A Roman Singer

XV.

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.

When the man came to call me, I was sitting in my room, from force of habit, though the long delay had made the possibility of the meeting seem shadowy. I was hoping that Nino might arrive in time to go in my place, for I knew that he would not be many hours behind his letter. He would assuredly travel as fast as he could, and if he had understood my directions he was not likely to go astray. But in spite of my hopes the summons came too soon, and I was obliged to go myself.

Picture to yourselves how I looked and how I felt: a sober old professor, as I am, stealing out in the night, all wrapped in a cloak as dark and shabby as any conspirator’s ; armed with a good knife in case of accidents; with beating heart, and doubting whether I could use my weapon if needful; and guided to the place of tryst by the confidential servant of a beautiful and unhappy maiden. I have often laughed since then at the figure I must have cut, but I did not laugh at the time. It was a very serious affair.

We skirted the base of the huge rock on which the castle is built, and reached the small, low door without meeting any one. It was a moonlit night, — the Paschal moon was nearly at the full,— and the whiteness made each separate iron rivet in the door stand out distinct, thrown into relief by its own small shadow on the seamed oak. My guide produced a ponderous key, which screamed hoarsely in the lock under the pressure of his two hands, as he made it turn in the rusty wards. The noise frightened me, but the man laughed, and said they could not hear where they sat, far up in the vaulted chamber, telling long stories over their wine. We entered, and I had to mount a little way up the dark steps to give him room to close the door behind us, by which we were left in total darkness. I confess I was very nervous and frightened until he lighted a taper which he had brought and made enough light to show the way. The stairs were winding and steep, but perfectly dry, and when he had passed me I followed him, feeling that at all events the door behind was closed, and there was some one between me and any danger ahead.

The man paused in front of me, and when I had rounded the corner of the winding steps I saw that a brighter light than ours shone from a small doorway opening directly upon the stair. In another moment I was in the presence of Hedwig von Lira. The man retired, and left us.

She stood, dressed in black, against the rough stone ; the strong light of a gorgeous gilt lamp that was placed on the floor streamed upward on her white face. Her eyes caught the brightness, and seemed to burn like deep, dark gems, though they appeared so blue in the day. She looked like a person tortured past endurance, so that the pain of the soul has taken shape, and the agony of the heart has assumed substance. Tears shed had hollowed the marble cheeks, and the stronger suffering that cannot weep had chiseled out great shadows beneath her brows. Her thin clasped hands seemed wringing each other into strange shapes of woe ; and though she stood erect as a slender pillar against the black rock, it was rather from the courage of despair than because she was straight and tall by her own nature.

I bent low before her, awed by the extremity of suffering I saw.

“ Are you Signor Grandi ? ” she asked, in a low and trembling voice.

“ Most humbly at your service, Signora Contessina,” I answered. She put out her hand to me, and then drew it back quickly, with a timid, nervous look as I moved to take it.

“ I never saw you,” she said, “ but I feel as though you must be a friend ” — She paused.

“ Indeed, signorina, I am here for that reason,” said I, trying to speak stoutly, and so to inspire her with some courage. “ Tell me how I can best serve you ; and though I am not young and strong like Nino Cardegna, my boy, I am not so old but that I can do whatsoever you command.”

“ Then, in God’s name, save me from this”— But again the sentence died upon her lips, and she glanced anxiously at the door. I reflected that if any one came we should be caught like mice in a trap, and I made as though I would look out upon the stairs. But she stopped me.

“ I am foolishly frightened,” she said. " That man is faithful, and will keep watch.” I thought it time to discover her wishes.

“ Signorina,” said I, “ you ask me to save you. You do not say from what. I can at least tell you that Nino Cardegna will be here in a day or two ” — At this sudden news she gave a little cry, and the blood rushed to her cheeks, in strange contrast with their deathly whiteness. She seemed on the point of speaking, but checked herself, and her eyes, that had looked me through and through a moment before, drooped modestly under my glance.

“ Is it possible ? ” she said at last, in a changed voice. “Yes, if he comes, I think the Signor Cardegna will help me.”

