+character of Roman society, and, feeling their own superiority, they
+were able to cover their self-consciousness with the most engaging
+amiability. The two younger ladies were surrounded--besieged--and the
+strange thing was that the women paid them even greater homage than
+the men. Everything about them was admired: their small feet, their
+finely-cut profiles, their incredibly slender waists, the color of
+their hair, the artistic simplicity of their dresses--and bets were
+laid as to whether these were the production of Fanet or of Worth. But
+now there was the little commotion in the next room that is caused by
+the arrival of some very popular person. Zinka, without her mother,
+under her brother's escort only, came in and gave her slim hand with an
+affectionate greeting to the lady of the house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are an incorrigible truant, you always come too late;&quot; said Lady
+Julia in loving reproach.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Like repentance and the police,&quot; said Zinka merrily; and then Lady
+Julia introduced her to Countess Jatinska.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you must help me with the tea; you know I always reckon on you for
+that,&quot; Lady Julia went on. &quot;Give your charming countrywomen some, will
+you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Polyxena and Nini were sitting a yard or two off, surrounded by
+all the young men of Rome; Zinka was going towards them with her
+winning grace of manner when Sempaly happened to come up, and found
+himself so unexpectedly face to face with her that he had no
+alternative but to shake hands, and he could not avoid saying a few
+words. Of course--like any other man in his place--he made precisely
+the most unlucky speech he could possibly have hit upon:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We have not met for some time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She looked him in the face but of half-shut eyes, with her head
+slightly thrown back, and replied, with very becoming defiance:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have carried out the penance you began on Ash-Wednesday!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps,&quot; and he could not help smiling.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She shrugged her shoulders: &quot;I had intended to break off our
+friendship,&quot; she went on, &quot;but now that I see the cause of your
+faithlessness,&quot;--and she glanced at the handsome young countesses--&quot;I
+quite understand it. Will you at any rate do me the favor of
+introducing me to the ladies?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fräulein Sterzl--&quot; said Sempaly; but hardly had he uttered the words
+when a scarcely suppressed smile curled Polyxena's lip. Zinka saw the
+smile, and she saw too that Sempaly's manner instantly changed; he put
+on an artificial expression of intolerable condescension.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka turned very pale, her eyes flashed indignantly as she hastily
+returned the young Austrians' bow and at once went back to her post.
+Sterzl, who was talking to Truyn in a recess and saw the little scene
+from a distance, frowned darkly. Sempaly meanwhile seated himself on a
+stool by his cousins and with his back to the tea-table where Zinka was
+busying herself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So this is the far-famed Zinka Sterzl!&quot; exclaimed Polyxena: &quot;She does
+credit to your taste, Nicki. But she allows herself to speak to you in
+a very extraordinary manner; it is really rather too much!&quot; Sempaly
+made no reply. &quot;She treats you already as if you were her own
+property.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But Xena,&quot; said Nini, trying to moderate her sister's irony, &quot;at least
+do not speak so loud.&quot; In a few minutes Mr. Ellis came to announce that
+Monsieur B. was about to play his 'Arab symphony,' and the company
+moved back into the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The evening had other treats in store; when Monsieur B. had done his
+place was taken by a young Belgian count who devoted all his spare time
+to the composition of funeral marches, who could also play songs and
+ballads, such as are usually confined to the streets of Florence or the
+<i>cafés chantants</i> of Paris, arranged for the piano, and who gave a duet
+between a cock and hen with so much feeling and effect that all the
+audience applauded heartily, especially the Jatinskys to whom this
+style of thing was quite a novelty. Then Mrs. Ferguson sang her French
+couplets, Mr. Ellis played an adagio by Beethoven on the concertina,
+and then Zinka was asked to sing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What am I to sing? You know the extent of my collection,&quot; she said
+with rather forced brightness to Mr. Ellis.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! a Stornello. We beg for a Stornello,&quot; said Siegburg following her
+to the piano--&quot;<i>vieni maggio, vieni primavera</i>,&quot; and Lady Julia
+seconded the request.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka laid her hands on the keys and began. Her voice sounded through
+the room a little husky at first, but very sweet, like the note of a
+forest bird.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Never before had she sat down to sing without bringing <i>him</i> to her
+side, even from the remotest corner of the room, at the very first
+notes; and now, involuntarily, she looked up to meet his gaze--but he
+was sitting by Polyxena, on a small sofa, in a very familiar attitude,
+leaning back, holding one foot on the other knee, and laughing at
+something that she was whispering to him. Zinka lost her self-command
+and was suddenly paralyzed with self-consciousness. She could not sing
+that song before him. Her voice broke; she forgot the accompaniment;
+felt about the notes, struck two or three wrong chords and at length
+rose with an awkward laugh:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot remember anything this evening!&quot; she stammered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Polyxena had some spiteful comment to make, of course, and Sempaly grew
+angry; he was on the point of rising to go to Zinka and console her for
+her failure, but before he could quite make up his mind to move, Nini
+had risen. In spite of her shyness she made her way straight across the
+room to Zinka and said something kind to her. Sempaly stayed where he
+was; but as they were leaving, he put on Nini's cloak for her, and said
+in a low tone: &quot;Nini, you are a good fellow!&quot; and he kissed her hand.</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly's attentions had made Zinka the fashion; his sudden
+discontinuance, not merely of attentions, but of any but the barest
+civilities, of course, made her the laughing-stock of all their circle.
+The capital caricature that Sempaly had drawn of Sterzl and his sister
+that evening at the Vulpinis' was remembered once more; Madame de
+Gandry, to whom Sempaly had been very civil till he had neglected her
+for Zinka, showed the sketch to all her acquaintance, with a plentiful
+seasoning of spiteful insinuations. Every one was ready to laugh at the
+&quot;little adventuress&quot; who had come to Rome to bid for a prince's coronet
+and who had been obliged to submit to such condign humiliation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The leaders of foreign society vied with each other in doing honor to
+the Jatinskys. Madame de Gandry set the example by giving a party at
+which Ristori was engaged to recite; Sterzl was of course, invited; his
+mother and sister were left out. It was the first time since Zinka's
+appearance at the Ilsenberghs' that she had been omitted from any
+entertainment, however select. Many ladies of the international circle
+followed Madame de Gandry's lead, wishing like her to make a parade
+before the Austrians of their own exclusiveness, and at the same time
+to be revenged on Zinka for many a saucy speech she had ventured to
+make when she was still one of the initiated--of the sacred inner
+circle. The Italian society of Rome did not of course trouble itself
+about all these trumpery subtleties, and behaved to Zinka with the same
+superficial politeness as before.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She, for her part, took no more note of their amenities than she did of
+the pin-pricks from the other side. If her feelings had not been so
+deeply engaged by Sempaly she would no doubt have taken all these petty
+social humiliations very hardly; but her anguish of soul had dulled her
+shallower feelings. There is a form of suffering which deadens the
+senses and which mockery cannot touch. It was all the same to her
+whether she was invited or not--she could not bear to go anywhere. The
+idea of meeting Sempaly with his cousins was as terrible as death
+itself. She was an altered creature. A shy, scared smile was always on
+her lips, like the ghost of departed joys, her movements had lost all
+their elasticity, and her gait was more than ever like that of an angel
+whose wings have been clipped.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Baroness Sterzl, of course, still drove out regularly on the Corso, and
+made the most praiseworthy attempts to keep up a bowing acquaintance
+with her former friends, and as often as she could she went out in the
+evening--alone. There was some consolation too in the proud
+consciousness of having quarrelled with Madame de Gandry and being on
+visiting terms with all the Roman duchesses. The only thing that caused
+her any serious discomfort was her sister Wolnitzka's persistent and
+indiscreet catechism as to the state of affairs between Zinka and
+Sempaly. She herself, out of mere idle bragging, had told Charlotte the
+first day of her arrival in Rome that Zinka's engagement was not yet
+made public.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her aunt's coarse remarks and hints were fast driving Zinka crazy when
+Siegburg fortunately--perhaps intentionally, out of compassion for
+her--so frightened the mother and daughter, one evening when he met
+them at the palazetto, by his account of the Roman fever that they were
+panic-stricken, and fled the very next morning to Naples.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The member of the family who was most keenly alive to the change in
+their social relations, oddly enough, was Cecil. He had been wont to
+feel himself superior to these silly class-jealousies, and at the same
+time had a reasonable and manly dignity of his own that had preserved
+him from that morbid petulance which sometimes stands in arms against
+all friendly advances from men who, after all, cannot help the fact of
+their superior birth. Democratic touchiness is a disease to which, in
+the old-world countries where hereditary rank is still a living fact,
+every man who is not a toady is liable--from Werther downwards--when
+fate brings him into contact with aristocratic circles. Sterzl had
+moved in them so long that he was acclimatized; or rather, it had
+attacked him late in life, and, as is always the case when grown-up men
+take infantine complaints, with aggravated severity. He attributed all
+his sister's misery, not to his own want of caution and Sempaly's
+weakness of character, but to the tyranny of social prejudice; and he
+turned against society with vindictive contempt, making himself
+perfectly intolerable wherever he went. Being a well-bred man,
+accustomed all his life to the graces of politeness, he could not
+become absolutely ill-mannered--but as ill-mannered as he could be he
+certainly was: assertive, irritable, always on the defensive, he was
+constantly involved in some argument or dispute.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Even at home he was not the same; his pride was deeply nettled by
+Zinka's total inability to hide her suffering, while he felt it
+humiliating to be able to do nothing to comfort her. At first, in the
+hope of diverting her thoughts, he would bring her tickets for concerts
+or the theatre, and give her a thousand costly trinkets, old treasures
+of porcelain, carved ivory, and curiosities of art, such as she had
+once loved. She used to rejoice over these pretty trifles--now she
+smiled as a sick man smiles at some dainty he no longer has any
+appetite for. He could see how sincerely she tried to be delighted, but
+the tears were in her eyes all the while.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This drove Sterzl to desperation. At first he religiously avoided
+mentioning Sempaly in her presence, but as days and weeks passed and
+she brought no change in her crushed melancholy, he waxed impatient. He
+took it into his head that it would be well to open Zinka's eyes with
+regard to Sempaly. Sterzl himself was energetic, always looking to the
+future; he had it out with his disappointments and got rid of them,
+however hard he might have been hit. He had always let things roll if
+they would not stand, and then set to work to begin again. His great
+point in life was to see things as they were. Truth was his divinity,
+and he could not understand that to a creature constituted like Zinka,
+illusion was indispensable; that she still laid no blame on Sempaly,
+but only on the alteration in his circumstances--on her own
+unworthiness--on anything and everything but himself; that it was a
+necessity of her nature to be able still to love him, even though she
+knew that he was lost to her forever. His austere nature could not
+enter into Zinka's soft and impressible susceptibility.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So when he took to speaking slightingly or contemptuously of Sempaly on
+every possible opportunity she never answered him, but listened in
+silence, looking at him with frightened, astonished eyes and a pale
+face, like a martyr to whom her tormentors try to prove that there is
+no God. The result of Cecil's well-meant but injudicious proceedings
+was a temporary coolness between himself and his sister--a coolness
+which, on his part, lay only on the surface, but which froze her spirit
+to its depths, and all this naturally tended to add fuel to Sterzl's
+detestation of Sempaly. The two men were in daily intercourse, and now
+in a state of constant friction. Sterzl would make biting remarks over
+the smallest negligence or oversight of which Sempaly might be guilty,
+and was bitterly sarcastic as to the incompetence of a young connection
+of the Sempalys who had not long since been attached to the embassy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To be sure,&quot; he ended by declaring, &quot;in Austria it is a matter of far
+greater importance that an attaché should be a man of family than that
+he should know how to spell.&quot; To such depths of clumsy rudeness could
+he descend.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly, without losing his supercilious good humor, would only smile,
+or answer in his most piping tones:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are very right; the view we take of privilege is quite
+extraordinary. We should form ourselves on the model of the French
+corps diplomatique; do not you think so?&quot; For, a few days previously,
+the Figaro had published a satirical article on the presentation of a
+plebeian representative of the republic at some foreign court.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Well, Sempaly might have retorted in a much haughtier key--but the
+lighter his irony the more it exasperated Sterzl.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Countess Jatinska spent almost the whole of her stay in Rome on her
+sofa. When she was asked what she thought of Rome she replied that she
+found it very fatiguing; when the same question was put to her
+daughters they, on the contrary, declared themselves enchanted. Sempaly
+knew full well that in all Rome there was nothing they liked better
+than their ne'er-do-weel cousin. He displayed for their benefit all his
+most amiable graces; criticised or admired their dresses, touched up
+their coiffure with his own light hand, faithfully reported to them all
+their conquests, and made them presents of cigarettes and of trinkets
+from Castellani's.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When there was nothing else to be done he was ready to attend them--of
+course, under the charge of some older lady--to see galleries and
+churches, Polyxena had a way, that was highly characteristic, of
+rushing past the greatest works with her nose in the air and laughing
+as she repeated some imbecile remark that she had overheard, or pointed
+out some eccentricity of tourist costume. Nini took art more seriously,
+looked carefully at everything by the catalogue, and even kept a diary.
+Xena was commonly thought the handsomer and the more brilliant of the
+sisters, and Sempaly apparently devoted himself chiefly to her, but he
+decidedly liked Nini best. The hours that he did not spend with his
+cousins he passed at the club, where he gambled away large sums.
+Meanwhile, he was looking very ill and complained of a return of old
+Roman fever.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And what did the world say to his behavior? The phlegmatic Italians did
+not trouble themselves about the matter; Madame de Gandry and Mrs.
+Ferguson laughed over it; Siegburg pronounced it disgraceful, and
+Ilsenbergh called it bad taste to say the least. That he ought to have
+arranged to leave Rome everybody agreed. Princess Vulpini held long and
+lamentable conferences with General von Klinger--reproaching herself
+bitterly for not having seen the position of affairs long ago--but she
+had never attached any importance to Sempaly's marked attentions,
+having had no eyes for anything but Siegburg's devotion to Zinka, and
+she had taken a quite motherly interest in what she regarded as a good
+match for both.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Truyn was perfectly furious with Sempaly. All that he was to Zinka
+during these weeks can only be divined by those who have passed through
+such a time of grief and humiliation, with the consciousness of having
+a high-souled and tender friend in the back-ground. He was the only
+person who never aggravated her wound. He had the gentle touch, the
+delicate skill, which the best man or woman can only acquire through
+the ordeal of an aching heart. He came every afternoon with his little
+girl to take Zinka for a walk, for he knew that the regular drive on
+the Corso could only bring her added pain; and while the baroness, with
+outspread skirts, drove in the wake of fashion up to the Villa Borghese
+and the Pincio, these three--with the general, not unfrequently, for a
+fourth--would wander through silent and deserted cloisters or take long
+walks across the Campagna. Not once did Truyn bring a secret tear to
+her eye; if some accidental remark or association brought the hot color
+to her thin cheek he could always turn the subject so as to spare her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">One sultry afternoon, late in spring, Truyn and his two daughters--as
+he was wont to call Zinka and Gabrielle--with the soldier-artist were
+sauntering home, after a long walk, through the sombre and picturesque
+streets that surround the Pantheon. The neighborhood is humble and
+wretched, but over a garden wall rose a mulberry tree in whose green
+branches a blackbird was singing, and a few red geraniums blazed behind
+rusty window-bars, bright specks in the monotonous brown; above the
+roofs bent the deep blue sky; the air was heavy and hot, and full of
+obscure smells of gutters and stale vegetables. Somewhere, in an
+upstairs room, a woman sang a love-song of melancholy longing. Suddenly
+the blackbird and the woman ceased singing at the same time; a dismal
+howl and groan echoed through the street, and a mass of black shadows
+darkened the scene. Zinka, who had lately become excessively nervous,
+started and shuddered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is nothing--only a funeral,&quot; Truyn explained, taking off his hat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">That was all--a Roman funeral, grim but picturesque--a long procession
+of mysteriously-shrouded figures, only able to see through two slits in
+the sack-like cowls that covered their heads, ropes round their waists,
+and torches or mystical banners in their hands--banners with the
+emblems of death. These were followed by a troop of barefooted friars,
+and last came the bier covered with a bright yellow pall, carried by
+four more of the shrouded figures, who bent under its weight as they
+shuffled along. The ruddy flare and the black smoke wreaths, the
+groan-like chant, the uncanny glitter of the men's eyes out of the
+formless hoods--ghastly, ghostly, and exhaling a savor of mouldiness
+and incense, like the resurrection of a fragment of the middle
+ages--the procession defiled through the narrow street. Zinka,
+half-fainting, clung to Truyn; Gabrielle, whose childish nerves were
+less shocked, watched them with intense curiosity and began to question
+a woman who stood near her in the crowd that had collected, in her
+fluent, bungling Italian:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who is it they are burying?&quot; she asked at length.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A woman,&quot; was the answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Was she young?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>Si</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what did she die of? of fever?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No,&quot; said the Roman shrugging her shoulders; and then she added, in
+the slow musical drawl of the Roman peasant:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>Di passione</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The procession had passed, the chanting had died away; the blackbird
+was singing lustily once more; they went on their way--Truyn first,
+with Zinka hanging wearily on to his arm, behind them Gabrielle and the
+general.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>Passione!</i> is that a Roman illness?&quot; she asked with her insatiable
+inquisitiveness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, it occurs in most parts of the world,&quot; said the general drily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But only among poor people, I suppose?&quot; said the child.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, it is known to the better classes too, but it is not called by the
+same name,&quot; said the old man with some bitterness, more to himself than
+to Gabrielle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then it is wrong--a shameful thing to die of?&quot; she asked with wide,
+astonished eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly the general perceived that Zinka was listening; her head
+drooped as she heard the child's heedless catechism. He, under the
+circumstances, would have felt paralyzed--he would not have known what
+to say to the poor crushed soul; but not so Truyn. He turned to his
+companion and said something in a low tone. What, the general could not
+hear, but it must have been something kind and helpful--something
+which, without any direct reference to the past, conveyed his
+unalterable respect and regard, for she answered him almost brightly.
+Then he went on talking of trifles, remembering little incidents of his
+boyhood, characteristic anecdotes of his parents, and such small
+matters as may divert a sick and weary spirit, till, when they parted
+at the door of the palazetto, Zinka was smiling. &quot;That he has the
+brains of a genius I will not say, but he has genius of heart, I dare
+swear!&quot; thought the soldier.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Truyn had gone out riding with her two or three times across the
+Campagna, and she had enjoyed it; but one day they met Sempaly,
+galloping with his two handsome cousins over the anemone-strewn sward.
+From that day she made excuses for avoiding the Campagna--as though she
+thus avoided the chance, almost the certainty, of meeting him and them.
+Why then did she remain in Rome at all? Sterzl would not hear of her
+quitting it, because he thought that the world of Rome would regard it
+as a flight after defeat. His mother too, on different grounds, set her
+face against any such abridgment of their stay in Rome. Had she not
+taken the palazetto till the fifteenth of May?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And did Zinka, in fact, wish to go? She often spoke of longing to be at
+home again, but whenever their departure was seriously discussed it
+gave her a shock. She dreaded meeting him--and longed for it all
+the same. And in the evening when a few old friends dropped in to
+call--Truyn every evening and Siegburg very frequently--Truyn noticed
+that every time there was a ring she sat with her eyes fixed in eager
+expectation on the door. She still cherished a sort of hope--a broken,
+moribund hope that was in fact no more than unrest--the vitality of
+suffering.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>PART III.</h2>
+
+<h3>EASTER.</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Passion-week in Rome, and in all the glory and glow of an Italian
+spring. The glinting radiance brightens even the mystical gloom of St.
+Peter's, sparkles for an instant on the holy-water in the basins,
+wanders from the heads of the gigantic cherubs and the colossal
+statues down to the inlaid pavement, with the cold sheen of sunlight
+on polished marble. The hours glide on--the long solemn hours of
+Holy-Thursday in Rome; the last gleam of daylight has faded away, the
+vast cathedral is filled with almost palpable twilight and its
+magnificence seems shrouded in a transparent veil of crape. The stone
+walls look dim and distant, the fane seems built of shadows, and sacred
+mystery falls as it were from heaven, deeper and more solemn as the
+minutes slip by, to sanctify the spot.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the papal chapel Zinka is kneeling with Truyn and Gabrielle, her
+eyes fixed on her hands which are convulsively clasped, and praying
+with the passion of a youthful nature whose yearning has found no
+foothold on earth and seeks a home in heaven. On both sides sit the
+prelates and dignitaries of the church in their carved stalls,
+inquisitive and prayerless foreigners crowd at their feet. The tragedy
+of the passion is being recited in a monotonous, inconclusive chant
+that dies away in the dim corners of the chapel.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The last of the twelve tapers on the altar is extinguished....
+&quot;<i>Miserere mei</i>&quot; the choristers cry with terrible emphasis; and then,
+awful but most sweet, beginning as a mere breath and rising to a mighty
+wail of grief, comes a voice like the utterance of the anguish of the
+God of Love over the misery from which He can never release mankind.
+And before the majesty of that divine and selfless sorrow human sorrow
+bows in silence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka bends her head.--It is ended, the last sound has died away in a
+sob, the crowd rises to follow the procession which, with a cardinal at
+the head, wends its way through the church.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Truyn and the two girls quit the chapel; behind them the steps of the
+priests and choristers, drowned in their own echoes, sound like the
+rustling of angelic wings; the brooding, melancholy peacefulness has
+lulled Zinka's heart to rest; for the first time for many weeks she has
+forgotten....</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Most interesting, but the bass was hoarse!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was Polyxena Jatinsky who pronounced this summary criticism of the
+solemn ceremonial, close to Zinka. Zinka looked round; Sempaly with his
+aunt and cousins were at her side. They had attended the service in
+reserved places in the choir. Involuntarily yielding to an impulse of
+pain Zinka pressed forward, but Gabrielle had flown to join them; then
+she was obliged to stay and talk. The Jatinskys were perfectly
+friendly, Polyxena giving her her hand--Sempaly alone held aloof. On
+going out the air struck' chill, almost cold, on Zinka's face and she
+shivered. A well-known voice close behind her said rather brusquely:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are too lightly dressed and there is fever in the air. Put this
+round you,&quot; and Sempaly threw over her shoulders a scarf that he was
+carrying for one of the ladies.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you, I am not cold; these ladies will want the scarf,&quot; said
+Zinka hastily and repellently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Polyxena said nothing; perhaps she may have thought it strange that in
+his anxiety for this little stranger, her cousin should forget to
+consider that one of them might take cold. But Nini exclaimed: &quot;No, no,
+Fräulein Sterzl: we are well wrapped up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At this juncture Truyn's servant, who had been seeking them among the
+crowd, told them where the carriage was waiting.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">While Zinka, wrapped in Nini's China-crape shawl, is borne along
+between the splashing fountains, across the bridge of St. Angelo, and
+through the empty, ill-lighted streets to the palazetto, all her pulses
+are dancing and throbbing--and the stars in the sky overhead seem
+unnaturally bright. It is the resurrection of her pain and with it of
+the lovely mocking vision of the joys she has lost. Good God! how
+vividly she remembers them all--how keenly!--the long dreamy afternoons
+on the Palatine, the delicious hours in the Corsini garden--under the
+plane-trees by the fountain, where he talked about Erzburg while the
+perfume of violets and lilies fanned her with their intoxicating
+breath; the sound of his voice--the touch of his light, thin hand, his
+smile--his way of saying particular words, of looking at her in
+particular moments....</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She is walking with him once more in the Vatican, in rapt enjoyment of
+the beauty of the statues; the Belvedere fountain trickled and splashed
+in dreamy monotony; golden sunbeams fleck the pavement like footmarks
+left by the Gods before they mounted their pedestals; there is a
+mysterious rustle and whisper in the lofty corridors as of far, far
+distant ghostly voices,--and then, suddenly, she is in front of Sant'
+Onofrio's; the air is thick with a pale mist. At her feet, veiled in
+the thin haze, indistinct and mirage-like, the very ghost of departed
+splendor, lies Rome--the vast reliquary of the world; Rome, on whose
+monuments and ruins every conceivable crime and every imaginable virtue
+have set their stamp; where the tragedies of antiquity cry out to the
+Sacrifice on Calvary.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They had stood together a long time looking down on it; then she had
+lost a little bunch of violets which she had been wearing and as she
+turned round to seek them she had perceived that he had picked them up
+and was holding them to his lips. Their eyes had met....</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Yes! he had loved her! he loved her still--he must--she knew it. She
+told herself that, impulsive and excitable as he was, the merest trifle
+would suffice to bring him back to her; but whether it was worth while
+to long so desperately for a man who could be turned by the slightest
+breath--that she did not ask herself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And through all the torturing whirl of these memories, above the
+clatter of the horses' hoofs and the rattle of the wheels over the
+wretched pavement, she heard the cry &quot;<i>miserere mei</i>.&quot; But her thoughts
+turned no more to the God sacrificed for Man--the strongest angels'
+wings cannot bear us quite to heaven so long as our heart dwells on
+earth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-night,&quot; she said, kissing Gabrielle as the carriage drew up at
+the door of the palazetto.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will you let me have Nini's scarf for Gabrielle?&quot; said Truyn. &quot;I am
+afraid my little companion may catch cold.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! of course,&quot; cried Zinka, and she wrapped the child carefully in
+the shawl and kissed her again; &quot;when shall I learn to think of anyone
+but myself?&quot; she added vexed with herself.</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">Easter-Monday. All the bells in the churches of Rome are once more
+wagging their brazen tongues after their week of dumb mourning, and
+images of the Resurrection in every conceivable form--sugar, wax,
+soap--decorate all the shop windows.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Baroness Wolnitzka had returned fresher, gayer and more enterprising
+than ever from her visit to Naples, where she not only had had herself
+photographed in a lyric attitude leaning on a pillar in the ruins of
+Pompeii, but, in spite of her huge size which was very much against her
+taking such excursions, she had with the help of two guides and a
+remarkably vigorous mule, reached the top of Vesuvius. Thanks, too, to
+a cardinal's nephew with whom she had scraped acquaintance on her
+journey, with a view to making him useful, she had succeeded in
+obtaining--not indeed a private audience of the pope--but leave to
+attend a private mass--and receive the communion, in company with three
+hundred other orthodox souls, from his sacred hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This morning she had been to the palazetto to take leave of her
+sister--to ask once more after Sempaly--to give a full and particular
+account of the service at the Vatican--and to deliver a discourse on
+the philosophical value of the mass. Slawa, whose orthodoxy had been
+fanned to bigotry, and who on Easter eve had duly climbed the <i>santa
+scala</i> on her knees, had supplemented her mother's narrative with a
+variety of interesting details:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It was most exclusive, quite our own set, and few families of the
+Polish colony--I wore my black satin dress beaded with jet and I heard
+a gentleman behind me say: 'That is the only woman whose veil is put on
+with any taste.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sterzl had kept out of the way during their visit; Zinka had smiled
+amiably but had not attended: Baroness Clotilde had plied her sister
+with questions. Then the Wolnitzkas had left to go to the consecration
+of a bishop--also by invitation from the cardinal's nephew--the ladies
+were to be admitted to the sacristy and be presented with flowers and
+refreshments.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was about six o'clock in the evening when General von Klinger was
+shown into the drawing-room of the palazetto. The room was not so
+pretty as it used to be; the furniture was all set out squarely against
+the walls by the symmetrical taste of the servants, and the flower
+vases that were always so gracefully arranged now never held anything
+but bunches of magnolias or violets; Zinka no longer cared to arrange
+them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am so glad you happen to have come to-day,&quot; she cried as he came in.
+The brilliancy of her eyes and the redness of her lips showed that she
+was already suffering from that terrible spring fever which makes havoc
+with young creatures in the warm days of April and May. She was sitting
+by her brother on a low red sofa, as she had so often sat with Sempaly;
+the baroness was lounging in an arm-chair fanning herself; there was a
+sort of triumphant solemnity in her manner. Even Cecil, too, was
+evidently in some excitement though his air was just as frank and
+natural as ever.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good evening, general, what hot, trying weather!&quot; drawled the
+baroness. &quot;It is an extraordinary event to find us all at home together
+at this hour but we all have a sacred horror of the mob in the streets
+on a holiday afternoon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, mamma!&quot; interrupted Zinka, &quot;it is not only the crowd--we wanted to
+enjoy our good fortune together; did not we, Cecil?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He nodded and stroked her hair. &quot;Yes, little Zini.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only think. Uncle Klinger--you knew, of course, that Cecil's book on
+Persia had attracted a great deal of attention--but that is not all. He
+has been appointed <i>Chargé d'affaires</i> at Constantinople.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The general offered his congratulations and shook hands warmly with the
+young man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I could wish for nothing more exactly to my mind,&quot; said Cecil. &quot;There
+is always something to do there; a man always has a chance of making
+his mark and getting on.&quot; He was sincerely and frankly satisfied and
+affected no indifference to the distinction he had earned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In five years we shall see you ambassador,&quot; exclaimed the general,
+with the happy exaggeration that is irresistible on such occasions.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We do not go quite so fast as that,&quot; laughed Sterzl. &quot;However, I hope
+to rise in due time. Will not you be proud of me, Butterfly, when I am
+'your excellency!'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am proud of you already,&quot; said Zinka, &quot;and you know how vain I am,
+and how much I value such things!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was the first time for some weeks that the general had seen the two
+so happy together and it rejoiced his heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And the climate is good,&quot; Sterzl went on, &quot;one of the best in Europe;
+the foreign colony is friendly and pleasant. You will enjoy studying
+oriental manners from a bird's-eye view, Zini; and the change of air
+will do you good?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will take me too?&quot; she said turning pale.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, of course. The bay of Constantinople is lovely and we can often
+sail out on it; then, in the autumn, if I have time, we will make an
+excursion in Greece. You will be quite a travelled person.&quot; He put his
+finger under her chin and looked with tender anxiety into her thin
+face; every trace of color had suddenly faded from it, and the light
+that her brother's success had kindled in her eyes had died out.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It will be very nice--&quot; she said wearily; &quot;delightful--thank you,
+Cecil--you are always so kind ... when are we to start?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You might get off in about a week; the sea-voyage will not over-tire
+you, and you can stop to rest at Athens. In the hot season we can go up
+to the hills--&quot; then suddenly he glanced sharply in her face and his
+whole expression changed; he added roughly, with a scowl: &quot;but you need
+not come unless you like--stay here if you choose--I do not want to
+force you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At this instant the maid appeared to announce the arrival of a case
+from the railway.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The new ball-dresses!&quot; cried the baroness in great excitement. &quot;I am
+thankful they have come in time. I was quite in despair for fear I
+should not have my new gown in time for the ball at the Brancaleone's.
+It would have seemed so uncourteous to the princess.... Now let us see
+what Fanet has hit upon that is new....&quot; And she rustled out of the
+room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka sat still, with a frozen smile, looking like a criminal to whom
+the day of execution had just been announced, and uneasily twisting her
+fingers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course, I like it, Cecil ... how can you think ... and on Wednesday
+week we can start--Wednesday will be best ... now I must go and see
+what my new dress is like ... do not laugh at me uncle; I must make
+myself look as nice as I can for my last appearance.&quot; And she hurried
+off; but on her way she stumbled against a table and a book fell to the
+ground. She stopped, picked the book up, turned over the leaves and
+laid it down; then, as if she wished to make up to her brother for some
+unkindness, she went back to Cecil and put her hand on his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do really thank you very much,&quot; she said, &quot;and I am glad--really and
+truly glad, and very proud of you....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He looked up in her face and their eyes met--his lips quivered with
+rage--the rage of a lofty, generous, and masterful nature at finding
+itself incapable of making a woman dear to it happy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka shrank into herself &quot;My ball-dress!&quot; she faintly exclaimed, and
+she slipped out of the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For a few minutes the two men were silent. Presently the general spoke:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Zinka is going to the Brancaleones' to-morrow?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; replied Sterzl; &quot;at least, she has promised to go. Whether she
+will change her mind at the last moment and stay at home, of course I
+cannot foresee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But she really seems to care about it this time,&quot; said the general.
+&quot;At least she took an interest in her dress.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Her dress!... she did not even know what she was talking about. She
+fled that we might not see her tears....&quot; Sterzl broke out, losing all
+his self-control. Then he looked sternly at his friend as though he
+thought he had betrayed a secret But the old man's sad face reassured
+him. &quot;It is of no use to try to act before you,&quot; he went on; &quot;you are
+not blind--you must see how wretched she is--it is all over, general,
+she is utterly broken....&quot; He started to his feet and after pacing the
+room two or three times stood still and with a helpless wave of the
+hands and a desperate shrug, he exclaimed: &quot;There is nothing to be
+done--nothing!&quot; Then he sat down again and buried his face in his
+hands.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Von Klinger cleared his throat, paused for a word and could find
+nothing better to say than: &quot;In time--things will mend; you must have
+patience.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Patience!&quot; echoed Sterzl with an indescribable accent.
+&quot;Patience!--yes, if I could only hope that things would mend. At first
+it provoked me that she should let everybody see ... know ... I thought
+she might have more spirit and self-command. But now.--Good heavens!
+she does all she can and it is killing her ... that is not her fault.
+If only she were resentful--but she never complains; she is always
+content with everything, she never even contradicts my mother now. And
+then, what is worst of all, I hear her at night--her room is over
+mine--walking up and down, very softly as if she were afraid of waking
+anyone--up and down for hours; and often I hear her sobbing--she never
+sheds a tear by day!...&quot; he sighed. &quot;And then--if it were for a man who
+was worth it all!&quot; he went on. &quot;But that blue-eyed, boneless,
+good-for-nothing simpleton!... I ought never to have allowed her to
+step out of her own sphere--I ought never to have allowed them to
+become intimate! I knew he was not worthy of her, even when, as I
+believed--but you will laugh at my simplicity perhaps--he condescended
+to be in earnest.--You cannot imagine what it is now to have to
+meet him every day,--to hear him ask every day: 'how are you all at
+home?'--I feel ready to choke ... I could crush him under foot like a
+worm!... and I am bound to be civil. I may not even tell him that he
+has insulted me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baroness here came back.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Lovely!&quot; she exclaimed, with her affected giggle, &quot;quite perfect!
+Zinka has never had a dress that suited her so well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is well!&quot; said Sterzl vaguely, &quot;where is she?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is gone to lie down; she has a bad headache,&quot; minced the baroness.
+&quot;The young girls of the present day have no stamina. Why, at her age
+I....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The general was not in the mood to listen to her sentimental
+reminiscences and he took his leave. In the hall he once more wrung
+Cecil's hand: &quot;Fortune has favored you,&quot; he said; &quot;you have a splendid
+career before you, and in her new and pleasant home Zinka will
+forget.--I congratulate you on your new start in life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Aye--his new start in life!</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">The Brancaleone Palace, on the slope of the Quirinal, is one of the
+finest in Rome, and particularly famous for its gardens, laid out in
+terraces down the side of the hill, with the lower rooms of the palazzo
+opening on to the uppermost level. The dancing was in a large, almost
+square, room adjoining a long vaulted corridor full of old pictures
+relieved here and there by the cold severity of an antique marble
+statue. It was lighted by marvellous chandeliers of Venetian glass that
+hung from the ceiling. At the end of the corridor two steps led down
+into an anteroom, dividing it from a smaller sanctuary where the gems
+of the Brancaleone collection were displayed--mixed up, unfortunately,
+with several modern monstrosities--and from this room a door opened
+into the garden.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka arrived late. A transient and feverish expectancy lent her
+pinched features the brilliancy they had lost while her timid reserve
+gave her even more charm than her former innocent self-confidence, and
+her dress was certainly wonderfully becoming. Nor had she lost all her
+old popularity, for she was soon surrounded by a little crowd of Roman
+'swells;' one or two even of the Jatinskas' admirers deserted to Zinka.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Truyn was not present; the cold his little girl had caught at St.
+Peter's had developed into a serious illness, and he could not leave
+her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka, with her gliding grace, her small head held a little high, and
+her softened glance, was still pretty to watch as she danced, and
+attracted general attention. The music, the splendor of the
+entertainment, the consciousness of looking well put her into unwonted
+spirits. She sent a searching glance round the room--no, he was not
+there. Sterzl stood talking with the general, delighted with her little
+triumph and charming appearance; then he was congratulated by several
+men of distinction on his recent promotion. He thanked them with
+characteristic simplicity and sincerity--the evening was a success for
+him too. Not long after midnight he left to attend to pressing
+business--matters were in a very unsettled state--and went to the
+embassy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Within a short time Sempaly came in. He had spent the previous night,
+as was very generally known, at cards--this was a new form of
+dissipation for him--he had lost a great deal of money, and he looked
+worn and out of spirits. He did not care for dancing and came so late
+to ask his handsome cousins for the cotillon that they were both
+engaged--a result to which he was so manifestly indifferent that Nini
+actually wiped away a secret tear. He was now standing with his fingers
+in his waistcoat pockets and his glass in his eye, exchanging
+impertinent comments with a number of other young men, on the figure of
+this woman or that girl, and trying to imagine himself in the position
+of the fabulous savage who found himself for the first time in a
+civilized ball-room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly he was silent--something had arrested his attention.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The band was playing a waltz at that time very popular: &quot;<i>Stringi mi</i>,&quot;
+by Tosti. The room was very hot; it was the moment when the curls of
+the young ladies begin to straighten, and their movements--at first a
+little prim--begin to gain in freedom; when there is an electrical
+tension in the air suggestive of possible storms and the most
+indifferent looker-on is aware of an obscure excitement. Crespigny and
+Zinka spun past him--Zinka pale and cool in the midst of the emotional
+stir around her. She was not living in the present--she was in a dream.
+Suddenly Crespigny, who was not a good dancer, stumbled against another
+couple, caught his foot in a lady's train and fell with his partner.
+Sempaly pushed his way through the dancers with blind force and was the
+first to help Zinka to her feet. Without thinking for a moment of
+the hundred eyes that were fixed upon him he leaned over the young
+girl--her power over him had risen from the dead. She, bewildered by
+her fall, did not perhaps at first see who it was that had helped her
+to rise; she clung to his arm with half-shut eyes; then, as he
+whispered a few sympathizing words, she looked up, started, colored,
+and shrank from him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A very unpleasant accident,&quot; said some of the ladies.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly had taken possession of Zinka's slender hand and drew it with
+gentle insistence through his arm; then he led her out of the heated
+ball-room into the adjoining gallery.</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">The accident for which she had besieged Heaven with prayers had
+happened--the accident which threw him once more in her way. His old
+passion was awake again; she saw it--she could read it in his eyes. She
+summoned up all her self-command to conceal her happiness--not so much
+out of deliberate calculation as from genuine timidity and womanly
+pride. He talked--saying all sorts of eager, sympathetic things--she
+asked only the coldest and simplest questions. He had fetched her a
+wrap and with the white shawl thrown around her he led her from one
+room to another among the fan-palms and creamy yellow statues. Now and
+then she spoke to some acquaintance whom they met wandering like
+themselves, but these were fewer and fewer. The supper-room was thrown
+open and every one was gone to the buffet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka's coldness, for which he was not at all prepared, provoked
+Sempaly greatly. He felt with sudden conviction that there could be no
+joy on earth to compare with that of once holding her in his arms and
+kissing her--devouring her with kisses. This image took entire
+possession of him and beyond the possible fulfilment of that dream he
+did not look. That joy must be his at any cost, if the whole world were
+to crumble at his feet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Zinka,&quot; he said in a low tone, &quot;Zinka--Lent is over--Easter is come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes? what do you mean?&quot; she said coldly, almost sternly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I mean,&quot; he said, and he looked her straight in the face, &quot;that I have
+fasted and that now I will feast, and be happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They were in a small room--a sort of raised recess divided from the
+ball-room by a row of pillars; they were alone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A joy so acute as to be almost pain came over Zinka. It blinded and
+stunned her; she did not speak, she did not smile, she did not even
+look up at him; she could not have stirred even if she had wished
+it--she was paralyzed. He thought she would not hear him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Zinka,&quot; he urged, &quot;can you not forgive me for having jingled the
+fool's cap for six weeks till I could not hear the music of the
+spheres? Can you not forgive me--for the sake of the misery I
+have endured? I can bear it no longer--I confess and yield
+unconditionally--I cannot live without you....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka was not strong enough to bear such emotion; the terrible tension
+to which for the last quarter of an hour her pride had compelled her
+gave way; she tottered, put out her hands, and was falling. He put his
+arm round her and with the other hand pushed open a glass door that led
+into the garden.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come out, the air will do you good,&quot; he said scarcely audibly, and
+they went out on to the deserted terrace. His arm clasped her more
+closely and drew her to him. Involuntarily he waited till she should
+make some effort to free herself from his hold; but she was quite
+passive; she only raised a tear-bedewed face with a blissful gaze into
+his eyes, and whispered: &quot;I ought not to forgive you so easily....&quot; and
+then, with no more distrust or fear than a child clinging to its
+mother, she let her head fall on his shoulder and sobbed for happiness.
+A strange reverence came over him; the sound of some church bell came
+up from the city. He kissed her with solemn tenderness on the forehead
+and only said:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My darling, my sacred treasure!&quot; She was safe.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When the general came out of the card-room to look once more at the
+dancers before he withdrew, the cotillon, with its fanciful figures and
+lavish distribution of ribbons and flowers, was nearly over.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What a cruel idea!&quot; he heard in a lamentable voice from one of a row
+of chaperons, &quot;to give a ball in such heat as this!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was the baroness, who was searching all round the room with her
+eye-glass and a very sour and puckered expression of face. Siegburg,
+who, as the general knew, was to have danced the cotillon with Zinka,
+was sitting out; when von Klinger asked him the reason he answered very
+calmly, that &quot;he believed Zinka had felt tired and had gone home,&quot; But
+the way in which he said it roused the old man's suspicions that he put
+forward this hypothesis to prevent any further search being made for
+Zinka. He had seen her last in the corridor with Sempaly, and he
+hurried off to find her. He sought in vain in all the nooks hidden by
+the plants; in vain in the recesses behind the pillars--but the door to
+the garden was open. This filled him with apprehension--he went out,
+sure that he must be following them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The air was oppressively sultry and damp; it crushed him with a sense
+of hopeless anxiety. The scirocco had cast its baleful spell over Rome.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Northerners who have never been in Rome have no idea of the nature of
+the scirocco; they suppose it to be a storm of hot wind. No.... it is
+when the air is still and damp, when it distils but does not waft a
+heavy perfume that the scirocco diffuses its poison: a subtle influence
+compounded of the scent of flowers that it forces into life only to
+destroy them--of the mists from the Tiber whose yellow flood--like mud
+mixed with gold, which rolls over the corpses and treasure that lie
+buried in its depths--of the exhalations from the graves, and the
+perennial incense from all the churches of Rome. The scirocco cheats
+the soul with delusive fancies and fills the heart with gloom and
+oppression; it inspires the imagination with dreams of splendid
+achievement and stretches the limbs on a couch in languor and
+exhaustion. It penetrates even the cool seclusion of the cloister and
+breathes on the pale cheek of the young nun who is struggling for
+devout aspiration, reminding her of long forgotten dreams.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All that is melancholy, all that is cruel and wicked in Rome--much,
+too, that is beautiful--is engendered by the scirocco. It is creative
+of glorious conceptions and of hideous deeds. One feels inclined to
+fancy that on the day when Caesar fell under the dagger of Brutus
+Scirocco and Tramontane fought their last fight for the mastery of
+Rome--and Scirocco won the day.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A dense grey cloud hung over the city and veiled the sinking moon. A
+cascade that tumbled from basin to basin, down the terraced slope of
+the Quirinal, plashed weirdly in the deep twilight of the earliest
+dawn, which was just beginning shyly to vie with the dying moon. Light
+and shade had ceased to exist; the whole scene presented the dim,
+smudged effect of a rubbed charcoal drawing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The general sent a peering glance through the laurel-hedged alleys that
+led down the hill. Above the clipped evergreens, rose huge ilexes,
+wreathed to the very top with ivy and climbing roses. Here and there
+something white gleamed dimly in the grey--he rushed to meet it--it was
+a statue or a white blossomed shrub. Roses and magnolias opened their
+blossoms to the solitude, and the scent of orange-flowers filled the
+heavy air, stronger than all the other perfumes of the morning. Now and
+then, like a faint sigh, a shiver ran through the leaves--the fall of a
+dying flower.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man held his breath to listen; he called: &quot;Zinka--Sempaly!&quot; No
+answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly he heard low voices in a path known as the alley of the
+Sarcophagus and thither he bent his steps. The sullen light fell
+through a gap in the leafy wall on Sempaly and Zinka, seated on a
+bench, hand in hand, and talking familiarly, forgetful of all the world
+besides.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka was the first to see him; she was not in the least disconcerted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! Uncle Klinger!&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;Mamma is waiting for me, I dare
+say!--but do not scold me, I entreat you--.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thank God for those happy innocent eyes that looked so frankly into
+his!--On purity like hers Scirocco could have no power! No--he could
+not be angry with her.--But <i>he</i>!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sempaly!&quot; cried the old man indignantly: &quot;What possesses you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have at length made up my mind to be happy,&quot; said Sempaly with
+feeling, and he raised Zinka's hand to his lips. &quot;That is all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And I ought not to have forgiven him so easily--ought I?&quot; murmured
+Zinka, quailing at the general's stern frown, and her head drooped.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Zinka has been missed, you know how spiteful people are!&quot; exclaimed
+von Klinger angrily, ignoring the sentimentality of the situation.
+Sempaly interrupted him with vehement irritation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What I should like to do,&quot; he said half to himself, &quot;is to go straight
+back to the ball-room, and tell my most intimate friends at once of our
+engagement!&quot; But even as he spoke he reconsidered the matter; &quot;but I
+cannot,&quot; he went on, &quot;unfortunately I cannot. I must even entreat you,
+Zinka, to keep it a secret even from your own household.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, at once, with me,&quot; said the general drily, &quot;my carriage is
+waiting in the Piazza. If I am not mistaken there is a little gate here
+which leads on to it... Yes, here it is. I will tell your mother, so
+that others shall hear it, that you felt ill and left before the
+cotillon began and that Lady Julia took you home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When Zinka was safely on her way to the palazetto in charge of the
+general's trusty old coachman, the two men looked each other in the
+face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Outrageous!&quot; growled the general furiously. Sempaly turned upon him
+quickly:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Think what you will of me,&quot; he said, &quot;but do not let the shadow of a
+suspicion rest on Zinka. You know that if you hold up a cross to the
+devil himself, his power is quelled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Without answering a word the general hurried past Sempaly and straight
+into the ball-room; but he found time to lock behind him the alcove
+door leading into the garden. In the ball-room he was met by the
+baroness who anxiously asked him:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where is Zinka? have you seen Zinka?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Zinka felt shaken and upset by her fall--she went away a long time
+since, with Lady Julia who took her home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He spoke very distinctly and in French, so that several persons who
+were standing near might hear him. &quot;She might have let me know,&quot;
+exclaimed the baroness peevishly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We looked for you, but could nowhere find you,&quot; said the general.
+Never in his life before had he told a lie.</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">At some unearthly hour next morning he called on Lady Julia to confide
+to her the mystery of the night's adventure, that she might not
+contradict his story; as he had actually put Zinka into her carriage
+there seemed to be no other danger. Though she disliked the falsehood
+as much as he did, she was quite ready to confirm the fiction; at the
+same time she could not help saying again and again:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poor little thing! I hope it may all come right!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<span class="sc">Dearest Zinka</span>, my own sweet little love,</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My brother arrived in Rome last night; he is on his way to Australia
+and I am thankful to say stays only a few days. So long as he is here I
+must make every sacrifice and hardly see you at all, for he must know
+nothing of our engagement. Now, shall I tell you the real sordid reason
+why I cannot speak to him of my happiness?--during these last few
+miserable weeks, simply and solely to kill the time, I have gambled and
+have always been unlucky, and I have got deeply into debt. My brother
+will pay, as he always has done, so long as the conditions remain
+unchanged. But ... however, it is not a matter to write about. Believe
+this much only: that his narrow views can never affect my feelings
+towards you; though I may seem to yield, for I think it useless to
+provoke his antagonism. As soon as he has sailed there will be nothing
+in the way of our engagement and we will be married immediately. To an
+accomplished fact he must surrender. If I possibly can, I will see you
+this evening at the palazetto--just to have one kiss and a loving word.
+Till then I can only implore you to keep this absolutely secret.</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent:20%">&quot;Your perfectly devoted</p>
+
+<p class="right">&quot;N.S.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">This was the note that Zinka received the morning after the ball, as
+she was breakfasting alone in her own room, rather later than usual,
+but with a convalescent appetite. The color mounted to her cheeks, and
+her eyes flashed indignantly. Coldness and neglect she had borne--but
+the meanness and weakness--the moral cowardice--that this note
+betrayed, degraded him in her eyes till she almost scorned him. She
+felt as though a sudden glare had shown her the real Sempaly--as though
+the man she loved was not he, but some one else. The man she had loved
+was a lofty young god who had chosen to descend from his high estate to
+break the heart of an insignificant girl who ought to have thought
+herself happy only to have gazed upon him; but this was a boneless,
+nerveless mortal, who could stoop to petty subterfuge for fear of
+having to face the wrath of his brother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was furious; all the pride that had been crushed into silence by
+her dejection was roused to arms. She went to her desk and wrote as
+follows:</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am prepared to marry you in defiance of your brother's will, but I
+could never think of becoming your wife behind his back. I am ready to
+defy him, but I do not choose to cheat him. It is of no use to come to
+the house this evening unless you are quite clear on this point. I
+could not think of marrying you unless I were perfectly sure that I was
+more indispensable to your happiness than your brother's good will. You
+must therefore consider yourself released from every tie, and regard
+the words you spoke yesterday in a moment of excitement as effaced from
+my memory. Ever yours,</p>
+
+<p class="right">&quot;<span class="sc">Zinka Sterzl</span>.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka enclosed this peremptory note in an envelope, addressed it, rang
+for her maid and desired her to have it sent immediately to the Palazzo
+di Venezia.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And shall I say there is an answer?&quot; asked the girl.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No,&quot; said Zinka shortly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">No sooner had the maid gone on her errand than the hapless Zinka felt
+utterly wretched and almost repented of having written so
+indignantly... She might have said all that was in the note without
+expressing herself so bitterly. She thought the words over, knit her
+brows, shook her head--and at that moment her eye fell on another
+letter which had been brought to her with Sempaly's, and which she had
+forgotten to open. She saw that the writing was Truyn's. She hastily
+read the note which was a short one.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<span class="sc">Dear Zinka</span>:--My poor little girl has been much worse and the doctor
+gives me very little hope. She constantly asks for you, both when she
+is conscious and in her delirium. Come to her if you can. Your old
+friend,</p>
+
+<p class="right">&quot;<span class="sc">Truyn</span>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;P. S. It is nothing catching--inflammation of the lungs.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka started up--she forgot everything--her happiness, her grief,
+Sempaly himself--remembering only Truyn's indefatigable kindness and
+the sorrow that threatened him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nothing catching....&quot; she repeated to herself: &quot;poor man! he thinks of
+others even now--it is just like him. While I ... I?&quot; She colored
+deeply, for she recollected how that evening the child had sat
+shivering by her side and she had not noticed it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I had my head turned by a kind word from him....&quot; she thought vexed
+with her own folly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In a very few minutes she was hurrying across the Corso towards the
+Piazza di Spagna. Her maid had some difficulty in keeping up with her.
