"that will prove to you that I had some vocation for the profession
which you ennoble by your talents and your virtues. I thank you with all
my heart for having arranged an opportunity for me to act before you,
and I thank the signora, who has been kind enough to give me my cue. But
I am already disgusted with this sublime art. One must carry into it a
fund of experience which it would cost me too much to acquire, and a
strength of mind of which you alone in all the world are capable."
"No, signora, you are in error," I replied firmly. "I have no experience
of evil, and I have no strength except to repel degrading suspicions. I
am neither the husband nor the lover of Francesca. She is my friend, my
adopted sister, the discreet and devoted confidante of all my feelings,
and yet she does not know who you are, although she is as devoted to you
as to myself."
"I declare, signora," said Francesca, seating herself in a more becoming
attitude, "that I have very little idea what is going on here, and why
Lelio has allowed you to form such suspicions, when it was so easy for
him to destroy them. What he has just said to you is the truth, and you
do not imagine, I trust, that I would lend myself to an attempt to
deceive you, if I were anything more than a placid and entirely
unselfish friend to him."
Alezia began to tremble in every limb, as if she had an attack of fever,
and she resumed her seat, pale and thoughtful. She was still in doubt.
"You were very cruel to her, cousin," I whispered to Checchina. "You
took delight in inflicting pain on a pure heart, in order to avenge your
foolish self-esteem. Ought you not to thank your rival, since she
refused Nasi?"
Kind-hearted Checca went to her, took her hands familiarly, and sat on a
hassock at her feet.
"My sweet angel," she said, "do not be suspicious of us; you know
nothing of the honorable and attractive freedom of Bohemian life. In
your social circle we are slandered, and our best actions are called
crimes. As you have allowed Lelio to love you, it must be that you do
not share those unjust prejudices. Be sure, therefore, that, unless I am
the very vilest of creatures, I cannot conspire with Lelio to deceive
you. I can hardly understand what pleasure or profit I could derive from
it. So let your mind be at rest, my pretty signora. Forgive me for
extorting your secret from you by my foolish jesting. You must agree
that if we had allowed the signora marchesina to make sport of us
actors, it would not have been in the natural order of things. However,
it is all very fortunate, and it was an excellent and brave idea of
yours. You might have retained your suspicions and suffered a long time,
while now you are completely reassured, are you not, _marchesina mia_?
And you believe that my heart is too big to betray you in such fashion,
don't you? Now, my dear love, you must go back to your parents, and
Lelio will go and see you whenever you choose. Never fear, I will send
him to you myself, and I will see that he doesn't give you any more
cause for grief. Ah! _poverina_, men are in the world to drive women to
despair, and the best of them is not equal to the worst of us. You are a
poor child, who do not know as yet what suffering is. It will come only
too soon if you abandon your heart to the torments of love, _oimè_!"
Francesca said many other things full of kindliness and good sense.
While Alezia was somewhat offended by her artless familiarity, she was
touched by her kindness of heart and won over by her perfect frankness.
She did not respond to Checca's caresses, but great tears rolled slowly
down her pale cheeks. At last her heart fairly overflowed, and she threw
herself, sobbing bitterly, into her new friend's arms.
"O Lelio!" she said, "will you forgive me for insulting you by such a
suspicion? Attribute it solely to my unhealthy state of mind and body
for the last few days. It was Lila who, thinking that she could cure me
in that way, and wishing to prevent me from doing what she calls a crazy
thing, confided to me last night that you were living here with a very
beautiful woman, who was not your sister, as she had believed at first,
but your wife or your mistress. You can imagine that I couldn't close my
eyes; I revolved in my brain the most tragic and most extravagant
projects. At last I concluded that Lila might be mistaken, and I
determined to learn the truth for myself. At daybreak, while the poor
girl, overcome by fatigue, lay sleeping on the floor in my bedroom, I
stole out on tiptoe. I called the most stupid and blindly submissive of
my aunt's servants, and ordered him to saddle my cousin Hector's horse,
which is very high-spirited, and has nearly thrown me a dozen times. But
what did I care for my life? I said to myself: 'Alas! everyone is not
killed who wants to be!' and I started for Cafaggiolo, without any idea
what I was going to do here. On the way, I invented the story I ventured
to tell the signora. Oh! I beg her to forgive me! I wanted to find out
if she loved you, Lelio; if you loved her, if she had any rights over
you, if you were deceiving me. Forgive me, both of you. You are so kind;
you will forgive me and love me too, won't you, signora?"
