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II. "If you go on like this," Carlino exclaimed, hearing Jeanne order her maid to bring her hat, gloves, and fur, "if you leave me alone all day long, I swear to you we will return to Villa Diedo. There, at least, you will not know where to go." "I have arranged to send Chieco to you," she said. "To-day at two he is to play for the Queen, and then he will come to you. Good-bye."
Perhaps the attack would not return; perhaps the fever was checked. She shook her head violently, and he did not dare to insist. Suddenly she fancied she heard Chieco saying good-bye. She shuddered, and removed her hands from her face, which was ghostly, under her disordered hair.
She waited a moment, and then signed to the Selvas to approach. She said, her voice quite firm, that she felt the Senator should have informed them, that she did not understand why he had appealed to her. They must now arrange what was to be done. The music ceased. They could hear Carlino and Chieco talking.
She must repeat the Minister's discourse to him. The two musicians had once more ceased playing, and were talking. Jeanne knocked softly on the door, and blew a few gay words against it: "Bravi! Have you finished already?" "No, pretty one," Chieco answered from the other side. "So much the worse for you if you are bored!" He sent forth a fiendish whistle, fit to pierce a hole in the door.
Selva said that he had, indeed, intended to remain, and the expression of his voice, of his face, was such as to acquaint Jeanne with the fact that sad words, not yet spoken, were weighing on his heart. Oh! thought Jeanne, what if Chieco should leave now, and Carlino call? Then it would not be possible for us to speak together! For she also had something to say to Selva.
You, in one way or another, will see Piero to-night. Tell him " At this point a spasm of grief checked her words. Chieco came in, whistling, and beating one hand against the other in his own peculiar fashion, Selva slipped out through the door. Jeanne ran after him into the dark corridor. She seized one of his hands and pressed a wild kiss upon it.
She clasped her hands imploringly, supplicating him to leave her, exclaiming from time to time: "Va via, va via Vel chieco per pieta." Then all at once, while the orchestra blared, they fell into each other's arms. "Why do they do that?" murmured Aunt Wess' perplexed. "I thought the gentleman with the beard didn't like her at all."
But, instead, the first gay notes of the Curricolo Napoletano burst forth; that was the piece Chieco always played last. She started to her feet, and spoke convulsively, tearlessly. "Selva, I know Piero is dying, I know he is not mistaken. If possible make him stay where he is. Bring his friends to him swear to me that you will bring his friends to him, that he may have that comfort!
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