+Zinka almost flew, heeding nothing and looking at no one, till, in the
+Piazza di Spagna, she came upon a group of persons coming out of the
+Hotel de Londres and felt a light hand on her arm. Looking round she
+saw Nini.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-morning. Where are you off to in such a hurry?&quot; asked the young
+countess pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-morning,&quot; said Zinka hastily, &quot;I am in a great hurry--I am going
+to the Hotel de l'Europe; Gabrielle Truyn is very ill--she wants to see
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But at this moment Zinka perceived a tall, broad-shouldered man, with a
+very handsome face and haughty expression, standing close to Nini. He
+was gazing at her with perfectly well-bred admiration, and Nini
+introduced him as Prince Sempaly. Then she saw that Nicklas Sempaly was
+just behind, with Polyxena. His eyes met hers with a passionate flash,
+but he only bowed with distant formality. Zinka had no time to think
+about his manner, she was hardly conscious of his presence--all she
+felt was that she was being detained.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You must excuse me,&quot; she said, smiling an apology to Nini and shaking
+hands warmly with her without stopping to think of the formalities of
+caste. &quot;Poor Count Truyn is expecting me.&quot; And she hurried on again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who is that sweet-looking girl, Nini?&quot; asked the prince, &quot;for, of
+course, you omitted to mention her name.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fräulein Sterzl,&quot; replied Nini, &quot;the sister of one of the secretaries
+to the embassy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sterzl,&quot; repeated the prince somewhat flatly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Zenaïde Sterzl!&quot; said Polyxena over her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the ironical accent emphasis she laid on the odd mixture of the
+romantic and the commonplace was thrown away upon Prince Sempaly, who
+was much too fine a gentleman to laugh at his inferiors; all he said
+was:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sterzl? I seem to know the name. Sterzl--I served for a time under a
+Colonel Sterzl of the Uhlans. He was a very superior man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka meanwhile was flying on to the Hotel de l'Europe. In the
+sun-flooded court-yard stood two rose-trees, a white and a red--two
+brown curly-headed little boys were fighting a duel with walking-sticks
+in a shady corner--two English families were packing themselves into
+roomy landaus for an excursion and sending the servants in and out to
+fetch things that they had forgotten. The air was full of the scent of
+roses, and sunshine, and laughter; but one of the Englishwomen hushed
+her companion who had laughed rather loudly and pointing up to one of
+the windows said: &quot;Remember the sick child.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A cold chill fell on Zinka's heart--she ran up the familiar stairs. In
+Truyn's drawing-room sat Gabrielle's English governess--anxious but
+helpless.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;May I go in?&quot; asked Zinka.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, wait a minute--the doctor is there.&quot; At this moment Truyn came out
+of the child's room with Dr. E---- the German physician, and conducted
+him down-stairs. Truyn had the fixed, calm, white face of a man who is
+accustomed to bear his sorrows alone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When he returned he went up to Zinka and took her hand: &quot;She asks for
+you constantly,&quot; he said, &quot;but do you think you can prevent her seeing
+that you are unhappy and alarmed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes--indeed you may trust me,&quot; said Zinka bravely, wiping away her
+tears; and she went into the child's room &quot;as silent and bright as a
+sunbeam.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Some one must have seen Zinka and Sempaly in the course of their
+moonlight walk or else have found out something about it in spite of
+the general's precautions; this was made evident by an article which
+came out on the Friday after the ball in a French 'society paper'
+published weekly in Rome. The title of the article was &quot;a moonlight
+cotillon;&quot; it began with an exact description of Zinka, of whom it
+spoke as Fräulein Z---- a S--l, the sister of a secretary in the
+Austrian Embassy; referred to the sensation produced by her appearance
+as Lady Jane Grey, spoke of her as an elegant adventuress--&quot;a
+professional beauty&quot;--and hinted at her various unsuccessful schemes
+for winning a princely coronet; schemes which had culminated in a
+moonlight walk, a few nights since, during a ball at the house of a
+distinguished member of Roman society, and which had outdone in
+audacity all that had ever been known to the <i>chronique scandaleuse</i> of
+Rome. &quot;Will she earn her reward in the form of a coronet and will the
+pages of 'High Life' ere long announce a fashionable marriage in which
+this young lady will fill a part?--that is the question,&quot; so the
+article ended.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;High Life,&quot;--this was the name of the paper graced by this
+effusion--was scouted, abused and condemned by everybody, covertly
+maintained by several, and read by most--with disgust and indignation
+it is true, but still read. On this fateful Friday every copy of &quot;High
+Life&quot; was sold in no time, and before the sun had set Zinka's name was
+in every mouth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What said the world of Rome? Lady Julia cried, had some tea, and went
+to bed; Mr. Ellis said &quot;shocking!&quot; assured his wife that he was
+convinced of Zinka's innocence, and that it would certainly triumph
+over calumny; after which he quietly went about his business and spent
+two whole hours in practising a difficult passage on the concertina.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was the Brauers--the Sterzls' old neighbors before mentioned--who
+contributed chiefly to the diffusion of the article, supplementing it
+with their own comments. They had some acquaintance among the &quot;cream&quot;
+of Rome, though they had not been invited to the ball at the
+Brancaleone palace. Frau Brauer assumed a tone of perfidious
+compassion: it was a terrible affair for a young girl's reputation,
+though, for her part, she could see nothing extraordinary in a
+moonlight wandering with an intimate friend. Her husband, to whom the
+Sterzl family had paid very little attention--the baroness out of
+conceit, and Cecil and Zinka because he was in fact intolerably
+affected, pompous and patronizing--said with a sneering smile that he
+had never seen anything to admire in that little adventuress, with her
+free and easy innocence--pushing herself into society she was not born
+to. He had always thought it most unbecoming; and it must be a pleasant
+thing indeed for the Duchess of Brancaleone to have such a scandalous
+business take place in her house--she would be more careful for the
+future whom she invited!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame de Gandry and Mrs. Ferguson thought the article very amusingly
+written--not that they would ever have said a word about such a piece
+of imprudence--for really no one was safe! To be sure any evil that
+might be written against them would be a lie--a pure invention--which
+in Zinka's case was quite unnecessary ... So they sent the paper round
+to all their friends as a warning against rushing into acquaintance
+with strangers: &quot;One cannot be too careful.&quot; Zinka had seemed to them
+suspicious from the first, for after all she was not &quot;the real thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All these spiteful and cruel insinuations they even ventured to utter
+in the presence of Princess Vulpini, in the general's atelier, the spot
+where all that circle concentrated whenever anything had occurred to
+excite or startle it, and they made the princess furious.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am an Austrian myself,&quot; she said, &quot;and was brought up with ideas of
+exclusiveness which are as much above suspicion as they are beyond your
+comprehension. I am strictly conservative in all my views. But Zinka is
+elect by nature--an exceptional creature before whom all such laws give
+way. I should have regarded it as pure folly to sacrifice the pleasure
+of her acquaintance for the sake of a social dogma.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Exceptions always fare badly,&quot; murmured the general.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Countess Ilsenbergh, who was as strict on points of honor as she was on
+matters of etiquette, was deeply aggrieved by the article; she
+expressed herself briefly but strongly on the subject of the freedom of
+the press, and confessed that, whether Zinka were innocent or guilty,
+things looked very ugly for Sempaly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The count rushed into eloquence giving an exhaustive discourse on the
+whole social question.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Princess Vulpini is quite right,&quot; he said. &quot;Fräulein Sterzl is a
+bewitching creature, quite an exception--and if any departure from
+traditional law is ever permissible it would be so in her case. But the
+general too is right; exceptions must always fare badly in the world,
+and we cannot endanger the very essence and being of social stability
+in order to improve the position of any single individual. Above all,
+we must never create a precedent.&quot; And he proceeded to enlarge on the
+horrible consequences which must result from such a mixture of classes,
+referred to the example of France, and proposed the introduction of the
+Hindoo system of caste, in its strictest application, as a further
+bulwark for the protection of society in Europe and the coercion of
+ambitious spirits. His wife, at this juncture, objected that European
+society had not yet reached such a summit of absolute exclusiveness as
+he would assume, and that, consequently what was immediately needed was
+not any such far-reaching scheme for its protection, but some plan for
+dealing with the disagreeable circumstances in which its imperfection
+had at this time placed them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He replied that the matter lay in a nutshell; either the story in 'High
+Life' was a lie, in which case Sempaly had nothing to do but to deny it
+categorically, to prove an alibi at the hour mentioned and to horsewhip
+the editor--or, the facts stated were true, and then--under the
+circumstances--there was nothing for it--but ... &quot;the lady's previous
+character was quite above suspicion--there was nothing for it--but....&quot;
+and he shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But to make Fräulein Sterzl Countess Sempaly!&quot; cried Madame de Gandry.
+&quot;Well, I must say I do think it rather too much to give an adventurous
+little chit a coronet as a reward for sheer impudence. But I beg your
+pardon, general,--I had forgotten that you are a friend of the family.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And I,&quot; exclaimed the general beside himself, and quite pale with
+rage, &quot;I, madame, was within an ace of forgetting that I was listening
+to a lady!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Princess Vulpini interposed: &quot;You yourself said, madame, that you had
+always avoided any acquaintance with Zinka; now I have known her
+intimately, and seen her almost every day; I have observed her demeanor
+with men--with young men--and heard her conversation with other girls,
+and I can assure you that the word impudence is no more applicable to
+her conduct than to that of my little girl of three.--And if she did,
+in fact, go into the garden with my cousin the night of the ball, it is
+a proof simply of romantic thoughtlessness, of such perfect,
+unsuspicious innocence that it ought of itself avail to protect her
+against slander. I spent last night with Zinka, by the bedside of my
+little niece who is ill, and no girl with a stain on her conscience
+could look so sweetly pure or smile with such childlike sincerity. I
+would put my hand in the fire for her spotless innocence!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The princess spoke with such dignity and warmth, and while she spoke
+she fixed such a scathing eye on Madame de Gandry, that the
+Frenchwoman, abashed in spite of herself, could only mutter some
+incoherent answer and withdraw with Mrs. Ferguson in her wake.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The four Austrians were alone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The person who puzzles me in this business,&quot; said the princess, &quot;is
+Nicki Sempaly. As soon as this wretched paper came into my hands I sent
+it to his rooms. There I heard that he had just gone out with the
+Jatinskys. I went to the Hotel de l'Europe to talk it over with my
+brother, but he had gone to lie down and I had not the heart to wake
+him. Besides, he could have done no good, and I could not bear to
+disturb his happiness over his child's amendment.--So I came to
+unburden my heart to you, general.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sempaly cannot have seen it yet,&quot; suggested Ilsenbergh. The princess
+shrugged her shoulders. Countess Ilsenbergh once more expressed her
+opinion that &quot;it was a very unpleasant affair and that she had foreseen
+it all from the first,&quot; after which, finding that it would be difficult
+to prevent her husband from delivering another lecture, she rose to go.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At this instant Prince Vulpini came into the studio with a beaming
+countenance. &quot;Ah! here you are! I saw the carriage at the door as I was
+passing.--Have you heard the latest news?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sempaly is engaged to Zinka?&quot; cried his wife.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No!&quot; cried the prince; &quot;the wind last night tore down the national
+flag on the Quirinal. Hurrah for the Tramontana!&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">A few minutes later the general was alone; after a moment's hesitation
+he took up his hat and hurried off to the palazetto to see how matters
+stood there. He was one of those who had been the latest to hear of the
+slanderous article and at the same time to be the most deeply wounded
+by it. But perhaps by this time Sempaly had engaged himself to Zinka,
+he said to himself, and he hastened his pace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was the baroness's day at home. The silly woman was sitting dressed
+and displayed--a grey glove on one hand, while with the other she
+pretended to arrange a dish of bonbons.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How kind of you!--&quot; she exclaimed as the general entered the room. The
+stereotyped formula came piping out of her thin lips without the
+smallest variation to every fresh visitor, as chilling and as colorless
+as snow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had hardly greeted the baroness when he looked round for Zinka--at
+first without seeing her; it was not till a bright voice exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here I am, uncle, come and give me a kiss,&quot; that he discovered her, in
+the darkest corner of the room, leaning back in a deep arm-chair and
+looking rather tired and sleepy but wonderfully pretty and unwontedly
+happy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am so tired, so tired!--you cannot think how tired I am,&quot; she said,
+laying his hand coaxingly against her cheek, &quot;and mamma is so cruel as
+to insist on my staying in the drawing-room because it is her day at
+home, and I was sound asleep when you came in, for thank heaven! we
+have had no visitors yet. I sat with Gabrielle all last night and the
+night before without closing my eyes; but then I was so glad to think
+that the little pet would not take her medicine from anyone but me; and
+last night, at length, in the middle of one of my stories, she fell
+asleep on my shoulder. But then in order not to disturb her I sat quite
+still for six hours. I felt as if I had been nailed to a cross--and
+to-day I am so stiff I can hardly move.&quot; And she stretched her arms and
+curled herself into her chair again with a pretty caressing action of
+her shoulders. &quot;You ought to have stayed in bed,&quot; said the general
+paternally. &quot;Oh dear no! why I slept on till quite late in the morning.
+Besides, my being tired is of no real importance; the great point is
+that Gabrielle is out of danger: Oh, if anything had happened to
+her!...&quot; and she shuddered; &quot;I cannot bear to think of it. Count Truyn
+is firmly convinced that I have contributed in some mysterious way to
+the child's amendment, and when I came away this morning he kissed my
+hands in gratitude as if I had been the holy <i>Bambino</i> himself. I
+laughed and cried both at once, and now I am so happy--my heart feels
+as light as one of those air balls the children carry tied by a string,
+that they may not fly off up to the clouds. But why do you look so
+grave? are you not as glad as I am, uncle that....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baroness who had been looking at her watch here expressed her
+surprise that not a living soul had come near them to-day.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are evidently not a living soul, uncle--nothing but my dear grumpy
+old friend,&quot; said Zinka with her pathetic little laugh. There was
+something peculiarly caressing and touching about her to-day; the old
+man's eyes were moist and his heart bled for the sweet child.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Outside the door they heard a heavy swift step--the step of a man in
+pressing but crushing trouble; the door was torn open and Sterzl,
+breathless, green rather than pale, foaming with rage, stormed in--a
+newspaper in his hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is the matter--what has happened?&quot; cried Zinka dismayed. He came
+straight up to her and stared at her with dreadful eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Were you really in the garden with Sempaly during the cotillon?&quot; he
+said hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; she said trembling.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He gave a little start and shuddered--tottered--then he pulled himself
+up and flung the newspaper at her feet--at hers--his butterfly, his
+darling!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Read that,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Von Klinger tried to seize the paper, but Sterzl held him with a firm
+hand. &quot;Your leniency is out of place,&quot; he said dully; &quot;<i>she</i> may read
+anything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka read; suddenly she sprang up with a cry of horror and the
+paper fell out of her hand. Even now she did not understand the
+matter,--exactly what she was accused of she did not know; only that it
+was something unwomanly and disgraceful.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Cecil!&quot; she began, looking into his face, &quot;Cecil....&quot; and then she
+covered her face, which from white had turned crimson, with her hands.
+He meanwhile had felt the absolute innocence of the girl, and was
+repenting of his rash and cruel wrath.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Zini,&quot; he cried, &quot;forgive me--I was mad with rage--mad.&quot; And he tried
+to put his arm round her. But she held him off.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Leave me, leave me,&quot; she said. &quot;No, I cannot forgive you. Oh Cecil!
+if all the newspapers in the world had said you had cheated, for
+instance--do you think I should have believed them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He bent his head before her with a certain reverence: &quot;But this is
+different, Zini,&quot; he said very gently; &quot;I do not say it as an excuse
+for myself, but it is different. You do not see how different because
+you are a child--an angel--poor, sweet, little butterfly,&quot; and he drew
+her strongly to his breast and laid his lips on the golden head; she
+however would not surrender and insisted on freeing herself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What on earth is going on?&quot; the baroness asked again, for the
+twentieth time. Getting, even now, no reply, she picked up the
+newspaper that was lying on the floor, caught sight of the article,
+read a few lines of it, and broke out into railing complaints of
+Zinka--enumerating all the sins of which Zinka had been guilty from her
+earliest years and particularly within her recent memory, and ending
+with the words: &quot;And you will ruin Cecil yet in his career.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Be quiet, mother;&quot; said Cecil sternly. &quot;My career is not the present
+question--we must think of our honor and of her happiness,&quot; and leaning
+over the fragile and trembling form of his sister, he said imploringly:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Tell me, Zini, exactly what happened.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had freed herself from his clasp and was standing before him with
+her arms folded across--rigid though tremulous--and her voice was cold
+and monotonous as she obeyed him and gave with naïve exactitude her
+short and simple report, blushing as she spoke. When she had ended
+Cecil drew a deep breath.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And since that you have heard nothing of Sempaly?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The next morning he sent me a note.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Zinka, do not be angry with me ... show me that note.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She left the room and soon returned with the letter which she handed to
+Sterzl. He read it through with great gravity and marked attention then
+knitting his brows he slowly folded it up and turned it over.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you answered him?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what did you say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very little--that I was quite prepared to marry him without his
+brother's consent, but behind his brother's back?--No!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the midst of his trouble a flash of pride lighted up Sterzl's weary
+eyes. &quot;Bravo, Zini!&quot; he murmured, &quot;and he took this answer in silence?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka paused to think:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes....&quot; she said; &quot;but no.--He sent me a note to the Hotel de
+l'Europe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what does he say in that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have not read it yet; it came just at the moment when Gabrielle was
+at the worst and then I forgot it--but here it is....&quot; and she drew it
+out of the pocket of her blue serge dress. Sterzl shook his head and
+glanced with a puzzled air at his sister; then he opened the note. It
+was as follows:</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My darling little treasure, my haughty indignant little sweetheart:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Immediately on the receipt of your note I rushed to see you. The
+porter told me that you were not at home but with your poor little
+friend Gabrielle. Of course I cannot think of intruding on you there,
+though I would this day give a few years of my life for a sight of
+you--for one kiss. Sooner than lose you I am ready to throw up
+everything. Command and I obey ... but no, I must be wise for us both;
+I must wait till my affairs are somewhat in order. There is no help for
+it--I can only ask your forgiveness. I kiss your hands and the hem of
+your garment--I am utterly unworthy of you, but I love you beyond
+words.</p>
+
+<p class="right">&quot;Sempaly.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">When Sterzl had read this highly characteristic letter he slowly paced
+the room two or three times, and finally stood still in front of his
+sister. Then, taking her hand and kissing it fondly, he said:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Forgive me, Zini--I am really proud of you. You have behaved like an
+angel ... but he--he is a contemptible sneak.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But this she could not stand. &quot;I do not defend him,&quot; she exclaimed
+vehemently, &quot;but at any rate he loves me, and he understands me.--He,
+at any rate, would never have suspected me ... and ... and....&quot; But it
+was in vain that she paused for a word--she could say nothing more in
+his favor; but she called up all her pride, and holding her head very
+high she left the room; as soon as she was outside they could hear her
+sob convulsively.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The baroness rose to follow her, but Cecil stood in her way.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where are you going?&quot; he asked sternly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To Zinka; I really must make her see what mischief she has done. It is
+outrageous ... why, at thirteen I should have known better!&quot; Sterzl
+smiled bitterly:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very likely,&quot; he said, &quot;but I must beg you to leave Zinka to herself;
+she is miserable enough without that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And are we to submit to her heedlessness without even reproving her
+for it?&quot; said the baroness indignantly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, mother,&quot; he said decidedly; &quot;our business now is not to reprove
+her, but to protect and comfort her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At this juncture dinner was announced. Sterzl begged the general to
+remain and dine with them, for he had, he said, several things to talk
+over with him. He evidently wished above everything to avoid being
+alone with his mother. Before sitting down he went to Zinka's room to
+see whether she would not eat at least a little soup; but he came back
+much distressed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She would hardly speak to me,&quot; he said; &quot;she is quite beside herself.&quot;
+And he himself sat in silence, eating nothing, drinking little,
+crumbling his bread and playing with his napkin. Each time the door
+opened he looked anxiously round.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The meal was short and uncomfortable; when they had returned to the
+drawing-room and were drinking their coffee the servant brought Sterzl
+a letter. Cecil took it hastily, looked at the address, and, not
+recognizing the writing, at last opened it. It contained only a
+half-sheet of note-paper, with a cleverly sketched caricature: Sterzl
+himself as auctioneer, the hammer in one hand a doll in the other, and
+before him the coroneted heads of Rome. Sterzl at once recognized the
+likeness, though his lank figure was absurdly exaggerated, and his
+whole appearance made as grotesque as possible. He only shrugged his
+shoulders and said indifferently:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Does any one really think that such a thing as this can hurt or vex me
+now? Look, general--Sempaly, no doubt, is the ingenious artist of this
+masterpiece.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The general took the paper, and would have torn it across to prevent
+Sterzl from examining it any further; but before he could do so Cecil,
+looking over his shoulder, had snatched it out of his hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is something written on it!&quot; he said, deciphering the scribble
+in one corner, in Sempaly's weak, illegible hand-writing: &quot;Mademoiselle
+Sterzl, going--going--gone--!... Ah! I understand!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His face grew purple and he breathed with difficulty.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To send you this is contemptible,&quot; cried the general; &quot;Sempaly drew
+this before he had ever seen Zinka.... I know it, I was present at the
+time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What difference does that make?&quot; said Sterzl; &quot;if this is the view
+people took of me and my proceedings! Well, and after all they were
+right--I should have liked to see my sister brilliantly married--I
+meant it well ... and I have made myself ridiculous and have been the
+ruin of the poor child.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His rage and misery were beyond control; he walked up and down, then
+suddenly stood still, looking out of the open window; then again he
+paced the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sempaly is incomprehensible,&quot; he began, &quot;quite incomprehensible! I had
+no very high opinion of his character--particularly lately; but I could
+not have supposed him capable of such baseness and cruelty. What do you
+gather from his not coming here to-day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He simply has not happened to see the paper,&quot; the general suggested.
+&quot;He is gone on some expedition with his brother and his cousins.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, but even supposing that he has not read this article,&quot; said
+Sterzl, &quot;it still is very strange that, as matters stand between him
+and Zinka, he should have let two days go by without making any attempt
+to see her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The general was silent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You know him better than I do,&quot; Cecil began again presently, &quot;and, as
+Zinka tells me, you were present during some part of this romantic
+moonlight promenade. Do you think he seriously intends to marry her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know that he is madly in love with her, and even the Ilsenberghs,
+who were discussing the matter at my house with the Princess Vulpini,
+saw no alternative for him--irrespective of his attachment to her--but
+to make her an offer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We shall see,&quot; murmured Sterzl. He looked at the clock: &quot;half past
+nine!&quot; he exclaimed. &quot;This is becoming quite mysterious. I will try
+once more to see him at his rooms; his chasseur will perhaps know when
+he is expected to return home. Would you mind remaining here?&quot; he added
+in a low voice; &quot;keep my mother from going to Zinka; the poor child
+cannot bear it;&quot; and he hurried off.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In about half an hour he returned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well?&quot; asked the general.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He set out at one o'clock for Frascati, with the prince, the
+Jatinskys, and Siegburg,&quot; said Sterzl gloomily. &quot;When I asked whether
+he was to be back this evening the man said certainly, for he was to
+set off to-morrow morning with his excellency the ambassador. He has
+been afraid to declare his engagement for fear of a scene with his
+brother--he is gone out of Rome for fear of a scene with me--'High
+Life' was lying open on his writing-table.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They heard the light rustle of a dress. Sterzl looked round--behind him
+stood Zinka with tumbled hair and anxious, eager, tear-dimmed eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Zinka!&quot; he cried, stepping forward to catch her; for her gaze was
+fixed, she staggered, put out her hands with a helpless gesture and
+fell into his arms. He laid her head tenderly on his shoulder and
+carried her away.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly's nervous system was very sensitive and his ear remarkably
+delicate; he had in consequence a horror--a perfect mania of
+aversion--for any scene which might involve excitement and loud
+talking. Besides this he had the peculiarity--common enough with the
+spoilt children of fortune--of always ignoring as far as possible the
+inevitable difficulties of life in the hope that some <i>deus ex machina</i>
+would interfere to set matters straight for him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His passion for Zinka was perfectly genuine, at once vehement and
+tender; far from diminishing, it had, if possible, increased during
+these last three days. Though that hour of sentimental and guileless
+talk with Zinka under the midnight moon had for the time satisfied her,
+it had only fevered him; and while his cowardly double-dealing had
+lowered him in her esteem, her straightforward pride had raised her
+infinitely in his. He was utterly miserable, but this did not prevent
+him from allowing his good-natured senior to pay his enormous debts,
+nor--in order to propitiate him--from paying specious attentions to his
+cousins. It must, however, be said in extenuation, that this flirtation
+was not so much deliberate as instinctive, for he was a man whose
+untutored and unbounded impulse to make himself agreeable led him
+irresistibly to do his utmost to produce a pleasant impression, even at
+the sacrifice of his honor. If, only once, during these three days, he
+had had an opportunity of speaking to Zinka all might perhaps have
+turned out differently. He would probably have found it easy, with his
+wonderful fascination of person, to recover the ground he had lost; and
+her proud rectitude might possibly have influenced him to take a bolder
+course of action. But, in the first instance, he could not intrude on
+Zinka while she was sitting by her little friend Gabrielle, and the
+idea of rushing into an explanation with Sterzl did not smile on his
+fancy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus he let the hours slip by, till, on the Friday morning, the
+luckless copy of 'High Life' was brought into him addressed in a
+feigned hand. This made him furious, and he was on the point of rushing
+off to the palazetto when he remembered that he had promised to be
+ready to join the party to Frascati at one o'clock. He had dipped his
+pen and prepared the paper to send an excuse to the Hotel de Londres
+when there was a knock, and Prince Sempaly, with his two cousins,
+walked in, half an hour before the appointed time.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What a surprise!... An unexpected honor!&quot; he exclaimed somewhat
+disconcerted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is what we intended,&quot; said Polyxena laughing. &quot;Hum! there is a
+rather pronounced perfume of latakia in your room--but the whole effect
+is pretty, very pretty,&quot; while Nini looked timidly about her with her
+fawn-like eyes. A bachelor's quarters are, as is well known, one of the
+most interesting mysteries that ever exercise the curious imagination
+of a young lady.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The girls insisted on seeing your den,&quot; the prince explained, &quot;so I
+had to bring them, whether or no, while Siegburg amuses their mamma.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, you yourself proposed it, Oscar!&quot; cried Nini.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly bowed. &quot;From this time henceforth this room is consecrated
+ground,&quot; he said gallantly--and &quot;High Life&quot; was lying on his desk all
+the time and an iron fist seemed clenched upon his heart. If his
+brother had but come alone ... but with these two girls ... it was
+crucial.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Xena began to touch and examine all his odds and ends, to open his
+books, and at last to hover round his writing-table where, with
+graceful impertinence, she was about to take up the fatal sheet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stop, stop!&quot; cried Nicki, &quot;that is not for your eyes, Xena.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Look, but touch not,&quot; said the prince, with a good-natured laugh;
+&quot;young maidens like you are not permitted to inspect the secrets of a
+bachelor's rooms too closely. You might seize a scorpion before we
+could interfere. Besides, we must not keep your mother waiting any
+longer, children; make haste and get ready, Nicki.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For a moment Sempaly tried to think of an excuse; then he reflected
+that it really was not worth while to spoil the pleasure of Oscar's
+last day--all might be set right afterwards. So he only asked for time
+to write a note, and scribbled a few lines to Sterzl in which he
+formally proposed for Zinka. This note he confided to a porter desiring
+him to carry it at once to the secretary's office.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After this he was for a time very much pleased with himself; but, as
+the afternoon wore on, the more uneasy he became, and it was to this
+unrest that most of the tender glances were due that the prince cast
+alternately on him and on Nini. He felt more and more as if he were
+being driven into a trap; in the Villa Aldobrandini he found an issue
+from some of his difficulties. Suddenly, as they were standing by the
+great fountain, Nini and he found themselves <i>tête-à-tête</i>, a
+circumstance arising from the consentaneous willingness of the rest of
+the party to give them such an opportunity. He seized the propitious
+moment to disburden his soul. He addressed her as his sister, confessed
+his secret betrothal, and implored her kind interest for Zinka. Nini,
+who felt as though she had been stabbed to the heart, was brave as
+became her and for sheer dread of betraying her own feelings, she tried
+to take a pleasure she was far from feeling in the success of his love
+affair. He kissed her hand and kept near her for the rest of the day.
+His brother, who perceived that the young couple had come to an
+understanding, communicated his observations to Countess Jatinska with
+extreme satisfaction. He was himself a man of strong and lofty feeling,
+free from all duplicity, and he could not conceive that a young man
+could have anything to say to a very handsome girl in private but to
+make love to her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The day was at an end. With that want of precaution of which only
+foreigners in Rome can be guilty, they set out homewards much too late
+and did not reach the hotel before ten. Here Nemesis overtook Sempaly.
+At the end of supper, which the little party had served to them in the
+countess' private sitting-room, and at which the confidential footing
+on which Sempaly stood with regard to his cousin was thrown into
+greater relief, the prince, with a frank smile of self-satisfaction at
+his powers of divination, raised his glass and said: &quot;To the health of
+the happy couple.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Nini turned crimson; Nicki turned pale. He was in the trap now. Brought
+to bay he could do nothing but turn upon the foe whom he could not
+evade. He was possessed by a wild impulse to snatch the odious mask
+from his own face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And who are the happy couple?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You need not be so mysterious about it, Nicki,&quot; cried his brother
+warmly. &quot;Of you and....&quot; but a glance at Nini reduced him to silence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of me and Fräulein Zinka Sterzl,&quot; said Sempaly with vehement emphasis.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The blood flew to the prince's head; rage and horror fairly deprived
+him of speech. Countess Jatinska laughed awkwardly, Polyxena pursed her
+lips disdainfully while Nini gave her cousin her hand and said loyally:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your bride shall always find a friend in me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But now the prince's wrath broke loose--he was furious; he swore that
+this insane marriage should never take place, and could not conceive
+how his brother--a man old enough to know better--could have allowed
+such a piece of madcap folly to enter his head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The ladies rose and withdrew; Sempaly, who till within a few minutes
+had been so weak and vacillating, had suddenly become rigid in
+obstinacy and he desired the waiter to bring him the fateful number of
+'High Life'. The prince read it, but his first observation was: &quot;Well!
+and a pretty state the world would soon come to if every man who lets a
+charming adventuress entrap him into an indiscretion were to pay for it
+by marrying her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At this insulting epithet applied to Zinka, Sempaly fired up. He did
+not attempt to screen himself, he defended Zinka as against himself,
+with the most unsparing self-accusation. Egotistical, sensitive, and
+morally effete as he was, he was still a gentleman, and he now set no
+limits to his self-indictment; it seemed as though he thought that by
+heaping invective on his own head he could expiate the baseness into
+which he had been betrayed during the last few days. He told the whole
+story: that he had loved Zinka from the first time of seeing her: that
+he had been on the point of making her an offer when an accidental
+interruption had suddenly snatched him from the heaven of hope and
+bliss: that he had neglected and forsaken her: that his constant
+intimacy with his handsome cousins had raised a barrier between him and
+Zinka; then, how he had met her that night at the Brancaleones', and
+how, as he helped her to rise after her tumble, his passion had taken
+entire possession of him--all this he told, down to the moment when she
+had laid her head on his shoulder. &quot;And before such guileless trust
+what man is there that would not bow in reverence!&quot; he ended, &quot;all
+Rome can bear witness to her sweetness and goodness; ask whom you
+will--Marie Vulpini, Truyn, even the Ilsenberghs--or Siegburg here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The prince turned to Siegburg.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can make neither head nor tail of the matter,&quot; he said. &quot;Is all he
+says of this girl true, or mere raving?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Siegburg's answer was simple, eager, and plain; it is, at all times, a
+difficult thing for a young man to praise a girl without reflecting on
+her in any way, but Siegburg's testimony in Zinka's favor was a little
+masterpiece of genuine and respectful enthusiasm. Prince Sempaly's face
+grew darker as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And the young lady in question is the girl we met the other day in the
+Piazzi?&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The sister of the secretary of legation whom the ambassador introduced
+to me yesterday, and the niece of my old colonel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And from what you tell me not only an absolutely blameless creature,
+but universally beloved?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For a minute the prince was silent. Every fibre of his being had its
+root in the traditions of the caste into which he had been born, and a
+connection between Zinka Sterzl and a Sempaly was to him simply
+monstrous. He had in the highest degree a respect for his past--&quot;le
+respect des ruines&quot;--but they must be grand ruins, of a noble past, or
+they did not touch him at all. With his head resting on his hand he sat
+silent by the supper-table, which was not yet cleared and where the
+lights sparkled in the half-empty champagne-glasses, and the flowers
+placed for the ladies still lay by their plates. Suddenly he looked up,
+and pointing to the newspaper, he asked:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Had you seen that article when we came to fetch you from your rooms
+this morning?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The prince sat bolt upright.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you did not stay in Rome to defend the girl?&quot; His black eyes
+looked straight into his brother's blue ones. &quot;You came with us? You
+left this young lady to be, for the whole day, the victim of the
+slander of all the evil tongues of Rome, for fear of an unpleasant
+explanation--for fear of a few high words with me?--You have behaved in
+a base and unmanly way throughout this affair, both to this young lady
+and to the poor sweet creature in there....&quot; and he pointed to the door
+behind which the two young countesses disappeared with their mother.
+&quot;Of course I shall not let you starve; your allowance shall be paid to
+you regularly as heretofore--but beyond that we have no further
+connection; we have nothing in common, you and I. Go!&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">The <i>deus ex machina</i> had failed to appear. The dreaded scene with his
+brother had been postponed for a few hours, but it had come at last and
+Sempaly had gained nothing by his procrastination and duplicity. He had
+provoked not merely his brother's anger but his scorn as well, while
+his marriage with Zinka, when he had at last found himself compelled to
+announce it to his brother, had altogether lost its startling and
+interesting aspect as a chivalrous romance, and had come down to a mere
+act of reparation to satisfy his conscience.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly rose rather earlier than usual next morning, his nerves still
+conscious of the remembrance of this unsatisfactory scene and of the
+sleepless night that had been the consequence. Vexed with himself; at
+once surprised and touched by his brother's lofty indignation; ashamed
+to think of the calumny to which his irresolution and his absence must
+have exposed Zinka--he was in that state of sensitive irritability in
+which a man holds all the world in some degree responsible for his own
+shortcomings, and is ready to revenge himself on the first man he meets
+for the misery he is enduring.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">While he was waiting for his breakfast, walking up and down the
+sitting-room--half drawing-room, half smoking-room--the general came
+in. For the first time in his life Sempaly greeted the old man as an
+intruder.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-morning,&quot; he cried, &quot;what procures me the honor of such an early
+visit?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well,&quot; said Von Klinger hotly, &quot;it can scarcely surprise you that I,
+as Zinka's god-father and oldest friend, should come to ask you what
+you mean by your extraordinary conduct.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That, it seems to me, is her brother's business,&quot; said Sempaly
+roughly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is on purpose to prevent a collision between you and Sterzl that I
+have come so early,&quot; replied the general, who was cut out for an
+officer of dragoons rather than for a diplomatist. &quot;Sterzl is beside
+himself with fury, and I know that your intentions with regard to Zinka
+are perfectly honorable, and so....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But at this moment the general's eye fell on a travelling-bag that the
+luxurious young attaché was wont to carry with him on short journeys,
+and which lay packed on the divan. &quot;You are going away?&quot; asked the old
+man surprised.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I had intended to accompany my brother as far as Ostia to-day and
+return early to-morrow; but that is at an end--the prince and I have
+quarrelled--yes, I have quarrelled past all possibility of a
+reconciliation with my noble and generous brother. Are you satisfied?&quot;
+and he stamped with rage.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And is the want of judgment that has led to your parting any fault of
+mine pray?&quot; exclaimed the general angrily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a hasty rap at the door; on Sempaly's answering: &quot;come in,&quot;
+Sterzl walked in. He did not take Sempaly's offered hand but drew a
+newspaper out of his pocket, held it out in front of Sempaly, and asked
+abruptly:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you read this article?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; said Sempaly from between his teeth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yesterday--before you went out?&quot; Sterzl went on.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This word-for-word repetition of the prince's question touched all
+Sempaly's most painful and shameful recollections of the scene to the
+quick. His eyes flashed, but he said nothing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sterzl could contain himself no longer. All the bitter feelings of the
+last six weeks seethed in his blood, and the luckless travelling-bag
+caught his eye. This was too much...</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What happened next?...</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The general saw it all in a flash of time--unexpected, and inevitable.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sterzl took one stride forward and struck Sempaly in the face with the
+newspaper. At the same moment Sempaly's servant came in with the
+breakfast tray.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A few minutes later Sterzl and the general went down the stairs of the
+embassy in silence, not even looking at each other. When they were
+outside the younger man stopped and drew a deep breath:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sempaly will send you his seconds in the course of the morning,&quot; he
+said; &quot;I must ask you to act for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The general nodded but did not speak.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will send word to Crespigny too, and then you can do whatever you
+think proper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Still the general said nothing, and his silence irritated Sterzl.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I could bear it no longer,&quot; he muttered as if in delirium; &quot;what ...
+do you suppose ... too much....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">By this time they were in the Corso. Towards them came Siegburg, as
+bright and gay as ever, his hat pushed back on his head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am happy to be the first to congratulate you, Sterzl,&quot; he cried.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On what pray?&quot; said Sterzl fiercely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On your sister's engagement to Sempaly--what! then you really did know
+nothing about it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sterzl was bewildered: &quot;What is it--what are you talking about?--I do
+not understand,&quot; he stammered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What, have you not heard?&quot; Siegburg began; &quot;the bomb fell last
+evening; Nicki declared his engagement. Oscar, to whom the whole
+business was news ... come into this café and I will tell you exactly
+all about it; it does not do to discuss such things in the street.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I--I have not time,&quot; muttered Sterzl with a fixed vacant stare; and,
+as he spoke, he shot past Siegburg; but his gait was unsteady and he
+ran up against a passer-by.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What on earth ails him?&quot; said Siegburg looking after him. &quot;I thought
+he would be pleased and--well! the ways of man are past finding out.
+This marriage will create a sensation in Vienna, eh, general? But I
+approve--I entirely approve. We are on the threshold of a new era, as
+Schiller--or some one has said, Bismarck very likely--and we shall live
+to tell our children how we stood by and looked on. But what is the
+matter with you both--you and Sterzl? To be sure--you were coming from
+the Palazzo di Venezia--have Nicki and Sterzl quarrelled--a challenge!&quot;
+The general nodded. &quot;But it can be amicably arranged now,&quot; said
+Siegburg consolingly.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">On his return home Sterzl found Sempaly's note of the day before. The
+porter had taken it, as he was ordered, to the secretary's office, but
+as Sterzl had not gone there all day it had lain unopened; till, this
+morning, one of the messengers had thought it well to bring it to the
+palazetto. Sterzl read it and hid his face in his hands.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Within a short time Sempaly's seconds were announced--Siegburg and a
+military attaché from the Russian embassy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">No, it could not be amicably arranged--under the circumstances there
+was but one way of satisfying the point of honor. This point of
+honor--what is it? A social dogma of the man of the world, and the
+whole creed of the southern aristocrat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sterzl was to start that night by the eleven o'clock train for Vienna,
+on matters of business, before setting out for Constantinople. The
+affair must therefore be settled at once. Beyond fixing the hour Sterzl
+left everything to his seconds. Swords, at seven that evening, among
+the ruins opposite the tomb of the Metellas was finally agreed on.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Soon after six, Sterzl and his seconds set out. The carriage bore them
+swiftly along, through the gloomy, stuffy streets which lead to the
+Forum, along the foot of the Palatine, and past the Colosseum, through
+the arch of Constantine into the Via Appia, on and on, between grey
+moss-grown walls, over which they caught glimpses of ruins and tall
+dark cypresses. Then the walls disappeared and bushy green hedge-rows,
+covered with creepers, bordered the road, and presently the Campagna
+lay before them, an endless, rolling, green carpet, with its attractive
+melancholy, and the poisonous beauty of orchids and asphodels with
+which each returning spring decks its waste monotony, like a wilderness
+in a fevered dream.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sterzl sat in silence on the back seat, facing his two friends. He did
+not even pretend to be cheerful. A brave man may sometimes face death
+with indifference, but hardly with a light heart. Death is a great king
+to whom we must need do homage. His soul was heavy; but his two
+companions, who knew not only his staunch nature but all the
+circumstances of the duel, knew that it was not from anxiety as to his
+own fate. He could not forget that this catastrophe was, at last, due
+solely and entirely to his own violence and loss of self-command. He
+never once reflected that this engagement--brought about by a series of
+makeshifts and accidents--could hardly have resulted in a happy
+marriage; he had forgotten Sempaly's sins and remembered one thing
+only: that his sister might have had the moon she had longed for, and
+that he alone had snatched it from her grasp.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A powerful fragrance filled the air, coming up from the orchids, from
+the blossoming hedges, from the fresh greenery of the gardens, like the
+very soul of the spring, bringing a thousand memories to his brooding
+brain and aching heart. It reminded him of the great untended orchard
+at home, and of one morning in the last May he had spent there before
+going to school. The apple-trees were clothed with rosy blossom;
+butterflies were flitting through the air, and the first forget-me-nots
+peeped bluely among the trailing brambles on the brink of the brook
+that danced across the garden, murmuring sleepily to the shadowy,
+whispering alders. There was a fragrance of the soil, of the trees, of
+the flowers--just as there was now--and Zinka, then a mere baby, had
+come tripping to meet him and had said with her little confidential and
+important air:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do believe that God must have set the gates of heaven open for once,
+there is such a good smell.&quot; He could see her now, in her white
+pinafore and long golden hair, clinging to her big brother with her
+soft, weak little hands. And he had lifted her up and said: &quot;Yes, God
+left the door open and you slipped out my-little cherub.&quot; With what
+large, wondering eyes she had looked into his face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had always been his particular pet; his father had given her into
+his special charge and now ... &quot;poor, sweet butterfly!&quot; he said to
+himself, half audibly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not be too strict in your fence,&quot; said a deep voice close to him.
+It was Crespigny who thus startled him from his dream of the past:--&quot;Do
+not be too scientific. You have everything in your favor--practice,
+skill, and strength; but Sempaly--I know his sword-play well--has one
+dangerous peculiarity: you never know what he will be at.&quot; Sterzl
+looked over his shoulder. The tomb of Cecilia Metella was standing
+before them.</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">Opposite the tomb of Cecilia Metella is a deserted and half-ruined
+early Gothic structure, a singular mixed character of heathen grandeur
+and of mediæval strength, lonely and roofless under the blue sky. A
+weather-beaten cross, let into the crumbling stone-work above the
+door-way, betokens it a sanctuary of the primitive Christian times; on
+entering we see a still uninjured apse where the altar table once
+stood. No ornament of any kind, not even a scrap of bas-relief, is to
+be seen; nothing but frail ferns--light plumes of maiden hair that deck
+the old walls with their emerald fronds. The floor is smooth and
+covered with fine turf, from which, in spring-time, white and red
+daisies smile up at the sky, and dead nettles grow from every chink and
+along the foot of the walls.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The other party were already on the spot; Sempaly was talking
+unconcernedly, but with no affectation of levity, to the Russian, and
+bowed politely to the three men as they came in. His manner and conduct
+were admirable; in spite of his irritable nervousness, there were
+moments when he had--and in the highest degree--that unshaken
+steadfastness which is part of the discipline of a man of the world, to
+whom it is a matter of course that under certain circumstances he must
+fight, just as under certain others he must take off his hat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Siegburg changed color a good deal; the others were quite cool. They
+made a careful survey lest some intruding listener should be within
+hearing, but all was still as death. The vineyard behind the little
+chapel was deserted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The formalities were soon got through; Sempaly and Sterzl took off
+their coats and waistcoats, and took the places assigned to them by
+their seconds.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The signal was given.--The word of command was heard in the silence
+and, immediately after, the first click of the swords as they engaged.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Any one who has lived through the prolonged anticipation of a known
+peril or ordeal, knows that, when the decisive moment has arrived, the
+tension of the nerves suddenly relaxes; anxiety seems lifted from the
+soul, fear vanishes and all that remains is a sort of breathless
+curiosity. This was the case with the general and Siegburg; they
+watched the sword-play attentively, but almost calmly. Sempaly was the
+first to attack, and was extraordinarily nimble. Sterzl stood strictly
+on the defensive. He fenced in the German fashion, giving force to his
+lunge with the whole weight of his body; and this, with his skill and
+care, gave him a marked advantage over his lighter adversary. The sense
+of superior strength seemed at first to hinder his freedom; in fact,
+the contest, from a mere technical point of view, was remarkably
+interesting. Sempaly displayed a marvellous and--as Crespigny had
+said--quite irresponsible suppleness, which had no effect against
+Sterzl's imperturbable coolness. It was evident that he hoped to weary
+out his antagonist and then to end the duel by wounding him slightly.
+He had pricked Sempaly just under the arm, but Sempaly would not be
+satisfied; it was nothing he said, and after a short pause they began
+again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly was beginning to look pale and exhausted, his feints were
+short, straight, and violent; Sterzl, on the contrary, looked fresher.
+Like every accomplished swordsman, in the course of a long fight he had
+warmed to his work and was fighting as he would have done with the
+foils, without duly calculating the strength of his play; things looked
+ill for Sempaly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly, through the silence, a song was heard in the distance, in a
+boy's thin piping soprano:</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-5pt">
+&quot;Bright May--the sweetest month of Spring;<br>
+The trees and fields with flowers are strown--&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="normal">It sent a thrill through Sterzl's veins, reminding him of the evening
+when Zinka had sung those words to Sempaly. The romantic element that
+was so strong in him surged to his brain; he lost his head; fearing to
+wound Sempaly mortally, he forgot to cover himself and for a second he
+suddenly stood as awkward and exposed as though he had never had a
+sword in his hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The seconds rushed forward--too late.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With the scarcely audible sound that the sharp steel makes as it
+pierces the flesh, Sempaly's sword ran into his adversary's side.
+Sterzl's flannel shirt was dyed with blood--his eyes glazed--he
+staggered forward a step or two--then he fell senseless. The duel was
+over.</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">A quarter of an hour later and the wound had been bound up as best it
+might, and in the closed landau, which they had made as comfortable as
+they could by arranging the cushions so as to form a couch--the general
+supporting the groaning man's head on his arm, and opposite to him the
+surgeon--they were driving homewards' slowly--slowly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Dusk had fallen on the Campagna, from time to time the general looked
+out anxiously to see how far they were still from Rome. The road was
+emptier and more deserted every minute; a cart rattled past them full
+of peasants, shouting and singing at the top of their voices; then they
+met a few white-robed monks, wending their way with flaring torches to
+some church; and then the road was perfectly empty. The cypresses stood
+up tall and black against the dull-hued sky and the wide plain was one
+stretch of grey.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At last the arch of Constantine bends over them for a minute and the
+horses hoofs clatter on the stones--slowly--slowly.... The lamps of
+Rome twinkle in the distance--they have reached the Corso, at this hour
+almost empty of vehicles but crowded with idlers, and the cafés are
+brilliantly lighted up. The slowly-moving landau excites attention, the
+gapers crowd into knots, and stare and whisper. At last they reach the
+palazetto, turn into the court-yard and get out. The porter comes out
+of his den, his dog at his heels barking loudly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hush, silence!&quot; says the general--the servants come rushing down, the
+women begin to sob and cry, and again the general says:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hush, hush!&quot; as if it were worth while to keep Zinka in ignorance for
+a minute more or less.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With some difficulty the heavy man is lifted out and carried
+up-stairs--the heavy shuffling steps sound loud in the silence.
+Suddenly they hear Zinka's voice loud in terror, then the baroness's
+in harsh reproof--a door is flung open and Zinka rushes out to meet
+them--a half-smothered cry of anguish breaks from her very heart--the
+cry with which we wake from a hideous dream.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They carried him into his room, and while they carefully settled him in
+bed the servant announced Dr. E----, the famous German physician of
+whom mention has already been made. Sempaly, who had driven back at
+full speed and had reached Rome more than an hour sooner than the
+general with the wounded man, had sent him at once. Dr. E---- examined
+the patient with the greatest care, adjusted the bandage with admirable
+skill, wrote a prescription, and ordered the application of ice. He
+gave a sympathetic hand to each of the ladies, who were standing
+anxiously at the door as he left the room, and reassured them with an
+encouraging smile; promising them, with that kindly hopefulness to
+which he owed half his fashionable practice, that the wounded man would
+pass a quiet night.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But when he was face to face with the general, who escorted him down
+stairs, the smile vanished.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The wound is dangerous?&quot; asked the old man with a trembling heart. The
+surgeon shook his head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you a relation?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, but a very old friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is mortal,&quot; said Dr. E---- &quot;I maybe mistaken--of course, I may be
+wrong ... nature sometimes works miracles and the patient has a
+splendid physique. What fine limbs! I have rarely seen so powerful a
+man--but so far as human science can foresee ...&quot; and he left the
+death-warrant unspoken. &quot;It is always a comfort to the survivors to
+know that all that can be done has been done; I will come early
+to-morrow morning to enquire. Send the prescription to the French
+chemist's--it is the best. Good-night.&quot; And he got into the carriage
+that was waiting for him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The general gave the prescription to the porter, who, with the
+readiness and simplicity that are so characteristic of the Italians,
+rushed off at once without his hat. As if there were really any
+hurry!...</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old soldier, composing himself by an effort, returned to the
+bedroom. Zinka was standing very humbly at the foot of the bed, pale
+and tearless, but trembling from head to foot. The baroness was pacing
+the room and sobbing violently, wringing her hands and pushing her hair
+back from her temples. Of course she flew at the general with questions
+as to the surgeon's prognosis. His evasive answers were enough to fill
+her with unreasonable hope and to revive the worldly instincts which
+her terrors had for a moment cast into the background.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes, he will pass a quiet night,&quot; she whimpered; &quot;he will get
+well again--it would have been too bad with such a brilliant career
+before him;--but this is an end to Constantinople ...&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka, on the contrary, had turned still paler at the general's report
+but she said nothing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">That there had been a duel she and her mother had of course understood.
+What did she infer from that? What did she think--what did she feel?
+She herself never rightly knew; in her soul all was dark--in her heart
+all was cold. Her whole being was concentrated in horror.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After much and urgent persuasion the general succeeded in inducing the
+baroness to leave the room and to lie down for a time, &quot;to spare
+herself for her son's sake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had hardly closed the door when the servant came quietly in and
+said that Count Truyn had come. Zinka looked up.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Shall I let him come in?&quot; asked the general. Zinka nodded.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Siegburg had told him, and though it was now eleven Truyn had hurried
+off to the palazetto. He came into the room without speaking and
+straight up to Zinka. The simple feeling with which he took her hands
+in both his, the deep and tender sorrow at being unable to help or to
+reassure her that spoke in his eyes comforted and warmed her heart; the
+frozen horror that had held her in its clasp seemed to thaw; tears
+started to her eyes, a tremulous sob died on her lips; then,
+controlling herself with great difficulty, she murmured intelligibly:
+&quot;There is no hope--no hope!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His mother's loud lamentations had not roused the wounded man but the
+first sound from Zinka recalled him to consciousness; he began to move
+uneasily and opened his sunken eyes. The whites shone dimly, like
+polished silver, as he fixed them on his sister's face; from thence
+they wandered to a blood-stained handkerchief that had been forgotten,
+and then to the general. Slowly and painfully he seemed to comprehend
+the situation. He struggled for breath, with an impatient movement of
+his hands and shoulders, and then shivered as with a spasm. He was
+conscious now, and sighed deeply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The first thing that occurred to him was his official duty:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you sent word to the ambassador?&quot; he asked the general almost
+angrily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, not yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then make haste, pray; they must telegraph to Vienna.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes,&quot; said Von Klinger soothingly, &quot;I will see to it at once.
+Would you be good enough to stay till I return?&quot; he added to Truyn and
+he hurried away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For a few minutes not a word was spoken, then Sterzl began:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you know how it all happened, Count?&quot; Truyn bowed. &quot;And you, Zini?&quot;
+asked Cecil, looking sadly at the girl's white face. &quot;I know that you
+are suffering--that is all I want to know,&quot; she replied.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! Zini....&quot; Sterzl struggled for breath and held out his hand
+to Zinka, then he went on in a hoarse and hardly audible voice: &quot;Zini
+... Butterfly ... it was all my doing ... I have spoilt your life ... I
+did it....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She tried to stop him: &quot;You must not excite yourself,&quot; she said,
+leaning over him tenderly; &quot;forget all that till you are better--I know
+that you have always loved me and that you would have fetched the stars
+from heaven for me if you could have reached them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He shuddered convulsively: &quot;No, Zini, no ... you might have had the
+stars,&quot; he said in a panting staccato; &quot;the finest stars. Sempaly was
+not to blame ... only I ... the prince had agreed ... but I ... I
+forgot myself ... and I spoilt it all ... oh, a drink of water, Zini,
+please!...&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She gave him the water and he drank it greedily; but when she gently
+tried to stop his mouth with her hand he pushed it away, and went on
+eagerly, though with a fast failing voice: &quot;No ... I must tell you ...
+it is a weight upon my soul. There, in my desk ... Count ... in the
+little pocket on the left ... there is a letter for Zinka.--Give it
+her....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Truyn did his bidding. The letter was sealed and addressed to Zinka in
+Cecil's fine firm hand. She opened it; it contained the note that
+Sempaly had written before starting for Frascati and Sterzl had added a
+few words of explanation in case it should not fall into Zinka's hands
+till after his death.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She read it all while the dying man anxiously watched her face, but her
+expression did not alter by a shade. Sempaly's words glided over her
+heart without touching it; even when she had read both notes she did
+not speak. Two red flames burnt in her pale cheeks.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I got ... the note ... too late,&quot; said Sterzl sadly, &quot;the general ...
+can tell you how ... how it all happened ... I lost my head ... but he
+... he is safe, so you must forgive me ... and do ... act ... as if I
+had never existed ... then ... I shall rest ... in peace ... and be
+happy in ... my grave ... if I know ... that you are ... happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Still she did not speak; her eyes were strangely overcast; but it was
+not with grief for her lost happiness. Suddenly she tore the note
+across and dropped the pieces on the floor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If he had written ten letters,&quot; she cried, &quot;it would have made no
+difference now; do not let that worry you, Cecil--it is all at an end.
+Even if there were no gulf between us I could never be his wife! I have
+ceased to love him.--How mean he is in my eyes--compared with you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And so the brother and sister were at one again; the discord was
+resolved.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For more than four and twenty hours Cecil wrestled with death and Zinka
+never left his side. The certainty of their mutual and complete
+devotion was a melancholy consolation in the midst of this cruel
+parting. The pain he suffered was agonizing; particularly during the
+night and the early morning; but he bore it with superb fortitude and
+it was only by the nervous clenching of his hands and the involuntary
+distortion of his features that he betrayed his suffering. He hardly
+for a moment slept; he refused the opiate sent by the surgeon; he
+wished to &quot;keep his head&quot; as long as possible.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When Zinka--with a thousand tender circumlocutions--suggested to him
+that he should receive the last sacraments of the Church he agreed. &quot;If
+it will be any comfort to you, Butterfly,&quot; he sighed; and he received
+the priest with reverent composure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the afternoon he was easier--Zinka began to hope.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are better,&quot; she whispered imploringly, &quot;you are better, are you
+not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am in less pain,&quot; he said, and then she began making plans for the
+future--he smiled sadly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">No man could die with a better grace, and yet it was hard to die.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The catastrophe had roused universal sympathy. The terrible news had
+spread like wildfire through the city and a sort of panic fell on the
+rank and fashion of Rome. No one, that day, who had ever spoken a
+spiteful or a flippant word against Sterzl or his sister, failed to
+feel a prick of remorse. Every one came or sent to the palazetto to
+enquire for them. Now and again the baroness would come in
+triumphantly, in her hand a particularly distinguished visiting-card
+with its corner turned down, and rustle up to the bedside: &quot;Ilsenbergh
+came himself to the door to ask after you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Late in the day he fell into an uneasy sleep; Zinka and the general did
+not quit the room. The window was open but the air that blew in through
+the Venetian blinds was damp and sultry. The street was strewn with
+straw; the roll of the carriages in the Corso came, dulled by distance,
+up to the chamber of death. Then twilight fell and the rumbling echoes
+were still. Presently, the slow irregular tramp of a crowd broke the
+silence, with the accompaniment of a solemn but dismal chant Zinka
+sprang up to close the window; but she was not quick enough. The
+sleeper had opened his weary eyes and was listening--: &quot;A funeral!&quot; he
+muttered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After this he could not rest, and his sufferings began once more. He
+tossed on his pillow, talked of his will, begging the general to make a
+note of certain trifling alterations; and when Zinka entreated him not
+to torment himself but to think of that by-and-bye, he shook his head,
+and murmured in a voice that was hoarse and tremulous with pain: &quot;No, I
+am in a hurry ... time presses ... railway fever ... railway fever ...&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When Zinka, unable to control herself, was leaving the room to hide her
+tears, he desired her to remain:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only stop by me ... do not leave me, Zini,&quot; he said. &quot;Cry if it is a
+relief to you ... but stay here ... poor little Butterfly!... yes, you
+will miss me....&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Once only did he lose his self-command. It was late in the evening. He
+had begged them to send to the embassy for an English newspaper which
+would give some information as to a certain political matter in which
+he was particularly interested; the ambassador himself brought it to
+his bedside.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How are you?... how are you now?&quot; he asked with sincere emotion ...
