Though it was late in the season, everybody wished to do something to
welcome the appearance of Cecilia Palladio in society. It was too warm
to give balls, but it did not follow that it was at all too hot to dance
informally, with the windows open. We do not know why a ball is hotter
than a dance; but it is so. There are things that men do not understand.
So dinners were given, to which young people were asked, and afterwards
an artistic-looking man appeared from somewhere and played waltzes, and
twenty or thirty couples amused themselves to their hearts' delight till
one o'clock in the morning. Moreover, people who had villas gave
afternoon teas, without any pretence of giving garden parties, and there
also the young ones danced, sometimes on marble pavements in great old
rooms that smelt slightly of musty furniture, but were cool and
pleasant. Besides these things, there were picnic dinners at Frascati
and Castel Gandolfo, and everybody drove home across the Campagna by
moonlight. Altogether, and chiefly in Cecilia Palladio's honour, there
was a very pretty little revival of winter gaiety, which is not always
very gay in Rome, nowadays.
The young girl accepted it all much more graciously than her mother had
expected, and was ready to enjoy everything that people offered her,
which is a great secret of social success. The Countess had always
feared that Cecilia was too fond of books and of serious talk to care
much for what amuses most people. But, instead, she suddenly seemed to
have been made for society; she delighted in dancing, she liked to be
well dressed, she smiled at well-meaning young men who made compliments
to her, and she chatted with young girls about the myriad important
nothings that grow like wild flowers just outside life's gate.
Every one liked her, and she let almost every one think that she liked
them. She never said disagreeable things about them, and she never
attracted to herself the young gentleman who was looked upon as the
property of another. Every one said that she was going to marry d'Este
in the autumn, though the engagement was not yet announced. Wherever she
was, he was there also, generally accompanied by his inseparable friend,
Lamberto Lamberti.
The latter had grown thinner during the last few weeks. When any one
spoke of it, he explained that life ashore did not suit him, and that he
was obliged to work a good deal over papers and maps for the ministerial
commission. But he was evidently not much inclined to talk of himself,
and he changed the subject immediately. His life was not easy, for he
was not only in serious trouble himself, but he was also becoming
anxious about Guido.
The one matter about which a man is instinctively reticent with his most
intimate man friend is his love affair, if he has one. He would rather
tell a woman all about it, though he does not know her nearly so well,
than talk about it, even vaguely, with the one man in the world whom he
trusts. Where women are concerned, all men are more or less one
another's natural enemies, in spite of civilisation and civilised
morals; and each knows this of the other, and respects the other's
silence as both inevitable and decent.
Guido had told Lamberti that he should be the first to know of the
engagement as soon as there was any, and Lamberti waited. He did not
know whether Guido had spoken yet, nor whether there was any sort of
agreement between him and Cecilia by which the latter was to give her
answer after a certain time. He could not guess what they talked of
during the hour they spent together nearly every day. People made
inquiries of him, some openly and some by roundabout means, and he
always answered that if his friend were engaged to be married he would
assuredly announce the fact at once. Those who received this answer were
obliged to be satisfied with it, because Lamberti was not the kind of
man to submit to cross-questioning.
He wondered whether Cecilia knew that he loved her, since what he had
foreseen had happened, and he did not even try to deny the fact to
himself. He would not let his thoughts dwell on what she might feel for
him, for that would have seemed like the beginning of a betrayal.
She never asked him questions nor did anything to make him spend more
time near her than was inevitable, and neither had ever gone back to the
subject of their dreams. She had asked Lamberti to come to the house at
an hour when there would not be other visitors, but he had not come, and
neither had ever referred to the matter since. He sometimes felt that
she was watching him earnestly, but at those times he would not meet her
eyes lest his own should say too much.
It was hard, it was quite the hardest thing he had ever done in his
life, and he was never quite sure that he could go on with it to the
end. But it was the only honourable course he could follow, and it would
surely grow easier when he knew definitely that Cecilia meant to marry
Guido. It was bitter to feel that if the man had been any one but his
friend, there would have been no reason for making any such sacrifice.
He inwardly prayed that Cecilia would come to a decision soon, and he
was deeply grateful to her for not making his position harder by
referring to their first conversation at the Villa Madama.
