United States or Bouvet Island ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Yes, sir the under-cook; he stood godfather with me for the baby of a cousin of mine the young man who drives Prince Valdarno's private brougham: a clever fellow, too." "And this under-cook," said Del Ferice, who was not above entering into details with his servant "is he a discreet character?" "Oh, for that, you may trust him.
Most of the men who meant to follow had already mounted, and the little crowd had thinned considerably. But while they had been talking another carriage had driven into the field, and had halted a few yards from Valdarno's drag. Astrardente had taken it into his head to come to the meet with his wife, and they had arrived late. Astrardente always arrived a little late, on principle.
A pretty figure, all in white, before the great altar with the lights, and the priest in his robes, and the organ playing, and that Hercules in a black coat for a husband. Now she looks up. The rings are there on the gold salver upon the altar. She has not seen hers, and is wondering whether it is of plain gold, or a band of diamonds, like the Princess Valdarno's.
When he again entered the smoking-room of the club, he was greeted by a chorus of inquiries concerning his interview with Astrardente. "What did he ask? What did he say? Where is he? What did you tell him? Did he drop his eyeglass? Did he blush through his paint?" Everybody spoke together in the same breath. Valdarno's vanity rose to the occasion.
Valdarno's stables were near the club, and on pretence of showing a new horse to Astrardente, he nodded to his friends, and left the room with the aged dandy. It was a clear, bright winter's morning, and the two men strolled slowly down the Corso towards Valdarno's palace. "You know, of course, how the affair began?" asked the young man. "The first duel? Nobody knows certainly not I."
Del Fence pricked his ears in the direction of her voice, like a terrier that suspects the presence of a rat. Valdarno's answer was inaudible, but Donna Tullia ceased laughing immediately. "They are talking politics," said Del Ferice in a low voice, leaning towards Giovanni as he spoke. The latter shrugged his shoulders and went on smoking.
He descended from his dogcart by the roadside, instead of driving into the field, and he took a careful survey of the carriages he saw before him. Conspicuous in the distance he distinguished Donna Tullia Mayer standing among a little crowd of men near Valdarno's drag. She was easily known by her dress, as Del Ferice had remarked on the previous evening.
Word Of The Day