+&quot;You were quite right, Sterzl. Ignatiev has done exactly as you said;
+you have a wonderful power of divination ... I shall miss you
+desperately when you go to Constantinople....&quot; and his excellency
+fairly broke down.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a painful pause. &quot;I am going further than Constantinople....&quot;
+Sterzl murmured at length. &quot;I should like to know who will get my
+place....&quot; His voice failed him and he groaned as he hid his face in
+the pillow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The end came at midnight. Dr. E---- had warned the general that it
+would be terrible; but it was in vain that they tried to persuade Zinka
+to leave the room. The whole night through she knelt by the dying man's
+bed in her tumbled white dressing-gown--praying.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At about five in the morning his moaning ceased. Was all over? No, he
+spoke again; a strange, far-away look, peculiar to the dying, came into
+his eyes. &quot;Do not cry, little one--it will all come right....&quot; and then
+he felt about with his hands as if he were seeking for something--for
+some idea that had escaped him. He gazed at his sister. &quot;Go to bed,
+Zini--I am better ... sleepy ... Constanti....&quot; He turned his head to
+the wall and breathed deeply. He had started on his journey.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The general closed his eyes and drew Zinka away. Outside in the
+corridor stood a crushed and miserable man--it was Sempaly. Pale,
+wretched, and restless, he had stolen into the palazetto, and as he
+stood aside his hands trembled, his eyes were haggard. She did not
+shrink from him as she went by--she did not see him!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A glorious morning shone on the little garden-court. In a darkly-shady
+corner a swarm of blue butterflies were fluttering over the grass like
+atoms fallen from the sky. It was the corner in which the Amazon stood.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Thanks to Siegburg's always judicious indiscretion all Rome knew ere
+long that Prince Sempaly had consented to Zinka's marriage with his
+brother the evening before the duel, and at the same time it heard of
+Sterzl's burst of anger and its fearful expiation. Princess Vulpini's
+unwavering friendship, which during these few days she took every
+opportunity of displaying, silenced evil tongues and saved Zinka's good
+name. Now, indeed, there was a general and powerful revulsion of
+feeling in Sterzl's favor. It suddenly became absurd, petty, in the
+very worst taste, to doubt Zinka--Zinka and Cecil had always been
+exceptional natures....</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sterzl had expressed a wish to be buried at home; the body was embalmed
+and laid in a large empty room, where, once upon a time, the baroness
+had wanted to give a ball. There were flowers against the wall, and on
+the floor. The bier was covered with them; it was a complete Roman
+<i>Infiorata</i>, The windows were darkened with hangings and the dim ruddy
+light of dozens of wax-tapers filled the room. Countess Ilsenbergh and
+the Jatinskys came to this lying in state; distinguished company, in
+ceremonial black, crowded round the coffin. Never had the baroness had
+so full a 'day' and her sentimental graces showed that, even under
+these grim circumstances, she felt this as a satisfaction. She stood by
+the bier in flowing robes loaded with crape, a black-bordered
+handkerchief in her hand, and a tear on each cheek, and--received her
+visitors. They pressed her hand and made sympathetic speeches and she
+murmured feebly: &quot;You are so good--it is so comforting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Having spoken to the mother, they turned to look for the sister; every
+one longed to express, or at least to show, their sincere sympathy for
+her dreadful sorrow. But she was not in the crowd--not to be seen, till
+a lady whispered: &quot;There she is,&quot; and in a dark recess. Princess
+Vulpini was discovered with a quivering, sobbing creature, as pale as
+death and drowned in tears; but no one ventured to intrude on her grief
+No one but Nini, who looked almost as miserable as Zinka herself, and
+who went up to her, and put her arms round her, and kissed her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Next day mass was performed in the chapel of San-Marco, adjoining the
+embassy, and a quartette of voices sang the same pathetic allegretto
+from the seventh symphony that had been played, hardly three months
+since, for the 'Lady Jane Grey' tableau.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A week later the Sterzls quitted Rome. Up to the very last the baroness
+was receiving visits of condolence, and to the very last she repeated
+her monotonous formula of lament:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And on the threshold of such a splendid career!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka was never in the drawing-room, and very few ventured to go to her
+little boudoir. Wasted to a shadow, with sunken, cried-out eyes and
+pinched features, it was heart-rending to see her; and after the first
+violence of her grief was spent she seemed even more inconsolable. It
+is so with deep natures. Our first sorrow over the dead is always mixed
+with a certain rebellion against fate--it is a paroxysm in which we
+forget everything--even the cause of our passionate tears. It is not
+till we have dried our eyes and our heart has raged itself into
+weariness--not till we have at last said to ourselves: &quot;submit,&quot; that
+we can measure the awful gap that death has torn in our life, or know
+how empty and cold and silent the world has become.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Every day made Zinka feel more deeply what it was that she had lost.
+She was always feeling for the strong arm which had so tenderly
+supported her. The general and Princess Vulpini did everything in their
+power to help her through this trying phase, but the person with whom
+she felt most at her ease was Truyn; and very often, after seven in the
+evening, when she was sure of meeting no one, she stole off to visit
+Gabrielle; it was touching to see how the little girl understood the
+trouble of her older friend, and how sweetly she would caress and pet
+her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">On the morning of their departure Truyn and the general saw them off
+from the station. After the ladies were in the carriage Truyn got in
+too, to open or close the windows and blinds; when he had done this
+Zinka put out her hand:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God bless you, for all your kindness,&quot; she said, and as she spoke she
+put up her face to give him a kiss.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For an instant he hesitated then he signed her forehead with a cross,
+and bending down touched her hair with his lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>Au revoir</i>,&quot; he murmured in a half-choked voice, he bowed to the
+baroness and jumped out. As he watched the train leave the station his
+face was crimson and his eyes sparkled strangely; and he stood
+bareheaded to catch the last glimpse of a pale little face at the
+window.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If only I had the right to care for her and protect her,&quot; he muttered.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">And now to conclude.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Baroness Sterzl was one of those happily rare natures who have not one
+redeeming point. In her Moravian estate, whither they now retired, she
+was sick of her life, and treated Zinka with affectionate austerity.
+Bored and embittered, she was always bewailing herself and made every
+one miserable by her sour mien and doleful, appearance. When the year
+of mourning was ended she began to crave for some excitement; she made
+excursions to watering places, and to Vienna, where she gathered round
+her the fragmentary remains of her old circle of acquaintance and tried
+to astonish them by magnificent reminiscences of her sojourn in Rome.
+At the same time she still wore deep furbelows of crape, and wrote her
+invitations on black-edged paper; she talked incessantly of her broken
+mother's-heart wearing, as it were, a sort of Niobe nimbus; while, in
+fact, her display of mourning was nothing more than a last foothold for
+her vanity. General von Klinger always declared that at the bottom of
+her heart she was very proud of her son having been run through by a
+Sempaly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She died, about three years after the catastrophe, of bronchitis, which
+only proved fatal because, though she already had a severe cold,
+nothing could dissuade her from going on a keen April morning to see
+the ceremony of washing the beggars feet at the Burg, with a friend
+from the convent of the Sacred Heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Zinka felt the loss of her mother more deeply than could have been
+expected. Year after year she spent summer and winter in her country
+house, where Gabrielle Truyn, with her English governess, sometimes
+passed a few weeks with her--her only visitors. Truyn very rarely went
+to see her, and never stayed more than a few hours; and the sacrifice
+it was to him to lend his little companion for those visits can only be
+appreciated by those who have understood how completely his life was
+bound up in hers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With Princess Vulpini Zinka kept up an affectionate correspondence.
+Very, very, slowly did her grief fade into the background; but--as is
+always the case with a noble nature--it elevated and strengthened her.
+She gave up her whole time to acts of kindness and benevolence; the
+only pleasure in which, for years, she could find any real comfort was
+alleviating the woes of others.</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">Not long after the death of the baroness, General von Klinger left
+Europe to travel, and did not return till the following spring
+twelvemonths. He disembarked at Havre and proceeded to Paris, where he
+proposed spending a few days to see the Salon before going home. By the
+obliging intervention of a friend he was admitted to the &quot;<i>vernis
+sage</i>&quot;--varnishing day, or, more properly, the private view--the day
+before the galleries were opened to the public. Among the little crowd
+of fashionable ladies who had gained admittance by the good offices of
+a drawing-master or an artist friend, he observed a remarkably pretty
+young girl who, with her nose in the air, was skipping from one picture
+to another with a light and vigorous step, and pronouncing judgment on
+the works exhibited with the inexorable severity and innocent conceit
+of a fanatical novice. This fair young critic was so thoroughly
+aristocratic in her bearing, there was something so engaging in her
+girlish arrogance, so like a spoilt child in her confidential chat with
+her companion--an elderly man, and one of the best known artists of
+Paris--that the old soldier-painter could not help watching her with
+kindly interest. Presently she happened to see him; scrutinized him for
+a moment, and came to meet him with gay familiarity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, General! are you back at last? How glad papa will be--and you
+have not altered in the very least!...&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot say the same of you, Countess Gabrielle,&quot; he replied.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, of course. We last met four years ago at Zini's I think, ...&quot;
+she chattered on. &quot;Then I was a child, and now I am grown up; and I
+will tell you something. General, I have exhibited a picture--quite a
+small water color drawing,&quot; and she blushed, which made her look like
+her father, &quot;you will come and look at it will you not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course,&quot; he declared; and then, glancing at her dress: &quot;You are in
+mourning?&quot; he said hesitatingly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; she replied, &quot;in half mourning now--for poor mamma; it is nearly
+a year since she died....&quot; and a shade crossed her face--&quot;ah, there is
+papa!&quot; she exclaimed, suddenly brightening, &quot;we are always losing each
+other--our tastes are different--papa is old fashioned you know--quite
+behind the times ...&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Truyn greeted the general very heartily; Gabrielle stood looking from
+one to the other; little roguish dimples played in her cheeks, and at
+last she stood on tiptoe and whispered something to her father. At
+first he seemed doubtful, and it was not without a shade of
+embarrassment that he said:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We are going on to the Hotel Bristol, where we are to breakfast with
+my sister. It will, I am sure, give her the greatest pleasure if you
+will join her party.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The general made some excuses--it was an intrusion, and so forth--but
+he allowed himself to be persuaded and drove off with them through the
+flowery and well-watered alleys of the Champs Elysées to the hotel in
+the Place Vendôme.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Aunt Marie,&quot; said Gabrielle as she danced into the room, &quot;guess who is
+here with us!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, General!&quot; said the princess warmly, &quot;you are the right man in the
+right place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But another figure caught his eye--a little way behind his hostess
+stood Zinka. The sorrow she had experienced had stamped its lines
+indelibly on her face; still, there was in her eyes a light of calm and
+assured happiness that blended very sweetly with the traces of past
+grief. The bright May-morning of her life had been brief and it was
+past, but there was so tender a charm in her face and manner that even
+Gabrielle, with the radiance of eighteen, could not vie with her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Truyn went up to her and there was an awkward silence. Then Gabrielle
+began to laugh heartily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And cannot you guess, General?&quot; she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is not yet announced to the world,&quot; Truyn stammered out, &quot;but you
+have always taken such a kind interest ...&quot; and he took Zinka's hand.
+The old man's face beamed--he positively hugged Zinka and shook hands
+vehemently with Truyn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Zinka burst into tears--: &quot;Oh, uncle,&quot; she said, &quot;if only Cecil
+were here!&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="W10">
+
+<p class="normal">And Sempaly?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After the catastrophe he vanished from the scene--went to the East, and
+there again came to the surface. A Sempaly may do anything. He is now
+considered one of our most brilliant diplomatists.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But he has gone through a singular change; from a dandified, frivolous
+attaché he became a hard-and-fast official. He looks if possible more
+distinguished than ever and his features are more sharply cut. He is
+irritable, arrogant and ruthless; never sparing man or woman the biting
+sarcasms that dwell on the tip of his tongue, and yet, still--nay, more
+than ever--he exercises an almost irresistible spell over all who come
+in contact with him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">One day, when the general was waiting at some frontier station in
+Hungary for a train to Vienna, he was struck by the full rich voice of
+a traveller in a seal-skin coat, with a fur cap pulled down over his
+brows, who was giving peremptory orders to his servant. The old man
+looked round and his eyes met those of the stranger--it was Sempaly,
+also on his way to Vienna, from the East. They spoke--exchanging a few
+commonplace remarks, but without any cordiality. Presently Sempaly
+began with the abruptness for which his name was a by-word:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have just come from Paris. You were present at the wedding? What
+do you think of Truyn's marriage?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am delighted at it,&quot; said the general.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, everybody seems satisfied. Marie Vulpini is enchanted, and
+Gabrielle pleaded for her papa--so I hear.--So everything is for the
+best in this best of all possible worlds!&quot; he added in his sharp, hasty
+tones--&quot;and Zinka--how is she looking? The papers said she was lovely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is still very charming,&quot; said the general, with the facile
+garrulity of old age, &quot;and happiness always beautifies a woman--she had
+but one regret: that Cecil had not lived to see it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was suddenly conscious of his stupendous want of tact; so, to put
+the conversation on neutral ground, he eagerly began to compliment
+Sempaly on the wonderful rapidity of his advancement, remarking that it
+must afford him great satisfaction to have so fitting a sphere for the
+exercise of his peculiar talents.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sempaly looked at him keenly, and shrugging his shoulders, with a
+singular smile, he said:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is a strange thing, General--when we are young we claim happiness
+at the hands of Destiny, as if it were our right; as we grow older we
+humbly sue, only for peace, as an alms.--We get what we demand more
+easily than what we beg for--but it slips through our fingers.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>THE END.</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<table style="width:20%; margin-left:40%; border:solid black 2px">
+<tr><td>
+
+<h3 style="margin-bottom:2pt">ADVERTISEMENTS</h3>
+</td></tr>
+</table>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1"><b>THE AMAZON.</b>--An Art-Novel, by <b>Carl Vosmaer</b>, from the Dutch by E. J.
+Irving, with frontispiece by Alma Tadema, R. A., and preface by Georg
+Ebers. In one vol. Paper, 40 cts. Cloth, 75 cts.</p>
+
+<hr class="W20">
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Among the poets who never overstep the limits of probability and yet
+aspire to realize the ideal, in whose works we breathe a purer air, who
+have power to enthral and exalt the reader's soul, to stimulate and
+enrich his mind, we must number the Netherlander Vosmaer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The Novel 'Amazon,' which attracted great and just attention in the
+author's fatherland, has been translated into our tongue at my special
+request. In Vosmaer we find no appalling incident, no monstrous or
+morbid psychology, neither is the worst side of human nature portrayed
+in glaring colors. The reader is afforded ample opportunity of
+delighting himself with delicate pictures of the inner life and
+spiritual conflicts of healthy-minded men and women. In this book a
+profound student of ancient as well as modern art conducts us from
+Paestum to Naples, thence to Rome, making us participators in the
+highest and greatest the Eternal City can offer to the soul of man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Vosmaer is a poet by the grace of God, as he has proved by poems both
+grave and gay; by his translation of the Iliad into Dutch hexameters,
+and by his lovely epos 'Nanno,' His numerous essays on æsthetics, and
+more especially his famous 'Life of Rembrandt,' have secured him an
+honorable place among the art-historians of our day. As Deputy Recorder
+of the High Court of Justice he has, during the best years of his life
+(he was born March 20, 1826), enjoyed extensive opportunities of
+acquiring a thorough insight into the social life of the present,
+and the labyrinths of the human soul. That 'The Amazon,' perhaps
+the maturest work of this author, should--like Vosmaer's other
+writings--be totally unknown outside Holland, is owing solely to the
+circumstance that most of his works are written in his mother-tongue,
+and are therefore accessible only to a very small circle of readers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is a painful thing for a poet to have to write in a language
+restricted to a small area; and it is the bounden duty of the lover of
+literature to bring what is excellent in the literature of other lands
+within the reach of his own countrymen. Among these excellent works
+Vosmaer's 'Amazon' must unquestionably be reckoned. It introduces us to
+those whom we cannot fail to consider an acquisition to our circle of
+acquaintances. It permits us to be present at conversations which--and
+not least when they provoke dissent--stimulate our minds to reflection.
+No one who listens to them can depart without having gained something;
+for Vosmaer's novel is rich in subtle observations and shrewd remarks,
+in profound thoughts and beautifully-conceived situations.&quot; <i>Extract
+from Georg Ebers' Preface to the German Edition</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1"><b>FRIDOLIN'S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE.</b>--A Study of an Original, founded on
+Reminiscences of a Friend, by <b>Adolf Wilbrandt</b>, from the German by Clara
+Bell. One vol. Paper, 50 cts. Cloth, 90 cts.</p>
+
+<hr class="W20">
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;One of the most entertaining of the recent translations of German
+fiction is 'Fridolin's Mystical Marriage,' by Adolf Wilbrandt. The
+author calls it 'a study of an original, founded on reminiscences of a
+friend,' and one may easily believe that the whimsical, fascinating,
+brilliant heir must have been drawn more largely from life than fancy.
+He is a professor of art, who remains single up to his fortieth year
+because he is, he explains to a friend 'secretly married.' 'When you
+consider all the men of your acquaintance,' he says, 'does it strike
+you that every man is thoroughly manly and every woman thoroughly
+womanly? Or, on the contrary, do you not find singular deviations and
+exceptions to the normal type? If we place all the men on earth in a
+series, sorting them by the shades of difference in their natural
+dispositions, from the North Pole, so to speak, of stalwart manliness
+to the South Pole of perfect womanhood, and if you then cast a piercing
+glance into their souls, you would perceive ... beings with masculine
+intellect and womanly feelings, or womanly gifts and masculine
+character.' The idea is very cleverly worked out that in these divided
+souls marriage is possible only between the two natures, and that
+whenever one of the unfortunates given this mixed nature, cannot
+contract an outward alliance. How the events of the story overthrow
+this ingenious theory need not be told here, but the reader will find
+entertainment in discovery for himself.&quot;--<i>Courier, Boston</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A quaint, dry and highly diverting humor pervades the book, and the
+characters are sketched with great force and are admirably contrasted.
+The unceasing animation of the narrative, the crispness of the
+conversations, and the constant movement of the plot hold the interest
+of the reader in pleasant attention throughout. It provides very bright
+and unfatiguing reading for a dull summer day.&quot;--<i>Gazette, Boston</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The scenes which are colored by the art atmosphere of the studio of
+Fridolin, a professor of art and the principal character, are full of
+pure humor, through the action and situations that the theory brings
+about. But no point anywhere for effective humor is neglected. It runs
+through the story, or comedy, from beginning to end, appearing in every
+available spot. And the characterization is evenly strong. It is an
+uncommonly clever work in its line, and will be deliciously enjoyed by
+the best readers.&quot; <i>Globe, Boston</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1"><b>CLYTIA.</b>--A Romance of the Sixteenth Century, by <b>George Taylor</b>, from the
+German by Mary J. Safford, in one vol. Paper, 50 cts. Cloth, 90 cts.</p>
+
+<hr class="W20">
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If report may be trusted 'George Taylor,' though writing in German, is
+an Englishman by race, and not merely by the assumption of a pseudonym.
+The statement is countenanced by the general physiognomy of his novels,
+which manifest the artistic qualities in which German fiction, when
+extending beyond the limits of a short story, is usually deficient.
+'Antinous' was a remarkable book; 'Clytia' displays the same talent,
+and is, for obvious reasons, much better adapted for general
+circulation. Notwithstanding its classical title, it is a romance of
+the post-Lutheran Reformation in the second half of the sixteenth
+century. The scene is laid in the Palatinate; the hero, Paul
+Laurenzano, is, like John Inglesant, the pupil, but, unlike John
+Inglesant, the proselyte and emissary, of the Jesuits, who send him to
+do mischief in the disguise of a Protestant clergyman. He becomes
+confessor to a sisterhood of reformed nuns, as yet imperfectly detached
+from the old religion, and forms the purpose of reconverting them.
+During the process, however, he falls in love with one of their number,
+the beautiful Clytia, the original, Mr. Taylor will have it, of the
+lovely bust in whose genuineness he will not let us believe. Clytia, as
+is but reasonable, is a match for Loyola; the man in Laurenzano
+overpowers the priest, and, after much agitation of various kinds, the
+story concludes with his marriage. It is an excellent novel from every
+point of view, and, like 'Antinous' gives evidence of superior culture
+and thoughtfulness.&quot;--<i>The London Saturday Review</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="center"><i>William S, Gottsberger, Publisher, New York</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1"><b>TRAFALGAR.</b>--A Tale, by <b>B. Perez Galdós</b>, from the Spanish by Clara Bell,
+in one vol. Paper, 50 cents. Cloth, 90 cents.</p>
+
+<hr class="W20">
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This is the third story by Galdós in this series, and it is not
+inferior to those which have preceded it, although it differs from them
+in many particulars, as it does from most European stories with which
+we are acquainted, its interest rather depending upon the action with
+which it deals than upon the actors therein. To subordinate men to
+events is a new practice in art, and if Galdós had not succeeded we
+should have said that success therein was impossible. He has succeeded
+doubly, first as a historian, and then as a novelist, for while the
+main interest of his story centres in the great sea-fight which it
+depicts--the greatest in which the might of England has figured since
+her destruction of the Grand Armada--there is no lack of interest in
+the characters of his story, who are sharply individualized, and
+painted in strong colors. Don Alonso and his wife Doña Francisca--a
+simple-minded but heroic old sea-captain, and a sharp-minded, shrewish
+lady, with a tongue of her own, fairly stand out on the canvas. Never
+before have the danger and the doom of battle been handled with such
+force as in this spirited and picturesque tale. It is thoroughly
+characteristic of the writer and of his nationality.&quot;--<i>The Mail and
+Express, New York</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="center"><i>William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1"><b>A GRAVEYARD FLOWER.</b>--By <b>Wilhelmine von Hillern</b>, from the German by
+Clara Bell, in one vol., Paper, 40 cts. Cloth, 75 cts.</p>
+
+<hr class="W20">
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The pathos of this story is of a type too delicate to be depressing.
+The tale is almost a poem, so fine is its imagery, so far removed from
+the commonplace. The character of Marie is merely suggested, and yet
+she has a most distinct and penetrating individuality. It is a fine
+piece of work to place, without parade or apparent intention, at the
+feet of this ideal woman, three loves so widely different from each
+other. There is clever conception in the impulse that makes Marie turn
+from the selfish, tempestuous love of the Count, and the generous, holy
+passion of Anselmo, to the narrower but nearer love of Walther, who had
+perhaps fewer possibilities in his nature than either of the other two.
+The quality of the story is something we can only describe by one
+word--spirituelle. It has in it strong suggestions of genius coupled
+with a rare poetic feeling, which comes perhaps more frequently from
+Germany than from anywhere else. The death of Marie and the sculpture
+of her image by Anselmo, is a passage of great power. The tragic end of
+the book does not come with the gloom of an unforeseen calamity; it
+leaves with it merely a feeling of tender sadness, for it is only the
+fulfilment of our daily expectations. It is in fact the only end which
+the tone of the story would render fitting or natural.&quot;--<i>Godeys Lady's
+Book</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="center"><i>William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1"><b>PRUSIAS.</b>--A Romance of Ancient Rome under the Republic, by <b>Ernst
+Eckstein</b>, from the German by Clara Bell. Authorized edition. In two
+vols. Paper, $1.00. Cloth, $1.75.</p>
+
+<hr class="W20">
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The date of 'Prusias' is the latter half of the first century B. C.
+Rome is waging her tedious war with Mithridates. There are also risings
+in Spain, and the home army is badly depleted. Prusias comes to Capua
+as a learned Armenian, the tutor of a noble pupil in one of the
+aristocratic households. Each member of this circle is distinct. Some
+of the most splendid traits of human nature develop among these grand
+statesmen and their dignified wives, mothers, and daughters. The ideal
+Roman maiden is Psyche; but she has a trace of Greek blood and of the
+native gentleness. Of a more interesting type is Fannia, who might,
+minus her slaves and stola, pass for a modern and saucy New York
+beauty. Her wit, spirit, selfishness, and impulsive magnanimity might
+easily have been a nineteenth-century evolution. In the family to which
+Prusias comes are two sons, one of military leanings, the other a
+student. Into the ear of the latter Prusias whispers the real purpose
+of his coming to Italy. He is an Armenian and in league with
+Mithridates for the reduction of Roman rule. The unity which the Senate
+has tried to extend to the freshly-conquered provinces of Italy is a
+thing of slow growth. Prusias by his strategy and helped by
+Mithridates's gold, hopes to organize slaves and disaffected
+provincials into a force which will oblige weakened Rome to make terms,
+one of which shall be complete emancipation and equality of every man
+before the law. His harangues are in lofty strain, and, save that he
+never takes the coarse, belligerent tone of our contemporaries, these
+speeches might have been made by one of our own Abolitionists. The one
+point that Prusias never forgets is personal dignity and a regal
+consideration for his friends. But after all, this son of the gods is
+befooled by a woman, a sinuous and transcendently ambitious Roman
+belle, the second wife of the dull and trustful prefect of Capua; for
+this tiny woman had all men in her net whom she found it useful to have
+there.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The daughter of the prefect--hard, homely-featured, and hating the
+supple stepmother with an unspeakable hate, tearing her beauty at last
+like a tigress and so causing her death--is a repulsive but very strong
+figure. The two brothers who range themselves on opposite sides in the
+servile war make another unforgettable picture; and the beautiful slave
+Brenna, who follows her noble lover into camp, is a spark of light
+against the lurid background. The servile movement is combined with the
+bold plans of the Thracian Spartacus. He is a good figure and
+perpetually surprises us with his keen foresight and disciplinary
+power.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The book is stirring, realistic in the even German way, and full of
+the fibre and breath of its century.&quot; <i>Boston Ev'g Transcript</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1"><b>QUINTUS CLAUDIUS.</b>--A Romance of Imperial Rome, by <b>Ernst Eckstein</b>, from
+the German by Clara Bell, in two vols. Paper, $1.00. Cloth, $1.75.
+
+<hr class="W20">
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We owe to Eckstein the brilliant romance of 'Quintus Claudius,' which
+Clara Bell has done well to translate for us, for it is worthy of place
+beside the Emperor of Ebers and the Aspasia of Hamerling. It is a story
+of Rome in the reign of Domitian, and the most noted characters of the
+time figure in its pages, which are a series of picturesque
+descriptions of Roman life and manners in the imperial city, and in
+those luxurious retreats at Baiae and elsewhere to which the wealthy
+Romans used to retreat from the heats of summer. It is full of stirring
+scenes in the streets, in the palaces, in the temples, and in the
+amphitheatre, and the actors therein represent every phase of Roman
+character, from the treacherous and cowardly Domitian and the vile
+Domitia down to the secret gatherings of the new sect and their exit
+from life in the blood-soaked sands of the arena, where they were torn
+in pieces by the beasts of the desert. The life and the manners of all
+classes at this period were never painted with a bolder pencil than by
+Eckstein in this masterly romance, which displays as much scholarship
+as invention.&quot;--<i>Mail and Express, N. Y</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;These neat volumes contain a story first published in German. It is
+written in that style which Ebers has cultivated so successfully. The
+place is Rome; the time, that of Domitian at the end of the first
+century. The very careful study of historical data, is evident from the
+notes at the foot of nearly every page. The author attempted the
+difficult task of presenting in a single story the whole life of Rome,
+the intrigues of that day which compassed the overthrow of Domitian,
+and the deep fervor and terrible trials of the Christians in the last
+of the general persecutions. The court, the army, the amphitheatre, the
+catacombs, the evil and the good of Roman manhood and womanhood--all
+are here. And the work is done with power and success. It is a book for
+every Christian and for every student, a book of lasting value,
+bringing more than one nation under obligation to its author.&quot;--<i>New
+Jerusalem Magazine, Boston, Mass</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>A new Romance of Ancient Times!</i> The success of Ernst Eckstein's new
+novel, 'Quintus Claudius,' which recently appeared in Vienna, may
+fairly be called phenomenal, critics and the public unite in praising
+the work.&quot;--<i>Grazer Morgenpost</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;'Quintus Claudius' is a finished work of art, capable of bearing any
+analysis, a literary production teeming with instruction and interest,
+full of plastic forms, and rich in the most dramatic changes of
+mood.&quot;--<i>Pester Lloyd</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="center"><i>William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Own Set, by Ossip Schubin
+
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+
diff --git a/35673.txt b/35673.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..67418bb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35673.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7112 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Own Set, by Ossip Schubin
+
+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: Our Own Set
+       A Novel
+
+Author: Ossip Schubin
+
+Translator: Clara Bell
+
+Release Date: March 24, 2011 [EBook #35673]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR OWN SET ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Arcive
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://www.archive.org/details/ourownsetanovel00schugoog
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              OUR OWN SET
+
+
+                                A NOVEL
+
+
+
+                                   BY
+
+                             OSSIP SCHUBIN
+
+
+
+                     From the German by CLARA BELL
+
+
+
+               REVISED AND CORRECTED IN THE UNITED STATES
+
+
+
+                                NEW YORK
+                   WILLIAM S. GOTTSBERGER, PUBLISHER
+                            11 MURRAY STREET
+                                  1884
+
+
+
+
+
+
+         Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884
+                       by William S. Gottsberger
+       in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington
+
+
+
+
+         THIS TRANSLATION WAS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THE PUBLISHER
+
+
+
+
+                                Press of
+                         William S. Gottsberger
+                                New York
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              OUR OWN SET
+
+
+
+
+
+                                PART I.
+
+                             THE CARNIVAL.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+
+At Rome in 1870. Roman society was already divided into "_Le Monde
+noir_" and "_Le Monde blanc_" which as yet gave no sign of amalgamation
+into a "_Monde gris_." His Holiness the Pope had entrenched himself in
+the Vatican behind his prestige of martyrdom; and the King already held
+his court at the Quirinal.
+
+Among the distinguished Austrians who were spending the winter in Rome
+were the Otto Ilsenberghs. Otto Ilsenbergh, one of the leading members
+of the Austrian feudal aristocracy, was in Rome professedly for his
+health, but in reality solely in order to avail himself of the
+resources of the Vatican library in compiling that work on the History
+of Miracle which he has lately given to the world under a quaint
+pseudonym. He and his wife with a troup of red-haired Ilsenberghs, big
+and little, inhabited a straggling, historical palazzo on the Corso,
+with a glacial stone staircase and vast drawing-rooms which looked more
+fit for the meetings of conspirators than for innocent tea-drinkings
+and dances.
+
+The countess was "at home" every evening when there was no better
+amusement to be had. She was by birth a princess Auerstein, of the
+Auerstein-Zolling branch, in which--as we all know--the women are
+remarkable for their white eyebrows and their strict morality. The
+Ilsenbergh _salon_ was much frequented; the prevailing tone was by no
+means formal; smoking was allowed in the drawing-room--nay the countess
+herself smoked: to be precise she smoked _regalias_.
+
+It was in the beginning of December; a wet evening and the heavy drops
+splashed against the window panes. Count Ilsenbergh was sitting in an
+immense reception-room decorated with frescoes, at a _buhl_ table,
+evidently constructed for no more arduous duties than the evolution of
+love letters. He was absorbed in the concoction of an article for "Our
+Times." A paper of strictly aristocratic-conservative tendencies,
+patronized by himself, taken in by his fellow-aristocrats, but read by
+absolutely no one--excepting the liberal newspaper writers when in
+search of reactionary perversities. Count Ilsenbergh was in great
+trouble; the Austrian Ministry had crowned their distinguished
+achievements by one even more distinguished--for the fourth time within
+three years a new era was announced, and in defiance of prejudice a
+spick-and-span liberal ministry was being composed, destined no doubt
+to establish the prosperity of the Austrian people on a permanent
+basis--and beyond a doubt to cause a fresh importation of
+"Excellencies" into the fashionable _salons_ of the Ringstrasse at
+Vienna. Count Ilsenbergh was prophesying the end of all things.
+
+The countess was sitting at her ease on a sofa close to the fire-place,
+with its Renaissance chimaeras of white marble. The handsomest editions
+of the works of Ampere and Mommsen lay on the tables, but she held on
+her lap a ragged volume of a novel from a circulating library. She was
+a tall, fair woman with a high color and apricot-colored hair, a
+languid figure, slender extremities and insignificant features; she
+spoke French and German alike with a strong Viennese accent, dressed
+unfashionably, and moved awkwardly; still, no one who knew what was
+what, could fail to see that she was a lady and an aristocrat. At all
+court functions she was an imposing figure, she never stumbled over her
+train and wore the family diamonds with stately indifference.
+
+The portiere was lifted and General von Klinger was announced. General
+von Klinger was an old Austrian soldier whose good fortune it had been
+to have an opportunity of distinguishing himself with his cavalry at
+Sadowa, after which, righteously wroth at the national disaster, he had
+laid down his sword and retired with his General's rank to devote
+himself wholly to painting. Even as a soldier he had enjoyed a
+reputation as a genius and had covered himself with glory by the way in
+which he could sketch, with his gold-cased pencil on the back of an old
+letter or a visiting-card, a galloping horse and a jockey bending over
+its mane; a work of art especially admired for the rapidity with which
+it was executed. Since then he had studied art in Paris, had three
+times had his pictures refused at the _salon_ and had succeeded in
+persuading himself that this was a distinction--in which he found a
+parallel in Rousseau, Delacroix and fifty fellow-victims who had been
+obliged to submit to a similar rebuff. Then he had come to Rome, an
+unappreciated genius, and had established himself in a magnificent
+studio in the Piazza Navona, which he threw open to the public every
+day from three till five and which became a popular rendezvous for the
+fashionable world. They laughed at the old soldier's artistic
+pretensions, but they could not laugh at him. He was in every sense of
+the word a gentleman. Like many an old bachelor who cherishes the
+memory of an unsuccessful love affair in early life, he covered a
+sentimental vein by a biting tongue--a pessimist idealist perhaps
+describes him. He was handsome and upright, with a stiffly starched
+shirt collar and romantic dark eyes--a thorough old soldier and a
+favorite with all the fine ladies of Roman society.
+
+"It is very nice of you to have thought of us," said the countess
+greeting him heartily; "it is dreadful weather too--come and warm
+yourself."
+
+The count looked up from his writing: "How are you General?" he said,
+and then went on with his article, adding: "Such an old friend as you
+are will allow me to go on with my work; only a few lines--half a dozen
+words. These are grave times, when every man must hold his own in the
+ranks!"--and the forlorn hope of the feudal cause dipped his pen in the
+ink with a sigh.
+
+The general begged him not to disturb himself, the countess said a few
+words about some musical soiree, and presently her husband ended his
+page with an emphatic flourish, exclaiming: "That will give them
+something to think about!" and came to join them by the fire.
+
+A carriage was heard to draw up in the street.
+
+"That may be Truyn, he arrived yesterday," observed the countess, and
+Count Truyn was in fact announced.
+
+Erich Truyn was at that time a man of rather more than thirty with hair
+prematurely gray and a glance of frosty indifference. People said he
+had been iced, for he always looked as though he had been frozen to the
+marrow in sublime superiority; his frigid exterior had won him a
+reputation for excessive pride, and totally belied the man. He was an
+uncommonly kind and noble-hearted soul, and what passed for pride was
+merely the shrinking of a sensitive nature which had now and again
+exposed itself to ridicule, perhaps by some outburst of high-flown
+idealism, and which now sought only to hide its sanctuary from the
+desecration of the multitude.
+
+"Ah! Truyn, at last, and how are you?" cried the countess with sincere
+pleasure.
+
+"Much as ever," replied Truyn.
+
+"And where is your wife?" asked Ilsenbergh.
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"Is she still at Nice?"
+
+"I do not know." And as he spoke his expression was colder and more set
+than before.
+
+"Are you to be long in Rome?" said the countess, anxious to divert the
+conversation into a more pleasing channel.
+
+"As long as my little companion likes and it suits her," answered
+Truyn. His 'little companion' always meant his only child, a girl of
+about twelve.
+
+"You must bring Gabrielle to see me very soon," said the lady. "My Mimi
+and Lintschi are of the same age."
+
+"I will bring her as soon as possible; unluckily she is so very shy she
+cannot bear strangers. But she has quite lost her heart to the general
+and to our cousin Sempaly."
+
+"What, Nicki!" exclaimed the countess. "Do you mean that he has the
+patience to devote himself to children?"
+
+"He has a peculiar talent for it. He dined with us to-day."
+
+"He is an unaccountable creature!" sighed the countess. "He hardly ever
+comes near us."
+
+At this moment a quick step was heard outside and Count Sempaly was
+announced.
+
+"_Lupus in Fabula!_" remarked Ilsenbergh.
+
+The new-comer was a young man of eight or nine and twenty, not tall,
+but powerfully though slightly built; his remarkably handsome, well-cut
+features and clear brown complexion were beautified by a most engaging
+smile, and by fine blue eyes with dark lashes and shaded lids. Under
+cover of that smile he could say the most audacious things, and whether
+the glance of those eyes were a lightning flash or a sunbeam no one had
+ever been quite certain. He gallantly kissed the tips of the countess's
+fingers, nodded to the men with a sort of brusque heartiness, and then
+seated himself on a cushion at the lady's feet.
+
+"Well, it is a mercy to be allowed to see you at last; you really do
+not come often enough, Nicki; and in society I hardly ever meet you,"
+complained the countess in a tone of kindly reproof. "Why do you so
+seldom appear in the respectable world?"
+
+"Because he is better amused in the other world!" said Ilsenbergh with
+a giggle in an undertone.
+
+But a reproachful glance from his wife warned him to be sober.
+
+"I simply have not the time for it," said Sempaly half laughing. "I
+have too much to do."
+
+"Too much to do!" said Truyn with his quiet irony.... "In
+diplomacy?--What is the latest news?"
+
+"A remarkable article in the '_Temps_' on the great washing-basin
+question," replied Sempaly with mock gravity.
+
+"The washing-basin question!" repeated the others puzzled.
+
+"Yes," continued Sempaly. "The state of affairs is this: When, not long
+since, the young duke of B---- was required to serve under the
+conscription, his feelings were deeply hurt by the fact that he had not
+only to live in barracks, but to wash at the pump like a common
+soldier. This so outraged his mamma that she went to the Minister of
+War to petition that her son might have a separate washing-basin; but
+after serious discussion her application was refused. It was decided
+that this separate washing-basin would be a breach of the Immortal
+Principles of '89."
+
+"It is hardly credible!" observed Truyn; Ilsenbergh shrugged his
+shoulders and the countess innocently asked:
+
+"What are the immortal principles of '89?"
+
+"A sort of ideal convention between the aristocracy and the canaille,"
+said Sempaly coolly. "Or if you prefer it, the first steps towards the
+abdication of privilege at the feet of the higher humanity," he added
+with a smile.
+
+The countess was no wiser than before, Sempaly laughed maliciously as
+he fanned himself with a Japanese screen, and Ilsenbergh said: "Then
+you are a democrat, Sempaly?"
+
+"From a bird's-eye point of view," added Truyn drily; he had not much
+faith in his cousin's liberalism.
+
+"I am always a democrat when I have just been reading 'The Dark Ages,'"
+said Sempaly--'The Dark Ages' was the name he chose to give to
+Ilsenbergh's newspaper.--"Besides, joking apart, I am really a liberal,
+though I own I am uneasy at the growing power of the radicals. By the
+bye, I had nearly forgotten to give you two items of news that will
+delight you Fritzi,"--addressing the countess. "The reds have won all
+the Paris elections, and at Madrid they have been shooting at the
+king."
+
+"Horrible!" exclaimed the countess, and she shuddered, "we shall see
+the Commune again before long."
+
+"'93," said Truyn, with his tone of dry irony.
+
+"We really ought to draw a cordon round the Austrian throne to protect
+it against the pestilential flood of democracy," said Sempaly very
+gravely. "Ilsenbergh you must petition the upper house."
+
+"Your jokes are very much out of place," said the countess, "the matter
+is serious."
+
+"Oh, no! not for us," said Truyn. "Our people are too long suffering."
+
+"They are sound at the core," interrupted Ilsenbergh with dramatic
+emphasis.
+
+"They do not yet know the meaning of liberty," said Sempaly laughing,
+"and to them equality is a mere abstraction--a metaphysical delicacy."
+
+"They are thoroughly good and loyal!" exclaimed Ilsenbergh, "and they
+know...."
+
+"Oh!" cried Sempaly, "they know very little and that is your safeguard.
+When once their eyes are opened your life will cease to be secure. If I
+had been a bricklayer I should certainly have been a socialist," and he
+crossed his arms and looked defiantly at his audience.
+
+"A socialist!" cried Ilsenbergh indignantly. "You!--never. No, you
+could not have been a socialist; your religious feelings would have
+preserved you from such wickedness!"
+
+"Hm!" replied Sempaly suspiciously, and Truyn said with a twist of his
+lips:
+
+"As a bricklayer Sempaly might not have been so religious; he might
+have found some difficulty in worshipping a God who had treated him so
+scurvily."
+
+"Hush, Truyn!" exclaimed Sempaly, somewhat anxiously to his cousin.
+"You know I dislike all such discussions."
+
+"True. I remember you wear Catholic blinkers and are always nervous
+about your beliefs; and you would not like to feel any doubt as to the
+unlimited prolongation of your comfortable little existence," said
+Truyn in a tone of grave and languid banter. For Sempaly was not
+burthened with religion, though, like many folks to whom life is easy,
+he clung desperately to a hope in a future life, for which reason he
+affected 'Catholic blinkers' and would not have opened a page of
+Strauss for the world.
+
+"The sword is at our breast!" sighed the countess still sunk in dark
+forebodings. "This new ministry!..." And she shook her head.
+
+"It will do no harm beyond producing a few dreary articles in the
+papers and inundating us with new Acts which the crown will not trouble
+itself about for a moment," observed Sempaly.
+
+"The Austrian mob are gnashing their teeth already!" said the lady.
+
+"Nonsense! The Austrian mob is a very good dog at bottom; it will not
+bite till you forbid it to lick your hands," said her cousin calmly.
+
+"I should dislike one as much as the other," said the countess, looking
+complacently at her slender white fingers.
+
+"But tell us, Nicki," asked Ilsenbergh, "has not the change of ministry
+put a stop to your chances of promotion?" Sempaly was in fact an
+apprentice in the Roman branch of the great Austrian political
+incubator.
+
+"Of course," replied Sempaly. "I had hoped to be sent to London as
+secretary; but one of our secretaries here is to go to England, and the
+democrats are sending us one of their own proteges in his place. My
+chief told me so this morning."
+
+"Oh! who is our new secretary?" asked the countess much interested. "If
+he is a protege of those creatures he must be a terrible specimen."
+
+"He is one Sterzl--and highly recommended; he comes from Teheran where
+he has distinguished himself greatly," said Sempaly.
+
+"Sterzl!" repeated Ilsenbergh scornfully.
+
+"Sterzl!" cried the lady in disgust. "It is to be hoped he has no
+wife,--that would crown all."
+
+"On that point I can reassure you," said the general; "Sterzl is
+unmarried."
+
+"You know him?" murmured the countess slightly abashed.
+
+"He is the son of one of my dearest friends--a fellow-officer," replied
+the general, "and if he has grown up as he promised he must be a man of
+talent and character--his abilities were brilliant."
+
+"That is something at any rate," Ilsenbergh condescended to say.
+
+"Yes, so it strikes me," added Sempaly; "we require one man who knows
+what work means."
+
+"I was promised that my nephew should have the appointment," muttered
+the countess. "It is disgusting!"
+
+"Utterly!" said Sempaly with a whimsical intonation. "A foreign element
+is always intrusive; we are much more comfortable among ourselves."
+
+Tea was now brought in on a Japanese table and the secretary and his
+inferior birth were for the time forgotten.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Sempaly was not merely affecting the democrat to annoy his cousin
+the countess; he firmly believed himself to be a liberal because he
+laughed at conservatism, and regarded the nobility as a time-honored
+structure--a relic of the past, like the pyramids, only not quite so
+perdurable. But in spite of his theoretical respect for the rights of
+man and his satirical contempt for the claims of privilege, Sempaly was
+really less tolerant than his cousin of "the dark ages." Ilsenbergh,
+with all his feudal crotchets, was an aristocrat only from a sense of
+fitness while Sempaly was an aristocrat by instinct; Ilsenbergh's pride
+of rank was an affair of party and dignity, Sempaly's was a matter of
+superfine nerves.
+
+A few days after this conversation Sempaly met the general and told him
+that the new secretary had arrived, adding with a smile: "I do not
+think he will do!"
+
+"Why not?" asked the general.
+
+"He speaks very bad French and he knows nothing about _bric-a-brac_,"
+replied Sempaly with perfect gravity. "I introduced him yesterday to
+Madame de Gandry and he had hardly turned his back when she asked
+me--she is the daughter of a leather-seller at Lille, you know--'is he
+a man of family?'--and would you believe it, I could not tell her. That
+is the sort of thing I never know." Then he added with a singular
+smile: "His name is Cecil--Cecil Maria. Cecil Maria Sterzl! It sounds
+well do not you think?"
+
+Cecil Maria! It was a ridiculous name and ill-suited the man. His
+father had been an officer of dragoons who had retired early to
+become a country gentleman--the dearest dream of the retired officer;
+his mother was a faded Fraeulein von ---- who had all her linen--not
+merely for her trousseau but all she ever purchased--marked with
+_her_ coronet, who stuck up a flag on the turret of their little
+country house with _her_ arms, and insisted on being addressed as
+baroness--which she never had been--by all her acquaintance. When,
+within a year of her marriage, she became the mother of a fine boy it
+was a burning question what his name should be.
+
+"Cecil Maria," lisped the lady.
+
+"Nonsense! The boy shall be called Anthony after his grandfather," said
+his father, and the mother burst into tears. What man can resist the
+tears of the mother of his first-born? The child was christened Cecil.
+
+His father died at the early age of forty; his youngest child, a little
+girl whom he worshipped, was dangerously ill of scarlet fever and he
+fell a victim to his devotion to her. Cecil was at that time a pretty
+but rather delicate boy, with an intense contempt for the French
+language which his sister's governess tried to instil into him, and a
+pronounced preference for the society of the stable-lads and peasant
+boys; the baroness was always complaining that he was dirty and did not
+care to keep his hands white. The guardianship of the orphans devolved
+on General Sterzl, their father's elder brother, who honestly did his
+best for them, managing their little fortune with care, and
+conscientiously directing their education. After a brief but keen
+inspection of the clever spoilt boy, of his silly mother, and of his
+cringing tutor, he shrugged his shoulders over this country gentleman's
+life and placed the lad in the _Theresianum_, a college which in the
+estimation of every Austrian officer is the first educational
+establishment in the world--provided, that is to say, that he himself
+was not brought up there.
+
+During the first six months Cecil was boundlessly miserable. All his
+life long till now he had been accustomed to be first; and it was hard
+suddenly to find himself last. Although his abilities were superior his
+neglected education placed him far below most of his companions, and
+besides this he was, as it happened, the only boy not of noble birth in
+this fashionable college, with the exception of a young Tyrolese whose
+descent was illegitimate, though he nevertheless was always boasting of
+his family. Then his companions laughed at his provincial accent, at
+his want of strength and at his queer name. We have all in our turn had
+to submit to this rough jesting. He could not for a long time get
+accustomed to it, and during the first half-year he incessantly plagued
+his mother and guardian to release him from what he called a prison;
+but they remained deaf to his entreaties. The visible outcome, when
+Cecil went home for the summer holidays, was a very subdued frame of
+mind, and nicely kept, long white nails. The next term began with his
+giving a sound thrashing to the odious Tyrolese who bored the whole
+school with his endless bragging and airs. This made him immensely
+popular; then he began to work in earnest; his masters praised his
+industry--and his complaints ceased. Had the subtle poison of
+pretentious vanity which infected the whole college crept into his
+veins? Had he begun to find a charm in hearing Mass read on Sundays and
+Highdays by a Bishop? To be waited on by servants in livery, to learn
+to dance from the same teacher who gave lessons at court, and to call
+the titled youth of the empire '_du_'? It is difficult to say. He
+seemed perfectly indifferent to all these privileges and assumed no
+airs or affectations.--His pride was of a fiercer temper.
+
+He finished his education by learning eastern languages, passed
+brilliantly, and, still aided by his uncle, went in for diplomacy. He
+was sent to an Asiatic capital which was just then undergoing a
+visitation of cholera and revolution; there again he distinguished
+himself and was decorated with the order of the Iron Crown.
+
+One thing was soon very evident to every one in Rome: The new secretary
+was not a man whose character could be summed up in an epigram. There
+was nothing commonplace or pretty in the man. Externally he was tall
+and broad shouldered, with a well set carriage that gave him the air of
+a soldier in _mufti_; his hair was brown and close-cropped and his
+features sharply cut. In manner he was awkward but perfectly well-bred,
+unpretentious and simple. The ambassador's verdict on the new secretary
+was very different from Sempaly's. "He is my best worker," said his
+excellency: "A wonderful worker, and a long head--extraordinarily
+capable; but not pliant enough--not pliant enough...."
+
+Nor was it only with his superiors that he found favor; the younger
+officials with whom he came in contact were soon on the best terms with
+him. He had one peculiarity, very rare in men who take life so
+seriously as he did: He never quibbled. The embassy at Rome at that
+time swarmed to such an extent with handsome, fashionable idlers that
+the Palazzo di Venezia was like a superior school for fine ladies with
+moustaches--as Sempaly aptly said. Sterzl looked on at their feeble
+doings with indulgent good humor; it was impossible to hope for any
+definite views or action from these young gentlemen; it would have been
+as wise to try to make butterflies do the work of ants. He himself was
+always ready to make good their neglect and gave them every liberty for
+their amusements. He wished to work, to make his mark--that was his
+business; to fritter away life and enjoy themselves was theirs. Thus
+they agreed to admiration.
+
+But though his subalterns were soon his devoted allies, society at
+large was still disposed to offer him a cold shoulder. His predecessor
+in office had never pretended to do anything noteworthy as a
+diplomatist, but he had been an admirable waltzer, and--which was even
+more important--he had not disdained that social diversion;
+consequently he had been a favorite with the ladies of Rome who loudly
+bewailed his departure and were not cordial to his successor. Sterzl
+took no pains to fill his place; he had no trace of that obsequious
+politeness and superficial amiability which make a man popular in
+general society. His blunt conscientiousness and quite pedantic
+frankness of speech were displeasing on first acquaintance. In a
+drawing-room he commonly stood silently observant, or, if he spoke, he
+said exactly what he thought and expected the same sincerity from
+others. He could never be brought to understand that the flattery and
+subterfuge usual in company were merely a degenerate form of love for
+your neighbor; that the uncompromising truthfulness that he required
+must result in universal warfare; that the limit-line between sincerity
+and rudeness, between deference and hypocrisy, have never been rigidly
+defined; that the naked truth is as much out of place in a drawing-room
+as a man in his shirt-sleeves; and that, considering the defects and
+deformities of our souls, we cannot be too thankful that custom
+prohibits their being displayed without a decent amount of clothing.
+Merciful Heaven! what should we see if they were laid bare?
+
+No, we cannot live without lying. A man who is used to society demands
+that it should tell lies, it is his right, and a courtesy to which he
+has every claim. When a man finds that society no longer thinks him
+worth lying to his part is played out and he had better vanish from the
+scene. In short, Sterzl had no sort of success with women; they dubbed
+him by the nickname of '_le Paysan du Danube_.' Men respected him; they
+only regretted that he had so many extravagant notions, particularly a
+morbid touchiness as to matters of honor; however, that is a fault
+which men do not seriously disapprove of. To Sterzl himself it was a
+matter of entire indifference what was said of him by people who were
+not his personal friends. For a friend he would go through fire and
+water, but he would often neglect even to bow to an acquaintance in the
+street as he walked on, straight to his destination, his head full of
+grand schemes. He was fully determined to make his mark: to do--perhaps
+to become--something great ... but....
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Princess Vulpini, who had not escaped the fashionable complaint--the
+_Morbus Schliemaniensis_, had found a treasure no further off than in
+an old-clothes shop in the Via Aracoeli, where she had bought two
+wonderful shields from designs, she was assured, of Benvenuto Cellini's
+and a fragment of tapestry said to have been designed by Raphael, and
+she had invited a few intimate friends--Truyn, Sempaly, von Klinger,
+and Count Siegburg, an Austrian attache, to give their opinion as to
+the genuineness of her find. She was Truyn's sister and a few years
+younger than he; she had met Prince Vulpini at Vichy when spending a
+season there with her invalid father and soon afterwards had married
+him, and now for twelve years she had lived in Rome, loving it well,
+though she never ceased railing at it for sundry inconveniences, was
+always singing the praises of Vienna and would have all her shopping
+done for her "at home" because she was convinced that nothing was to be
+had in Rome but photographs, antiques and wax-matches.
+
+The company had just finished a lively dinner, throughout which they
+had unanimously abused the new Italian Ministry; but with the arrival
+of the coffee and cigarettes they turned to the consideration of the
+princess's antiquities which she had spread out on the floor for
+inspection. The gentlemen threw themselves on all-fours to examine the
+arras and the shields, and pronounced their verdict with conscientious
+frankness. No one, it seemed, was thoroughly convinced of the
+authenticity of the treasures but the Countess Marie Schalingen, a lady
+who had been for some few weeks in Rome as the princess's guest; all
+the others had doubts. The most vigorous sceptic of them all was Count
+Siegburg, who, to be sure, was the one who knew least of such matters,
+but who nevertheless spoke of "electrotype casts and modern imitations"
+with supreme decisiveness.
+
+Wips, or more correctly Wiprecht Siegburg, was the spoilt child of the
+Austrian circle; I doubt whether he could have invented gunpowder, have
+discovered America, or have proved that the earth goes round, but for
+work-a-day company he was certainly pleasanter than Schwarz, Columbus
+or Galileo. He had been attached to the embassy with no hope of his
+finding a career, but simply to get him away from Vienna, where his
+debts had at last become inconveniently heavy. His widowed mother,
+after much meditation, had hit upon this admirable plan for checking
+her son in his extravagance.
+
+"You make me quite nervous, Siegburg," said the princess at length,
+"though I know that you have not the faintest glimmering of knowledge
+on the subject."
+
+"Perhaps you are right," he answered coolly. "At any rate, I have lost
+confidence lately in my critical instincts. I always used to think that
+the genuineness of antiquities was in proportion to their dirt; but now
+that I have learnt that even the dirt is counterfeit I have lost all
+basis of judgment."
