The report that Ghisleri had been killed by his old adversary in a
quarrel about Laura Arden spread like wildfire through society. It was
not until San Giacinto formally proclaimed that he had been to
Ghisleri's lodging, and that, although shot through the right lung, he
was alive and might recover, that the world knew the truth.
It was of course perfectly evident that Laura was the cause of the
difference. Even San Giacinto had no other explanation to suggest, when
he was appealed to, and could only say that it seemed incredible that
two men should fight with pistols at a dangerously short distance,
because the one said that Lady Herbert was a jettatrice, and the other
denied it. If Campodonico had been less universally liked than he was,
he would have become very unpopular in consequence of the duel; for,
although few persons were intimate with Ghisleri, he also was a
favourite with the world.
The Gerano faction was very angry with both men, though Adele was
secretly delighted. It was a scandalous thing, they said, that a duel
should be fought about a young widow, whose husband had not been buried
much more than two months. Both should have known better. And then,
Campodonico was a young married man, which made matters far worse.
Duelling was an abominable sin, of course; but Ghisleri, at least, was
alone in the world and could risk his soul and body without the danger
of bringing unhappiness on others. Gianforte's case was different and
far less pardonable.
But Casa Gerano and Casa Savelli belonged rather to the old-fashioned
part of society, though Adele and her husband were undeniably in the gay
set, and there were many who judged the two men more leniently. The
world had certainly been saying for some time that Ghisleri went very
often to see Lady Herbert, and was neglecting Maddalena dell' Armi. The
cruel words the Contessa had overheard at the Embassy were but part of
the current gossip, for otherwise mere strangers, like those who had
spoken, could not have already learned to repeat them. If, then,
Ghisleri was in love with Laura Arden, it was natural enough that he
should resent the story about the evil eye. Meanwhile, poor man, no one
could tell whether he could ever recover from his dangerous wound.
The Contessa dell' Armi was one of the very first to know the truth. She
had spent a miserable and sleepless night, and it was still very early
in the morning when she sent to Ghisleri's lodgings for news. She was
very anxious, for she knew more than most people about the old story,
and she guessed that Campodonico would do his best to hurt Pietro. But
she had no idea that pistols were to be the weapons, and Ghisleri's
reputation as a swordsman was very good. Short of an accident, she
thought, nothing would be really dangerous to him. But then, accidents
sometimes happened.
The answer came back, short and decisive. He was shot through the very
middle of the right lung, he had not fired upon his adversary, and he
lay in great danger, between life and death, in the care of a surgeon
and a Sister of Charity, neither of whom left his side for a moment.
Maddalena did not hesitate. She dressed herself in an old black frock
she found among her things, put on a thick veil, went out alone, and
drove to Pietro's lodgings. Such rash things may be done with impunity
in Paris or London, but they rarely remain long concealed in a small
city like Rome. He was still unconscious from weakness and loss of
blood. His eyes were half closed and his face was transparently white.
Maddalena stood still at the foot of the bed and looked at him, while
the doctor and the nurse gazed at her in surprise. During what seemed an
endless time to them she did not move. Then she beckoned to the surgeon,
and led him away to the window.
"Will he live?" she asked, hardly able to pronounce the words.
"He may. There is some hope, for he is very strong. I cannot say more
than that for the present."
For a few moments Maddalena was silent. She had never seen the doctor,
and he evidently did not know her.
"My place should be here," she said at last. "Would an emotion be bad
for him--if he were angry, perhaps?"
"Probably fatal," answered the surgeon with decision. "If he is likely
to experience any emotion on seeing you, I beg you not to stay long. He
may soon be fully conscious."
"He cannot know me now?" she asked anxiously.
"No. Not yet."
"Not if I went quite near to him--if I touched him?"
The doctor glanced back at the white face on the pillow.
"No," he answered. "But be quick."
Maddalena went swiftly to the bedside, and, bending down, kissed
Ghisleri's forehead, gazed at him for a moment, and then turned away.
She slipped a little gold bracelet formed of simple links without
ornament or distinctive mark from her wrist, and put it into the
Sister's hand.
"If you think he is dying, give him this, and say I came and kissed him.
If he is in no danger, sell it, and give the money to some poor person.
Can I trust you, my sister?"
"Yes, madame," answered the French nun quietly as she dropped the
trinket into her capacious pocket.
