Three days later Angela sat alone in her morning-room, reading a letter
from Giovanni Severi. All was over now--the lying in state, the funeral
at the small parish church, the interment in the cemetery of San
Lorenzo, where the late Prince had built a temporary tomb for himself
and his family, under protest, because modern municipal regulations
would not allow even such a personage as he to be buried within the
walls, in his own family vault, at Santa Maria del Popolo. But he had
been confident that even if he did not live to see the return of the
Pope's temporal power, his remains would soon be solemnly transferred to
the city, to rest with those of his fathers; and he had looked forward
to his resurrection from a sepulchre better suited to his earthly rank
and spiritual worth than a brick vault in a public cemetery, within a
hundred yards of the thrice-anathematised crematorium, and of the
unhallowed burial-ground set aside for Freemasons, anarchists,
Protestants, and Jews. But no man can be blamed fairly for wishing to
lie beside his forefathers, and if Prince Chiaromonte had failed to see
that the destiny of Italy had out-measured the worldly supremacy of the
Vatican in the modern parallelogram of forces, that had certainly been a
fault of judgment rather than of intention. He had never wavered in his
fidelity to his ideal, nor had he ever voluntarily submitted to any law
imposed by the 'usurper.'
'That excellent Chiaromonte is so extremely clerical,' Pope Leo the
Thirteenth had once observed to his secretary with his quiet smile.
But Angela missed her father constantly, not understanding that he had
systematically forced her to look to him as the judge and master of
her existence, and she wondered a little why she almost longed for his
grave nod, and his stern frown of disapproval, and even for the daily
and hourly reproof under which she had so often chafed. Madame Bernard
had been installed in the palace since the day of the fatal accident,
and she was kindness personified, full of consideration and
forethought; yet the girl was very lonely and miserable from morning
till night, and when she slept she dreamed of the dead Knight of
Malta's face, of the yellow light of the wax torches, and the voices
of the priests.
On the fourth day a letter came from Giovanni, the first she had ever
received from him. She did not even know his handwriting, and she
looked at the signature before reading the note to see who had written
to her so soon. When she understood that it was he, a flood of
sunshine broke upon her gloom. The bright morning sun had indeed been
shining through the window for an hour, but she had not known it till
then.
It was not a love-letter. He used those grammatically illogical but
superfinely courteous forms which make high Italian a mystery to
strangers who pick up a few hundred words for daily use and dream that
they understand the language. He used the first person for himself,
but spoke of her in the third singular; he began with: 'Most gentle
Donna Angela,' and he signed his full name at the end of a formal
phrase setting forth his profoundly respectful homage. She would have
been much surprised and perhaps offended if he had expressed himself
in any more familiar way. Brought up as she had been under the most
old-fashioned code in Europe when at home, and under the frigid rule
of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart when she was at school, any
familiarity of language seemed to her an outrage on good manners, and
might even be counted a sin if she condescended to it in speaking with
a man who was not yet her husband. She had been made to address her
father in the third person feminine singular ever since she had
learned to talk, precisely as Giovanni wrote to her; and if she prayed
to the Deity with the less formal second person plural, this was
doubtless because the Italian prayers had been framed in less refined
and courteous times than her own.
In spite of his stiff grammar, however, Severi managed to write things
that brought the colour to her face and the light to her eyes. He
said, for instance, that he was coming to see her that very afternoon;
that in order not to attract attention at the gate of the palace he
would wear civilian's dress, and that he hoped she would not only
receive him, but would send Madame Bernard out of the room for a
little while, so that he might speak to her alone.
The proposal was so delightful and yet so disturbing that Angela
thought it must be wicked and tried to examine her conscience at once;
but it shut up like an oyster taken out of the water and pretended to
be perfectly insensible, turn it and probe it how she would.
So she gave it up; and she did so the more readily because it would be
quite impossible to see Giovanni that afternoon, enchanting as the
prospect would have been. Her aunt the Marchesa had sent word that she
was coming at four o'clock with the lawyer to explain Angela's
position to her, and it was impossible to say how long the two might
stay. Meanwhile she must send word to Giovanni not to come, for it
would not suffice that he should be refused admittance at the gate,
since he might chance to present himself just when the Marchesa drove
up, which would produce a very bad impression. Angela was ashamed to
send her maid with a note to a young officer, and she would not trust
one of the men-servants; she turned for advice to Madame Bernard, who
was her only confidante.
'What am I to do?' she asked when she had explained everything. 'He is
generally at the War Office at this time and he may not even go home
before he comes here. I see no way but to send a note.'
