United States or Mauritius ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
If you desire it, we will call for paper and pen and set down the terms of our agreement at once. 'That will not be necessary, sir, replied the Senator, who did not care to put his name to such a document. 'I have confidence in you. Trombin at once raised his head and fastened his eyes on Pignaver.
'I shall communicate my business at once, said Pignaver, 'for the person in question could never have been my friend any more than he could be my enemy. 'We understand your meaning, said Gambardella; 'he is of low birth. Shall we say that he is "superfluous"? 'A weed, suggested Trombin, 'a parasite, a wart, an overgrowth, a thing to be eradicated before it does greater harm!
She was out of sight in a few seconds in spite of her white monk's frock, which might have been seen at a considerable distance even in the gloom of the narrow lane beyond the bridge. Trombin, who tried to follow her with his sharp eyes, was sure that she had turned into a cross alley that led to the large court in which the Palazzo Pignaver then stood.
As usual, Ortensia was to sing one of her uncle's ninety-seven compositions to him while Stradella accompanied her; as usual, Pignaver would then go away; lastly, at the customary time, Pina would go out for ten minutes and reappear with water and sherbet. Ortensia was shaking with emotion when the ordeal began, and for a moment she felt that it was hopeless to try to sing.
'How could it be otherwise? asked Pignaver. 'But I must apologise for not having addressed you gentlemen by your proper titles, which are foreign, though I had taken you both for Venetian nobles. 'We are, sir, Trombin answered, 'but it pleased his Majesty the King of France to confer titles of French nobility on us, after we had rendered him a trifling service.
Their offers were constantly presented to him, sometimes by their fathers or mothers, and sometimes by ingenious elderly friends who undertook such negotiations for a financial consideration. But Pignaver always returned the same answer, politely expressing his thanks for the honour done his niece, but saying that he had 'other views for her.
To these questions she answered that she was too anxious to profit by the lessons she was receiving, through her uncle's kindness, to waste the precious time in which she might be studying his immortal works. She used those very words, without a blink, and Pignaver swallowed the flattery as a dog bolts a gobbet of meat.
She was arrested in Ferrara some nineteen or twenty years ago and confessed the truth under torture, but was soon afterwards pardoned by the intervention of your uncle, the Senator Pignaver. 'My uncle? Ortensia almost forgot her new anxiety in her surprise. 'Yes, dear lady. Your uncle was, in fact, the young Venetian who had carried her off out of the convent, promising to marry her!
'They are known as Trombin and Gambardella, said the Signor; 'they are now in Venice, and are generally to be heard of at the eating-house of Markos, the Samian money-lender and wine-dealer. I dare say you know where his place is? Not far from the Rialto, on this side 'In what is left of the old Quirini Palace, where they sell poultry downstairs? asked Pignaver. 'Precisely.
Further, the Senator asked whether Stradella ever attempted to enter into conversation with his pupil, between one piece of music and the next. 'Conversation! cried the young girl indignantly. 'He would not dare! If Pignaver noticed the slight blush that came with the words, he set it down to just anger at the mere suggestion that his future wife could stoop to talk with a music-master.
Word Of The Day