+
+They all laughed at this confession, not so much for its wit as because
+every one laughed at Siegburg's little sallies. They were in the
+smoking-room, a snug apartment, picturesquely and comfortably furnished
+with carved wood and oriental cushions. All the party were on the
+intimate terms of "just ourselves," a mixture of courteous deference
+and hearty friendliness. The conversation was not precisely learned; on
+the contrary, there was a certain frivolity in its tone; very bad jokes
+were perpetrated and some anecdotes related savoring of Saint-Simon in
+raciness without any one being scandalized, for they were not in the
+mood to run every jest to earth, to treat every point by chemical
+analysis, or take every word literally. Superficiality is sometimes a
+gracious and a blessed thing.
+
+"I feel so thoroughly at home to-day--in such an Austrian
+atmosphere...." exclaimed the hostess. "But I have a presentiment that
+it will not be of long duration. Mesdames de Gandry and Ferguson are
+dining in this neighborhood...."
+
+As she spoke the servant announced Prince Norina.
+
+"'Coming events cast their shadows before,'" quoted Sempaly; it was
+well known that when Prince Norina made his appearance the Countess de
+Gandry would soon follow. Norina was fat and fair, handsome on the
+barber's block pattern, and for the last four or five years had been
+dancing attendance on the French countess. He bowed to the princess,
+shook hands with the men and was instantly seized upon by the master of
+the house to listen to a tirade on the latest misdemeanors of the
+government. Vulpini was the blackest of the Black, a strong adherent of
+the pope, though from political rather than religious bias---chiefly
+indeed as a fanatically exclusive Roman, who scorned to make common
+cause with Italy at large, and regarded "_Italia unita_" as a wild
+chimera. Prince Norina, who had no political convictions, listened to
+him and nodded assent to anything and everything.
+
+The company now adjourned to the drawing-room, a large uncomfortable
+room furnished in a motley style, partly Louis XV. and partly Empire,
+and which opened out of the more splendid salon in which the princess
+received formally, and the boudoir to which none but her most intimate
+friends were admitted. The conversation had lost much of its
+liveliness, and had flattened to a level at which some of the company
+had taken refuge in photographs when Madame de Gandry and Mrs. Ferguson
+were announced and rustled in.
+
+Madame de Gandry--a pale brunette, interesting rather than pretty, with
+a turned-up nose and hard bright eyes, noisy and coquettish,
+inconsiderate and saucy, because she fancied it gave her style--had for
+the last five years ruled the destinies of Prince Norina. Society had,
+however, agreed, perhaps for its own convenience, to regard their
+intimacy as mere good fellowship. The lady was looked upon as one of
+those giddy creatures who love to sport on the edge of an abyss. Mrs.
+Ferguson, the daughter of a hotel-keeper at San Francisco and wife of a
+man whose wealth increased daily, was the exact opposite to Madame de
+Gandry--white and pink, with large eyes and sharp little teeth, very
+slender and flat-figured like many Americans. She dyed her hair,
+rouged, dressed conspicuously, spoke eccentric English and detestable
+French, sang Judic's songs, and had been introduced to Roman society by
+the Marchese B---- who had met her at Nice. Her friendship with Madame
+de Gandry had begun on the strength of a landau they had hired between
+them, had culminated in an opera-box on the same terms, and would
+probably be destroyed by a lover--in common too.
+
+A few gentlemen had also arrived: Count de Gandry, who looked like a
+hair-dresser and was suspected of carrying on a covert business as
+dealer in antiquities; M. Dieudonne Crespigny de Bellancourt, a
+square-built French diplomatist, the son of a butcher and son-in-law to
+a duke, etc., etc. The latest bankruptcy, the climate of Rome, the
+excavations, were all discussed. Madame de Gandry and Mrs. Ferguson
+submitted at first to the tedium of a general conversation, but
+contrived at the same time to attract as much of the men's attention as
+was possible under the circumstances. Soon after eleven the Countess
+Ilsenbergh came in; she had come from a grand dinner and looked bored
+to death.
+
+"It really is absurd how one meets every one in Rome," she said
+presently, when she had been questioned as to the how and where of the
+party she had just quitted. "Who do you think I came across to-day,
+Marie?--That Lenz girl from Vienna; now she is a duchess or a Countess
+Montidor--Heaven knows which; once, years ago, I had something to do
+with a charity sale she got up, so now she comes up to me as if I were
+an old acquaintance and pretends to be intimate, talks of 'we
+Austrians,' and 'at home at Vienna.'--Amusing, rather?"
+
+"Poor Fritzi! I feel for you!" exclaimed Sempaly with a malicious
+laugh. "But there is a greater treat in store for you. The Sterzl
+women, mother and sister, are coming in a few days."
+
+"Indeed! that is pleasant certainly!"
+
+"Why?" asked Madame de Gandry, throwing herself into the conversation.
+"Are they objectionable people?"
+
+"By no means," said the countess quickly. "I believe they are the most
+respectable people in the world, but--it is a bore to be constantly
+meeting people here whom one could not possibly recognize in Vienna.
+You should give him a hint, Nicki--tell him--explain to him...."
+
+"To be sure," said Sempaly laughing, "I might say: Look here, my good
+friend, beware of taking your mother and sister out anywhere; my cousin
+the countess would rather not meet them."
+
+The countess shrugged her shoulders and turned away from her flippant
+interlocutor, tapping her fan impatiently. "Do you mean to receive them
+Marie?" she asked.
+
+"Whom do I not receive?" said the princess in an undertone, with a
+significant glance.
+
+"Well I cannot--decidedly not," said the countess excitedly, "though I
+shall be grieved to annoy Sterzl. It will be his own fault entirely if
+he forces me to explain myself."
+
+"Do as you think proper," replied her friend, "but you know I am very
+fond of Sterzl; he stands high in my good graces."
+
+"What! _le Paysan du Danube_?" giggled Madame de Gandry, who had only
+partly understood the conversation.
+
+"Sterzl is a man of the highest respectability," said the countess
+icily; she did not intend to allow that little French woman to laugh at
+her fellow-countryman, though he was not a man of birth.
+
+"_Le Paysan du Danube_ is my particular friend," said the princess with
+the simple heartiness that was so peculiarly her own. "I am very fond
+of him; he is quite one of ourselves."
+
+"He can have no higher reward on earth," said her brother with
+good-humored irony.
+
+"When my small boy fell and broke his arm, here in this very room,
+Sterzl picked him up, and you should have seen how gently he held my
+poor darling," added the princess.
+
+"That is ample evidence in favor of the fact that his woman-kind are
+presentable," laughed Sempaly.
+
+"But allow me to ask," interposed the Madame de Gandry, "just that I
+may understand what I am about--these Sterzls, they are not in good
+society in Austria?"
+
+"Our Austrian etiquette can afford no standpoint for foreign society,"
+said Truyn with unusual sharpness, for he could not endure Madame de
+Gandry; "we receive no one who is not by birth one of ourselves."
+
+"Yes," said Sempaly with a keen glance, "Austrian society is as
+exclusive as the House of Israel, and scorns proselytes." And the
+leather-seller's daughter, who had not understood--or not chosen to
+understand Truyn's speech, replied with much presence of mind: "Ah, I
+am glad to know what I am about."
+
+Siegburg, who was sitting behind her, glanced at Sempaly and made an
+expressive grimace.
+
+Princess Vulpini looked almost spiteful. "I will not leave Sterzl in
+the lurch," she said, "and if his sister is like his description of
+her...."
+
+"He has talked to you about his sister?" interrupted Sempaly.
+
+"To be sure," said the princess with a smile, "and to you too, I should
+not wonder, Nicki?"
+
+"No indeed, he does not show me his sacred places, I am not worthy,"
+replied Sempaly. "He only told me that she was coming, and with a very
+singular smile. Hm, Hm! he seems to set great store by the young lady
+and will no doubt look out for a fine match for her. I should not
+wonder if he had got her here for that express purpose. Norina, take
+care of yourself--forewarned you know...."
+
+"Mademoiselle Sterzl will hardly aspire to a prince's crown!" exclaimed
+Madame de Gandry, up in arms to defend her property.
+
+"Sterzl will not let his sister go for less," asserted Sempaly.
+
+"Do not talk such nonsense," said Truyn, to check Sempaly's audacity.
+
+But Sempaly was leaning over a table and scribbling on the back of an
+old letter; presently he handed the half sheet to the Countess
+Ilsenbergh; Madame de Gandry peeped over her shoulder.
+
+"Capital!" she exclaimed, "delicious!" Sempaly had sketched Sterzl as
+an auctioneer, the hammer in one hand and a fashionably-dressed doll in
+the other, with all the Princes in Rome crowded round. In one corner he
+had written: "This lot--Fraeulein Sterzl--once, twice, thrice...."
+
+The sketch was handed round; the likeness of Sterzl was unmistakable.
+Soon after the Countess Ilsenbergh went away, and as the company were
+not in the best of humors the two friends also withdrew shortly after
+midnight followed by those gentlemen who had come in their train.
+
+"Fritzi is really a victim to an _idee fixe_," the princess began when
+this indiscreet group had departed; "she wants me to entrench myself in
+dignified reserve against this poor little thing. What harm can the
+child do me?"
+
+"I cannot imagine," said Siegburg; "indeed, if she is pretty and has
+some money, it strikes me I will marry her myself--that will set
+matters straight" Siegburg was fond of talking of the money that his
+wife must bring him, and liked to air the selfishness of which he was
+innocent, as very rich folks sometimes make a parade of poverty.
+
+"And it was really very stupid of Fritzi to ventilate this idiotic
+nonsense before those two women," added the princess, who was apt to
+express herself strongly; but nothing that she said ever sounded badly,
+on the contrary, she lent a grace to whatever she said. "Does she think
+she can make me turn exclusive!"
+
+"I hope you observed how that pinchbeck countess was prepared to tread
+in her footsteps," said Seigburg.
+
+Truyn meanwhile was hunting eagerly about the chimney-shelf and the
+tables, assisted by the master of the house.
+
+"What are you looking for, Erich?" asked his sister.
+
+"For that sketch of Sempaly's. I should not like to leave the thing
+about. Excuse me, Nicki, the caricature was capital, I have nothing to
+say against it, if it had only been among ourselves; but you really
+ought not to have shown it to strangers. You are so heedless, you do
+not think of what you are doing."
+
+"And what have I done now?" asked Sempaly without any trace of
+annoyance.
+
+"You have simply stamped this young girl as an adventuress on the
+look-out for a husband."
+
+"Pooh! as if so trifling a jest could be taken in earnest!" said
+Sempaly. They searched everywhere for the caricature but in vain.
+
+"I am convinced that wretched woman put it in her pocket!" cried the
+princess indignantly. That wretched woman was of course Madame de
+Gandry.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+It was true that Princess Vulpini was very fond of Sterzl, and he
+returned her regard with almost rapturous devotion. In spite of an
+unpolished and absent manner he had a vein of poetic chivalry and a
+pure reverence for true and lofty womanhood. He could not think it
+worth his while to offer to any woman that flattery--often impertinent
+enough in reality--that gratifies some of the sex, and he had never
+learnt the A B C of modern gallantry; but in his intercourse with those
+whom he spoke of as "true women" there was a touch of chivalrous
+protection and reserved deference. His behavior to them was so full of
+an old-fashioned courtesy that he was certain to win their favor; he
+treated them partly like children that must be cared for, and partly
+like sacred beings before whom we must bow the knee.
+
+Immediately on his arrival in Rome the princess found great pleasure in
+their acquaintance, she confided to him all her little indignation at
+this or that grievance in Rome, and allowed him to take a variety of
+small cares off her shoulders, being, as all women of her soft nature
+are, very fastidious and utterly unpractical.
+
+There had been few sweeter girls in the Vienna world than the Countess
+Marie Truyn in her day, and there was not now in all Rome a more
+lovable woman than the Princess Vulpini. When in the afternoons she
+drove out in her open carriage, with her four or five children that
+looked as though they had been stolen straight out of one of Kate
+Greenaway's picture books, along the Corso to the Villa Borghese, her
+fashionable acquaintance, who had brought out their most recent or most
+fashionable bosom-friend instead of their children, would exclaim:
+"Here comes true happiness!" And the men bowed to her with particular
+respect, eager to win the friendly and gracious smile that warmed all
+hearts like a ray of spring sunshine. She had never been a regular
+beauty and had early lost her youthful freshness and the slim figure
+that had been almost proverbial. Nevertheless her charm was
+undiminished; her chief ornament, a wonderful abundance of bright brown
+hair, was as fine as ever and she wore it still, as when a girl of
+sixteen, simply combed back and gathered into a knot low down at the
+back. In spite of her faded complexion there was a childlike sweetness
+in her small round face, with its kind little eyes, its delicate
+turned-up nose, and soft lips that had no beauty till they smiled. All
+her movements were simple and graceful and her whole appearance
+conveyed the impression of exquisite refinement and the loftiest
+womanliness. Her dress was apt to be a little out of fashion, the
+latest _chic_ never suited her. She was a great reader, even of very
+solid books, especially affecting natural science; but she retained
+nevertheless the literal faith of her infancy, and this innocent
+orthodoxy was part and parcel of the simple fervency of her character.
+Sempaly, who was sincerely attached to her, always spoke of her devout
+piety as one of her most engaging qualities; he declared that a woman
+to be truly sympathetic must be religious; that a man may allow himself
+to profess free thought, but that a sceptical woman was as odious as a
+woman with a hump. To this observation, which Sempaly once threw out in
+the presence of Sterzl, Cecil took great exception, though he himself
+was as devoid of religious beliefs as Sempaly himself; he thought it
+impertinent.
+
+"Men do not jest about the women whose names are sacred to them," he
+said with the pedantic chivalry, which always provoked his colleague's
+opposition. However, Sempaly only retorted with a sneering smile and a
+shrug.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+A few days after the evening when Sempaly had given such brilliant
+proof of his talent as a caricaturist, General von Klinger was sitting
+in his studio on a divan covered with a picturesque Persian rug and
+endeavoring--having for the moment nothing better to do--to teach his
+parrot to sing the Austrian anthem--a loyal task which the bird,
+perched on the top of its cage, persistently refused to learn. It was a
+gorgeous studio, with a coved ceiling painted in fresco and a _rococo_
+plaster cornice, the walls hung with old tapestry, eastern stuffs and
+other "properties." It was so large that men looked like dwarfs in it,
+and the general's works of art like illustrations cut out of a picture
+book. The scirocco brooded in the atmosphere and the general was out of
+sorts; he could not get on with his painting, and though it was now a
+quarter to five not a visitor had he seen. Usually by this hour he had
+a number--nay sometimes too many. The general often grumbled--to
+himself of course--at the interruption; but he always enjoyed the
+little dissipation; it made him melancholy to be left to himself.
+
+He was thinking just now how difficult it was to get on as a painter;
+his coloring was capital--so all his artist friends assured him; but
+that his drawing left much to be desired he himself confessed. His two
+strong points were a harmonious effect of grey tone and horses seen
+from behind. All his pictures returned to him from the exhibitions
+unsold, excepting one which was purchased by the emperor in
+consideration of the general's former merits as a soldier rather than
+of his talents as an artist. The painters who came to smoke his
+cigarettes accounted for this by saying that his artistic aims were too
+independent, that he made no concessions to public taste and so could
+not hope for popularity.
+
+He was in the very act of whistling the national anthem for the
+sixteenth time to the recalcitrant bird, when he heard a knock at the
+door; he rose to open it and Sempaly came in. He had called to inform
+the general that he had discovered a very fine though much damaged
+piece of tapestry in a convent, and had bought it for a mere song; he
+had in fact purchased it for the general because he knew that it was
+just such a specimen as he had long wished for. "But if you do not care
+to take it I shall be very glad to keep it," he added. No one had the
+art of doing an obliging thing with a better grace than he; it was one
+of his little accomplishments.
+
+When they had settled their business Sempaly broke into loud
+lamentations that he was obliged to dine that day at the British
+embassy, and then to dance at the French ambassador's, and raved about
+the ideal life led by his friend--he only wished he could lead such a
+life--in which there were no evening parties, routs, balls or dinners.
+Next he wandered round the room looking at all the studies that hid
+their faces against the wall. "Charming!" "Superb!" he kept exclaiming
+in French, with his Austrian accent, from a sheer impulse to say
+something pleasant--he always tried to make himself pleasant. "Why do
+not you work that thing up?" he said at length, pointing to a sketch on
+canvas of a group of bashibazouks.
+
+"It might sell," replied the artist whose great difficulty always lay
+in the 'working up,' "but you know I am independent in my aims, I set
+my face against making concessions to the vulgar; I must work on my own
+principles and not to pander to the public."
+
+Sempaly smiled at this profession of faith.
+
+"As it is a mere whim with you ever to sell at all," he answered, "my
+advice is that you should never attempt it, but leave all your works to
+the nation, so that we may have a _Musee Wierz_ at Vienna."
+
+The general assured him that he was quite in earnest in his desire to
+sell his pictures, but Sempaly smiled knowingly.
+
+"There was once upon a time," he began, "a cobbler who was a man of
+genius, but he prided himself on his sense of beauty and his artistic
+convictions, and he heeded not the requirements of his customers--he
+would make nothing but Greek sandals. He died a beggar, but happy in
+the consciousness of never having made a concession to the vulgar."
+
+The general was on the point of making an indignant reply to this
+malicious anecdote, when the loud rap was again heard which seems to be
+traditional at a studio door; it is supposed to be necessary to arouse
+the artist from his absorption in his work. The general went to admit
+his visitor.
+
+There was a small ante-room between the studio and the stairs. The door
+was no sooner opened than in flitted a slender creature, fair and
+blooming, tall, slim, and bewitchingly pretty, in a dark dress and a
+sealskin jacket.
+
+"What, you Zinka!" cried the old general delightedly. "This is a
+surprise! How long have you been in Rome?"
+
+"Only since this morning," answered a gay voice.
+
+"And are you alone?" asked the artist in astonishment, as Zinka shut
+the door and went forward into the atelier.
+
+"Yes, quite alone," she said calmly. "I left the maid at home; she and
+mamma are fast asleep, resting after their journey. I came alone in a
+carriage--it was very nice of me do not you think?--Why, what a face to
+make!... And why have you not given me a kiss. Uncle Klinger?" She
+stood before him bright and confident, her head a little thrown back,
+her hands in a tiny muff, gazing at him with surprise in her frank grey
+eyes.
+
+"My dear Zinka...." the general began--for, like all conscientious old
+gentlemen with romantic memories, he was desperately punctilious as to
+the proprieties when any lady in whom he took an interest was
+implicated, "I am charmed, delighted to see you.... But in a strange
+place, where you know no one, and in a strange house where...."
+
+"Oh, now I understand," cried the girl. "It is not proper!... I shall
+live to be a hundred before I know exactly what is proper; it is very
+odd, but Uncle Sterzl used always to say that it was of no use to worry
+about it; that if people were ladies and gentlemen everything was
+proper, and if they were not why it was all the same. But he did not
+know what he was talking about, it would seem!" and she turned sharply
+on her heel and made for the door.
+
+"But, my dear Zinka," cried the general holding her back, "tell me at
+least where you are living before you whisk off like a whirlwind. Do
+not be so utterly unreasonable."
+
+"I am perfectly reasonable," she retorted. She was both embarrassed
+and angry; her cheeks were scarlet and her eyes full of tears. "It
+never would have occurred to me certainly that there was anything
+improper in calling on an old gentleman," and she emphasized the words
+quite viciously, "in his studio. Oh, the vanity of men! Who can
+foresee its limits!--But I am perfectly reasonable, I acknowledge my
+mistake--simpleton that I am!... And I have been looking forward all
+day to taking you by surprise. I meant to ask you to dine with us at
+the Hotel de l'Europe and to come with me first to the Pincio to see
+the sunset. And these are the thanks I get!... Do not trouble yourself
+to get your hat, it is waste of trouble; I do not want you now.
+Good-bye." And she flew off, her head in the air, without looking back
+once at the general who dutifully escorted her to the carriage.
+
+The old man came back much crest-fallen. A voice greeted him
+cheerfully:
+
+"Quite in disgrace, general!"
+
+It was Sempaly, who had witnessed the whole scene from a recess, and
+whom the general had entirely forgotten.
+
+"So it seems," said he shortly, beginning to scrape his palette.
+
+"But tell me who is this despotic little princess?"
+
+"Who? My god-daughter, Zinka Sterzl."
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+Thunderbolts are out of date, no one believes in them now-a-days;
+nevertheless it is a fact, which Sempaly himself never contradicted,
+that he fell in love with Zinka at first sight. And when a few days
+after Zinka's irruption into the general's studio the old gentleman
+accepted an invitation to dine with the Baroness Sterzl at the Hotel de
+l'Europe, on entering the room he found, eagerly employed in looking
+over a quantity of photographs with the young lady--Count Sempaly.
+
+The two gentlemen were the only guests, and yet--or perhaps in
+consequence--the little party was as gay and pleasant as was possible
+with so affected and formal a hostess as the "Baroness."
+
+This lady, a narrow and perverse soul as ever lived, was the very
+essence of vanity and affectation. She imagined--Heaven alone knows on
+what grounds--that the general had formerly loved her hopelessly, and
+she always treated him accordingly with a consideration that was
+intolerably irritating. She had made great strides in the airs of
+refinement since she and the general had last met--at a time before
+she, or rather her children, had become rich through an advantageous
+sale of part of their land, and this of course added to the charms of
+her society. She was perpetually complaining in a tone of feeble
+elegance--the sleeping-carriages were intolerable, the seats were so
+badly stuffed, Rome was so dirty, the hotels were so bad, the
+conveyances so miserable; she brought in the names of all the
+aristocratic acquaintances they had made at Nice, at Meran, and at
+Biarritz, and asked--the next day being a saint's day--which church was
+fit to go to. The vehement old general answered hotly that "God was in
+them all." But Sempaly informed her with the politest gravity that
+Cardinal X---- read mass in the morning at St. Peter's and that the
+music was splendid. "I advise you to try St. Peter's."
+
+"Indeed, is St. Peter's possible on a saint's day?" she asked. "The
+company is usually so mixed in those large churches."
+
+The general fairly blushed for her follies on her children's account.
+
+"Have you forgiven me, Zinka?" he said to change the conversation.
+
+"As if I had time to trouble myself about your strait-laced
+proprieties!" exclaimed she, coloring slightly; she evidently did not
+like this allusion to her little indiscretion: "I have something much
+worse to think about."
+
+"Why--what is the matter, sweetheart?" asked her brother, who took
+everything seriously.
+
+"I have lost something," she said in a tone of deep melancholy which
+evidently covered some jest.
+
+"Not a four-leaved shamrock or a medal blessed by the pope?" asked the
+general.
+
+"Oh, no! something much more important."
+
+"Your purse!" exclaimed the baroness hastily. But Zinka burst out
+laughing. "No, no, something much greater--you will never guess: Rome."
+
+On which Sterzl, who could never make out what his fascinating little
+sister would be at, only said: "That is beyond me."
+
+But Sempaly was sympathetic. "I see you are terribly disappointed," he
+said, and Zinka went on like a person accustomed to be listened to.
+
+"Yes, ever since I could think at all I have dreamed of Rome and longed
+to see it. My Rome was a suburb of Heaven, but this Rome is a suburb of
+Paris. My Rome was glorious and this Rome is simply hideous."
+
+"Do not be flippant, Zinka," said the general, who always upheld
+traditional worship.
+
+"Well, as a city Rome is really very ugly," interposed her brother, "it
+is more interesting as a museum of antiquities with life-size
+illustrations. Still, you do not know it yet. You have seen nothing as
+yet...."
+
+"But lodgings, you mean," retorted Zinka, casting down her eyes with
+sanctimonious sauciness.
+
+"It is dreadful!" the baroness began, "we have been here five days and
+cannot find an apartment fit to live in. Wherever we go there is some
+drawback; the stairs are too dark, or the entrance is bad, or there is
+only one door to the salon, or the servants' rooms...."
+
+"But my dear Zinka," interrupted the general, "if you really have seen
+nothing of Rome excepting the lodgings in the Corso, of course...."
+
+"Oh! but I have seen something else," cried Zinka, "indeed, I know my
+way about Rome very well."
+
+"In your dreams?"
+
+"No, I went yesterday; mamma had a sick headache."
+
+"Oh! those headaches!" sighed the baroness putting her salts to her
+nose, "I am a perfect martyr to them!"
+
+To have sick headaches and be a strict Catholic were marks of good
+style in the baroness's estimation. Sempaly put on a sympathetic
+expression, but returned at once to the subject in hand.
+
+"Yes, I know Rome very well," Zinka went on: "You have only to ask the
+driver of the street cab No. 1203, and he will tell you. I drove about
+with him for three hours yesterday. You see, to have been in Rome a
+whole week and to have seen nothing but furnished lodgings was really
+too bad, so I took advantage of the opportunity when mamma was in bed;
+I slipped out--you need not make that face, Uncle, I took the maid with
+me--we meant to walk everywhere with a map. Of course we lost our way,
+_cela va sans dire_, and as we were standing helpless, each holding the
+map by a corner, a driver signed to us--so, with his first finger. In
+we got and he asked us where we wished to go, but as I had no answer
+ready he said with the most paternal air: 'Ah! the signora wants to see
+Rome--good, I will show her Rome!' And he set off, round and round and
+in and out, all through the city. I was positively giddy with this
+waltz round all the sights of Rome. He showed me a perfect forest of
+fallen pillars, with images of gods and fragments of sculpture
+carefully heaped round them, like Christmas boxes for lovers of
+antiquities--'the _Campo Vaccino_,' he called it--I believe it was the
+Forum; then he pointed out the palace of Beatrice Cenci, the Jews'
+quarter, the Theatre of Marcellus, the Temple of Vesta; and every time
+he showed me anything he added: 'Now am I not a capital guide? Many a
+driver would only take you from place to place, and what would you see?
+Nothing ... a heap of stones ... but I tell you: that is the Colisseum,
+and this is the Portico of Octavia, and then the stones have some
+meaning.' And at last he set me down at the door of the hotel and said
+quite seriously: 'Now the signora has seen Rome.'"
+
+They were now at dessert; the baroness looked anything rather than
+pleased.
+
+"Allow me to request," she said, "that for the future in the first
+place you will not make friends with a common driver and in the second,
+that you will not drive about Rome in a _Botta_ (a one horse carriage);
+it is not at all the thing. You have no sense of fitness whatever."
+
+Zinka, who was both sensitive and spoilt, colored.
+
+"Let her be, mother, why should she not learn a little Italian and ride
+in a _Botta_? said Sterzl, who rubbed his mother the wrong way from
+morning till night. Sempaly took prompt advantage of the situation to
+whisper to Zinka:
+
+"I cannot promise to be as good company as your _Botta_ driver, but if
+you will allow me, I will do my best to help you to find the Rome you
+have lost."
+
+"Are you sure you know your way about?" asked the girl with frank
+incivility.
+
+"I am the _laquais de place_ of the Embassy I assure you," replied
+Sempaly laughing; "my only serious occupation consists in showing
+strangers the sights of Rome."
+
+After this the evening passed gaily; the baroness made a few idiotic
+speeches but Sempaly forbore to be ironical; he was on his very best
+behavior, and the baroness was quite taken in by his elaborate reserve.
+Not so Sterzl, who was himself too painfully alive to her aristocratic
+airs and pretensions. However, the society of his sister, whom he
+adored, had put him into the best of humors; he launched forth a few
+bitter epigrams against the priesthood, and was satirical about the
+society of Rome, but Zinka stopped him every time with some engaging
+nonsense, and in listening to her chatter he forgot his bitterness.
+
+At last he asked her to sing a Moravian popular song; she seated
+herself at the hotel piano and began. There was something mystical in
+the low veiled tones of her voice like an echo of the past, as she sang
+the melancholy, dreamy strains of her native land. Sterzl, who always
+yawned all through an opera, listened to her singing, his head resting
+on his hand, in a sort of ecstasy. In Sempaly too, who in spite of his
+Hungarian name was by birth a Moravian, Zinka's simple melody roused
+the half-choked echoes of his youth, and when she ceased he thanked her
+with genuine feeling.
+
+Zinka's was an April weather nature. After bringing the tears into the
+eyes of her hearers, nay into her own, with her song, she suddenly
+struck up an air by Lecocq that she had heard Judic sing at Nice. The
+words, as was perfectly evident to all the party, were Hebrew to the
+girl, but the baroness was beside herself.
+
+"Zinka!" she exclaimed in extreme consternation, "you really are
+incredible--what must these gentlemen think of you!"
+
+"Do not be in the least uneasy," said the general. But Zinka stopped
+short; her face was pale and quivering; Sterzl interposed:
+
+"It is often a little difficult to follow my sister's vagaries," he
+said turning to Sempaly; then he tenderly stroked her golden head with
+his large, firm hand, saying: "Do not be unhappy, sweetheart; but you
+are a little too much of a goose for your age."
+
+When presently Sempaly had quitted the hotel with the general his first
+words were: "Tell me, how is it that with such a fool of a mother that
+child has remained so angelically fresh--so _Botticelli_?"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+
+A mine somewhere in Poland or Bohemia came to grief about this time by
+some accidental visitation, and five hundred families were left
+destitute through the disaster. Of course the opportunity was
+immediately seized upon for charitable dissipations, for qualifying for
+Orders of Merit by liberal donations, and for attracting the eyes of
+Europe by the most extravagant display of philanthropy. After much
+deliberation Countess Ilsenbergh had arrived at the conviction that, as
+both the ambassadors' families were hindered by mourning from giving
+any public entertainment, the duty of taking the lead devolved upon
+her. The rooms in her Palazzo were made on purpose for grand
+festivities, and after endless discussion it was decided that the
+entertainment should be dramatic. An Operetta, a _Proverbe_ by Musset,
+and a series of _Tableaux Vivants_ were finally put in rehearsal and a
+collection was to be made after the performance.
+
+Madame de Gandry threw herself into the undertaking with the most
+commendable ardor. She was on intimate terms with the leading spirits
+at the Villa Medici--the French Academy of Arts at Rome--and she
+interested herself in the painting of the scenes, and in the artistic
+designing of the dresses in which she proved invaluable. Up to a
+certain point all went smoothly. The operetta--an unpublished effort of
+course--by a Russian amateur of rank who was very proud of not even
+knowing his notes, was soon cast. It needed only three performers and
+led up to the introduction of an elaborate masquerade and of certain
+suggestive French songs. Mrs. Ferguson, who never let slip an
+opportunity of powdering her hair and sticking on patches, was to sing
+the soprano part; Crespigny took that of a husband or a guardian in a
+nightcap or flowered dressing-gown, and a young French painter, M.
+Barillat, who was at all times equally ready to sketch or to wear a
+becoming costume, was to fill that of the lover. The cast of the little
+French play was equally satisfactory; but when the arrangement of the
+tableaux came to be considered difficulties arose. In the first place
+all the ladies were eager to display their charms under the becoming
+light of a tableau vivant; and the number of volunteers was quite
+bewildering to the committee of management that met every day at the
+Ilsenberghs' house. Then squabbles and dissatisfaction arose; the
+ladies did not approve of the choice of subjects, they thought their
+dresses unbecoming, their positions disadvantageous; each one to whom a
+place at the side was assigned was deeply aggrieved; an unappreciated
+beauty who prided herself on her profile from the left would not for
+worlds be seen from the right, etc., etc. And above all--an insuperable
+difficulty--almost all the available men of the set manifested the
+greatest objection to 'making themselves ridiculous' and positively
+rejected the most flattering blandishments of the ladies' committee.
+Sempaly, who had been asked to appear as a Roman emperor, would not
+hear of putting on flesh-colored tights and a wreath of vine; and Truyn
+had shrugged his shoulders at the proposal that he should don a wig
+with long curls.
+
+Siegburg--little Siegburg, as he was always called, though he was
+nearly six feet high--after defending himself with considerable humor,
+good-naturedly agreed to stand as _Pierrot_, in a Watteau scene in
+which the Vulpini children were to appear; and Sterzl, being personally
+requested by his ambassador, submitted, though with an ill grace, to be
+the executioner in Delaroche's picture of Lady Jane Grey. This tableau
+was to be the crowning glory of the performance; Barillat had taken
+infinitely more pains with it than with any other; the part of Lady
+Jane was to be filled by a fair English girl, Lady Henrietta Stair; and
+then, within a few days of the performance, Lady Henrietta fell ill of
+the measles.
+
+The committee were in despair when this news reached them, and all who
+were concerned in the performance were summoned to meet at the Palazzo
+that evening to talk the matter over. Hardly any one was absent; only
+Sterzl, who detested the whole charity scramble, as he called it, sent
+his excuses. Every lady present expected to find herself called upon to
+stand--or rather to kneel--as Lady Jane Grey; but Mrs. Ferguson was the
+first to give utterance to the thought, and to offer herself heroically
+as Lady Henrietta's substitute. To the astonishment of all the company
+Sempaly, whose interest in the work of benevolence had hitherto
+displayed itself only in satirical remarks, and suggestions as to the
+representation of Makart's 'entrance of Charles V.' or of Siemiradzky's
+'living torches,' took an eager part in the discussion.
+
+"Your self-sacrifice, Mrs. Ferguson," said he, "is more admirable every
+day."
+
+"Dear me," replied the lady innocently, "where is the self-sacrifice in
+having an old gown cut up into a historical costume?"
+
+"That, indeed, would be no sacrifice," said Sempaly coolly. "But it
+must be a sacrifice for a lady to appear in a part that suits her so
+remarkably ill."
+
+Mrs. Ferguson smiled rather like some pretty little wild beast showing
+its teeth.
+
+"Ah!" she said, "I suppose you think I have none of that pathetic grace
+that M. Barillat is so fond of talking about."
+
+"No more than of saving grace," said Sempaly solemnly. Then, while the
+women were disputing over the matter, he found an opportunity of
+whispering a few words to Barillat; Barillat looked up delighted. At
+this moment they were joined by Countess Ilsenbergh.
+
+"I have another suggestion to offer Madame la Comtesse; I have thought
+of some one...."
+
+"Some newly-imported American," laughed Madame de Gandry, "or a
+painter's model with studied grace and yellow hair?"
+
+"You may rest assured that I should not for an instant think of
+proposing to employ a model," Barillat emphatically declared; "no, the
+lady in question is a very charming person: Fraeulein Sterzl. I saw her
+the day before yesterday at Lady Julia Ellis's; she is an Austrian--you
+must know her surely?"
+
+"I have not that pleasure," said the countess drily.
+
+"You do not think she will do?" murmured the artist abashed. The
+countess cleared her throat.
+
+"Bless me!" cried Madame de Gandry furious at the pride of her Austrian
+friend, "you take the matter really too much in earnest. Why on earth
+should not the girl act with us? On these occasions, in Vienna, as I
+have been informed, even actors are invited to help."
+
+"That is quite different," said the countess.
+
+Madame de Gandry shrugged her shoulders and turned away and the
+countess beckoned to her cousin Sempaly. "I am heartily sick of the
+whole business," she exclaimed. "At home I have got this sort of thing
+up a score of times, and everything has gone well ... while here...."
+
+"Yes, there is more method among us," replied Sempaly sympathetically.
+
+"The people here are so unmanageable; every one wants to play the best
+parts," said the countess.
+
+"That is the result of the republican element," observed Sempaly.
+
+"And now there is all this difficulty about the Lady Jane Grey
+tableau," sighed the countess. "Why need that English girl take the
+measles now, just when she is wanted."
+
+"The English are always so inconsiderate," said Sempaly gravely.
+
+"Do you happen to have met this little Sterzl girl?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What does she look like?"
+
+"Well, she looks like a very pretty girl...."
+
+"And besides that?"
+
+"Besides that she looks very much like our own girls; it is really a
+most extraordinary freak of nature! She seems to be very presentable on
+further acquaintance; Princess Vulpini is quite in love with her."
+
+"Indeed!--Well, Barillat is possessed with the idea of having her to
+play the part of Lady Jane Grey and in Heaven's name let him have his
+own way!" cried the countess. "If Marie Vulpini will bring her here I
+will make the best of it."
+
+"What, you mean to say that you will let her figure in your tableau and
+not invite her mother?" laughed Sempaly.
+
+"Invite her!--to the performance of course. I invite Tom, Dick, and
+Harry, and all the English parsons and all the foreign artists."
+
+"And all their families. Fritzi, you are an admirable woman!" retorted
+Sempaly ironically.
+
+"But the rehearsals are so perfectly intimate," she murmured. Time
+pressed however. "Well, have it so for all I care;" said the countess
+resignedly and next morning she paid a polite call on the Baroness
+Sterzl to request Zinka's assistance; and as she had as much tact as
+pride she had soon reconciled not only Zinka, but her sensitive
+thin-skinned brother, to the fact that the young girl had only been
+asked at the last moment and under the pressure of necessity to take
+part in the performance. Cecil did not altogether like the idea of
+displaying his pretty sister in a tableau and only consented because he
+did not like to deprive Zinka of the pleasure which she looked forward
+to with great delight. He adored the child and could refuse her
+nothing.
+
+The evening of the festival arrived; the performances took place in a
+vast room almost lined with mirrors and lighted by wonderful Venetian
+chandeliers that hung from the decorated ceiling where frescoes were
+framed in tasteless gilt scroll work. In spite of its size the room was
+crowded; the most illustrious of the company sat in solitary dignity in
+the front row, and behind them was packed a fashionable but somewhat
+mixed crowd. Manly forms of consummate elegance were squeezed against
+the walls, and the assembly sparkled like a sea of sheeny silks and
+glittering jewels. Princess Vulpini, who was helping the countess to do
+the honors, hovered on the margin, graceful and kindly, but a little
+pale and tired, and the countess herself reigned supreme in that regal
+dignity which she could so becomingly assume on fitting occasions.
+There were very few women who could wear a diamond coronet with such
+good grace as Fritzi Ilsenbergh--even her intractable cousin Sempaly
+did her that much justice.
+
+The great success of the evening was not the little French play, in
+which Madame de Gandry and the all-accomplished Barillat made and
+parried their hits after the accepted methods of the _Theatre
+Francais_; it was not the operetta, in which Mrs. Ferguson looked
+bewitchingly pretty and sang '_le Sentier convert_' to admiration; it
+was not even the children's tableau, in which the little Vulpinis
+looked like a bunch of freshly-gathered roses; the great success of the
+evening was the tableau of Lady Jane Grey. Sterzl's face in this scene
+was a perfect tragedy, all the misery of an executioner who adores his
+victim was legible there. And Zinka!--gazing up to heaven with ecstatic
+pathos, her whole attitude expressive of sacred resignation and
+childlike awe, she was the very embodiment of the hapless and innocent
+being before whom the executioner lowers his gaze. A string quartet
+played the _allegretto_ from Beethoven's seventh symphony and the
+melancholy music heightened the effect of the poetical tableau,
+thrilling the audience like a lullaby sung by angels to soothe the
+struggling, suffering human soul.
+
+The whole artistic corps who had been invited from the Villa Medici,
+with the director at their head, unanimously decided that this
+performance far excelled all that had gone before, and Countess
+Ilsenbergh forgot in its success all the annoyance it had occasioned
+her. After the collection, which produced a magnificent sum, most of
+the company dispersed. Ilsenbergh, with his most feudal smile,
+expressed his thanks to all the performers in turn and presented
+elegant bouquets to the ladies. The entertainment lost its formal
+character and became a social gathering.
+
+Zinka was sitting in a side room, surrounded by a host of young Romans
+and Frenchmen. As she was one of those rare natures who derive not the
+smallest satisfaction from the homage of men for whom they have no
+regard, she listened to their enthusiastic compliments with absolute
+indifference.
+
+She had asked for an ice and Norina had offered it to her on his knees,
+remaining in that position to pour out a string of high-flown
+compliments. Zinka, unaccustomed to this Southern effusiveness, was
+remonstrating with some annoyance but without the slightest effect,
+when Sempaly came in and exclaimed in the abrupt tone he commonly used
+to younger men: "Get up, Norina, do you not see that your devotion is
+not appreciated."
+
+The prince rose with a scowl, Sempaly drew a seat to Zinka's side and
+in five minutes had, as usual, entirely monopolized her.
+
+"My cousin the countess owes everything to you," he said in his most
+musical tones; "you saved the whole thing. I detest all amateur
+performances, but that tableau of Lady Jane Grey was really beautiful."
+
+"I liked the French play very much. Madame de Gandry's acting was full
+of spirit."
+
+"Bah! I have had more than enough of such spirit."
+
+"Indeed!" laughed she, "it seems to me that you are suffering from
+general weariness of life. You are blase."
+
+"What do you understand by being blase?" he asked.
+
+"Why, that exhaustion of heart and soul which comes of the fatigue
+produced by a life of perpetual enjoyment; it is I believe an essential
+element in the character of a man of fashion."
+
+"Something between a malady and an affectation," remarked Sempaly.
+
+"Just so; in short, to be blase is the heartsickness of a fop."
+
+Sempaly glanced at her keenly. "Your definition is admirable," he said,
+"I will make a note of it; but the cap does not fit me. I am not blase,
+I am not indifferent to anything. Shams, hypocrisy, and
+meretriciousness irritate me, but when I meet with anything really good
+or lovely or genuine I can recognize it and admire it--more perhaps
+than most men."
+
+Meanwhile the winner of the musical prize from the Villa Medici had sat
+down to the piano and plunged straightway out of a maundering
+improvisation into a waltz by Strauss. The countess had no objection if
+they liked to dance, and several couples were soon spinning under the
+flaring candles.
+
+Sempaly rose: "May I have the honor?" he said to Zinka, and they went
+together into the dancing-room.
+
+Zinka had the pretty peculiarity of turning pale rather than red as she
+danced; her movements were not sprightly, but gliding and dreamy; in
+fact she waltzed with uncommon grace. Sempaly had long since lost the
+subaltern's delight in a dance; he only asked ladies who had some
+special interest or charm for him, and every one knew it.
+
+"Hm!" said Siegburg, shaking his head as he went up to General von
+Klinger who was watching the graceful couple from a recess, "my little
+game has come to nothing it seems to me."
+
+"Have you retired then?" asked the general.
+
+"By no means--quite the contrary; but my chances are small enough at
+present I fancy; what do you say?" He looked straight into the old
+man's eyes; he understood and said nothing.
+
+"She dances beautifully, I never saw a girl dance better. How well she
+holds her head," he murmured. Suddenly a flash of amusement lighted up
+his eyes. "Look at Fritzi's face!" he exclaimed: "What a horrified
+expression! a perfect Niobe."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+Sempaly's intimacy with the Sterzls grew daily; he did the honors of
+Rome to Zinka, and dined with them as a fourth two or three times a
+week. After the tableaux at the Ilsenberghs' Zinka was asked
+everywhere; all the men were at her feet, and all the ladies wanted to
+learn her songs. The men she treated with the utmost indifference and
+to the ladies she was always obliging, particularly to those whom no
+one else would take the pains to be civil to, all of which greatly
+added to her popularity. Truyn's little girl--a spoilt, shy thing, who
+quarrelled with her maid three times a week regularly and insisted on
+learning everything from Latin to water-color drawing, though she would
+submit to no teacher but her father, perfectly worshipped Zinka and to
+her was as docile as a lamb. Princess Vulpini was delighted at her
+influence on her little niece and declared that Zinka was a real
+treasure; and Lady Julia Ellis, who had made the young girl's
+acquaintance two years since at Meran, was proud to take her out.
+Whenever the baroness could not go the English lady was always ready to
+chaperon Zinka, and when Lady Julia was 'at home' Zinka had to help her
+to receive her guests and to make tea.
+
+Countess Schalingen, a Canoness devoted to painting, full of
+sentimentality and romance, whose ideas had not yet got beyond
+Winterhalter, called Zinka 'quite delicious,' took her on excursions,
+dragged her to all the curiosity-dealers, and finally painted her
+portrait on a handscreen for Princess Vulpini--her head and shoulders
+in gauzy drapery coming out of a lily. Before the end of a fortnight a
+rich American had enquired about her rank and extraction, and the
+handsome Crespigny had learnt all about her fortune. Norina paid his
+court to her when his tyrant's back was turned and Mrs. Ferguson did
+her the honor of being madly jealous.
+
+But all this did not turn her head, it did not seem even to astonish
+her; she had always been spoilt and wherever she had gone she had found
+friends and admirers. When people were kind to her she was delighted,
+but she would have been much more astonished if they had not been kind.
+Sempaly had called her "_a Botticelli_," but the word was only
+applicable to her mind; in appearance she had none of the ascetic grace
+of the pre-Raphaelites. She was more like the crayon figures of Latour,
+or that typical beauty of the eighteenth century, la Lamballe. She had
+not the bloom of pink and white, but was pale, even in her youthful
+freshness with soft shadows under her eyes; and her hair, which was
+thick and waved naturally had reddish lights in the brown. A tender
+down softened its outline on her temples without shading her forehead,
+and gave her face a look of peculiar innocence. She was slight but not
+angular, her arms were long and thin, her hands small and sometimes
+red. Her moods varied between dreamy thoughtfulness and saucy high
+spirits, her gait was usually free and light but occasionally a little
+awkward, "like an angel with its wings clipped," Sempaly said. She had
+a low veiled voice in speaking that reminded one of the vibrating tones
+of an Amati violin. She was as wild as a boy, as graceful as a water
+nixie, and as innocent as a child--with the crude innocence of a girl
+who has been brought up chiefly by men--and all her ideas had the stamp
+of dreamy seclusion and fervid sentiment.
+
+She had had French and English governesses and had even been to school
+in a convent for a year; still, the ruling influence in her life had
+been that of her guardian. General Sterzl--an eccentric being with an
+intense horror of sentimental school-friendships and of the
+conventional propriety that comes of too early familiarity with the
+world. It was to him that Zinka owed the one good word which Countess
+Ilsenbergh spoke in her favor:
+
+"One thing must be admitted; she is not affected, she is as natural as
+one of our own girls."
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+"Poor Coralie!" the baroness would frequently exclaim, "what a pity
+that she is not here; what a treat it would be for her!"
+
+"Yes," Sterzl would answer in his dry way, "she was in too great a
+hurry." And the baroness would cast her eyes up to heaven.
+
+Coralie was her eldest and favorite daughter. Disappointed in her
+love of some hard-hearted gentleman she had renounced the vanities of
+the world some three years since, but--like her mother's worthy
+daughter--even in the depth of her disappointment and despair she had
+taken care to choose a convent where the recluses were divided into
+ladies and sisters, where the children who came to school there played
+hide and seek under a French name, and where being a boarder was called
+being _en pension_.
+
+"Poor Coralie!" the baroness would sigh; and then seating herself at
+her writing-table she would scribble endless letters about the delights
+of a residence at Rome to all her friends in Austria, and especially to
+her sister, the Baroness Wolnitzka.
+
+Baroness Sterzl was a typical specimen of a class of nobility peculiar
+to Austria, and called there, Heaven knows why, "the onion nobility"
+(zwiebelnoblesse). It is a circle that may be described as a branch
+concern of the best society; a half-blood relation; a mixture of the
+elements that have been sifted out of the upper aristocracy and of the
+parvenus from below, who find that they can be reciprocally useful; a
+circle in which almost every man is a baron, and every woman, without
+exception, is a baroness. Its members are for the most part poor, but
+refined beyond expression. The mothers scold their children in bad
+French and talk to their friends in fashionable slang; they give
+parties, at which there is nothing to eat--but the family plate is
+displayed, and where the company always consists of the same old
+bachelors who dye their hair and know the _Almanack de Gotha_ by heart.
+Everyone is well informed about the doings of the world--how many
+shifts Minnie N. had in her trousseau, why the engagement between Fritz
+O. and Lori P. was broken off, and much more to the same effect. Of
+late years the 'onion-nobility,' with various other offshoots of the
+higher culture, has been swamped by the advance of the liberals, that
+is to say, by the progress of the financial classes.
+
+Only a year since the baroness herself had stood on the stairs of the
+opera-house to watch the occupants of the grand tier--at that time
+appropriated to the cream of the aristocracy--to take note of
+aristocratic dresses, and to hear aristocratic nothings from
+aristocratic lips. Now, in Rome, she was living in the whirl of
+society. Her satisfaction knew no bounds, and she made daily progress
+in exclusiveness; the Countess Ilsenbergh, as compared to her, was a
+mere bungler. But she was never so amusing to watch as when she met
+some fellow-countrymen of untitled rank. It happened that this winter
+there was in Rome a certain Herr Brauer, an old simpleton with a very
+handsome wife who laid herself open for the admiration of all the young
+men of any pretensions. Being furnished with a few letters of
+introduction he and his fascinating partner disported themselves very
+contentedly in the outer circle--the suburbs, so to speak--of good
+society without having a suspicion how far they were from the centre.
+Baroness Sterzl could never cease wondering "how those people could be
+tolerated."
+
+She was always well dressed, she gave capital little dinners, she had
+the neatest coupe and the most comfortable landau, and her coachman had
+the cleanest shaved imperial face and the smartest livery in Rome. Her
+manners were somewhat changeable, since she was constantly endeavoring
+to appropriate the airs and graces of the most fashionable women she
+met. She was extremely unpopular and consequently bored to death
+wherever she went; she was never quite easy as to her footing in
+society and lived in the discomfort of a person who is always trying to
+walk on tiptoe.
+
+Her sole unqualified pleasure during this period--which, however, she
+always spoke of as the happiest of her life--was the writing of the
+above-mentioned letters home, and especially as has been said, to her
+sister the Baroness Wolnitzka in Bohemia.
+
+She craved a public to witness her success and, like all mean natures,
+she knew no greater joy than that of exciting envy; she would often
+read these epistles to Zinka, for she was very proud of her wordy
+style. Zinka was somewhat disturbed by these flowery compositions which
+always ended with these words: "What a pity it is that you should not
+be here. It would give us the greatest pleasure to have you with us."
+
+"Take care, mamma," said the girl, "they will take you at your word and
+descend upon us."
+
+"What are you dreaming of?" said the baroness folding her letter with
+the utmost philosophy; "they have no money."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Hovels deep sunk in the ground, moss-grown thatched roofs, here and
+there an old lime-tree or a tall pear-tree with crabbed branches
+standing out black and bare against the wintry sky, slimy puddles, a
+pond full to the brim in which three forlorn-looking geese are sadly
+paddling, a swampy road along which a procession of ploughs are
+splashing their way at the heels of the muddy, unkempt teams--in short,
+a Bohemian village, with a shabby manor-house beyond. Over the
+tumble-down gate-way, with a pigsty on one side and a dog-kennel
+on the other, hangs a coat of arms. The mansion--a square house
+with a steep shingle roof--stands, according to the unromantic custom
+of the country, with one side looking on to the farm-yard; and the
+drawing-room windows open exactly over an enormous dung heap which a
+party of women are in the very act of turning with pitch-forks,
+under the superintendence of a short stout man in a weather-beaten
+hunting-hat and shooting-coat with padded silk sleeves out of which the
+wadding is peeping at a hundred holes. He is smoking a pipe with a
+china bowl decorated with a mincing odalisque. His face is broad and
+red, his ears purple, and his aspect is anything rather than
+aristocratic as he stands giggling and jesting with the damsels of the
+steaming midden.
+
+This is Baron Wolnitzky, a man who, like a good many others, got
+himself a good deal talked about in 1848 and then vanished from the
+scene without leaving a trace behind.
+
+Often when we see some dry and barren tree shedding its sere and mouldy
+leaves in the autumn we find it hard to believe that it bore blossoms
+in the spring; and the baron was like such a tree. In the spring-tide
+of 1848--an over-teeming spring throughout Europe--his soul too had
+blossomed. He had had patriotic visions and had uttered them in rhyme,
+and his country had hailed him as a prophet--perhaps because it needed
+an idol, or perhaps because in those agitated times it could not tell
+black from white. In those days he had displayed himself in a
+magnificent national costume with sleeves of the most elaborate cut,
+had married a patriotic wife who always dressed in the Slav colors:
+blue, white, and red, and who got two young men, also dressed in Slav
+costume, to mount guard at the door of her house. He was descended from
+a Polish family that had immigrated many generations since and his
+connections were as far as possible from being aristocratic, while he
+owed his little fortune entirely to his father who had put no 'baron'
+before his name, and who had earned it honestly as a master baker. In
+feudal times it would hardly have occurred to him to furbish up this
+very doubtful patent of nobility; but in the era of liberty it might
+pass muster and prove useful. A very shy pedigree serves to shed glory
+on a democratic martyr.
+
+During the insurrection of June he fled with his wife in picturesque
+disguise; at first to Dresden, and then to Switzerland where he lived
+for some time in a boarding-house at Geneva, receiving homage as a
+political refugee, and horrifying the mistress by his enormous
+appetite. At length he returned to Bohemia where the events of
+forty-eight and its picturesquely aparelled leaders had fallen
+into oblivion. He retired to his little estate and turned
+philosopher--philosophy, ever since the days of Diogenes, has been the
+acknowledged refuge of shipwrecked hopes and pretensions.
+
+There he went out walking in his shirt sleeves, played cards with the
+peasants and grew more vulgar, fatter, and hungrier every day; and if
+he ever had an idea it was unintentionally, in a bad dream after eating
+too much of some national delicacy.
+
+His wife, a robust and worthy soul, though full of absurdities, bore a
+strong resemblance to the mother of the Regent Orleans in as much as
+she had a sound understanding combined with a very sentimental nature,
+was utterly devoid of tact, bitter to the verge of cynicism, thoroughly
+indiscreet and a great chatterbox.
+
+She resigned herself without demur to the new order of things and
+brought a new tribe of children into the world, most of whom died
+young. Three survived; two sons, who so far broke through the
+traditions of the family as to become infantry officers, and one
+daughter, in whom patriotic romance once more flickered into
+fanaticism. This girl had been christened Bohuslawa, a name which was
+commonly shortened into Slawa, which in the more important dialects of
+the Slav tongue means Fame. She, like her mother, was of stalwart
+build, but her features were regular though statuesque and heavy--she
+was said to be like the Apollo Belvedere. She had already had four
+suitors but neither of them had met her views and now at twenty--having
+been born in forty-eight--she was spending the winter, unmarried and
+sorely discontented, in the country, where she occupied herself with
+serious studies and accepted the attentions of a needy young Pole who
+was devoted to her and in whom she condescended to take some slight
+interest.
+
+But Baron Wolnitzky is still standing by the midden; the great black
+dog, which till this moment has never ceased barking at the door of his
+kennel, now, to introduce some variety into the programme, jumps on to
+its roof, from which advantageous standpoint he still barks without
+pause. Everything is dripping from the recently-thawed snow, and the
+air is full of the splash and gurgle of dropping and trickling water;
+the grey February twilight sinks upon the world and everything looks
+dingy and soaked.
