"Now, Commendatore," said Susanna, making her face grave, "listen, and
you shall hear"--but then her gravity broke down--"of the midnight ride
of Paul Revere," she concluded, laughing.
She raised her eyes to his, aglow with that tender, appealing, mocking,
defiant smile of hers. He, poor man, smiled too, though not very
happily, I fear--nay, even with a kind of suspicious bewilderment, as
one who sniffs brewing mischief, but knows not of what particular
variety it will be. They were seated in the shade and the coolness of
a long open colonnade at Isola Nobile, while, all round them, the
August morning, like a thing alive, pulsated with warmth and light, and
the dancing waves of the bay lapped musically against the walls below.
The Commendatore was clad in stiffly-starched white duck, and held a
white yachting-cap in his hand. Susanna wore a costume of some cool
gauzy tissue, pearl-grey, with white ruffles that looked as impalpable
as froth.
"Listen," she said, "and you shall hear of the midday quest of
Commendatore Fregi. I will tell you step by step what steps you are to
take. My cousin is staying with the Ponte brothers at their villa.
Well,--first step of all,--you are to call upon him."
"No," said the Commendatore, jerking his head, his baldish old head
with its fringe of iron-grey curls.
"Yes," said Susanna, resolutely compressing her lips.
"No," said he. "It is not etiquette. The new-comer pays the first
call."
"That is Italian etiquette," said she. "But my cousin is an
Englishman."
"_Nun fa nien'e_. He is in Italy. He must conform to the customs of
the country," insisted Commendatore Fregi, in the dialect of Sampaolo,
twirling his fierce old moustaches, glaring with his mild old eyes.
"No," said Susanna, softly, firmly; "we must stretch a point in his
favour. He is English. We will adopt the custom of _his_ country. So
you will call upon him. I wish it."
"Ph-h-h," puffed the Commendatore, fanning himself with his cap.
"Well--?" he questioned.
Susanna, in her diaphanous light-coloured frock, leaned back, smiling.
The Commendatore fanned himself rapidly with his cap, and waited for
her instructions.
"You call upon him, you introduce yourself as an old friend of the
family. 'As a boy, I knew your grandfather, your grandmother, and I
was a playfellow of your father's.'"
She threw back her head, pouted out her lips, and achieved a very
admirable counterfeit of the Commendatore's manner.
"You ask the usual questions, pay the usual compliments. 'Can I have
the pleasure of serving you in anyway? I beg leave to place myself at
your disposal. You must not fail to command me'--and patati and
patata."
"You are an outrageous little ape," said the Commendatore, grinning in
spite of himself. "You would mimic the Devil to his face."
"No," said Susanna. "I only mimic people when I am fond of them."
And again she lifted her eyes to his, where they melted in her tender,
teasing smile.
"Ph-h-h," puffed the Commendatore, agitating his cap.
"And then," pursued Susanna, "having paid the usual compliments, you
rise to go."
"Ah--_bene_," said the Commendatore, and his lean old yellow face
looked a good deal relieved.
"Yes," said she. "But then, having risen to go, then, like the wily
and supple diplomat you are, you come to the real business of your
visit."
"Oh?" said the Commendatore.
He sat forward, on the edge of his chair, and frowned. He had thought
his troubles were over, and now it appeared that they had not yet begun.
"Yes," said Susanna. "Having risen to go, you pause, you hesitate, and
then suddenly you take your courage in both hands. 'Count,' you say,
'I wish to speak to you about your cousin.' And thereupon, frankly,
confidentially, you proceed to lay before him the difficulties of your
position. 'I was your cousin's guardian; I am still her nearest
friend; I occupy the place of a parent towards her, and feel myself
responsible for her. And one of my chief concerns, one of my first
duties, is, of course, to see that she makes a good marriage. She is a
great heiress--she would be the natural prey of fortune-hunters. I
must protect her, I must direct her. With one hand I must keep away
undesirable suitors, with the other hand I must catch a desirable one.
But now observe my perplexities. Your cousin is peculiar. She is not
in the least like the typical submissive young Italian girl. She is
excessively self-willed, capricious, fantastic, unreasonable----'"
"Bravo," put in the Commendatore, clapping his bony old hands. "I can
say all that with a clear conscience." He twirled his moustaches again.