“ Madam,” I said, very courteously, for I guessed her embarrassment, “ I can assure you that my boy is ready to give you his life in return for the kindness he received at your hands in Rome,” She looked up, smiling through her tears, for the sudden happiness had moistened the drooping lids.

“ You are very kind, Signor Grandi. Signor Cardegna is, I believe, a good friend of mine. You say he will be here ? ”

“ I received a letter from him to-day, dated in Rome, in which he tells me that he will start immediately. He may be here to-morrow morning,” I answered. Hedwig had regained her composure, perhaps because she was reassured by my manner of speaking about Nino. I, however, was anxious to hear from her own lips some confirmation of my suspicions concerning the baron. “I have no doubt,” I continued, presently, " that, with your consent, my boy will be able to deliver you from this prison”— I used the word at a venture. Had Hedwig suffered less, and been less cruelly tormented, she would have rebuked me for the expression. But I recalled her to her position, and her self-control gave way at once.

“ Oh, you are right to call it a prison! ” she cried. " It is as much a prison as this chamber hewed out of the rock, where so many a wretch has languished hopelessly ; a prison from which I am daily taken out into the sweet sun, to breathe and be kept alive, and to taste how joyful a thing liberty must be ! And every day I am brought back, and told that I may be free if I will consent. Consent! God of mercy ! ” she moaned, in a sudden tempest of passionate despair. " Consent ever to belong, body — and soul — to be touched, polluted, desecrated, by that inhuman monster; sold to him, to a creature without pity, whose heart is a toad, a venomous creeping thing, — sold to him for this life, and to the vengeance of God hereafter; bartered. traded, and told that I am so vile and lost that the very price I am offered is an honor to me, being so much more than my value.” She came toward me as she spoke, and the passionate, unshed tears that were in her seemed to choke her, so that her voice was hoarse,

“And for what — for what?” she cried wildly, seizing my arm and looking fiercely into my eyes. “ For what, I say ? Because I gave him a poor rose ; because I let him see me once; because I loved his sweet voice; because — because — I love him, and will love him, and do love him, though I die ! ”

The girl was in a frenzy of passion and love and hate all together, and did not count her words. The white heat of her tormented soul blazed from her pale face and illuminated every feature, though she was turned from the light, and she shook my arm in her grasp so that it pained me. The marble was burned in the fire, and must consume itself to ashes. The white and calm statue was become a pillar of dame in the life-and-death struggle for love. I strove to speak, but could not, for fear and wonder tied my tongue. And indeed she gave me short time to think.

“ I tell you I love him, as he loves me,” she continued, her voice trembling upon the rising cadence, “ with all my whole being. Tell him so. Tell him he must save me, and that only he can : that for his sake I am tortured, and scorned, and disgraced, and sold; my body thrown to dogs, and worse than dogs; my soul given over to devils that tempt me to kill and be free, — by my own father, for his sake. Tell him that these hands he kissed are wasted with wringing small pains from each other, but the greater pain drives them to do worse. Tell him, good sir,—you are kind and love him, but not as I do, — tell him that this golden hair of mine has streaks of white in these terrible two months ; that these eyes he loved are worn with weeping. Tell him” —

But her voice failed her, and she staggered against the wall, hiding her face in her hands. A trembling breath, a struggle, a great wild sob: the longsealed tears were free, and flowed fast over her hands.

“ Oh, no, no,” she moaned, “ you must not tell him that.” Then choking down her agony she turned to me : “ You will not — yon cannot tell him of this ? I am weak, ill, but I will bear everything for — for him.” The great effort exhausted her, and I think that if I had not caught her she would have fallen, and she would have hurt herself very much on the stone floor. But she is young, and I am not very strong, and could not have held her up. So I knelt, letting her weight come on my shoulder.

The fair head rested pathetically against my old coat, and I tried to wipe away her tears with her long, golden hair; for I had not any handkerchief. But very soon I could not see to do it. I was crying myself, for the pity of it all, and my tears trickled down and fell on her thin hands. And so I kneeled, and she half lay and half sat upon the floor, with her head resting on my shoulder. I was glad then to be old, for I felt that I had a right to comfort her.