'He would certainly go home to change his clothes,' answered the
practical Frenchwoman; 'but it is not necessary for you to write. I
will telephone to the War Office, and if the Count is there I will
explain everything.'
Angela looked at her doubtfully.
'But then the servant who telephones will know,' she objected.
'The servant? Why? I do not understand. I shall speak myself. No one
will be there to hear.'
'Yourself? My father never could, and I never was shown how to do it.
Are you sure you understand the thing? It is very complicated, I
believe.'
Madame Bernard was not surprised, for she knew the ways of the Palazzo
Chiaromonte; but she smiled and assured the young girl that a
telephone was not really such a dangerous instrument as she had been
led to believe.
'I once tried to make a few stitches with a sewing-machine,' Angela
said, apparently in explanation.
'A telephone is different,' Madame Bernard answered gravely. 'Shall I
ask the Count to come to-morrow at four o'clock, instead of to-day?'
Angela hesitated, and then blushed faintly.
'Do you think----' she began, but she stopped and hesitated. 'He would
be angry, I am sure----' She seemed to be suddenly distressed.
'Your father?' asked the Frenchwoman, guessing what she meant. 'My
dear Princess----'
'Oh, please don't call me that!' cried Angela. 'You never do----'
'You see, you are a great personage now, my dear child,' Madame
Bernard answered, 'and I am no longer your governess----'
'But you are my friend, dear, dear Madame Bernard! Indeed, I think you
are my only friend now!'
And thereupon Angela threw her arms round the little woman's neck and
kissed her very affectionately. Madame Bernard's fresh face beamed
with pleasure.
'Thank you, my dear,' she answered. 'And as for your father, my child,
he is without doubt in heaven; and that means that he now judges you
by your intentions and no longer by appearances only.'
This sage little speech reassured Angela, though she soon afterwards
asked herself whether it was quite loyal to allow any one to say that
the Prince had ever judged her 'by appearances only.' But while she was
making this reflection Madame Bernard was already telephoning to
Giovanni, who was at the War Office, as Angela supposed, and he answered
with alacrity that he would come to the palace on the following
afternoon and ask to see Madame Bernard on a matter of business. It was
really her business to teach French, as all the servants knew, and if
they thought that the young officer came to ask about some lessons for
himself or a friend, so much the better. Madame Bernard was naturally
practical, and Giovanni was by nature quick-witted; so the matter was
settled in a few words, to the satisfaction of both; and when Angela was
merely told that he was coming she was much more pleased than she was
willing to show, and she said no more about her father's hypothetical
disapproval.
That afternoon she received the Marchesa del Prato and the lawyer
downstairs in the second of the outer drawing-rooms. It was cold there,
but she had not quite dared to order a fire to be made, because the
Prince had never allowed fires except in the inner rooms, which were
still closed under the notarial seals. The place had a certain grandeur
of its own, for the massive decorations, the heavy furniture, and the
rich brocade curtains all dated from the best period of Louis the
Fourteenth's reign. On the walls there were four or five first-rate
pictures, the largest of which was a magnificent portrait of a former
Chiaromonte by Vandyke; there was a Holy Family by Guercino, another by
Bonifacio, a Magdalen with the box of ointment, by Andrea del Sarto, and
one or two smaller paintings of no inconsiderable value.
But at that hour the light was bad, for the afternoon had turned cold
and rainy after a beautiful morning, and at four o'clock it was still
too early to have lamps. A few moments after the hour, a servant
opened the door, held the curtains aside, and announced the visitor.
'Her Excellency, the Princess Chiaromonte!'
Angela started slightly at the name. The last Princess Chiaromonte who
had passed through that doorway had been her mother, and in her
solitude the girl had not even been told that her uncle had already
assumed the title of the head of the house. The lacquey paid no
attention whatever to the quiet man in black who followed the
Princess, holding his hat against his chest with both hands and
advancing with a bowing motion at every step, as if he were saluting
the family chairs as he passed them. Angela vaguely remembered his
solemnly obsequious face.
Her aunt seemed to have grown taller and larger, as she bent to
imprint a formal kiss on the girl's cheek, and then sat down in one of
the huge old easy-chairs, while the lawyer seated himself at a
respectful distance on an ottoman stool with his high hat on his
knees. Angela took her place at one end of the stiff sofa that stood
directly under the Vandyke portrait, and she waited for her aunt to
speak.
The Princess had evidently prepared herself, for she spoke clearly and
did not pause for some time.