"Dear _Madonetta_! I love you already with all my heart," replied
Checchina, throwing her long bare arms about her neck, and hugging her
until she nearly suffocated her.
I was anxious to put an end to this scene and to send Alezia back to her
aunt. I begged her to expose herself to no further risk, and I rose to
order her horse; but she detained me, saying vehemently:
"What are you thinking about, Lelio? Send the servant and horses back to
my aunt. Order a post-chaise, and let us go at once. Your friend will be
kind enough to go with us. We will go to my mother, and I will throw
myself at her feet and say: 'I am compromised, I am ruined in the eyes
of the world; I ran away from my aunt's in broad daylight, without
concealment. It is too late to repair the injury I have inflicted upon
myself voluntarily and deliberately. I love Lelio and he loves me; I
have given him my life. I have nobody left on earth but him and you.
Will you curse me?'"
This determination threw me into the most horrible perplexity. I argued
with her to no purpose. She was annoyed by my scruples, accused me of
not loving her, and appealed to Francesca's judgment. Francesca
suggested going with Alezia to her mother, without me. I tried to induce
Alezia to return to her aunt, to write to her mother from there, and to
await her reply before deciding upon anything. I solemnly promised to
have no more conscientious scruples if the mother consented; but I was
not willing to compromise the daughter; that was a detestable deed which
I implored Alezia to spare me. Her reply was that, if she wrote, her
mother would show the letter to Prince Grimani, and he would have her
shut up in a convent.
At the height of this discussion, Lila, whom Cattina strove in vain to
detain on the stairs, rushed impetuously into our midst, purple in the
face, breathless, almost fainting. It was several minutes before she
could speak. At last she told us in broken phrases, that she had
outstripped Signor Ettore Grimani, whose horse luckily enough was lame,
and could not jump the quickset hedges between the fields; but that he
was behind her, that he had inquired all the way along what road Alezia
had taken, and that he would arrive very soon. Through his means, the
whole Grimani establishment was informed of the signora's flight. The
aunt had tried to make inquiries quietly and to impose silence on
Hector's frantic outcries, but all to no purpose. He was making so much
noise about it that the whole province would be aware before night of
his humiliating position and of the signora's risky performance, unless
she herself set things to rights by going to meet him, closing his
mouth, and returning to Villa Grimani with him. I agreed with Lila.
Alezia could make her cousin do whatever she chose. Nothing was
irreparable as yet, if she would mount her horse and return to her aunt;
she could take a different road from that by which Hector was coming,
and we would send somebody to meet him and throw him off the scent and
prevent him from coming to Cafaggiolo. But it was all useless. Alezia's
resolution was immovable.
"Let him come," she said, "let him enter the house, and if he dares to
come as far as this we will throw him out of the window."
Checchina laughed like a madwoman at that idea, and upon hearing
Alezia's satirical description of her cousin, she undertook to get rid
of him unaided. All this boasting and insane merriment at such a crisis
grieved me beyond measure.
Suddenly a post-chaise appeared at the end of the long avenue lined with
fig-trees leading from the main road to Nasi's villa.
"It's Nasi!" cried Checchina.
"Suppose it is Bianca!" I thought.
"Oh!" cried Lila, "here comes the signora, your aunt in person, to fetch
you."
"I will resist my aunt as stoutly as my cousin," replied Alezia; "for
they are treating me shamefully. They mean to publish my shame, to
overwhelm me with chagrin and humiliation, in order to conquer me. Hide
me, Lelio, or protect me."
"Have no fear," I replied; "if that is the way they propose to act
toward you, no one shall come into this house. I will go and receive the
signora, your aunt, at the door, and as it is too late for you to go
out, I swear that no one shall come in."
I ran hastily down stairs; I found Cattina listening at the door. I
threatened to kill her, if she said a word; then, reflecting that no
fear was sufficiently powerful to prevent her from yielding to the power
of gold, I changed my mind, retraced my steps, and, taking her by the
arm, pushed her into a sort of store-room which had only a small round
window which she could not reach; I locked the door on her in spite of
her anger, put the key in my pocket, and ran down to meet the
post-chaise.
