"Is there any reason why a woman should be allowed to do with impunity what one man would shoot another for doing?" asked Lamberti, roughly.
"She has changed her mind once, she can be made to change it again."
The more he thought of what had happened the angrier he grew, and his jealousy against the unknown man who had caused the trouble was boiling up.
Guido caught at the straw like a drowning man, and raised himself on his elbow.
"Do you really think that she may change her mind? That this is only a caprice?"
"I should not wonder. All women have caprices now and then. It is a fit of conscience. She is not quite sure that she likes you enough to marry you, and you have said something that jarred on her, perhaps. If you had been able to go and see her this morning, she would have begun by being very brave, but in five minutes she would have been as ready to marry you as ever. I will wager anything that when she had written that letter she sent it off as soon as possible for fear that she should not send it at all!"
"What do you advise me to do?" asked Guido, his hopes rising. "I believe you understand women better than I do, after all!"
"They are only human animals, like ourselves," Lamberti answered carelessly. "The chief difference is that they do all the things that we are sometimes inclined to do, but should be ashamed of doing."
"I daresay. But I want your advice."
"Go and tell her that she has made a mistake, that she cannot possibly be in earnest, but that if she does not feel that she can marry you in a fortnight, she can put off the wedding till the autumn. It is quite simple. It has all been rather sudden, from the first, and it is much better that the engagement should go on a little longer."
"That is reasonable," Guido answered, growing calmer every moment. "I wish I could go to her at once."
"I suppose you cannot," said Lamberti, looking at him rather curiously.
He remembered that he had once dragged himself five miles with a bad spear-wound in his leg, to take news to a handful of men in danger, but he supposed that Guido was differently organised. He did not like him the less.
"No!" Guido answered. "The fever makes me so giddy that I can hardly stand."
He put out his hand for the tumbler on the table, but it was empty.
"Lamberti!" he said.
"Yes, I will get you some water at once," the other answered, rising to his feet.
"No," Guido said. "Never mind that, I will ring presently. Will you do something for me?"
"Of course."
"Will you speak to her for me?"
Lamberti was standing by the bedside, and he saw the serious and almost timid look in his friend"s eyes. But he had not expected the request, and he hesitated a moment.
"You would rather not," said Guido, disappointed. "I suppose I must wait till I am well. Only it may be too late then. She will tell every one that she has broken off the engagement."
"You misunderstood me," Lamberti said calmly, for he had found time to think while Guido was speaking. "I will see her at once."
It had not been easy to say, for he knew what it meant.
"Thank you," Guido murmured. "Thank you, thank you!" he repeated with a profound sense of relief, as his head sank back on the pillow.
"Will it do you any harm if I smoke?" asked Lamberti, looking at a cigar he had taken from his pocket.
"No. I wish you would. I cannot even smoke a cigarette to-day. It tastes like bad hay."
There is a hideous triviality about the things people say at important moments in their lives. But Lamberti was not listening, and he lit his cigar thoughtfully, without answering. Then he went to the window and looked down through the blinds in silence, pondering on what was before him.
It was certainly the place of a friend in such a case to accept the position Guido was thrusting upon him, and from the first Lamberti had not meant to refuse. He had a strong sense of man"s individual right to get what he wanted for himself without great regard for the feelings of others, and he was quite sure that he would not have done for his own brother what he was about to do for Guido. It is even possible that he would not have been so ready to do it for Guido himself if he had not accidentally seen those four words of Cecilia"s letter. The knowledge of her secret had at once determined the direction of his impulses. For himself he hoped nothing, but he had made up his mind that if Cecilia would not marry Guido she should by no means marry any other man living, and he was fully determined to make her confess her pa.s.sing fancy for the unknown one, in order that he might have the right to reproach her with it. He even hoped that he could find out the man"s name, and, as he was of a violent disposition, he at once planned vengeance to be wreaked upon him. He turned from the window at last, and blew a cloud of grey smoke into the quiet room.
"I will send a message now," he said, "and I will go myself this evening. They can hardly be dining out."
"No. They are at home. I was to have dined with them."
Guido"s voice was faint, but he was calm now. Lamberti unlocked the door and opened it. The man servant was just coming towards it followed by the doctor.
The latter found Guido worse than when he had seen him in the morning.
He said it was what he had expected, a sharp attack of influenza, and that Guido must not think of leaving his bed till the fever had disappeared. He dilated a little upon the probable consequences of any exposure to the outer air, even in summer. No one could ever tell what the influenza might leave behind it, and it was much safer to be patient.
"You see," said Guido to Lamberti, when the physician was gone. "It will be quite impossible for me to go out to-morrow, or for several days."
"Quite," Lamberti answered, looking for his straw hat.
CHAPTER XX
Lamberti dined at home that evening, and soon after nine o"clock he was on his way to the Palazzo Ma.s.simo. Though the evening was hot and close he walked there, for it was easier to think on his feet than leaning back in a cab. His normal condition was one of action and not of reflection.
His thoughts also took an active dramatic shape. He did not try to bind future events together in a connected sequence leading to a result; on the contrary, he seemed to hear the very words he would soon be speaking, and Cecilia Palladio"s answers to them; he saw her face and noted her expression, and the interview grew violent by degrees till he felt the inward coolness stealing through him which he had often known in fight.
He had written a note to Countess Fortiguerra which he had left at her door on his way home. He had explained that Guido, being too ill to move, had begged him to speak to the Contessina, and he expressed the hope that he might be allowed to see the young lady for a few minutes alone that evening, in the capacity of the sick man"s representative and trusted friend.
Such a request could hardly be refused, and the Countess had always felt that Lamberti was one of those exceptional men in whom one may safely believe, even without knowing them well. She said that Cecilia had better see him when he came. She herself had letters to write and would sit in the boudoir.
It was the last thing Cecilia had expected, and the mere thought was like breaking the promise she had made to herself, never to see Lamberti again; yet she realised that it was impossible to avoid the meeting. The course she had taken was so extraordinary that she felt bound to give Guido a chance to answer her letter in any way he could. In the afternoon her mother had exhausted every argument in trying to make her revoke her decision. She did not love Guido; that was her only reply; but she felt that it ought to be sufficient, and she bowed her head meekly when the Countess grew angry and told her that she should have found that out long ago. Yes, she answered, it was all her fault, she ought to have known, she would bear all the blame, she would tell her friends that she had broken off the engagement, she would do everything that could be required of her. But she would not marry Guido d"Este.
The Countess could say nothing more. On her side she was reticent for once in her life, and told nothing of her own interview with Princess Anatolie. Whether something had been said which the mother thought unfit for her daughter"s ears, or whether the Princess"s words had been of a nature to hurt Cecilia"s pride, the young girl could not guess; and though her maidenly instinct told her to accept her mother"s silence without question, if it proceeded from the first cause, she could not help fearing that the Countess had done or said something hopelessly tactless which might produce disagreeable consequences, or might even do some harm to Guido.
Her heart was beating so fast when Lamberti entered the drawing-room that she wondered how she should find breath to speak to him, and she did not raise her eyes again after she had seen his face at the door, till he was close to her, and had bowed without holding out his hand.
"I hope you got my note," he said to her mother. "D"Este is ill, and has given me a verbal message for your daughter."
"Yes," said the Countess. "I will go into the next room and write my letters."
She was gone and the two stood opposite each other in momentary silence.
Lamberti"s voice had been formal, and his face was almost expressionless.
"Where will you sit?" he asked. "It will take some time to tell you all that he wishes me to say."