第3章

Gianbattista was for sending for the landlord and making a riot in that hostelry; but I stayed him, and bidding him fetch me a flask of white wine, three lemons, and a glass of eau de vie, Isat down peaceably at one of the little tables in the courtyard and prepared for the quenching of my thirst.Presently, as I sat drinking that excellent compound of my own invention, my shoulder was touched, and I turned to find the maid and her mistress.

Alas for my hopes of a glorious being, young and lissom and bright with the warm riches of the south! I saw a short, stout little lady, well on the wrong side of thirty.She had plump red cheeks, and fair hair dressed indifferently in the Roman fashion.

Two candid blue eyes redeemed her plainness, and a certain grave and gentle dignity.She was notably a gentlewoman, so I got up, doffed my hat, and awaited her commands.

She spoke in Italian."Your pardon,signor, but I fear my good Cristine has done you unwittingly a wrong."Cristine snorted at this premature plea of guilty, while Ihastened to assure the fair apologist that any rooms I might have taken were freely at her service.

I spoke unconsciously in English, and she replied in a halting parody of that tongue."I understand him," she said, "but I do not speak him happily.I will discourse, if the signor pleases, in our first speech."She and her father, it appeared, had come over the Brenner, and arrived that morning at the Tre Croci, where they purposed to lie for some days.He was an old man, very feeble, and much depending upon her constant care.Wherefore it was necessary that the rooms of all the party should adjoin, and there was no suite of the size in the inn save that which I had taken.Would I therefore consent to forgo my right, and place her under an eternal debt?

I agreed most readily, being at all times careless where I sleep, so the bed be clean, or where I eat, so the meal be good.I bade my servant see the landlord and have my belongings carried to other rooms.Madame thanked me sweetly, and would have gone, when a thought detained her.

"It is but courteous," she said, "that you should know the names of those whom you have befriended.My father is called the Count d'Albani, and I am his only daughter.We travel to Florence, where we have a villa in the environs.""My name," said I, "is Hervey-Townshend, an Englishman travelling abroad for his entertainment.""Hervey?" she repeated."Are you one of the family of Miladi Hervey?""My worthy aunt," I replied, with a tender recollection of that preposterous woman.

Madame turned to Cristine, and spoke rapidly in a whisper.

"My father, sir," she said, addressing me, "is an old frail man, little used to the company of strangers; but in former days he has had kindness from members of your house, and it would be a satisfaction to him, I think, to have the privilege of your acquaintance."She spoke with the air of a vizier who promises a traveller a sight of the Grand Turk.I murmured my gratitude, and hastened after Gianbattista.In an hour I had bathed, rid myself of my beard, and arrayed myself in decent clothing.Then I strolled out to inspect the little city, admired an altar-piece, chaffered with a Jew for a cameo, purchased some small necessaries, and returned early in the afternoon with a noble appetite for dinner.

The Tre Croci had been in happier days a Bishop's lodging, and possessed a dining-hall ceiled with black oak and adorned with frescos.It was used as a general salle a manger for all dwellers in the inn, and there accordingly I sat down to my long-deferred meal.At first there were no other diners, and Ihad two maids, as well as Gianbattista, to attend on my wants.

Presently Madame d'Albani entered, escorted by Cristine and by a tall gaunt serving-man, who seemed no part of the hostelry.The landlord followed, bowing civilly, and the two women seated themselves at the little table at the farther end."Il Signor Conte dines in his room," said Madame to the host, who withdrew to see to that gentleman's needs.

I found my eyes straying often to the little party in the cool twilight of that refectory.The man-servant was so old and battered, and of such a dignity, that he lent a touch of intrigue to the thing.He stood stiffly behind Madame's chair, handing dishes with an air of great reverence--the lackey of a great noble, if I had ever seen the type.Madame never glanced toward me, but conversed sparingly with Cristine, while she pecked delicately at her food.Her name ran in my head with a tantalizing flavour of the familiar.Albani! D'Albani! It was a name not uncommon in the Roman States, but I had never heard it linked to a noble family.And yet I had somehow, somewhere; and in the vain effort at recollection I had almost forgotten my hunger.There was nothing bourgeois in the little lady.The austere servants, the high manner of condescension, spake of a stock used to deference, though, maybe, pitifully decayed in its fortunes.There was a mystery in these quiet folk which tickled my curiosity.Romance after all was not destined to fail me at Santa Chiara.

My doings of the afternoon were of interest to me alone.Suffice it to say that when at nightfall I found Gianbattista the trustee of a letter.It was from Madame, written in a fine thin hand on a delicate paper, and it invited me to wait upon the signor her father, that evening at eight o'clock.What caught my eye was a coronet stamped in a corner.A coronet, I say, but in truth it was a crown, the same as surmounts the Arms Royal of England on the sign-board of a Court tradesman.I marvelled at the ways of foreign heraldry.Either this family of d'Albani had higher pretensions than I had given it credit for, or it employed an unlearned and imaginative stationer.I scribbled a line of acceptance and went to dress.