"Do you think I would ask you to say anything you could n't say with a
clear conscience?" Susanna demanded, with a glance of reproach. "So,
with a clear conscience, you go on: 'Your cousin is fantastic,
unreasonable, sentimental, romantic, extravagant. And--to come to the
point--she has got it into her unreasonable and romantic little head
that she has no right to the position which she occupies. She has
studied the history of her family, and she has got it into her perverse
little head that by the changes which took place in 1850 a very great
injustice was perpetrated. She has persuaded herself, in short, that
the properties here at Sampaolo, which are technically and legally
hers, are rightfully and morally _yours_; and, to tell you the whole
truth, since my guardianship expired, a few months ago, I have had hard
work to restrain her from taking measures to relinquish those
properties in your favour.' No--don't interrupt," she forbade him,
when the Commendatore made as if to speak.
A sound of guttural impatience died in the old man's throat. He fanned
himself nervously, while Susanna, smiling, resumed the lesson.
"'But,' you declare with energy, 'I _have_ restrained her, and I shall
continue to restrain her. She could only make the properties over to
you by becoming a nun and taking vows of perpetual poverty. I will
fight to my dying gasp to prevent her from doing that. However'--and
now you change your note, and speak as one anxious to conciliate and
convince--'however, it has occurred to me that there is a simple course
by which the whole awkward situation could be solved--by which your
cousin's scruples could be set at rest, and you yourself put in
possession of your ancestral estates. My dear Count, your cousin is a
charming girl, and it is my chief concern and duty to arrange a
suitable marriage for her. Let me have the very great satisfaction of
arranging a marriage between her and you.'"
Susanna leaned back, and laughed. But the Commendatore frowned at her
with genuine anger.
"_Macche_!" he cried. "What fool's talk is this? What farce are you
preparing?"
"No farce," said Susanna, gently. "Only a wedding--at which you shall
give the bride away. And now--the launch is waiting. The sooner you
are off, the sooner you 'll return."
"Never," said the Commendatore. "I would sell myself to be chopped
into sausage-meat, before I would become a party to any such carnival
tricks."
"Carnival tricks? Do you call marriage a carnival trick?" Susanna
wondered. "Or do you wish me to live and die an old maid? Is it or is
it not your duty to arrange a suitable match for me?"
"It is not my duty to arrange a match for you with a foreigner whom I
have n't the honour of knowing," he retorted.
"Well, then," urged Susanna, "go to my cousin and make him the
proposition I have suggested. And if he says yes,--if he consents to
marry me,--I give you my most solemn promise that not for any
consideration in the world will I accept him."
"What?" questioned the Commendatore, blinking at her.
"If he says yes, I 'll say no. If he says no, he says no. So it is
no, either way," she pointed out. "And meanwhile--the launch is
waiting."
"If he says no!" scoffed the Commendatore. "Is the man born who will
say no to a bag of gold?"
"That's exactly what you have now an opportunity of discovering," she
replied. "But if he says yes, I give you my solemn promise, it will be
the end of him, so far as I 'm concerned."
The Commendatore rubbed the back of his neck.
"I never heard such a gallimaufry of headless and tailless nonsense,"
he declared.
"Think of that poor long-suffering launch," said Susanna. "You are
still keeping it waiting."
"It may wait till the sea dries up, for all of me," said the
Commendatore, settling himself in his seat. "Do you take me for
Pulcinella? I will not begin at my time of life to play carnival
tricks."
"Ah, well, after all," said Susanna, "it does n't really matter very
much."
And apparently she abandoned her intention. But after a pause she
added, rather as if speaking to herself, "I must send for Father
Angelo, I suppose."
"_What_?" snapped out the Commendatore, sitting up.
"Yes," said Susanna, dreamily, "Father Angelo. _He_ won't refuse to do
what I ask him to."
"Bah," said the Commendatore. "A priest--a monk--a shaveling--a
bare-toes."
"A very good, kind, holy man," said Susanna. "And as my cousin is a
faithful Catholic, I think on all accounts Father Angelo will serve my
purpose best."
"Peuh--a Jesuit," said the Commendatore, elevating his nose.
"He is n't a Jesuit--he is a Capuchin," said Susanna.
"They are all Jesuits," said the Commendatore, with a sweeping gesture.
"A brown-back--a funeral-follower--a prayer-monger," he growled,
brushing his immense moustaches upwards, to emphasize his scorn.
