"By all means," she replied with perfect simplicity, as if she had not noticed the tone of his question.
The next morning, about eleven, he set off on foot to the Palazzo Barberini through the Via Sistina. It was a road he had often traversed before--and, for a moment, the impressions of those days seemed to come back to him, and his heart swelled. The fountain of Bernini shone curiously luminous in the sunshine, as if the dolphins and the Triton with his conch-sh.e.l.l had, by some interrupted metamorphose transformed themselves into a more diaphanous material--not stone, nor yet quite crystal. The noise of the building of new Rome filled all the piazza and the adjoining streets; country children ran in and out between the carts and horses offering violets for sale.
As he pa.s.sed through the gate and entered the garden, he felt that he was beginning to tremble. "Then I _do_ love her still?" he thought to himself--"Is she still the woman of _my dreams_?"
He looked at the great palace, radiant under the morning sun, and his spirit flew back to the days when, in certain chill and misty dawns, this same palace had a.s.sumed for him a look of enchantment. That was in the early times of his happiness, when he came away warm from her kisses and full of his new-found bliss; the bells of Trinita de" Monti, of San Isidoro and the Cappuccini rang out the Angelus into the dawning day, with a m.u.f.fled peal as if out of the far distance--at the corner of the street, fires glowed red round cauldrons of boiling asphalt--a little herd of goats stood against the white wall of the slumbering house----
These forgotten sensations rose up once more out of the depths of his consciousness, and, for an instant, a wave of the old love swept over his soul, for one moment he tried to imagine that Elena was still the Elena of those days, that his happiness had endured till now, that none of these miserable things were true. As he crossed the threshold of the palace, all this illusory ferment died away on the instant, for Lord Heathfield came forward to greet him with his habitual and somewhat ambiguous smile.
With that his torture began.
Elena appeared, and shaking hands cordially with him in her husband"s presence, she said--"Bravo, Andrea! Come and help us, come and help us!"
She talked and gesticulated with much vivacity and looked very girlish in a close-fitting jacket of dark-blue cloth, trimmed round the high collar and the cuffs with black astrachan and fine black braiding. She kept one hand in her pocket in a graceful att.i.tude, and with the other pointed out the various wall-hangings, the pictures, the furniture, asking his advice as to their most advantageous disposal.
"Where would you put these two chests? Look--Mumps picked them up at Lucca. These pictures are your beloved Botticelli"s.--Where would you hang these tapestries?"
Andrea recognised the four pieces of tapestry from the Immenraet sale representing the Story of Narcissus. He looked at Elena, but could not catch her eye. A profound sense of irritation against her, against her husband, against all these things took possession of him. He would have liked to go away, but politeness demanded that he should place his good taste at the service of the Heathfields; it also obliged him to submit to the archaeological erudition of "Mumps," who was an ardent collector and was anxious to show him some of his finds. In one cabinet Andrea caught sight of the Pollajuolo helmet, and in another of the rock-crystal goblet which had belonged to Niccolo Niccoli. The presence of that particular goblet in this particular place moved him strangely and sent a flash of mad suspicion through his mind.
So it had fallen into the hands of Lord Heathfield! The famous compet.i.tion between the Countesses having come to nothing, n.o.body troubled themselves further about the fate of the goblet, and none of the party had returned to the sale after that day. Their ephemeral zeal had languished and finally died out and pa.s.sed away, like everything else in the world of fashion, and the goblet had been abandoned to the compet.i.tion of other collectors. The thing was perfectly natural, but at that moment it appeared to Andrea most extraordinary.
He purposely stopped before the cabinet and gazed long at the precious goblet on which the story of Venus and Anchises glittered as if cut in a pure diamond.
"Niccolo Niccoli!" said Elena, p.r.o.nouncing the name with an indefinable accent in which the young man seemed to catch a note of sadness.
The husband had just gone into another room to open a cabinet.
"Remember--remember!" murmured Andrea, turning towards her.
"I do remember."
"Then when may I see you?"
"Ah, when?"