Of all the possibilities that we dreaded, the most embarrassing was
realized. Nasi alighted from the carriage and threw himself on my neck.
How could I prevent him from entering his own house, how conceal from
him what was going on? It was a simple matter to prevent his betraying
Alezia's _incognito_, by telling him that a woman had come to his house
to see me, and that I requested him as a favor not to try to see her.
But the day would not pass without his hearing of Alezia's flight and
the confusion into which the Grimani household had been thrown. A week
would suffice to make it known all over the country. I really did not
know what to do. Nasi, being entirely at a loss to understand my
perturbed air, began to be uneasy and to fear that Checchina, in wrath
or in desperation, had indulged in some insane freak. He rushed
upstairs; his hand was already on the knob of Checchina's door, when I
held his arm, saying with the utmost gravity that I begged him not to go
in.
"What does this mean, Lelio?" he said in a trembling voice, and turning
pale; "Francesca is here and doesn't come to meet me; you receive me
with an icy manner, and you try to prevent me from entering my
mistress's apartment! And yet it was you who wrote me to return to her,
and you seemed desirous to reconcile us; what is happening between you
two?"
I was about to answer when the door opened and Alezia appeared, covered
by her veil. When she saw Nasi she started, then stopped.
"I understand now, I understand," said Nasi, with a smile; "a thousand
pardons, my dear Lelio! tell me to what room I shall go."
"This way, signor!" said Alezia, in a firm voice, taking his arm and
leading him into the boudoir from which she had just came, and where
Francesca and Lila still were. I followed her. Checchina, when she saw
the count, assumed her most savage air, the same which she assumed in
the rôle of Arsace, when she sang the soprano part in Bianchi's
_Semiramis_. Lila stood at the door to forestall any more visits, and
Alezia, putting aside her veil, said to the stupefied count:
"Signor count, you asked my hand in marriage a fortnight ago. The short
time during which I had the pleasure of seeing you at Naples was
sufficient to give me a more favorable idea of you than of any other of
my suitors. My mother wrote, imploring, almost commanding me to accept
your offer. Prince Grimani added, by way of postscript, that, if I
really felt any aversion for my cousin Hector, he would allow me to
return to my mother, on condition that I would instantly accept you for
my husband. According to my reply, they were either to come and take me
to Venice to meet you, or to leave me at my aunt's house with my cousin
for an indefinite period. Very good! despite my aversion for my cousin,
despite the constant teasing and pestering of my aunt, despite my ardent
longing to see my darling mother and my dear Venice once more, and
despite my very great esteem for you, signor count, I refused. You
probably thought that I preferred my cousin.--Look!" she said,
interrupting herself and glancing calmly toward the window, "there he
is, actually riding his horse into your garden. Stay, Signor Lelio!" she
added, grasping my arm as I rushed to the door to leave the room; "you
will surely agree that at this moment there shall be no other will here
than mine. Stand with Lila in front of that door until I have finished
speaking."
I put Lila aside and kept the door in her place. Alezia continued:
"I refused, signor count, because I could not loyally accept your
honorable proposal. I replied to the obliging letter which you enclosed
with my mother's."
"Yes, signora," said the count, "you replied in a kindly tone by which I
was deeply touched; but with a frankness which left me no hope; and I
have come into your neighborhood not with the purpose of annoying you
further, but of being your devoted friend and humble servant, if you
ever deign to appeal to my sentiment of respect."
"I know it, and I rely upon you," said Alezia, offering him her hand
with a nobly sympathetic air. "The time has come, sooner than you can
have anticipated, to put your generous sentiments to the proof. My
reason for refusing your hand was that I love Lelio; my reason for being
here is that I am determined never to marry any man but him."
The count was so astounded by this avowal that for several minutes he
was unable to reply. God forbid that I should speak slightingly of
honest Nasi's friendship; but at that moment I saw plainly enough that
among the nobles there is no personal friendship, no amount of devotion,
or esteem, which can entirely eradicate the prejudices of the caste. My
eyes were fixed upon him in the closest scrutiny, and I could read this
thought clearly on his face: "I, Count Nasi, have actually loved and
offered marriage to a woman who is in love with an actor and means to
marry him!"
