THE SPIDER'S WEB
In Rome, after Easter, society blossomed out afresh. Giovanni Sansevero
had returned, and to Nina the commencement of the spring season promised
a repetition of the winter.
Nina's antipathy to the Duke Scorpa remained unchanged, and to her
annoyance it had happened frequently, when dining out, that he had taken
her in to dinner. Each time his unctuous, "It is my pleasure, Signorina,
to conduct you," gave her so strong a feeling of resentment that she had
to exert a real effort to put her finger tips on his coat sleeve. She
always kept the distance between them as wide as possible by the angle
at which her arm was bent.
On looking back, however, she had to acknowledge that his manner had
undergone a radical change. He no longer alarmed her by aggressive
pursuit, nor sought to lead the conversation to those personal topics
which she had found so repellent. Furthermore, he never alluded to the
threat he had made to her that day at the hunt, nor even mentioned his
rejected suit. And yet she felt apprehensively that he had not given up
his original determination.
In the meantime he was untiring in his efforts to interest her, and
evinced an ability to keep the conversation going with great skill--even
more skill than Giovanni, whose natural attractiveness could afford to
do without the effort that Scorpa found necessary. He flattered her by
his assumption that she was a woman of the world, and he disguised the
exaggeration of his expressions in such a way that she thought he was
speaking but the barest truth. For instance, he dilated upon the
particular qualities for which Nina herself adored the princess, until
it became apparent to her that, after all, Scorpa must be a man of
sensitive perceptions.
Nevertheless, the underlying feeling of terror with which he filled her
at the first moment of each encounter was far worse than mere dislike.
Intuitively, she regarded him as a menace, and, through his unvarying
politeness, she found herself trying to fathom his real intentions. What
object could he have had in ranging himself with the suitors for her
hand? He was very rich himself. Aside from his own fortune, "poor
Jane"--as every one called his first wife--had left a handsome amount,
which, according to European custom, was entirely in his control.
Perhaps he wanted still more money, and thought that he could find in
her another source of supply to be exhausted and practically thrust
aside. Many tales that Nina had heard, many things that she had observed
were not good for the girl's all too ready cynicism--and the hard little
lines around her mouth that the princess so disliked to see, were
growing deeper.
The question of international marriage was one on which Nina found
herself becoming quite skeptical. She admitted that there were happy
examples. Her aunt, for instance. Surely no wife was ever more loved and
appreciated than the princess, even though her husband had one serious
failing. But then, did not some American husbands also gamble?
In the Masco household too, the bonny Kate was certainly in no need of
sympathy. That her position was not as good as her husband's name should
have given her was her own fault. She was not one of those gifted with
the chameleon faculty of harmonizing with her background. Among the
mellow pigments of the Roman canvas she was a glaring splotch of primary
color. But she was far from unhappy.
Indeed, so far as Nina's observation could penetrate, the general
impression of the average Americo-Italian marriage was of sympathetic
comradeship between husband and wife; in nearly every household she had
found the indescribably charming atmosphere of a harmonious home.
Yet proposals for the hand of the American heiress were so common that,
in spite of the delightful households of her countrywomen, Nina had long
since begun to think--first in fun and then more seriously--of the
palaces of Italy as so many spider webs waiting for the American gilded
fly. It was at the Palazzo Scorpa that her theory became actuality.
The princess had, very much against Nina's will, taken her to see the
duchess on the day after their own dance. But a serious indisposition
had prevented the duchess from receiving--not only on that particular
day, but for the rest of the winter. Toward the end of March, however,
in response to a note, Nina was finally obliged to enter the Palazzo
Scorpa.
It was a rugged gray stone fortress of a place, "like a monster," Nina
said, "of the dragon age, that sulkily remained asleep and hidden among
the narrow, twisted streets that had crept around it."
Through the yawning gateway they entered a sunless courtyard. Even the
porter at the door, notwithstanding his gold lace and crimson livery,
was austere and forbidding. Within, the palace had been refurnished in
the most lavish Florentine period, but the effect of the high-vaulted
rooms was that of a prison.
One room, however, through which they passed to reach the reception
apartments of the duchess, gave Nina a little thrill in spite of her
antipathy. The Scorpas had belonged to the "Blacks," that is to the
ecclesiasticals, and this room was not repaired in modern fashion, but
hung in tattered purple silk. On one side stood a solitary piece of
furniture--a great gilt throne upholstered in red velvet, and above it
hung a portrait of Pope Alexander VI, the whole surmounted by a canopy
of red velvet.
"Was he a relation of the duke?" Nina whispered, aghast at the
resemblance.
