"Rutolo, be on your guard!" said the Contessa di Lucoli with a malicious laugh as she pa.s.sed down the stairs on the arm of Don Filippo del Monte.
The blow struck home. Donna Ippolita and the Conte d"Ugenta having penetrated as far as the umpire"s stand were now retracing their steps.
The lady held her sunshade over her shoulder, twirling the handle languidly in her fingers; the white cupola stood out round her head like a halo, and the lace frills rose and fluttered incessantly. Within this revolving circle, she laughed from time to time at what her companion said, and a delicate flush stained the n.o.ble pallor of her face.
Sometimes they would both stand still.
Under pretext of examining the horses now entering the race-course, Giannetto turned his field-gla.s.s upon the two. His hands trembled visibly. Every smile, every movement, every glance of Ippolita"s was a sword-thrust in his heart. When he dropped his gla.s.s, he was deadly pale. He had surprised a look in the eyes that met Sperelli"s which he knew full well of old. Everything seemed crumbling to ruins around him.
The love of years was over--irrevocably lost--slain by that glance. The sun was the sun no longer, life was not life any more.
The grand stand was rapidly refilling; the signal for the third race was about to be given. The ladies stood up on their seats. A murmur ran along the tiers like a breeze over a sloping garden. The bell rang. The horses started like a flight of arrows.
"I shall ride in your honour, Donna Ippolita," said Andrea Sperelli as he look leave of her to get ready for the next race, which was for gentlemen riders--"_Tibi, Hippolyta, Semper!_"
She pressed his hand warmly for luck, never remembering that Giannetto Rutolo was also among the compet.i.tors. When, a moment later, she noticed him going down the stairs, pale and alone, the unconcealed cruelty of indifference shone in her beautiful dark eyes. The old love had fallen away from her like a useless garment, and had given place to the new.
This man was nothing to her, had no claims of any kind upon her now that she no longer loved him. It is inconceivable how quickly a woman regains entire possession of her own heart once she has ceased to love a man.
"He has stolen her from me!" he thought to himself, as he made his way to the Jockey Club tent, and the gra.s.s seemed to give beneath his feet like sand. At a little distance in front of him walked the other with a firm and elastic step. In his long gray overcoat his tall and shapely figure had that peculiar and inimitable air of elegance which only breeding can give. He was smoking, and Giannetto Rutolo, coming up behind him, caught the delicate aroma of the cigarette with every puff, causing him an intolerable nausea as if it had been poison.
The Duke di Beffi and Paolo Caligaro were at the entrance, already in racing dress. The duke was making gymnastic movements to test the elasticity of his leather breeches and the strength of his knees. Little Caligaro was execrating last night"s rain, which had made the ground heavy.
"You have a very good chance with _Miching Mallecho_, I consider," he remarked to Sperelli when he came up.
Giannetto Rutolo heard this forecast with a bitter pang. He had founded a vague hope on the event of his own victory. He represented to himself the advantage he might gain over his enemy by a victorious race and a successful duel. As he changed his clothes his every movement betrayed his preoccupation.
"Here is a man who before getting on horseback sees the grave open before him," said the duke, laying his hand on the young man"s shoulder with a serio-comic air--"_Ecce h.o.m.o novus_."
Andrea Sperelli, who felt in the best of spirits at that moment, gave vent to one of those frank bursts of laughter which were the most engaging trait of his youth.
"What are you laughing at?" demanded Rutolo, lividly pale, glaring at him from under frowning brows.
"It seems to me, my dear fellow," returned Sperelli unmoved "that you are a little out of temper----"
"And if I am?"
"You are at liberty to think what you like about my laughing."
"Then I think it is idiotic."
Sperelli bounded to his feet and made a stride forward with uplifted whip. By a miracle, Paolo Caligaro managed to catch his arm. Violent words followed. Don Marc Antonio Spada appeared upon the scene and heard the altercation.
"That"s enough, boys--you both know what you have to do to-morrow--you"ve got to ride now."
The two adversaries finished their dressing in silence and then went out. The news of the quarrel had already spread through the enclosure and up to the grand stand, increasing the excitement of the race. With a refinement of perfidy, the Contessa di Lucoli repeated it to Donna Ippolita.
The latter gave no sign of inward perturbation. "I am sorry to hear that," was her only comment, "I thought they were friends."