+
+A sound of creaking wheels is heard approaching, and a dung-cart
+appears in the gate-way.
+
+"Well, what is going on in the town?" says the baron to the man who
+comes up to him, wrapped in an evil-smelling sheepskin and with the
+ears of his fur cap tied under his chin, to kiss his master's elbow.
+"Have you brought the newspapers?"
+
+"Yes, your Grace, my Lord Baron," says the man, "and a letter too." And
+he draws a packet tied up in a red and white handkerchief out of a
+pocket in his sheepskin. The baron looks at the documents. "Another
+letter from Rome already," he mutters, grinning; "I must take it in at
+once that the women may have something to talk about."
+
+The women, that is to say his wife and daughter, were sitting in the
+dining-room at a long table covered with a flowered cloth, on which
+stood the tea things, a paraffine lamp, and a breadbasket of dull
+silver filagree work. The lamp was smoking and the table looked as
+uncomfortable and dingy as the village outside, half-buried in manure.
+The baroness, in a tan-colored loose gown, in which she looked squarer
+than ever, without a cap, her thin grey hair cut short, was hunting for
+the tenth time to-day, on and under every article of furniture, for the
+key of the storeroom. Bohuslawa, meanwhile sat still, with a volume of
+Mickiewicz in her hand, out of which she was reading aloud in rather
+stumbling Polish, with a harsh voice. A young man with a sharp-cut
+sallow face and long black hair, in a Polish braided coat, wide collar
+and olive-coloured satin cravat, corrected her pronunciation now and
+then. He was her Polish adorer. He was one of that familiar species,
+the teacher of languages with a romance in the background; he lived in
+the neighouring town and came every Saturday to the village, four
+railway stations off, to instruct Bohuslawa in Polish and spend Sunday
+with the family.
+
+When the union of these two patriots--which had already been secretly
+discussed--was to take place, depended on a mysterious law-suit that
+the young Pole was carrying on against the Russian government. His name
+was Vladimir de Matuschowsky, his grandmother had been a Potocka, and
+when he was not giving lessons, he was meditating conspiracies.
+
+"Is there nothing else for tea?" asked the baron, casting a doubtful
+eye on the stale-looking rolls in the bread-basket.
+
+"No, the dogs have eaten up the cakes," replied the baroness coolly.
+She was at the moment on all-fours under the piano, hunting for the key
+behind the pedal.
+
+"You will get an apoplexy," said Bohuslawa crossly but without anxiety,
+and without making the smallest attempt to assist the old lady. But at
+this instant a housemaid came in with the sought-for key on a bent and
+copper-colored britannia-metal waiter.
+
+"Oh, thank Heaven!" cried the baroness, "where was the wretched thing?"
+
+"In the dog kennel,--your grace, my lady baroness, the puppy had
+dragged it there."
+
+In her love for dogs again the baroness resembled the Duchess of
+Orleans; she always had a litter of half a dozen puppies to bring up,
+and the kennel was a well-known hiding place for everything that could
+not be found in its right place.
+
+"The little rascals!" she exclaimed, with an admiring laugh at the
+ingenious perversity of her mischievous pets. "Bring the sugar then,
+Clara."
+
+"I have a surprise for you," growled her husband, "a letter from Rome,"
+and he produced the document, with its mixed odors of patchouli and
+damp sheepskin, and pushed it across to his wife, while he took up the
+rum bottle to flavor his tea.
+
+"From Rome!" exclaimed the baroness, "that is delightful. Where, oh
+where are my spectacles?" And she felt and patted herself all over till
+the superfluous substance shook like a jelly.
+
+"Ah, here they are--I am sitting on them--now then, children," and she
+began to read the letter aloud.
+
+"Dear Lotti, you must not take it ill that I so seldom write to
+you"--the baroness looked up over her spectacles--"so seldom!... she
+never in her life wrote to me so often as from Rome"--"but you cannot
+imagine the turmoil in which we live. A dinner-party every day, two
+evening parties and a ball. We are spending the carnival with the
+_creme de la creme_ of Roman society. To-morrow we dine with Princess
+Vulpini--she was a Truyn and is the sister of Truyn of R. The next day
+we have theatricals, etc., etc. Zinka is an immense success. Nicki
+Sempaly among others--the brother of Prince Sempaly, the great landed
+proprietor--is very attentive to her...."
+
+Here she was interrupted by her husband. "Well, I never thought the old
+goose was quite such a simpleton!" he exclaimed, drumming his fingers
+angrily on the red and white flowered cloth.
+
+"I cannot imagine how Clotilde allows it!" cried the baroness--"and
+still less do I understand Cecil."
+
+"Take my advice, Lotti, go to Rome," observed the baron ironically; "go
+and set their heads straight on their shoulders."
+
+"With the greatest pleasure," replied his wife, taking his irony quite
+seriously, "but unfortunately we have not the money."
+
+Then she read the letter to the end; like all Clotilde's epistles it
+ended with the words; "What a pity it is that you should not be here
+too; it would give us the greatest pleasure to have you with us."
+
+Tea was done; the maid servant cleared the table with a great clatter
+of cups and spoons, the baron retired to play _Bulka_ with his
+neighbors in the village inn-parlor; the three who were left sat in
+meditative mood.
+
+"I must confess that I should like to go to Rome," said the baroness,
+as she swept the crumbs off her lap on to the floor, "and it would be
+pleasant, too, to have relations there--for their grand acquaintance I
+own I do not care a straw."
+
+"I do not see why we should avoid all society if we were there,"
+exclaimed Slawa hotly.
+
+"Well, you could do as you liked about it, of course," said the
+baroness, who held her daughter in the deepest respect, "I could stay
+at home; you see, my dear Vladimir," she added almost condescendingly
+to her son-in-law _in spe_, "I am uncomfortable in any company where I
+cannot get into my slippers in the evening...."
+
+"Mamma!" cried her daughter beside herself, "you really are!..."
+
+The baroness sat abashed and silent--no one spoke. There was not a
+sound in the room but the crackling of the fire in the huge tiled stove
+and the snoring of the big hunting-dog that lay sleeping on the tail of
+his mistress's skirt.
+
+"If we only could sell the Bernini!" murmured the baroness presently,
+resuming the thread of their conversation.
+
+The Bernini was a bust of Apollo that the baroness had inherited from
+her mother's family--said to be an adaptation by Bernini from the head
+of the Apollo Belvedere. Whenever the Wolnitzkys were in any financial
+straits the Bernini was packed off to some dealer in objects of
+_vertu_, from which excursions it invariably returned unsold. Not many
+days previously the travelled Apollo--he had seen New York, London, and
+St. Petersburg--had come home from a visit to Meyer of Berlin.
+
+"By the bye, Vladimir, you have not seen it yet," said Slawa, "I must
+show you the bust."
+
+"Is it the head that is said to be so strikingly like you?--that will
+interest me greatly," said the young Pole, casting an adoring eye on
+Slawa.
+
+"Bring the lamp, the bust is in the drawing-room."
+
+Vladimir, carrying the lamp, led the way into the drawing-room, a
+large, scantily-furnished room which was never dusted more than once a
+month. There, on a marble plinth in a corner, stood the radiant god--a
+copy from the Belvedere Apollo no doubt--but by Bernini...?
+
+"The likeness is extraordinary!" cried Vladimir ecstatically, and
+gazing alternately at the bust and at Slawa. "Oh, it is a gem, a
+masterpiece! you ought never to part with it."
+
+"Well, but I must say I should very much like to go to Rome," sighed
+the baroness; but Slawa only bit her lips.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+"And what shall we do to-morrow?" Sempaly would ask Zinka almost every
+evening when he met her, fresh and smiling, at some party; he had made
+it his task to help her to find her lost Rome and devoted himself to it
+with praiseworthy diligence.
+
+The disappointment that she had experienced in her expedition under the
+guidance of the _botta_ driver to the ruins of the capital of the
+Caesars is a common enough phenomenon; it comes over almost everyone
+who sets out with his fancy crammed with the mystical cobwebs that
+recent literature has spun round the name of Rome, to see for the first
+time that dense mass of splendor and rubbish among the bare modern
+houses. And the disappointment is greatest in those who come from a
+long stay in Venice or Verona. Rome has none of the seductive charm of
+those North Italian cities. Its architecture is sombre and heavy, and
+the prevailing hues in winter are a sober grey and a dull bluish-green,
+more suggestive of a subtly toned tempera picture than of a glowing oil
+painting. It is vain to look for the sheen of the shimmering lagoons or
+the fantastic outline of the campaniles against the sky of Venice; for
+the half-ruined frescoes, or amber sunshine of Verona.
+
+"After the cities of North Italy Rome has the effect of a severe choral
+by Handel after a nocturne by Chopin. The first impression is
+crushing," said Sempaly to Zinka; "but one wearies of the nocturne, and
+never of the choral."
+
+To which Zinka replied: "But the choral is so drowned by trivial
+hurdy-gurdy tunes that I find it very difficult to follow." To which he
+laughed and said: "We will speak of that again in a fortnight."
+
+By the end of the fortnight Zinka had thrown two _soldi_ into the
+Fountain of Trevi to make sure that she should some day see Rome again,
+and in fanaticism for Rome she outdid even the fanatical General von
+Klinger. Sempaly had contributed mainly to her conversion. Nothing
+could be more amusing or more interesting than to explore every nook of
+the city of ruins under his escort. He was constantly remembering this
+or that wonderful thing that he must positively show to Zinka. An
+artistic bas-relief that had been built to some queer orange-colored
+house above a tobacconist's, or a heathen divinity which had had wings
+attached to its shoulders to qualify it for admission as an angel into
+a Christian church. He rode out with her into the Campagna, and pointed
+out all the most picturesque parts of the Trastevere, and he could find
+a ridiculous suggestion even in the most reverend things. The halls of
+the Vatican in which the liberal minded Vicars of Christ have granted a
+refuge to the pensioners of antiquity, he called the Poor-house of the
+gods; and always spoke of St. Peter's, which is commonly known as _la
+Parocchia dei Forestieri_, as the Papal Grand Hotel. There was not a
+fountain, a fragment of sculpture, or a picturesque heap of ruins of
+which he could not relate some history, comic or pathetic, or he
+invented one; but he never produced the impression that he was giving a
+lecture. He had in fact a particularly unpretending way of telling an
+appropriate and not too lengthy anecdote; he never handed it round on a
+waiter, as it were, for examination, but let it drop quietly out of his
+pocket. His knowledge of art was but shallow, but his feeling for it,
+like all his instincts, was amazingly keen. His information on all
+subjects was miscellaneous and slender, not an article of his
+intellectual wardrobe--as Charles Lamb has it--was whole; but he draped
+himself in the rags with audacious grace and made no attempt to hide
+the holes.
+
+Truyn and his little daughter often joined them in these expeditions,
+and sometimes Cecil, but only when his mother did not choose to go out,
+and his demeanor on these occasions--'peripatetic aesthetics' he called
+their walks--was highly characteristic. He would walk by the side of
+his sister and Sempaly, or a few steps behind them, sunk in silence but
+always sharply observant. From time to time he would correct their
+cicerone in his dates, which Sempaly took with sublime indifference and
+for which--taking off his hat--he invariably thanked him with princely
+courtesy. Sterzl only sympathized with the classical style of the
+Renaissance; the real antiques which Zinka raved about he smiled at as
+caricatures; Guido on the other hand--for whom Sempaly had a weakness,
+as a Chopin among painters--Sterzl detested. He declared that the
+Beatrice Cenci had a cold wet bandage on her head, and that the picture
+was nothing more than a study apparently made from an idiot in a
+mad-house. When Zinka talked of her favorite antiques or other works in
+the mystical and sentimental slang of the clique, he laughed at her,
+but quite good-naturedly. He scorned all extravagance and raptures as
+cant and affectation. Still he was merciful to his sister, and when she
+turned from a Francia with tears in her eyes, or turned pale as she
+quoted Shelley, or spoke of Leonardo's Medusa in Florence, he did no
+more than shrug his shoulders and say: "Zinka, you are crazy," or
+gently pull her by the ear. Everything in Zinka was right, even her
+want of sound common sense.
+
+The baroness had at last found a lodging, almost to her mind: a small
+palazzo in a side street, off the Corso, "furnished in atrocious taste,
+but otherwise very nice." The palazetto was in fact a gem in its way,
+with a simple and elegant stone front and a court surrounded by a
+colonnade with red camellia shrubs and a fountain in the midst. There
+were several much injured antique statues too, one of which was a
+famous and very beautiful Amazon at whose feet a rose-bush bloomed
+profusely. This Amazon struck Zinka as remarkably picturesque and she
+sketched her from every point of view without ever reading the warning
+in her sad face. Alas! Zinka had gazed at the sun and it had blinded
+her.
+
+But how could Cecil allow this daily-growing intimacy between Sempaly
+and his sister? Sempaly's elder brother, Prince Sempaly, had been
+married ten years and was childless, so the attache, as heir
+presumptive, was in duty bound to make a brilliant marriage. Did not
+Sterzl know this? Yes, he knew it, but he did not trouble his head
+about it. He was under no illusion as to the singularity, not to say
+the improbability of Sempaly marrying a girl of inferior birth; he had
+no desire that it should be otherwise. He was no democrat; on the
+contrary, his was a particularly conservative and old world nature,
+equally remote from cringing or from envy. That Sempaly should marry
+any other girl not his equal in rank would have struck him as
+altogether wrong, but Zinka--Zinka was different. He worshipped her as
+only a strong elder brother call worship a much younger weaker sister
+and there was no social elevation of which he deemed her unworthy. And
+when he saw Sempaly smile down so tenderly and at the same time so
+respectfully on his 'butterfly,' as he called her, he was rejoiced at
+her good fortune and never for an instant doubted it Zinka was not
+sentimental. For a long time there was no tinge of any feeling stronger
+than good fellowship in her intercourse with Sempaly; her talk was all
+fun, her glance saucy and wilful. By degrees, however, a change came
+over her; her whole manner softened, there was a gentle dreaminess even
+in her caprice and when she smiled it was often with tears in her eyes.
+
+Sempaly was not regular in his visits to the palazetto; sometimes for
+two or three days he failed to appear, then he would call very
+early--at noon perhaps, join the family unceremoniously at their
+breakfast, go out driving with the ladies, accept an invitation to stay
+to dinner, and if Zinka was looking pale or out of spirits, he would
+pay her fifty kind little attentions to conjure a smile to her lips.
+Occasionally he would fall into the melancholy vein and talk of his
+loveless youth, and let her pity him for it. He would tell her about
+his elder brother, praising his many noble qualities, and then add with
+a shrug: "Yes, he is a splendid fellow, but ... he has ideas!" When
+Zinka asked what sort of ideas, Sempaly sighed: "I hope you may some
+day know him and then you can judge for yourself."
+
+But this was in a low tone and he seemed to regret having said it. Then
+he would frequently allude to this or that picture in his brother's
+house at Vienna, or to some curious family relic, and say how much he
+should like some day to show it to Zinka. His favorite theme, however,
+was Erzburg, the old castle which for numberless generations had been
+the family summer-retreat of the Sempalys and of which he was
+passionately fond. Excepting as regards this estate he was singularly
+free from all false or family pride; he declared that his brother's
+Vienna palace was an unhealthy barrack, scouted at the Sempaly breed of
+horses, laughed at the Sempaly nose, and praised the traditional
+Sempaly tokay more in irony than in good faith--but then he came round
+to Erzburg again and simply raved about it Not about the oriental
+luxury with which part of the castle was fitted up--not in the best
+taste--of that he never spoke; indeed, he said more about its
+deficiencies than its perfections, but in a tone of such loving excuse!
+He talked of the large bare rooms where, for years, he had watched for
+the apparition of the white lady, half longing, half dreading to see
+her; of the doleful groaning of the weather-cock of the _rococo_
+statues in the grounds, and of the gloomy pools with their low sad
+murmur, and their carpet of white waterlilies. The statues were bad,
+the pools unhealthy he admitted, and yet, as he said it, his usually
+mocking glance was soft and almost devout Once, when Zinka had grown
+quite dismal over his reminiscences, he took her hand and pressed it
+tenderly to his lips: "You must see Erzburg some day," he murmured.
+
+His behavior to her was that of a man who is perfectly clear as to his
+own intentions but who for some reason is not immediately free to sue
+for the hand of a girl whom in his heart of hearts he already regards
+as his own. What did he mean by all this? What was he thinking of? I
+believe absolutely nothing. He went with the tide. There are many men
+like him, selfish, luxurious natures who swim with the stream of life
+and never attempt to steer; they have for the most part happy tempers,
+they are content with any harbor so long as they reach it without
+effort or damage, and if in their passive course they run down any one
+else they exclaim with their usual amiable politeness: "Oh! I beg your
+pardon!" and are quite satisfied that the mishap was due to fate and
+not to any fault of theirs.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+It was in the end of February, shortly before the close of the
+carnival. Truyn, going to the Sterzls' with his little girl to take a
+walk with Zinka, saw at the door of the palazetto a hackney carriage
+with a small portmanteau on the top. Sterzl's man-servant, an elegant
+person with close-cut hair, shaved all but a short beard, and wearing
+an impressive watch-chain, was condescending to exchange a few words
+with the driver blinking in the sunshine.
+
+The drawing-room into which Truyn and his daughter were admitted
+unannounced was in the full blaze of light. The motes danced their
+aimless rainbow-colored dance; in the middle of the room stood Zinka
+with both hands on a table over which she was bending to gaze at a
+magnificent basket of flowers. There was something in her attitude,
+quaint but graceful, in the elegant line of her bust, the pathetic joy
+of her radiant face, the soft flow of her plain long dress, which
+stamped the picture once and for ever on Truyn's memory. A sunbeam
+wantoned in her hair turning it to gold and her whole figure was the
+embodiment of sweet and happy spring delight The basket of flowers,
+too, was a masterpiece of its kind--a _capriccio_ of lilies of the
+valley, gardenias, snow-flakes, and pale-tinted roses, that looked as
+though the wayward west-wind had blown them into company. Sterzl was
+standing by, with a pleased smile, and the baroness, in an attitude of
+affected astonishment, stood a little apart with a visiting-card in her
+hand. Neither Cecil nor his sister--she absorbed in the flowers and he
+in gazing at her--had heard Truyn arrive. When he knocked at the door
+the baroness said "come in," and gave him the tips of her fingers;
+then, with a wave of her hand towards the basket, she lisped out: "Did
+you ever see such extravagance!"
+
+Zinka looked up and welcomed him and so did Sterzl. "It is perfect
+folly ... quite reckless...." sighed the baroness, "such a basket of
+flowers costs a fortune. Why, only one gardenia...."
+
+Zinka's underlip pouted impatiently and Sterzl said in his dry way:
+
+"My dear mother, do not destroy Zinka's illusions; the basket fell from
+heaven expressly for her and she does not want to believe that it was
+bought, just like any other, in the Via Condotti or Babuino. What do
+you say, Count? Sempaly sent it to her to console her for the departure
+of her brother. The reason is too absurd, do not you think? I do not
+believe you would miss me particularly for a few days, child?" and he
+put his hand affectionately under her chin.
+
+"Where are you off to so suddenly?" asked Truyn very seriously.
+
+"To Naples. Franz Arnsperg has telegraphed to me to ask me to meet him
+there; he is on his way to Paris from Constantinople, and he is a great
+friend of mine and has come by way of Naples on purpose that we may
+meet."
+
+"The Arnsperg-Meiringens; you know their property adjoins ours," the
+baroness explained. Sterzl, who knew very well that Truyn was far
+better informed as to the Arnsperg-Meiringens than his mother, was
+annoyed and uncomfortable. However, he kissed her hand and then turned
+to his sister:
+
+"God shield you, my darling butterfly--write me a few lines, or is that
+too much to ask?" Then he kissed her and whispered: "Mind you have not
+lost those bright eyes by the time I return."
+
+Truyn accompanied him to the carriage with a very long face; he and
+General von Klinger had watched Sempaly's conduct with much
+disquietude, they knew him to be susceptible but not impressionable,
+alive to every new emotion; and Truyn would ere this have spoken to
+Sempaly on the subject if he had not been sure that it would merely
+provoke and irritate him without producing any good effect; the
+general, on the other hand, could not make up his mind to open Sterzl's
+eyes to the state of affairs because, like Baron Stockmar, he had an
+invincible dislike to interfering in matters that did not concern him.
+Like that famous man, not for worlds would he have committed an
+indiscretion to save a friend for whom he would have sacrificed his
+life; and this terror of being indiscreet is a form of cowardice which
+is considered meritorious in the fashionable world.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+
+It is Shrove Tuesday. The sorriest jade of the wretchedest _botta_ has
+a paper rose stuck behind his ear, though during the hours sacred to
+the carnival they are pariahs and outcasts from the Corso. Two-horse
+carriages are dressed in garlands and the horses have plumes on their
+heads. The Piazza di Spagna is alive with pedlars and hawkers, selling
+flowers and little tapers (_moccoli_), and with buyers of every nation
+doing their best to cheapen them. Baskets full of violets, roses,
+anemones, snowflakes--baskets full of indescribable bunches of
+greenery--the ammunition of the mob which have already done duty for
+two or three days and are like nothing on earth but the wisps of rushes
+with which the boards are rubbed in some parts of Austria. The sellers
+of coral and tortoise-shell cry out to you to buy--"_e carnevale_...."
+and in the side streets--for misery dares not show its head in the main
+thoroughfares to-day--the beggars crowd more closely than ever round
+the pedestrian with their perpetual cry: "_muojo di fame_."
+
+The houses on the Corso wear their gay carnival trappings to-day for
+the last time. A smart dress flutters on every balcony, several stands
+have been erected and all the window-sills are covered, some with
+colored chintz and some with gold brocade. All Thursday, Saturday, and
+Monday Zinka and Gabrielle had driven unweariedly up and down the Corso
+with Count Truyn, flinging flowers at all their acquaintances and at a
+good many strangers. To-day, however, they had agreed to look on from
+the windows of the Palazzo Vulpini, for the close of the carnival is
+apt to be somewhat riotous. Every one who lives on the Corso seizes the
+opportunity of paying long owing debts of civility and offers a place
+in a window to as many friends as can possibly be squeezed in.
+
+There was a large party at the Vulpinis', for the most part Italians
+and relations of the prince's. Madame de Gandry and Mrs. Ferguson had
+invited themselves, and Zinka, with Gabrielle Truyn, was to see the
+turmoil in the Corso from the balcony of the palazzo. The baroness had
+"tic douloureux" which kept her at home,--and which no one regretted.
+At six o'clock, before the beginning of the _moccoli_, all the company
+were to go to the '_Falcone_,' a well-known and especially Roman
+restaurant where they would dine more comfortably and easily than at
+home. From thence they were to adjourn to the _Teatro Costanzi_. Prince
+Vulpini had drawn up this thoroughly carnival programme for the special
+benefit of the Countess Schalingen who had a passion for "local color,"
+and who was enchanted. The princess was resigned; local color had no
+interest for her and she was somewhat prejudiced against Italian native
+dishes and masked festivities of all kinds.
+
+It was three o'clock. Baskets of flowers and whole heaps of sweet
+little sugar-plum boxes were ready piled in the windows for ammunition.
+The little Vulpinis, who entirely filled the large centre window, and
+their shy English governess in her black gown, had just come into
+the room, skipping about and pulling each other's hair for sheer
+impatience and excitement; and when their governess reproved them for
+behaving so roughly "_ma e carnevale_" is thought sufficient excuse;
+the company laughed and the English girl said no more. All the party
+had assembled. Madame de Gandry and Mrs. Ferguson were both looking
+pretty and picturesque; the former had stuck on a fez, and the other a
+quaintly-folded handkerchief of oriental stuff, in honor of the
+carnival, when eccentricity of costume is admissible and conventional
+head-gear are contemned.
+
+From the windows down to the carriages, from the carriages up to the
+windows the war was eagerly waged; bunches of flowers, and bonbonnieres
+from Spillman's and Nazzari's fly in all directions and scraps of
+colored paper fall like snow through the air. Then the blare and pipe
+of a military band came up from the Piazza di Venezia and the maskers
+crowded in among the carriages. One of the liveliest groups along the
+Corso was certainly that where the Vulpini children were grouped, with
+Zinka in their midst, she having undertaken the charge of them at their
+own earnest entreaty. She and Gabrielle were both laughing with glee,
+but at the height of their fun they remembered to pay all sorts of
+little civilities to the half-scared English governess and had stuck a
+splendid bunch of lilies of the valley in front of her camphor-scented
+black silk dress. What especially interested the children was watching
+for Norina's carriage, for they not only recognized the prince who was
+driving, but knew all his party: Truyn, Siegburg, Sempaly, and as it
+passed with its four bays the little Vulpinis jumped with delight and
+chirped and piped like a tree full of birds; the gentlemen waved their
+hands, smiled, and gallantly aimed bouquets without end at the windows
+of the palazzo. But all the finest flowers that day were, beyond a
+doubt, aimed at Zinka. The floor all round her was heaped with
+snowflakes, and violets, and roses. In her hand she had caught a huge
+bunch of roses flung up to her by Sempaly.
+
+"Oh, oh!" cried Madame de Gandry, retiring from the window to rest for
+a few minutes and refresh herself with a sip of wine. "Ah,
+mademoiselle!" glancing enviously at the mass of blossoms strewn round
+Zinka, "you have as many bouquets as a prima donna!" Zinka nodded;
+then, contemplating her hat, which she had thrown off in her
+excitement, with a whimsical air of regret and pulling the feather
+straight she said with a mockery of repentance:
+
+"My poor hat will be glad to rest on Ash Wednesday."
+
+"It is perfect, Marie, really perfect, this Roman carnival--a thing
+never to be forgotten!" exclaimed the Countess Schalingen, coming in
+from the window. She was a genuine Austrian, always ready to go into
+ecstasies of enthusiasm.
+
+"It is horrid," answered the princess impatiently. "Under the new
+government it is nothing but an amusement for the strangers and street
+boys."
+
+The _Barberi_ have rushed past, and the procession has once more begun
+to move on but its interest and excitement are over; the crowd in the
+road begins to thin, and Sempaly, Truyn, Norina, Siegburg, and the
+general have come in, as agreed, to escort the ladies to the 'Falcone,'
+The children have all been kissed and sent off to their dinner at home;
+Gabrielle somewhat ill-pleased at not being allowed to go with the
+elder party and Truyn himself not liking to part with his little
+companion. Zinka wishes to comfort Gabrielle by remaining with the
+little ones, but this was not to be heard of.
+
+"Only too many of us would wish to follow your example," whispers
+Princess Vulpini, to whom this dinner at a Roman restaurant is
+detestable.
+
+They are to go on foot, but they are so long getting ready after this
+little delay that the one peaceful half-hour before the _moccoli_ is
+lost; by the time they sally into the street the crowd, which had
+dispersed, is getting denser every minute. The darkness comes on
+rapidly, like a grey curtain let down suddenly from the skies; the
+gaudy hangings are being taken in from the windows lest they should
+catch fire; the carnival is putting on its ball-dress. Now the first
+twinkling tapers are seen here and there, like glow-worms in the dusk,
+and are instantly pelted with _mazetti_ and bunches of greenery, mostly
+picked up from the pavement "_Fuori! fuori!_" is the monotonous cry on
+every side, and presently: "_senza moccolo, vergogna!_"--the death
+cries of the carnival.
+
+The Austrian gentlemen find their position anything rather than
+pleasant, for it is impossible to protect the ladies effectually
+against being jostled and pushed, still less against hearing much rough
+jesting. At last they are out of the Corso and have divided in the
+narrow streets; some having turned into the Via Maddalena, while others
+have crossed the Piazza Capranica to the Piazza della Rotunda; but at
+last they are all met after various small adventures at the
+'_Falcone_.' The ladies' toilets have suffered a little and Princess
+Vulpini looks very unhappy.
+
+The '_Falcone_' is a very unpretending restaurant where the waiters
+wear white jackets; the tariff is moderate and the _risotto_
+celebrated. Vulpini orders a thoroughly Italian dinner in an upper
+room.
+
+Suddenly Truyn exclaims in dismay: "What has become of Zinka and
+Sempaly?"
+
+"They have lingered talking on the way," says Madame de Gandry with
+pinched lips as she leans back in her chair and pulls off her gloves.
+"People always walk slowly when they have so much to say to each
+other."
+
+Truyn frowned. "I am afraid they have got entangled in the crowd and
+have not been able to make their way out. I have hated this expedition
+from the first. I cannot imagine, Marie, what could have put such a
+plan into your head...."
+
+"Mine!" says his sister in an undertone and with a meaning glance. But
+she says no more. He knows perfectly well that she is as innocent of
+the scheme as the angels in heaven.
+
+"Why, what on earth is the matter?" asks Vulpini pouring huge
+quantities of grated cheese into his soup, while Mrs. Ferguson
+complains that she is dying of hunger, which is singular, considering
+the enormous number of bonbons she has eaten in the course of the day.
+Madame de Gandry asks for a series of French dishes which the
+'_Falcone_' has never heard of Countess Schalingen is loud in her
+praises of the Italian cookery and is only sorry that she has no
+appetite.
+
+Truyn and the general sat gazing at the door in growing anxiety; Zinka
+and Sempaly do not make their appearance--Truyn can hardly conceal his
+alarm.
+
+"I certainly cannot understand what you are so uneasy about," says
+Madame de Gandry with a perfidious smile; "if Fraeulein Zinka has been
+mobbed and hindered Sempaly is in the same predicament and will take
+good care of her. If she were with any one less trustworthy, less
+competent, with whom she was less intimate ... then I could
+understand...." Truyn passes his hand over his grey hair in extreme
+perplexity and mutters in his mother tongue: "This woman will be the
+death of me!" and then he again blames his sister.
+
+Yet another quarter of an hour; though the waiters are not nimble they
+have got to the dessert and still no signs of Sempaly and Zinka.
+
+"I am beginning to feel very anxious," says Marie. "I only hope the
+child has not fainted in the crowd."
+
+Madame de Gandry makes a meaning grimace. "It is perhaps the cleverest
+thing she could have done," she says. Truyn hears and bites his lip.
+
+The door just now opens and Zinka and Sempaly come in; she calm and
+sweet, he dark and scowling.
+
+"Thank God!" cries Truyn.
+
+"What in the world has happened?" asks the princess, while Truyn draws
+a chair to the table for Zinka, next to himself. "What has happened?"
+repeated Sempaly. "The most obvious thing in the world. We got into the
+thick of the mob and could not get through."
+
+"I cannot understand how that should have occurred," says Madame de
+Gandry. "We all came through."
+
+"You may perhaps recollect that we were the last of the party,
+countess; we had hardly gone twenty yards when the crowd had become
+a compact mass, we pressed on, determined to get through at any
+cost--alone I could have managed it--but with a lady--suddenly we were
+in the thick of a furious squabble--curses, blows, and knives. I cannot
+tell you how miserable I was at finding myself out in the street with a
+lady--a young girl...."
+
+"Fraeulein Sterzl seems to take it all much more coolly than you do.
+Count Sempaly," interposes Madame de Gandry spitefully; "she does not
+appear to have been at all terrified by the adventure."
+
+"Fraeulein Zinka was very brave," replied Sempaly.
+
+"Goodness me! what was there to be afraid of;" says Zinka with the
+simplicity of childish innocence. "The responsibility was Count
+Sempaly's not mine."
+
+The French woman laughs sharply. "We must be moving now," she says, "if
+we mean to go to Costanzi's," and there is a clatter of chairs and a
+little scene of confusion in which no one can find the right shawl or
+wrap for each lady.
+
+But Princess Vulpini makes no attempt to move: "I am going nowhere else
+this evening," she says with unwonted determination. "I will not take
+Zinka to Constanzi's. I will wait till she has eaten her beef-steak and
+then I will take her home. I hope you will all enjoy yourselves."
+
+Zinka eats her beef-steak with the greatest calmness and an
+unmistakably good appetite; she is perfectly sweet and docile and
+natural; she has no suspicion that her name will to-morrow morning be
+in every mouth. Truyn is as pale as death; he has heard Madame de
+Gandry's whisper to her friend: "After this he must make her an offer."
+
+
+
+
+
+                                PART II.
+
+                                 LENT.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+
+"I am glad to have found you," cried Truyn next morning as he entered
+Sempaly's room in the Palazzo di Venezia, and discovered him sipping
+his coffee after his late breakfast, with a book in his hand.
+
+"I am delighted that you should for once have taken the trouble to
+climb up to me. I must show you my Francia--the dealer who sold it to
+me declares it is a Francia. But you look worried. What has brought you
+here?"
+
+"I only wanted to know--to ask you whether you will drive out to
+Frascati with us to-day?"
+
+"To Frascati!--This afternoon? What an idea!" exclaimed Sempaly; "and
+in any case I cannot join you for I am going to the Palatine at three
+o'clock with the Sterzls."
+
+"Yes?" said Truyn looking uncommonly grave.
+
+"May I offer you a cup of coffee?" asked Sempaly coolly.
+
+"No thank you," replied Truyn shortly. He was evidently uneasy, and
+began examining the odds and ends at the table to give himself
+countenance; by accident he took up the book that Sempaly had been
+reading when he came in. It was Charles Lamb's Essays, and on the first
+page was written in a large, firm hand: "In friendly remembrance of a
+terrible quarrel, Zinka Sterzl."
+
+"The child lost a bet with me not long since," Sempaly explained.
+"Another bet is still unsettled and is to be decided to-day at the
+Palatine." Truyn shut the book sharply and threw it down; then, setting
+his elbows on the table at which they were sitting, and fixing his eyes
+keenly on Sempaly's face he said:
+
+"Do you intend to marry Zinka Sterzl?"
+
+Sempaly started, "What do you mean?" he exclaimed; "what are you
+dreaming of?" But as Truyn said no more, simply gazing fixedly at him,
+he took up an attitude of defiance. He looked Truyn straight in the
+face with an angry glare and retorted:
+
+"And suppose I do?"
+
+"Then I can only hope you will have enough resolution to carry out your
+intentions," said Truyn, "for to stop half-way in such a case is a
+crime."
+
+He drew a deep breath and looked at the ground. But Sempaly's face,
+instead of clearing, grew darker; he was prepared for vehement
+opposition and his cousin's calm consent, not to say encouragement, put
+him in the position of a man who, after straining every muscle to lift
+a heavy weight suddenly discovers that it is a piece of painted
+pasteboard. It completely threw him off his balance.
+
+"Well, I must say!" he began in a tone of extreme annoyance, "you speak
+of it as if it were a no more serious question than the dancing of a
+cotillon. In plain terms the thing is impossible. What are we to live
+on? I have long since run through all my fortune, if I took what my
+brother would regard as so monstrous a step he would cut off all
+supplies, and Zinka is not of age. I might to be sure take to selling
+dripping to maintain my wife, which would have the additional advantage
+that my mother-in-law would cut me in consequence. Or perhaps you would
+advise me to let Dame Clotilde Sterzl keep us till Zinka comes into her
+money?"
+
+"Well," says Truyn calmly, "if you can take such a reasonable view of
+the impossibility of your marriage with Zinka Sterzl, your behavior to
+her is perfectly inexplicable."
+
+Truyn was still sitting by the little table on which the pretty coffee
+service was set out, while Sempaly, his hands in his pockets, was
+walking up and down the room, kicking and shoving the furniture with
+all the irritation of a man who knows himself to be in the wrong.
+
+"Upon my soul I cannot make out what you would be at!" he suddenly
+exclaimed, standing still and facing his cousin. "Sterzl has never
+found any fault with my behavior and it is much more his affair than
+yours."
+
+Truyn changed color a little, but did not lose his presence of mind.
+
+"Sterzl, with all his dryness of manner, is an idealist," he said, "who
+would fetch the stars from heaven for his sister if he could. He has
+never for an instant doubted that your intentions with regard to her
+were quite serious."
+
+"That is impossible!" cried Sempaly.
+
+"But it is so," Truyn asserted. "He is too blind to think his sister
+beneath any one's notice."
+
+"And he is right!" exclaimed Sempaly, "perfectly right--but the
+pressure of circumstances--of position--the duties I have
+inherited...."
+
+He had seated himself on the deep inner ledge of one of the windows,
+with his elbows on his knees and his chin between his hands, and was
+staring thoughtfully at the floor.
+
+"Allow me to ask you," he said, "what induced you to mix yourself up in
+the affair?"
+
+"It has weighed on my mind for a long time," said Truyn, "but what
+especially moved me to speak of it to-day is the circumstance that last
+evening, before you came into the '_Falcone_,' Mesdames De Gandry and
+Ferguson allowed themselves to speak in a way which convinced me that
+your constant intimacy with Zinka is beginning to do her no good."
+
+"Oh! of course, if you listen to the gossip of every washerwoman,"
+Sempaly interrupted angrily. And he muttered a long speech in which the
+words: 'Sacred responsibility--due regard for the duties imposed by
+Providence,' were freely thrown in. Truyn's handsome face flushed with
+contempt and at length he broke into his cousin's harangue, to which
+for a few minutes he had listened in silence:
+
+"No swagger nor bluster.... The matter is quiet simple: Do you love
+Zinka?" The attache frowned:
+
+"Yes," he said fiercely.
+
+"Then it is only that you have not the courage to face the annoyances
+that a marriage with her would involve you in?"
+
+Sempaly was dumb,
+
+"Then, my dear fellow, there is no choice; you must break off the
+intimacy, as gently but as immediately as possible."
+
+"That I neither can nor will attempt," cried Sempaly, stamping his
+foot.
+
+"If within three days you have not taken the necessary steps to secure
+your removal from Rome, I shall feel myself compelled to give Sterzl a
+hint--or your brother--whichever you prefer." Truyn spoke quite firmly.
+"And now good-bye."
+
+"Good-bye," said Sempaly without moving, and Truyn went to the door;
+there he paused and said hesitatingly: "Do not take it amiss, Nicki--I
+could do no less. Remember that though the right is a bitter morsel, it
+has a good after-taste."
+
+"Poor child, poor sweet little girl!" Truyn murmured to himself as he
+descended the grey stone stairs of the Palazzo de Venezia. "Is this a
+time to be talking of inherited responsibilities and the duties of
+position--now! Good heavens!" He lighted a cigar and then flung it
+angrily away. "Good heavens! to have met a girl like Zinka--to have won
+her love--and to be free!..."
+
+He hurried out into the street, leaving the gate-porter astonished that
+the count, who was usually so courteous, should have taken no notice of
+his respectful bow; such a thing had never happened before.
+
+He was a strange man, this grey-haired young Count Truyn; he had grown
+up as one of a very happy family and when still quite young he had been
+hurried, much against his will, into a marriage with the handsome
+Gabrielle Zinsenburg. He had never been able to reconcile himself to
+the empty wordliness of his life in her society; she was a heartless,
+superficial woman, some few years older than himself, who had staked
+everything on her hope of achieving a marriage with him. Within a few
+years they had separated, quite amiably, by mutual consent; he had
+given her his name and she gave him his child. His life was spoilt. He
+had a noble and a loving heart but he might not bestow it on any woman;
+he must carry it about in his breast where it grew heavy to bear. His
+love for his little girl, devoted as he was to her, was not enough to
+live by, and a bitter sense of craving lurked in his spirit. For many
+years he had lived a great deal abroad; his mind had expanded and he
+had shed several of his purely Austrian prejudices. At home he was
+still regarded as a staunch conservative because he always passively
+voted on that side; but he was only indifferent, absolutely
+indifferent, to all political strife, and smiled alike at the
+recklessness of the 'left' and the excitability of the 'right,' while
+in his inmost soul he regarded the perfecting of government as mere
+labor lost; for he was no optimist, and thought that to heal the woes
+of humanity nothing would avail but its thorough regeneration, and that
+men have no mind for such regeneration; all they ask is to be allowed
+to cry out when they are hurt, and shift their sins on to each other's
+shoulders.
+
+It afforded him no satisfaction to cry out. His weary soul found no
+rest but in unbounded benevolence, and Sempaly's nature--experimental,
+groping his way through life--had seemed to him to-day more odious than
+ever.
+
+"How can a man be at once so tender and such a coward?" he asked
+himself, "He is the most completely selfish being I ever met with--a
+thorough epicurean in sentiment, and has only just heart enough for his
+own pleasure and enjoyment."
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+The bet outstanding between Zinka and Sempaly was not decided that
+afternoon. Sempaly did not go to the Palatine, but excused himself at
+the last moment in a little note to Zinka. Truyn's words, though he
+would not have admitted it to himself, had made a very deep impression,
+and though he fought against it he could no longer avoid looking the
+situation in the face. To get himself transferred to some other
+capital, to give up all his pleasant idle habits here--the idea was
+intolerable! He felt exactly like a man who has been suddenly roused
+from a slumber bright with pleasant dreams. He did not want to wake, or
+to rub his eyes clear of the vision.
+
+Was everything at an end then? Truyn had, to be sure, suggested an
+alternative: if he could but call up sufficient energy it rested only
+with himself to turn the sweet dream into a still sweeter and lovelier
+reality, and his whole being thrilled with ecstasy as this delightful
+possibility flattered his fancy. He was long past the age at which a
+man commits some matrimonial folly believing that he can reclaim the
+morals of some disrespectable second-rate actress, or that his highest
+happiness is to devote his life to his sister's governess who is a
+dozen years older than himself; when he contemplated the possibility of
+his marrying Zinka Sterzl after all, it was with the certainty that his
+feeling for her was not a mere transient madness, but that it had its
+roots in the depths of his nature. Every form and kind of enjoyment had
+been at his command and he had hated them all. Things in which other
+men of his age and position could find excitement and interest roused
+his fastidious nature to disgust. Life had long since become to him a
+vain and empty show, when he had met Zinka.... Then all the sweetest
+spirits of spring had descended fluttering into his vacant heart; a
+magical touch had made it a garden of flowers and filled it with fair,
+mad dreams of love. All the "sweet sorrow" of life was revealed to him
+in a new form ... And now was he to tread the blossoms into dust? "Give
+up seeing her--get myself sent away--never! I cannot and I will not do
+it," he muttered to himself indignantly as he thought it all over.
+"What business is it of Truyn's? What right has he to issue his orders
+to me?"
+
+But when he had resolved simply to go on with Zinka as he had begun, to
+sun himself as heretofore in her smile, her gentleness, and her beauty,
+he was still uncomfortable. He felt that it would not be the same. Till
+now his heart had simply been content, now it could speak and ask for
+more; to try to satisfy it with this shadow of delight was like
+attempting to slake a raging thirst with the dew off a rosebud. He
+loved her now--suddenly and madly. Interesting women had hitherto
+utterly failed to interest him; they were like brooklets filled by the
+rain: the muddiness of the water prevented their shallowness being
+immediately perceptible; the storms of life had spoilt their clearness
+and purity; Zinka, on the contrary, was like a mountain lake whose
+waters are so transparent that near the shore every pebble is visible;
+and though, in the middle, the bottom is no longer seen, it is because
+they are deep and not because they are turbid, till their crystalline
+opacity reflects the sky overhead. And in the depths of that lake, he
+thought, lay a treasure which one alone, guided and blest by God, might
+hope to find. How he longed to sound it.
+
+She was made for him; never for an instant had he been dull in her
+society; she satisfied both his head and his heart; all the bewitching
+inconsistency and contradictions of her nature captivated him; he had
+said of her that "she was like a little handbook to the study of
+women," she was made up of such a variety of characteristics. In the
+midst of her childlike moods she had such unexpected depth of thought,
+such flashes of wisdom; her wildest vagaries were so original and often
+ended so suddenly in wistful reverie; her little selfish caprices were
+the converse of such devoted self-sacrifice; her grace was so
+spontaneous, her voice so soft and appealing ... Well, but should
+he?... No, it must not be. Truyn had said it--he must quit Rome--the
+sooner the better.
+
+He took his hat and went out to call on the ambassador and discuss the
+matter with him. His excellency was not at home and Sempaly betook
+himself to the club, where he lost several games at ecarte--he was
+greatly annoyed. Then he went home and sat looking constantly at the
+clock as though he were expecting some one; his irritation increased
+every minute.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+
+           "Bright May--the sweetest month of Spring;
+            The trees and fields with flowers are strown--
+            Dear Heart, to thee Life's May I bring;
+            Take it and keep it for thine own--
+            Nay--draw the knife!--I will not start,
+            Pierce if thou wilt, my willing breast.
+            There thou shalt find my faithful heart
+            Whose truth in death shall stand confessed."
+
+
+These words, sung in the Roman dialect to a very simple air, came
+quavering out of the open window of the drawing-room of the Sterzls'
+palazetto as Sempaly passed by it that evening; he had gone out to pay
+some visits, to divert his mind, and though his way did not take him
+along the side street in which the palazetto stood, he had not been
+able to resist the temptation to make a detour. It was a mild evening
+and the tones floated down like an invitation; he recognized Zinka's
+voice as she sang one of the melancholy _Stornelli_ in which the
+peasants of the Campagna give utterance to their loves. It ceased, and
+he was just moving away, when another even sweeter and more piercing
+lament broke the warm silence.
+
+
+           "Or shall I die?--Poison itself could have
+            No terrors if I took it from thy hand.
+            Thy heart should be my death-bed and my grave."
+
+
+The passionate words were sung with subdued vehemence to a rather
+monotonous tune--like a faded wreath of spring flowers borne along by
+some murmuring stream. He turned back, and listened with suspended
+breath. The song ended on a long, full note; he felt that he would give
+God knows how much to hear the last line once more:
+
+
+           '_La sepoltura mia sara il tuo seno!_....'
+
+
+Now Zinka was speaking--it vexed him beyond measure that he could not
+hear what she was saying. It was maddening ... Good heavens! what a
+fool he was to stand fretting outside!
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+When he went into the drawing-room to his great surprise he was met by
+Sterzl.
+
+"Back so soon?" he exclaimed as he shook hands with him.
+
+"Yes, Arnstein had only two days to spare in Naples," replied Sterzl;
+"I was delighted to see him again, but--well, I must be growing very
+old, I was so glad to find myself at home again," and he drew his
+sister to him and lightly stroked her pretty brown hair. His brotherly
+caress added to Sempaly's excitement "No wonder that you like your
+home!" he was saying, when the baroness appeared with an evening wrap
+on her shoulders, a fan and scent-bottle in her hand, and, as usual,
+dying of refinement and airs.
+
+"Not ready yet, Zenaide? Ah, my dear Sempaly, how very sweet of you!"
+and she gave him the tips of her fingers.--"We were quite anxious about
+you when you so suddenly excused yourself from joining us. Zinka was
+afraid you had taken the Roman fever," she said sentimentally.
+
+"Zinka has an imagination that feeds on horrors," said Sterzl smiling.
+
+"I did think that you must have some very urgent reason," said Zinka
+hastily and in some confusion.
+
+Sempaly looked into her eyes: "I was doing Ash-Wednesday penance, that
+was all," he said in a low voice.
+
+"Well, to complete the mortification come now to Lady Dalrymple's," the
+baroness suggested.
+
+"Oh, be merciful! Grant me a dispensation. I should so much enjoy a
+quiet evening," cried Sempaly.
+
+"And I too," added Zinka. "I am utterly sick of soirees and routs.
+These performances give me the impression of a full-dress review, at
+which such and such fashionable regiments are paraded."
+
+"Give us a holiday, mother; remember, it is Ash-Wednesday, and we are
+good Catholics," said her son.
+
+"I had some scruples myself, but the Duchess of Otranto is going,"
+lisped the baroness.
+
+However, when Sempaly had assured her that the Duchess of Otranto was
+by no means a standard authority in Roman society she yielded to the
+common desire that they should remain at home, and withdrew to her room
+to write some letters before tea.
+
+Most men have senses and nerves only in their brain while women, as is
+well known, have them all over the body; in this respect Sempaly was
+like a woman. He had senses even in his finger tips--as a Frenchman had
+once said, of him: "il avait les sens poete!" (a poet's nerves). The
+most trifling external conditions gave him disproportionate pleasure or
+pain. The smallest detail of ugliness was enough to spoil his
+appreciation of the noblest and grandest work of art; he would not have
+felt the beauty of Faust if he had first read it in a shabby or dirty
+copy. Now, when the baroness had left the room, there was no detail
+that could disturb his enjoyment in being with Zinka.
+
+Sterzl had taken up his newspaper; Zinka, at Sempaly's request, had
+seated herself at the piano. She always accompanied herself by heart
+and sat with her head bowed a little over the keys and half-shut dreamy
+eyes. The sober tone of the room, with its tapestried walls and happy
+medley of knick-knacks, broad-leaved plants, Japanese screens, and
+comfortable furniture, formed a harmonious background to her slight,
+white figure. The light of the one lamp was moderated by its
+rose-colored shade; a subdued _mezza-voce_ tone of color prevailed in
+the room which was full of the scent of roses and violets, and the
+heavy perfume seemed in sympathy with the gloomy sentiment of the
+popular love songs. Sempaly's whole nature thrilled with rapturous
+suspense, such as few men would perhaps quite understand. At his desire
+Zinka sang one after another of the _Stornelli_ ... her voice grew
+fuller and deeper ...
+
+"Do not sing too long, Zini, it will tire you," said her brother.
+
+"Only one more--the one I heard from outside," begged Sempaly, and she
+sang:
+
+
+           "_La sepoltura mia sara il tuo seno_...."
+
+
+The words trembled on her lips; her hands slipped off the last notes
+into her lap. Sempaly took the warm, soft little hands in his own; a
+sort of delightful giddiness mounted to his brain as he touched them.
+
+"Zinka," he said, "tell me, do you feel a little of what your voice
+expresses?"
+
+Her eyes met his--and she blinked, as we blink at a strong, bright
+light; she shrank back a little, as we shrink from too great and sudden
+joy. Her answer was fluttering on her lips when the door opened--the
+Italian servant pronounced some perfectly unintelligible gibberish by
+way of a name, and in marched--followed by her daughter and their
+Polish swain--the Baroness Wolnitzka.
+
+"Oh, thank goodness, I have found you at home!" she exclaimed. "We
+counted on finding you at home on Ash-Wednesday. God bless you, Zinka!"
+
+Zinka was petrified. Mamma Sterzl rushed in from an adjoining room at
+the sound of those rough tones.
+
+"Charlotte!" was all she could stammer out, "Char--lotte ... you ...
+here!"
+
+"Quite a surprise, is it not, Clotilde? Yes, the most unhoped-for
+things sometimes happen. We arrived to-day at three o'clock and called
+here this afternoon but you were out; so then we decided to try in the
+evening. It is rather late, to be sure, and I, for my part, should have
+been here long ago, but Slawa insisted on dressing--for such near
+relations! Quite absurd ... but I do not like to contradict her, she is
+so easily put out--so I waited to dress too."
+
+And the baroness, after embracing her sister and her niece, plumped
+down uninvited on a very low chair.
+
+She had dressed with a vengeance: a black lace cap was perched on the
+top of her short, grey hair, with lappets that hung down over her ears.
+Her massive person was squeezed into a violet satin gown, which she had
+evidently out-grown, and a lace scarf picturesquely thrown over her
+shoulders was intended to conceal its defects; her lavender-colored
+gloves were very short and much too tight, and burst at all the
+button-holes. Slawa had a general effect of tricolor, and she wore some
+old jewelry that she had bought of a dealer in antiquities at Verona.
+She had curled and piled up her hair after the antique and kept her
+head constantly turned over her left shoulder, to be as much like the
+Apollo as possible, at the same time making a grimace as if she were
+being photographed and wished to look bewitching.
+
+Vladimir Matuschowsky's tall, slouching figure was buttoned into a
+braided coat; he held a low-crowned hat with tassels in his hand, and
+glared at the plain dress-coats of the other two men as though they
+were a personal insult.
+
+"Monsieur Vladimir de Matuschowsky," said the baroness introducing him,
+"a ... a ... friend of the family." But she said it in French: when the
+Baroness Wolnitzka was at all at a loss she commonly spoke French.
+
+Her sister, who by this time had got over her astonishment, now began
+to wish to dazzle the new-comers.
+
+"Count Sempaly," she said, presenting the attache; "a friend of our
+family ... my sister, the Baroness Wolnitzka. You have no doubt heard
+of the famous Slav leader Baron Wolnitzky, who was so conspicuous a
+figure in forty-eight."
+
+Sempaly bowed without speaking; Baroness Wolnitzka rose and politely
+offered him her hand: "I am delighted to make your acquaintance," she
+said. "I have heard a great deal about you; my sister has mentioned you
+in all her letters and I am quite _au courant_."
+
+Again Sempaly bowed in silence and then, retiring into the background
+while the mistress of the house turned to address Slawa, he said to
+Sterzl:
+
+"I will take an opportunity of slipping away--a stranger is always an
+intruder at a family meeting," His manner was suddenly cold and stiff
+and his tone intolerably arrogant.
+
+Sterzl nodded: "Go by all means," he replied. But Baroness Sterzl
+perceiving his purpose exclaimed:
+
+"No, no, my dear Sempaly, you really must not run away--you are not in
+the least _de trop_--and a stranger you certainly can never be."
+
+"It would look as though we had frightened you away, and that I will
+not imagine," added her sister archly.
+
+So Sempaly stayed; only, perhaps, from the impulse that so often
+prompts us to drink a bitter cup to the dregs.
+
+"Pray command yourself a little, Zini," whispered Cecil to his sister.
+"The interruption is unpleasant; but you should not show your annoyance
+so plainly."
+
+Tea was now brought in; Sterzl devoted himself in an exemplary manner
+to his cousin Slawa, so as to give his spoilt little sister as much
+liberty as possible. Slawa treated him with the greatest condescension
+and kept glancing over her huge Japanese fan at Sempaly, who was
+sitting by Zinka on a small sofa, taciturn and ill-pleased, while he
+helped her to pour out the tea.
+
+Baroness Wolnitzka gulped down one cup after another, eat up almost all
+the tea-cake, and never ceased an endless medley of chatter. The young
+Pole sat brooding gloomily, ostentatiously refused all food and spoke
+not a word; his arms crossed on his breast he sat the image of the
+Dignity of Man on the defensive.
+
+"I am desperately hungry," Madame Wolnitzka confessed. "We are at a
+very good hotel--Hotel della Stella, in Via della Pace; we were told of
+it by a priest with whom we met on our journey. It is not absolutely
+first-class--still, only people of the highest rank frequent it; two
+Polish counts dined at the table d'hote and a French marquise;--in her
+case I must own I thought I could smell a rat--I suspect she is running
+away with her lover from her husband, or from her creditors."