"Who, child?" asked the princess.
"Rodrigo Borgia."
"No one knows. Hush!"
"But why the throne? Were the Scorpas kings--or what?"
"Before the secular unification of Italy," the princess answered, "the
Holy Fathers used to visit the Scorpa cardinals. There has always been a
Scorpa among the cardinals. The one now is Monsignore Gamba del Sati.
Del Sati is one of the numerous names of the Scorpa family."
Nina cast another glance at the portrait of Alexander VI. The sinister
face was so like the present duke's that it made her shudder, and her
imagination at once pictured slaves and prisoners being dragged along
these same stone floors. At the end of ten or twelve rooms, each gloomy,
yet over-rich with architectural adornments and modern elaboration, two
lackeys lifted the hangings covering the last doorway, and announced:
"Sua Eccellenza la Principessa Sansevero!"
"Messa Randolph."
The Duchess Scorpa was very gracious to the American heiress. But,
unaccountably, Nina had a strangled feeling, as though she were a bird
and had been enticed into a cage. It was a ridiculous notion, for, even
following out the simile, the door was open, she knew; and, for that
matter, the bars were too far apart to hold her, as soon as she should
choose to slip through. But the feeling of the cage was oppressively
vivid, and she clung as closely to her aunt's side as she could. Friends
of the princess rather monopolized her, however, while the duchess
neglected her other guests to talk to Nina. To add to the girl's
distress, the duke, stroking his heavy chin with his fat hand, stood
beside her chair with what seemed a proprietary air, and a smile that
was intolerable. "Well, my guests," his manner seemed to say, "how do
you like my choice? She is not all that I might ask for, but she will
do--quite nicely."
Nina glanced appealingly at her aunt, but Eleanor's back was turned.
Involuntarily she looked toward the doorway--Giovanni was to meet them
there, and she longed to see his slender figure appear between the
_portières_, to hear the announcement of the well-known name which was
no less great than that of the odious man who was trying to compromise
her by his air of proprietorship.
Nina could stand it no longer, and sprang to her feet, in the very midst
of a long-winded story about--she had no idea what the duchess was
saying to her, but she realized that she had done an inexcusably
_gauche_ thing, not only interrupting, but in starting to go before her
chaperon made the move. And her discomfiture was increased by a quick
sense of the Potensi's derisive criticism. Recovering herself, she
exclaimed rapidly: "I am so much interested in sculpture; may I look at
that statue?"
The duchess, far from showing resentment at the interruption, was
apparently delighted with the opportunity of impressing upon her guest
the greatness of the palace and the family of the Scorpas. "Certainly,"
she cooed, as nearly as a snapping turtle can imitate a turtledove;
"that is a genuine Niccola Pisano. The original document is still intact
in which he agreed with the cardinal of our house to execute it himself.
The portrait of our ancestor who ordered the statue is in the gallery."
Before Nina could resist, she found herself being conducted between
mother and son through the numerous rooms which terminated finally in
the gallery. Unlike most of the collections of Italy, this included many
modern canvases.
Before the portrait of a thin, heavy-boned, frightened-looking English
girl, the duke assumed a deeply sentimental air, sighing as though out
of breath. "That is the portrait of my beloved Jane," he said. "It was
painted by Sargent while we were on our honeymoon." The artist, with his
consummate skill of characterization, had transferred a crushed,
fatalistic helplessness to the canvas. Nina found herself, partly in
pity, partly in contempt, scrutinizing the face of the woman who had
brought herself to marry such a man.
Suddenly an indescribable feeling of oppression seized her. She looked
away from the picture, and then, glancing around to speak to the
duchess, she saw the edge of her dress disappearing through the hangings
of the doorway, while between herself and her retreating hostess stood
the stolid figure of the duke, with the most odious smile imaginable
upon his horrid face.
With a flush of anger that made her temples throb, Nina realized that a
dastardly trap had been sprung upon her. To leave a young girl even for
a moment unchaperoned was against the strictest rule of Italian
propriety. The duchess had brought her all this distance on purpose to
leave her with the villainous duke--in a situation that, should it
become known, would so compromise an Italian girl that there would be no
place for her in the social system of her world afterward outside of a
convent. Her marriage with the duke would be almost inevitable.
Determined to give no evidence of the terror that gripped her, with the
most fearless air she could assume she attempted to pass the duke; but
he blocked her way so that her manoeuvres came down to the indignity of
a game of blind man's buff. Nina held her head very high and looked
straight at her tormentor. "Please allow me to pass." She tried hard to
speak quietly and to keep the tremulousness out of her voice.