With one glance more at Ghisleri's face, the Contessa left the room. A
quarter of an hour later she was at home again. The servants supposed
that she had gone to an early mass, as she sometimes did, possibly to
pray for the soul of the Signor Ghisleri. The man who had gone for news
of him had not failed to inform the whole household of Pietro's
dangerous state, and as Pietro was a constant visitor, and was generous
with his five-franc notes, considerable anxiety was felt in the lower
regions for his welfare, and numerous prayers were offered for his
recovery.
Maddalena sent to make inquiries several times in the course of the day,
and towards evening was informed that there was more hope, but that if
he got well at all it would be by a long convalescence. She herself saw
no one, and no one ever knew what she suffered in those endless hours of
solitude.
Laura Arden heard of the duel through her mother, who was very angry
about it, as has been seen. Laura herself was greatly shocked, for at
first almost every one thought that Ghisleri must die of his wound.
Having been brought up in Rome, in the midst of Roman ideas, she had not
the English aversion to duelling, nor, being an Anglican, had she a
Catholic's horror of sudden death. She did not even yet really like
Ghisleri. But she was horror-struck, though she could hardly have told
why, at the thought that the strong man who had been with her when her
husband died, and whom she had talked with so often since, should be
taken away without warning, in the midst of his youth and strength, for
a word said in her defence. Of course the Princess told her all the
details of the story as she had heard them, laying particular stress
upon the fact that the duel had been fought for Laura. The seconds in
the affair had gravely alleged a dispute about the painter Zichy as the
true cause of the quarrel, but the world had found time to make up its
mind on the previous evening, and was not to be deceived by such absurd
tales.
"It is not my fault, mother, if they fought about me," said Laura. "But
I am dreadfully distressed. I wish I could do anything."
"The best thing is to do nothing," answered the Princess, "for nothing
can do any good. The harm is done, whether it has been in any way your
fault or not. To think it should all have begun in that insane
superstition about the evil eye!"
"I never even knew that I was suspected of being a jettatrice. People
must be mad to believe in such things. You are right, of course. What
could any of us do except make inquiries? Poor man! I hope he will get
over it."
"God grant he may live to be a better man," said the Princess, devoutly.
She had never had a very high opinion of Ghisleri's moral worth, and
late events had confirmed her in the estimate she had made. "One thing I
must say, my dear," she continued. "If he recovers, as I pray he may,
you must see less of him than hitherto. You cannot let people talk about
you as they will talk, especially after this dreadful affair."
"I will be very careful," Laura answered. "Not that there is any danger.
The poor man will be ill for weeks, at the best, and the summer will be
almost here before he is out of the house. Then I shall be going away,
for I do not mean to keep Herbert here during the heat."
The Princess was quite used to hearing Laura speak of the little child
in that way, and she had never once referred to her husband by name
since his death. She meant that the one Herbert should take the place of
the other, once and for always, to be cared for and loved, and thought
of at every hour of the day. She had silently planned out her life
during the weeks of her recovery, and she believed that nothing could
prevent her from living it as she intended. Everything should be for
little Herbert, from first to last. She looked at the baby face, in
which she saw so plainly the father's likeness where others could see
only a pair of big brown eyes, plump cheeks, and a mouth like a flower,
and she promised herself that all the happiness she would have made for
the one who had been taken should be the lot of the one given to her
almost on the same day. Her future seemed anything but dark to her,
though its greater light had gone out. The anguish, the agonising
anxiety, the first moment's joy, and at last the full pride of
motherhood, had come between her and the past, deadening the terrible
shock at first, and making the memory of it less keen and poignant
afterwards, while not in any way dimming the bright recollection of the
love that had united her to her husband. She could take pleasure now in
looking forward to her boy's coming years, to the time when he should be
at first a companion, then a friend, and then a protector of whom she
would be proud when he stood among other men. She could think of his
schooldays, and she could already feel the pain of parting from him and
the joy of meeting him again, taller and stronger and braver at every
return. And far away in the hazy distance before her she could see a
shadowy but lovely figure, yet unknown to-day--Herbert's wife that was
to be, a perfect woman, and worthy of him in all ways. It might be also
that somewhere there were great deeds for Herbert to do, fame for him to
achieve, glory for him to win. All this was possible, but she thought
little of it. Her ambition was to know him some day to be all that his
father had been in heart, and to see him all that his father should have
been in outward form and stature. More than that she neither hoped nor
asked for, and perhaps it was enough. And so she dreamed on, while no
one thought she was dreaming at all, for she was always active and busy
with something that concerned the child, and her attention never
wandered when it was needed.
