United States or Pitcairn Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Both their heads were therefore in shadow, but the marchesa's eyes gleamed nevertheless, as she waited for Trenta's explanation. "Did you observe nothing this evening, my friend?" he asked "nothing?" His manner was unusually excited. "No," she answered, thoughtfully. She had been so exclusively occupied with the slights put upon herself that every thing else had escaped her.
Recall the Guinigi Tower, your attitude your glances I must say, Count Marescotti, I consider your conduct unpardonable quite unpardonable." Trenta's face and forehead were scarlet, his steely blue eyes were rounded to their utmost width, and, as far as such mild eyes could, they glared at the count. "You have entirely misled me.
"I believe with Savonarola in other miracles," continued the count, in a louder tone, addressing himself directly to Enrica, on whom he gazed with a tender expression he was far too much engrossed with her and with the subject to heed Trenta's feeble remonstrance "I believe in the mystic essence of soul to soul I believe in the reappearance of the disembodied spirit to its kindred affinity still on earth still clothed with a fleshly garment.
It was not the first time she had found it to her advantage to accept Trenta's hints. Trenta was a man of the world, and he had his eyes open. What he meant, however, she could not even guess. Meanwhile the count had drawn a chair beside Enrica. "Yes, yes, the Orsetti ball," he said, absently, passing his hand through the masses of black curls that rested upon his forehead.
"I am sure I don't want the marchesa or any one else to know it," replied Baldassare, greatly reassured as to the manner in which he would pass his day by the change in Trenta's manner. "I would not annoy her or injure the signorina for all the world. I am sure you know that, cavaliere. No word shall pass my lips, I promise you."
Still, he had too high an opinion of his personal beauty, fine clothes, and general merits, to believe that the ladies of Lucca would permit of his banishment by any arbitrary decree of the cavaliere. "You had better find out the truth, cavaliere," he muttered, keeping well out of the range of Trenta's stick, "before you put yourself in such a passion."
He trod with that firm, grand step churchmen have in common with actors only the stage upon which each treads is different. Trenta's kind eyes twinkled under his white eyebrows as he spied Enrica above, standing side by side with Nobili. How different the dear child looked from that last time he had seen her at Lucca! Enrica flew down the steps to meet him. She threw her arms round his neck.
He neither insinuated nor suggested, but spoke bluntly out bold words, and those upon a subject she esteemed essentially her own. Even in the depth of her despondency it made a certain impression upon her. She roused herself and glared at him, but there was no shrinking in his face. Trenta's clear round eyes, so honest and loyal in their expression, seemed to pierce her through and through.
Why did you break it?" Trenta's shrill voice had risen into a kind of wail. "Do you mean to doubt what I told you at Lucca? I swear to you that Enrica never knew that she was offered in marriage to Count Marescotti I swear it! I did it it was my fault. I persuaded the marchesa. It was I. Enrica and Count Marescotti never met but in my presence. And you revenge yourself on her?
At first she was so stunned she forgot his name; then it came to her. Yes, the poet Marescotti Trenta's friend who had raved on the Guinigi Tower. What was he to her? Marry Marescotti! Oh! who could have said it? Gradually, as Enrica's mind became clearer, lying there so still with no sound but Pipa's measured breathing, she felt to its full extent how Nobili had wronged her.
Word Of The Day