For answer Scorpa quickly closed the intervening distance between them,
and the next thing she knew the grasp of his thick, hot hands burned
through the sleeve of her coat, and his face was thrust near to her
own. In a frenzy of fury she wrenched herself free, and without thought
or even consciousness of what she was doing, she struck him full in the
face.
Instead of recoiling, he caught and pinned her arms in a grip like a
vice. "Ah, ha, so that is the mettle you are made of, is it, you little
fiend! Don't think that I mind your fury--you will be a wife after my
own heart when I have tamed you! I am a man of my word--I said I would
marry you, and I will! Not many men would want to marry a woman of your
temper, but you suit me!"
In her horror Nina felt her throat grow dry. She stared at the thick,
red, cruel, animal lips of the man with a loathing that almost paralyzed
her power to move; while his hands pressed numbingly into the flesh of
her arms.
"Let me go! Do you hear"--her voice shook with fright and rage--"let me
go! At once! You coward! You beast!"
And like a beast he snarled his answer: "Scream all you please! You
could not be heard if you had a throat of brass!" Then mockingly he
sneered, "Come, won't you dance with me, as you did with the pretty
Giovanni? You had his arms around you lovingly enough! But, by Bacchus!
the way to win a woman is to seize her, after the good old customs of
our ancestors!" And with that he drew her close to him--so close that,
though she screamed and struggled like a fury, his lips drew
nearer--nearer----
Then a jar struck through her blinding rage; in a daze she felt herself
released, and realized that Giovanni had appeared; that he had gripped
Scorpa around the throat until his eyes started out of their sockets;
and then sent him sprawling to the floor.
With the relief and reaction, everything seemed to recede from Nina and
grow black. Dimly she felt that Giovanni had put his arm around her to
support her. "Come quickly, Mademoiselle, before there is a scene"--she
heard his voice as though it were far off. But she was perfectly
conscious. She knew that Scorpa still lay on the floor as Giovanni
hurried her through another set of rooms and led her down a staircase
that brought them to a second entrance door--one by which, as it
happened, Giovanni had come in. The footman on duty looked as though he
were going to bar their egress, but Giovanni ordered him to open the
door quickly. "The lady is fainting," he said, and a glance at Nina's
face too well confirmed it. Besides, the man would hardly have dared
disobey a Sansevero. Once in the open air, they lost no time in going
around to the main entrance. The Sansevero carriage was waiting, and
Giovanni put Nina in. "Wait here a moment--I will go up and tell
Eleanor."
Nina was shaking from head to foot. "No--no--don't leave me; take me
away!"
"It is not seemly to drive with you, Mademoiselle; I will return in a
moment."
But by this time Nina was hysterical. "No--no--please take me home,"
she begged. "The carriage can come back." And she began to sob.
Giovanni hesitated, then jumped in quickly, telling the coachman to
drive home as fast as possible.
"It must have been a frightful experience," he said, as they started.
"Thank God I came even when I did."
A shudder ran through Nina. Instinctively she drew away from Giovanni,
merely because he was a foreigner, and of the same race as Scorpa. She
could still see those thick, loathsome lips approaching her own, and the
recollection gave her a nauseating sense of pollution. Holding her hands
over her face, she sobbed and sobbed.
Giovanni let her cry it out. It was not a moment to play on her
feelings--they were too strained to stand any other emotion. Yet had he
considered nothing but his own advantage, he could not better have used
his opportunity than by doing exactly what he did.
"Listen, Mademoiselle"--his voice was soothing--as kind and
unimpassioned as though he were talking to a troubled little child.
"Promise me that you will try not to think about this afternoon. It will
do no good. Try to forget it, if you can. That man shall never again in
any way enter your life. At least I can promise you that! Here we are!
Now," he added in English, as the footman opened the door, "go upstairs
and lie down. I will go back immediately and tell Eleanor that you felt
suddenly ill and that the carriage took you home. It is not likely that
Scorpa has given any version of the affair."
But a new fear assailed Nina. "You cannot go back! The duke will kill
you! He would do anything, that man!"
There was pride in Giovanni's easy answer. "He is not very agile," he
laughed; "to stab he would have first to reach me!" Then seriously and
very gently he added, "You are overstrung and nervous, Mademoiselle. On
my honor I promise you need never fear him again."
"What do you mean by that?" Startled, she put the question.