Her mother watched her and was glad of it all. To her, it seemed very
merciful that Arden should have died when he did, fond as she herself
had been of him. She had not believed that Laura could be permanently
happy with such a sufferer, and she had never desired the marriage,
though she had done nothing to oppose it when she saw how deeply her
daughter loved the man she had chosen. She was very much relieved when
she saw how Laura behaved in her sorrow, and realised that there was no
morbid tendency in her to dwell over-long on her grief. One thing, which
has already been mentioned, alone showed that Laura felt very
deeply,--she never spoke of Arden, even to her mother. On this point
there seemed to be a tacit understanding between her and Donald. The
faithful old servant seemed to know instinctively what she wished done.
When all was over, and while Laura was still far too ill to be
consulted, he had taken all Arden's clothes and other little effects,
even to his brushes and other dressing things, and had packed everything
in his dead master's own boxes as though for a long journey. The boxes
themselves he locked up in a small spare room, and laid the key in the
drawer of Laura's writing-table with a label on which were written the
words, "His lordship's effects." Laura found it the first time she came
to the drawing-room, and was grateful to the old Scotchman for what he
had done. But she could not bring herself to speak of it, even to
Donald, though he knew that she was pleased by the look she gave him.
Of course, her manner was greatly changed from what it had been. She
never laughed now, and rarely ever smiled, except when she held the
child in her arms. But there was nothing morbid nor brooding in her
gravity. She had accepted her lot and was determined to make the best of
it according to her light. In time she would grow more cheerful, and by
and by she would be her old self again--more womanly, perhaps, and
certainly more mature, but not materially altered in character or
disposition. The short months which had sufficed for what had hitherto
been the chief acts of her life had not been filled with violent or
conflicting emotions, and it is emotion more than anything else which
changes the natures of men and women for better or for worse. The love
that had been born of mingled pity and sympathy of thought had risen
quickly in the peaceful, remote places of her heart, and had flowed
smoothly through the sweet garden of her maidenly soul, unruffled and
undeviating, until it had suddenly disappeared into the abyss of
eternity. It had left no wreck and no ruin behind, no devastation and no
poisonous, stagnant pools, as some loves do. The soil over which it had
passed had been refreshed and made fertile by it, and would bear flowers
and fruit hereafter as fragrant and as sweet as it could ever have
borne; and at the last, in that one great moment of pain when she had
stood at the brink and seen all she loved plunge out of sight for ever
in the darkness, she had heard in her ear the tender cry of a new young
life calling to her to turn back and tend it, and love it, and show it
the paths that lead to such happiness as the world holds for the pure in
heart.
She was calm, therefore, and not, in the ordinary sense, broken by her
sorrow,--a fact which the world, in its omniscience, very soon
discovered. It did not fail to say that she was well rid of her husband,
and that she knew it, and was glad to be free, though she managed with
considerable effort to keep up a sufficient outward semblance of
mourning to satisfy the customs and fashions of polite society--just
that much, and not a jot more.
But Adele Savelli said repeatedly that all this was not true, and that
only a positively angelic nature like Laura's could bear such an awful
bereavement so calmly. It was a strange thing, Adele added, that very
good people should always seem so much better able to resign themselves
to the decrees of Providence than their less perfect neighbours. Of
course it could not be that they were colder and felt less than others,
and consequently could not suffer so much. Besides, Laura must have
loved Arden sincerely to marry him at all, since it appeared to be
certain that the rich uncle who was to have left him so much money only
existed in the imagination of the gossips, and had evidently been
invented by them merely in order to make out that Laura had a secret
reason for marrying that uncle's favourite nephew. But then, people
would talk, of course, and all that the relations of the family could do
was to deny such calumnious reports consistently and at every turn.
Adele was looking very ill when the season came to an end. She had grown
thin, and her eyes had a restless, hunted look in them which had never
been there before. Her husband noticed that she was very much overcome
when she heard the first report to the effect that Ghisleri was killed.
She seemed particularly horrified at the statement that the original
cause of the duel had been the reputation for possessing the evil eye
which Laura Arden had so suddenly acquired, and which, as she herself
had been the very first to say, was so utterly unfounded. It was
evidently a very great relief to her to hear, later in the day, that
Pietro was not yet dead, and might even have a chance of recovery.