Guido had not the slightest suspicion of the true state of things, but
he himself was growing impatient, and daily resolved to put the final
question. Every day, however, he put it off again, not from lack of
courage, nor even because he was naturally so very indolent, but because
he felt sure that the answer would not be the one hoped for. Though
Cecilia's manner with him had never changed from the first, it was
perfectly clear that, however much she might enjoy his conversation, she
was calmly indifferent to his personality. She never blushed with
pleasure when he came, nor did her eyes grow sad when he left her; and
when she talked with him she spoke exactly as when she was speaking with
her mother. He listened in vain for an added earnestness of tone, meant
for him only; it never came. She liked him, beyond doubt, from the
first, and liking had changed to friendship very fast, but Guido knew
how very rarely the friendship a woman feels for a man can ever turn to
love. Starting from the same point, it grows steadily in another
direction, and its calm intellectual sympathy makes the mere suggestion
of any unreasoning impulse of the heart seem almost absurd.
But where the man and woman do not feel alike, this state of things
cannot last for ever, and when it comes to an end there is generally
trouble and often bitterness. Guido knew that very well and hesitated in
consequence.
Princess Anatolie could not understand the reason for this delay, and
was not at all pleased. She said it would be positively not decent if
the girl refused to marry Guido after acting in public as if she were
engaged to him, and Monsieur Leroy agreed with her. She asked him if he
could not do anything to hasten matters, and he said he would try. The
old lady had felt quite sure of the marriage, and in imagination she had
already extracted from Guido's wife all the money she had made Guido
lose for her. It is now hardly necessary to say that she had received
spirit messages through Monsieur Leroy, bidding her to invest money in
the most improbable schemes, and that she had followed his advice in
making her nephew act as her agent in the matter. Monsieur Leroy had
pleaded his total ignorance of business as a reason for keeping out of
the transaction, by which, however, it may be supposed that he profited
indirectly for a time. He never hesitated to say that the unfortunate
result was due to Guido's negligence and failure to carry out the
instructions given him.
But the Princess knew that at least a part of the fault belonged to
Monsieur Leroy, though she never had the courage to tell him so; and
though it looked as if nothing could sever the mysterious tie that
linked their lives together, he had forfeited some of his influence over
her with the loss of the money, and had only recently regained it by
convincing her that she was in communication with her dead child. So
long as he could keep her in this belief he was in no danger of losing
his power again. On the contrary, it increased from day to day.
"Guido is so very quixotic," he said. "He hesitates because the girl is
so rich. But we may be able to bring a little pressure to bear on him.
After all, you have his receipts for all the money that passed through
his hands."
"Unless he marries this girl, they are not worth the paper they are
written on."
"I am not sure. He is very sensitive about matters of honour. Now a
receipt for money given to a lady looks to me very much like a debt of
honour. What happened in the eyes of the world? You lent him money which
he lost in speculation."
"No doubt," answered the Princess, willing to be convinced of any
absurdity that could help her to get back her money. "But when a man has
no means of paying a debt of honour----"
"He shoots himself," said Monsieur Leroy, completing the sentence.
"That would not help us. Besides, I should be very sorry if anything
happened to Guido."
"Of course!" cried Monsieur Leroy. "Not for worlds! But nothing need
happen to him. You have only to persuade him that the sole way to save
his honour is to marry an heiress, and he will marry at once, as a
matter of conscience. Unless something is done to move him, he will
not."
"But he is in love with the girl!"
"Enough to occupy him and amuse him. That is all. By-the-bye, where are
those receipts?"
"In the small strong-box, in the lower drawer of the writing table."
Monsieur Leroy found the papers, and transferred them to his
pocket-book, not yet sure how he could best turn them to account, but
quite certain that their proper use would reveal itself to him before
long.
"And besides," he concluded, "we can always make him sell the Andrea del
Sarto and the Raphael. Baumgarten thinks they are worth a good sum. You
know that he buys for the Berlin gallery, and the British Museum people
think everything of his opinion."
In this way the Princess and her favourite disposed of Guido and his
property; but he would not have been much surprised if he could have
heard their conversation. They were only saying what he had expected of
them as far back as the day when he had talked with Lamberti in the
garden of the Arcadians.