Presently she looked up into my face, and saw that I was weeping. She did not speak, but found her little lace handkerchief, and pressed it to my eyes, — first to one. and then to the other ; and the action brought a faint maidenly flush to her cheeks through all her own sorrow. A daughter could not have done it more kindly.

“ My child,” I said at last, “ be sure that your secret is safe with me. But there is one coming with whom it will be safer.”

“ You are so good,” she said, and her head sank once more, and nestled against my breast, so that I could just see the bright tresses through my gray beard. But in a moment she looked up again, and made as though she would rise ; and then I helped her, and we both stood on our feet.

Poor, beautiful, tormented Hedwig ! I can remember it, and call up the whole picture to my mind. She still leaned on my arm, and looked up to me, her loosened hair all falling back upon her shoulders ; and the wonderful lines of her delicate face seemed made ethereal and angelic by her sufferings.

“ My dear,” I said at last, smoothing her golden hair with my hand, as I thought her mother would do, if she had a mother, — “ my dear, your interview with my boy may be a short one, and you may not have an opportunity to meet at all for days. If it does not pain you too much, will you tell me just what your troubles are, here ? I can then tell him, so that you can save the time when you are together.” She gazed into my eyes for some seconds, as though to prove me, whether I were a true man.

“ I think you are right,” she answered, taking courage. “ I will tell you in two words. My father treats me as though I had committed some unpardonable crime, which I do not at all understand. He says my reputation is ruined. Surely, that is not true ? ” She asked the question so innocently and simply that I smiled.

“ No, my dear, it is not true,” I replied.

“I am sure I cannot understand it,” she continued; “ but he says so, and insists that my only course is to accept what he calls the advantageous offer which has suddenly presented itself. He insists very roughly.” She shuddered slightly. “ He gives me no peace. It appears that this creature wrote to ask my father for my hand, when we left Rome, two months ago. The letter was forwarded, and my father began at once to tell me that I must make up my mind to the marriage. At first I used to be very angry; but seeing we were alone, I finally determined to seem indifferent, and not to answer him when he talked about it. Then he thought my spirit was broken, and he sent for Baron Benoni, who arrived a fortnight ago. Do you know him, Signor Grandi ? You came to see him, so I suppose you do.” The same look of hatred and loathing came to her face that I had noticed when Benoni and I met her in the hall.

“ Yes, I know him. He is a traitor, a villain,” I said earnestly.

“ Yes, and more than that. But he is a great banker in Russia ” —

“ A banker?” I asked, in some astonishment,

“ Did you not know it ? Yes ; he is very rich, and has a great firm, if that is the name for it. But he wanders incessantly, and his partners take care of his affairs. My father says that I shall marry him, or end my days here.”

“ Unless you end his for him ! ” I cried indignantly.

“Hush ! ” said she, and trembled violently. “He is my father, you kuow,” she added, with sudden earnestness.

“ But you cannot consent ” — I began.

“ Consent! ” she interrupted, with a bitter laugh. “ I will die rather than consent.”

“ I mean, you cannot consent to be shut up in this valley forever.”

“If need be, I will,” she said, in a low voice.

“ There is no need,” I whispered.

“ You do not know my father. He is a man of iron,” she answered sorrowfully.

“ You do not know my boy. He is a man of his word,” I replied.

We were both silent, for we both knew very well what our words meant. From such a situation there could be but one escape.

“I think you ought to go now,” she said at last. “ If I were missed it would all be over. But I am sorry to let you go, you are so kind. How can you let me know ” — She stopped, with a blush, and stooped to raise the lamp from the floor.

“ Can you not meet here to-morrow night, when they are asleep?” I suggested, knowing what her question would have been.

“ I will send the same man to you tomorrow evening, and let you know what is possible,” she said. “ And now I will show you the way out of my house, ’ she added, with the first faint shadow of a smile. With the slight gilt lamp in her hand, she went out of the little rock chamber, listened a moment, and began to descend the steps.

