Part 64 (1/2)
”No--I am not disappointed as yet!” he said, with an affectation of great kindness. ”Because I do not permit myself to believe that you will allow me to be disappointed! Just now you made a pa.s.sing allusion--and I venture to say a hasty and unworthy one--to your 'bank,' as if my whole soul were set on retaining you as a daughter of the Church for your great wealth's sake only! Contessa, you are mistaken! Give me credit for higher and n.o.bler motives! Grant me the right to be a little better--a little more disinterested, than perhaps popular rumour describes me,--believe me to be at least your friend--”
He paused--his voice apparently broken by emotion, and turning away his head he paced the room once more and finally sat down, covering his eyes with one hand, in an admirably posed att.i.tude of fatigue and sorrow.
Sylvie was perplexed, and somewhat embarra.s.sed. She had never seen him in this kind of humour before. She was accustomed to a certain domineering authority in his language, rendered all the more difficult to endure by the sarcasm with which he sometimes embittered his words, as though he had dipped them in gall before p.r.o.nouncing them,--but this apparent abandonment of reserve, this almost touching a.s.sumption of candour, were phases of his histrionical ability which he had never till now displayed in her presence.
”Monsignor,” she said after a little silence, ”I sincerely ask your pardon if I have wronged you, even in a thought! I had no real intention of doing so, and if anything I have said has seemed to you unduly aggressive or unjust, I am sorry! But you yourself began to scold”--and she smiled--”and I am not in the humour to be scolded!
Though, to speak quite frankly, I have always been more or less prepared for a little trouble on the subject of my intended marriage with Mr. Aubrey Leigh,--I have felt and known all along that it would incur the Pope's displeasure . . .”
Here Gherardi uncovered his eyes and looked at her fully.
”But there you are mistaken!” he said gently, with a smile that was almost paternal. ”I know of nothing in recent years that has given the Holy Father greater satisfaction!”
She glanced at him quickly but said nothing, whereat he was secretly annoyed. Why did she not express her wonder and delight at the Pope's lenity, as almost any other woman in her position would have done? Her outward appearance was that of child-like ultra-femininity,--how was it then that he felt as if she were mentally fencing with him, and that her intellectual sword-play threatened to surpa.s.s his own?
”Nothing,” he repeated suavely, ”has given the Holy Father greater satisfaction! For very naturally, he looks upon you as one of his most faithful children, and rejoices that by the power of perfect love--love which is an emanation of the Divine Spirit in itself--you have been chosen by our Lord to draw so gifted and brilliant a man as Aubrey Leigh out of the error of his ways and bring him into the true fold!”
x.x.xIV.
Still the Countess Sylvie was silent. Bending a quick scrutinising glance upon her, he saw that her eyes were lowered, and that the violets nestling near her bosom moved restlessly with her quickened breath, and he judged these little signs of agitation as the favourable hints of a weakening and hesitating will.
”Aubrey Leigh,” he went on slowly, ”has long been an avowed enemy of our Church. In England especially, where many of the Protestant clergy, repenting of their recusancy--for Protestantism is nothing more than a backsliding from the true faith--are desirous of gradually, through the gentler forms of Ritualism, returning to the Original source of Divine Inspiration, he has taken a great deal too much upon himself in the freedom of his speeches to the people. But we are bound to remember that it is not against OUR Church only that he has armed himself at all points, but seemingly against all Churches; and when we examine, charitably and with patience, into the sum and substance of his work and aim, we find its chief object is to purify and maintain--not to destroy or deny--the Divine teaching of Christ. In this desire we are one with him--we are even willing to a.s.sist him in the Cause he has espoused--and we shall faithfully promise to do so, when we receive him as your husband. Nay, more--we will endeavour to further his work among the poor, and carry out any scheme for their better care, which he may propose to us, and we may judge as devout and serviceable. The Church has wide arms,--she stretches far, and holds fast! The very fact of a man like Aubrey Leigh voluntarily choosing as his wife the last scion of one of the most staunch Roman Catholic families in Europe, proves the salutary and welcome change which your good influence has brought about in his heart and mind and manner and judgment,--wherefore it follows, my dear child, that in his marriage with you he becomes one of us, and is no longer outside us!”
With a swift and graceful imperiousness, Sylvie suddenly rose and faced him.
”It is time we understood each other, Monsignor,” she said quietly. ”It is no good playing at cross purposes! With every respect for you, I must speak plainly. I am fully aware of all you tell me respecting my descent and the traditions of my ancestors. I know that the former Counts Hermenstein were faithful servants of the Church. But they were all merely half-educated soldiers; brave, yet superst.i.tious. I know also that my father, the late Count, was apparently equally loyal to the Church,--though really only so because it was too much trouble for him to think seriously about anything save hunting. But I--Sylvie--the last of the race, do not intend to be bound or commanded by the trammels of any Church, in the face of the great truths declared to the world to-day! My faith in G.o.d is as my betrothed husband's faith in G.o.d,--my heart is his,--my life is his! From henceforth we are together; and together we are content to go, after death, wherever G.o.d shall ordain, be it h.e.l.l or Heaven!”