The crowd surged round the bookmakers. _Miching Mallecho_, the horse of the Conte d"Ugenta, and _Brummel_, that of the Marchese Rutolo, were the favourites; then came the Duke di Beffi"s _Satirist_ and Caligaro"s _Carbonilla_. However, the best judges had not overmuch confidence in the two first, thinking that the nervous excitement of their riders must inevitably tell upon the racing.
But Andrea Sperelli was perfectly calm, not to say gay.
His sense of superiority over his rival gave him a.s.surance; moreover, his romantic taste for any adventure savouring of peril, inherited from his Byronic father, shed a halo of glory round the situation, and all the inborn generosity of his young blood awoke at the prospect of danger.
With a beating heart, he went forward to meet his horse as to a friend who was bringing him the news of some great good fortune. He stroked its nose fondly, and the glances of the animal"s eye, an eye that flashed with the inextinguishable fire of n.o.blest breeding, intoxicated him like a woman"s magnetic gaze.
"Mallecho," he whispered as he caressed the horse, "this is a great day--we must win!"
His trainer, a little red-faced man, who was engaged in scrutinising the other horses as they were led past by their grooms, answered in his rough husky voice,--"There"s no doubt but you will!"
Miching Mallecho was a superb bay from the stables of the Baron de Soubeyran, and combined extreme elegance of build with extraordinary strength of muscle. His fine and shining coat, under which the tracery of veins was distinctly visible on chest and flank, seemed almost to exhale a fiery vapour, so intense was the creature"s vitality. A splendid jumper, he had often carried his master in the hunting-field over every obstacle of the Roman countryside, irrespective of the nature of the ground, never refusing the highest gate, the most forbidding wall, for ever at the tail of the hounds. A word from his rider had more effect on him than the spur, a caress made him quiver with delight.
Before mounting, Andrea carefully examined every strap and buckle, then with a smile he vaulted into the saddle. As he watched his master move away the trainer expressed his confidence in an eloquent gesture.
A crowd of bettors pressed round the indicator. Andrea felt that every eye was upon him. Gazing eagerly at the stand to the right, he tried to catch sight of Ippolita Albonico, but could distinguish no one among the mult.i.tude of ladies. The Marchesa d"Ateleta, who had heard of the quarrel, made him a sign of reproof from afar.
"How is the betting on Mallecho?" he asked of Ludovico Barbarisi.
As he moved towards the starting-post, he reflected calmly on the means he would employ for winning, and considered his three rivals critically, calculating the strength and science of each of them. Paolo Caligaro was a tricky devil, as thoroughly versed in all the knavery of the stable as any jockey; but Carbonilla, although fast, had little staying power. The Duke di Beffi, a rider of the "haute ecole" style, who had come off victorious in more than one race in England, was mounted on an animal of uncertain temper which would probably refuse some of the jumps.
Giannetto Rutolo, on the contrary, was riding a well-bred and well-trained horse, but though he was a very capable rider he was too impetuous; moreover, this was the first time he had taken part in a public race. Besides, he must be in a terrible state of nervous irritation, as was apparent from numerous signs.
As he looked at him, Andrea thought to himself--"I have no doubt that my victory to-day would influence the course of the duel to-morrow. In both instances, he will lose his head--it behoves me to keep calm on both fields----" Then--"I wonder what Donna Ippolita feels about it?" There seemed to be an unusual silence round about him. With his eye he measured the distance that separated him from the first hurdle; he noticed a shining stone on the course; he observed that Rutolo was watching him, and a tremor ran through him from head to foot.
The bell gave the signal, but Brummel was off too soon and the start was no good. The second time too they made a false start, and again through Brummel"s fault. Sperelli and the duke exchanged a furtive smile.
The third start was successful. Brummel instantly detached himself from the group and swept along by the palings. The other three horses followed abreast for a moment or so, and cleared the first hurdle and then the second very well. Each of the three riders played a different game. The Duke di Beffi tried to keep with the group, so that Satirist might be induced to follow the example of the other horses at the obstacles; Caligaro moderated Carbonilla"s pace in order to save up her strength for the last five hundred yards. Sperelli increased his speed gradually with the intention of catching up with his adversary in the neighbourhood of the most difficult obstacle. In effect, Mallecho soon distanced his two companions and began to press Brummel very closely.
Rutolo heard the rapidly approaching hoof-thuds behind him and was seized with such nervousness that his sight seemed to fail him.
Everything swam before his eyes as if he were on the point of swooning.
He made a frightful effort to keep his spurs at his horse"s sides, overcome by terror at the thought that his senses might leave him. There was a m.u.f.fled roar in his ears, and through that roar he caught the hard, clear sound of Andrea Sperelli"s "Hi!"