'Your uncle has a slight attack of influenza,' she said; 'otherwise he
would have come with me, and I should have been more than glad if he
himself could have explained the whole situation to you instead of
leaving that painful duty to me. You are well aware, my dear Angela,
that your father always clung to the most prejudiced traditions of the
intransigent clericals, and could never be induced to conform to any
of the new regulations introduced by the Italian Government. In point
of fact, I do not think he quite realised that the old order had
passed away when he was a mere boy, and that the new was to be
permanent, if not everlasting. If he had, he would have acted very
differently, I am sure, and my present duty would have been much
easier than it is. Are you quite certain that you understand that?'
Angela was quite certain that she did, and nodded quietly, though she
could not see how her father's political convictions could affect her
own present situation.
'I have no doubt,' continued the Princess, 'that he brought you up to
consider yourself the heiress of all his fortune, though not of the
title, which naturally goes to the eldest male heir. Am I right?'
'He never told me anything about my inheritance,' Angela replied.
'So much the better. It will be easier for me to explain your rather
unusual position. In the first place, I must make it clear to you that
your father and mother declined to go before the mayor at the Capitol
when they were married, in spite of the regulations which had then
been in force a number of years. They were devout Catholics and the
blessing of the Church was enough for them. According to your father,
to go through any form of civil ceremony, before or after the wedding,
was equivalent to doubting the validity of the sacrament of marriage.'
'Naturally,' Angela assented, as her aunt paused and looked at her.
'Very naturally.' The Princess's eyes began to glitter oddly, and the
lawyer turned his hat uneasily on his knees. 'Very naturally, indeed!
Unfortunately for you, however, your father was not merely overlooking
a municipal regulation, as he supposed; he was deliberately bidding
defiance to the laws of Italy.'
'What do you mean?' asked Angela rather nervously.
'It is very painful to explain,' answered the elder woman with
gleaming eyes and a disagreeable smile. 'The simple truth is that as
your father and mother were not civilly married--civilly, you
understand--they were not legally married at all, and the law will
never admit that they were!'
Angela's hand tightened on the arm of the old sofa.
'Not married?' she cried. 'My father and mother not married? It is
impossible, it is monstrous----'
'Not "legally" married, I said,' replied the Princess. 'To be legally
married, it is absolutely necessary to go before the mayor at the
Capitol and have the civil ceremony properly performed. Am I right?'
she asked, turning suddenly to the lawyer. 'It is absolutely
necessary, is it not?'
'Absolutely, Excellency,' the legal adviser answered. 'Otherwise the
children of the marriage are not legitimate.'
'What does that mean?' asked Angela in a frightened tone.
'It means,' explained the Princess, 'that in the eyes of the law you
do not exist----'
Angela tried to laugh.
'But I do exist! Here I am, Angela Chiaromonte, to say that I am
alive!'
'Angela, but not Chiaromonte,' corrected the Princess, hardly able to
hide her satisfaction. 'I am sorry to say that your dear father would
not even submit to the regulation which requires all parents alike to
declare the birth of children, and he paid a heavy fine for his
refusal. The consequence is that when your birth was entered at the
Municipality, you were put down as a foundling child whose parents
refused to declare themselves.'
'A foundling! I, a foundling!' Angela half rose in amazed indignation,
but almost instantly sat down again, with an incredulous smile.
'Either you are quite mad,' she said, 'or you are trying to frighten
me for some reason I do not understand.'
The Princess raised her sandy eyebrows and looked at the lawyer,
evidently meaning him to speak for her.
'That is your position, Signorina,' he said calmly. 'You have,
unhappily, no legal status, no legal name, and no claim whatever on the
estate of His Excellency Prince Chiaromonte, who was not married to your
mother in the eyes of the law, and refused even to acknowledge you as
his child by registering your birth at the mayoralty. Every inquiry has
been made on your behalf, and I have here the certified copy of the
register as it stands, declaring you to be a foundling. It was still in
your father's power to make a will in your favour, Signorina, and as the
laws of entail no longer exist, His Excellency may have left you his
whole estate, real and personal, though his titles and dignities will in
any case pass to his brother. I must warn you, however, that such a will
might not prove valid in law, since His Excellency did not even legally
acknowledge you as his child. So far, no trace of a will has been found
with his late Excellency's notary, nor with his lawyer, nor deposited
with his securities at his banker's. It is barely possible that some
paper may exist in the rooms which are still closed, but I think it my
duty to tell you that I do not expect to find anything of the kind when
we break the seals to-morrow, in the presence of the heirs and
witnesses.'
