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In case of failure Del Ferice would take the buildings for the debt and would certainly in that case get them for much less than they were worth. Orsino would be no worse off than when he had begun, he would frankly confess that though he had lost nothing he had not made a fortune, and the matter would be at an end.
Maria Consuelo went forward and bent over the face and kissed the white forehead, and made the sign of the Cross upon it. Then she turned and took Orsino's hand in hers. "I could not help your hearing what I said, Orsino. He was dying, you see. You know all, now." Orsino's fingers pressed hers desperately. For a moment he could not speak.
Even physically, Orsino had improved, though the change was undefinable. Young as he was, something of the power of mature manhood was already coming over his youth. "You must have thought me very rude," said Maria Consuelo, breaking the silence and speaking with a slight hesitation which Orsino had never noticed before. "It is not for me to complain, Madame," he answered. "You had every right "
The other two looked at Orsino, wondering what he would say in answer to such a point-blank demand for flattery. "Juno is still Minerva's ally," he said, falling back upon mythology, though it struck him that Del Ferice would make a poor Jupiter, with his fat white face and dull eyes. "Very good!" laughed Donna Tullia. "A little classic, but I pressed you hard. You are not easily caught.
"Either would be flattery for Abel was good and Cain was interesting." "And I am neither you give me another opportunity of exhibiting my deep humility. I thank you sincerely. You are becoming more gracious than I had hoped." "You are very like a woman, Don Orsino. You always try to have the last word." "I always hope that the last word may be the best.
But I am glad of it, my boy, very glad. She is no match for you, Orsino. I confess, I wish you would marry at once. I would like to see my great grandchildren but not Madame d'Aranjuez. A widow, too." "My father married a widow." "When you find a widow like your mother, and ten years younger than yourself, marry her if you can. But not Madame d'Aranjuez older than you by several years."
As for the architect himself, he surveyed Orsino with a sort of sympathetic curiosity which the latter would have thought unpleasantly familiar if he had understood it. Contini had never spoken before with any more exalted personage than Del Ferice, and he studied the young aristocrat as though he were a being from another world.
The question was so sudden and direct that Orsino fancied there ought to be an evident answer to it. "What then?" he repeated, after a moment's hesitation. "I suppose you will live in these same rooms again, and with your permission, a certain Orsino Saracinesca will visit you from time to time, and be rude, and be sent away into exile for his sins.
Spicca was still thought so dangerous that people hesitated to contradict him openly, but his mere assertion, Orsino thought, though it might be accepted in appearance, was not of enough weight to carry inward conviction with it in the minds of people who had no interest in being convinced.
The old prince stood before the fire in the state drawing-room, rubbing his hands and shaking his head. Giovanni and Corona sat on opposite sides of the fireplace, looking at each other and somewhat inclined to laugh. Orsino was intently studying a piece of historical tapestry which had never interested him before. The silence lasted some time.
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