i^ THE POLITICIAN BY ANTONIO FOGAZZARO Translation by G. MANTELLINI (*F THE UNiVERSI or BOSTON LUCE AND COMPANY MCMVIII "7 yti^tStHS^ Copyright, 1908 By LUCE AND COMPANY CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. WiKD, Rain, and Gossip i II. A Serious Matter 17 III. The Ideas of Daniele Cortis 40 IV. Amongst Roses 55 V. For Him ! For Him ! 70 VI. The Signora Fiamma 103 VII. Ready! . . . 121 VIII. In the Battlefield . 135 IX. Voices jn the Dark 162 X. The Bajron's Affair 180 XL From the Villa to Rome 202 XII. Difficult Walking 234 XIII. Vertigo" 250 XIV. They Were Worthy of This ' 262 XV. The Signora's Secret 278 XVI. In the Chamber of Deputies 297 XVII. An Intervention 314 XVIII. Nocturnal Struggles . .* 339 XIX. "Ought I to Go?" .364 XX. A Hidden Drama 376 XXI. The Poem of Shadow and of Life .... 415 XXII. As THE Stars and the Palm-Trees .... 439 XXIII. In Summer and in Winter 463 I907?G 1 THE POLITICIAN CHAPTER I WIND, RAIN AND GOSSIP The balls knocked together sharply twice in suc- cession. "Tac! tac!" exclaimed Count Perlotti, watch- ing them attentively, with the chalk in his right hand, and his cue on the left. " Heavens ! " exclaimed the senator, " What sort of cues have you, Countess Tarquinia? There is no top on this one. It is impossible to play. " There you are again ! " said the Countess, in a low voice, to the group of ladies who surrounded her. " My dear son-in-law," she added stretching her arms, '' I have written over and over again for some to be sent to me ! " He turned to Countess Perlotti, who was quietly smiling while she watched the weather through the glass door. " That's well," he grumbled. " It is the twen- tieth time I am told that. Does she want me to make the cues myself? " " What weather ! " answered the lady prudently.' " It is frightful." I 2 THE POLITICIAN In front of the glass door the great dead cypress, enveloped to its top in wistaria, raised the bright green of its burden to the sombre sky ; an occa- 'sional drop of rain splashed on the gravel. " Yes, indeed, signora, it is frightful, enough to frighten anybody." These remarks came as a chorus from, the four or five men and the ladies, who, with all their finery, seemed very stiff and very conscious of the great honor of being received in the house of the Countess Tarquinia Carre, " Six to me ! " shouted the senator. "How many?" inquired an invisible person. " Six, six, six! Are you deaf? " • " No, but those priests! Just listen to them." " Yes, indeed they must be having an orgy. Do send and keep them quiet, Countess Tarquinia." The priests were playing cards in the music room adjoining, and were screaming and shouting. " My dear Grigioli," said the countess to a young man who was seated on a sofa, talking to the Baroness Elena Carre di Santa Giulia, " be so good as to ask those reverend priests pleasantly, not to make such a noise." The latter bowed. " By-the-by, I rely upon you ! " " That blessed Sicily," the countess said softly to him. " What can I do for you, countess? " " Why, don't you know ? Cortis ! " " Everything looks well, countess. Fifty votes THE POLITICIAN ' 3 for certain, here. I was just saying so to Baroness Elena." " My dear friend, please do not talk of such things to my daughter. She does not know which is right and which is left. Go and speak to those priests now. . . . Where is Cortis? " she asked her daughter, when the young man had left her. " That's right, young man, go and silence those noisy priests," said the senator to Grigiolo, as he passed through the billiard-room. " Tell them to follow the example of these other gentlemen. Tell Don Bartolo to be quiet! " Near another glass door at the end of the large room, a group of men were discussing some ques- tion which appeared to be every mysterious and important. "Doctor Grigiolo!" " Here I am," answered the young man. I will be back in a minute," and he went right on. " Is that young fellow a physician ? " asked the senator of his companion. " No, sir, a doctor at law," replied the other re- spectfully. The priests had finished playing. The chaplain, Don Bartolo, holding a paper in his hand, was reciting some verses, amid the laughter of his col- leagues. " May I join you, Don Bartolo? " asked the new comer. " Come in, doctor," replied Don Bartolo. " Come in, I pray, and listen to this." 4 ' THE POLITICIAN '■ The syndic replied he was quite in the right." " No, excuse me." " But you must listen to this." Doctor Grigiolo decided, with a shudder, to hs- ten to another verse, which ended thus : " And the syndic replied that again he was right." " Very good ; but allow me — " " But, why won't you listen? I am just coming to the best part." Don Bartolo, excited by several glasses, continued to recite his anonymous satire, the subject of which was a wrangle between some of the counselors and the syndic, each announcing in turn that he was risfht. 