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When he turned round to look for Baldassare, Baldassare had disappeared. When Nobili rushed home through the dark streets from the Countess Orsetti's ball, he shut himself up in his own particular room, threw himself on a divan, and tried to collect his thoughts. At first he was only conscious of one overwhelming feeling a feeling of intense joy that Nera Boccarina was alive.
Nera's eyelids tremble; she opens her eyes, her lips move. "Nera, my child, my darling, speak to me!" cries Madame Boccarini. "Tell me that you can hear me." Nera tries to raise her head, but in vain. It falls back upon the cushion. "Home, mamma home!" her lips feebly whisper. At the sound of her voice Nobili starts up; he brushes away the tears that still roll down his cheeks.
You are in a cortile: men say there is an inn here with reasonable entertainment. If it is the Aquila Nera, it will serve. There is no sound beyond the labouring of our horses' wind and of some outland dog in the far distance baying for a moon. This is Siena at her black magic. I maintain that the impression you thus receive holds you. Next morning there is a blare of sun.
There are some other pictures by Sodoma, among them a Judith, very noble and admirable, and full of a profound sorrow for the deed which she has felt it her mission to do. Aquila Nera, October 7th. Our lodgings in Siena had been taken only for five days, as they were already engaged after that period; so yesterday we returned to our old quarters at the Black Eagle.
A luxuriant form, a skin mellow and ruddy as a ripe peach, and such eyes! Nera was silent. She guessed his thoughts. She knew men so well. Men had been her special study. Nera was only twenty-four, but she was clever, and would have excelled in any thing she pleased. To draw men to her, as the magnet draws the needle, was the passion of her life; whether she cared for them or not, to draw them.
How the men drag at the ribbons, whirling round and round, hand-in-hand! Nera's small hand can scarcely hold them the men whirling round every instant faster tumbling over each other, indeed; each moment the ribbons are dragged harder. Nera laughs; she sways from side to side, her arms extended. Faster and more furiously the men whirl round like runaway horses now, bearing dead upon the reins.
One was particularly struck by an altar facing the windows, an altar with red drapery surmounted by a baldacchino with red hangings, on which appeared the escutcheon of the Boccaneras, the winged dragon spitting flames with the device, Bocca nera, Alma rossa.
He yearned to cast himself for pardon at her feet; to feast his eyes upon the sweetness of her fair face; to fill his ears with the sound of her soft voice; to watch her heavenly eyes gathering upon him with the gleam of incipient passion. How pure she was! How peerless, how different from all other women! How different from Nera! dark-eyed, flashing, tempting Nera!
By daylight, the snow on yonder peaks is clearly visible, where the Monti della Sibilla tower up above the sources of the Nera and Velino from frigid wastes of Norcia. The lower ranges seem as though painted, in films of airiest and palest azure, upon china; and then comes the broad green champaign, flecked with villages and farms.
"You have advised me," he answered, stung by her coldness. "You have convinced me, I shall obey you. Now I must go, unless you bid me stay." Again his eyes pleaded with hers; again found no response. Nera held out her hand to him. "To-morrow," the full, ripe lips uttered "to-morrow." Seeing that he hesitated, Nera pointed with a gesture toward the door, and Nobili departed.
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