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His engagement was over, he had reached Rome, and he would join me immediately. As it often happens that, in affairs of importance, the minor events which lead to the ultimate result seem to occur rapidly, and almost to stumble over each other in their haste, it came to pass that on the very evening after I had got Nino's letter I was sent for by the contessina.
He had a fancy to put off the evil moment as long as possible, so that Hedwig might not recognise him till the last act, a foolish fancy, in truth, for a woman's eyes are not like a man's; and though Hedwig had never thought twice about Nino's personality, she had not sat opposite him three times a week for nearly four months without knowing all his looks and gestures.
Whoever it was had wished to see if there were any one outside, without being seen, or perhaps had meant to slip out without being heard by any one in the house. Kalmon, leaning back inside, had not heard the sound of the latch, and paid no attention to Nino's growl.
Ercole gazed down at Nino's bloodshot eye, which was turned to him just then. "A girl called Regina," Ercole grumbled, in a tone even harsher than usual. "That is what he said. Why should he tell me one thing for another? He said that your young gentleman would perhaps come back when he was tired of Regina. And he laughed. That is all." A low growl from Nino interrupted the conversation.
The baroness tottered back against the opposite wall, and stood staring at the two, dishevelled and horrified. "This woman," said Nino, still holding the cold thing against the flesh, "lies in part, and in part tells the truth I love your daughter, it is true." The poor old man quivered beneath Nino's weight, and his eyes rolled wildly, searching for some means of escape. But it was of no use.
But imagine the feelings of a boy of twenty, perfectly in love, without having the smallest right to be, suddenly placed by the side of the object of his adoration, and told to teach her all he knows with her father in the next room and the door open between! I have always thought it was a proof of Nino's determined character, that he should have got over this first lesson without accident.
I had toiled and scraped a great deal more than you know to buy that small piece of land, and it seemed much more my own than all Serveti had ever been in my better days. Then I shut myself up in my room and read Nino's letter over again, though it pained me very much; for I needed courage.
Nevertheless, they urged the beasts onward hotly, if one may use the word of the long, heavy trot of a mountain mule. The sturdy countryman never paused or gasped for breath, keeping pace in a steady, determined fashion. But they need not have been disturbed, for Hedwig's guess was nearer the truth than Nino's reasoning.
At five minutes before midnight she took her bundle and her little shoes in her hand, blew out her candle, and softly left the room. I need not tell you how I passed all the time from; Nino's leaving me until he came back in the evening, just as I could see from my window that the full moon was touching the tower of the castle.
And the voice that sang "Spirto gentil dei sogni miei" had itself become by memory the gentle spirit of her own dreams. She is so full of imagination, this statue of Nino's, that she heard the notes echoing after her by day and night, till she thought she must go mad unless she could hear the reality again.
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