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The man appeared to be taking exactly that attitude to his wife she had already suggested toward him. "Il volto sciolto ed i pensieri stretti," declared Giuseppe with gloom. "That is to say 'her countenance may be clear, but her thoughts are dark' too dark to tell me her husband." "Perhaps she fears you a little. A woman is always helpless before a man who keeps his own secrets hidden."
The height of abilities is to have 'volto sciolto' and 'pensieri stretti'; that is, a frank, open, and ingenuous exterior, with a prudent interior; to be upon your own guard, and yet, by a seeming natural openness, to put people off theirs.
Great caution is therefore necessary; and if, to great caution, you can join seeming frankness and openness, you will unite what Machiavel reckons very difficult but very necessary to be united; 'volto sciolto e pensieri stretti'. Women are very apt to be mingled in court intrigues; but they deserve attention better than confidence; to hold by them is a very precarious tenure.
"They are only at the first stair." "Mr. Triplet, your face is a book, where one may read strange matters. For Heaven's sake, compose yourself. Let all the risk lie in one countenance. Look at me, sir. Volto Sciolto is your cue." "Madam, madam, how your tongue goes! I hear them on the stairs. Pray don't speak!" "Do you know what we are going to do?" continued the tormenting Peggy.
Born and nurtured as I was in the art of the volto sciolto pensieri stretti, I had seldom found a more arduous task of dissimulation than that which I experienced now.
He will, no doubt, be very wary in all he does; though voluble as ever in what he says. I know his policy of old; he reverses the saying of the cunning Italian, volto sciolto, bocca stretta." "But his first step has not been a cautious one," observed Harry. "It is singular he should have allowed his client to write to Mrs. Stanley.
"Volto sciolto, eh? You respect our sleeping host yonder?" "That I do, sir, as the first man in the city of London, and my managing director." "And so do I," says Tidd; "and this day fortnight, when I'm of age, I'll prove my confidence too." "As how?" says I. "Why, sir, you must know that I come into ahem a considerable property, sir, on the 14th of July, which my father made in business."
These are reserves and cautions very necessary to have, but very imprudent to show; the 'volto sciolto' should accompany them. Adieu. The former, unassisted and unadorned by the latter, will extort praise; but will, at the same time, excite both fear and envy; two sentiments absolutely incompatible with love and affection.
What the manoeuvres of the next day might have effected, and how far Sir John Hunter profited by the new instructions which were given to him in consequence of this conversation, can never be accurately ascertained, because the whole united plan of operations was disturbed by a new and unforeseen event. "Un volto senza senno, Un petto senza core, un cor senz' alma, Un' alma senza fede."
My instincts of soldier and gentleman recoil from that old young man. He has the soul of the Jesuit. I see it in his eye, I hear it in the tread of his foot; /volto sciolto/ he has not; /i pensieri stretti/ he has. Hist! I hear now his step in the hall. I should know it from a thousand. That's his very touch on the handle of the door." Randal Leslie entered.
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