“ But the key?” I asked, following her light footsteps with my heavier tread.

“It is in the door,” she answered, and went on.

When we reached the bottom, we found it as she had said. The servant had left the key on the inside, and with some difficulty I turned the bolts. We stood for one moment in the narrow space, where the lowest step was set close against the door. Her eyes flashed strangely in the lamplight.

“ How easy it would be ! ” I said, understanding her glance. She nodded, and pushed me gently out into the street; and I closed the door, and leaned against it as she locked it.

“ Good-night,” she said from the other side, and I put my mouth to the keyhole. “ Good-night. Courage ! ” I answered. I could hear her lightly mounting the stone steps. It seemed wonderful to me that she should not be afraid to go back alone. But love makes people brave.

The moon had risen higher during the time I had been within, and I strolled round the base of the rock, lighting a cigar as I went. The terrible adventure I had dreaded was now over, and I felt myself again. In truth, it was a curious thing to happen to a man of my years and my habits ; but the things I had heard had so much absorbed my attention that, while the interview lasted, I had forgotten the strange manner of the meeting. I was horrified at the extent of the girl’s misery, more felt than understood from her brief description and passionate outbreaks. There is no mistaking the strength of a suffering that wastes and consumes the mortal part of us as wax melts at the fire.

And Benoni — the villain ! He had written to ask Hedwig in marriage before he came to see me in Rome. There was something fiendish in his almost inviting me to see his triumph, and I cursed him as I kicked the loose stones in the road with my heavy shoes. So he was a banker, as well as a musician and a wanderer. Who would have thought it ?

“ One thing is clear,” I said to myself, as I went to bed: “ unless something is done immediately, that poor girl will consume herself and die.” And all that night her poor thin face and staring eyes were in my dreams ; so that I woke up several times, thinking I was trying to comfort her, and could not. But toward dawn I felt sure that Nino was coming, and that all would be well.

I was chatting with my old landlady the next morning, and smoking to pass the time, when there was suddenly a commotion in the street. That is to say, some one was arriving, and all the little children turned out in a body to run after the stranger, while the old women came to their doors with their knitting, and squinted under the bright sunlight to see what was the matter.

It was Nino, of course — my own boy, riding on a stout mule, with a countryman by his side upon another. He was dressed in plain gray clothes, and wore high hoots. His great felt hat drooped half across his face, and hid his eyes from me; but there was no mistaking the stern, square jaw and the close, even lips. I ran toward him, and called him by name. In a moment he was off his beast, and we embraced tenderly.

“ Have you seen her ? ” were the first words he spoke. I nodded, and hurried him into the house where I lived, fearful lest some mischance should bring the party from the castle riding by. He sent his man with the mules to the inn, and when we were at last alone together he threw himself into a chair, and took off his hat.

Nino too was changed in the two months that had passed. He had traveled far, had sung lustily, and had been applauded to the skies ; and he had seen the great world. But there was more than all that in his face. There were lines of care and of thought that well became his masculine features. There was a something in his look that told of a set purpose, and there was a light in his dark eyes that spoke a world of warning to any one who might dare to thwart him. But he seemed thinner, and his cheeks were as white as the paper I write on.

Some men are born masters, and never once relax the authority they exercise on those around them. Nino has always commanded me, as he seems to command everybody else, in the fewest words possible. But he is so true and honest and brave that all who know him love him ; and that is more than can be said for most artists. As he sat in his chair, hesitating what question to ask first, or waiting for me to speak, I thought that if Hedwig von Lira had searched the whole world for a man able to deliver her from her cruel father and from her hated lover she could have chosen no better champion than Nino Cardegna, the singer. Of course you all say that I am infatuated with the hoy, and that I helped him to do a reckless thing, simply because I was blinded by my fondness. But I maintain, and shall ever hold, that Nino did right in this matter, and I am telling my story merely in order that honest, men may judge.