He ceased speaking and looked at the Princess as if asking whether he
should say more, for Angela had bent her head and quietly covered her
eyes with one hand, and in this attitude she sat quite motionless in
her place. The lawyer thought she was going to burst into tears, for
he did not know her.
'That will do, Calvi,' said the Princess calmly. 'You have made it all
very clear, and you may retire for the present. The young lady is
naturally overcome by the bad news, and would rather be alone with me
for a little while, I daresay.'
Signor Calvi rose, made a profound obeisance to the Princess, scarcely
bent his head to Angela, and retired, apparently bowing to the family
chairs as he passed each. The young girl dropped her hand and looked
after him with a sort of dull curiosity; she was the last person in
the world to take offence or to suppose that any one meant to be rude
to her, but it was impossible not to notice the lawyer's behaviour. In
his opinion she was suddenly nobody, and deserved no more notice than
a shop-girl. She understood enough of human nature to be sure that he
counted on the Princess's approval.
The elder woman was watching her with a satisfaction she hardly tried
to conceal. Her small hands were encased in marvellously fitting black
gloves, though black gloves rarely fit so well as others, and were
crossed on her knee over the little leather bag she always carried.
She was leaning back in the great arm-chair, and the mourning she wore
made her faultless complexion look even more brilliant than it was. No
one knew how near forty the Princess might be, for she appeared in the
_Almanach de Gotha_ without a birthday, and only the date of her
marriage was given; but the year was 1884, and people said it was
impossible that she should have been less than seventeen when her
parents had brought her to Rome and had tried to marry her to the
elder of the Chiaromonte family; as twenty years had passed since they
had succeeded in capturing the second son for their daughter, it was
clear that she could not be under thirty-seven. But her complexion was
extraordinary, and though she was a tall woman she had preserved the
figure and grace of a young girl.
Angela did not look directly at her enemy for some seconds after the
lawyer had left the room, closing the door behind him, not loudly but
quite audibly; but she was the first to speak when she was sure that
he was out of hearing.
'You hate me,' she said at last. 'What have I done to you?'
The Princess was not timid, nor very easily surprised, but the
question was so direct that she drew further back into her chair with
a quick movement, and her bright eye sparkled angrily as she raised
her sandy eyebrows.
'In this world,' she said, 'the truth is always surprising and
generally unpleasant. In consideration of what I have been obliged to
tell you about yourself, I can easily excuse your foolish speech.'
'You are very kind,' Angela answered quietly enough, but in a tone
that the Princess did not like. 'I was not asking your indulgence, but
an explanation, no matter how disagreeable the rest of the truth may
be. What have I done that you should hate me?'
The Princess laughed contemptuously.
'The expression is too strong,' she retorted. 'Hatred would imply an
interest in you and your possible doings, which I am far from feeling,
I assure you! Since it turns out that you are not even one of the
family----'
She laughed again and raised her eyebrows still higher, instead of
ending the speech.
'From what you say,' Angela answered with a good deal of dignity, 'I
can only understand that if you followed your own inclination you
would turn me out into the street.'
'The law will do so without my intervention,' answered the elder
woman. 'If my brother-in-law had even taken the trouble to acknowledge
you as his child, without legitimising you, you would have been
entitled to a small allowance, perhaps two or three hundred francs a
month, to keep you from starving. But as he has left no legal proof
that you are his daughter, and since he was not properly married to
your mother, you can claim nothing, not even a name! You are, in fact,
a destitute foundling, as Calvi just said!'
'It only remains for you to offer me your charity,' Angela said.
'That was not my intention,' returned the Princess with a savage
sneer. 'I have talked it over with my husband, and we do not see why
he should be expected to support his brother's--natural child!'
Angela rose from her seat without a word and went quietly towards the
door; but before she could reach it the Princess had followed her with
a rush and a dramatic sweep of her black cloth skirt and plentiful
crape, and had caught her by the wrist to bring her back to the middle
of the great room.
'I shall not keep you long!' cried the angry woman. 'You ask me what
you have done that I should hate you, and I answer, nothing, since you
are nobody! But I hated your mother, because she robbed me of the man
I wanted, of the only man I ever loved--your father--and when I married
his brother I swore that she should pay me for that, and she has! If
she can see you as you are to-day, all heaven cannot dry her tears,
for all heaven itself cannot give you a name, since the one on her own
tombstone is not hers by any right. I hope she sees you! Oh, I hope it
was not for nothing that she fasted till she fainted, and prayed till
she was hoarse, and knelt in damp churches till she died of it! I hope
she has starved and whined her way to paradise and is looking down at
this very moment and can see her daughter turned out of my house, a
pauper foundling, to beg her bread! I hope you are in a state of
grace, as she is, and that the communion of saints brings you near
enough together for her to see you!'