't)' " The syndic remained with his head in the air, "And at last he replied that none was wrong there." Outbursts of laughter came from all directions! " Good, very good, more than good," exclaimed Doctor Grigiolo in spite of himself ; " but my dear chaplain, I do not see any necessity of breaking the ear drums of your neighbors. You see there are a good many ladies in the other room, and the countess begs you — " "Ladies?" answered Don Bartolo. "Just as if ladies did not know how to be noisy ! " " Silence, silence ; let us go away, do be quiet, chaplain," said his companions. " We should be glad to have it quieter for the THE POLITICIAN 5 sake of Count Lao, too, who is not at all well. Now I leave you." Doctor Grigiolo looked at the oldest priest in the room with a face which was half laughing, half serious. " Come here," cried the incorrigible Don Bar- tolo, " come here, doctor, don't be off after those women again. Stay and have a glass with us. Why do you mention Count Lao to us ? You know perfectly well that his apartment is on the other side of the house. Don't you know, also, that he is in better health than you and I? Don't you know that he is crazy? " " Do silence Don Bartolo," shouted the senator from the other room. " Oh, oh ! perhaps they have heard what you said ! " exclaimed Doctor Grigiolo in terror. " He is a Sicilian, he may be after us with his cue." "Heavens!" ejaculated the chaplain. His disappearance, in comic terror, roused such unbridled hilarity amongst the others that Grigiolo ran from them with his hands in his hair, while Don Bartolo, returning, began to read the end of the poem — " Choose the man who seems to you least evil, And do send all the others to the devil." " So you failed, Grigioli ! " cried the Countess Tarquinia in the distance. Another voice from among the conspirators said : " Come here. Doctor Grigiolo." 6 THE POLITICIAN He answered: " in a minute," and was going on; but the senator, Baron of Santa Giulia stopped him with his big heavy hand, and exclaimed with a thundering voice : " Answer me, are you GrigioH or Grigiolo ? " The poHte and slender youth started, took a step backward, and gazed at the senator as he might have gazed at Attila. " Truly it is Grigioli," he replied, " the peo- ple—" "The people! Ah, I understand," said the Baron. " So you have not been able to silence Don Bartolo." " Impossible, senator. Quite impossible, coun- tess. Your white wine is too rich. It would take a pump and plenty of water to quiet him. We are surely going to have a deluge." " Do you think so ? " " Indeed, I do, Countess." "Don't you think that the clouds are lifting?" " I don't see it, countess." " Have you looked well ? " " Yes, I have, countess." " And you cannot see it? " " No countess, I cannot." " By Jove, there is a good many countesses," mut- tered the senator as he leaned over the billiard- table and practiced a stroke, his eyes fixed on his adversary's ball. " It is the custom, baron," Perlotti, who stood opposite him, observed humbly. THE POLITICIAN t( Now go; the electors are expecting you, whispered Countess Tarquinia to Grigiolo, giving him a push. He was bored with the election, and would much rather have stayed where he was. Then the countess turned to her guests and said : " I wasrer that this storm will hurt nothing. •^ts* And immediately the chorus of obsequious voices agreed — " I quite think so too." " I am sure you are right." " It will not do any harm." But at this very moment a clash of thunder caused every window to rattle. —' " By thunder! " cried the senator, throwing down his cue on the billiard-table. " Good heavens ! " ejaculated the countess. " The windows upstairs ! " and she rushed to the bell. A young lady, who had not opened her mouth . before began to groan. " How dark it is ! " shouted Grigiolo. " It is coming from this direction, countess, if you wish to see it." A tremendous gust of wind rushed through an open door, blowing the curtains about and scat- tering papers and letters as it tore round the bil- liard-room. As Perlotti went to shut the door, the chaplain rushed out into the storm. "Chaplain!" exclaimed Perlotti, thrusting his head through the glass door, " is the priest mad? " " They will be after me to go and bless the weather," answered the priest, holding on his hat 8 THE POLITICIAN as he ran, while the tails of his coat fluttered in the wind. The storm, coming from behind the mountains on the west, had gone around to the south. The black clouds which had collected on the summit of the grey Rumano hills, threatened to overwhelm the wooded base of the mountain; and the poor, scattered houses, the newly-mown fields in front of the Villa Carre, were gilded by a sinister light. Countess Tarquinia, the Perlottis, the Baron of Santa Giulia, the ladies, Grigiolo, and in fact, all that remained of the party were huddled together at the end of the room, which looked south. " Nasty mean weather," said old Picuti the