"Well, then?" replied she, with an almost harsh expression, "Do not be afraid! Signor Rinaldo knows now that he must remain at a distance from me and my son. He will acknowledge us at any possible meeting as little as I shall acknowledge him."
"To-day it would certainly be impossible," replied Hugo seriously, "as he is not alone. I fear, Ella, even that will not be spared you."
"You mean a meeting with Signora Biancona?" Ella could not preserve her lips from trembling as she uttered the name, however much she forced herself to appear calm, "Well, if it cannot be avoided, I shall know how to endure it."
During this conversation they had drawn near the bal.u.s.trade. The storm was really over, and the sluices of heaven seemed to have exhausted themselves at last, but the air still hung damp and laden with rain.
The wet vines, torn and disordered by the storm, still fluttered about, and drops of rain ran down from the saint"s picture in the badly sheltered niche in the wall. Below rolled the sea, still wildly disturbed; the usually so quiet sapphire blue mirror was only a wild chaos of iron-grey currents and white foaming crests of waves, which broke hissing and surging on the sh.o.r.e. But the mist, which until now had enveloped the whole country in an impenetrable veil, commenced to melt at last, and land-marks came out distinctly already; only around the higher points did it still cling and hang, while in the west a clearer gleam of light began to struggle with the disappearing clouds.
"How did you recognise my little Reinhold?" asked Ella suddenly, in quite an altered tone. "You did not see him at your last visit, and when you left H---- he had barely pa.s.sed his first year of life."
Hugo leant down to the child, and lifted up its little head.
"How I recognised him?" replied he smiling; "by his eyes. He has yours, Ella, and they are not so easily mistaken, even if they look out of another"s face. I should know them amongst hundreds."
His tone had almost a pa.s.sionate warmth. The young wife drew slightly aside.
"Since when have you begun to pay me compliments, Hugo?"
"Are compliments so unusual to you, Ella?"
"From your lips, certainly."
"Yes, certainly. I dare not venture upon what you allow to every one else," said Captain Almbach, with a slight accent of bitterness. "The attempt has once already obtained me the name of "adventurer.""
"It seems as if you could never forget that word," said Ella, half smiling.
He threw his head back defiantly. "No, I cannot, as it pained me, and therefore I cannot get over it, even until this moment."
"Pained you?" repeated Ella. "Can, indeed, anything pain you, Hugo?"
"That is to say, in other words--"have you then indeed a heart, Hugo?"
Oh, no, I do _not_ possess such an article at all; I came off badly at the distribution of the same; you must surely have discovered that."
"I do not mean that," interposed Ella, "I give you all credit for the warmest feelings."
"But no earnestness, no depth?"
"No."
Captain Almbach looked at her silently for a few seconds; at last he said softly--
"Was it necessary, Ella, to give me such a harsh lesson, because T ventured lately to kiss your hand, which perhaps displeased you? I know what this "No" means. You see I understand hints, and shall take note of to-day"s. You need not be afraid."
A slight blush pa.s.sed over Ella"s features, as she saw that he understood her. "I did not wish to wound you, indeed not," she answered, and put her hand out heartily, but Hugo stood obstinately averted, and appeared not to notice it.
"Are you angry with me?" she asked. It was a touchingly-beseeching tone, and it did not fail in its intention. Captain Almbach turned round suddenly, and caught her offered hand, but in his answer excitement and the old love of teasing struggled again, and were suppressed with difficulty, as he replied--
"If my late uncle and aunt could see us now, they would observe with intense satisfaction how their daughter holds the incorrigible Hugo by the head--he who will usually obey no other reins--how she will not permit him to go even one step beyond those limits which she finds it good to draw. No, I am not angry with you, Ella--cannot be so--only you must not make obedience too hard for me."
Both were still engaged in lively conversation, when Marchese Tortoni and Lord Elton also entered the verandah from the gallery.
"Look there," said the former, astonished, to his companion, "that is the reason why our Capitano"s observations are so endlessly prolonged that we are obliged to look him up at last. It is indeed an extraordinary nature. An hour ago he forced our boat through storm and waves, and now he plays the agreeable to a young signora."
"Yes, an extraordinary man," agreed Lord Elton, who had taken such a blind fancy to Hugo, that he thought everything perfect in him.
The unbearable sultry air in the close rooms appeared to have driven the whole party out on to the verandah, as immediately after the two gentlemen Reinhold and Beatrice appeared also. If his wife were prepared for this encounter, he certainly was not, as he became pale as death, and made a movement as if to turn back; but at the same moment the boy"s fair, curly head appeared from behind the young wife, and, as if transfixed, the father stood still. His glance directed openly to the child, he appeared to have forgotten all else around him.
"What a lovely child!" cried Beatrice, admiringly, as she stretched her arms out with perfect a.s.surance; but now Ella started up! with a single movement she had withdrawn the boy from the intended caress, and pressed him firmly to herself.
"Excuse me, Signora," said she, coldly, "the child is shy with strangers, and not accustomed to _such_ caresses."
Beatrice seemed somewhat offended at this repulse; however she saw nothing more in it than a mother"s over-due anxiety. She shrugged her shoulders imperceptibly, and a scoffing side-glance fell upon the stranger, but it soon remained enchained by the latter"s appearance, although recognition only took place on one side.