"Nothing," he rejoined lightly, "only that a man never repeats a
performance like that of the duke. The Italian custom prevents!" he
added, with a curious expression of whimsicality over which Nina puzzled
as she mounted the stairs to her room. Even in her shaken state, she
marveled at the contrast between Giovanni's finely chiseled features and
the elastic strength that must have been necessary to overpower the bull
force of the duke. She thought gratefully of the sympathy in his gentle
voice, as well as in his whole manner during the ten minutes which were
all that had elapsed since the duchess left her. She realized with what
perfect tact and perception he had treated her on the way home. And
suddenly her heart went out to him. She felt now, as she went through
the long stone corridors and galleries toward her room, that instead of
drawing away from him, were he at that moment beside her, she might
easily sob her emotions all peacefully out in his arms.
* * * * *
In the meantime Giovanni returned to the Palazzo Scorpa and, ascending
the main stairway, entered the antechamber of the reception room. The
old duchess was hovering anxiously at the entrance of the rooms leading
to the picture gallery, the closed _portières_ screening her from the
guests to whom she had not dared to return without Nina. The rugs laid
upon the marble floors dulled all sound of Giovanni's footfalls, so that
he appeared without warning, and with his own hand hastily lifted the
_portière_, disclosing her to her waiting guests. She had no choice but
to precede him, doubtless framing an excuse for Nina's absence. If so,
she need not have troubled, for Giovanni spoke in her stead, and with
such distinct enunciation that the whole roomful heard:
"Miss Randolph felt suddenly ill and asked to go home. I came just as
the carriage was disappearing, and found the duchess much disturbed over
it, though I assured her it was quite usual for young girls to go about
alone in America."
His look at the duchess demanded that she corroborate his account.
"It was too bad," she said, glibly enough. "I should have accompanied
her as I was, without hat or mantle even, but Miss Randolph was gone
before I really had time to think. It is, after all, but a step to the
Palazzo Sansevero."
Eleanor Sansevero arose. Through a perfect control and sweetness of
manner the most careless observer might have read displeasure. "Of
course," she said, enunciating each word with smoothly modulated
distinctness, "in America there could be no impropriety in a young
girl's driving alone, but I am sorry you did not send for me. Your son
left the room at the same time--he has not returned."
The American princess towered in slim height above the stolid dumpiness
of the duchess. From appearance one would never have guessed rightly
which of the two women could trace her lineage for over a thousand
years.
The mouth of the duchess went down hard in the corners, and her dull,
turtle eyes contracted, then her lips snapped open to answer, but
Giovanni again saved her the trouble. "I met Scorpa on the street about
ten minutes ago. He was going toward the Circolo d'Acacia."
"Ah yes, Todo was filled with regret, as he wanted to show Miss Randolph
the portraits," haltingly echoed the duchess, but she glanced uneasily
at the door. "I was glad he did not see her indisposition--he has a
heart as tender as a woman's, and it would have distressed him greatly!
I do hope, princess, that you will find her quite recovered on your
return. I think it must be the effect of sirocco."
The other guests supported her in chorus. "The sirocco is very
treacherous," ventured one. "She was perhaps not acclimatized to Rome,"
said a second. "I thought she looked pale," chimed a third.
The princess made her adieus at once and, followed by Giovanni, left the
palace. For a few minutes the various groups, disposed about the Scorpa
drawing-room, conversed in low whispers, but by the time the Sanseveros
were well out of earshot the duchess had turned to the whispering groups
with a hauteur of expression conveying quite plainly that it was not to
be endured that a Sansevero, born American, should imply a criticism of
a Duchess Scorpa, born Orsonna.
"A headstrong young barbarian from the United States is quite beyond my
control," she shrugged. "How can I help it if she chooses to run from
the palace, like Cinderella when the clock strikes twelve!"
One or two of those present who were friends of the Princess Sansevero
may have resented the implied slight to her democratic birth. But though
there was a vague appreciation of something beneath the surface in this
American girl's sudden departure, there was nothing to which any one
could take exception.
The Contessa Potensi, however, had long waited for just such an
opportunity, and seized it. "I felt sorry for Eleanor Sansevero," she
said sweetly. "It puts her in an unendurable position to have to defend
such a person. Naturally she _has_ to defend her, since she is her
niece. I am sure she did not want her for the winter--but her parents
would not keep her. It is no wonder they would be willing to give her a
big dot!"
There was general excitement. "What do you know?" the company cried in
chorus. "Tell us about it!"
But the Potensi at once became very discreet. For nothing would she take
away a young girl's character. Besides, Eleanor Sansevero was one of her
best friends--it would not be loyal to say anything further. More
definite information she would not disclose, but her manner left little
to the imagination.