'You are mad,' Angela said when the Princess paused for breath. 'You
do not know what you are saying. Let go of my wrist and try to get
back to your senses!'
Whether the Princess was really out of her mind, as seemed at least
possible, or was only in one of her frequent fits of rage, the words
had an instantaneous effect. She dropped Angela's wrist, drew herself
up, and recovered her self-control in a few seconds. But there was
still a dangerous glare in her cat-like eyes as she turned towards the
window and faced the dull yellowish light of the late afternoon.
'You will soon find out that I have not exaggerated,' she said, dropping
from her late tone of fury to a note of icy coldness. 'The seals will be
removed to-morrow at noon, and I suppose no one can prevent you from
being present if you choose. After that you will make such arrangements
for your own future as you see fit. I should recommend you to apply to
one of the two convents on which my brother-in-law lavished nearly three
millions of francs during his life. One or the other of them will
certainly take you in without a dowry, and you will have at least a
decent roof over your head.'
With this practical advice the Princess Chiaromonte swept from the
room and Angela was left alone to ask herself whether such a sudden
calamity as hers had ever before overtaken an innocent girl in her
Roman world. She went back very slowly to the sofa and sat down again
under the great Vandyke portrait; her eyes wandered from one object to
another, as if she wished to make an inventory of the things that had
seemed to be hers because they had been her father's, but she was far
too completely dazed by what had happened to think very connectedly.
Besides, though she did not dare let the thought give her courage, she
still had a secret conviction that it was all a mistake and that her
father must have left some document which would be found among his
papers the next day, and would clear away all this dreadful
misunderstanding.
As for the rest of her aunt's story, no one had ever hinted at such a
thing in her hearing, but Madame Bernard would know the truth. There
was little indeed which the excellent Frenchwoman did not know about
the old Roman families, after having lived among them and taught their
children French for nearly a quarter of a century. She was very
discreet and might not wish to say much, but she certainly knew the
truth in this case.
It was not till she was upstairs in her own room, and was trying to
repeat to her old governess just what had been said, that Angela began
to realise what it meant. Madame Bernard was by turns horrified,
righteously angry, and moved to profound pity; at first she could not
believe her ears, but when she did she invoked the divine wrath on the
inhuman monster who had the presumption to call herself a woman, a
mother, and an aunt; finally, she folded Angela in a motherly embrace
and burst into tears, promising to protect her at the risk of her own
life--a promise she would really have kept if the girl had been in
bodily danger.
In her secret heart the little Frenchwoman was also making some
reflections on the folly and obstinacy of the late Prince, but out of
sheer kindness and tact she kept them to herself for the present.
Meanwhile she said she would go and consult one of the great legal
lights, to whose daughters she had lately given lessons and who had
always been very kind to her. It was nonsense, she said, to believe
that the Prince's brother could turn Angela out of her home without
making provision for her, such a liberal provision as would be
considered a handsome dowry--four hundred thousand francs would be the
very least. The Commendatore was a judge in the Court of Appeals and
knew everything. He would not even need to consult his books! His
brain was an encyclopædia of the law! She would go to him at once.
But Angela shook her head as she sat looking at the small wood fire in
the old-fashioned red-brick fireplace. Now that she had told her story
she saw how very sure the Princess and the lawyer must have been to
speak as they had both spoken.
But Madame Bernard put on her hat and went out to see the judge, who
was generally at home late in the afternoon; and Angela sat alone in
the dusk for a while, poking her little fire with a pair of very rusty
wrought-iron tongs, at least three hundred years old, which would have
delighted a collector but which were so heavy and clumsy that they
hurt her hands.
