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The difficulty lay in ascertaining which particular fireside he would select on that afternoon. Giovanni hastily sketched a route for himself and asked the porter at each of his friends' houses if Spicca had entered. Fortune favoured him at last. Spicca was drinking his tea with the Marchesa di San Giacinto.
"Who is Spicca?" she enquired, with a lazy glance at her companion's face. "Spicca? Surely you have heard of him. He used to be a famous duellist. He is our great wit. My father likes him very much he is an odd character."
That is the famous, the incomparable Madame d'Aranjuez the most beautiful of Spanish princesses according to to-day's paper. I daresay you have seen the account of the Del Ferice party. She is no more Spanish than Alexander the Great. Is she, Spicca?" "No, she is not Spanish," answered the latter. "Then what in the world is she?" asked Giovanni impatiently. "How should I know?
Giovanni hastily began to dress, without paying any attention to the fresh wound he had received in the last encounter. In the general excitement, his surgeon had joined the group about the fallen man. Before Giovanni had got his overcoat on he came back with Spicca, who looked crestfallen and disappointed. "He is not dead at all," said the surgeon.
"I really beg your pardon," said the Prince hurriedly, in a low voice, as he came up, "but I am in a great hurry an affair of honour will you be witness? My carriage is at the door." "With pleasure," said Count Spicca, quietly; and without further comment he accompanied the Prince to the outer hall. Giovanni was waiting, and the Prince's footman stood at the head of the stairs.
From time to time he made a remark, to which Maria Consuelo paid very little attention if she took any notice of it at all. Orsino could not make up his mind whether to stay or to go. The latter course would evidently displease Maria Consuelo, whereas by remaining he was clearly annoying Spicca and was perhaps causing him pain.
The attempt was fruitless, of course, but it occupied his thoughts. He met Spicca in the street, and avoided him. He imagined that the old man must despise him for not having resisted and followed Maria Consuelo after all. The hypothesis was absurd and the conclusion vain, but he could not escape the idea, and it annoyed him.
"I have a number of things to do before night, and I must see Contini in order to give him time to make a list of apartments for you to see to-morrow." He took his hat and rose. He was not prepared for Maria Consuelo's answer. "I asked you to stay," she said, coldly and very distinctly. Spicca did not allow his expression to change. Orsino stared at her.
If Madame d'Aranjuez thinks it is not, from her point of view there are a thousand reasons why I should consider it far more completely out of the question. As for preventing her from leaving Rome I could not do that even were I willing to try." "Then I will go with her," said Orsino, angrily. Spicca looked at him in silence for a few moments. Orsino rose to his feet and prepared to go.
Orsino could not help wondering what the tie between him and Madame d'Aranjuez could be, for it evidently had the power to make Spicca submit without complaint to something worse than ordinary unkindness and to make him defend on all occasions the name and character of the woman who treated him so harshly. It must be a very close bond, Orsino thought.
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