+
+Out of deference to the "highest rank" the baroness had put her hand up
+to her mouth on the side nearest to the young people as she made this
+edifying communication. "The dinner was very good," she went on,
+"capital, and we pay six francs a day for our board."
+
+"Seven," corrected Slawa.
+
+"Six, Slawa."
+
+"Seven, mamma."
+
+And a discussion of the deepest interest to the rest of the party
+ensued between the mother and daughter as to this important point.
+Slawa remained master of the field; "and with wax-lights and service it
+comes to eight," she added triumphantly.
+
+"I let her talk," whispered her mother, again directing her words with
+her hand, "she is very peculiar in that way; everything cheap she
+thinks must be bad. However, what I was going to say was that, to tell
+the truth, I did not get enough to eat at dinner--there were flowers on
+the table,"--and she reached herself a slice of plum-cake.
+
+At this moment the door opened to admit Count Siegburg.
+
+"Good evening," he began--"seeing you so brightly lighted up I could
+not resist the temptation to come in and see how you were spending your
+Ash-Wednesday."
+
+He glanced around at the three strangers and instantly grasped the
+situation; but, far from taking the tragical view of it, he at once
+determined to get as much fun out of it as possible. After being
+introduced he placed himself in a position from which he could command
+the whole party, Sempaly included, and converse both with Madame
+Wolnitzka and her daughter. He addressed himself first to the latter.
+
+"The name of Wolnitzky is known to fame," he said.
+
+"Yes, my father played a distinguished part in forty-eight," replied
+Slawa.
+
+"Siegburg--Siegburg?..." Madame Wolnitzka was meanwhile murmuring to
+herself. "Which of the Siegburgs? The Siegburgs of Budow, or of Waldau,
+or ...?"
+
+"The Waldau branch," said Baroness Sterzl. "His mother was a Princess
+Hag," and she leaned back on her cushions.
+
+"Ah! the Waldau Siegburgs! quite the best Siegburgs!" remarked her
+sister in a tone of astonishment.
+
+"Of course," replied Baroness Sterzl with great coolness, as though she
+had never in her life spoken to anyone less than "the best Siegburgs."
+
+Madame Wolnitzka arranged her broad face in the most affable wrinkles
+she could command, and sat smiling at the young count, watching for an
+opportunity of putting in a word. For the present, however, this did
+not offer, for her sister addressed her, asking, in a bitter-sweet
+voice:
+
+"And what made you decide on coming to Rome?"
+
+"Can you ask? I have wished for years to see Rome, and you wrote so
+kindly and so constantly, Clotilde--so at length ..." and here followed
+the history of the Bernini. "You remember our Bernini, Clotilde?"
+
+Her sister nodded.
+
+"Well, I had the Apollo, the head only, a copy by Bernini. It is a work
+of art that has been in our family for generations," she continued,
+turning to Siegburg as she saw that he was listening to her narrative.
+
+"For centuries," added Madame Sterzl.
+
+"I must confess that I could hardly bear to part with it," her sister
+went on. "However, I made up my mind to do so when Tulpe, the great
+antiquary from Vienna, came one day and bid for it."
+
+Sterzl, to whom the god's wanderings were known, made some allusion to
+them in his dry way; on which the Baroness Wolnitzka shuffled herself a
+little nearer to Siegburg and addressed herself to him.
+
+"You see, count, it was something like what often happens with a girl:
+you drag her about to balls for years, take her from one watering-place
+to another, and never get her off your hands; then you settle down
+quietly at home and suddenly, when you least expect it, a suitor turns
+up. I could hardly bear to see the last of the bust I assure you."
+
+"It must indeed have been a harrowing parting," said Siegburg with much
+feeling.
+
+"Terrible!" said the baroness, "and doubly painful because"--and here
+she leaned over to whisper in Siegburg's ear--"Slawa is so amazingly
+like the Bernini. Does not her likeness to the Apollo strike you?"
+
+"I saw it at once--as soon as I came in," Siegburg declared without
+hesitation.
+
+"Every one says so--well then, you can understand what a sacrifice it
+was ... it cuts me to the heart only to think of it. Oh! these great
+emotions! Excuse me if I take off my cap ..." and she hastily snatched
+off the black lace structure and passing her fingers through her thin
+grey hair with the vehemence of a genius she exclaimed: "Merciful God!
+How we poor women are ill-used! crushed, fettered ..."
+
+"Yes, a woman's lot is not a happy one;" said Siegburg sympathetically.
+
+"You are quite an original!" exclaimed her sister, giggling rather
+uncomfortably--for in good society it is quite understood that when we
+are suffering under relations devoid of manners, and whom, if we dared,
+we should shut up at once in a mad-house, we may do what we can to
+render them harmless by ticketing them with this title--"Quite an
+original. Are you still always ready to break a lance for the
+emancipation of our sex?"
+
+"No," replied Madame Wolnitzka, "no, my dear Clotilde, I have given
+that up. Since I learnt by experience that every woman is ready to set
+aside the idea of emancipation as soon as she has a chance of marrying
+I have lost my sympathy with the cause."
+
+"The emancipation of women of course can only be interesting to those
+who cannot marry," observed Sterzl, who had not long since read an
+article on this much ventilated question.
+
+"And as there are undoubtedly more women than men in the world,
+legalized polygamy is the only solution of the difficulty," his aunt
+asserted.
+
+"Mamma! you really are!..." said Slawa with an angry flare.
+
+"Your views are necessarily petty and narrow," retorted her mother. "If
+I were speaking of the subject in a light and frivolous tone I could
+understand your indignation; but I am looking at the matter from a
+philosophical point of view--you understand me, I am sure, Count
+Siegburg."
+
+"Perfectly, my dear madam," Siegburg assured her with grave dignity.
+"You look at the question from the point of national and political
+economy and from that point of view improprieties have no existence."
+
+Sempaly sat twirling his moustache; Zinka first blushed and then turned
+pale, while the mistress of the house patted her sister on the
+shoulder, saying with a sharp, awkward laugh: "Quite an original--quite
+an original."
+
+But Sterzl, seeing that Siegburg was excessively entertained by the old
+woman's absurdities, and was on the point of amusing himself still
+further at her expense by laying some fresh trap for her folly, happily
+bethought him that the only way to procure silence would be to ask
+Slawa to sing. So he begged his cousin to give them some national air.
+Siegburg joined in the request, but Slawa tried to excuse herself on a
+variety of pretexts: the piano was too low, the room was bad to sing
+in, and so forth and so forth ... at last, however, she was persuaded
+to sing some patriotic songs in which Matuschowsky accompanied her.
+
+Her tall, Walkure-like figure swayed and trembled with romantic
+emotion, and faithful to the traditions of the "_art fremissant_"--the
+thrilling school--she held a piece of music fast in both hands for the
+sake of effect, though it had not the remotest connection with the song
+she was singing. Her mother sat in breathless silence; tears of
+admiration ran down her cheeks; like many other mothers, she only
+recognized those of Slawa's defects which came into conflict with her
+own idiosyncracy and admired everything else. When Slawa had shouted
+the last verse of the latest revolutionary ditty, which would have been
+prohibited in forty-eight, and Sterzl was still asking himself whether
+it was worse to listen to the mother's tongue or the daughter's
+singing, Matuschowsky, whose chagrin at the small approval bestowed on
+his and Slawa's musical efforts had reached an unendurable pitch,
+observed that it was growing late and that the ladies must be needing
+rest after all their exertions and fatigues. Madame Wolnitzka hastened
+to devour the last slice of tea-cake, brushed the crumbs away from her
+purple satin lap on to the carpet, rose slowly, and made her way with
+many bows and courtesies towards the door, taking at least half an hour
+before she was fairly gone.
+
+When his relatives had at length disappeared Sterzl accompanied the two
+gentlemen, who had also bid the ladies good-night, into the hall, and
+said good-humoredly to Siegburg:
+
+"You, I fancy, are the only one of the party who has really enjoyed the
+evening." Siegburg colored; then looking up frankly at his friend he
+said: "You are not offended?"
+
+"Well--perhaps, just a little," replied Sterzl, with a smile, "but I
+must admit that the temptation was a strong one."
+
+"And really and truly I am very sorry for you," Siegburg went on, with
+that ingenuous want of tact that never lost him a friend. "There is
+nothing in the world so odious as to have a posse of disagreeable
+relations who suddenly appear and cling on to your coat-tails. I know
+it by experience. Last spring, at Vienna, half a dozen old aunts of my
+mother's came down upon us from Bukowina like a snow-storm...." Sempaly
+meanwhile had buttoned himself into his fur-lined coat and said
+nothing.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+
+The three days have gone by in which Truyn had desired his cousin to
+make up his mind--three days since the sudden descent of Baroness
+Wolnitzka scared away the sweet vision that till then had dwelt in
+Sempaly's soul and checked the declaration actually on his lips--but he
+has not yet requested to be removed from Rome. Truyn's eye has been
+upon him all through these three days, has constantly met his own with
+grave questioning, as though to say: "Have you decided?"
+
+No, he had not decided. To a man like Sempaly there is nothing in the
+world so difficult as a decision; fate decides for him--he for himself!
+Never.
+
+His encounter with the preposterous baroness might silence the avowal
+he was on the verge of uttering, but it was not so powerful as to
+banish Zinka's image once and for all from his mind. The silly old
+woman's chatter he had by this time forgotten; the _Stornelli_ that
+Zinka had been singing still rang in his ears. For two days he had had
+the resolution to avoid the Palazetto, but he had seen Zinka for a
+moment, by accident, yesterday on the Corso. She was in the carriage
+with Marie Vulpini--she had on a grey velvet dress and a broad-brimmed
+mousquetaire hat that threw a shadow on her forehead and her
+golden-brown hair; she held a large bouquet of flowers and was chatting
+merrily with the little Vulpinis and Gabrielle Truyn; what pretty merry
+ways she had with children! His blood fired in his veins as their eyes
+met, and she blushed as she returned his bow. It was the first time she
+had blushed at seeing him. All that night he dreamed the wildest
+dreams,--and now he was taking a solitary early walk in the spring
+sunshine, on the Pincio, lost in thought, but snapping the twigs as he
+passed along to vent his irritation. More and more he felt that
+marriage with Zinka was a _sine qua non_ of his existence. He had never
+in his life denied himself a pleasure, and now....
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+The brilliant March sun flooded the Piazza di Spagna, the waters of the
+Baracaccia sparkled and danced, reflecting the radiant blue sky,
+against which the towers of the Trinita dei Monti stood out sharp and
+clear. All over the shallow steps of the church models were lounging in
+the regulation peasant costumes, and blind beggars incessantly
+muttering their prayers. In front of the Hotel de l'Europe the
+cab-drivers were sweetly slumbering under the huge patched umbrellas
+stuck up behind their coach-boxes for protection against the sun or
+rain. Flower-sellers were squatted on every door-step, and here and
+there sat a brown-eyed, snub-nosed white Pomeranian dog. The Piazza was
+swarming with tourists, and Beatrice di Cenci gazed with the saddest
+eyes in the world out of a photographer's shop at the motley crowd and
+bustle.
+
+Siegburg, in happy unconsciousness of coming evil, had just come out of
+Law's, the money changer's, and was inhaling with peculiar satisfaction
+the delicious pervading scent of hyacinths, when his eye was
+accidentally attracted by the fine figure of a young English woman who
+passed him in a closely fitting jersey. He was still watching her when
+a harsh voice close to him exclaimed:
+
+"Good morning, Count,--what luck!"
+
+He turned round and recognized, under a vast shady hat, the broad, dark
+face of the Baroness Wolnitzka. Though the day was splendidly fine she
+had on that most undressed of garments, originally meant as a
+protection against rain but subsequently adopted to conceal every
+conceivable defect of costume, and long since known to the mocking
+youth of Paris as a "_cache-misere_,' or--to render it freely--a
+slut-cover; and, though the pavement was perfectly dry, under this
+waterproof she held up the gown it hid, so high that her wide feet, in
+their untidy boots with elastic sides, were plainly displayed.
+
+"Ah, baroness!" he said lifting his hat, "I really did not ..."
+
+"No, you did not recognize me," she said calmly, "that was why I spoke
+to you. What luck! But you are in the embassy too?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"That is the very thing--I have a request to make then. My daughter is
+most anxious to have an audience of His Holiness. Slawa, you must know,
+is a fervent Catholic, though, between you and me, it is a mere matter
+of fashion. Now I, for my part, take a philosophical view of religious
+matters. At the same time I should be very much interested in seeing
+the Pope...."
+
+"But the Pope is unfortunately more inaccessible than ever," said
+Siegburg, "besides, as I do not belong to the Papal Embassy I cannot, I
+regret to say, give you the smallest assistance."
+
+"That is what my nephew says--it is disastrous, positively disastrous,"
+At this moment Slawa joined them, emerging from Piale's library, in an
+eccentric _directoire_ costume, with a peaked hat and feather, and a
+pair of gloves, no longer clean, drawn far up over her elbows.
+
+"Ah, good morning," said she, offering the count her finger tips while
+Matuschowsky, who was in attendance, sulkily bowed.
+
+By this time Siegburg, hemmed in on all sides, began to think the
+situation unpleasant.
+
+"It is so delightful to meet with a fellow-countryman in a foreign
+land...." Slawa began.
+
+"Quite delightful," replied Siegburg, thinking to himself: "How am I to
+get out of this?" when suddenly the absurdity of the thing came upon
+him afresh, for he heard the baroness once more: "Good morning, Count,
+what luck!" and at the same moment she bore down on no less a man than
+Sempaly, who had just come down the sunlit steps, and was crossing the
+Piazza lost in sullen meditation. "I beg your pardon," he muttered
+somewhat startled, "I really did not recognize you," and he gazed
+helplessly into the distance as though he looked for a rescue. But the
+baroness went on:
+
+"I am so delighted to have met you--I have a particular request to
+make: could you not procure me admission to the Farnesina? The Duke di
+Ripalda is said to be all powerful...."
+
+"I am sorry to say it is quite im----"
+
+But at this instant a party of foreigners caught Sempaly's eye--two
+young ladies with a maid. The two girls, tall and straight as
+pine-trees, both remarkably handsome and dressed in neatly-fitting
+English linen dresses, were eagerly bargaining with an Italian who had
+embroidered cambric trimmings for sale, and they seemed to think it a
+delightful adventure to buy something in the street.
+
+"Two charming girls! surely I know them," cried Madame Wolnitzka. "Are
+they not the Jatinskys?"
+
+One of the young ladies, looking up, called out: "Nicki, Nicki!" half
+across the Piazza, with the frank audacity of people who have grown up
+in the belief that the world was created expressly for their use.
+
+"Excuse me," said Sempaly with a bow to the baroness, "my cousins ..."
+and without more ado he made his escape.
+
+"How long have you been here? Where are you staying?"
+
+"We arrived this morning--Hotel de Londres--mamma wrote to you at once
+to the embassy ... Ah, here is another Austrian!" for Siegburg had
+contrived to join them. "Rome is but a suburb of Vienna after all! But
+tell me, who on earth were that old fortune-teller and her
+extraordinary daughter to whom you were both devoting yourselves so
+attentively?"
+
+The Wolnitzky trio had in the meantime moved away. The baroness very
+gracious, Slawa very haughty, as became the living representative of
+the Apollo Belvedere--past the two handsome girls and down the Via
+Condotti. Suddenly Baroness Wolnitzka stopped:
+
+"I quite forgot to ask Count Sempaly to get me an invitation to the
+international artists' festival!" she exclaimed, striking her forehead,
+and she promptly turned about, evidently intending to repair the
+omission; only Matuschowsky's decided interference preserved Sempaly
+from her return to the charge.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+The scene is now the Pincio--between five and six in the afternoon, the
+hour when the band plays every day on the great terrace, while the
+crowd collects to watch the sun set behind St. Peter's. The reflection
+of the glow gilds the gravel, glints from the lace on the uniforms and
+the brass instruments, and throws golden sparks on the water in the
+wide basin behind the bandstand. The black shadows rapidly lengthen on
+the grass, and the palmettos, yuccas, and evergreen oaks stand out in
+rich, deep tones against the sky that fades from crimson to salmon and
+grey. A special set of visitors haunt the shady side of the Pincio; not
+the fashionable world: governesses and nurses with their charges, and
+priests--priests of every degree: the illustrious Monsignori with their
+finely chiselled features, their upright bearing and their elegant
+hands; monks, with their bearded faces comfortably framed in their
+cowls, and whole regiments of priestlings from the Seminaries in their
+uniforms of every hue; lank, lean figures, with sallow, unformed
+features.
+
+Separated from these only by a leafy screen the beauty and fashion of
+Rome drive up and down--the residents in handsome private carriages,
+the foreigners in hired vehicles of varying degrees of respectability,
+or even in the humble, one-horse, hackney cab. The crowd grows denser
+every minute as the stream of Roman rank and wealth swells along the
+Via Borghese, across the Piazza del Popolo, and up the hill. On the top
+of the Pincio the carriages come to a stand-still; gentlemen on foot
+gather round them, bowing and smiling, the ladies talk across from one
+victoria to another--all sorts of trivial small-talk, unintelligible to
+the uninitiated. Up from the gardens which line the road from the Via
+Margutta, comes a fragrance of budding and growing spring; down below
+lies Rome, and lording it grandly over the labyrinthine mass of houses
+and ruins, solemn and severe, its crown touched by the last rays of the
+vanished sun, stands St Peter's.
+
+Countess Ilsenbergh's carriage was drawn up side by side with that of
+Princess Vulpini; the newly-arrived party of the Jatinskys was divided
+between them; the countess mother reclining indolently with a gracious
+smile on her lips by the side of Countess Ilsenbergh, while the
+princess had undertaken to chaperon the young ladies. On the front
+seat, by his cousin Eugenie--Nini they called her--sat Sempaly.
+Siegburg was leaning over the carriage door, talking all sorts of
+nonsense, and relating all the gossip of Rome that was fit for maiden
+ears to the two new-comers; they, infinitely amused, laughed till their
+simple merriment infected even Sempaly, who had taken the seat coveted
+of all the golden youth of Rome--the seat next his beautiful cousin--in
+a very gloomy and taciturn humor.
+
+Presently there was an evident sensation among the public; every one
+was looking in the same direction.
+
+"What is happening?" asked Polyxena, the elder of the two Jatinska
+girls.
+
+"It must be the Dorias' new drag, or the King," said Princess Vulpini,
+screwing up her short-sighted eyes. "No," said Siegburg, looking back,
+"neither. It is Baroness Wolnitzka!"
+
+And in fact, Madame Sterzl's pretty landau, which she had placed at the
+disposal of her sister for the afternoon, was coming up the road, in it
+the Wolnitzkas, mother and daughter, both in their finest array. Slawa
+was leaning back, elegantly languid, while her mother stood up in the
+carriage and surveyed the world of Rome through an opera-glass. From
+time to time, either to rest, or because she suddenly lost her balance,
+she sat down; and then she filled up her time by examining every detail
+of the trimming and lining of the landau. It was this singular
+demeanor, combined with her very conspicuous person, that attracted so
+much attention to the Sterzls' vehicle--an attention which both mother
+and daughter, of course ascribed to Slawa's extraordinary resemblance
+to the Belvedere Apollo.
+
+"Baroness Wolnitzka! the wonderful old woman we saw with you yesterday
+in the Piazza di Spagna?" cried Polyxena.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Only think, Nicki," she went on to Sempaly, "mamma knows her?"
+
+"Who is it that I know?" asked her mother from the other carriage.
+
+"Baroness Wolnitzka, mamma; do you see her--out there?"
+
+"Heaven preserve me!" exclaimed the countess fervently. "I do not feel
+secure of my life when I am near her. She fell upon me to-day in the
+Villa Wolkonsky."
+
+"How on earth do you happen to know the old woman, aunt?" asked Sempaly
+irritably.
+
+"Oh! my husband had some political connection with hers," the countess
+explained. "She is not to be borne, she stuck to me like a leech for
+half an hour."
+
+"Your conversation must have been very interesting," said Siegburg.
+
+"It did not interest me," replied the countess rather sharply. "She
+told me how much her journey had cost her, what she pays a day for
+carriage-hire, and that when she was young she had singing-lessons of
+Cicimara. And she chattered endlessly about her sister Sterzl who is
+living here 'in the first style and knows absolutely none but the creme
+de la creme'--you laugh!..."
+
+"Well, mamma, you must confess that the association of such a name as
+Sterzl with the cream of society is irresistibly funny," cried
+Polyxena.
+
+"It was anything rather than funny to me," said the countess ruefully.
+"By the way, though, she did tell me one thing--that her niece Zenaide
+Sterzl ... Well, what is there to laugh at now?"
+
+"Zenaide Sterzl! the name is a poem in itself," cried Polyxena; "it is
+as though an English woman were named Belinda Brown, or a French girl
+called Roxalane Dubois."
+
+"Well, it seems from what the old woman told me that the fair Zenaide
+is about to relinquish the graceless name of Sterzl for one of the
+noblest names in Austria--that is the old idiot's story. It has not yet
+been made public, so she could not tell me the bridegroom's name, but
+Zenaide is as good as betrothed to a young count--an attache to the
+Austrian embassy. Who on earth can it be?--You ought to know!"
+
+"Ah, ah! Is it you?" said Polyxena turning to Siegburg. But Siegburg
+shook his head, stroking his yellow moustache to conceal a malicious
+smile as he watched Sempaly's conspicuous annoyance. "Or is it you,
+Nicki?" the young countess went on--"I congratulate you on marrying
+into such a delightful family!"
+
+But such a marked effect of embarrassment was produced by her speech
+that she was suddenly silent.
+
+"I know nothing of it," said Sempaly with a gloomy scowl. "That old
+chatterbox's imagination is positively stupendous."
+
+The play of light on the gold lace of the uniforms and the brass
+instruments is fast fading away and the sheen of the glossy-leaved
+evergreens is almost extinct. "_Gran dio morir si giovane!_" is the
+tune the band is playing. The sun is down, the day is dead, night
+shrouds the scene; the only color left is a dull glow behind St.
+Peter's like a dying fire.
+
+"At the Ellis' this evening," Siegburg calls out to the ladies as he
+lifts his hat and turns away. The carriages make their way down the
+hill, past the Villa Medici, back into Rome, and their steady roar is
+like that of a torrent rushing to join the sea.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Mr. and Lady Julia Ellis--she was an earl's daughter--English people of
+enormous wealth and amazing condescension, had for many years spent the
+winters in Rome. In former times the lady's eccentricities had given
+rise to much discussion; now she was an old lady with white hair, fine
+regular features and much too fat arms. Like all English women of her
+day she appeared in a low gown on all occasions of full dress, and was
+fond of decking her head with a pink feather. Her husband was younger
+than she was and had a handsome, thoroughly English face, with a short
+beard and very picturesque curly white hair. His profile was rather
+like that of Mendelssohn, a fact of which he was exceedingly proud.
+Besides this he was proud of two other things: of his wife, who had
+been admired in her youth by King George IV. and of a very old
+umbrella, because Felix Mendelssohn had once borrowed it. He had a
+weakness for performing on the concertina and had musical evenings once
+a week.
+
+It happened that on the occasion when the Jatinskys first went to one
+of these parties Tulpin the Russian genius whose great work had served
+as the introduction to the Ilsenbergh tableaux, was elaborating a new
+opera to a French libretto on a national Russian story. He was, of
+course, one of those Russians who combine a passionate devotion to the
+national Slav cause with a fervent wish to be mistaken for born
+Parisians wherever they appear. The piano groaned under his hands,
+while sundry favorite phrases from _Orphee aux Enfers_ and other
+well-known works were heard above the rolling sea of tremolos. From
+time to time the performer threw in a word to elucidate the situation:
+"The czar speaks...." "The bojar speaks...." "The peasant speaks...."
+"The sighing of the wind in the Caucasus...." "The foaming of the
+torrent...." While Mr. Ellis, who believed implicitly in the opera, was
+heard murmuring: "Splendid! ... magnificent! The opera must be worked
+out--it must not remain unperformed!"
+
+"Worked out!" sighed Tulpin with melancholy irony. "That is no concern
+of mine. We--we have the ideas, the working out we leave to--to--to
+others, in short. You must remember that I cannot read a note of
+music--literally, not a note," he repeated with intense and visible
+satisfaction, and he flung off a few stumbling arpeggios, while Mr.
+Ellis cried: "Astonishing!" and compared him with Mendelssohn, which
+Tulpin, who believed only in the music of the future, took very much
+amiss. A _Grand Prix de Musique_, from the French academy of arts at
+the Villa Medici, who had been waiting more than an hour to perform his
+"Arab symphony," muttered to himself: "Good heavens! leave music to us,
+and let us be thankful that we are not great folks!"
+
+At last Lady Julia took pity on her guests and invited them to go to
+take tea; every one was only too glad to accept, and in a few minutes
+the music room was almost empty. Madame Tulpin, out of devotion, the
+Grand Prix out of spite, and Mr. Ellis out of duty were all that
+remained within hearing. In the adjoining room every one had burst into
+conversation over their tea; still, a certain gloom prevailed.
+Melancholy seemed to have fallen upon the party like an epidemic, and
+the subject that was most eagerly discussed was the easiest mode of
+suicide.
+
+Tulpin rattled and thumped on; suddenly he stopped--the Jatinskys had
+come in, and their advent was such a godsend that even the genius
+abandoned the piano in their honor. They all three were smiling in the
+most friendly--it might almost be said the most reassuring manner; for
+Countess Ilsenbergh had not failed to impress upon them the very mixed
+character of Roman society, and, feeling their own superiority, they
+were able to cover their self-consciousness with the most engaging
+amiability. The two younger ladies were surrounded--besieged--and the
+strange thing was that the women paid them even greater homage than
+the men. Everything about them was admired: their small feet, their
+finely-cut profiles, their incredibly slender waists, the color of
+their hair, the artistic simplicity of their dresses--and bets were
+laid as to whether these were the production of Fanet or of Worth. But
+now there was the little commotion in the next room that is caused by
+the arrival of some very popular person. Zinka, without her mother,
+under her brother's escort only, came in and gave her slim hand with an
+affectionate greeting to the lady of the house.
+
+"You are an incorrigible truant, you always come too late;" said Lady
+Julia in loving reproach.
+
+"Like repentance and the police," said Zinka merrily; and then Lady
+Julia introduced her to Countess Jatinska.
+
+"But you must help me with the tea; you know I always reckon on you for
+that," Lady Julia went on. "Give your charming countrywomen some, will
+you?"
+
+Polyxena and Nini were sitting a yard or two off, surrounded by
+all the young men of Rome; Zinka was going towards them with her
+winning grace of manner when Sempaly happened to come up, and found
+himself so unexpectedly face to face with her that he had no
+alternative but to shake hands, and he could not avoid saying a few
+words. Of course--like any other man in his place--he made precisely
+the most unlucky speech he could possibly have hit upon:
+
+"We have not met for some time."
+
+She looked him in the face but of half-shut eyes, with her head
+slightly thrown back, and replied, with very becoming defiance:
+
+"You have carried out the penance you began on Ash-Wednesday!"
+
+"Perhaps," and he could not help smiling.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders: "I had intended to break off our
+friendship," she went on, "but now that I see the cause of your
+faithlessness,"--and she glanced at the handsome young countesses--"I
+quite understand it. Will you at any rate do me the favor of
+introducing me to the ladies?"
+
+"Fraeulein Sterzl--" said Sempaly; but hardly had he uttered the words
+when a scarcely suppressed smile curled Polyxena's lip. Zinka saw the
+smile, and she saw too that Sempaly's manner instantly changed; he put
+on an artificial expression of intolerable condescension.
+
+Zinka turned very pale, her eyes flashed indignantly as she hastily
+returned the young Austrians' bow and at once went back to her post.
+Sterzl, who was talking to Truyn in a recess and saw the little scene
+from a distance, frowned darkly. Sempaly meanwhile seated himself on a
+stool by his cousins and with his back to the tea-table where Zinka was
+busying herself.
+
+"So this is the far-famed Zinka Sterzl!" exclaimed Polyxena: "She does
+credit to your taste, Nicki. But she allows herself to speak to you in
+a very extraordinary manner; it is really rather too much!" Sempaly
+made no reply. "She treats you already as if you were her own
+property."
+
+"But Xena," said Nini, trying to moderate her sister's irony, "at least
+do not speak so loud." In a few minutes Mr. Ellis came to announce that
+Monsieur B. was about to play his 'Arab symphony,' and the company
+moved back into the drawing-room.
+
+The evening had other treats in store; when Monsieur B. had done his
+place was taken by a young Belgian count who devoted all his spare time
+to the composition of funeral marches, who could also play songs and
+ballads, such as are usually confined to the streets of Florence or the
+_cafes chantants_ of Paris, arranged for the piano, and who gave a duet
+between a cock and hen with so much feeling and effect that all the
+audience applauded heartily, especially the Jatinskys to whom this
+style of thing was quite a novelty. Then Mrs. Ferguson sang her French
+couplets, Mr. Ellis played an adagio by Beethoven on the concertina,
+and then Zinka was asked to sing.
+
+"What am I to sing? You know the extent of my collection," she said
+with rather forced brightness to Mr. Ellis.
+
+"Oh! a Stornello. We beg for a Stornello," said Siegburg following her
+to the piano--"_vieni maggio, vieni primavera_," and Lady Julia
+seconded the request.
+
+Zinka laid her hands on the keys and began. Her voice sounded through
+the room a little husky at first, but very sweet, like the note of a
+forest bird.
+
+Never before had she sat down to sing without bringing _him_ to her
+side, even from the remotest corner of the room, at the very first
+notes; and now, involuntarily, she looked up to meet his gaze--but he
+was sitting by Polyxena, on a small sofa, in a very familiar attitude,
+leaning back, holding one foot on the other knee, and laughing at
+something that she was whispering to him. Zinka lost her self-command
+and was suddenly paralyzed with self-consciousness. She could not sing
+that song before him. Her voice broke; she forgot the accompaniment;
+felt about the notes, struck two or three wrong chords and at length
+rose with an awkward laugh:
+
+"I cannot remember anything this evening!" she stammered.
+
+Polyxena had some spiteful comment to make, of course, and Sempaly grew
+angry; he was on the point of rising to go to Zinka and console her for
+her failure, but before he could quite make up his mind to move, Nini
+had risen. In spite of her shyness she made her way straight across the
+room to Zinka and said something kind to her. Sempaly stayed where he
+was; but as they were leaving, he put on Nini's cloak for her, and said
+in a low tone: "Nini, you are a good fellow!" and he kissed her hand.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+Sempaly's attentions had made Zinka the fashion; his sudden
+discontinuance, not merely of attentions, but of any but the barest
+civilities, of course, made her the laughing-stock of all their circle.
+The capital caricature that Sempaly had drawn of Sterzl and his sister
+that evening at the Vulpinis' was remembered once more; Madame de
+Gandry, to whom Sempaly had been very civil till he had neglected her
+for Zinka, showed the sketch to all her acquaintance, with a plentiful
+seasoning of spiteful insinuations. Every one was ready to laugh at the
+"little adventuress" who had come to Rome to bid for a prince's coronet
+and who had been obliged to submit to such condign humiliation.
+
+The leaders of foreign society vied with each other in doing honor to
+the Jatinskys. Madame de Gandry set the example by giving a party at
+which Ristori was engaged to recite; Sterzl was of course, invited; his
+mother and sister were left out. It was the first time since Zinka's
+appearance at the Ilsenberghs' that she had been omitted from any
+entertainment, however select. Many ladies of the international circle
+followed Madame de Gandry's lead, wishing like her to make a parade
+before the Austrians of their own exclusiveness, and at the same time
+to be revenged on Zinka for many a saucy speech she had ventured to
+make when she was still one of the initiated--of the sacred inner
+circle. The Italian society of Rome did not of course trouble itself
+about all these trumpery subtleties, and behaved to Zinka with the same
+superficial politeness as before.
+
+She, for her part, took no more note of their amenities than she did of
+the pin-pricks from the other side. If her feelings had not been so
+deeply engaged by Sempaly she would no doubt have taken all these petty
+social humiliations very hardly; but her anguish of soul had dulled her
+shallower feelings. There is a form of suffering which deadens the
+senses and which mockery cannot touch. It was all the same to her
+whether she was invited or not--she could not bear to go anywhere. The
+idea of meeting Sempaly with his cousins was as terrible as death
+itself. She was an altered creature. A shy, scared smile was always on
+her lips, like the ghost of departed joys, her movements had lost all
+their elasticity, and her gait was more than ever like that of an angel
+whose wings have been clipped.
+
+Baroness Sterzl, of course, still drove out regularly on the Corso, and
+made the most praiseworthy attempts to keep up a bowing acquaintance
+with her former friends, and as often as she could she went out in the
+evening--alone. There was some consolation too in the proud
+consciousness of having quarrelled with Madame de Gandry and being on
+visiting terms with all the Roman duchesses. The only thing that caused
+her any serious discomfort was her sister Wolnitzka's persistent and
+indiscreet catechism as to the state of affairs between Zinka and
+Sempaly. She herself, out of mere idle bragging, had told Charlotte the
+first day of her arrival in Rome that Zinka's engagement was not yet
+made public.
+
+Her aunt's coarse remarks and hints were fast driving Zinka crazy when
+Siegburg fortunately--perhaps intentionally, out of compassion for
+her--so frightened the mother and daughter, one evening when he met
+them at the palazetto, by his account of the Roman fever that they were
+panic-stricken, and fled the very next morning to Naples.
+
+The member of the family who was most keenly alive to the change in
+their social relations, oddly enough, was Cecil. He had been wont to
+feel himself superior to these silly class-jealousies, and at the same
+time had a reasonable and manly dignity of his own that had preserved
+him from that morbid petulance which sometimes stands in arms against
+all friendly advances from men who, after all, cannot help the fact of
+their superior birth. Democratic touchiness is a disease to which, in
+the old-world countries where hereditary rank is still a living fact,
+every man who is not a toady is liable--from Werther downwards--when
+fate brings him into contact with aristocratic circles. Sterzl had
+moved in them so long that he was acclimatized; or rather, it had
+attacked him late in life, and, as is always the case when grown-up men
+take infantine complaints, with aggravated severity. He attributed all
+his sister's misery, not to his own want of caution and Sempaly's
+weakness of character, but to the tyranny of social prejudice; and he
+turned against society with vindictive contempt, making himself
+perfectly intolerable wherever he went. Being a well-bred man,
+accustomed all his life to the graces of politeness, he could not
+become absolutely ill-mannered--but as ill-mannered as he could be he
+certainly was: assertive, irritable, always on the defensive, he was
+constantly involved in some argument or dispute.
+
+Even at home he was not the same; his pride was deeply nettled by
+Zinka's total inability to hide her suffering, while he felt it
+humiliating to be able to do nothing to comfort her. At first, in the
+hope of diverting her thoughts, he would bring her tickets for concerts
+or the theatre, and give her a thousand costly trinkets, old treasures
+of porcelain, carved ivory, and curiosities of art, such as she had
+once loved. She used to rejoice over these pretty trifles--now she
+smiled as a sick man smiles at some dainty he no longer has any
+appetite for. He could see how sincerely she tried to be delighted, but
+the tears were in her eyes all the while.
+
+This drove Sterzl to desperation. At first he religiously avoided
+mentioning Sempaly in her presence, but as days and weeks passed and
+she brought no change in her crushed melancholy, he waxed impatient. He
+took it into his head that it would be well to open Zinka's eyes with
+regard to Sempaly. Sterzl himself was energetic, always looking to the
+future; he had it out with his disappointments and got rid of them,
+however hard he might have been hit. He had always let things roll if
+they would not stand, and then set to work to begin again. His great
+point in life was to see things as they were. Truth was his divinity,
+and he could not understand that to a creature constituted like Zinka,
+illusion was indispensable; that she still laid no blame on Sempaly,
+but only on the alteration in his circumstances--on her own
+unworthiness--on anything and everything but himself; that it was a
+necessity of her nature to be able still to love him, even though she
+knew that he was lost to her forever. His austere nature could not
+enter into Zinka's soft and impressible susceptibility.
+
+So when he took to speaking slightingly or contemptuously of Sempaly on
+every possible opportunity she never answered him, but listened in
+silence, looking at him with frightened, astonished eyes and a pale
+face, like a martyr to whom her tormentors try to prove that there is
+no God. The result of Cecil's well-meant but injudicious proceedings
+was a temporary coolness between himself and his sister--a coolness
+which, on his part, lay only on the surface, but which froze her spirit
+to its depths, and all this naturally tended to add fuel to Sterzl's
+detestation of Sempaly. The two men were in daily intercourse, and now
+in a state of constant friction. Sterzl would make biting remarks over
+the smallest negligence or oversight of which Sempaly might be guilty,
+and was bitterly sarcastic as to the incompetence of a young connection
+of the Sempalys who had not long since been attached to the embassy.
+
+"To be sure," he ended by declaring, "in Austria it is a matter of far
+greater importance that an attache should be a man of family than that
+he should know how to spell." To such depths of clumsy rudeness could
+he descend.
+
+Sempaly, without losing his supercilious good humor, would only smile,
+or answer in his most piping tones:
+
+"You are very right; the view we take of privilege is quite
+extraordinary. We should form ourselves on the model of the French
+corps diplomatique; do not you think so?" For, a few days previously,
+the Figaro had published a satirical article on the presentation of a
+plebeian representative of the republic at some foreign court.
+
+Well, Sempaly might have retorted in a much haughtier key--but the
+lighter his irony the more it exasperated Sterzl.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Countess Jatinska spent almost the whole of her stay in Rome on her
+sofa. When she was asked what she thought of Rome she replied that she
+found it very fatiguing; when the same question was put to her
+daughters they, on the contrary, declared themselves enchanted. Sempaly
+knew full well that in all Rome there was nothing they liked better
+than their ne'er-do-weel cousin. He displayed for their benefit all his
+most amiable graces; criticised or admired their dresses, touched up
+their coiffure with his own light hand, faithfully reported to them all
+their conquests, and made them presents of cigarettes and of trinkets
+from Castellani's.
+
+When there was nothing else to be done he was ready to attend them--of
+course, under the charge of some older lady--to see galleries and
+churches, Polyxena had a way, that was highly characteristic, of
+rushing past the greatest works with her nose in the air and laughing
+as she repeated some imbecile remark that she had overheard, or pointed
+out some eccentricity of tourist costume. Nini took art more seriously,
+looked carefully at everything by the catalogue, and even kept a diary.
+Xena was commonly thought the handsomer and the more brilliant of the
+sisters, and Sempaly apparently devoted himself chiefly to her, but he
+decidedly liked Nini best. The hours that he did not spend with his
+cousins he passed at the club, where he gambled away large sums.
+Meanwhile, he was looking very ill and complained of a return of old
+Roman fever.
+
+And what did the world say to his behavior? The phlegmatic Italians did
+not trouble themselves about the matter; Madame de Gandry and Mrs.
+Ferguson laughed over it; Siegburg pronounced it disgraceful, and
+Ilsenbergh called it bad taste to say the least. That he ought to have
+arranged to leave Rome everybody agreed. Princess Vulpini held long and
+lamentable conferences with General von Klinger--reproaching herself
+bitterly for not having seen the position of affairs long ago--but she
+had never attached any importance to Sempaly's marked attentions,
+having had no eyes for anything but Siegburg's devotion to Zinka, and
+she had taken a quite motherly interest in what she regarded as a good
+match for both.
+
+Truyn was perfectly furious with Sempaly. All that he was to Zinka
+during these weeks can only be divined by those who have passed through
+such a time of grief and humiliation, with the consciousness of having
+a high-souled and tender friend in the back-ground. He was the only
+person who never aggravated her wound. He had the gentle touch, the
+delicate skill, which the best man or woman can only acquire through
+the ordeal of an aching heart. He came every afternoon with his little
+girl to take Zinka for a walk, for he knew that the regular drive on
+the Corso could only bring her added pain; and while the baroness, with
+outspread skirts, drove in the wake of fashion up to the Villa Borghese
+and the Pincio, these three--with the general, not unfrequently, for a
+fourth--would wander through silent and deserted cloisters or take long
+walks across the Campagna. Not once did Truyn bring a secret tear to
+her eye; if some accidental remark or association brought the hot color
+to her thin cheek he could always turn the subject so as to spare her.
+
+One sultry afternoon, late in spring, Truyn and his two daughters--as
+he was wont to call Zinka and Gabrielle--with the soldier-artist were
+sauntering home, after a long walk, through the sombre and picturesque
+streets that surround the Pantheon. The neighborhood is humble and
+wretched, but over a garden wall rose a mulberry tree in whose green
+branches a blackbird was singing, and a few red geraniums blazed behind
+rusty window-bars, bright specks in the monotonous brown; above the
+roofs bent the deep blue sky; the air was heavy and hot, and full of
+obscure smells of gutters and stale vegetables. Somewhere, in an
+upstairs room, a woman sang a love-song of melancholy longing. Suddenly
+the blackbird and the woman ceased singing at the same time; a dismal
+howl and groan echoed through the street, and a mass of black shadows
+darkened the scene. Zinka, who had lately become excessively nervous,
+started and shuddered.
+
+"It is nothing--only a funeral," Truyn explained, taking off his hat.
+
+That was all--a Roman funeral, grim but picturesque--a long procession
+of mysteriously-shrouded figures, only able to see through two slits in
+the sack-like cowls that covered their heads, ropes round their waists,
+and torches or mystical banners in their hands--banners with the
+emblems of death. These were followed by a troop of barefooted friars,
+and last came the bier covered with a bright yellow pall, carried by
+four more of the shrouded figures, who bent under its weight as they
+shuffled along. The ruddy flare and the black smoke wreaths, the
+groan-like chant, the uncanny glitter of the men's eyes out of the
+formless hoods--ghastly, ghostly, and exhaling a savor of mouldiness
+and incense, like the resurrection of a fragment of the middle
+ages--the procession defiled through the narrow street. Zinka,
+half-fainting, clung to Truyn; Gabrielle, whose childish nerves were
+less shocked, watched them with intense curiosity and began to question
+a woman who stood near her in the crowd that had collected, in her
+fluent, bungling Italian:
+
+"Who is it they are burying?" she asked at length.
+
+"A woman," was the answer.
+
+"Was she young?"
+
+"_Si_."
+
+"And what did she die of? of fever?"
+
+"No," said the Roman shrugging her shoulders; and then she added, in
+the slow musical drawl of the Roman peasant:
+
+"_Di passione_."
+
+The procession had passed, the chanting had died away; the blackbird
+was singing lustily once more; they went on their way--Truyn first,
+with Zinka hanging wearily on to his arm, behind them Gabrielle and the
+general.
+
+"_Passione!_ is that a Roman illness?" she asked with her insatiable
+inquisitiveness.
+
+"No, it occurs in most parts of the world," said the general drily.
+
+"But only among poor people, I suppose?" said the child.
+
+"No, it is known to the better classes too, but it is not called by the
+same name," said the old man with some bitterness, more to himself than
+to Gabrielle.
+
+"Then it is wrong--a shameful thing to die of?" she asked with wide,
+astonished eyes.
+
+Suddenly the general perceived that Zinka was listening; her head
+drooped as she heard the child's heedless catechism. He, under the
+circumstances, would have felt paralyzed--he would not have known what
+to say to the poor crushed soul; but not so Truyn. He turned to his
+companion and said something in a low tone. What, the general could not
+hear, but it must have been something kind and helpful--something
+which, without any direct reference to the past, conveyed his
+unalterable respect and regard, for she answered him almost brightly.
+Then he went on talking of trifles, remembering little incidents of his
+boyhood, characteristic anecdotes of his parents, and such small
+matters as may divert a sick and weary spirit, till, when they parted
+at the door of the palazetto, Zinka was smiling. "That he has the
+brains of a genius I will not say, but he has genius of heart, I dare
+swear!" thought the soldier.
+
+Truyn had gone out riding with her two or three times across the
+Campagna, and she had enjoyed it; but one day they met Sempaly,
+galloping with his two handsome cousins over the anemone-strewn sward.
+From that day she made excuses for avoiding the Campagna--as though she
+thus avoided the chance, almost the certainty, of meeting him and them.
+Why then did she remain in Rome at all? Sterzl would not hear of her
+quitting it, because he thought that the world of Rome would regard it
+as a flight after defeat. His mother too, on different grounds, set her
+face against any such abridgment of their stay in Rome. Had she not
+taken the palazetto till the fifteenth of May?
+
+And did Zinka, in fact, wish to go? She often spoke of longing to be at
+home again, but whenever their departure was seriously discussed it
+gave her a shock. She dreaded meeting him--and longed for it all
+the same. And in the evening when a few old friends dropped in to
+call--Truyn every evening and Siegburg very frequently--Truyn noticed
+that every time there was a ring she sat with her eyes fixed in eager
+expectation on the door. She still cherished a sort of hope--a broken,
+moribund hope that was in fact no more than unrest--the vitality of
+suffering.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               PART III.
+
+                                EASTER.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+
+Passion-week in Rome, and in all the glory and glow of an Italian
+spring. The glinting radiance brightens even the mystical gloom of St.
+Peter's, sparkles for an instant on the holy-water in the basins,
+wanders from the heads of the gigantic cherubs and the colossal
+statues down to the inlaid pavement, with the cold sheen of sunlight
+on polished marble. The hours glide on--the long solemn hours of
+Holy-Thursday in Rome; the last gleam of daylight has faded away, the
+vast cathedral is filled with almost palpable twilight and its
+magnificence seems shrouded in a transparent veil of crape. The stone
+walls look dim and distant, the fane seems built of shadows, and sacred
+mystery falls as it were from heaven, deeper and more solemn as the
+minutes slip by, to sanctify the spot.
+
+In the papal chapel Zinka is kneeling with Truyn and Gabrielle, her
+eyes fixed on her hands which are convulsively clasped, and praying
+with the passion of a youthful nature whose yearning has found no
+foothold on earth and seeks a home in heaven. On both sides sit the
+prelates and dignitaries of the church in their carved stalls,
+inquisitive and prayerless foreigners crowd at their feet. The tragedy
+of the passion is being recited in a monotonous, inconclusive chant
+that dies away in the dim corners of the chapel.
+
+The last of the twelve tapers on the altar is extinguished....
+"_Miserere mei_" the choristers cry with terrible emphasis; and then,
+awful but most sweet, beginning as a mere breath and rising to a mighty
+wail of grief, comes a voice like the utterance of the anguish of the
+God of Love over the misery from which He can never release mankind.
+And before the majesty of that divine and selfless sorrow human sorrow
+bows in silence.
+
+Zinka bends her head.--It is ended, the last sound has died away in a
+sob, the crowd rises to follow the procession which, with a cardinal at
+the head, wends its way through the church.
+
+Truyn and the two girls quit the chapel; behind them the steps of the
+priests and choristers, drowned in their own echoes, sound like the
+rustling of angelic wings; the brooding, melancholy peacefulness has
+lulled Zinka's heart to rest; for the first time for many weeks she has
+forgotten....
+
+"Most interesting, but the bass was hoarse!"
+
+It was Polyxena Jatinsky who pronounced this summary criticism of the
+solemn ceremonial, close to Zinka. Zinka looked round; Sempaly with his
+aunt and cousins were at her side. They had attended the service in
+reserved places in the choir. Involuntarily yielding to an impulse of
+pain Zinka pressed forward, but Gabrielle had flown to join them; then
+she was obliged to stay and talk. The Jatinskys were perfectly
+friendly, Polyxena giving her her hand--Sempaly alone held aloof. On
+going out the air struck' chill, almost cold, on Zinka's face and she
+shivered. A well-known voice close behind her said rather brusquely:
+
+"You are too lightly dressed and there is fever in the air. Put this
+round you," and Sempaly threw over her shoulders a scarf that he was
+carrying for one of the ladies.
+
+"Thank you, I am not cold; these ladies will want the scarf," said
+Zinka hastily and repellently.
+
+Polyxena said nothing; perhaps she may have thought it strange that in
+his anxiety for this little stranger, her cousin should forget to
+consider that one of them might take cold. But Nini exclaimed: "No, no,
+Fraeulein Sterzl: we are well wrapped up."
+
+At this juncture Truyn's servant, who had been seeking them among the
+crowd, told them where the carriage was waiting.
+
+While Zinka, wrapped in Nini's China-crape shawl, is borne along
+between the splashing fountains, across the bridge of St. Angelo, and
+through the empty, ill-lighted streets to the palazetto, all her pulses
+are dancing and throbbing--and the stars in the sky overhead seem
+unnaturally bright. It is the resurrection of her pain and with it of
+the lovely mocking vision of the joys she has lost. Good God! how
+vividly she remembers them all--how keenly!--the long dreamy afternoons
+on the Palatine, the delicious hours in the Corsini garden--under the
+plane-trees by the fountain, where he talked about Erzburg while the
+perfume of violets and lilies fanned her with their intoxicating
+breath; the sound of his voice--the touch of his light, thin hand, his
+smile--his way of saying particular words, of looking at her in
+particular moments....
+
+She is walking with him once more in the Vatican, in rapt enjoyment of
+the beauty of the statues; the Belvedere fountain trickled and splashed
+in dreamy monotony; golden sunbeams fleck the pavement like footmarks
+left by the Gods before they mounted their pedestals; there is a
+mysterious rustle and whisper in the lofty corridors as of far, far
+distant ghostly voices,--and then, suddenly, she is in front of Sant'
+Onofrio's; the air is thick with a pale mist. At her feet, veiled in
+the thin haze, indistinct and mirage-like, the very ghost of departed
+splendor, lies Rome--the vast reliquary of the world; Rome, on whose
+monuments and ruins every conceivable crime and every imaginable virtue
+have set their stamp; where the tragedies of antiquity cry out to the
+Sacrifice on Calvary.
+
+They had stood together a long time looking down on it; then she had
+lost a little bunch of violets which she had been wearing and as she
+turned round to seek them she had perceived that he had picked them up
+and was holding them to his lips. Their eyes had met....
+
+Yes! he had loved her! he loved her still--he must--she knew it. She
+told herself that, impulsive and excitable as he was, the merest trifle
+would suffice to bring him back to her; but whether it was worth while
+to long so desperately for a man who could be turned by the slightest
+breath--that she did not ask herself.
+
+And through all the torturing whirl of these memories, above the
+clatter of the horses' hoofs and the rattle of the wheels over the
+wretched pavement, she heard the cry "_miserere mei_." But her thoughts
+turned no more to the God sacrificed for Man--the strongest angels'
+wings cannot bear us quite to heaven so long as our heart dwells on
+earth.
+
+"Good-night," she said, kissing Gabrielle as the carriage drew up at
+the door of the palazetto.
+
+"Will you let me have Nini's scarf for Gabrielle?" said Truyn. "I am
+afraid my little companion may catch cold."
+
+"Oh! of course," cried Zinka, and she wrapped the child carefully in
+the shawl and kissed her again; "when shall I learn to think of anyone
+but myself?" she added vexed with herself.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+Easter-Monday. All the bells in the churches of Rome are once more
+wagging their brazen tongues after their week of dumb mourning, and
+images of the Resurrection in every conceivable form--sugar, wax,
+soap--decorate all the shop windows.
+
+Baroness Wolnitzka had returned fresher, gayer and more enterprising
+than ever from her visit to Naples, where she not only had had herself
+photographed in a lyric attitude leaning on a pillar in the ruins of
+Pompeii, but, in spite of her huge size which was very much against her
+taking such excursions, she had with the help of two guides and a
+remarkably vigorous mule, reached the top of Vesuvius. Thanks, too, to
+a cardinal's nephew with whom she had scraped acquaintance on her
+journey, with a view to making him useful, she had succeeded in
+obtaining--not indeed a private audience of the pope--but leave to
+attend a private mass--and receive the communion, in company with three
+hundred other orthodox souls, from his sacred hand.
+
+This morning she had been to the palazetto to take leave of her
+sister--to ask once more after Sempaly--to give a full and particular
+account of the service at the Vatican--and to deliver a discourse on
+the philosophical value of the mass. Slawa, whose orthodoxy had been
+fanned to bigotry, and who on Easter eve had duly climbed the _santa
+scala_ on her knees, had supplemented her mother's narrative with a
+variety of interesting details:
+
+"It was most exclusive, quite our own set, and few families of the
+Polish colony--I wore my black satin dress beaded with jet and I heard
+a gentleman behind me say: 'That is the only woman whose veil is put on
+with any taste.'"
+
+Sterzl had kept out of the way during their visit; Zinka had smiled
+amiably but had not attended: Baroness Clotilde had plied her sister
+with questions. Then the Wolnitzkas had left to go to the consecration
+of a bishop--also by invitation from the cardinal's nephew--the ladies
+were to be admitted to the sacristy and be presented with flowers and
+refreshments.
+
+It was about six o'clock in the evening when General von Klinger was
+shown into the drawing-room of the palazetto. The room was not so
+pretty as it used to be; the furniture was all set out squarely against
+the walls by the symmetrical taste of the servants, and the flower
+vases that were always so gracefully arranged now never held anything
+but bunches of magnolias or violets; Zinka no longer cared to arrange
+them.
+
+"I am so glad you happen to have come to-day," she cried as he came in.
+The brilliancy of her eyes and the redness of her lips showed that she
+was already suffering from that terrible spring fever which makes havoc
+with young creatures in the warm days of April and May. She was sitting
+by her brother on a low red sofa, as she had so often sat with Sempaly;
+the baroness was lounging in an arm-chair fanning herself; there was a
+sort of triumphant solemnity in her manner. Even Cecil, too, was
+evidently in some excitement though his air was just as frank and
+natural as ever.
+
+"Good evening, general, what hot, trying weather!" drawled the
+baroness. "It is an extraordinary event to find us all at home together
+at this hour but we all have a sacred horror of the mob in the streets
+on a holiday afternoon."
+
+"Oh, mamma!" interrupted Zinka, "it is not only the crowd--we wanted to
+enjoy our good fortune together; did not we, Cecil?"
+
+He nodded and stroked her hair. "Yes, little Zini."
+
+"Only think. Uncle Klinger--you knew, of course, that Cecil's book on
+Persia had attracted a great deal of attention--but that is not all. He
+has been appointed _Charge d'affaires_ at Constantinople."
+
+The general offered his congratulations and shook hands warmly with the
+young man.
+
+"I could wish for nothing more exactly to my mind," said Cecil. "There
+is always something to do there; a man always has a chance of making
+his mark and getting on." He was sincerely and frankly satisfied and
+affected no indifference to the distinction he had earned.