law- yer. " Saint John and Saint Peter," observed an- other, " they are great merchants of hail storms ! " Count Perlotti expressed the fear that that poor priest could not reach home in time. " I am thinking of my corn," ex-claimed Signor Zirsela, one of the proprietors of the district, who never went to mass. " And think of the grapes," whispered Mrs. Zir- sela. The priests had not stirred from the room, where they were making more noise than ever, as if to shut out the storm which raged round the house, and scattered the branches and leaves about the . garden. The Baroness Elena, also, seemed undisturbed by the storm. Leaning against the back of the THE POLITICIAN 9 sofa, she stood alone, with her head inchned for- ward on her breast, and her arms tightly crossed, as though she were cold. Her large black eyes watched the branches of the young fir-trees in the garden, unceasingly shaken by the wind. Judg- ing from her grave and statuesque immobility, one might have thought that she saw some phantom in those waving branches, and that some voice, in- audible to the others, was speaking to her from them. Suddenly a downpour of rain beat with fury against the windows and the walls, hiding from view the sky, the mountains and the fir-trees, and a lurid gleam lighted up all the doors and windows of the dark room. Countess Tarquinia said in a loud voice : " Daniele must have taken root up there. I will go and see what is happening." She moved near to her daughter and said to her in a low^ and complaining voice: — '' My dear Elena, do you know that you leave me entirely alone ? You never help me in the least. Is it because your husband does not wish you to?" The baroness scarcely raised her head, and, with- out looking at her mother, said : — " My husband does not trouble himself about me." Her voice was somewhat grave but very sweet, in spite of a tone of careless indifference. It was that of one buried in his own thoughts, who, on being distracted from them for a moment, merely lo THE POLITICIAN gives an answer with his Hps, in order not to dis- turb their current. " That's very true! " said the countess. " Oh, how unfortunate, Elena ! Here is your mother," exclaimed the always amiable Perlotti, suddenly appearing behind the shoulders of the lat- ter " And I was just coming to make love to you ! The young woman raised her eyes to the sky. " Go and join the rest of the party, Elena," in- sisted her mother. '' Poor thing, she is bored with them ; I don't blame her! " observed Perlotti caressingly and in a melancholy voice. " Sofia is there," said the baroness. " My wife? Yes, but she is not the hostess." At this answer, given somewhat disdainfully, Elena rose and joined the guests. " I am afraid my dear Tarquinia, that you will have to keep all these people for the night," said Perlotti in the ear of the countess, gently lean- ing his hand upon her arm. She was still a hand- some woman and very elegantly dressed. "Heaven forbid! Though they are all dear to me — come to my house twice a year ; what a shame they should come on such a night ! " She moved away, followed by a laugh from Per- lotti. She stopped at the far end of the room, near a door leading to the staircase. " At last! " she said; " how did you find him? " THE POLITICIAN ii A masculine voice answered : — " Sad." " That is nothing new ! He is only ill because he eats and sleeps, and passes hour after hour in reading and playing. I do not say that he may not suffer sometimes, but he pays a great deal too much attention to himself. The doctor says that he must be kept amused. Well, we must do our best. But if you knew, dear, how hard it is to keep others amused! If you knew how wretched I feel some- times, and how I struggle to hide it ! " " Wretched, aunt? " The countess was silent, bit her lips, and swal- lowed a sob. " Nothing, nothing," she answered nervously, closing her eyes, in which the tears were shining. ''You will not go away in this storm? Bravo, then go and pay a little attention to those ladies for me." She went upstairs, and the person with whom she had been talking entered the room just as all the ladies had turned away from the storm, and settled themselves on the sofa and the row of chairs between the billiard-table and the west door. Elena skirted^ the chairs, in order to pass near him, and whisper to him : " Thank you, Daniele, for having stayed so long with my uncle." Cortis pressed her hand without speaking. Elena looked at him more closely and started. "What is the matter?" she asked. 