No one could tell what Gianforte Campodonico thought of the matter. He
shut himself up obstinately and awaited events. It is not probable that
he felt any remorse for what he had done, or that he would have felt any
if he had left Ghisleri dead on the field, instead of with a bare chance
of life. He had taken the vengeance he had longed for and he was glad of
it, but the impression he had of the man was not the same which he had
been accustomed to for so many years. He, who generally reflected
little, asked himself whether he could have found the courage to bear
what Ghisleri had borne for the sake of the promise they had made
together, and which he had been the first to break. He was a brave man,
too, in his way, and it would not have been safe to predict that he
would fail at any given point if put to the test. But he was conscious
that, in the present case, Ghisleri had played the nobler part, and he
was manly enough to acknowledge the fact to himself, and to respect his
adversary as he had not done before. If he stayed at home and refused to
be seen in the world or even at his club immediately after the duel, it
was because he would not be thought willing to glory in his victory.
But, before many days were gone by, it became apparent, so far as the
world could judge, that Pietro Ghisleri would not die of the dangerous
wound he had received. It would have killed most men, the surgeon said,
but Ghisleri was not like other people. He, the doctor, had never seen a
stronger constitution, nor one so perfectly untainted by any hereditary
evil or weakness. Such blood was rare now, especially in the old
families, and such strength would have been rare in any age. He had no
longer any hesitation in saying that the patient had a very fair
prospect of recovery, and might possibly be as healthy as ever before
the end of the summer.
The Sister of Charity went about with Maddalena's bracelet in her
pocket, feeling very uncomfortable about it, since she had been quite
sure from the first that there was something very sinful in the whole
affair. But she was quite ready to fulfil her promise if Ghisleri showed
signs of departing this life, which he did not, however, either when he
first regained consciousness or later. So she, on her part, said
nothing, and waited for the day when she might deliver up the trinket to
the Mother Superior, to be sold for the poor, as Maddalena had directed.
In that, at least, there could be no harm, and she was very thankful
that she was not called upon to deliver the message to Ghisleri himself,
for that, she felt sure, would have been sinful, or something very like
it.
The surgeon was surprised by something else in the case. As a general
rule, when a man fights a desperate duel in the very middle of the
season, and especially such a man as he knew Ghisleri to be, and is
severely hurt, he finds himself cut off from society in the midst of
some chain of events in which the whole present interest of his life is
engaged. He is consequently disturbed in mind, impatient of confinement,
and feverishly anxious to get back to the world,--a state of temper by
no means conducive to convalescence. Ghisleri, on the contrary, seemed
to have forgotten to care for anything. No preoccupation appeared to
possess him; no desire to be back again in the throng made him restless.
He was perfectly calm and peaceful, always patient, and always resigned
to whatever treatment seemed necessary. The Sister wondered much that a
man of such marvellous gentleness and resignation could have found it in
him to commit mortal sin in fighting a duel, and, perhaps, far down in
her woman's heart, she did not wonder at all at what Maddalena had done
on that first morning. The surgeon said that Ghisleri's sweet temper had
much to do with his rapid recovery.
It need not be supposed from this that his character had undergone any
radical change, nor that he was turning, all at once, into the saint he
was never intended to be. It was very simple. The events of the night
preceding the duel had brought his life to a crisis which, once past,
had left little behind it to disturb him. First in his mind was the
consciousness that his love for Maddalena dell' Armi was gone for ever,
and that she herself expected no return of it. That alone was enough to
change his whole existence in the present, and in the immediate future.
Then, too, he felt that he had at least settled old scores with
Campodonico and had in a measure expiated one, at least, of his past
misdeeds, almost at the cost of his life. Morally speaking, too, he had
kept his oath to Bianca Corleone, for under the utmost provocation he
had refused to fight in the old quarrel, and even when driven to bay and
forced upon new ground by Campodonico's implacable hatred, he had stood
up to be killed without so much as firing at Bianca's brother. There
was a deep and real satisfaction in that, and he was perhaps too ill as
yet to torture himself by stigmatising it as a bit of vanity. The world
might think what it pleased. Maddalena might misjudge his motives, and
Gianforte might triumph in his victory--it all made no difference to
him. He was conscious that to the best of his ability he had acted
according to the dictates of true honour, as he understood it; and at
night he closed his eyes and fell peacefully asleep, and in the morning
he opened them quietly again upon the little world of his invalid's
surroundings.