"But you promised me----"
Lord Heathfield returned. They pa.s.sed on into an adjoining room, making the tour of the apartments. Everywhere they met workmen hanging papers, draping curtains, carrying furniture. Each time Elena asked his opinion, Andrea had to make an effort before answering her, in order to disguise his ill-humour and his impatience. At last, he managed to seize a moment when her husband was occupied with one of the men to say to her in a low voice, unable any longer to conceal his chagrin--
"Why inflict this torture upon me? I expected to find you alone."
Pa.s.sing through one of the doors, Elena"s hat caught in the portiere and was dragged out of place. She laughed and called to Mumps to come and unfasten her veil. And Andrea was forced to look on while those odious hands touched the hair of the woman he desired, ruffling the little curls at the back of her neck, those curls which under his caresses had seemed to breathe out a mysterious perfume, unlike any other, and sweeter and more intoxicating than all the rest.
He hurriedly took his leave under pretext of being due at lunch with some one else.
"We shall move in here on the 1st of February," Elena said to him, "and then I hope you will be one of our _habitues_."
Andrea bowed.
He would have given worlds not to be obliged to touch Lord Heathfield"s hand. He went away filled with rancour, jealousy and disgust.
CHAPTER V
At a late hour that same evening, happening to look in at the Club, where he had not been for a long time, whom should he see at one of the card-tables but Don Manuel Ferres y Capdevila. Andrea greeted him with effusion and inquired after Donna Maria and Delfina--whether they were still at Sienna--when they were coming to Rome.
Don Manuel, who remembered to have won several thousand lire from the young Count during the last evening at Schifanoja, and had recognised in Andrea Sperelli a player of the best form and perfect style, responded with the utmost courtesy and cordiality.
"They have been here some days already; they arrived on Monday," he answered. "Maria was much disappointed not to find the Marchesa d"Ateleta in town. I am sure it would give her the greatest pleasure if you would call on her. We are in the Via n.a.z.ionale. Here is the exact address."
He handed one of his cards to Andrea and then returned to the game.
The Duke di Beffi, who was standing with a knot of gentlemen, called Andrea over to them.
"Why did you not come to Cento Celli this morning?" asked the duke.
"I had another appointment," Andrea replied without reflecting.
"At the Palazzo Barberini perhaps?" said the duke with a shy laugh, in which he was joined by the others.
"Perhaps."
"Perhaps, indeed?--why, Ludovico saw you go in."
"And where were you, may I ask?" said Andrea turning to Barbarisi.
"Over the way, at my Aunt Saviano"s."
"Ah!"
"I don"t know if you had better luck than we had," Beffi went on, "but we had a run of forty-two minutes and got two foxes. The next meet is on Thursday at the Three Fountains."
"You understand--at the _Three_ Fountains, not at the _Four_," Gino Bomminaco admonished him with comic gravity.
The others burst into a roar of laughter which Andrea could not help joining. He was by no means displeased at their gibes; on the contrary, now that there was no truth in their suspicions, it flattered him for his friends to think he had renewed his relations with Elena. He turned away to speak to Giulio Musellaro, who had just come in. From a few strays words that reached his ear, he found that the group behind him were discussing Lord Heathfield.
"I knew him in London six or seven years ago," Beffi was saying. "He was Gentleman of the Bed-chamber to the Prince of Wales as far as I remember----"
The duke lowered his voice, he was evidently retailing the most appalling things. Andrea caught sc.r.a.ps here and there of a highly-spiced nature and, once or twice, the name of a newspaper famous in the annals of London scandal. He longed to hear more; a terrible curiosity took possession of him. His imagination conjured up Lord Heathfield"s hands before him--so white, so significant, so expressive, so impossible to forget. Musellaro was still talking, and now said--
"Let us go--I want to tell you----"
On the stairs they encountered Albonico, who was coming up. He was in deep mourning for Donna Ippolita, and Andrea stopped to ask for details of the sad event. He had heard of her death when he was in Paris in November from Guido Montelatici, a cousin of Donna Ippolita.
"Was it really typhus?"