12 THE POLITICIAN " A grave matter," he answered. " Ah, there is our candidate," shouted the baron. " These gentlemen all want to know if you will bark at Tunis and bite the ministry." With his tall person, his long yellow beard and his loud voice, the baron looked like an old Norman brigand. " What have we to do with Tunis? We do not care about Tunis," said Checco Zirsela, a patriot who was afraid of nobody. " We are not in Sicily here." " Long live Italy ! " answered the senator. " Think of that, all of you." And he turned away. " Let him go, the old trombone," muttered Doc- tor Grigiolo. " Signor Cortis," said the new-comer, *' our friends here, who belong to this division, would be glad to say a few words to you." Daniele Cortis turned towards his friends who, leaning against the door in attitudes which, al- though respectful, scarcely concealed the conscious- ness of their power, were watching him as he came forward into the dim light. He was tall and slim, with well-cut features remarkable for their dignity and soldierly resolution, and blue eyes that were open and intelligent. " It is nothing," said Doctor Picuti, who always began his gravest speeches with these words : " it is nothing. Here we are persuaded as you well know, but it sometimes happens that we talk to our THE POLITICIAN 13 friends from other departments. I for example, or my friend Zirsela." " Quite so," said the latter, encouraging his friend to continue. " We two and some others are frequently obliged to go amongst people belonging to other depart- ments, and there we hear it said that you are but little known (they are ignorant people, and one cannot help that), and that they have no idea as to your opinions on certain questions; and so we think it would be well that you should, either by means of speech, or by means of the press, I don't know if I make myself clear — " " They want a programme," said the baron to the ladies, in a somew^hat lower tone. " They are quite right. Who ever heard of a candidate with- out a programme? It is like a house without a front to it." " It is better so than to have so many fronts without houses, or programmes without men be- hind them," said his wiie hastily. " Is it true, Elena," asked Countess Sofia Per- lotti suddenly, " that your cousin is called Daniele Volveno?" " Yes," replied Elena drily. " What strange names you people have here ! " exclaimed the baron. " It is not a name of our Veneto province, baron," answered Signora Perlotti. " It is a name of Friuli. Signor Cortis comes from Friuli." 14 THE POLITICIAN " I know that. Don't you suppose I know it ? And pray, where is Friuli, if it is not Veneto? A fine geography lesson you are teaching me." The lady bit her lips, " I am sorry," she said, " but — " A this moment her husband thought it advisable to go and flatten his nose against the window, and exclaimed: "Oh, do look here! Look here! Is that not Malcaiiton coming up? " They saw an umbrella slowly advancing under the dripping fir-trees. Every one rushed to the window except the baron and his wife. " Malcanton, Malcanton? Yes indeed it is he." " My goodness," exclaimed the countess, re-en- tering at that moment, " I had forgotten about him." She had sent this Malcanton a few hours pre- vious to do some errands. " I had entirely forgotten him." She added, " What an object he is. He looks like a drowned rat." She opened the door, and thrusting out her head, cried to him in her most amiable voice, " Come in, quick, quick ! " Signor Malcanton came in, shaking himself like a spaniel, and held the umbrella at arms length, while the countess groaned: " Oh my poor fellow ! I have been in such dis- tress about you. How drenched you are! I am so sorry. Quick, somebody, get a hot brandy punch." THE POLITICIAN 15 "I have done everything!" answered the poor felloAV. " I have seen Signor Momi and Signora Catina. I have engaged the band, and telegraphed for the fireworks." " And taken in plenty of water into the bar- gain," roared the baron, seated behind the others on the billiard-table, with his legs dangling. Every one laughed, except Malcanton, who stared at him open-mouthed. " Thank you, thank you a thousand times ; but, now do go upstairs," said the countess, suppressing her laughter. " Elena go to your uncle, and on your way, see about the punch." " By-the-by," continued Malcanton, " I have writ- ten for that book on " laven-tennisf and have asked how it should be pronounced." " Laan-tennis," said Countess Perlotti. " Loon, loon ! " bellowed the baron. " Whether it be laan, or loon, I still say laven," maintained Malcanten. " But we shall soon know." Countess Tarquinia had ordered a set of lawn- tennis, the first which had been seen in the neigh- bourhood. Nobody knew how to play it and every- one pronounced it differently; but nevertheless, they had lawn-tennis at Villa Carre. Even at the " Italia," the cafe in the town, they discussed at great length whether it should be laan or loon. " Now with your permission, I will retire," con- cluded Malcanton, and he disappeared behind the baroness, while the senator said in a marked voice : i6 THE POLITICIAN " Great doings, Countess Tarquinia ! " " Too great," murmured poor Malcanton to his companion, to whom he persisted in talking as though she were still a child. " Do you not think Elena, that