”Wait!” said Gherardi in low fierce accents, his eyes glittering with mingled rage and the admiration of her beauty which he could ill conceal. ”Wait! If you care nothing for yourself in this matter, is it possible that you care nothing for him? Have you thought of the results of such rashness as you meditate? Listen!” and he leaned forward in his chair, his dark brows bent and his whole att.i.tude expressive of a relentless malice--”Your marriage, without the blessing of the Church of your fathers, shall be declared illegal!--your children p.r.o.nounced b.a.s.t.a.r.ds! Wherever the ramifications of the Church are spread (and they are everywhere) you, the brilliant, the courted, the admired Sylvie Hermenstein, shall find yourself not only outside the Church, but outside all Society! You will be considered as 'living in sin';--as no true wife, but merely the mistress of the man with whom you have elected to wander the world! And he, when he sees the finger of scorn pointed at you and at his children, he also will change--as all men change when change is convenient or advantageous to themselves;--he will in time weary of his miserable Christian-Democratic theories,--and of you!--yes, even of you!” And Gherardi suddenly sprang up and drew nearer to her. ”Even of YOU, I say! He will weary of your beauty--that delicate fine loveliness which makes me long to possess it!--me, a priest of the Mother-Church, whose heart is supposed to beat only for two things--Power and Revenge! Listen--listen yet a moment!” and he drew a step nearer, while Sylvie held her ground where she stood, unflinchingly, and like a queen, though she was pale to the very lips--”What of the friend you love so well, Angela Sovrani, who has dared to paint such a picture as should be burnt in the public market-place for its vile heresy! Do you think SHE will escape the wrath of the Church? Not she! We in our day use neither poison nor cold steel--but we know how to poison a name and stab a reputation! What!
You shrink at that? Listen yet--listen a moment longer! And remember that nothing escapes the vigilant eye of Rome! At this very moment I can place my hand on Florian Varillo, concerning whom there is a rumour that he attempted the a.s.sa.s.sination of his betrothed wife,--an inhuman deed that no sane man could ever have perpetrated”--here Sylvie uttered a slight exclamation, and he paused, looking at her with a cold smile--”Yes, I repeat it!--a deed WHICH NO SANE MAN COULD HAVE PERPETRATED! The unfortunate, the deeply wronged Florian Varillo, is prepared to swear, and I AM PREPARED TO SWEAR WITH HIM, that he is guiltless of any such vile act or treachery--and also that he painted more than half of the great picture this woman Sovrani claims as her own work! Whilst strongly protesting against its heresy and begging her to alter certain figures in the canvas, still he gave her for love's sake, all his masculine ability. The blasphemous idea is hers--but the drawing, the colouring, the grouping, are HIS!”
”He is a liar!” cried Sylvie pa.s.sionately. ”Let him prove his lie!”
”He shall have every chance to prove it!” answered Gherardi calmly. ”I will give him every chance! I will support what you call his lie! _I_ SAY IT IS A TRUTH! No woman could have painted that picture! And mark you well--the mere discussion will be sufficient to kill the Sovrani's fame!”
Heedless of his ecclesiastical dignity--reckless of everything concerning herself-Sylvie rushed up to him and laid one hand on his arm.
”What! Are you a servant of Christ,” she said half-whisperingly, ”or a slave of the devil?”
”Both,” he answered, looking down upon her fair beauty with a wicked light s.h.i.+ning in his eyes. ”Both!” and he grasped the little soft hand that lay on his arm and held it as in a vice. ”You are not wanting in courage, Contessa, to come so close to me!--to let me hold your hand!
How pale you look! If you were like other women you would scream--or summon your servants, and create a scandal! You know better! You know that no scandal would ever be believed of a priest attached to the Court of Rome! Stay there--where you are--I will not hurt you! No--by all the raging fire of love for you in my heart, I will not touch more than this hand of yours! Good!--Now you are quite still--I say again, you have courage! Your eyes do not flinch--they look straight into mine--what brave eyes! You would search the very core of my intentions?
You shall! Do you not think it enough for me--who am human though priest--to give you up to the possession of a man I hate!--A man who has insulted me! Is it not enough, I say, to immolate my own pa.s.sion thus, without having to confront the possibility of your deserting that Church for whose sake I thus resign you? For had this Aubrey Leigh never met you, I would have MADE you mine! Still silent?--and your little hand still quiet in mine?--I envy you your nerve! You stand torture well, but I will not keep you on the rack too long! You shall know the worst at once--then you shall yourself judge the position. You shall prove for yourself the power of Rome! To escape that power you would have, as the Scripture says, to 'take the wings of the morning and fly into the uttermost parts of the sea.' Think well!--the fame and reputation of Angela Sovrani can be ruined at my command,--and equally, the sanct.i.ty and position of her uncle, Cardinal Bonpre!”
With a sudden movement Sylvie wrenched her hand away from his, and stood at bay, her eyes flas.h.i.+ng, her cheeks crimsoning.
”Cardinal Bonpre!” she cried. ”What evil have you in your mind against him? Are you so lost to every sense of common justice as to attempt to injure one who is greater than many of the Church's canonized saints in virtue and honesty? What has he done to you?”
Gherardi smiled.
”You excite yourself needlessly, Contessa,” he said. ”He has done nothing to me personally,--he is simply in my way. That is his sole offence! And whatever is in my way, I remove! Nothing is easier than to remove Cardinal Bonpre, for he has, by his very simplicity, fallen into a trap from which extrication will be difficult. He should have stopped in his career with the performance of his miracle at Rouen,--then all would have been well; he should not have gone on to Paris, there to condone the crime of the Abbe Vergniaud, and THEN come on to Rome. To come to Rome under such circ.u.mstances, was like putting his head in the wolf's mouth! But the most unfortunate thing he has done on his ill-fated journey, is to have played protector to that boy he has with him.”