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I believe that I could have been for ever Aurelia's mute, adoring, unasking slave, but for the fact that she had sighed, and whispered me "Checho," and twice suffered me to kiss her hands. Fatal benevolence that lifted suddenly the meek! Fatal wealth bestowed that made the pauper purse-proud! I had passed the night in a transport of triumphant joy; throughout the day succeeding it I felt my wings.
"No more," I cried, "No more, O God!" She was alarmed. "You are ill, you are ill, Checho?" I said, "I stand at a death-bed. Love lies dying down there. Hush. We should be on our knees." She was now weeping bitterly. "O lasso! O lasso! What have I done to you?" "I fought in your honour, madam," I said, commanding myself, "I dared a murder in your defence.
"But," she said, "but it is true, Checho. It is true. What he said to you was true and now " she frowned as she pondered out what was to come; clouds gathered over her beautiful, soulless face; she folded her arms, clenched her teeth and stormed at me. "You fool, you fool, you fool!" she said fiercely, panting for breath with which to end me.
I strode about before her declaiming against myself, not looking at her. She laughed her vexation away. "My poor Checho," she said, "if you knew, if you could understand! Those days and nights of ours were very sweet. Come, let us walk a little. It is chilly here. Come, we will go into the house and you shall tell me of your travels." She took my arm; I led her back to the house.
"You shall call me nothing else, "said I then; but she shook her head, and hung it down as she whispered softly, "I like best Francesco," and then, so low as to be hardly audible, "Checho," the Sienese diminutive for my name of Francis. Old Nonna came in to hound me from the room. That night it was my last but one Aurelia came to the door with me, and let me kiss her two hands again.
The young man who once showed himself unworthy to be at your feet may now stand upon his own. Don Francis has offended Donna Aurelia " "Oh, no, no, no!" said Aurelia in distress. "Oh, Checho, don't leave me." I came off my stilts, for I saw that she was unhappy. "Can I serve you?" I asked her. "Can I be so honoured?" "Yes, yes," she said brokenly, "stay with me. I need you stay."
We had read little and spoken less; the airless night forbade it; for the last half hour no words had passed between us but a faint, "Ah, go now, go now, Checho," from her, and from me my prayer of "Not yet, not yet let me stay with you."
I said, after a pause, during which I could hear the furious beating of my heart, "I am at my prayers, in my church, before my altar. Your eyes are the candles, your heart is the altar stone. I kneel " and I did kneel. Then she grew alarmed, and was for stopping me. "Checho," she said, "this is foolish, and I must not listen. I beg you to get up; I know it is late.
"That was a serious thing that you did, Checho. It was more serious than you seem to suppose. The wounds in his person are nothing compared to what you did beside. He is a proud man, and you have wounded his vanity. I doubt if he will ever be healed of that stroke. Do you know what he said to me just now?"
"I have but to thrill his name to call Checho Checho and he comes. Is it not so, Checho? Is it not so?" Call you me, Virginia; call you me in turn, my girl! What said she now but, "Povera Virginia, che fara? Don Francesco non ti ama piu. Ebbene pazienza!" Virginia shrugged her proud shoulders and turned her grey eyes away. Virginia refused to plead, and was too proud to command.
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