He sat by the window, and the sun poured through the panes upon his curling hair, his traveling dress, and his dusty boots. The woman of the house brought in some wine and water ; but he only sipped the water, and would not touch the wine.

“ You are a dear, kind father to me,” he said, putting out his hand from where he sat, “ and before we talk I must tell you how much I thank you.” Simple words, as they look on paper; but another man could not have said so much in an hour, as his voice and look told me.

XVI.

“ Nino mio,” I began, “ I saw the contessina last night. She is in a very dramatic and desperate situation. But she greets you, and looks to you to save her from her troubles.” Nino’s face was calm, but his voice trembled a little as he answered : —

“ Tell me quickly, please, what the troubles are.”

“ Softly— I will tell you all about it. You must know that your friend Benoni is a traitor to you, and is here. Do not look astonished. He has made up his mind to marry the contessina, and she says she will die rather than take him, which is quite right of her.” At the latter piece of news, Nino sprang from his chair.

“ You do not seriously mean that her father is trying to make her marry Benoni ? ” he cried.

“ It is infamous, my dear boy ; but it is true.”

“ Infamous ! I should think you could find a stronger word. How did you learn this ? ” I detailed the circumstances of our meeting on the previous night. While I talked, Nino listened with intense interest, and his face changed its look from anger to pity, and from pity to horror. When I had finished, he was silent.

“ You can see for yourself,” I said, “ that the case is urgent.”

“ I will take her away,” said Nino, at last. “It will be very unpleasant for the count. He would have been wiser to allow her to have her own way.”

“ Do nothing rash, Nino mio. Consider a little what the consequences would be if you were caught in the act of violently carrying off the daughter of a man as powerful as Von Lira.”

“ Bah ! You talk of his power as though we lived under the Colonnesi and the Orsini, instead of under a free monarchy. If I am once married to her, what have I to fear ? Do you think the count would go to law about his daughter’s reputation ? Or do you suppose he would try to murder me ? ”

“ I would do both, in his place,” I answered. “ But perhaps you are right, and he will yield when he sees that he is outwitted. Think again, and suppose that the contessina herself objects to such a step.”

“ That is a different matter. She shall do nothing save by her own free will. You do not imagine I would try to take her away unless she were willing?” He sat down again beside me, and affectionately laid one hand on my shoulder.

“ Women, Nino, are women,” I remarked.

“ Unless they are angels,” he assented

“ Keep the angels for Paradise, and beware of taking them into consideration in this working-day world. I have often told you, my boy, that I am older than you.”

“ As if I doubted that!” he laughed.

“ Very well. I know something about women. A hundred women will tell you that they are ready to flee with you ; but not more than one in the hundred will really leave everything and follow you to the end of the world, when the moment comes for running away. They always make a fuss at the last, and say it is too dangerous, and you may be caught. That is the way of them. You will be quite ready with a ladder of ropes, like one of Boccaccio’s men, and a roll of banknotes for the journey, and smelling-salts, and a cushion for the puppy dog, and a separate conveyance for the maid, just according to the directions she has given you ; then, at the very last, she will perhaps say that she is afraid of hurting her father’s feelings by leaving him without any warning. Be careful, Nino ! ”

“ As for that,” he answered sullenly enough, “if she will not, she will not; and I would not attempt to persuade her against her inclination. But unless you have very much exaggerated what you saw in her face, she will be ready at five minutes’ notice. It must be very like hell, up there in that castle, I should think.”

“ Messer Diavolo, who rules over the house, will not let his prey escape him so easily as you think.”

“ Her father ? ” he asked.

“ No ; Benoni. There is no creature so relentless as an old man in pursuit of a young woman.”

“ I am not afraid of Benoni.”

“ You need not be afraid of her father,” said I, laughing. “ He is lame, and cannot run after you.” I do not know why it is that we Romans laugh at lame people ; we are sorry for them, of course, as we are for other cripples.

“ There is something more than fear in the matter,” said Nino seriously. “It is a great thing to have upon one’s soul.”

“What ? ” I asked.

“ To take a daughter away from her father without his consent, —or at least without consulting him. I would not like to do it.”

