"You are always too modest," he said to her. "Why walk like that with downcast eyes?
Anyone would take you for one of those cits' wives astonished at finding themselves here, whom everyone else is astonished, too, to see here.
That fool of a Grand Mistress does nothing else but collect them!
And they talk of retarding the advance of Jacobinism!
Remember that your husband occupies the first position, among the gentlemen, at the Princess's court; and that even should the Republicans succeed in suppressing the court, and even the nobility, your husband would still be the richest man in this State.
That is an idea which you do not keep sufficiently in your head."
The chair on which the Marchese had the pleasure of installing his wife was but six paces from the Prince's card-table: she saw Fabrizio only in profile, but she found him grown so thin, he had, above all, the air of being so far above everything that might happen in this world, he who before would never let any incident pass without making his comment, that she finally arrived at the terrible conclusion: Fabrizio had altogether changed; he had forgotten her; if he had grown so thin, that was the effect of the severe fasts to which his piety subjected him.
Clelia was confirmed in this sad thought by the conversation of all her neighbours: the name of the Coadjutor was on every tongue; they sought a reason for the signal favour which they saw conferred upon him: for him, so young, to be admitted to the Prince's table!
They marvelled at the polite indifference and the air of pride with which he threw down his cards, even when he had His Highness for a partner.
"But this is incredible!" cried certain old courtiers; "his aunt's favour has quite turned his head… .
But, mercifully, it won't last; our Sovereign does not like people to put on these little airs of superiority."
The Duchessa approached the Prince; the courtiers, who kept at a most respectful distance from the card-table, so that they could hear only a few stray words of the Prince's conversation, noticed that Fabrizio blushed deeply.
"His aunt has been teaching him a lesson," they said to themselves, "about those grand airs of indifference."
Fabrizio had just caught the sound of Clelia's voice, she was replying to the Princess, who, in making her tour of the ball-room, had addressed a few words to the wife of her Cavaliere d'onore.
The moment arrived when Fabrizio had to change his place at the whist-table; he then found himself directly opposite Clelia, and gave himself up repeatedly to the pleasure of contemplating her.
The poor Marchesa, feeling his gaze rest upon her, lost countenance altogether.
More than once she forgot what she owed to her vow: in her desire to read what was going on in Fabrizio's heart, she fixed her eyes on him.
The Prince's game ended, the ladies rose to go into the supper-room.
There was some slight confusion. Fabrizio found himself close to Clelia; his mind was still quite made up, but he happened to recognise a faint perfume which she used on her clothes; this sensation overthrew all the resolutions that he had made.
He approached her and repeated, in an undertone and as though he were speaking to himself, two lines from that sonnet of Petrarch which he had sent her from Lake Maggiore, printed on a silk handkerchief:
"Nessum visse giammai piu di me lieto; Nessun vive piu tristo e giorni e notti."
"No, he has not forgotten me," Clelia told herself with a transport of joy. "That fine soul is not inconstantl"
"Esser po in prima ogni impossibil cosa Ch'altri che morte od ella sani il colpo Ch'Amor co' suoi begli occhi al cor m'impresse,"
Clelia ventured to repeat to herself these lines of Petrarch.
The Princess withdrew immediately after supper; the Prince had gone with her to her room and did not appear again in the reception rooms.
As soon as this became known, everyone wished to leave at once; there was complete confusion in the ante-rooms; Clelia found herself close to Fabrizio; the profound misery depicted on his features moved her to pity.
"Let us forget the past," she said to him, "and keep this reminder of friendship."
As she said these words, she held out her fan so that he might take it.
Everything changed in Fabrizio's eyes; in an instant he was another man; the following day he announced that his retreat was at an end, and returned to occupy his magnificent apartment in the palazzo Sanseverina.
The Archbishop said, and believed, that the favour which the Prince had shewn him in admitting him to his game had completely turned the head of this new saint: the Duchessa saw that he had come to terms with Clelia.
This thought, coming to intensify the misery that was caused her by the memory of a fatal promise, finally decided her to absent herself for a while.
People marvelled at her folly.
What!
Leave the court at the moment when the favour that she enjoyed appeared to have no bounds!
The Conte, perfectly happy since he had seen that there was no love between Fabrizio and the Duchessa, said to his friend:
"This new Prince is virtue incarnate, but I have called him that boy: will he ever forgive me?
I can see only one way of putting myself back in his good books, that is absence.
I am going to shew myself a perfect model of courtesy and respect, after which I shall be ill, and shall ask leave to retire.
You will allow me that, now that Fabrizio's fortune is assured.
But will you make me the immense sacrifice," he added, laughing, "of exchanging the sublime title of Duchessa for another greatly inferior?
For my own amusement, I am leaving everything here in an inextricable confusion; I had four or five workers in my various Ministries, I placed them all on the pension list two months ago, because they read the French newspapers; and I have filled their places with blockheads of the first order.
"After our departure, the Prince will find himself in such difficulties that, in spite of the horror that he feels for Rassi's character, I have no doubt that he will be obliged to recall him, and I myself am only awaiting an order from the tyrant who disposes of my fate to write a letter of tender friendship to my friend Rassi, and tell him that I have every reason to hope that presently justice will be done to his merits."
Chapter 14
This serious conversation was held on the day following Fabrizio's return to the palazzo Sanseverina; the Duchessa was still overcome by the joy that radiated from Fabrizio's every action.
"So," she said to herself, "that little saint has deceived me!
She has not been able to hold out against her lover for three months even."
The certainty of a happy ending had given that pusillanimous creature, the young Prince, the courage to love; he knew something of the preparations for flight that were being made at the palazzo Sanseverina; and his French valet, who had little belief in the virtue of great ladies, gave him courage with respect to the Duchessa.
Ernesto V allowed himself to take a step for which he was severely reproved by the Princess and all the sensible people at court; to the populace it appeared to set the seal on the astonishing favour which the Duchessa enjoyed.
The Prince went to see her in her palazzo.
"You are leaving," he said to her in a serious tone which the Duchessa thought odious; "you are leaving, you are going to play me false and violate your oath!