+
+"In five years we shall see you ambassador," exclaimed the general,
+with the happy exaggeration that is irresistible on such occasions.
+
+"We do not go quite so fast as that," laughed Sterzl. "However, I hope
+to rise in due time. Will not you be proud of me, Butterfly, when I am
+'your excellency!'"
+
+"I am proud of you already," said Zinka, "and you know how vain I am,
+and how much I value such things!"
+
+It was the first time for some weeks that the general had seen the two
+so happy together and it rejoiced his heart.
+
+"And the climate is good," Sterzl went on, "one of the best in Europe;
+the foreign colony is friendly and pleasant. You will enjoy studying
+oriental manners from a bird's-eye view, Zini; and the change of air
+will do you good?"
+
+"You will take me too?" she said turning pale.
+
+"Why, of course. The bay of Constantinople is lovely and we can often
+sail out on it; then, in the autumn, if I have time, we will make an
+excursion in Greece. You will be quite a travelled person." He put his
+finger under her chin and looked with tender anxiety into her thin
+face; every trace of color had suddenly faded from it, and the light
+that her brother's success had kindled in her eyes had died out.
+
+"It will be very nice--" she said wearily; "delightful--thank you,
+Cecil--you are always so kind ... when are we to start?"
+
+"You might get off in about a week; the sea-voyage will not over-tire
+you, and you can stop to rest at Athens. In the hot season we can go up
+to the hills--" then suddenly he glanced sharply in her face and his
+whole expression changed; he added roughly, with a scowl: "but you need
+not come unless you like--stay here if you choose--I do not want to
+force you."
+
+At this instant the maid appeared to announce the arrival of a case
+from the railway.
+
+"The new ball-dresses!" cried the baroness in great excitement. "I am
+thankful they have come in time. I was quite in despair for fear I
+should not have my new gown in time for the ball at the Brancaleone's.
+It would have seemed so uncourteous to the princess.... Now let us see
+what Fanet has hit upon that is new...." And she rustled out of the
+room.
+
+Zinka sat still, with a frozen smile, looking like a criminal to whom
+the day of execution had just been announced, and uneasily twisting her
+fingers.
+
+"Of course, I like it, Cecil ... how can you think ... and on Wednesday
+week we can start--Wednesday will be best ... now I must go and see
+what my new dress is like ... do not laugh at me uncle; I must make
+myself look as nice as I can for my last appearance." And she hurried
+off; but on her way she stumbled against a table and a book fell to the
+ground. She stopped, picked the book up, turned over the leaves and
+laid it down; then, as if she wished to make up to her brother for some
+unkindness, she went back to Cecil and put her hand on his shoulder.
+
+"I do really thank you very much," she said, "and I am glad--really and
+truly glad, and very proud of you...."
+
+He looked up in her face and their eyes met--his lips quivered with
+rage--the rage of a lofty, generous, and masterful nature at finding
+itself incapable of making a woman dear to it happy.
+
+Zinka shrank into herself "My ball-dress!" she faintly exclaimed, and
+she slipped out of the room.
+
+For a few minutes the two men were silent. Presently the general spoke:
+
+"Zinka is going to the Brancaleones' to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes," replied Sterzl; "at least, she has promised to go. Whether she
+will change her mind at the last moment and stay at home, of course I
+cannot foresee."
+
+"But she really seems to care about it this time," said the general.
+"At least she took an interest in her dress."
+
+"Her dress!... she did not even know what she was talking about. She
+fled that we might not see her tears...." Sterzl broke out, losing all
+his self-control. Then he looked sternly at his friend as though he
+thought he had betrayed a secret But the old man's sad face reassured
+him. "It is of no use to try to act before you," he went on; "you are
+not blind--you must see how wretched she is--it is all over, general,
+she is utterly broken...." He started to his feet and after pacing the
+room two or three times stood still and with a helpless wave of the
+hands and a desperate shrug, he exclaimed: "There is nothing to be
+done--nothing!" Then he sat down again and buried his face in his
+hands.
+
+Von Klinger cleared his throat, paused for a word and could find
+nothing better to say than: "In time--things will mend; you must have
+patience."
+
+"Patience!" echoed Sterzl with an indescribable accent.
+"Patience!--yes, if I could only hope that things would mend. At first
+it provoked me that she should let everybody see ... know ... I thought
+she might have more spirit and self-command. But now.--Good heavens!
+she does all she can and it is killing her ... that is not her fault.
+If only she were resentful--but she never complains; she is always
+content with everything, she never even contradicts my mother now. And
+then, what is worst of all, I hear her at night--her room is over
+mine--walking up and down, very softly as if she were afraid of waking
+anyone--up and down for hours; and often I hear her sobbing--she never
+sheds a tear by day!..." he sighed. "And then--if it were for a man who
+was worth it all!" he went on. "But that blue-eyed, boneless,
+good-for-nothing simpleton!... I ought never to have allowed her to
+step out of her own sphere--I ought never to have allowed them to
+become intimate! I knew he was not worthy of her, even when, as I
+believed--but you will laugh at my simplicity perhaps--he condescended
+to be in earnest.--You cannot imagine what it is now to have to
+meet him every day,--to hear him ask every day: 'how are you all at
+home?'--I feel ready to choke ... I could crush him under foot like a
+worm!... and I am bound to be civil. I may not even tell him that he
+has insulted me."
+
+The baroness here came back.
+
+"Lovely!" she exclaimed, with her affected giggle, "quite perfect!
+Zinka has never had a dress that suited her so well."
+
+"That is well!" said Sterzl vaguely, "where is she?"
+
+"She is gone to lie down; she has a bad headache," minced the baroness.
+"The young girls of the present day have no stamina. Why, at her age
+I...."
+
+The general was not in the mood to listen to her sentimental
+reminiscences and he took his leave. In the hall he once more wrung
+Cecil's hand: "Fortune has favored you," he said; "you have a splendid
+career before you, and in her new and pleasant home Zinka will
+forget.--I congratulate you on your new start in life."
+
+Aye--his new start in life!
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II.
+
+
+The Brancaleone Palace, on the slope of the Quirinal, is one of the
+finest in Rome, and particularly famous for its gardens, laid out in
+terraces down the side of the hill, with the lower rooms of the palazzo
+opening on to the uppermost level. The dancing was in a large, almost
+square, room adjoining a long vaulted corridor full of old pictures
+relieved here and there by the cold severity of an antique marble
+statue. It was lighted by marvellous chandeliers of Venetian glass that
+hung from the ceiling. At the end of the corridor two steps led down
+into an anteroom, dividing it from a smaller sanctuary where the gems
+of the Brancaleone collection were displayed--mixed up, unfortunately,
+with several modern monstrosities--and from this room a door opened
+into the garden.
+
+Zinka arrived late. A transient and feverish expectancy lent her
+pinched features the brilliancy they had lost while her timid reserve
+gave her even more charm than her former innocent self-confidence, and
+her dress was certainly wonderfully becoming. Nor had she lost all her
+old popularity, for she was soon surrounded by a little crowd of Roman
+'swells;' one or two even of the Jatinskas' admirers deserted to Zinka.
+
+Truyn was not present; the cold his little girl had caught at St.
+Peter's had developed into a serious illness, and he could not leave
+her.
+
+Zinka, with her gliding grace, her small head held a little high, and
+her softened glance, was still pretty to watch as she danced, and
+attracted general attention. The music, the splendor of the
+entertainment, the consciousness of looking well put her into unwonted
+spirits. She sent a searching glance round the room--no, he was not
+there. Sterzl stood talking with the general, delighted with her little
+triumph and charming appearance; then he was congratulated by several
+men of distinction on his recent promotion. He thanked them with
+characteristic simplicity and sincerity--the evening was a success for
+him too. Not long after midnight he left to attend to pressing
+business--matters were in a very unsettled state--and went to the
+embassy.
+
+Within a short time Sempaly came in. He had spent the previous night,
+as was very generally known, at cards--this was a new form of
+dissipation for him--he had lost a great deal of money, and he looked
+worn and out of spirits. He did not care for dancing and came so late
+to ask his handsome cousins for the cotillon that they were both
+engaged--a result to which he was so manifestly indifferent that Nini
+actually wiped away a secret tear. He was now standing with his fingers
+in his waistcoat pockets and his glass in his eye, exchanging
+impertinent comments with a number of other young men, on the figure of
+this woman or that girl, and trying to imagine himself in the position
+of the fabulous savage who found himself for the first time in a
+civilized ball-room.
+
+Suddenly he was silent--something had arrested his attention.
+
+The band was playing a waltz at that time very popular: "_Stringi mi_,"
+by Tosti. The room was very hot; it was the moment when the curls of
+the young ladies begin to straighten, and their movements--at first a
+little prim--begin to gain in freedom; when there is an electrical
+tension in the air suggestive of possible storms and the most
+indifferent looker-on is aware of an obscure excitement. Crespigny and
+Zinka spun past him--Zinka pale and cool in the midst of the emotional
+stir around her. She was not living in the present--she was in a dream.
+Suddenly Crespigny, who was not a good dancer, stumbled against another
+couple, caught his foot in a lady's train and fell with his partner.
+Sempaly pushed his way through the dancers with blind force and was the
+first to help Zinka to her feet. Without thinking for a moment of
+the hundred eyes that were fixed upon him he leaned over the young
+girl--her power over him had risen from the dead. She, bewildered by
+her fall, did not perhaps at first see who it was that had helped her
+to rise; she clung to his arm with half-shut eyes; then, as he
+whispered a few sympathizing words, she looked up, started, colored,
+and shrank from him.
+
+"A very unpleasant accident," said some of the ladies.
+
+Sempaly had taken possession of Zinka's slender hand and drew it with
+gentle insistence through his arm; then he led her out of the heated
+ball-room into the adjoining gallery.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+The accident for which she had besieged Heaven with prayers had
+happened--the accident which threw him once more in her way. His old
+passion was awake again; she saw it--she could read it in his eyes. She
+summoned up all her self-command to conceal her happiness--not so much
+out of deliberate calculation as from genuine timidity and womanly
+pride. He talked--saying all sorts of eager, sympathetic things--she
+asked only the coldest and simplest questions. He had fetched her a
+wrap and with the white shawl thrown around her he led her from one
+room to another among the fan-palms and creamy yellow statues. Now and
+then she spoke to some acquaintance whom they met wandering like
+themselves, but these were fewer and fewer. The supper-room was thrown
+open and every one was gone to the buffet.
+
+Zinka's coldness, for which he was not at all prepared, provoked
+Sempaly greatly. He felt with sudden conviction that there could be no
+joy on earth to compare with that of once holding her in his arms and
+kissing her--devouring her with kisses. This image took entire
+possession of him and beyond the possible fulfilment of that dream he
+did not look. That joy must be his at any cost, if the whole world were
+to crumble at his feet.
+
+"Zinka," he said in a low tone, "Zinka--Lent is over--Easter is come."
+
+"Yes? what do you mean?" she said coldly, almost sternly.
+
+"I mean," he said, and he looked her straight in the face, "that I have
+fasted and that now I will feast, and be happy."
+
+They were in a small room--a sort of raised recess divided from the
+ball-room by a row of pillars; they were alone.
+
+A joy so acute as to be almost pain came over Zinka. It blinded and
+stunned her; she did not speak, she did not smile, she did not even
+look up at him; she could not have stirred even if she had wished
+it--she was paralyzed. He thought she would not hear him.
+
+"Zinka," he urged, "can you not forgive me for having jingled the
+fool's cap for six weeks till I could not hear the music of the
+spheres? Can you not forgive me--for the sake of the misery I
+have endured? I can bear it no longer--I confess and yield
+unconditionally--I cannot live without you...."
+
+Zinka was not strong enough to bear such emotion; the terrible tension
+to which for the last quarter of an hour her pride had compelled her
+gave way; she tottered, put out her hands, and was falling. He put his
+arm round her and with the other hand pushed open a glass door that led
+into the garden.
+
+"Come out, the air will do you good," he said scarcely audibly, and
+they went out on to the deserted terrace. His arm clasped her more
+closely and drew her to him. Involuntarily he waited till she should
+make some effort to free herself from his hold; but she was quite
+passive; she only raised a tear-bedewed face with a blissful gaze into
+his eyes, and whispered: "I ought not to forgive you so easily...." and
+then, with no more distrust or fear than a child clinging to its
+mother, she let her head fall on his shoulder and sobbed for happiness.
+A strange reverence came over him; the sound of some church bell came
+up from the city. He kissed her with solemn tenderness on the forehead
+and only said:
+
+"My darling, my sacred treasure!" She was safe.
+
+When the general came out of the card-room to look once more at the
+dancers before he withdrew, the cotillon, with its fanciful figures and
+lavish distribution of ribbons and flowers, was nearly over.
+
+"What a cruel idea!" he heard in a lamentable voice from one of a row
+of chaperons, "to give a ball in such heat as this!"
+
+It was the baroness, who was searching all round the room with her
+eye-glass and a very sour and puckered expression of face. Siegburg,
+who, as the general knew, was to have danced the cotillon with Zinka,
+was sitting out; when von Klinger asked him the reason he answered very
+calmly, that "he believed Zinka had felt tired and had gone home," But
+the way in which he said it roused the old man's suspicions that he put
+forward this hypothesis to prevent any further search being made for
+Zinka. He had seen her last in the corridor with Sempaly, and he
+hurried off to find her. He sought in vain in all the nooks hidden by
+the plants; in vain in the recesses behind the pillars--but the door to
+the garden was open. This filled him with apprehension--he went out,
+sure that he must be following them.
+
+The air was oppressively sultry and damp; it crushed him with a sense
+of hopeless anxiety. The scirocco had cast its baleful spell over Rome.
+
+Northerners who have never been in Rome have no idea of the nature of
+the scirocco; they suppose it to be a storm of hot wind. No.... it is
+when the air is still and damp, when it distils but does not waft a
+heavy perfume that the scirocco diffuses its poison: a subtle influence
+compounded of the scent of flowers that it forces into life only to
+destroy them--of the mists from the Tiber whose yellow flood--like mud
+mixed with gold, which rolls over the corpses and treasure that lie
+buried in its depths--of the exhalations from the graves, and the
+perennial incense from all the churches of Rome. The scirocco cheats
+the soul with delusive fancies and fills the heart with gloom and
+oppression; it inspires the imagination with dreams of splendid
+achievement and stretches the limbs on a couch in languor and
+exhaustion. It penetrates even the cool seclusion of the cloister and
+breathes on the pale cheek of the young nun who is struggling for
+devout aspiration, reminding her of long forgotten dreams.
+
+All that is melancholy, all that is cruel and wicked in Rome--much,
+too, that is beautiful--is engendered by the scirocco. It is creative
+of glorious conceptions and of hideous deeds. One feels inclined to
+fancy that on the day when Caesar fell under the dagger of Brutus
+Scirocco and Tramontane fought their last fight for the mastery of
+Rome--and Scirocco won the day.
+
+A dense grey cloud hung over the city and veiled the sinking moon. A
+cascade that tumbled from basin to basin, down the terraced slope of
+the Quirinal, plashed weirdly in the deep twilight of the earliest
+dawn, which was just beginning shyly to vie with the dying moon. Light
+and shade had ceased to exist; the whole scene presented the dim,
+smudged effect of a rubbed charcoal drawing.
+
+The general sent a peering glance through the laurel-hedged alleys that
+led down the hill. Above the clipped evergreens, rose huge ilexes,
+wreathed to the very top with ivy and climbing roses. Here and there
+something white gleamed dimly in the grey--he rushed to meet it--it was
+a statue or a white blossomed shrub. Roses and magnolias opened their
+blossoms to the solitude, and the scent of orange-flowers filled the
+heavy air, stronger than all the other perfumes of the morning. Now and
+then, like a faint sigh, a shiver ran through the leaves--the fall of a
+dying flower.
+
+The old man held his breath to listen; he called: "Zinka--Sempaly!" No
+answer.
+
+Suddenly he heard low voices in a path known as the alley of the
+Sarcophagus and thither he bent his steps. The sullen light fell
+through a gap in the leafy wall on Sempaly and Zinka, seated on a
+bench, hand in hand, and talking familiarly, forgetful of all the world
+besides.
+
+Zinka was the first to see him; she was not in the least disconcerted.
+
+"Oh! Uncle Klinger!" she exclaimed. "Mamma is waiting for me, I dare
+say!--but do not scold me, I entreat you--."
+
+Thank God for those happy innocent eyes that looked so frankly into
+his!--On purity like hers Scirocco could have no power! No--he could
+not be angry with her.--But _he_!
+
+"Sempaly!" cried the old man indignantly: "What possesses you?"
+
+"I have at length made up my mind to be happy," said Sempaly with
+feeling, and he raised Zinka's hand to his lips. "That is all."
+
+"And I ought not to have forgiven him so easily--ought I?" murmured
+Zinka, quailing at the general's stern frown, and her head drooped.
+
+"Zinka has been missed, you know how spiteful people are!" exclaimed
+von Klinger angrily, ignoring the sentimentality of the situation.
+Sempaly interrupted him with vehement irritation.
+
+"What I should like to do," he said half to himself, "is to go straight
+back to the ball-room, and tell my most intimate friends at once of our
+engagement!" But even as he spoke he reconsidered the matter; "but I
+cannot," he went on, "unfortunately I cannot. I must even entreat you,
+Zinka, to keep it a secret even from your own household."
+
+"Come, at once, with me," said the general drily, "my carriage is
+waiting in the Piazza. If I am not mistaken there is a little gate here
+which leads on to it... Yes, here it is. I will tell your mother, so
+that others shall hear it, that you felt ill and left before the
+cotillon began and that Lady Julia took you home."
+
+When Zinka was safely on her way to the palazetto in charge of the
+general's trusty old coachman, the two men looked each other in the
+face.
+
+"Outrageous!" growled the general furiously. Sempaly turned upon him
+quickly:
+
+"Think what you will of me," he said, "but do not let the shadow of a
+suspicion rest on Zinka. You know that if you hold up a cross to the
+devil himself, his power is quelled."
+
+Without answering a word the general hurried past Sempaly and straight
+into the ball-room; but he found time to lock behind him the alcove
+door leading into the garden. In the ball-room he was met by the
+baroness who anxiously asked him:
+
+"Where is Zinka? have you seen Zinka?"
+
+"Zinka felt shaken and upset by her fall--she went away a long time
+since, with Lady Julia who took her home."
+
+He spoke very distinctly and in French, so that several persons who
+were standing near might hear him. "She might have let me know,"
+exclaimed the baroness peevishly.
+
+"We looked for you, but could nowhere find you," said the general.
+Never in his life before had he told a lie.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+At some unearthly hour next morning he called on Lady Julia to confide
+to her the mystery of the night's adventure, that she might not
+contradict his story; as he had actually put Zinka into her carriage
+there seemed to be no other danger. Though she disliked the falsehood
+as much as he did, she was quite ready to confirm the fiction; at the
+same time she could not help saying again and again:
+
+"Poor little thing! I hope it may all come right!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+
+"Dearest Zinka, my own sweet little love,
+
+"My brother arrived in Rome last night; he is on his way to Australia
+and I am thankful to say stays only a few days. So long as he is here I
+must make every sacrifice and hardly see you at all, for he must know
+nothing of our engagement. Now, shall I tell you the real sordid reason
+why I cannot speak to him of my happiness?--during these last few
+miserable weeks, simply and solely to kill the time, I have gambled and
+have always been unlucky, and I have got deeply into debt. My brother
+will pay, as he always has done, so long as the conditions remain
+unchanged. But ... however, it is not a matter to write about. Believe
+this much only: that his narrow views can never affect my feelings
+towards you; though I may seem to yield, for I think it useless to
+provoke his antagonism. As soon as he has sailed there will be nothing
+in the way of our engagement and we will be married immediately. To an
+accomplished fact he must surrender. If I possibly can, I will see you
+this evening at the palazetto--just to have one kiss and a loving word.
+Till then I can only implore you to keep this absolutely secret.
+
+                 "Your perfectly devoted
+
+                                         "N.S."
+
+
+This was the note that Zinka received the morning after the ball, as
+she was breakfasting alone in her own room, rather later than usual,
+but with a convalescent appetite. The color mounted to her cheeks, and
+her eyes flashed indignantly. Coldness and neglect she had borne--but
+the meanness and weakness--the moral cowardice--that this note
+betrayed, degraded him in her eyes till she almost scorned him. She
+felt as though a sudden glare had shown her the real Sempaly--as though
+the man she loved was not he, but some one else. The man she had loved
+was a lofty young god who had chosen to descend from his high estate to
+break the heart of an insignificant girl who ought to have thought
+herself happy only to have gazed upon him; but this was a boneless,
+nerveless mortal, who could stoop to petty subterfuge for fear of
+having to face the wrath of his brother.
+
+She was furious; all the pride that had been crushed into silence by
+her dejection was roused to arms. She went to her desk and wrote as
+follows:
+
+
+"I am prepared to marry you in defiance of your brother's will, but I
+could never think of becoming your wife behind his back. I am ready to
+defy him, but I do not choose to cheat him. It is of no use to come to
+the house this evening unless you are quite clear on this point. I
+could not think of marrying you unless I were perfectly sure that I was
+more indispensable to your happiness than your brother's good will. You
+must therefore consider yourself released from every tie, and regard
+the words you spoke yesterday in a moment of excitement as effaced from
+my memory. Ever yours,
+
+                                   "Zinka Sterzl."
+
+
+Zinka enclosed this peremptory note in an envelope, addressed it, rang
+for her maid and desired her to have it sent immediately to the Palazzo
+di Venezia.
+
+"And shall I say there is an answer?" asked the girl.
+
+"No," said Zinka shortly.
+
+No sooner had the maid gone on her errand than the hapless Zinka felt
+utterly wretched and almost repented of having written so
+indignantly... She might have said all that was in the note without
+expressing herself so bitterly. She thought the words over, knit her
+brows, shook her head--and at that moment her eye fell on another
+letter which had been brought to her with Sempaly's, and which she had
+forgotten to open. She saw that the writing was Truyn's. She hastily
+read the note which was a short one.
+
+
+"Dear Zinka:--My poor little girl has been much worse and the doctor
+gives me very little hope. She constantly asks for you, both when she
+is conscious and in her delirium. Come to her if you can. Your old
+friend,
+
+                                   "Truyn."
+
+"P. S. It is nothing catching--inflammation of the lungs."
+
+
+Zinka started up--she forgot everything--her happiness, her grief,
+Sempaly himself--remembering only Truyn's indefatigable kindness and
+the sorrow that threatened him.
+
+"Nothing catching...." she repeated to herself: "poor man! he thinks of
+others even now--it is just like him. While I ... I?" She colored
+deeply, for she recollected how that evening the child had sat
+shivering by her side and she had not noticed it.
+
+"I had my head turned by a kind word from him...." she thought vexed
+with her own folly.
+
+In a very few minutes she was hurrying across the Corso towards the
+Piazza di Spagna. Her maid had some difficulty in keeping up with her.
+Zinka almost flew, heeding nothing and looking at no one, till, in the
+Piazza di Spagna, she came upon a group of persons coming out of the
+Hotel de Londres and felt a light hand on her arm. Looking round she
+saw Nini.
+
+"Good-morning. Where are you off to in such a hurry?" asked the young
+countess pleasantly.
+
+"Good-morning," said Zinka hastily, "I am in a great hurry--I am going
+to the Hotel de l'Europe; Gabrielle Truyn is very ill--she wants to see
+me."
+
+But at this moment Zinka perceived a tall, broad-shouldered man, with a
+very handsome face and haughty expression, standing close to Nini. He
+was gazing at her with perfectly well-bred admiration, and Nini
+introduced him as Prince Sempaly. Then she saw that Nicklas Sempaly was
+just behind, with Polyxena. His eyes met hers with a passionate flash,
+but he only bowed with distant formality. Zinka had no time to think
+about his manner, she was hardly conscious of his presence--all she
+felt was that she was being detained.
+
+"You must excuse me," she said, smiling an apology to Nini and shaking
+hands warmly with her without stopping to think of the formalities of
+caste. "Poor Count Truyn is expecting me." And she hurried on again.
+
+"Who is that sweet-looking girl, Nini?" asked the prince, "for, of
+course, you omitted to mention her name."
+
+"Fraeulein Sterzl," replied Nini, "the sister of one of the secretaries
+to the embassy."
+
+"Sterzl," repeated the prince somewhat flatly.
+
+"Zenaide Sterzl!" said Polyxena over her shoulder.
+
+But the ironical accent emphasis she laid on the odd mixture of the
+romantic and the commonplace was thrown away upon Prince Sempaly, who
+was much too fine a gentleman to laugh at his inferiors; all he said
+was:
+
+"Sterzl? I seem to know the name. Sterzl--I served for a time under a
+Colonel Sterzl of the Uhlans. He was a very superior man."
+
+Zinka meanwhile was flying on to the Hotel de l'Europe. In the
+sun-flooded court-yard stood two rose-trees, a white and a red--two
+brown curly-headed little boys were fighting a duel with walking-sticks
+in a shady corner--two English families were packing themselves into
+roomy landaus for an excursion and sending the servants in and out to
+fetch things that they had forgotten. The air was full of the scent of
+roses, and sunshine, and laughter; but one of the Englishwomen hushed
+her companion who had laughed rather loudly and pointing up to one of
+the windows said: "Remember the sick child."
+
+A cold chill fell on Zinka's heart--she ran up the familiar stairs. In
+Truyn's drawing-room sat Gabrielle's English governess--anxious but
+helpless.
+
+"May I go in?" asked Zinka.
+
+"No, wait a minute--the doctor is there." At this moment Truyn came out
+of the child's room with Dr. E---- the German physician, and conducted
+him down-stairs. Truyn had the fixed, calm, white face of a man who is
+accustomed to bear his sorrows alone.
+
+When he returned he went up to Zinka and took her hand: "She asks for
+you constantly," he said, "but do you think you can prevent her seeing
+that you are unhappy and alarmed?"
+
+"Yes--indeed you may trust me," said Zinka bravely, wiping away her
+tears; and she went into the child's room "as silent and bright as a
+sunbeam."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Some one must have seen Zinka and Sempaly in the course of their
+moonlight walk or else have found out something about it in spite of
+the general's precautions; this was made evident by an article which
+came out on the Friday after the ball in a French 'society paper'
+published weekly in Rome. The title of the article was "a moonlight
+cotillon;" it began with an exact description of Zinka, of whom it
+spoke as Fraeulein Z---- a S--l, the sister of a secretary in the
+Austrian Embassy; referred to the sensation produced by her appearance
+as Lady Jane Grey, spoke of her as an elegant adventuress--"a
+professional beauty"--and hinted at her various unsuccessful schemes
+for winning a princely coronet; schemes which had culminated in a
+moonlight walk, a few nights since, during a ball at the house of a
+distinguished member of Roman society, and which had outdone in
+audacity all that had ever been known to the _chronique scandaleuse_ of
+Rome. "Will she earn her reward in the form of a coronet and will the
+pages of 'High Life' ere long announce a fashionable marriage in which
+this young lady will fill a part?--that is the question," so the
+article ended.
+
+"High Life,"--this was the name of the paper graced by this
+effusion--was scouted, abused and condemned by everybody, covertly
+maintained by several, and read by most--with disgust and indignation
+it is true, but still read. On this fateful Friday every copy of "High
+Life" was sold in no time, and before the sun had set Zinka's name was
+in every mouth.
+
+What said the world of Rome? Lady Julia cried, had some tea, and went
+to bed; Mr. Ellis said "shocking!" assured his wife that he was
+convinced of Zinka's innocence, and that it would certainly triumph
+over calumny; after which he quietly went about his business and spent
+two whole hours in practising a difficult passage on the concertina.
+
+It was the Brauers--the Sterzls' old neighbors before mentioned--who
+contributed chiefly to the diffusion of the article, supplementing it
+with their own comments. They had some acquaintance among the "cream"
+of Rome, though they had not been invited to the ball at the
+Brancaleone palace. Frau Brauer assumed a tone of perfidious
+compassion: it was a terrible affair for a young girl's reputation,
+though, for her part, she could see nothing extraordinary in a
+moonlight wandering with an intimate friend. Her husband, to whom the
+Sterzl family had paid very little attention--the baroness out of
+conceit, and Cecil and Zinka because he was in fact intolerably
+affected, pompous and patronizing--said with a sneering smile that he
+had never seen anything to admire in that little adventuress, with her
+free and easy innocence--pushing herself into society she was not born
+to. He had always thought it most unbecoming; and it must be a pleasant
+thing indeed for the Duchess of Brancaleone to have such a scandalous
+business take place in her house--she would be more careful for the
+future whom she invited!
+
+Madame de Gandry and Mrs. Ferguson thought the article very amusingly
+written--not that they would ever have said a word about such a piece
+of imprudence--for really no one was safe! To be sure any evil that
+might be written against them would be a lie--a pure invention--which
+in Zinka's case was quite unnecessary ... So they sent the paper round
+to all their friends as a warning against rushing into acquaintance
+with strangers: "One cannot be too careful." Zinka had seemed to them
+suspicious from the first, for after all she was not "the real thing."
+
+All these spiteful and cruel insinuations they even ventured to utter
+in the presence of Princess Vulpini, in the general's atelier, the spot
+where all that circle concentrated whenever anything had occurred to
+excite or startle it, and they made the princess furious.
+
+"I am an Austrian myself," she said, "and was brought up with ideas of
+exclusiveness which are as much above suspicion as they are beyond your
+comprehension. I am strictly conservative in all my views. But Zinka is
+elect by nature--an exceptional creature before whom all such laws give
+way. I should have regarded it as pure folly to sacrifice the pleasure
+of her acquaintance for the sake of a social dogma."
+
+"Exceptions always fare badly," murmured the general.
+
+Countess Ilsenbergh, who was as strict on points of honor as she was on
+matters of etiquette, was deeply aggrieved by the article; she
+expressed herself briefly but strongly on the subject of the freedom of
+the press, and confessed that, whether Zinka were innocent or guilty,
+things looked very ugly for Sempaly.
+
+The count rushed into eloquence giving an exhaustive discourse on the
+whole social question.
+
+"Princess Vulpini is quite right," he said. "Fraeulein Sterzl is a
+bewitching creature, quite an exception--and if any departure from
+traditional law is ever permissible it would be so in her case. But the
+general too is right; exceptions must always fare badly in the world,
+and we cannot endanger the very essence and being of social stability
+in order to improve the position of any single individual. Above all,
+we must never create a precedent." And he proceeded to enlarge on the
+horrible consequences which must result from such a mixture of classes,
+referred to the example of France, and proposed the introduction of the
+Hindoo system of caste, in its strictest application, as a further
+bulwark for the protection of society in Europe and the coercion of
+ambitious spirits. His wife, at this juncture, objected that European
+society had not yet reached such a summit of absolute exclusiveness as
+he would assume, and that, consequently what was immediately needed was
+not any such far-reaching scheme for its protection, but some plan for
+dealing with the disagreeable circumstances in which its imperfection
+had at this time placed them.
+
+He replied that the matter lay in a nutshell; either the story in 'High
+Life' was a lie, in which case Sempaly had nothing to do but to deny it
+categorically, to prove an alibi at the hour mentioned and to horsewhip
+the editor--or, the facts stated were true, and then--under the
+circumstances--there was nothing for it--but ... "the lady's previous
+character was quite above suspicion--there was nothing for it--but...."
+and he shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"But to make Fraeulein Sterzl Countess Sempaly!" cried Madame de Gandry.
+"Well, I must say I do think it rather too much to give an adventurous
+little chit a coronet as a reward for sheer impudence. But I beg your
+pardon, general,--I had forgotten that you are a friend of the family."
+
+"And I," exclaimed the general beside himself, and quite pale with
+rage, "I, madame, was within an ace of forgetting that I was listening
+to a lady!"
+
+Princess Vulpini interposed: "You yourself said, madame, that you had
+always avoided any acquaintance with Zinka; now I have known her
+intimately, and seen her almost every day; I have observed her demeanor
+with men--with young men--and heard her conversation with other girls,
+and I can assure you that the word impudence is no more applicable to
+her conduct than to that of my little girl of three.--And if she did,
+in fact, go into the garden with my cousin the night of the ball, it is
+a proof simply of romantic thoughtlessness, of such perfect,
+unsuspicious innocence that it ought of itself avail to protect her
+against slander. I spent last night with Zinka, by the bedside of my
+little niece who is ill, and no girl with a stain on her conscience
+could look so sweetly pure or smile with such childlike sincerity. I
+would put my hand in the fire for her spotless innocence!"
+
+The princess spoke with such dignity and warmth, and while she spoke
+she fixed such a scathing eye on Madame de Gandry, that the
+Frenchwoman, abashed in spite of herself, could only mutter some
+incoherent answer and withdraw with Mrs. Ferguson in her wake.
+
+The four Austrians were alone.
+
+"The person who puzzles me in this business," said the princess, "is
+Nicki Sempaly. As soon as this wretched paper came into my hands I sent
+it to his rooms. There I heard that he had just gone out with the
+Jatinskys. I went to the Hotel de l'Europe to talk it over with my
+brother, but he had gone to lie down and I had not the heart to wake
+him. Besides, he could have done no good, and I could not bear to
+disturb his happiness over his child's amendment.--So I came to
+unburden my heart to you, general."
+
+"Sempaly cannot have seen it yet," suggested Ilsenbergh. The princess
+shrugged her shoulders. Countess Ilsenbergh once more expressed her
+opinion that "it was a very unpleasant affair and that she had foreseen
+it all from the first," after which, finding that it would be difficult
+to prevent her husband from delivering another lecture, she rose to go.
+
+At this instant Prince Vulpini came into the studio with a beaming
+countenance. "Ah! here you are! I saw the carriage at the door as I was
+passing.--Have you heard the latest news?"
+
+"Sempaly is engaged to Zinka?" cried his wife.
+
+"No!" cried the prince; "the wind last night tore down the national
+flag on the Quirinal. Hurrah for the Tramontana!"
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+A few minutes later the general was alone; after a moment's hesitation
+he took up his hat and hurried off to the palazetto to see how matters
+stood there. He was one of those who had been the latest to hear of the
+slanderous article and at the same time to be the most deeply wounded
+by it. But perhaps by this time Sempaly had engaged himself to Zinka,
+he said to himself, and he hastened his pace.
+
+It was the baroness's day at home. The silly woman was sitting dressed
+and displayed--a grey glove on one hand, while with the other she
+pretended to arrange a dish of bonbons.
+
+"How kind of you!--" she exclaimed as the general entered the room. The
+stereotyped formula came piping out of her thin lips without the
+smallest variation to every fresh visitor, as chilling and as colorless
+as snow.
+
+He had hardly greeted the baroness when he looked round for Zinka--at
+first without seeing her; it was not till a bright voice exclaimed:
+
+"Here I am, uncle, come and give me a kiss," that he discovered her, in
+the darkest corner of the room, leaning back in a deep arm-chair and
+looking rather tired and sleepy but wonderfully pretty and unwontedly
+happy.
+
+"I am so tired, so tired!--you cannot think how tired I am," she said,
+laying his hand coaxingly against her cheek, "and mamma is so cruel as
+to insist on my staying in the drawing-room because it is her day at
+home, and I was sound asleep when you came in, for thank heaven! we
+have had no visitors yet. I sat with Gabrielle all last night and the
+night before without closing my eyes; but then I was so glad to think
+that the little pet would not take her medicine from anyone but me; and
+last night, at length, in the middle of one of my stories, she fell
+asleep on my shoulder. But then in order not to disturb her I sat quite
+still for six hours. I felt as if I had been nailed to a cross--and
+to-day I am so stiff I can hardly move." And she stretched her arms and
+curled herself into her chair again with a pretty caressing action of
+her shoulders. "You ought to have stayed in bed," said the general
+paternally. "Oh dear no! why I slept on till quite late in the morning.
+Besides, my being tired is of no real importance; the great point is
+that Gabrielle is out of danger: Oh, if anything had happened to
+her!..." and she shuddered; "I cannot bear to think of it. Count Truyn
+is firmly convinced that I have contributed in some mysterious way to
+the child's amendment, and when I came away this morning he kissed my
+hands in gratitude as if I had been the holy _Bambino_ himself. I
+laughed and cried both at once, and now I am so happy--my heart feels
+as light as one of those air balls the children carry tied by a string,
+that they may not fly off up to the clouds. But why do you look so
+grave? are you not as glad as I am, uncle that...."
+
+The baroness who had been looking at her watch here expressed her
+surprise that not a living soul had come near them to-day.
+
+"You are evidently not a living soul, uncle--nothing but my dear grumpy
+old friend," said Zinka with her pathetic little laugh. There was
+something peculiarly caressing and touching about her to-day; the old
+man's eyes were moist and his heart bled for the sweet child.
+
+Outside the door they heard a heavy swift step--the step of a man in
+pressing but crushing trouble; the door was torn open and Sterzl,
+breathless, green rather than pale, foaming with rage, stormed in--a
+newspaper in his hand.
+
+"What is the matter--what has happened?" cried Zinka dismayed. He came
+straight up to her and stared at her with dreadful eyes.
+
+"Were you really in the garden with Sempaly during the cotillon?" he
+said hoarsely.
+
+"Yes," she said trembling.
+
+He gave a little start and shuddered--tottered--then he pulled himself
+up and flung the newspaper at her feet--at hers--his butterfly, his
+darling!
+
+"Read that," he said.
+
+Von Klinger tried to seize the paper, but Sterzl held him with a firm
+hand. "Your leniency is out of place," he said dully; "_she_ may read
+anything."
+
+Zinka read; suddenly she sprang up with a cry of horror and the
+paper fell out of her hand. Even now she did not understand the
+matter,--exactly what she was accused of she did not know; only that it
+was something unwomanly and disgraceful.
+
+"Cecil!" she began, looking into his face, "Cecil...." and then she
+covered her face, which from white had turned crimson, with her hands.
+He meanwhile had felt the absolute innocence of the girl, and was
+repenting of his rash and cruel wrath.
+
+"Zini," he cried, "forgive me--I was mad with rage--mad." And he tried
+to put his arm round her. But she held him off.
+
+"Leave me, leave me," she said. "No, I cannot forgive you. Oh Cecil!
+if all the newspapers in the world had said you had cheated, for
+instance--do you think I should have believed them?"
+
+He bent his head before her with a certain reverence: "But this is
+different, Zini," he said very gently; "I do not say it as an excuse
+for myself, but it is different. You do not see how different because
+you are a child--an angel--poor, sweet, little butterfly," and he drew
+her strongly to his breast and laid his lips on the golden head; she
+however would not surrender and insisted on freeing herself.
+
+"What on earth is going on?" the baroness asked again, for the
+twentieth time. Getting, even now, no reply, she picked up the
+newspaper that was lying on the floor, caught sight of the article,
+read a few lines of it, and broke out into railing complaints of
+Zinka--enumerating all the sins of which Zinka had been guilty from her
+earliest years and particularly within her recent memory, and ending
+with the words: "And you will ruin Cecil yet in his career."
+
+"Be quiet, mother;" said Cecil sternly. "My career is not the present
+question--we must think of our honor and of her happiness," and leaning
+over the fragile and trembling form of his sister, he said imploringly:
+
+"Tell me, Zini, exactly what happened."
+
+She had freed herself from his clasp and was standing before him with
+her arms folded across--rigid though tremulous--and her voice was cold
+and monotonous as she obeyed him and gave with naive exactitude her
+short and simple report, blushing as she spoke. When she had ended
+Cecil drew a deep breath.
+
+"And since that you have heard nothing of Sempaly?" he asked.
+
+"The next morning he sent me a note."
+
+"Zinka, do not be angry with me ... show me that note."
+
+She left the room and soon returned with the letter which she handed to
+Sterzl. He read it through with great gravity and marked attention then
+knitting his brows he slowly folded it up and turned it over.
+
+"And you answered him?" he asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And what did you say?"
+
+"Very little--that I was quite prepared to marry him without his
+brother's consent, but behind his brother's back?--No!"
+
+In the midst of his trouble a flash of pride lighted up Sterzl's weary
+eyes. "Bravo, Zini!" he murmured, "and he took this answer in silence?"
+
+Zinka paused to think:
+
+"Yes...." she said; "but no.--He sent me a note to the Hotel de
+l'Europe."
+
+"And what does he say in that?"
+
+"I have not read it yet; it came just at the moment when Gabrielle was
+at the worst and then I forgot it--but here it is...." and she drew it
+out of the pocket of her blue serge dress. Sterzl shook his head and
+glanced with a puzzled air at his sister; then he opened the note. It
+was as follows:
+
+
+"My darling little treasure, my haughty indignant little sweetheart:
+
+"Immediately on the receipt of your note I rushed to see you. The
+porter told me that you were not at home but with your poor little
+friend Gabrielle. Of course I cannot think of intruding on you there,
+though I would this day give a few years of my life for a sight of
+you--for one kiss. Sooner than lose you I am ready to throw up
+everything. Command and I obey ... but no, I must be wise for us both;
+I must wait till my affairs are somewhat in order. There is no help for
+it--I can only ask your forgiveness. I kiss your hands and the hem of
+your garment--I am utterly unworthy of you, but I love you beyond
+words.
+
+                                         "Sempaly."
+
+
+When Sterzl had read this highly characteristic letter he slowly paced
+the room two or three times, and finally stood still in front of his
+sister. Then, taking her hand and kissing it fondly, he said:
+
+"Forgive me, Zini--I am really proud of you. You have behaved like an
+angel ... but he--he is a contemptible sneak."
+
+But this she could not stand. "I do not defend him," she exclaimed
+vehemently, "but at any rate he loves me, and he understands me.--He,
+at any rate, would never have suspected me ... and ... and...." But it
+was in vain that she paused for a word--she could say nothing more in
+his favor; but she called up all her pride, and holding her head very
+high she left the room; as soon as she was outside they could hear her
+sob convulsively.
+
+The baroness rose to follow her, but Cecil stood in her way.
+
+"Where are you going?" he asked sternly.
+
+"To Zinka; I really must make her see what mischief she has done. It is
+outrageous ... why, at thirteen I should have known better!" Sterzl
+smiled bitterly:
+
+"Very likely," he said, "but I must beg you to leave Zinka to herself;
+she is miserable enough without that."
+
+"And are we to submit to her heedlessness without even reproving her
+for it?" said the baroness indignantly.
+
+"Yes, mother," he said decidedly; "our business now is not to reprove
+her, but to protect and comfort her."
+
+At this juncture dinner was announced. Sterzl begged the general to
+remain and dine with them, for he had, he said, several things to talk
+over with him. He evidently wished above everything to avoid being
+alone with his mother. Before sitting down he went to Zinka's room to
+see whether she would not eat at least a little soup; but he came back
+much distressed.
+
+"She would hardly speak to me," he said; "she is quite beside herself."
+And he himself sat in silence, eating nothing, drinking little,
+crumbling his bread and playing with his napkin. Each time the door
+opened he looked anxiously round.
+
+The meal was short and uncomfortable; when they had returned to the
+drawing-room and were drinking their coffee the servant brought Sterzl
+a letter. Cecil took it hastily, looked at the address, and, not
+recognizing the writing, at last opened it. It contained only a
+half-sheet of note-paper, with a cleverly sketched caricature: Sterzl
+himself as auctioneer, the hammer in one hand a doll in the other, and
+before him the coroneted heads of Rome. Sterzl at once recognized the
+likeness, though his lank figure was absurdly exaggerated, and his
+whole appearance made as grotesque as possible. He only shrugged his
+shoulders and said indifferently:
+
+"Does any one really think that such a thing as this can hurt or vex me
+now? Look, general--Sempaly, no doubt, is the ingenious artist of this
+masterpiece."
+
+The general took the paper, and would have torn it across to prevent
+Sterzl from examining it any further; but before he could do so Cecil,
+looking over his shoulder, had snatched it out of his hand.
+
+"There is something written on it!" he said, deciphering the scribble
+in one corner, in Sempaly's weak, illegible hand-writing: "Mademoiselle
+Sterzl, going--going--gone--!... Ah! I understand!"
+
+His face grew purple and he breathed with difficulty.
+
+"To send you this is contemptible," cried the general; "Sempaly drew
+this before he had ever seen Zinka.... I know it, I was present at the
+time."
+
+"What difference does that make?" said Sterzl; "if this is the view
+people took of me and my proceedings! Well, and after all they were
+right--I should have liked to see my sister brilliantly married--I
+meant it well ... and I have made myself ridiculous and have been the
+ruin of the poor child."
+
+His rage and misery were beyond control; he walked up and down, then
+suddenly stood still, looking out of the open window; then again he
+paced the room.
+
+"Sempaly is incomprehensible," he began, "quite incomprehensible! I had
+no very high opinion of his character--particularly lately; but I could
+not have supposed him capable of such baseness and cruelty. What do you
+gather from his not coming here to-day?"
+
+"He simply has not happened to see the paper," the general suggested.
+"He is gone on some expedition with his brother and his cousins."
+
+"Well, but even supposing that he has not read this article," said
+Sterzl, "it still is very strange that, as matters stand between him
+and Zinka, he should have let two days go by without making any attempt
+to see her."
+
+The general was silent.
+
+"You know him better than I do," Cecil began again presently, "and, as
+Zinka tells me, you were present during some part of this romantic
+moonlight promenade. Do you think he seriously intends to marry her?"
+
+"I know that he is madly in love with her, and even the Ilsenberghs,
+who were discussing the matter at my house with the Princess Vulpini,
+saw no alternative for him--irrespective of his attachment to her--but
+to make her an offer."
+
+"We shall see," murmured Sterzl. He looked at the clock: "half past
+nine!" he exclaimed. "This is becoming quite mysterious. I will try
+once more to see him at his rooms; his chasseur will perhaps know when
+he is expected to return home. Would you mind remaining here?" he added
+in a low voice; "keep my mother from going to Zinka; the poor child
+cannot bear it;" and he hurried off.
+
+In about half an hour he returned.
+
+"Well?" asked the general.
+
+"He set out at one o'clock for Frascati, with the prince, the
+Jatinskys, and Siegburg," said Sterzl gloomily. "When I asked whether
+he was to be back this evening the man said certainly, for he was to
+set off to-morrow morning with his excellency the ambassador. He has
+been afraid to declare his engagement for fear of a scene with his
+brother--he is gone out of Rome for fear of a scene with me--'High
+Life' was lying open on his writing-table."
+
+They heard the light rustle of a dress. Sterzl looked round--behind him
+stood Zinka with tumbled hair and anxious, eager, tear-dimmed eyes.
+
+"Zinka!" he cried, stepping forward to catch her; for her gaze was
+fixed, she staggered, put out her hands with a helpless gesture and
+fell into his arms. He laid her head tenderly on his shoulder and
+carried her away.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Sempaly's nervous system was very sensitive and his ear remarkably
+delicate; he had in consequence a horror--a perfect mania of
+aversion--for any scene which might involve excitement and loud
+talking. Besides this he had the peculiarity--common enough with the
+spoilt children of fortune--of always ignoring as far as possible the
+inevitable difficulties of life in the hope that some _deus ex machina_
+would interfere to set matters straight for him.
+
+His passion for Zinka was perfectly genuine, at once vehement and
+tender; far from diminishing, it had, if possible, increased during
+these last three days. Though that hour of sentimental and guileless
+talk with Zinka under the midnight moon had for the time satisfied her,
+it had only fevered him; and while his cowardly double-dealing had
+lowered him in her esteem, her straightforward pride had raised her
+infinitely in his. He was utterly miserable, but this did not prevent
+him from allowing his good-natured senior to pay his enormous debts,
+nor--in order to propitiate him--from paying specious attentions to his
+cousins. It must, however, be said in extenuation, that this flirtation
+was not so much deliberate as instinctive, for he was a man whose
+untutored and unbounded impulse to make himself agreeable led him
+irresistibly to do his utmost to produce a pleasant impression, even at
+the sacrifice of his honor. If, only once, during these three days, he
+had had an opportunity of speaking to Zinka all might perhaps have
+turned out differently. He would probably have found it easy, with his
+wonderful fascination of person, to recover the ground he had lost; and
+her proud rectitude might possibly have influenced him to take a bolder
+course of action. But, in the first instance, he could not intrude on
+Zinka while she was sitting by her little friend Gabrielle, and the
+idea of rushing into an explanation with Sterzl did not smile on his
+fancy.
+
+Thus he let the hours slip by, till, on the Friday morning, the
+luckless copy of 'High Life' was brought into him addressed in a
+feigned hand. This made him furious, and he was on the point of rushing
+off to the palazetto when he remembered that he had promised to be
+ready to join the party to Frascati at one o'clock. He had dipped his
+pen and prepared the paper to send an excuse to the Hotel de Londres
+when there was a knock, and Prince Sempaly, with his two cousins,
+walked in, half an hour before the appointed time.
+
+"What a surprise!... An unexpected honor!" he exclaimed somewhat
+disconcerted.
+
+"That is what we intended," said Polyxena laughing. "Hum! there is a
+rather pronounced perfume of latakia in your room--but the whole effect
+is pretty, very pretty," while Nini looked timidly about her with her
+fawn-like eyes. A bachelor's quarters are, as is well known, one of the
+most interesting mysteries that ever exercise the curious imagination
+of a young lady.
+
+"The girls insisted on seeing your den," the prince explained, "so I
+had to bring them, whether or no, while Siegburg amuses their mamma."
+
+"Why, you yourself proposed it, Oscar!" cried Nini.
+
+Sempaly bowed. "From this time henceforth this room is consecrated
+ground," he said gallantly--and "High Life" was lying on his desk all
+the time and an iron fist seemed clenched upon his heart. If his
+brother had but come alone ... but with these two girls ... it was
+crucial.
+
+Xena began to touch and examine all his odds and ends, to open his
+books, and at last to hover round his writing-table where, with
+graceful impertinence, she was about to take up the fatal sheet.
+
+"Stop, stop!" cried Nicki, "that is not for your eyes, Xena."
+
+"Look, but touch not," said the prince, with a good-natured laugh;
+"young maidens like you are not permitted to inspect the secrets of a
+bachelor's rooms too closely. You might seize a scorpion before we
+could interfere. Besides, we must not keep your mother waiting any
+longer, children; make haste and get ready, Nicki."
+
+For a moment Sempaly tried to think of an excuse; then he reflected
+that it really was not worth while to spoil the pleasure of Oscar's
+last day--all might be set right afterwards. So he only asked for time
+to write a note, and scribbled a few lines to Sterzl in which he
+formally proposed for Zinka. This note he confided to a porter desiring
+him to carry it at once to the secretary's office.
+
+After this he was for a time very much pleased with himself; but, as
+the afternoon wore on, the more uneasy he became, and it was to this
+unrest that most of the tender glances were due that the prince cast
+alternately on him and on Nini. He felt more and more as if he were
+being driven into a trap; in the Villa Aldobrandini he found an issue
+from some of his difficulties. Suddenly, as they were standing by the
+great fountain, Nini and he found themselves _tete-a-tete_, a
+circumstance arising from the consentaneous willingness of the rest of
+the party to give them such an opportunity. He seized the propitious
+moment to disburden his soul. He addressed her as his sister, confessed
+his secret betrothal, and implored her kind interest for Zinka. Nini,
+who felt as though she had been stabbed to the heart, was brave as
+became her and for sheer dread of betraying her own feelings, she tried
+to take a pleasure she was far from feeling in the success of his love
+affair. He kissed her hand and kept near her for the rest of the day.
+His brother, who perceived that the young couple had come to an
+understanding, communicated his observations to Countess Jatinska with
+extreme satisfaction. He was himself a man of strong and lofty feeling,
+free from all duplicity, and he could not conceive that a young man
+could have anything to say to a very handsome girl in private but to
+make love to her.
+
+The day was at an end. With that want of precaution of which only
+foreigners in Rome can be guilty, they set out homewards much too late
+and did not reach the hotel before ten. Here Nemesis overtook Sempaly.
+At the end of supper, which the little party had served to them in the
+countess' private sitting-room, and at which the confidential footing
+on which Sempaly stood with regard to his cousin was thrown into
+greater relief, the prince, with a frank smile of self-satisfaction at
+his powers of divination, raised his glass and said: "To the health of
+the happy couple."
+
+Nini turned crimson; Nicki turned pale. He was in the trap now. Brought
+to bay he could do nothing but turn upon the foe whom he could not
+evade. He was possessed by a wild impulse to snatch the odious mask
+from his own face.
+
+"And who are the happy couple?" he asked.
+
+"You need not be so mysterious about it, Nicki," cried his brother
+warmly. "Of you and...." but a glance at Nini reduced him to silence.
+
+"Of me and Fraeulein Zinka Sterzl," said Sempaly with vehement emphasis.
+
+The blood flew to the prince's head; rage and horror fairly deprived
+him of speech. Countess Jatinska laughed awkwardly, Polyxena pursed her
+lips disdainfully while Nini gave her cousin her hand and said loyally:
+
+"Your bride shall always find a friend in me."
+
+But now the prince's wrath broke loose--he was furious; he swore that
+this insane marriage should never take place, and could not conceive
+how his brother--a man old enough to know better--could have allowed
+such a piece of madcap folly to enter his head.
+
+The ladies rose and withdrew; Sempaly, who till within a few minutes
+had been so weak and vacillating, had suddenly become rigid in
+obstinacy and he desired the waiter to bring him the fateful number of
+'High Life'. The prince read it, but his first observation was: "Well!
+and a pretty state the world would soon come to if every man who lets a
+charming adventuress entrap him into an indiscretion were to pay for it
+by marrying her!"
+
+At this insulting epithet applied to Zinka, Sempaly fired up. He did
+not attempt to screen himself, he defended Zinka as against himself,
+with the most unsparing self-accusation. Egotistical, sensitive, and
+morally effete as he was, he was still a gentleman, and he now set no
+limits to his self-indictment; it seemed as though he thought that by
+heaping invective on his own head he could expiate the baseness into
+which he had been betrayed during the last few days. He told the whole
+story: that he had loved Zinka from the first time of seeing her: that
+he had been on the point of making her an offer when an accidental
+interruption had suddenly snatched him from the heaven of hope and
+bliss: that he had neglected and forsaken her: that his constant
+intimacy with his handsome cousins had raised a barrier between him and
+Zinka; then, how he had met her that night at the Brancaleones', and
+how, as he helped her to rise after her tumble, his passion had taken
+entire possession of him--all this he told, down to the moment when she
+had laid her head on his shoulder. "And before such guileless trust
+what man is there that would not bow in reverence!" he ended, "all
+Rome can bear witness to her sweetness and goodness; ask whom you
+will--Marie Vulpini, Truyn, even the Ilsenberghs--or Siegburg here."