"Hush," Susanna remonstrated, lifting her hand. "You must n't rail
against religion."
"I do not rail against religion," answered the Commendatore. "Taken in
moderation, religion is an excellent thing--for women. Did I not see
that you were religiously brought up? But when it comes to these
priests, these Jesuits,--when it comes to that Father Angelo,--I would
have them all hung up and smoke-dried, to make bacon of. Garrh!" he
snorted, tossing his head.
"Yes, I know," murmured Susanna. "You were always jealous of Father
Angelo."
"I? Jealous of that gnawer of fish-bones? It is probable," sniffed
the Commendatore.
He rose from his chair, and stood before her, very slim and erect, his
chin thrust forward, so that the tendons of his long thin neck showed
like wires.
"But I am an old ass. I can deny you nothing. I go to your cousin,"
he consented.
"You are an old dear," said Susanna. "I knew you would go."
Her eyes were brimming with mirth, with triumph, with fondness. She
rose too, and gently patted his stiffly-starched white duck sleeve.
After he was gone, she crossed one of the light marble bridges, and
walked in the garden on Isola Sorella, where it was shaded by a row of
ilexes. Blackcaps (those tireless ubiquitous minstrels) were singing
wildly overhead; ring-doves kept up their monotonous coo-cooing.
Beyond, in the sun, butterflies flitted among the flowers, cockchafers
heavily droned and blundered, a white peacock strutted, and at the
water's edge two long-legged, wry-necked flamingoes stood motionless,
like sentinels. At the other side of the ilexes stretched a bit of
bright green lawn, with a fountain plashing in the middle, from whose
spray the sun struck sparks of iridescent fire; and then, terrace upon
terrace, the garden rose to a summit, where there was a belvedere.
I don't know how many times Susanna strolled backwards and forwards, I
don't know how many times she looked at her watch. Here and there
semi-circular marble benches were placed. Sometimes she would sit down
and rest for a little; but she was soon up again, walking, walking,
looking at her watch. At last she left the shade, crossed the lawn,
ascended the terraces, between orange and lemon-trees with their
undergrowth of jessamine, and entered the belvedere, having by this
progress created a panic indescribable in the community of lizards.
From the belvedere she could command the whole sunlit surface of the
bay, here blue, here silver, here deepening to violet, paling to green,
here dimly, obscurely rose. A fleet of fishing-boats, their coloured
sails decorated with stripes and geometric patterns, or even now and
then with a representation of the owner's patron-saint, was putting out
to sea in single file, between the Capo del Turco and the Capo del
Papa. But Susanna concentrated her attention upon a part of the shore,
perhaps half a mile distant, and half a mile to the east of Vallanza,
where the grey-green of the prevailing olives was broken by the
dark-green of a garden. The garden ran out into the bay a little,
forming a point. Susanna waited and watched, watched and waited, till,
by-and-by, from behind the point, a boat appeared, a launch, and came
swiftly bobbing over the waves towards Isola Nobile. She must have
kept very still during this vigil, for now, when she turned to leave
the belvedere, she saw that at least a hundred lizards had come forth
from their hiding-places, and were staring at her with their twinkling
little pin-heads of eyes. But even as she saw them--zrrrp!--a flash, a
rustle, and there was not a lizard anywhere in sight.
She went back to the colonnade.
"My dear," said Commendatore Fregi, "your cousin is an extremely fine
fellow, and upon my word I am sorry that my mission to him has failed.
I could not hope to find you a better husband."
Whatever the Commendatore's emotion might be, it generally impelled him
to do something to his moustaches. Now he pulled them straight out at
either side.
"Your mission has failed?" asked Susanna. "How do you mean?"
"He cannot marry you," said the Commendatore, with a shake of the head,
a shrug of the shoulders. "He is engaged to a lady in England."
"Ah--I see," said Susanna.
"He is very good-looking," said the Commendatore. "He is his
grandfather come back to life."
"Is he indeed?" said Susanna.
"Yes," affirmed the Commendatore. "He dresses well. He has a good
manner. He is very quiet."
"Englishmen are apt to be quiet," said Susanna.
"He speaks Italian as well as I do," went on the Commendatore. "But he
cannot speak Sampaolese."
"He could easily learn Sampaolese," said Susanna.
"Yes," said the Commendatore. "When I repeated that humbug about your
becoming a nun and resigning the properties to him, he held up his
hands in horror. 'She must not think of such a thing,' he cried.