He was not happy, however. What he felt, and what perhaps saved his
life, was a momentary absence of responsibility, an absolute certainty
that nothing more could be required of him, because, in the events in
which he had played a part, that part had been acted out to the very
end. He even went so far as to believe that, if he had died, it would
not have made any difference to any one, except that his death might
possibly have been an added satisfaction to Campodonico. He would have
left no sorrowing heart behind to mourn him, nor any gap in any circle
which another man could not fill up. Herbert Arden, the only friend who
would have really regretted him, was already dead, and there was no one
else who stood to him in any relation of acquaintance at all so close as
to be called friendship. All this contributed materially to his peace of
mind, though in one respect he was mistaken. There was one person who
loved him still, for himself, though she knew well enough that his love
for her was dead.
And it was of her, though he was mistaken about her, that he thought the
most during the long hours when he lay there quietly watching the
sunbeams stealing across the room when it was fine, or listening to the
raindrops pattering against the windows when the weather was stormy. In
her was centred the great present regret of his life, and for her sake
he felt the most sincere remorse. He asked himself, as she had asked
him, what was to become of her, now that he had left her. The fact that
she had been really the one to speak the word and cause the first break
did not change the truth in the least. It had been his fault from the
first to the last. He had not broken her heart, perhaps, because hearts
are not now-a-days easily broken, if, indeed, they ever really were; but
he had ruined her existence wantonly, uselessly, on the plea of a love
neither pure nor lasting, and he fully realised what he had done. What
chance had she ever had against him--she, young, inexperienced,
trusting, wretchedly unhappy with a husband who had despised and trodden
out the simple, girlish love she had offered--what chance had she
against Pietro Ghisleri, the hardened, cool-headed man of the world,
whose only weakness was that he sometimes believed himself sincere, as
he had with her? He was not happy as he thought of it all. There had
been little manliness in what he had done, and not much of the honour
which he called his last shred of morality. And yet, in the world in
which he had his being, few men would blame him, and none, perhaps,
venture to condemn him. But that consideration did not cross his mind.
He was willing to bear both condemnation and blame, and he heaped both
upon himself in a plentiful measure.
Nevertheless, he was conscious of being surprised at the calmness of his
own repentance, as he called it rather contemptuously, and he wished
himself, as usual, quite different from what he was. And yet he had not
forgotten the semi-theatrical resolution to change his life, which he
had made on the night before the duel, still less had he any intention
of breaking it. He had always laughed at men and women who made sudden
and important resolutions under the influence of emotion, and, on the
whole, he had never seen any reason for looking upon such gratuitous
promises as valid, unless there had been witnesses to them, and human
vanity afterwards came into play. But now, in his own case, he meant to
try the experiment. It made no difference whether he were vain about it
or not, if he succeeded, nor, if he failed, whether he scorned his own
weakness a little more than before. No one would ever know, and since by
Laura Arden's rigid standard of right and wrong the end to be gained
belonged distinctly to the right, he would be in a measure following her
advice in regard to life in general. Deeper down in his nature, too,
there lay another thought which he would not now evoke, lest he should
himself condemn it as sentimental. That secret promise had been honestly
intended, and had been addressed to the memory of one who, though long
dead, still had a stronger influence over him than any one now living.
He hardly dared to acknowledge the truth of this and the real meaning of
what he had done, lest, if he failed hereafter, he should have to accuse
himself of faithlessness towards the one woman to whom he had been
really true, and whom, if she had lived, he would have loved till the
end, in spite of obstacles, in spite of mankind, in spite, he added
defiantly, of Heaven itself. All this he tried to keep out of sight,
while firmly resolving, in his own cynical way, to try the experiment of
goodness for once, and to do no more harm in the world if he could help
it.
He thought of Laura Arden, too, in his long convalescence, and her image
was always pleasant to his inner vision, as the impression she had
produced on him was soothing to recall. There were times when her holy
eyes seemed to gaze at him out of the darker corners of the room, and he
tried often to bring back her whole presence. The pleasure such useless
feats of imagination gave him was artistic if it was anything, because
he admired her beauty and had always delighted in it. He tried to fancy
what she was doing, on certain days when he thought more of her than
usual, and to follow her life a little, always trying in a vague way to
fathom the secret of the character that was so wonderful in his
estimation. And always, when he had been thinking of her, he came back
to the contemplation of his own immediate interests with a renewed calm
and with a peaceful sense that there might yet be better days in store
for him--possibly days in which he should himself be better than he had
been heretofore.
How the world would have jeered, could it have suspected that Pietro
Ghisleri was thinking almost seriously of such a very commonplace
subject as moral goodness, as he lay on his back, day after day, in the
quiet of his room. How gladly would Adele Savelli have changed places
with the man who, as she thought, for the sake of a bit of gossip she
had invented out of spite, had nearly lost his life!