Her aunt's piece of advice came back to her; she had better ask to be
taken in at one of the convents which her father had enriched and
where she would be received without a dowry. She knew them both, and
both were communities of cloistered nuns; the one was established in a
gloomy mediæval fortress in the heart of the city, built round a
little garden that looked as unhealthy as the old Prioress's own
muddy-complexioned face and stubbly chin; the other was shut up in a
hideous modern building that had no garden at all. She felt nothing
but a repugnance that approached horror when she thought of either,
though she tried to reprove herself for it because her father had
given so much money to the sisters, and had always spoken of them to
her as 'holy women.' No doubt they were; doubtless, too, Saint Anthony
of Thebes had been a holy man, though it would have been unpleasant to
share his cell, or even his meals. Angela felt that if she was to live
on bread, water, and salad, she might as well have liberty with her
dinner of herbs. It was heartless to think of marrying, no doubt, when
her father had not yet been dead a week, but since she was forced to
take the future into consideration, she felt sure that Giovanni would
marry her without a penny, and that she should be perfectly happy with
him. She could well afford to laugh at the Princess's advice so long
as Giovanni was alive. He was coming to see her to-morrow, she would
tell him everything, and when the year of her mourning expired they
would be married.
The question was, what she was to do in the meantime, since it was
quite clear that she must soon leave the home in which she had been
brought up. Like all people who have never been face to face with
want, or any state of life even distinctly resembling poverty, she had
a vague idea that something would be provided for her. It was not till
she tried to define what that something was to be that she felt a
little sinking at her heart; but the cheering belief soon returned,
that the whole affair was a mistake, unless it was a pure invention of
her aunt's, meant to frighten her into abandoning her rights. In a
little while Madame Bernard would come back, beaming with
satisfaction, with a message from the learned judge to say that such
injustice and robbery were not possible under modern enlightened laws;
and Angela smiled to think that she could have been so badly
frightened by a mad woman and an obsequious old lawyer.
Decidedly, in spite of her gift for remembering prayers and litanies,
the mere thought of a cloistered life repelled her. Like most very
religiously brought up girls she had more than once fancied that she
was going to have a 'vocation' for the veil; but a sensible confessor
had put that out of her head, discerning at once in her mental state
those touches of maiden melancholy which change the look of the young
life for a day or a week, as the shadow of a passing cloud saddens a
sunlit landscape. It was characteristic of Angela that the possibility
of becoming a nun as a refuge from present and future trouble did not
present itself to her seriously, now that trouble was really imminent.
She was too buoyant by nature, her disposition was too even and
sensible, and above all, she was too courageous to think of yielding
tamely to the fate her aunt wished to impose upon her.
It might have been expected that she should at least break down for a
little while that afternoon and have a good cry in her solitude, while
Madame Bernard was on her errand to the judge; but she did not, though
there was a moment when she felt that tears were not far off. By way
of keeping them back she went into her bedroom, lit a candle and knelt
down to recite the prayers she had selected to say daily for her
father. They were many, some of them were beautiful, and more than
half of them were centuries old. Her conviction that the very just man
was certainly in heaven already did not make it seem wholly useless to
pray for him. No one could be quite sure of what happened in paradise,
and in any case, if he was in no need of such intercession himself,
she was allowed to hope that grace might overflow and avail to help
some poor soul in purgatory, by means of the divine indulgence.
Madame Bernard came back at last, but there was consternation in her
kindly face, for the great legal light had confirmed every word the
Princess and her lawyer had said to Angela, and had shrugged his
shoulders at the suggestion that a will might still be found. He had
told the governess plainly that a man married to a woman only by a
religious ceremony was not legally her husband, and that his children
had neither name nor rights unless he went through the legal form of
recognising them before the proper authorities. If the parents died
without making a will, the children had no claim whatever on the
estate unless they had been properly recognised. If there was a will,
however, they might inherit, even if they had not been legitimised,
provided that no lawful heirs of the testators were living, ascendants
or descendants. The Commendatore had expressed great surprise that the
late Prince should not have been warned of his daughter's irregular
position by his legal advisers. It only showed, he said, how necessary
the law was, since people who disregarded it got into such terrible
trouble.
The French teacher instinctively felt that there was something wrong
with the final syllogism, but it was only too clear that the
Commendatore knew his business, and that unless a legally executed
will were found on the morrow Angela had not the smallest chance of
getting a penny from the great estate her father had left.
'If they are so inhuman as to turn you out of your home without
providing for you,' Madame Bernard said, with tears in her eyes, 'I do
not see what you are to do, my dear child. I am ashamed to offer you
the little spare room I sometimes let to single foreign ladies--and
yet--if you would take it--ah, you would be so welcome! It is not a bad
exposure--it has the sun on it all day, though there is only one
window. The carpet is getting a little threadbare, but the curtains
are new and match the furniture--a pretty flowered chintz, you know.