such a drenching — " The young lady did not pay any attention to him ! she flew up the stairs, forgetting all about the punch, and entered the empty room on the second floor. She could hear the voices of the priests, the senator and the rest of the company indistinctly, from below, while the rain seemed to repeat to her, in a deep bass voice : " A grave matter." She crossed the room slowly, with her eyes fixed on the door of the room in which Daniele had spent so much time. A grave matter! Leaning her head against the door she gently knocked twice. A loud voice answered, " Come in!" CHAPTER II " A GRAVE MATTER " " Come in," said Count Lao, " and shut the door quickly, for there is an infernal draught. It is about time you came ! And what a damnable noise those howling priests are making. I wish I could get at them with a stick ! What in the world does your mother mean by inviting priests here? They are all drunk by this time! What wine did she give them, goose that she is — ?" Elena bowed profoundly. " I will go and find out, count." " Ah, you naughty girl," exclaimed the count, recovering his temper. " Come here. Forgive me, but she came up to me about ten minutes ago, as fresh as a rose, to ask me if I wanted anything. She must have lost her senses. As if I could want anything, when this noise pierces the very walls! I told her I wished to send them to perdition ! And she only said, I did not think you could hear them. Have I not troubles enough as it is; I ought to be deaf too to please them ! Come in. What are you standing at the door for ? Why are you staring at me? Am I pale? Am I green or yellow? Do I look like a dead man ? " " No, no, uncle ; you look like a bear in a rage." 17 i8 THE POLITICIAN "A white bear?" " No, a grey bear, uncle." Instead of answering, Count Ladislao drew a looking-glass from his pocket, and approached the window. " Oh no," said he, " I am pale." In fact he was pale, and his pallor was height- ened by two large black eyes and a black beard, which though short, was very thick, and a high yellowish forehead, scantily covered with bristling black hair. He turned his back to his niece, and looked at his tongue. " You are looking very well, uncle," she said, " you are a handsome man, so you may be quite happy." Her uncle turned round sharply and drew him- self up. " After all," he exclaimed, " if I were not ill — " He was tall and of elegant figure; a large, shapely aristocratic nose did not spoil his face, which was partly sentimental, partly comic, " If you did not dream of being ill," said Elena. " So, I only dream of it, do I ? This kind of life amuses me, does it? I enjoy being unable to digest by day, or to sleep by night, do I ? I enjoy being racked with pains for thirteen months of the year, I suppose? Do you hear those abominable priests? Perhaps I enjoy that too! Don't you talk any more nonsense, but play me instead that symphony of Corelli." THE POLITICIAN 19 He seated himself in an arm-chair behind a ta- ble, in the darkest corner of the room, the furthest from the door and the three windows. Close to his right the upright piano, standing against the door was open. " I cannot see, uncle." " Never mind, you know it by heart ! " Elena began to hum the motive of a pastorale with a sweet melodious voice full of sentiment. " I don't feel like playing to-night." "Why not?" Elena did not reply. Seated between the win- dow and the writing-table, she watched him ner- vously finger an open book, that lay aslant on the very edge of the table. Count Lao evidently in- terpreted her silence in his own fashion, for he lighted a cigarette instead of insisting. " It is certainly not my fault," said he, throwing the match into the ash-tray. "What fault, uncle?" Count Lao leaned his arm on the table and watched the match as it burned out. " That we should come to this ! " he said. Elena did not understand. " That English poet is not worth much ! " ex- claimed Count Lao, as though to break the thread of disagreeable thoughts. " He is worth very lit- tle! He is full of nonsensical ideas. I expected as much. The sky which becomes seven times more divine to the assumption of Mazzini! Non- sense ! " 20 THE POLITICIAN "Where have your thoughts wandered, uncle?" asked Elena rising. She came and sat down on the music-stool near him. " Eh ! where is your head now ? " answered Lao. " Tell me, were they playing billiards a short time ago before the storm?" " Yes." "Was your husband playing?" " Yes, he and Perlotti." " He is quite a philosopher ! " He remained in thought for a moment, then sud- denly jumped up, he threw away his cigarette and went to lay his hands on either side of Elena's head ; while she with a movement of involuntary pride, tried to free herself. " Listen to me," said he, pulling her forward un- til her head rested on his chest, you have a great scoundrel for a husband. " He placed his lips on her hair and whispered: " I will