“ Do you mean to ask the old gentleman’s consent before eloping with his daughter ? You are a little donkey, Nino, upon my word.”

“ Donkey, or anything else you like, but I will act like a galantuomo. I will see the count, and ask him once more whether he is willing to let his daughter marry me. If not, so much the worse ; he will be warned.”

“ Look here, Nino,” I said, astonished at the idea. “ I have taught you a little logic. Suppose you meant to steal a horse, instead of a woman. Would you go to the owner of the horse, with your hat in your hand, and say, ’ I trust your worship will not be offended if I steal this horse, which seems to be a good animal and pleases me; ’ and then would you expect him to allow you to steal his horse ? ”

“ Sor Cornelio, the case is not the same. Women have a right to be free, and to marry whom they please; but horses are slaves. However, as I am not a thief, I would certainly ask the man for the horse; and if he refused it, and I conceived that I had a right to have it, I would take it by force, and not by stealth.”

“ It appears to me that if you meant to get possession of what was not yours you might as well get it in the easiest possible way,” I objected. “ But we need not argue the case. There is a much better reason why you should not consult the count.”

“ I do not believe it,” said Nino stubbornly.

“ Nevertheless, it is so. The Contessina di Lira is desperately unhappy, and if nothing is done she may die. Young women have died of broken hearts before now. You have no right to endanger her life by risking failure. Answer me that, if you can, and I will grant you are a cunning sophist, but not a good lover.”

“ There is reason in what you say now,” he answered. “ I had not thought of that desperateness of the ease, which you speak of. You have seen her.” He buried his face in his hand, and seemed to be thinking.

“ Yes, I have seen her, and I wish you had been in my place. You would think differently about asking her father’s leave to rescue her.” From having been anxious to prevent anything rash, it seemed that I was now urging him into the very jaws of danger. I think that Hedwig’s face was before me, as it had been in reality on the previous evening. " As Curione said to Cæsar, delay is injurious to any one who is fully prepared for action. I remember also to have read somewhere that such waste of time in diplomacy and palavering is the favorite resource of feeble and timid minds, who regard the use of dilatory and ambiguous measures as an evidence of the most admirable and consummate prudence.”

“ Oh, you need not use so much learning with me,” said Nino. “ I assure you that I will be neither dilatory nor ambiguous. In fact, I will go at once, without even dusting my boots, and I will say, Give me your daughter, if you can ; and if you cannot, I will still hope to marry her. He will probably say ’ No,’ and then I will carry her off. It appears to me that is simple enough.”

“ Take my advice, Nino. Carry her off first, and ask permission afterwards. It is much better. The real master up there is Benoni, I fancy, and not the count. Benoni is a gentleman who will give you much trouble. If you go now to see Hedwig’s father, Benoni will be present at the interview.” Nino was silent, and sat stretching his legs before him, his head on his breast. “ Benoni,”I continued, " has made up his mind to succeed. He has probably taken this fancy into his head out of pure wickedness. Perhaps he is bored, and really wants a wife. But I believe he is a man who delights in cruelty and would as lief break the contessina’s heart by getting rid of you as by marrying her. ’ I saw that he was not listening.

“ I have an idea,” he said at last. " You are not very wise, Messer Cornelio, and you counsel me to be prudent and to be rash in the same breath.”

“ You make very pretty compliments, Sor Nino,” I answered tartly. He put out his hand deprecatingly.

“ You are as wise as any man can be who is not in love,” he said, looking at me with his great eyes. “ But love is the best counselor.”

“ What is your idea ? ” I asked, somewhat pacified.

“ You say they ride together every day. Yes — very good. The contessina will not ride to-day ; partly because she will be worn out with fatigue from last night’s interview, and partly because she will make an effort to discover whether I have arrived to-day or not. You can count on that.”

“ I imagine so.”

“ Very well,” he continued ; “ in that case, one of two things will happen: either the count will go out alone, or they will all stay at home.”

“ Why will Benoni not go out with the count ? ”

“ Because Benoni will hope to see Hedwig alone, if he stays at home, and the count will be very glad to give him the opportunity.”