And I will make little dishes for you, since you have no appetite! A
"navarin," my dear, I make it well, and a real "fricassée"! We
Frenchwomen can all cook! The "navarin" was my poor husband's
predilection--when he had eaten one made by me, he used to say that the
fleshpots of Egypt were certainly the "navarin" and nothing else. But
when I am alone it is not worth while to take so much trouble. An egg,
five sous' worth of ham and brawn, and a roll--that suffices me when I
am alone! But if you will accept the little room--ah, then I will put
on an apron and go into the kitchen, and you shall taste the French
cookery of a Frenchwoman!'
Angela was not listening to all this, for she was too much touched by
the generous intention to hear half of what Madame Bernard said, and
she could only press the little governess's hand again while she tried
to edge in a word of thanks between the quick sentences.
'And as for the rest,' Madame Bernard ran on, 'I have chaperoned half
the young girls in Roman society to concerts and to the dentist's, and
I have a nice little sitting-room, and there is no reason in the world
why Count Severi should not come to see us, until you can be married!'
This, at least, did not escape Angela, who squeezed the small plump
hand very hard, and at last succeeded in speaking herself.
'You are too good!' she cried. 'Too kind! If it turns out to be true,
if I am really to be a beggar, I would rather beg of you than of
distant cousins and people I know! Besides, they are all so afraid of
my aunt's tongue that not one of them would dare to take me in, even
for a week! But I will not come unless you will let me work to help
you, in some way--I do not know how--is there nothing I know well enough
to teach?'
'Oh, la, la!' cried Madame Bernard. 'Will you please not say such
things, my dear! As if it were not the greatest happiness in the world
you will be giving me, a lonely old woman, to come and live with me,
and help me take care of the parrot and water the flowers in the
window every evening at sunset, and learn how to make a "navarin!"
Work? Oh yes! You shall work, my dear child! If you think it is easy
to please a parrot, try it! I only say that!'
'I will do my best,' Angela said, smiling. 'To-morrow, at this hour,
we shall know what is to happen.'
'What has happened, has happened,' said Madame Bernard, as calmly as
any Hindu, though she was not a fatalist. 'Even if there is a paper
somewhere, do you think the Marchesa will not be the first to find it
and tear it to a thousand bits? No, I will not call her "Princess
Chiaromonte"! I, who knew your mother, my dear! Trust me, if there is
a will in the sealed rooms, the Marchesa will discover it before any
one!'
Angela thought that this might be true, for she had a most vivid
recollection of her aunt's look and voice during the late interview.
The more she thought of the immediate future, the clearer it became to
her that she must accept her old governess's offer of shelter for the
present. She could not bring herself to beg a lodging and the bare
necessaries of life from any of those people whom she had called her
friends. There were at least half-a-dozen girls with whom she had been
intimate at the Sacred Heart, and during the past winter, and some of
them were connections of her father's and would be profoundly shocked
to learn what her position now was. No doubt their parents would take
her in for a few days, and would very possibly do more than that, and
formally protest to her aunt and uncle against the treatment she had
received. But could she stay with any of them longer than a week on
such a footing? Would she be anything better than a waif, not knowing
where she should sleep or get a meal a few days hence? No; her only
choice lay between accepting Madame Bernard's offer, and presenting
herself as a candidate for charity at one of the two convents her
father had protected. Afterwards, a year hence or more, when she
should be married to Giovanni Severi, she would find some means of
amply repaying the generous woman, without hurting her feelings. Until
then, she must accept the kindness and be thankful that it came from
such a true friend.
She had no intention of showing herself downstairs the next day, when
the seals were to be removed and the papers examined. If she had
cherished any illusion as to the existence of a document in her
favour, Madame Bernard's last speech had effectually destroyed it,
which was the best thing that could have happened. At least, she was
sure of Giovanni, and a year must pass in a year's time! That was
axiomatic, and when the twelve months were over she would be married
quietly. She would not bring him a handsome dowry as she had fully
expected to do, and though his father was well-off, there were other
children, so that she could not expect to be rich; but what difference
could that make to two young people who loved each other? Evidently,
none at all.
It rained all the morning and Angela spent most of the time in a sort
of apathy, so far as her companion could see, sitting still for an
hour with a book she did not read, then moving about to rooms in an
objectless way only to go back to her chair in a few minutes and to
sit motionless again before the smouldering wood fire.