'Tell the young lady that I could never conceivably accept such a
sacrifice. I understand her scruples, and they do her great honour.
But she and I and all of us must accept the situation as we find it.
She must not think of becoming a nun.' You see, he has good sense as
well as good feeling. That is what I have always told you myself--we
must accept the situation as we find it. There's no use trying to open
up the past."
"H'm," said Susanna, on a key of doubt.
"And then, with my heart in the business, for I had seen that he was of
the right stuff, then I proposed a marriage," said the Commendatore.
"I put it to him as strongly as I could. I painted the advantages in
vivid colours. But it was no good. He cannot marry you. He is
already betrothed."
"So you said," Susanna reminded him. "To a lady in England, I think?"
"Yes," assented the Commendatore. "It is a pity on our account that he
will not throw her over. But it is to his credit. Let me tell you it
is not every man in his position who would stick at the point of
honour. Consider the alternative. He throws over his Englishwoman,
and he becomes master not only of one of the noblest estates in Europe,
but of an estate which must have for him the incalculable additional
value of being his patrimony." Never chary of gesture, the speaker was
at this point lavish of it.
"May I be permitted," said Susanna, raising her eyebrows, "to admire
the light-hearted way in which you leave _me_ out of the saga?"
"You?" puzzled the Commendatore. "Out of the--what? What is a saga?"
"A Scandinavian legend," Susanna instructed him. "Now see how you
leave me out of your Scandinavian legend. 'Consider the alternative,'
said you. 'He throws over his Englishwoman, and he becomes--' Well,
_you_ said, 'Master of a noble estate.' But a really gallant person
might have said, 'Husband of a perfectly entrancing Italian woman.'"
She pulled a little face.
"Ha," laughed the Commendatore, briefly. "You must have your joke."
And his hand instinctively made for his moustaches. "Well, I am sorry.
I can never hope to find you a better husband."
"You need never try," said Susanna. "He will do."
"What?" said the Commendatore.
"He will do," said she. "We'll have a grand wedding in the Cathedral.
The Bishop shall officiate, in his very best cope and mitre, and you,
with your grandest flourish, shall give the bride away."
The Commendatore shrugged his shoulders, and gazed for commiseration at
the sky.
"You are incomprehensible," he said. "Haven't I spent an hour telling
you he is affianced to a lady in England?"
"No," said Susanna; "only something like ten minutes."
"Brrr," said the Commendatore, contemptuous of the quibble.
"And anyhow, I shall marry him," said Susanna. "You have made me quite
fall in love with him, by your glowing description--and I rather liked
him before. The lady in England is neither here nor there. We 'll be
married in the Cathedral, where so many generations of our ancestors
have been married. His friend Mr. Willes shall be best man; and the
Pontes shall pontificate in their most British manner, with
wedding-favours sent out from London. And so the ancient legitimate
line of the Valdeschi shall be restored."
"You are mad," said the Commendatore, simply.
"And you shall offer us a wedding-breakfast at the Villa Fregi," she
pursued. "We 'll have all sorts of nice things to eat and drink, and
you shall propose the health of the bride, and make a magnificent
speech. And I shall wear my coronet--which I have never yet worn--for
then I shall be the Countess of Sampaolo with a clear right to the
title. And now I 'll tell you a secret. Would you like me to tell you
a secret?" she inquired.
"I can tell _you_ a secret that will soon be a matter of public
notoriety," said the Commendatore. "And that is that you 've clean
gone out of your senses."
"The lady he is engaged to in England," said Susanna, "guess who she
is. I give it to you in a million."
"How the devil can I guess who she is?" said the Commendatore.
"Well, then, listen," said Susanna. "You must n't faint, or explode,
or anything--but the lady he's engaged to in England is your old
friend--that bold adventuress, that knightess errant--the widow
Torrebianca."
"_Domeniddio_!" gasped the Commendatore, falling back in his chair.
And I half think he would have pulled his moustaches out by their roots
if Susanna had n't interceded with him to spare them.
"Don't--don't," she pleaded. "You won't have any left."
"_Domeniddio_!" he gasped three separate times, on three separate notes.
"If you're surprised," said Susanna, "think how much more surprised he
will be."
"_Do-men-id-dio_!" said the Commendatore, in a whisper.
And then a servant came to announce that luncheon was ready.