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Why, man, freedom could give you twenty!" "Ah!" murmured Salustri, softly and sentimentally, "but the one perfect pearl the one flawless diamond " "Bah! Salustri, caro mio, you are half asleep!" returned Gualdro. "'Tis the wine talks, not you. Thou art conquered by the bottle, amico. You, the darling of all the women in Naples, to talk of one! Buona notte, bambino!"
"'Then no planet strikes, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallowed and so gracious is the time." A murmur of applause and a hearty clapping of hands rewarded this little speech, and the Marchese Gualdro sprung to his feet "By Heaven!" he exclaimed, "we are not a party of terrified old women to shiver on the edge of a worn-out omen! Fill your glasses, signori! More wine, garcon!
The Duke di Marina coughed a stately cough, and shrugged his shoulders. "That first quarrel," he said, "as related in the Bible, was exceedingly vulgar. It must have been a kind of prize-fight. Ce n'etait pas fin." Gualdro laughed delightedly. "So like you, Marina!" he exclaimed, "to say that! I sympathize with your sentiments!
"You speak like an artist and a man of even temperament," broke in the Marchese Gualdro, who had finished his soup quickly in order to be able to talk talking being his chief delight. "For me, I am never contented. I never have enough of anything! That is my nature.
Yet the strength and suppleness of D'Avencourt's wrist was reputed to be prodigious by those who had seen him handle the sword, whether in play or grim earnest. "It is an impossible dream," he said, in reply to the remarks of Gualdro and Salustri, "that idea of all men fraternizing together in one common pig-sty of equality. Look at the differences of caste!
"Say farewell to jollity, conte!" cried Chevalier Mancini; "once drawn along by the rustling music of a woman's gown, no more such feasts as we have had to-night!" And he shook his head with tipsy melancholy. "By all the gods!" exclaimed Gualdro, "your news has surprised me! I should have thought you were the last man to give up liberty for the sake of a woman. ONE woman, too!
He remained faithful to the first beverage he had selected a specially fine Chianti, of which he partook freely without its causing the slightest flush to appear on his pale aristocratic features. Its warm and mellow flavor did but brighten his eyes and loosen his tongue, inasmuch that he became almost as elegant a talker as the Marchese Gualdro.
Who shall say you are not a sentimental bridegroom? Is there a bright moon?" "I believe so." "Cosa bellissima!" and she laughed sweetly. "I look forward to the trip! In twenty minutes then I shall be with you at the place you name, Cesare; in the meanwhile the Marchese Gualdro claims me for this mazurka."
"Caro Capitano!" broke in the musical voice of the Marchese Gualdro, "you know that our Francesco goes nowhere without his beloved Carlo. Carlo CANNOT come altro! Francesco WILL NOT. Would that all men were such brothers!" "If they were," laughed Luziano Salustri, rising from the piano where he had been playing softly to himself, "half the world would be thrown out of employment.
The glib tongue of the Marchese Gualdro ran on smoothly and incessantly, though he frequently lost the thread of his anecdotes and became involved in a maze of contradictory assertions.
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