More susceptible to the voice than any other mode of urging, Mallecho simply devoured the intervening s.p.a.ce; he was not more than two or three lengths behind Brummel--was on the point of joining--of pa.s.sing him.
"Hi!"
A high barrier intersected the course. Rutolo actually did not see it, having lost all sense of his surroundings, and only preserved a furious instinct to remain glued to his horse and force it along, never mind how. Brummel jumped, but receiving no aid from his rider, caught his hind legs against the barrier, and came down so awkwardly on the other side that the rider lost his stirrups, without, however, coming out of the saddle, and he continued to run. Andrea Sperelli now took the lead, Giannetto Rutolo, without having recovered his stirrups, being second, with Paolo Caligaro close upon his heels; the duke, r.e.t.a.r.ded by a refusal from Satirist, came last. In this order they pa.s.sed the grand stand. They heard a confused clamour but it soon died away.
The spectators held their breath in suspense. From time to time, somebody would remark aloud on the various incidents of the running. At every change in the order of the horses numerous exclamations sounded through the continuous murmur, and the ladies thrilled visibly. Donna Ippolita Albonico, mounted on a seat, with her hands on the shoulders of her husband who stood below her, watched the race with marvellous self-control and without a trace of apparent emotion, unless the over-tight compression of her lips and a scarcely perceptible furrow between her brows might have revealed the effort to an observant eye. At a certain moment, however, she drew her hands away from her husband"s shoulder, fearful of betraying herself by some involuntary movement.
"Sperelli is down!" announced the Contessa di Lucoli in a loud voice.
Mallecho, in jumping, had slipped on the wet gra.s.s and come down on his knees, but recovered himself in an instant. Andrea had gone over his head, but was none the worse, and with lightning rapidity was back in the saddle as Rutolo and Caligaro came up with him. Brummel performed prodigies, in spite of the wounded leg, and showed the quality of his blood. Carbonilla was at last putting out all her speed, guided with consummate skill by her rider. There were still about eight hundred yards to the winning post.
Sperelli saw victory escaping him and gathered up all his forces to grasp it again. Standing in the stirrups, bent low over his horse"s neck, he uttered from time to time that short, sharp, ringing word which always acted so effectively upon the n.o.ble creature. While Brummel and Carbonilla, fatigued by the heaviness of the ground, began to lose the pace, Mallecho steadily increased the vehemence of his rush and had nearly reconquered his former position, scenting victory already with his fiery nostrils. Flying over the last obstacle, he pa.s.sed Brummel--his head was level with Carbonilla"s shoulder--a hundred yards from the post he skirted the barrier--on--on--leaving Caligaro"s black mare ten lengths behind. The bell rang--a furious clapping of hands, like the pelting of hail-stones, and then a dull roar spread through the great crowd on the green sward under the flood of brilliant sunshine.
As he entered the enclosure, Andrea Sperelli thought to himself--"Fortune is with me to-day, but how will it be to-morrow?" And feeling the breath of triumph surge round him, a vague sense of resentment rose up in him against the possibilities of the morrow. He would have preferred to face it to-day and get it over, that he might enjoy a double victory and then taste the fruit offered to him by the hand of Ippolita Albonico. He was possessed, for the moment, by that inexplicable intoxication which results--with certain men of intellect--from the exercise of their physical powers, the experience of their courage and the revelation of their inherent brutality. The substratum of primitive ferocity which exists at the bottom of most of us rushes to the surface, on occasion, with curious vehemence, and under the skin-deep varnish of modern civilisation, our hearts swell sometimes with a nameless sanguinary fury, and visions of carnage rise up before us. Inhaling the hot and acrid exhalations of his horse, Andrea Sperelli felt that none of the delicate perfumes affected by him up till now, had ever afforded him such intense enjoyment.
He had scarcely quitted the saddle, before he found himself surrounded by friends of both s.e.xes, eager to congratulate him. Mallecho, breathing hard, smoking and covered with foam, snorted and stretched his neck, shaking the bridle. His sides rose and fell with a deep continuous movement, as if they must burst; his muscles vibrated under skin like a bow-string after the shot; his eyes, dilated and bloodshot, had the cruel glare of those of a beast of prey; his coat, now showing great patches of darker colour, ran down with rivulets of perspiration. The incessant trembling of his whole body was pitiable to see, like the suffering of a human being.
"Poor fellow!" murmured one of the ladies.
Andrea examined his knees to see if he had taken any hurt from his fall.