get even with him ! " Elena indignantly shook herself free from his embrace, and looked at him with glittering eyes. " Do you know that you make me suffer by say- ing such things ? " she said. " Do you know that they offend me? I knew about my husband be- fore I was engaged to him. I allowed him to be engaged to me before I married him. Think what- ever you please but say nothing. He has never deceived me ; he has always been the same. It would THE POLITICIAN 21 be dishonorable in me to allow you to say such things to me.'' She turned her back on him and moved to the window, to look out, while her uncle continued angrily : " Yes, that's all very well ! But nobody knows that you were a child! Nobody knows that you were forced into it ! " " No, I was not forced ! " replied Elena, turning sharply round. " Mamma, at first pressed me a little, perhaps, but poor, dear papa always repeated up to the last moment : ' remember that you are free; remember that there is still time!' But he need not have said that, because I was not such a child. I was nineteen years old, and I quite un- derstood what I was about." " Well, then, why in the world did you con- sent? I protest that if I had been there, you would not have consented." " Oh ! uncle ! " she said proudly. She disdained to speak, to admit that she had accepted the first husband offered to her, because certain intrigues carried on by her mother had been distasteful to her. " And now," she exclaimed, " of what new mon- strosity has my husband been guilty ? He has asked for some money, I suppose. That is, perhaps, the very reason that mother has the blues and you are unreasonable." " Ye gods ! " exclaimed the count, turning around 22 THE POLITICIAN and slowly bowing his head towards some imag- inary beings, some imaginary judges of appeal, " I leave it in your hands." He raised his hands and let them fall heavily again by his sides. " Let us not speak any more about it." He seated himself at the piano, as if he had nothing more to do with the matter and began to strum a noisy polka, muttering to himself as he played : " You have been well brought up, indeed ! Upon my word! A little of your money! What would be the use of that? A little of your money, alas! Well brought up ! By Jove ! a fine education ! " • " Do stop, uncle, and calm yourself," said Elena ; " how foolish you are this evening. I have never seen you like this before." " Dance, my dear, dance ! don't you hear that I am playing? Why worry about money! Dance and be happy," said the count sarcastically. " What nonsense, uncle. Do you wish me to torture myself for the sake of this money? Do be quiet. Your music is tiresome." The count seized with both hands the music-stool upon which he was seated and swung himself com- pletely around. " Oh, I know," said he, " and you will tell me later, what your talk is driving at. You do not mind if your husband, after having gambled away his money as well as your own, wants ours to gam- ble with too! It does not matter to you that he THE POLITICIAN 23 comes here swaggering, pretending to claim money that he has no right to, saying that you squandered your money right and left — ■" " That may be," said Elena coldly. " Threatening to shut you up for ever at* Cefalu, like an unworthy wife, unless this money is given to him." The baroness started and asked abruptly : " Has he said that to you ? " The count tapped his chest with his forefinger, raising his eyebrows. "To me?" he said. "I would very quickly have given him the money, and then would have thrown him out of the window — him and the money together in one heap. But he said it, or what was equivalent to it, to your mother." "When?" " This morning. I thought that, of course, you knew." " I knew nothing about it." " Very good, then you know nothing about it when 3^our senator says it to you; don't let him know I told you." " No." " I have let him know that he had better not repeat those things to me. Your mother must have given him my message already. Your mother is always trying to serve both God and Mammon. She is always vacillating. It is true that you knew nothing about all this ? " " I knew that my husband was in want of 24 THE POLITICIAN money. Before coming here, he begged me, as he always does, to ask you for some. I told him that he was perfectly at liberty to do as he liked about it, but that, for my part, I would not men- tion the subject to you! " " Who knows how he may have urged you ! " " Urged me? He has not said a word about this since. He does not urge me." " Is he never aggressive ? " asked Lao incredu- lously. " No, never," answered his niece, apparently sur- prised at having to affirm a thing twice. " If he were I should soon put him in his place." The other was silent. So, this is the " grave matter," thought Elena. Is it really so grave? The doings of her husband troubled her but little. It was evident that her uncle would never hear of her