Page:All the Year Round - Series 1 - Volume 8.djvu/127

 amount of gentle interest in the state of Sal- viati's heart ; but you don't think I am such a marplot, such a traitor in the camp, as to carry such tales to a man's wife, at all events to such a wife as that odious Veronica ! As you truly say, she is no gentle Tuscan, neither one of us, noi tolerated by us. She is a black ugly blot on the surface of our gay and laughter-loving world, proud, gloomy, jealous, bitter-minded, detestable woman ! No, trust me, you will not find me, 01 any one of us, in the least inclined to fight the Duchess Veronica's battles." "" In that case, I think I shall be able to gratify your ladyship ; but I am sure that the amabi- lissima Signora Cecilia will not have been of- fended, that I should have been cautious not to let trouble arise out of matters that ought never to pass out of the domain of light-hearted laugh and jest, and mutual toleration. Say I well ?" "Excellently well! most amiable of philoso- phers ! And now, out with the secret ! For I am very sure that you can tell it me on the spot, as well as a week hence." " There is no deceiving your ladyship's prac- tised penetration !" said Carlini, with a profound inclination. " Here it is then. Salviati's flame for the nonce, is a certain Signora Canacci, who lives in the Via dei Pilastri. The husband is some seventy or eighty years old, I believe. There has at least been no difficulty in the way to stimulate the noble duke's ardour in the chase." "Ah! . . . . that is it, is it ! Methinks I have heard of that same Caterina Canacci. Of very low origin, was she not, much below the position of old Canacci, her husband ; and something mi- raculously beautiful, I think I have heard, eh ?" " Well ! a pretty face enough ! a very pretty face ! But what would you have ? A mere doll ! Neither expression, manner, nor grace ! How should it be otherwise ?" " Now listen, Vincenzo mio ! I have a fancy; .... and you know perhaps that the shortest and easiest way to have done with my fancies is to satisfy them. They are apt to become trou- blesome, .... and sometimes even dangerous otherwise. I must have a portrait of this super- latively beautiful Caterina Canacci. And you must manage to get me one, somehow or other. It cannot be very difficult to a man of your re- sources." "Peerless 'Signora Cecilia, I am delighted to have it in my power to satisfy you on that head with the greatest readiness. It so happens that among a few other souvenirs of the same sort, I possess a portrait of the lady, in question. In- some cases, Signora Cecilia, the features of one who has been loved, remain so graven on the heart, that no painter's art is needed to make the memory of them eternal. But La Caterina poveretta ! When one does not bring even a scar on the heart away to remember a love- passage by, why, a touch of the artist's craft may serve as a memorial of what otherwise would be wholly forgotten. " Aha ! friend Viucenzo ! So you were before- hand in Casa Canacci with our poor friend Jacopo, eh ?" " Signora Contessa ! The grandees of the court have an infinity of advantages over us poor simple cavalieri. But always to be first served at the shrine of beauty is not among the number, at least in Tuscany." The falseness of this boast the reader knows, " Bravo ! Signore Cavaliere Vincenzo ! When shall I have the portrait ?" "Within an hour after I quit the gracious presence of your ladyship. Shall I return with it, and myself consign it to your fair hands ?" " Nay ! that would be trespassing too much on your kindness. Let it be given in a sealed envelope to my maid you won't have forgotten Geppina she can be trusted, as you know ; and it will be all well." " Your ladyship shall be punctually served," said Carlini, as he stooped to kiss the lady^s hand. " May I hope," he added, rather hesitat- ingly, but looking into her eyes the while" may I hope, that sometimes in the dull evenings be- tween this and the beginning of Carnival, I may sometimes have the honour of an hour of your society ?" " To be sure ! why not ? my very good friend, Signore Vincenzo. Just at present, it is true, I am much occupied. But you shall hear from me. You may depend on hearing from me, as soon as I am able to permit myself the pleasure of a visit from you." Carlini bowed again and took his leave, per- fectly well understanding that there was to be no renewal of the terms on which he and the Contessa Cecilia had once been together; and that the treacherous signature to her note had been merely a lure to obtain from him what she wanted. They were not blessings on the head of his old friend, which he invoked as he passed out of the little postern into the alley, and from that into the Via Maggio, which was the site of the Palazzo dei Neri. But it was no part of Signer Vincenzo Carlini's philosophy to pe rmit little disappointments of this nature to " pass," as he had phrased it, "from the domain of smiles and laughter," into the region of serious troubles and heart-burnings. More specially still, it was wholly contrary to his practice to quarrel with those above him on the wheel of fortune. It ap- peared to him the same thing as quarrelling with liis bread-and-butter, or, more absurdly still, with the Lady Cecilia had Cateriua's portrait in her lands within an hour from the time Signer Car- .ini left her. When the Contessa Cecilia had first conceived Vincenzo Carlini, for the purpose of finding out what was really at the bottom of the change which all the court circle had observed in the Duca di San Giuliano, she had merely been actuated by a woman's curiosity to know the person of her rival. She had listened to all the
 * he chances of having butter on his bread. So
 * he idea of making use of her old acquaintance,