"Surely you can tell us something of what is said," insinuated the old
Princess Malio, adjusting her false teeth securely in the roof of her
mouth as if the better to enjoy the delectable morsel of scandal that
she felt was about to be served. But the contessa, with a
"could-if-she-would" expression, refused to say anything more, and the
old princess turned instead to the duchess with, "Tell us the _truth_
about Miss Randolph's sudden illness!"
The truth, of course, was out of the question. Public sympathy must have
gone against her and her son, and she hedged to gain time, "It is not
all worth the thought needed to frame words."
The old Princess Malio made a swallowing motion, still waiting. "Yes?"
she encouraged eagerly.
"Any one could see what happened," said the duchess reluctantly, as
though she were loath to speak scandal. "The American girl, through
lack of training--it is, after all, not her fault, poor thing--knows no
better than to try to arrange matters for herself! She wanted, of
course, to have an opportunity of talking to my Todo alone. Her plan to
go into the picture gallery here, however, necessitated my chaperoning
her, and then--contrary to her expectations--Todo, who did not fall in
with her scheme, said he had an engagement and at once left. She could
not, of course, declare the picture gallery of no interest, so I took
her, but in her disappointment she quite lost her temper, so much so
that it made her ill. And then she took the matter in her own hands and
went home--I was never so astonished in my life! She ran off with
Giovanni Sansevero so fast I could not catch up with them. I _suppose_
he put her in the carriage, but for all I know he took her somewhere
else. I followed to the front door and waited, not knowing what to do.
Just as I returned to inform Princess Sansevero, for whom I have always
had the highest regard, Giovanni commenced with his own account. What
could I do except agree to his statement?"
She looked inquiringly from one to the other. "That is the whole story!
But I have made up my mind to one thing"--she spread her fat fingers
out--"not even her millions would induce me to countenance Todo's
marriage with such a self-willed girl as that!"
The old Princess Malio looked like a bird of prey whose prize morsel
had been stolen from it. "There is more in this than appears," she
whispered to a timid little countess sitting next to her.
The latter's half-hearted, "Do you think so, really?" voiced the
attitude of nearly all present. The Scorpas were, to use the old Roman
proverb, "sleeping dogs best let alone," and the Sanseveros, though not
as rich, were none the less too great a family to side against.
* * * * *
While the voice of the duchess was still echoing in the drawing-room of
the Palazzo Scorpa, Nina had thrown herself into the corner of the sofa
in her own room. She had a perfectly normal constitution, but she had
been not only infuriated and horrified, but really frightened, and her
nerves were unstrung.
As she grew calmer, she thought more clearly; and she found that the
afternoon's experience, horrible as it was, held some leaven--Giovanni's
behavior stirred her deeply. She had realized the power of his muscles
under his slight build before--when he had held the Great Dane's throat
in his grip--and she had seen his flexibility, in turning
instantaneously from fury to suavity. Yet his masterful attack upon her
assailant, followed by his sympathy and comprehension on the way home,
thrilled her as with a revelation of unguessed capacities. John Derby
could not have come to her rescue better, nor could she have felt more
protected and calmed with her childhood's friend at her side in the
carriage, than with this alien of a foreign race.
She went into her dressing-room and bathed her eyes and cheeks in cold
water. Then, thinking the princess must surely have returned by this
time, she decided to go into the drawing-room. On her way she met her
aunt coming toward her, followed closely by Giovanni, who put his finger
on his lips, just as the princess exclaimed, "Nina, my child, what
happened to you? You did very wrong to run off home alone. I can't
understand your having done such a thing. It was not only ill-mannered,
but it put you in a very questionable light."
Over the princess's shoulder Giovanni was making an unmistakable demand
for silence. "I'm very sorry," Nina faltered--Giovanni was looking at
her intensely, pleadingly, his finger on his lips--"but I--never felt
like that before. I got terribly--nervous, and I felt that if I did not
get away from that house I should go mad." Even the recollection made
Nina look so distraught that her aunt's indignation turned to anxiety,
and she put her arm around the girl and led her into the drawing-room.
"It is not like you, dear, to lose control of yourself," she said
tenderly, and then, as she scrutinized Nina's face in the better light,
she added: "You do look white, darling. You had better lie down here on
the sofa. I think I will prepare you some tea of camomile," and then,
with a final touch of gentle admonition, she added, "We must not have
any more such scenes!" Nina hoped for a chance to ask Giovanni why she
might not tell the princess what had happened, but the latter did not
leave the room. Having sent for the camomile flowers, she made Nina a
cup of tea, and the subject of the afternoon's occurrence was dropped.