Before Ella"s recollection, that evening stood forth in perfect distinctness when she, alone, without knowledge of her people, her veil drawn closely over her face, hastened to the theatre, in order to see the one who had so completely alienated her husband. She had seen Beatrice in all the brilliancy of her beauty and talent, intoxicated by the cheers and homage of the public, and she bore the impression ineffaceably away with her.
Beatrice, also, had only once seen Reinhold"s wife, at the time when she first began to be interested in the young composer, and Ella did not then suspect anything of her evil influence. A short meeting of a few minutes sufficed for the Italian to perceive that this quiet, pale being, with downcast eyes, and that ridiculously matronly costume, could not possibly bind such a man to her, and this knowledge was extensive enough for her not to take any further notice of the young wife. At all events it was impossible for her to a.s.sociate the colourless, half ridiculous, and half pitiful picture, which she carried in her recollection, in the remotest degree with this apparition, which stood so unapproachably proudly there, which held its fair head so high and erect, and whose large blue eyes looked at her with an expression which Beatrice was unable to explain to herself. She only saw that the stranger was very haughty, but also very beautiful.
The two gentlemen seemed to think the latter also, as they came nearer, bowing politely; Lord Elton gazed at Ella with open admiration, and the Marchese, whom Hugo had often reproached for blamable indifference to ladies" acquaintance, said with unusual eagerness to him--
"You appear to know the Signora. May we not also count upon the pleasure of being introduced to her?"
Captain Almbach, as if to protect her, had placed himself by the young wife"s side. Between his eyebrows lay a frown which seldom appeared on his cheerful brow, and it became still deeper at this request, which could not possibly be refused. He therefore introduced the two gentlemen, and named his countrywoman to them as Frau Erlau. He knew that Ella, in order to antic.i.p.ate unpleasant enquiries, to which the name of Almbach might easily give rise, bore that of her adopted father, so long as she remained in Italy.
Beatrice"s eyes flashed with offended pride. She was not accustomed to herself and Reinhold being mentioned last in such cases, and here she was not even named at all. Captain Almbach ignored her altogether, and appeared actually to do so on purpose, as the angry look which she cast towards him was received with aggravating coldness; but even Cesario was struck by the want of tact that his usually charming friend displayed. While he uttered a few civilities to the strange lady, he waited in vain for the continuation of the presentation, and as this did not ensue, he undertook it, in order to atone for the Captain"s supposed impoliteness.
"You have forgotten the most important part, Signor," said he, turning the affair quickly into a joke. "Signora Erlau would hardly be grateful to you were you not to mention the very two names which, doubtless, interest her most, and which are certainly not unknown to her. Signora Biancona--Signor Rinaldo."
Beatrice, still enraged at the insult offered to her, only vouchsafed a slight inclination of her head, which was similarly returned; but suddenly she became observant. She felt how Reinhold"s arm quivered, how he let hers fall, and moved a step away from her as he bowed. She knew him too well not to perceive that at this moment, notwithstanding his apparent calm, he was terribly agitated. This intense pallor, this nervous quivering of his lips, were the sure sign that he was forcibly suppressing some pa.s.sionate emotion. And what meant this glance, which certainly only met that of the stranger for a few seconds, but it flashed with unmistakable defiance, and melted again into perfect tenderness when it fell on the child at her side. She herself, indeed, stood quite impa.s.sive opposite him; not a feature moved in the countenance cold as marble. But this face was also remarkably pale, and her arms encircled her boy with convulsive firmness, as if he were to be torn away from them. Yet she replied in a perfectly controlled voice--
"I am much obliged to you, Signor. I had indeed not yet the pleasure of knowing Italy"s princ.i.p.al singer and Italy"s celebrated composer."
Reinhold"s blood surged through his veins, as again, and this time before strangers, the endless breach was shown him which separated him from his former wife. Now it was she who a.s.signed him the place which he had to occupy towards her; and that she could do it with such calm and ease roused him to the uttermost.
"Italy"s?" replied he, with sharp accentuation. "You forget, Signora, that by birth I am a German."
"Really," replied Ella, in the same tone as before. "Indeed I did not know that until now."
"One seems to be soon forgotten in one"s home," said Reinhold, with savage bitterness.
"But surely only when people estrange themselves. In this case it is quite comprehensible. You, Signor, have found a second fatherland, and he to whom Italy has given so much can easily forego home and its recollections."
She turned to the other gentlemen, exchanged a few pa.s.sing indifferent words with them, and then gave her hand quietly and openly to Hugo in farewell.
"You will excuse me, I must go to my uncle. Reinhold bid Captain Almbach adieu."
It was only too true. Ella possessed a terrible weapon in the child, and understood how to use it mercilessly. Reinhold experienced it at this moment. To him she relentlessly denied the sight and presence of his boy, although she knew with what pa.s.sion he longed for him; and now she let him see how this boy stretched out his little arms to his uncle, and offered his mouth for a kiss; let him see it in the presence of the woman for whom he had forsaken them both, and whose presence forbade him to insist upon any of his rights as a father--the revenge penetrated to the innermost depths of his heart.
Beatrice, quite contrary to her usual custom, had not taken part, even by a single syllable, in the conversation; but her darkly burning glance did not move from either of the two, between whom she suspected some secret connection, although her thoughts were immeasurably far from the truth itself. For the present, however, Ella now put an end to any further conversation. She took little Reinhold by the hand, and after a slight, haughty bow, which included the whole party, she left the verandah with the child.