But it was all over in an instant. Dear old Nasi at once resumed his
chivalrous manner.--"Whatever you have determined upon, signora," he
said, "whatever commands you have for me in pursuance of your
determination, I am ready."
"Very good," replied Alezia; "I am in your house, signor count, and my
cousin is here, if not to demand my return, at all events to establish
my presence here. He will be offended by my refusal to go with him, and
will not fail to calumniate me, because he has no spirit, no courage, no
education. My aunt will make a pretence of rebuking her son's loss of
temper, and will tell the story of what she will delight to call my
shame to all the pious old women of her acquaintance, who will repeat it
to all Italy. I do not propose to try to stop the scandal either by
useless precautions or by cowardly denials. I have called down the storm
upon my head, let it burst in the sight of the whole world! I shall not
suffer on that account, if, as I hope, my mother's heart remains true to
me, and if, having a husband who is content with my sacrifices, I find
also a friend who has the courage to avow openly the brotherly affection
with which he honors me. As that friend, will you interfere to prevent
any unseemly, _impossible_ explanation between Lelio and my cousin? Will
you go and receive Hector, and inform him that I will not leave this
house except to go to my mother, and with the protection of your arm?"
The count looked at Alezia with a grave and sad expression, which seemed
to say to her: "You are the only one here who can understand how strange
and reprehensible and ridiculous the part you are making me play will
appear to the world;" then he knelt gracefully on one knee and kissed
Alezia's hand, which he still held in his, saying: "Signora, I am your
true knight in life or in death." Then he came to me and embraced me
heartily, without a word. He forgot to speak to Checchina, who stood
leaning on the window-sill, with folded arms, viewing this scene with
philosophical attention.
Nasi made ready to leave the room. I could not endure the thought that
he was about to constitute himself, at his own risk, the champion of the
woman whom I was supposed to have compromised. I insisted upon
accompanying him at all events, and taking half of the responsibility on
myself. To deter me he gave me divers excellent reasons taken from the
code of fashionable society. I did not understand them in the least;
indeed I was carried away at that moment by the wrath aroused in my
heart by Hector's insolence and his dastardly purpose. Alezia tried to
calm me by saying: "You have no rights as yet except such as I please to
bestow on you." I obtained permission to accompany Nasi, and thus make
my presence known to Hector Grimani, on condition that I should not say
a word without the count's permission.
We found the cousin just dismounting, panting heavily and drenched with
perspiration. He cursed at the poor beast in the most vulgar way, and
struck him violently because, being unshod and having bruised his feet
on the road, he had not galloped fast enough to satisfy his master's
impatience. It seemed to me that this beginning and Hector's whole
manner showed that he did not know how to extricate himself from the
position in which he had recklessly placed himself. He must either show
himself a hero by force of love and frantic jealousy, or cut an absurd
figure by a display of cowardly insolence. His embarrassment was made
complete by the fact that he had enlisted two young friends of his who
were going out to hunt, and had insisted on accompanying him, not so
much to assist him, probably, as to amuse themselves at his expense.
We walked up to him without saluting him, and Nasi looked him in the
eye, with a cold stare, without a word. He seemed not to see me, or not
to recognize me.
"Ah! is it you, Nasi?" he said, hesitating whether he should raise his
hat or offer his hand; for he saw that Nasi was not disposed to offer
him any sort of greeting.
"You have no cause for surprise, it seems to me, because you find me in
my own house," replied Nasi.
"Pardon me, pardon me," replied Hector, pretending that his spur had
caught on a superb rose-bush by which they were standing, and which he
crushed with his whole might. "I did not at all expect to find you here;
I thought you were at Naples."
"It makes little difference what you thought. You are here, and so am I.
What is the difficulty?"
"Why, my dear fellow, I want you to help me find my cousin Alezia, who
has the assurance to go out alone on horseback, without my mother's
permission, and who is somewhere about here, so I am told."
"What do you mean by _somewhere about here_? If you think that the young
lady you mention is in this neighborhood, stick to the street and look
for her."