“ I think you are right, Nino. You are not so stupid as I thought.”

“ In war,” continued the boy, “ a general gains a great advantage by separating his adversary’s forces. If the count goes out alone, I will present myself to him in the road, and tell him what I want.”

“ Now you are foolish again. You should, on the contrary, enter the house when the count is away, and take the signorina with you then and there. Before he could return you would be miles on the road to Home.”

“ In the first place, I tell you once and for all, Sor Cornelio,” he said slowly, “ that such an action would be dishonorable, and I will not do anything of the kind. Moreover, you forget that, if I fallowed your advice, I should find Benoni at home, — the very man from whom you think I have everything to fear. No ; I must give the count one fair chance.” I was silent, for I saw he was determined, and yet I would not let him think I was satisfied.

The idea of losing an advantage by giving an enemy any sort of warning before the attack seemed to me novel in the extreme; but I comprehended that Nino saw in his scheme a satisfaction to his conscience, and smelled in it a musty odor of forgotten knight-errantry that he had probably learned to love in his theatrical experiences. I had certainly not expected that Nino Cardegna, the peasant child, would turn out to be the pink of chivalry and the mirror of honor. But I could not help admiring his courage, and wondering if it would not play him false at the perilous moment. I did not half know him then, though he had been with me for so many years. But I was very anxious to ascertain from him what he meant to do, for I feared that his bold action would make trouble, and I had visions of the count and Benoni together taking sudden and summary vengeance on myself.

“ Nino,” I said, “ I have made great sacrifices to help you in finding these people,” — I would not tell him I had sold my vineyard to make preparations for a longer journey, though he has since found it out, — “ but if you are going to do anything rash I will get on my little ass, and ride a few miles from the village, until it is over.” Nino laughed aloud.

“ My dear professor,” he said, “ do not be afraid. I will give you plenty of time to get out of the way. Meanwhile, the contessina is certain to send the confidential servant of whom you speak, to give me instructions. If I am not here, you ought to be, in order to receive the message. Now listen to me.”

I prepared to be attentive and to hear his scheme. I was by no means expecting the plan he proposed.

“The count may take it into his head to ride at a different hour, if he rides alone,” he began. “ I will therefore have my mule saddled now, and will station my man — a countryman from Subiaco and good for any devilry — in some place where he can watch the entrance to the house, or the castle, or whatever you call this place. So soon as he sees the count come out he will call me. As a man can ride in only one of two directions in this valley, I shall have no trouble, whatever in meeting the old gentleman, even if I cannot overtake him with my mule.”

“ Have you any arms, Nino ? ”

“ No. I do not want weapons to face an old man in broad daylight; and he is too much of a soldier to attack me if I am defenceless. If the servant comes after I am gone, you must remember every detail of what he says, and you must also arrange a little matter with him. Here is money, as much as will keep any Roman servant quiet. The man will be rich before we have done with him. I will write a letter, which he must deliver ; but he must also know what he has to do.

“ At twelve o’clock to-night the contessina must positively be at the door of the staircase by which you entered yesterday. Positively — do you understand ? She will then choose for herself between what she is suffering now and flight with me. If she chooses to fly, my mules and my countryman will be ready. The servant who admits me had better make the best of his way to Rome, with the money he has got. There will be difficulties in the way of getting the contessina to the staircase, especially as the count will be in a towering passion with me, and will not sleep much. But he will not have the smallest idea that I shall act so suddenly, and he will fancy that when once his daughter is safe within the walls for the night she will not think of escaping. I do not believe he even knows of the existence of this staircase. At all events, it appears, from your success in bribing the first man you met, that the servants are devoted to her interests and their own, and not at all to those of her father.”

“ I cannot conceive, Nino,” said I, “why you do not put this bold plan into execution without seeing the count first, and making the whole thing so dangerous. If he takes alarm in the night, he will catch you fast enough on his good horses, before you are at Trevi.”