Madame Bernard, on the contrary, was very busy in making preparations
to take her away if a sudden move should be necessary. Though the
servants were evidently informed of what was taking place, she
succeeded in getting a couple of trunks and a valise brought up, and
she began to pack them with clothing from Angela's wardrobe, taking
only such things as would be useful in the quiet life of mourning the
girl was to lead for a year. The maid had disappeared, presumably to
look for a place, and when it was time for luncheon it was not without
difficulty that Madame Bernard got a footman to bring something cold
on a tray. It was quite clear by this time that the whole household
knew the truth and expected Angela to leave the palace that day, and
the little woman paused more than once in her packing to shake her
fist at the slim visions of the Princess Chiaromonte that crossed the
field of her imagination.
Downstairs matters proceeded as she had foreseen. The Princess, two
lawyers, a notary, and several clerks had removed the seals and locked
themselves in the inner apartment to examine the papers and such
valuables as were there; but it is needless to say that they found
nothing in the nature of a will, nor any document even expressing a
wish on the part of the deceased. The notary observed that it was very
strange, but one of the lawyers shrugged his shoulders and smiled,
while the other asked why, in the nature of things, a man so young and
healthy as the late Prince should have been expected to make careful
preparations against his sudden demise when he might well expect to
live thirty years longer. The Princess said nothing, and her husband
did not appear; indeed, he never did, and on all occasions of
importance, like the present, the Princess was provided with a power
of attorney to represent him, speak for him, decide for him, and sign
documents for him. There were many stories about him in society, none
of which contained more than the merest particle of truth. Some people
said he was mad, others maintained that he was paralysed; there were
those who confidently asserted that his face was disfigured by an
unsightly claret mark, and it was even suggested that he was a leper.
When any of these tales were repeated to his wife by dear friends, she
answered that he was very well and had just gone to the Abruzzi to
look after one of the large holdings of the estate, or that he was in
Hungary, shooting with distant cousins who had lands there, or that,
if the truth must be known, he had a touch of the influenza and would
probably run down to Sicily for a change, as soon as he was able to
travel. Angela herself had not seen him since she had been a mere
child. She remembered that once, when she was at her aunt's, a tall,
pale man with a thoughtful face had passed through the room quickly
without paying the least attention to any one; she had asked her small
cousins who he was, and had been told in an awe-struck whisper that it
was their father. That was probably the only time she had ever laid
eyes on him; and somehow she did not connect him with what was
happening to her now. It was all her aunt's doing; the thin and
thoughtful man had not looked as if he were heartless, he would not
have allowed his brother's child to be turned out a beggar, under the
letter of the law.
Yet the Princess's most ultimate and affectionate enemies had not
succeeded in fathoming the mystery. Two of them, who were connections
of her husband's, had once had a theory that she had locked him up and
kept him a prisoner for her own ends; a similar case had then recently
occurred in Palermo, where a widowed lady and her daughter had been
kept in confinement during several years, and almost starved to death,
by the wicked steward of their estates. Accordingly, the aforesaid
connections had appealed to the chief of secret police for information
about their relative; but in a few days he had been able to tell them
confidently that the Marchese del Prato was in good health and quite
free, that he was an enthusiastic scholar, and was writing an
exhaustive work on the mythology of Pindar's _Odes_, and that there
was no cause for any anxiety about him. So that matter was settled for
ever.
At half-past three o'clock the Princess went away, leaving the lawyers
and clerks to finish their work, for she was more than satisfied that
no will nor any similar document would be found amongst the late
Prince's papers, and everything else was mere formality; the regular
inventories would be made later when the succession duties had to be
paid, but meanwhile there was nothing to hinder her from taking
possession in her husband's name. Before leaving the palace she sent
for the butler, and told him that 'Signorina Angela' was to be
requested to 'remove her effects' the next day. She further
condescended to inform him that the 'Signorina' had been ascertained
to be a nameless foundling who had no share in the inheritance and
must shift for herself, as it was not the intention of the Prince to
support such a person. The butler had learned something of the great
Roman families during a brilliant career in the servants' hall, and he
could have told some singularly romantic tales, but he had never had
experience of anything like this. He tried to look at the Princess for
a moment before he answered her, but he could not face her glittering
eyes.
'Very well, Excellency,' he said, bowing. 'Is the young lady to have
her meals here till she leaves? The French governess is also staying
in the house.'
'Send them up something from the servants' dinner,' the Princess
answered.
'Very well, Excellency.'
But the butler looked after her with considerable curiosity, watching
her graceful figure as she went down the grand staircase and holding
the swinging door open on the landing till she was out of sight. Then
he went in again, looked round the empty hall, and spoke aloud, asking
a question that has never had any answer.
'Women, women--who can understand you?'