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Zicci entered with a light and hasty step. His horseman's cloak fitted tightly to his noble form, and the raven plumes of his broad hat threw a gloomy shade over his commanding features.
"I am come to thank you for your warning last night," said he, "and to entreat you to complete my obligation by informing me of the quarter to which I may look for enmity and peril." "You are a gallant, Mr. Glyndon," said Zicci, with a smile; "and do you know so little of the South as not to be aware that gallants have always rivals?" "Are you serious?" said Glyndon, coloring. "Most serious.
"You have not the politeness of your countrymen," said Glyndon, somewhat discomposed. "Suppose I were desirous to cultivate your acquaintance, why should you reject my advances?" "I reject no man's advances," answered Zicci. "I must know them, if they so desire; but me, in return, they can never comprehend. If you ask my acquaintance, it is yours; but I would warn you to shun me."
That beautiful face, bathed in blushes, drooped upon his bosom; and as he bent down, his lips sought the rosy mouth, a long and burning kiss. Danger, life, the world were forgotten! Suddenly Zicci tore himself from her. "Oh! what have I said? It is gone, my power to preserve thee, to guard thee, to foresee the storm in thy skies, is gone forever. No matter!
There and then will be the crisis of your fate; go. I have business here yet, remember, Isabel is still in the house of the dead man." As Glyndon yet hesitated, strange thoughts, doubts, and fears that longed for speech crowding within him, Mascari approached; and Zicci, turning to the Italian and waving his hand to Glyndon, drew the former aside. Glyndon slowly departed.
His expenditure was most lavish, his generosity, regal; but his orders were ever given as those of a general to his army. The least disobedience, the least hesitation, and the offender was at once dismissed. He was a man who sought tools, and never made confidants. Zicci remained for a considerable time motionless and thoughtful.
And so because Signor Zicci tells you that you will be a marvellously great man if you revolt all your friends and blight all your prospects by marrying a Neapolitan actress, you begin already to think of By Jupiter! I cannot talk patiently on the subject. Let the girl alone, that would be the proper plan; or else " "You talk very sensibly," interrupted Glyndon, "but you distract me.
But to be bound beneath the weight of a cold obligation; to be the beggar on the eyes of Indifference; to throw myself on one who loves me not, that were indeed the vilest sin of my sex. Ah! Zicci, rather let me die."
Before Glyndon recovered from his surprise, Zicci disappeared; and when the Englishman saw him again, he was in the box of one of the Neapolitan ministers, where Glyndon could not follow him. Isabel now left the stage, and Glyndon accosted her with impassioned gallantry.
The mysterious warning of Zicci then suddenly occurred to him; he had forgotten it in the interest of his lover's quarrel with Isabel. He thought it now advisable to guard against danger foretold by lips so mysterious; he looked round for some one he knew. The theatre was disgorging its crowds, who hustled and jostled and pressed upon him; but he recognized no familiar countenances.
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