being imprisoned at Cefalu. No, she tortured herself because of what Daniele had said to her. The rain still fell outside, a dreary accompaniment to his sad voice. " Uncle," said the baroness, " what induced you to tell this to Daniele ? " "I? What? I have told nothing to Daniele." " Nothing? Yes, I saw him just now as he left you, and he told me that something serious had happened." " Something serious? I don't know anything serious ! " Elena noticed a change in her uncle's voice, an exaggerated indifference. THE POLITICIAN 25 " Does it not seem serious to you, my being ban- ished to Cefalu?" she asked smiHng. " Oh, yes, certainly. Can it have been that? " " But uncle — " " Do you know that you are worrying me ! " ex- claimed the count. " Daniele and I did not talk of your husband, or of yourself, or of myself. If you want confidences, go to Daniele for them." Elena made no answer. " Forgive me," continued her uncle. " It is a matter which concerns him alone. I cannot tell you about it." She regretted having revealed those two words of her cousin's which might suggest a very inti- mate and confidential friendship. All of a sudden she started as though she heard something, ran to the window and opened it. A noise of running water filled the room. " Are you mad? " cried Count Lao. jumping up, and seizing the cape of his overcoat from a hook on the door. " Shut the window, for heaven's sake! What the devil are you doing?" It had stopped raining; only a few large drops fell from the eaves of the house on the gravel path. " It is not raining, uncle ! There is not a breath of wind stirring." "Oh indeed, you call this not a breath! Good God, all this air! Shut the window at once, I say. What dampness! The Rovese torrent seems to be rushing through the room, and yet you te'l 26 THE POLITICIAN me there is not a breath of air! Quick, now, shut it, and behave yourself ! " Elena paid no attention to him. " Forgive me, uncle, I have just heard the bil- liard-room door open, and I want to see who is going," she said hastily, and in a low voice. The priests were going out with a great tramp- ing of feet, and a great demonstration of low bows. The senator was with them. He took the rector of Caodemuro by the arm and whispered something to him. All the others crowded around them. He, a fat, rubicund priest, with gold spec- tacles, answered in a loud voice, — " Yes, but you know that we must stand by the Pope; we cannot openly do anything else. Non expedid. If I had hundred votes to give, this gentleman here should not have one of them ; and I shall be delighted if he gets well beaten. But I am afraid that won't happen, because, every one about here will vote for him. The most that we can do is to persuade one or two people to stay at home. But even these — " " Let us go further away to talk," said the sen- ator, who did not care to have these things said in a loud voice so near the house. But at that moment Elena called him from the window. " Carmine! " The baron looked up. The priests turned around too, and saluted with a sort of dismayed humility, bowing their heads, and raising their eyes. The baroness scarcely acknowledged them THE POLITICIAN 27 with a movement of the head, while she asked her husband whether Cortis were still in the billiard- room. "Yes," he returned; "why?" " Because I want to speak to him," replied Elena quietly, as she shut the window. " And mamma ? " she said, turning to her un- cle, " what does she say about it? " " Have you shut it properly ? " asked the count, taking off his cape. " She is making herself mis- erable about it : she weeps, she storms at me be- cause I will not undertake offhand to do what her son-in-law wishes. She will never persuade me. If she likes to sacrifice her own possessions to him, well and good; but I think she would turn a deaf ear to such proposals." " Poor mamma," said Elena, smiling. " Tears are cheaper. Good-bye, uncle." She offered him her hand. Lao held it firmly , for a minute, and kept her thus without speak- ing. " Elena," he said in a choking voice, " you know me, don't you? " She put out her left hand also, and, with an af- fectionate impulse seized both of his, and held them tightly. " Good," said he. Elena knew that she could rely upon that true honest heart, so warm under its apparent indif- ference. Some secret defect of the mind had warped his personality and this weakness encour- 28 THE POLITICIAN aged by family tradition, increased by habit, fos- tered by suffering really existing either in his body or in his imagination, had been strengthened by a bitter scepticism, until it seemed the real position of the man towards the world. A servant entered to see whether Signer Daniele had left his gloves there. The baroness released herself hastily from her uncle, hurried from the room, and went down to the verandah by a dark back staircase. At the foot she met somebody coming up. " Who is there? " she asl