+
+The prince turned to Siegburg.
+
+"I can make neither head nor tail of the matter," he said. "Is all he
+says of this girl true, or mere raving?"
+
+Siegburg's answer was simple, eager, and plain; it is, at all times, a
+difficult thing for a young man to praise a girl without reflecting on
+her in any way, but Siegburg's testimony in Zinka's favor was a little
+masterpiece of genuine and respectful enthusiasm. Prince Sempaly's face
+grew darker as he spoke.
+
+"And the young lady in question is the girl we met the other day in the
+Piazzi?" he said.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"The sister of the secretary of legation whom the ambassador introduced
+to me yesterday, and the niece of my old colonel?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And from what you tell me not only an absolutely blameless creature,
+but universally beloved?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+For a minute the prince was silent. Every fibre of his being had its
+root in the traditions of the caste into which he had been born, and a
+connection between Zinka Sterzl and a Sempaly was to him simply
+monstrous. He had in the highest degree a respect for his past--"le
+respect des ruines"--but they must be grand ruins, of a noble past, or
+they did not touch him at all. With his head resting on his hand he sat
+silent by the supper-table, which was not yet cleared and where the
+lights sparkled in the half-empty champagne-glasses, and the flowers
+placed for the ladies still lay by their plates. Suddenly he looked up,
+and pointing to the newspaper, he asked:
+
+"Had you seen that article when we came to fetch you from your rooms
+this morning?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The prince sat bolt upright.
+
+"And you did not stay in Rome to defend the girl?" His black eyes
+looked straight into his brother's blue ones. "You came with us? You
+left this young lady to be, for the whole day, the victim of the
+slander of all the evil tongues of Rome, for fear of an unpleasant
+explanation--for fear of a few high words with me?--You have behaved in
+a base and unmanly way throughout this affair, both to this young lady
+and to the poor sweet creature in there...." and he pointed to the door
+behind which the two young countesses disappeared with their mother.
+"Of course I shall not let you starve; your allowance shall be paid to
+you regularly as heretofore--but beyond that we have no further
+connection; we have nothing in common, you and I. Go!"
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+The _deus ex machina_ had failed to appear. The dreaded scene with his
+brother had been postponed for a few hours, but it had come at last and
+Sempaly had gained nothing by his procrastination and duplicity. He had
+provoked not merely his brother's anger but his scorn as well, while
+his marriage with Zinka, when he had at last found himself compelled to
+announce it to his brother, had altogether lost its startling and
+interesting aspect as a chivalrous romance, and had come down to a mere
+act of reparation to satisfy his conscience.
+
+Sempaly rose rather earlier than usual next morning, his nerves still
+conscious of the remembrance of this unsatisfactory scene and of the
+sleepless night that had been the consequence. Vexed with himself; at
+once surprised and touched by his brother's lofty indignation; ashamed
+to think of the calumny to which his irresolution and his absence must
+have exposed Zinka--he was in that state of sensitive irritability in
+which a man holds all the world in some degree responsible for his own
+shortcomings, and is ready to revenge himself on the first man he meets
+for the misery he is enduring.
+
+While he was waiting for his breakfast, walking up and down the
+sitting-room--half drawing-room, half smoking-room--the general came
+in. For the first time in his life Sempaly greeted the old man as an
+intruder.
+
+"Good-morning," he cried, "what procures me the honor of such an early
+visit?"
+
+"Well," said Von Klinger hotly, "it can scarcely surprise you that I,
+as Zinka's god-father and oldest friend, should come to ask you what
+you mean by your extraordinary conduct."
+
+"That, it seems to me, is her brother's business," said Sempaly
+roughly.
+
+"It is on purpose to prevent a collision between you and Sterzl that I
+have come so early," replied the general, who was cut out for an
+officer of dragoons rather than for a diplomatist. "Sterzl is beside
+himself with fury, and I know that your intentions with regard to Zinka
+are perfectly honorable, and so...."
+
+But at this moment the general's eye fell on a travelling-bag that the
+luxurious young attache was wont to carry with him on short journeys,
+and which lay packed on the divan. "You are going away?" asked the old
+man surprised.
+
+"I had intended to accompany my brother as far as Ostia to-day and
+return early to-morrow; but that is at an end--the prince and I have
+quarrelled--yes, I have quarrelled past all possibility of a
+reconciliation with my noble and generous brother. Are you satisfied?"
+and he stamped with rage.
+
+"And is the want of judgment that has led to your parting any fault of
+mine pray?" exclaimed the general angrily.
+
+There was a hasty rap at the door; on Sempaly's answering: "come in,"
+Sterzl walked in. He did not take Sempaly's offered hand but drew a
+newspaper out of his pocket, held it out in front of Sempaly, and asked
+abruptly:
+
+"Have you read this article?"
+
+"Yes," said Sempaly from between his teeth.
+
+"Yesterday--before you went out?" Sterzl went on.
+
+This word-for-word repetition of the prince's question touched all
+Sempaly's most painful and shameful recollections of the scene to the
+quick. His eyes flashed, but he said nothing.
+
+Sterzl could contain himself no longer. All the bitter feelings of the
+last six weeks seethed in his blood, and the luckless travelling-bag
+caught his eye. This was too much...
+
+What happened next?...
+
+The general saw it all in a flash of time--unexpected, and inevitable.
+
+Sterzl took one stride forward and struck Sempaly in the face with the
+newspaper. At the same moment Sempaly's servant came in with the
+breakfast tray.
+
+A few minutes later Sterzl and the general went down the stairs of the
+embassy in silence, not even looking at each other. When they were
+outside the younger man stopped and drew a deep breath:
+
+"Sempaly will send you his seconds in the course of the morning," he
+said; "I must ask you to act for me."
+
+The general nodded but did not speak.
+
+"I will send word to Crespigny too, and then you can do whatever you
+think proper."
+
+Still the general said nothing, and his silence irritated Sterzl.
+
+"I could bear it no longer," he muttered as if in delirium; "what ...
+do you suppose ... too much...."
+
+By this time they were in the Corso. Towards them came Siegburg, as
+bright and gay as ever, his hat pushed back on his head.
+
+"I am happy to be the first to congratulate you, Sterzl," he cried.
+
+"On what pray?" said Sterzl fiercely.
+
+"On your sister's engagement to Sempaly--what! then you really did know
+nothing about it?"
+
+Sterzl was bewildered: "What is it--what are you talking about?--I do
+not understand," he stammered.
+
+"What, have you not heard?" Siegburg began; "the bomb fell last
+evening; Nicki declared his engagement. Oscar, to whom the whole
+business was news ... come into this cafe and I will tell you exactly
+all about it; it does not do to discuss such things in the street."
+
+"I--I have not time," muttered Sterzl with a fixed vacant stare; and,
+as he spoke, he shot past Siegburg; but his gait was unsteady and he
+ran up against a passer-by.
+
+"What on earth ails him?" said Siegburg looking after him. "I thought
+he would be pleased and--well! the ways of man are past finding out.
+This marriage will create a sensation in Vienna, eh, general? But I
+approve--I entirely approve. We are on the threshold of a new era, as
+Schiller--or some one has said, Bismarck very likely--and we shall live
+to tell our children how we stood by and looked on. But what is the
+matter with you both--you and Sterzl? To be sure--you were coming from
+the Palazzo di Venezia--have Nicki and Sterzl quarrelled--a challenge!"
+The general nodded. "But it can be amicably arranged now," said
+Siegburg consolingly.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+On his return home Sterzl found Sempaly's note of the day before. The
+porter had taken it, as he was ordered, to the secretary's office, but
+as Sterzl had not gone there all day it had lain unopened; till, this
+morning, one of the messengers had thought it well to bring it to the
+palazetto. Sterzl read it and hid his face in his hands.
+
+Within a short time Sempaly's seconds were announced--Siegburg and a
+military attache from the Russian embassy.
+
+No, it could not be amicably arranged--under the circumstances there
+was but one way of satisfying the point of honor. This point of
+honor--what is it? A social dogma of the man of the world, and the
+whole creed of the southern aristocrat.
+
+Sterzl was to start that night by the eleven o'clock train for Vienna,
+on matters of business, before setting out for Constantinople. The
+affair must therefore be settled at once. Beyond fixing the hour Sterzl
+left everything to his seconds. Swords, at seven that evening, among
+the ruins opposite the tomb of the Metellas was finally agreed on.
+
+Soon after six, Sterzl and his seconds set out. The carriage bore them
+swiftly along, through the gloomy, stuffy streets which lead to the
+Forum, along the foot of the Palatine, and past the Colosseum, through
+the arch of Constantine into the Via Appia, on and on, between grey
+moss-grown walls, over which they caught glimpses of ruins and tall
+dark cypresses. Then the walls disappeared and bushy green hedge-rows,
+covered with creepers, bordered the road, and presently the Campagna
+lay before them, an endless, rolling, green carpet, with its attractive
+melancholy, and the poisonous beauty of orchids and asphodels with
+which each returning spring decks its waste monotony, like a wilderness
+in a fevered dream.
+
+Sterzl sat in silence on the back seat, facing his two friends. He did
+not even pretend to be cheerful. A brave man may sometimes face death
+with indifference, but hardly with a light heart. Death is a great king
+to whom we must need do homage. His soul was heavy; but his two
+companions, who knew not only his staunch nature but all the
+circumstances of the duel, knew that it was not from anxiety as to his
+own fate. He could not forget that this catastrophe was, at last, due
+solely and entirely to his own violence and loss of self-command. He
+never once reflected that this engagement--brought about by a series of
+makeshifts and accidents--could hardly have resulted in a happy
+marriage; he had forgotten Sempaly's sins and remembered one thing
+only: that his sister might have had the moon she had longed for, and
+that he alone had snatched it from her grasp.
+
+A powerful fragrance filled the air, coming up from the orchids, from
+the blossoming hedges, from the fresh greenery of the gardens, like the
+very soul of the spring, bringing a thousand memories to his brooding
+brain and aching heart. It reminded him of the great untended orchard
+at home, and of one morning in the last May he had spent there before
+going to school. The apple-trees were clothed with rosy blossom;
+butterflies were flitting through the air, and the first forget-me-nots
+peeped bluely among the trailing brambles on the brink of the brook
+that danced across the garden, murmuring sleepily to the shadowy,
+whispering alders. There was a fragrance of the soil, of the trees, of
+the flowers--just as there was now--and Zinka, then a mere baby, had
+come tripping to meet him and had said with her little confidential and
+important air:
+
+"I do believe that God must have set the gates of heaven open for once,
+there is such a good smell." He could see her now, in her white
+pinafore and long golden hair, clinging to her big brother with her
+soft, weak little hands. And he had lifted her up and said: "Yes, God
+left the door open and you slipped out my-little cherub." With what
+large, wondering eyes she had looked into his face.
+
+She had always been his particular pet; his father had given her into
+his special charge and now ... "poor, sweet butterfly!" he said to
+himself, half audibly.
+
+"Do not be too strict in your fence," said a deep voice close to him.
+It was Crespigny who thus startled him from his dream of the past:--"Do
+not be too scientific. You have everything in your favor--practice,
+skill, and strength; but Sempaly--I know his sword-play well--has one
+dangerous peculiarity: you never know what he will be at." Sterzl
+looked over his shoulder. The tomb of Cecilia Metella was standing
+before them.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+Opposite the tomb of Cecilia Metella is a deserted and half-ruined
+early Gothic structure, a singular mixed character of heathen grandeur
+and of mediaeval strength, lonely and roofless under the blue sky. A
+weather-beaten cross, let into the crumbling stone-work above the
+door-way, betokens it a sanctuary of the primitive Christian times; on
+entering we see a still uninjured apse where the altar table once
+stood. No ornament of any kind, not even a scrap of bas-relief, is to
+be seen; nothing but frail ferns--light plumes of maiden hair that deck
+the old walls with their emerald fronds. The floor is smooth and
+covered with fine turf, from which, in spring-time, white and red
+daisies smile up at the sky, and dead nettles grow from every chink and
+along the foot of the walls.
+
+The other party were already on the spot; Sempaly was talking
+unconcernedly, but with no affectation of levity, to the Russian, and
+bowed politely to the three men as they came in. His manner and conduct
+were admirable; in spite of his irritable nervousness, there were
+moments when he had--and in the highest degree--that unshaken
+steadfastness which is part of the discipline of a man of the world, to
+whom it is a matter of course that under certain circumstances he must
+fight, just as under certain others he must take off his hat.
+
+Siegburg changed color a good deal; the others were quite cool. They
+made a careful survey lest some intruding listener should be within
+hearing, but all was still as death. The vineyard behind the little
+chapel was deserted.
+
+The formalities were soon got through; Sempaly and Sterzl took off
+their coats and waistcoats, and took the places assigned to them by
+their seconds.
+
+The signal was given.--The word of command was heard in the silence
+and, immediately after, the first click of the swords as they engaged.
+
+Any one who has lived through the prolonged anticipation of a known
+peril or ordeal, knows that, when the decisive moment has arrived, the
+tension of the nerves suddenly relaxes; anxiety seems lifted from the
+soul, fear vanishes and all that remains is a sort of breathless
+curiosity. This was the case with the general and Siegburg; they
+watched the sword-play attentively, but almost calmly. Sempaly was the
+first to attack, and was extraordinarily nimble. Sterzl stood strictly
+on the defensive. He fenced in the German fashion, giving force to his
+lunge with the whole weight of his body; and this, with his skill and
+care, gave him a marked advantage over his lighter adversary. The sense
+of superior strength seemed at first to hinder his freedom; in fact,
+the contest, from a mere technical point of view, was remarkably
+interesting. Sempaly displayed a marvellous and--as Crespigny had
+said--quite irresponsible suppleness, which had no effect against
+Sterzl's imperturbable coolness. It was evident that he hoped to weary
+out his antagonist and then to end the duel by wounding him slightly.
+He had pricked Sempaly just under the arm, but Sempaly would not be
+satisfied; it was nothing he said, and after a short pause they began
+again.
+
+Sempaly was beginning to look pale and exhausted, his feints were
+short, straight, and violent; Sterzl, on the contrary, looked fresher.
+Like every accomplished swordsman, in the course of a long fight he had
+warmed to his work and was fighting as he would have done with the
+foils, without duly calculating the strength of his play; things looked
+ill for Sempaly.
+
+Suddenly, through the silence, a song was heard in the distance, in a
+boy's thin piping soprano:
+
+
+           "Bright May--the sweetest month of Spring;
+            The trees and fields with flowers are strown--"
+
+
+It sent a thrill through Sterzl's veins, reminding him of the evening
+when Zinka had sung those words to Sempaly. The romantic element that
+was so strong in him surged to his brain; he lost his head; fearing to
+wound Sempaly mortally, he forgot to cover himself and for a second he
+suddenly stood as awkward and exposed as though he had never had a
+sword in his hand.
+
+The seconds rushed forward--too late.
+
+With the scarcely audible sound that the sharp steel makes as it
+pierces the flesh, Sempaly's sword ran into his adversary's side.
+Sterzl's flannel shirt was dyed with blood--his eyes glazed--he
+staggered forward a step or two--then he fell senseless. The duel was
+over.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+A quarter of an hour later and the wound had been bound up as best it
+might, and in the closed landau, which they had made as comfortable as
+they could by arranging the cushions so as to form a couch--the general
+supporting the groaning man's head on his arm, and opposite to him the
+surgeon--they were driving homewards' slowly--slowly.
+
+Dusk had fallen on the Campagna, from time to time the general looked
+out anxiously to see how far they were still from Rome. The road was
+emptier and more deserted every minute; a cart rattled past them full
+of peasants, shouting and singing at the top of their voices; then they
+met a few white-robed monks, wending their way with flaring torches to
+some church; and then the road was perfectly empty. The cypresses stood
+up tall and black against the dull-hued sky and the wide plain was one
+stretch of grey.
+
+At last the arch of Constantine bends over them for a minute and the
+horses hoofs clatter on the stones--slowly--slowly.... The lamps of
+Rome twinkle in the distance--they have reached the Corso, at this hour
+almost empty of vehicles but crowded with idlers, and the cafes are
+brilliantly lighted up. The slowly-moving landau excites attention, the
+gapers crowd into knots, and stare and whisper. At last they reach the
+palazetto, turn into the court-yard and get out. The porter comes out
+of his den, his dog at his heels barking loudly.
+
+"Hush, silence!" says the general--the servants come rushing down, the
+women begin to sob and cry, and again the general says:
+
+"Hush, hush!" as if it were worth while to keep Zinka in ignorance for
+a minute more or less.
+
+With some difficulty the heavy man is lifted out and carried
+up-stairs--the heavy shuffling steps sound loud in the silence.
+Suddenly they hear Zinka's voice loud in terror, then the baroness's
+in harsh reproof--a door is flung open and Zinka rushes out to meet
+them--a half-smothered cry of anguish breaks from her very heart--the
+cry with which we wake from a hideous dream.
+
+They carried him into his room, and while they carefully settled him in
+bed the servant announced Dr. E----, the famous German physician of
+whom mention has already been made. Sempaly, who had driven back at
+full speed and had reached Rome more than an hour sooner than the
+general with the wounded man, had sent him at once. Dr. E---- examined
+the patient with the greatest care, adjusted the bandage with admirable
+skill, wrote a prescription, and ordered the application of ice. He
+gave a sympathetic hand to each of the ladies, who were standing
+anxiously at the door as he left the room, and reassured them with an
+encouraging smile; promising them, with that kindly hopefulness to
+which he owed half his fashionable practice, that the wounded man would
+pass a quiet night.
+
+But when he was face to face with the general, who escorted him down
+stairs, the smile vanished.
+
+"The wound is dangerous?" asked the old man with a trembling heart. The
+surgeon shook his head.
+
+"Are you a relation?" he asked.
+
+"No, but a very old friend."
+
+"It is mortal," said Dr. E---- "I maybe mistaken--of course, I may be
+wrong ... nature sometimes works miracles and the patient has a
+splendid physique. What fine limbs! I have rarely seen so powerful a
+man--but so far as human science can foresee ..." and he left the
+death-warrant unspoken. "It is always a comfort to the survivors to
+know that all that can be done has been done; I will come early
+to-morrow morning to enquire. Send the prescription to the French
+chemist's--it is the best. Good-night." And he got into the carriage
+that was waiting for him.
+
+The general gave the prescription to the porter, who, with the
+readiness and simplicity that are so characteristic of the Italians,
+rushed off at once without his hat. As if there were really any
+hurry!...
+
+The old soldier, composing himself by an effort, returned to the
+bedroom. Zinka was standing very humbly at the foot of the bed, pale
+and tearless, but trembling from head to foot. The baroness was pacing
+the room and sobbing violently, wringing her hands and pushing her hair
+back from her temples. Of course she flew at the general with questions
+as to the surgeon's prognosis. His evasive answers were enough to fill
+her with unreasonable hope and to revive the worldly instincts which
+her terrors had for a moment cast into the background.
+
+"Yes, yes, he will pass a quiet night," she whimpered; "he will get
+well again--it would have been too bad with such a brilliant career
+before him;--but this is an end to Constantinople ..."
+
+Zinka, on the contrary, had turned still paler at the general's report
+but she said nothing.
+
+That there had been a duel she and her mother had of course understood.
+What did she infer from that? What did she think--what did she feel?
+She herself never rightly knew; in her soul all was dark--in her heart
+all was cold. Her whole being was concentrated in horror.
+
+After much and urgent persuasion the general succeeded in inducing the
+baroness to leave the room and to lie down for a time, "to spare
+herself for her son's sake."
+
+She had hardly closed the door when the servant came quietly in and
+said that Count Truyn had come. Zinka looked up.
+
+"Shall I let him come in?" asked the general. Zinka nodded.
+
+Siegburg had told him, and though it was now eleven Truyn had hurried
+off to the palazetto. He came into the room without speaking and
+straight up to Zinka. The simple feeling with which he took her hands
+in both his, the deep and tender sorrow at being unable to help or to
+reassure her that spoke in his eyes comforted and warmed her heart; the
+frozen horror that had held her in its clasp seemed to thaw; tears
+started to her eyes, a tremulous sob died on her lips; then,
+controlling herself with great difficulty, she murmured intelligibly:
+"There is no hope--no hope!"
+
+His mother's loud lamentations had not roused the wounded man but the
+first sound from Zinka recalled him to consciousness; he began to move
+uneasily and opened his sunken eyes. The whites shone dimly, like
+polished silver, as he fixed them on his sister's face; from thence
+they wandered to a blood-stained handkerchief that had been forgotten,
+and then to the general. Slowly and painfully he seemed to comprehend
+the situation. He struggled for breath, with an impatient movement of
+his hands and shoulders, and then shivered as with a spasm. He was
+conscious now, and sighed deeply.
+
+The first thing that occurred to him was his official duty:
+
+"Have you sent word to the ambassador?" he asked the general almost
+angrily.
+
+"No, not yet."
+
+"Then make haste, pray; they must telegraph to Vienna."
+
+"Yes, yes," said Von Klinger soothingly, "I will see to it at once.
+Would you be good enough to stay till I return?" he added to Truyn and
+he hurried away.
+
+For a few minutes not a word was spoken, then Sterzl began:
+
+"Do you know how it all happened, Count?" Truyn bowed. "And you, Zini?"
+asked Cecil, looking sadly at the girl's white face. "I know that you
+are suffering--that is all I want to know," she replied.
+
+"Oh! Zini...." Sterzl struggled for breath and held out his hand
+to Zinka, then he went on in a hoarse and hardly audible voice: "Zini
+... Butterfly ... it was all my doing ... I have spoilt your life ... I
+did it...."
+
+She tried to stop him: "You must not excite yourself," she said,
+leaning over him tenderly; "forget all that till you are better--I know
+that you have always loved me and that you would have fetched the stars
+from heaven for me if you could have reached them."
+
+He shuddered convulsively: "No, Zini, no ... you might have had the
+stars," he said in a panting staccato; "the finest stars. Sempaly was
+not to blame ... only I ... the prince had agreed ... but I ... I
+forgot myself ... and I spoilt it all ... oh, a drink of water, Zini,
+please!..."
+
+She gave him the water and he drank it greedily; but when she gently
+tried to stop his mouth with her hand he pushed it away, and went on
+eagerly, though with a fast failing voice: "No ... I must tell you ...
+it is a weight upon my soul. There, in my desk ... Count ... in the
+little pocket on the left ... there is a letter for Zinka.--Give it
+her...."
+
+Truyn did his bidding. The letter was sealed and addressed to Zinka in
+Cecil's fine firm hand. She opened it; it contained the note that
+Sempaly had written before starting for Frascati and Sterzl had added a
+few words of explanation in case it should not fall into Zinka's hands
+till after his death.
+
+She read it all while the dying man anxiously watched her face, but her
+expression did not alter by a shade. Sempaly's words glided over her
+heart without touching it; even when she had read both notes she did
+not speak. Two red flames burnt in her pale cheeks.
+
+"I got ... the note ... too late," said Sterzl sadly, "the general ...
+can tell you how ... how it all happened ... I lost my head ... but he
+... he is safe, so you must forgive me ... and do ... act ... as if I
+had never existed ... then ... I shall rest ... in peace ... and be
+happy in ... my grave ... if I know ... that you are ... happy."
+
+Still she did not speak; her eyes were strangely overcast; but it was
+not with grief for her lost happiness. Suddenly she tore the note
+across and dropped the pieces on the floor.
+
+"If he had written ten letters," she cried, "it would have made no
+difference now; do not let that worry you, Cecil--it is all at an end.
+Even if there were no gulf between us I could never be his wife! I have
+ceased to love him.--How mean he is in my eyes--compared with you!"
+
+And so the brother and sister were at one again; the discord was
+resolved.
+
+For more than four and twenty hours Cecil wrestled with death and Zinka
+never left his side. The certainty of their mutual and complete
+devotion was a melancholy consolation in the midst of this cruel
+parting. The pain he suffered was agonizing; particularly during the
+night and the early morning; but he bore it with superb fortitude and
+it was only by the nervous clenching of his hands and the involuntary
+distortion of his features that he betrayed his suffering. He hardly
+for a moment slept; he refused the opiate sent by the surgeon; he
+wished to "keep his head" as long as possible.
+
+When Zinka--with a thousand tender circumlocutions--suggested to him
+that he should receive the last sacraments of the Church he agreed. "If
+it will be any comfort to you, Butterfly," he sighed; and he received
+the priest with reverent composure.
+
+In the afternoon he was easier--Zinka began to hope.
+
+"You are better," she whispered imploringly, "you are better, are you
+not?"
+
+"I am in less pain," he said, and then she began making plans for the
+future--he smiled sadly.
+
+No man could die with a better grace, and yet it was hard to die.
+
+The catastrophe had roused universal sympathy. The terrible news had
+spread like wildfire through the city and a sort of panic fell on the
+rank and fashion of Rome. No one, that day, who had ever spoken a
+spiteful or a flippant word against Sterzl or his sister, failed to
+feel a prick of remorse. Every one came or sent to the palazetto to
+enquire for them. Now and again the baroness would come in
+triumphantly, in her hand a particularly distinguished visiting-card
+with its corner turned down, and rustle up to the bedside: "Ilsenbergh
+came himself to the door to ask after you!"
+
+Late in the day he fell into an uneasy sleep; Zinka and the general did
+not quit the room. The window was open but the air that blew in through
+the Venetian blinds was damp and sultry. The street was strewn with
+straw; the roll of the carriages in the Corso came, dulled by distance,
+up to the chamber of death. Then twilight fell and the rumbling echoes
+were still. Presently, the slow irregular tramp of a crowd broke the
+silence, with the accompaniment of a solemn but dismal chant Zinka
+sprang up to close the window; but she was not quick enough. The
+sleeper had opened his weary eyes and was listening--: "A funeral!" he
+muttered.
+
+After this he could not rest, and his sufferings began once more. He
+tossed on his pillow, talked of his will, begging the general to make a
+note of certain trifling alterations; and when Zinka entreated him not
+to torment himself but to think of that by-and-bye, he shook his head,
+and murmured in a voice that was hoarse and tremulous with pain: "No, I
+am in a hurry ... time presses ... railway fever ... railway fever ..."
+
+When Zinka, unable to control herself, was leaving the room to hide her
+tears, he desired her to remain:
+
+"Only stop by me ... do not leave me, Zini," he said. "Cry if it is a
+relief to you ... but stay here ... poor little Butterfly!... yes, you
+will miss me...."
+
+Once only did he lose his self-command. It was late in the evening. He
+had begged them to send to the embassy for an English newspaper which
+would give some information as to a certain political matter in which
+he was particularly interested; the ambassador himself brought it to
+his bedside.
+
+"How are you?... how are you now?" he asked with sincere emotion ...
+"You were quite right, Sterzl. Ignatiev has done exactly as you said;
+you have a wonderful power of divination ... I shall miss you
+desperately when you go to Constantinople...." and his excellency
+fairly broke down.
+
+There was a painful pause. "I am going further than Constantinople...."
+Sterzl murmured at length. "I should like to know who will get my
+place...." His voice failed him and he groaned as he hid his face in
+the pillow.
+
+The end came at midnight. Dr. E---- had warned the general that it
+would be terrible; but it was in vain that they tried to persuade Zinka
+to leave the room. The whole night through she knelt by the dying man's
+bed in her tumbled white dressing-gown--praying.
+
+At about five in the morning his moaning ceased. Was all over? No, he
+spoke again; a strange, far-away look, peculiar to the dying, came into
+his eyes. "Do not cry, little one--it will all come right...." and then
+he felt about with his hands as if he were seeking for something--for
+some idea that had escaped him. He gazed at his sister. "Go to bed,
+Zini--I am better ... sleepy ... Constanti...." He turned his head to
+the wall and breathed deeply. He had started on his journey.
+
+The general closed his eyes and drew Zinka away. Outside in the
+corridor stood a crushed and miserable man--it was Sempaly. Pale,
+wretched, and restless, he had stolen into the palazetto, and as he
+stood aside his hands trembled, his eyes were haggard. She did not
+shrink from him as she went by--she did not see him!
+
+A glorious morning shone on the little garden-court. In a darkly-shady
+corner a swarm of blue butterflies were fluttering over the grass like
+atoms fallen from the sky. It was the corner in which the Amazon stood.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Thanks to Siegburg's always judicious indiscretion all Rome knew ere
+long that Prince Sempaly had consented to Zinka's marriage with his
+brother the evening before the duel, and at the same time it heard of
+Sterzl's burst of anger and its fearful expiation. Princess Vulpini's
+unwavering friendship, which during these few days she took every
+opportunity of displaying, silenced evil tongues and saved Zinka's good
+name. Now, indeed, there was a general and powerful revulsion of
+feeling in Sterzl's favor. It suddenly became absurd, petty, in the
+very worst taste, to doubt Zinka--Zinka and Cecil had always been
+exceptional natures....
+
+Sterzl had expressed a wish to be buried at home; the body was embalmed
+and laid in a large empty room, where, once upon a time, the baroness
+had wanted to give a ball. There were flowers against the wall, and on
+the floor. The bier was covered with them; it was a complete Roman
+_Infiorata_, The windows were darkened with hangings and the dim ruddy
+light of dozens of wax-tapers filled the room. Countess Ilsenbergh and
+the Jatinskys came to this lying in state; distinguished company, in
+ceremonial black, crowded round the coffin. Never had the baroness had
+so full a 'day' and her sentimental graces showed that, even under
+these grim circumstances, she felt this as a satisfaction. She stood by
+the bier in flowing robes loaded with crape, a black-bordered
+handkerchief in her hand, and a tear on each cheek, and--received her
+visitors. They pressed her hand and made sympathetic speeches and she
+murmured feebly: "You are so good--it is so comforting."
+
+Having spoken to the mother, they turned to look for the sister; every
+one longed to express, or at least to show, their sincere sympathy for
+her dreadful sorrow. But she was not in the crowd--not to be seen, till
+a lady whispered: "There she is," and in a dark recess. Princess
+Vulpini was discovered with a quivering, sobbing creature, as pale as
+death and drowned in tears; but no one ventured to intrude on her grief
+No one but Nini, who looked almost as miserable as Zinka herself, and
+who went up to her, and put her arms round her, and kissed her.
+
+Next day mass was performed in the chapel of San-Marco, adjoining the
+embassy, and a quartette of voices sang the same pathetic allegretto
+from the seventh symphony that had been played, hardly three months
+since, for the 'Lady Jane Grey' tableau.
+
+A week later the Sterzls quitted Rome. Up to the very last the baroness
+was receiving visits of condolence, and to the very last she repeated
+her monotonous formula of lament:
+
+"And on the threshold of such a splendid career!"
+
+Zinka was never in the drawing-room, and very few ventured to go to her
+little boudoir. Wasted to a shadow, with sunken, cried-out eyes and
+pinched features, it was heart-rending to see her; and after the first
+violence of her grief was spent she seemed even more inconsolable. It
+is so with deep natures. Our first sorrow over the dead is always mixed
+with a certain rebellion against fate--it is a paroxysm in which we
+forget everything--even the cause of our passionate tears. It is not
+till we have dried our eyes and our heart has raged itself into
+weariness--not till we have at last said to ourselves: "submit," that
+we can measure the awful gap that death has torn in our life, or know
+how empty and cold and silent the world has become.
+
+Every day made Zinka feel more deeply what it was that she had lost.
+She was always feeling for the strong arm which had so tenderly
+supported her. The general and Princess Vulpini did everything in their
+power to help her through this trying phase, but the person with whom
+she felt most at her ease was Truyn; and very often, after seven in the
+evening, when she was sure of meeting no one, she stole off to visit
+Gabrielle; it was touching to see how the little girl understood the
+trouble of her older friend, and how sweetly she would caress and pet
+her.
+
+On the morning of their departure Truyn and the general saw them off
+from the station. After the ladies were in the carriage Truyn got in
+too, to open or close the windows and blinds; when he had done this
+Zinka put out her hand:
+
+"God bless you, for all your kindness," she said, and as she spoke she
+put up her face to give him a kiss.
+
+For an instant he hesitated then he signed her forehead with a cross,
+and bending down touched her hair with his lips.
+
+"_Au revoir_," he murmured in a half-choked voice, he bowed to the
+baroness and jumped out. As he watched the train leave the station his
+face was crimson and his eyes sparkled strangely; and he stood
+bareheaded to catch the last glimpse of a pale little face at the
+window.
+
+"If only I had the right to care for her and protect her," he muttered.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+And now to conclude.
+
+Baroness Sterzl was one of those happily rare natures who have not one
+redeeming point. In her Moravian estate, whither they now retired, she
+was sick of her life, and treated Zinka with affectionate austerity.
+Bored and embittered, she was always bewailing herself and made every
+one miserable by her sour mien and doleful, appearance. When the year
+of mourning was ended she began to crave for some excitement; she made
+excursions to watering places, and to Vienna, where she gathered round
+her the fragmentary remains of her old circle of acquaintance and tried
+to astonish them by magnificent reminiscences of her sojourn in Rome.
+At the same time she still wore deep furbelows of crape, and wrote her
+invitations on black-edged paper; she talked incessantly of her broken
+mother's-heart wearing, as it were, a sort of Niobe nimbus; while, in
+fact, her display of mourning was nothing more than a last foothold for
+her vanity. General von Klinger always declared that at the bottom of
+her heart she was very proud of her son having been run through by a
+Sempaly.
+
+She died, about three years after the catastrophe, of bronchitis, which
+only proved fatal because, though she already had a severe cold,
+nothing could dissuade her from going on a keen April morning to see
+the ceremony of washing the beggars feet at the Burg, with a friend
+from the convent of the Sacred Heart.
+
+Zinka felt the loss of her mother more deeply than could have been
+expected. Year after year she spent summer and winter in her country
+house, where Gabrielle Truyn, with her English governess, sometimes
+passed a few weeks with her--her only visitors. Truyn very rarely went
+to see her, and never stayed more than a few hours; and the sacrifice
+it was to him to lend his little companion for those visits can only be
+appreciated by those who have understood how completely his life was
+bound up in hers.
+
+With Princess Vulpini Zinka kept up an affectionate correspondence.
+Very, very, slowly did her grief fade into the background; but--as is
+always the case with a noble nature--it elevated and strengthened her.
+She gave up her whole time to acts of kindness and benevolence; the
+only pleasure in which, for years, she could find any real comfort was
+alleviating the woes of others.
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+Not long after the death of the baroness, General von Klinger left
+Europe to travel, and did not return till the following spring
+twelvemonths. He disembarked at Havre and proceeded to Paris, where he
+proposed spending a few days to see the Salon before going home. By the
+obliging intervention of a friend he was admitted to the "_vernis
+sage_"--varnishing day, or, more properly, the private view--the day
+before the galleries were opened to the public. Among the little crowd
+of fashionable ladies who had gained admittance by the good offices of
+a drawing-master or an artist friend, he observed a remarkably pretty
+young girl who, with her nose in the air, was skipping from one picture
+to another with a light and vigorous step, and pronouncing judgment on
+the works exhibited with the inexorable severity and innocent conceit
+of a fanatical novice. This fair young critic was so thoroughly
+aristocratic in her bearing, there was something so engaging in her
+girlish arrogance, so like a spoilt child in her confidential chat with
+her companion--an elderly man, and one of the best known artists of
+Paris--that the old soldier-painter could not help watching her with
+kindly interest. Presently she happened to see him; scrutinized him for
+a moment, and came to meet him with gay familiarity.
+
+"Why, General! are you back at last? How glad papa will be--and you
+have not altered in the very least!..."
+
+"I cannot say the same of you, Countess Gabrielle," he replied.
+
+"Well, of course. We last met four years ago at Zini's I think, ..."
+she chattered on. "Then I was a child, and now I am grown up; and I
+will tell you something. General, I have exhibited a picture--quite a
+small water color drawing," and she blushed, which made her look like
+her father, "you will come and look at it will you not?"
+
+"Of course," he declared; and then, glancing at her dress: "You are in
+mourning?" he said hesitatingly.
+
+"Yes," she replied, "in half mourning now--for poor mamma; it is nearly
+a year since she died...." and a shade crossed her face--"ah, there is
+papa!" she exclaimed, suddenly brightening, "we are always losing each
+other--our tastes are different--papa is old fashioned you know--quite
+behind the times ..."
+
+Truyn greeted the general very heartily; Gabrielle stood looking from
+one to the other; little roguish dimples played in her cheeks, and at
+last she stood on tiptoe and whispered something to her father. At
+first he seemed doubtful, and it was not without a shade of
+embarrassment that he said:
+
+"We are going on to the Hotel Bristol, where we are to breakfast with
+my sister. It will, I am sure, give her the greatest pleasure if you
+will join her party."
+
+The general made some excuses--it was an intrusion, and so forth--but
+he allowed himself to be persuaded and drove off with them through the
+flowery and well-watered alleys of the Champs Elysees to the hotel in
+the Place Vendome.
+
+"Aunt Marie," said Gabrielle as she danced into the room, "guess who is
+here with us!"
+
+"Ah, General!" said the princess warmly, "you are the right man in the
+right place."
+
+But another figure caught his eye--a little way behind his hostess
+stood Zinka. The sorrow she had experienced had stamped its lines
+indelibly on her face; still, there was in her eyes a light of calm and
+assured happiness that blended very sweetly with the traces of past
+grief. The bright May-morning of her life had been brief and it was
+past, but there was so tender a charm in her face and manner that even
+Gabrielle, with the radiance of eighteen, could not vie with her.
+
+Truyn went up to her and there was an awkward silence. Then Gabrielle
+began to laugh heartily.
+
+"And cannot you guess, General?" she exclaimed.
+
+"It is not yet announced to the world," Truyn stammered out, "but you
+have always taken such a kind interest ..." and he took Zinka's hand.
+The old man's face beamed--he positively hugged Zinka and shook hands
+vehemently with Truyn.
+
+But Zinka burst into tears--: "Oh, uncle," she said, "if only Cecil
+were here!"
+
+                               *   *   *
+
+And Sempaly?
+
+After the catastrophe he vanished from the scene--went to the East, and
+there again came to the surface. A Sempaly may do anything. He is now
+considered one of our most brilliant diplomatists.
+
+But he has gone through a singular change; from a dandified, frivolous
+attache he became a hard-and-fast official. He looks if possible more
+distinguished than ever and his features are more sharply cut. He is
+irritable, arrogant and ruthless; never sparing man or woman the biting
+sarcasms that dwell on the tip of his tongue, and yet, still--nay, more
+than ever--he exercises an almost irresistible spell over all who come
+in contact with him.
+
+One day, when the general was waiting at some frontier station in
+Hungary for a train to Vienna, he was struck by the full rich voice of
+a traveller in a seal-skin coat, with a fur cap pulled down over his
+brows, who was giving peremptory orders to his servant. The old man
+looked round and his eyes met those of the stranger--it was Sempaly,
+also on his way to Vienna, from the East. They spoke--exchanging a few
+commonplace remarks, but without any cordiality. Presently Sempaly
+began with the abruptness for which his name was a by-word:
+
+"You have just come from Paris. You were present at the wedding? What
+do you think of Truyn's marriage?"
+
+"I am delighted at it," said the general.
+
+"Well, everybody seems satisfied. Marie Vulpini is enchanted, and
+Gabrielle pleaded for her papa--so I hear.--So everything is for the
+best in this best of all possible worlds!" he added in his sharp, hasty
+tones--"and Zinka--how is she looking? The papers said she was lovely."
+
+"She is still very charming," said the general, with the facile
+garrulity of old age, "and happiness always beautifies a woman--she had
+but one regret: that Cecil had not lived to see it."
+
+He was suddenly conscious of his stupendous want of tact; so, to put
+the conversation on neutral ground, he eagerly began to compliment
+Sempaly on the wonderful rapidity of his advancement, remarking that it
+must afford him great satisfaction to have so fitting a sphere for the
+exercise of his peculiar talents.
+
+Sempaly looked at him keenly, and shrugging his shoulders, with a
+singular smile, he said:
+
+"It is a strange thing, General--when we are young we claim happiness
+at the hands of Destiny, as if it were our right; as we grow older we
+humbly sue, only for peace, as an alms.--We get what we demand more
+easily than what we beg for--but it slips through our fingers."
+
+
+
+                                THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             ________________
+                            | ADVERTISEMENTS |
+                            |________________|
+
+
+THE AMAZON.--An Art-Novel, by Carl Vosmaer, from the Dutch by E. J.
+Irving, with frontispiece by Alma Tadema, R. A., and preface by Georg
+Ebers. In one vol. Paper, 40 cts. Cloth, 75 cts.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+"Among the poets who never overstep the limits of probability and yet
+aspire to realize the ideal, in whose works we breathe a purer air, who
+have power to enthral and exalt the reader's soul, to stimulate and
+enrich his mind, we must number the Netherlander Vosmaer.
+
+"The Novel 'Amazon,' which attracted great and just attention in the
+author's fatherland, has been translated into our tongue at my special
+request. In Vosmaer we find no appalling incident, no monstrous or
+morbid psychology, neither is the worst side of human nature portrayed
+in glaring colors. The reader is afforded ample opportunity of
+delighting himself with delicate pictures of the inner life and
+spiritual conflicts of healthy-minded men and women. In this book a
+profound student of ancient as well as modern art conducts us from
+Paestum to Naples, thence to Rome, making us participators in the
+highest and greatest the Eternal City can offer to the soul of man.
+
+"Vosmaer is a poet by the grace of God, as he has proved by poems both
+grave and gay; by his translation of the Iliad into Dutch hexameters,
+and by his lovely epos 'Nanno,' His numerous essays on aesthetics, and
+more especially his famous 'Life of Rembrandt,' have secured him an
+honorable place among the art-historians of our day. As Deputy Recorder
+of the High Court of Justice he has, during the best years of his life
+(he was born March 20, 1826), enjoyed extensive opportunities of
+acquiring a thorough insight into the social life of the present,
+and the labyrinths of the human soul. That 'The Amazon,' perhaps
+the maturest work of this author, should--like Vosmaer's other
+writings--be totally unknown outside Holland, is owing solely to the
+circumstance that most of his works are written in his mother-tongue,
+and are therefore accessible only to a very small circle of readers.
+
+"It is a painful thing for a poet to have to write in a language
+restricted to a small area; and it is the bounden duty of the lover of
+literature to bring what is excellent in the literature of other lands
+within the reach of his own countrymen. Among these excellent works
+Vosmaer's 'Amazon' must unquestionably be reckoned. It introduces us to
+those whom we cannot fail to consider an acquisition to our circle of
+acquaintances. It permits us to be present at conversations which--and
+not least when they provoke dissent--stimulate our minds to reflection.
+No one who listens to them can depart without having gained something;
+for Vosmaer's novel is rich in subtle observations and shrewd remarks,
+in profound thoughts and beautifully-conceived situations." _Extract
+from Georg Ebers' Preface to the German Edition_.
+
+
+
+FRIDOLIN'S MYSTICAL MARRIAGE.--A Study of an Original, founded on
+Reminiscences of a Friend, by Adolf Wilbrandt, from the German by Clara
+Bell. One vol. Paper, 50 cts. Cloth, 90 cts.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+"One of the most entertaining of the recent translations of German
+fiction is 'Fridolin's Mystical Marriage,' by Adolf Wilbrandt. The
+author calls it 'a study of an original, founded on reminiscences of a
+friend,' and one may easily believe that the whimsical, fascinating,
+brilliant heir must have been drawn more largely from life than fancy.
+He is a professor of art, who remains single up to his fortieth year
+because he is, he explains to a friend 'secretly married.' 'When you
+consider all the men of your acquaintance,' he says, 'does it strike
+you that every man is thoroughly manly and every woman thoroughly
+womanly? Or, on the contrary, do you not find singular deviations and
+exceptions to the normal type? If we place all the men on earth in a
+series, sorting them by the shades of difference in their natural
+dispositions, from the North Pole, so to speak, of stalwart manliness
+to the South Pole of perfect womanhood, and if you then cast a piercing
+glance into their souls, you would perceive ... beings with masculine
+intellect and womanly feelings, or womanly gifts and masculine
+character.' The idea is very cleverly worked out that in these divided
+souls marriage is possible only between the two natures, and that
+whenever one of the unfortunates given this mixed nature, cannot
+contract an outward alliance. How the events of the story overthrow
+this ingenious theory need not be told here, but the reader will find
+entertainment in discovery for himself."--_Courier, Boston_.
+
+"A quaint, dry and highly diverting humor pervades the book, and the
+characters are sketched with great force and are admirably contrasted.
+The unceasing animation of the narrative, the crispness of the
+conversations, and the constant movement of the plot hold the interest
+of the reader in pleasant attention throughout. It provides very bright
+and unfatiguing reading for a dull summer day."--_Gazette, Boston_.
+
+"The scenes which are colored by the art atmosphere of the studio of
+Fridolin, a professor of art and the principal character, are full of
+pure humor, through the action and situations that the theory brings
+about. But no point anywhere for effective humor is neglected. It runs
+through the story, or comedy, from beginning to end, appearing in every
+available spot. And the characterization is evenly strong. It is an
+uncommonly clever work in its line, and will be deliciously enjoyed by
+the best readers." _Globe, Boston_.
+
+
+
+CLYTIA.--A Romance of the Sixteenth Century, by George Taylor, from the
+German by Mary J. Safford, in one vol. Paper, 50 cts. Cloth, 90 cts.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+"If report may be trusted 'George Taylor,' though writing in German, is
+an Englishman by race, and not merely by the assumption of a pseudonym.
+The statement is countenanced by the general physiognomy of his novels,
+which manifest the artistic qualities in which German fiction, when
+extending beyond the limits of a short story, is usually deficient.
+'Antinous' was a remarkable book; 'Clytia' displays the same talent,
+and is, for obvious reasons, much better adapted for general
+circulation. Notwithstanding its classical title, it is a romance of
+the post-Lutheran Reformation in the second half of the sixteenth
+century. The scene is laid in the Palatinate; the hero, Paul
+Laurenzano, is, like John Inglesant, the pupil, but, unlike John
+Inglesant, the proselyte and emissary, of the Jesuits, who send him to
+do mischief in the disguise of a Protestant clergyman. He becomes
+confessor to a sisterhood of reformed nuns, as yet imperfectly detached
+from the old religion, and forms the purpose of reconverting them.
+During the process, however, he falls in love with one of their number,
+the beautiful Clytia, the original, Mr. Taylor will have it, of the
+lovely bust in whose genuineness he will not let us believe. Clytia, as
+is but reasonable, is a match for Loyola; the man in Laurenzano
+overpowers the priest, and, after much agitation of various kinds, the
+story concludes with his marriage. It is an excellent novel from every
+point of view, and, like 'Antinous' gives evidence of superior culture
+and thoughtfulness."--_The London Saturday Review_.
+
+
+             _William S, Gottsberger, Publisher, New York_.
+
+
+
+TRAFALGAR.--A Tale, by B. Perez Galdos, from the Spanish by Clara Bell,
+in one vol. Paper, 50 cents. Cloth, 90 cents.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+"This is the third story by Galdos in this series, and it is not
+inferior to those which have preceded it, although it differs from them
+in many particulars, as it does from most European stories with which
+we are acquainted, its interest rather depending upon the action with
+which it deals than upon the actors therein. To subordinate men to
+events is a new practice in art, and if Galdos had not succeeded we
+should have said that success therein was impossible. He has succeeded
+doubly, first as a historian, and then as a novelist, for while the
+main interest of his story centres in the great sea-fight which it
+depicts--the greatest in which the might of England has figured since
+her destruction of the Grand Armada--there is no lack of interest in
+the characters of his story, who are sharply individualized, and
+painted in strong colors. Don Alonso and his wife Dona Francisca--a
+simple-minded but heroic old sea-captain, and a sharp-minded, shrewish
+lady, with a tongue of her own, fairly stand out on the canvas. Never
+before have the danger and the doom of battle been handled with such
+force as in this spirited and picturesque tale. It is thoroughly
+characteristic of the writer and of his nationality."--_The Mail and
+Express, New York_.
+
+
+             _William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York_.
+
+
+
+A GRAVEYARD FLOWER.--By Wilhelmine von Hillern, from the German by
+Clara Bell, in one vol., Paper, 40 cts. Cloth, 75 cts.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+"The pathos of this story is of a type too delicate to be depressing.
+The tale is almost a poem, so fine is its imagery, so far removed from
+the commonplace. The character of Marie is merely suggested, and yet
+she has a most distinct and penetrating individuality. It is a fine
+piece of work to place, without parade or apparent intention, at the
+feet of this ideal woman, three loves so widely different from each
+other. There is clever conception in the impulse that makes Marie turn
+from the selfish, tempestuous love of the Count, and the generous, holy
+passion of Anselmo, to the narrower but nearer love of Walther, who had
+perhaps fewer possibilities in his nature than either of the other two.
+The quality of the story is something we can only describe by one
+word--spirituelle. It has in it strong suggestions of genius coupled
+with a rare poetic feeling, which comes perhaps more frequently from
+Germany than from anywhere else. The death of Marie and the sculpture
+of her image by Anselmo, is a passage of great power. The tragic end of
+the book does not come with the gloom of an unforeseen calamity; it
+leaves with it merely a feeling of tender sadness, for it is only the
+fulfilment of our daily expectations. It is in fact the only end which
+the tone of the story would render fitting or natural."--_Godeys Lady's
+Book_.
+
+
+             _William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York_.
+
+
+
+PRUSIAS.--A Romance of Ancient Rome under the Republic, by Ernst
+Eckstein, from the German by Clara Bell. Authorized edition. In two
+vols. Paper, $1.00. Cloth, $1.75.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+"The date of 'Prusias' is the latter half of the first century B. C.
+Rome is waging her tedious war with Mithridates. There are also risings
+in Spain, and the home army is badly depleted. Prusias comes to Capua
+as a learned Armenian, the tutor of a noble pupil in one of the
+aristocratic households. Each member of this circle is distinct. Some
+of the most splendid traits of human nature develop among these grand
+statesmen and their dignified wives, mothers, and daughters. The ideal
+Roman maiden is Psyche; but she has a trace of Greek blood and of the
+native gentleness. Of a more interesting type is Fannia, who might,
+minus her slaves and stola, pass for a modern and saucy New York
+beauty. Her wit, spirit, selfishness, and impulsive magnanimity might
+easily have been a nineteenth-century evolution. In the family to which
+Prusias comes are two sons, one of military leanings, the other a
+student. Into the ear of the latter Prusias whispers the real purpose
+of his coming to Italy. He is an Armenian and in league with
+Mithridates for the reduction of Roman rule. The unity which the Senate
+has tried to extend to the freshly-conquered provinces of Italy is a
+thing of slow growth. Prusias by his strategy and helped by
+Mithridates's gold, hopes to organize slaves and disaffected
+provincials into a force which will oblige weakened Rome to make terms,
+one of which shall be complete emancipation and equality of every man
+before the law. His harangues are in lofty strain, and, save that he
+never takes the coarse, belligerent tone of our contemporaries, these
+speeches might have been made by one of our own Abolitionists. The one
+point that Prusias never forgets is personal dignity and a regal
+consideration for his friends. But after all, this son of the gods is
+befooled by a woman, a sinuous and transcendently ambitious Roman
+belle, the second wife of the dull and trustful prefect of Capua; for
+this tiny woman had all men in her net whom she found it useful to have
+there.
+
+"The daughter of the prefect--hard, homely-featured, and hating the
+supple stepmother with an unspeakable hate, tearing her beauty at last
+like a tigress and so causing her death--is a repulsive but very strong
+figure. The two brothers who range themselves on opposite sides in the
+servile war make another unforgettable picture; and the beautiful slave
+Brenna, who follows her noble lover into camp, is a spark of light
+against the lurid background. The servile movement is combined with the
+bold plans of the Thracian Spartacus. He is a good figure and
+perpetually surprises us with his keen foresight and disciplinary
+power.
+
+"The book is stirring, realistic in the even German way, and full of
+the fibre and breath of its century." _Boston Ev'g Transcript_.
+
+
+
+QUINTUS CLAUDIUS.--A Romance of Imperial Rome, by Ernst Eckstein, from
+the German by Clara Bell, in two vols. Paper, $1.00. Cloth, $1.75.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+"We owe to Eckstein the brilliant romance of 'Quintus Claudius,' which
+Clara Bell has done well to translate for us, for it is worthy of place
+beside the Emperor of Ebers and the Aspasia of Hamerling. It is a story
+of Rome in the reign of Domitian, and the most noted characters of the
+time figure in its pages, which are a series of picturesque
+descriptions of Roman life and manners in the imperial city, and in
+those luxurious retreats at Baiae and elsewhere to which the wealthy
+Romans used to retreat from the heats of summer. It is full of stirring
+scenes in the streets, in the palaces, in the temples, and in the
+amphitheatre, and the actors therein represent every phase of Roman
+character, from the treacherous and cowardly Domitian and the vile
+Domitia down to the secret gatherings of the new sect and their exit
+from life in the blood-soaked sands of the arena, where they were torn
+in pieces by the beasts of the desert. The life and the manners of all
+classes at this period were never painted with a bolder pencil than by
+Eckstein in this masterly romance, which displays as much scholarship
+as invention."--_Mail and Express, N. Y_.
+
+"These neat volumes contain a story first published in German. It is
+written in that style which Ebers has cultivated so successfully. The
+place is Rome; the time, that of Domitian at the end of the first
+century. The very careful study of historical data, is evident from the
+notes at the foot of nearly every page. The author attempted the
+difficult task of presenting in a single story the whole life of Rome,
+the intrigues of that day which compassed the overthrow of Domitian,
+and the deep fervor and terrible trials of the Christians in the last
+of the general persecutions. The court, the army, the amphitheatre, the
+catacombs, the evil and the good of Roman manhood and womanhood--all
+are here. And the work is done with power and success. It is a book for
+every Christian and for every student, a book of lasting value,
+bringing more than one nation under obligation to its author."--_New
+Jerusalem Magazine, Boston, Mass_.
+
+"_A new Romance of Ancient Times!_ The success of Ernst Eckstein's new
+novel, 'Quintus Claudius,' which recently appeared in Vienna, may
+fairly be called phenomenal, critics and the public unite in praising
+the work."--_Grazer Morgenpost_.
+
+"'Quintus Claudius' is a finished work of art, capable of bearing any
+analysis, a literary production teeming with instruction and interest,
+full of plastic forms, and rich in the most dramatic changes of
+mood."--_Pester Lloyd_.
+
+
+             _William S. Gottsberger, Publisher, New York_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Own Set, by Ossip Schubin
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