“ I am determined to act as I propose,” said Nino, “ because it is a thousand times more honorable, and because I am certain that the contessina would not have me act otherwise. She will also see for herself that flight is best; for I am sure the count will make a scene of some kind when he comes home from meeting me. If she knows she can escape to-night she will not suffer from what he has to say ; but she will understand that without the prospect of freedom she would suffer very much.”

“ Where did you learn to understand women, my boy ? ” I asked.

“ I do not understand women in general,” he answered, “but I understand very well the only woman who exists for me personally. I know that she is the soul of honor, and that at the same time she has enough common sense to perceive the circumstances of her situation.”

“ But how will you make sure of not being overtaken ? ” I objected, making a last feeble stand against his plan.

“ That is simple enough. My countryman from Subiaco knows every inch of these hills. He says that the pass above Fillettino is impracticable for any animals save men, mules, and donkeys. A horse would roll down at every turn. My mules are the best of their kind, and there are none like them here. By sunrise I shall be over the Serra and well on the way to Ceprano, or whatever place I may choose for joining the railroad.”

“ And I ? Will you leave me here to be murdered by that Prussian devil?” I asked, in some alarm.

“ Why, no, padre mio. If you like, you can start for Rome at sunset, or as soon as I return from meeting the count; or you can get on your donkey and go up the pass, where we shall overtake you. Nobody will harm you, in your disguise, and your donkey is even more sure-footed than my mules. It will be a bright night, too, for the moon is full.”

“ Well, well, Nino,” said I at last, “ I suppose you will have your own way, as you always do in the world. And if it must be so, I will go up the pass alone, for I am not afraid at all. It would be against all the proprieties that you should be riding through a wild country alone at night with the young lady you intend to marry; and if I go with you there will be nothing to be said, for I am a very proper person, and hold a responsible position in Rome. But for charity’s sake, do not undertake anything of this kind again ” —

“Again?” exclaimed Nino, in surprise. “ Do you expect me to spend my life in getting married,—not to say in eloping ? ”

“ Well, I trust that you will have enough of it this time.”

“ I cannot conceive that when a man has once married the woman he loves he should ever look at another,” said Nino gravely.

“ You are a most blessed fellow,” I exclaimed.

Nino found my writing materials, which consisted of a bad steel pen, some coarse ruled paper, and a wretched little saucer of ink, and began writing an epistle to the contessina. I watched him as he wrote, and I smoked a little to pass the time. As I looked at him, I came to the conclusion that to-day, at least, he was handsome. His thick hair curled about his head, and his white skin was as pale and clear as milk. I thought that his complexion had grown less dark than it used to be, perhaps from being so much in the theatre at night. That takes the dark blood out of the cheeks. But any woman would have looked twice at him. Besides, there was, as there is now, a certain marvelous neatness and spotlessness about his dress ; but for his dusty hoots, you would not have guessed he had been traveling. Poor Nino ! When he had not a penny in the world but what he earned by copying music, he used to spend it all with the washerwoman, so that Mariuccia was often horrified, and I reproved him for the extravagance.

At last he finished writing, and put his letter into the only envelope there was loft. He gave it to me, and said he would go out and order his mules to be ready.

“ I may be gone all day,” he said, “ and I may return in a few hours. I cannot toll. In any case, wait for me, and give the letter and all the instructions to the man, if he comes.” Then he thanked me once more very affectionately, and having embraced me he went out.

I watched from the window, and he looked up and waved his hand. I remember it very distinctly — just how he looked. His face was paler than ever, his lips were close set, though they smiled, and his eyes were sad. He is an incomprehensible boy — he always was.

I was left alone, with plenty of time for meditation, and I assure you my reflections were not pleasant. O love, love, what madness you drive us into, by day and night! Surely it is better to be a sober professor of philosophy than to be in love, ever so wildly, or sorrowfully, or happily. I do not wonder that a parcel of idiots have tried to prove that Dante loved philosophy and called it Beatrice. He would have been a sober professor, if that were true, and a happier man. But I am sure it is not true, for I was once in love myself.

F. Marion Crawford.