"But deuce take it, my dear fellow, she is here!" said Hector, compelled
by Nasi's tone and by the presence of his witnesses to pronounce himself
a little more clearly. "She is either in your house or in your garden,
for she was seen to ride into your avenue--and, God's blood! there's her
horse now!--my horse, I mean, for it was her good pleasure to take him
for her expedition, and leave her hack for me." And he tried, by a loud,
forced laugh, to enliven an interview which Nasi did not seem disposed
to treat so lightly.
"Signor," he replied, "I have not the honor to be sufficiently well
acquainted with you for you to call me _my dear fellow_. I must ask you,
therefore, to address me as I address you. Furthermore, I will call your
attention to the fact that my house is not a tavern nor my garden a
public promenade, that passers-by should take the liberty to explore
it."
"Faith, signor, I am very sorry if you are displeased," said Hector. "I
thought that I knew you well enough to venture to enter your grounds,
and I was not aware that your country house was a fortress."
"Such as it is, signor, palace or hovel, I am the master of it, and I
beg you to consider yourself informed that no one is at liberty to enter
it without my permission."
"By Bacchus! signor count, you are terribly afraid that I shall ask
leave to enter your house, for you refuse me beforehand with a tartness
which gives me much food for thought. If, as I believe, Alezia Aldini is
in this house, I begin to hope, for her sake, that she came here on your
account. Give me that assurance, and I will go away content."
"I do not recognize any man's right to question me on any subject,"
rejoined Nasi; "least of all do I recognize your right to question me
concerning a woman to whom your conduct at this moment is a deadly
insult."
"Damnation! I am her cousin! She is in my mother's charge. What answer
is my mother to give my uncle, Prince Grimani, when he asks her for his
stepdaughter? And how do you suppose that my mother, who is old and
infirm, is to run about the country after a young madcap who rides like
a dragoon?"
"I am certain, signor," retorted Nasi, "that your mother did not
instruct you to search for her niece in such a noisy fashion as this,
and to question everybody you meet in such an unseemly way; for if that
were the case, her anxiety would be more insulting than protecting, and
to place the object of such protection out of reach of your zeal would
be a matter of duty with me."
"Very well," said Hector, "I see that you do not propose to give up our
fugitive. You are a knight of the olden time, signor count! Remember
that from this time forth my mother is relieved of all responsibility to
Signora Aldini's mother. You may arrange this unpleasant business as you
think best. For my own part, I wash my hands of it; I have done what I
could and what it was my duty to do. I will simply request you to say to
Alezia Aldini that she is at liberty to marry whomever she pleases, and
that I will interpose no obstacle so far as I am concerned. I yield my
right to you, my dear count. May you never have to seek your wife in
another man's house, for you see by my example what an absurd figure one
cuts under such circumstances."
"Many people think, signor count," replied Nasi, "that there is always
some way to dignify the most uncomfortable position, and to compel
respect, however ridiculous one may appear. One does not cut an absurd
figure except as the result of an absurd action."
At this severe retort, a significant murmur from his two friends made it
clear to Hector that he could not retreat.
"Signor count," he said, "you speak of an absurd action. What do you
call an absurd action, I pray to know?"
"You can give my words whatever meaning you please, signor."
"You insult me, signor!"
"That is for you to say, signor. It is none of my affair."
"You will give me satisfaction, I presume?"
"Very good."
"Your hour?"
"Whenever you choose."
"To-morrow morning at eight o'clock, on the plain of Maso, if that is
agreeable to you. These gentlemen will be my seconds."
"Very good, signor; my friend here will be mine."
Hector glanced at me with a disdainful smile, and, leading Nasi aside,
with his two companions, said to him:
"Come, come, my dear count, allow me to tell you that this is carrying
the jest too far. Now that it has come to a question of fighting, we
should be serious for a moment, it seems to me. My seconds are gentlemen
of rank: the Marquis de Mazzorbo and Signor de Monteverbasco. I am sure
that you would not associate with them, as your second, this person to
whom I ordered my servant to give twenty francs the other day for tuning
a piano at my mother's house. Really, I cannot stand such a thing.
Yesterday, we discovered that this person has an intrigue with my
cousin, and to-day you tell us that he is your intimate friend. Be good
enough at least to tell us his name."
"You are utterly mistaken, signor count. This _person_, as you call him,
does not tune pianos, and has never set foot in your mother's house. He
is Signor Lelio, one of our greatest artists, and one of the best and
most honorable men whom I know."