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I took la bella to the Duomo and Annunciata, to the Cafe, to the Opera, to the village Festa, to the Public Garden, to the Day Theatre, to the Marionetti. The pretty little one was charmed with all she saw. She learnt Italian heavens! miraculously! Was mistress quite forgetful of that dream? I asked Carolina sometimes. Nearly, said la bella almost. It was wearing out.
Annunciata, the first object of this uncertain passion, behaves herself, it must be confessed, in a very extraordinary manner. We suppose the exigencies of the novel must excuse her; it was necessary that her lover should be plunged in despair, and therefore she could not be permitted to behave as any other woman would have done in the same circumstances.
Emigration had increased, and those who remained whispered of a new order, where each man was the government, and no man a king. Annunciata listened to the end. She felt no pity for those who would better themselves by discontent and its product, revolt. She felt only resentment that her peace was being threatened, her position assailed. And in her resentment she included the King himself.
"A sadly troubled country," he repeated. "All countries are troubled. We are no worse than others." "Perhaps not. But things are changing. The old order is changing. The spirit of unrest I shall not live to see it. You may, Annunciata. But the day is coming when all thrones will totter. Like this one." Now at last he had pierced her armor. "Like this one!" "That is what I said.
If Herman could make the first move, let him, Peter, make the second. He linked arms with his old enemy. "A fine night," he said. Dinner was over in the dull old dining-room. The Archduchess Annunciata lighted a cigarette, and glanced across the table at Hedwig. Hedwig had been very silent during the meal. She had replied civilly when spoken to, but that was all.
If one does not care, it makes the things they do unimportant." "But surely," Hedwig gasped, "surely I shall be consulted?" Annunciata shook her head. They had all risen and Hilda was standing, the peach forgotten, her mouth a little open. As for Olga Loschek, she was very still, but her eyes burned. The Archduchess remembered her presence no more than that of the flowers on the table.
Miss Braithwaite had withdrawn to her sitting-room, but even there she could hear the voice of Annunciata, rasping and angry. It was very clear to Nikky from the beginning that the Archduchess's wrath was not for that afternoon alone.
Not even for the comfort of his small presence could stern discipline be relaxed. Annunciata was not much comfort to him. They had always differed, more or less, the truth being, perhaps, that she was too much like the King ever to sympathize fully with him. Both were arrogant, determined, obstinate.
But she was gone. When the motor which had taken them from the quay reached the Palace, Hedwig roused the Archduchess, whose head had dropped forward on her chest. "Here we are, mother," she said. "You have had a nice sleep." But Annunciata muttered something about being glad the wretched day was over, and every one save Prince Ferdinand William Otto seemed glad to get back. The boy was depressed.
Absorbed as he was in other matters, it struck him, as she bent, that Annunciata was no longer young, and that Time w as touching her with an unloving finger. He viewed her graying hair, her ugly clothes, with the detached eye of age. And he sighed. "Well, father," she said, looking down at him, "how do you feel?" "Sit down," he said.