Part 21 (1/2)
”She has always been so,” replied the Countess. ”Young people are like that nowadays; there is no more youth.”
”Do you not think,” continued the Baron, ”that perhaps there is another cause for that sadness--some interest in some one, for example?”
”Alba?” exclaimed the mother. ”For whom?”
”For Dorsenne,” returned Hafner, lowering his voice; ”he just left five minutes ago, and you see she is no longer interested in anything nor in any one.”
”Ah, I should be very much pleased,” said Madame Steno, laughing. ”He is a handsome fellow; he has talent, fortune. He is the grand-nephew of a hero, which is equivalent to n.o.bility, in my opinion. But Alba has no thought of it, I a.s.sure you. She would have told me; she tells me everything. We are two friends, almost two comrades, and she knows I shall leave her perfectly free to choose.... No, my old friend, I understand my daughter. Neither Dorsenne nor any one else interests her, unfortunately. I sometimes fear she will go into a decline, like her cousin Andryana Navagero, whom she resembles.... But I must cheer her up. It will not take long.”
”A Dorsenne for a son-in-law!” said Hafner to himself, as he watched the Countess walk toward Alba through the scattered groups of her guests, and he shook his head, turning his eyes with satisfaction upon his future son-in-law. ”That is what comes of not watching one's children closely. One fancies one understands them until some folly opens one's eyes!... And, it is too late!... Well, I have warned her, and it is no affair of mine!”
In spite of f.a.n.n.y's observed and increasing vexation Ardea amused himself by relating to her anecdotes, more or less true, of the goings-on in the Vatican. He thus attempted to abate a Catholic enthusiasm at which he was already offended. His sense of the ridiculous and that of his social interest made him perceive how absurd it would be to go into clerical society after having taken for a wife a millionaire converted the day before. To be just, it must be added that the Countess's dry champagne was not altogether irresponsible for the persistency with which he teased his betrothed. It was not the first time he had indulged in the semi-intoxication which had been one of the sins of his youth, a sin less rare in the southern climates than the modesty of the North imagines.
”You come opportunely, Contessina,” said he, when Mademoiselle Steno had seated herself upon the couch beside them. ”Your friend is scandalized by a little story I have just told her.... The one of the n.o.ble guard who used the telephone of the Vatican this winter to appoint rendezvous with Guilia Rezzonico without awakening the jealousy of Ugolino.... But it is nothing. I have almost quarrelled with f.a.n.n.y for having revealed to her that the Holy Father repeated his benediction in Chapel Sixtine, with a singing master, like a prima donna....”
”I have already told you that I do not like those jests,” said f.a.n.n.y, with visible irritation, which her patience, however, governed. ”If you desire to continue them, I will leave you to converse with Alba.”
”Since you see that you annoy her,” said the latter to the Prince, ”change the subject.”
”Ah, Contessina,” replied Peppino, shaking his head, ”you support her already. What will it be later? Well, I apologize for my innocent epigrams on His Holiness in his dressing-gown. And,” he continued, laughing, ”it is a pity, for I have still two or three entertaining stories, notably one about a coffer filled with gold pieces, which a faithful bequeathed to the Pope. And that poor, dear man was about to count them when the coffer slipped from his hand, and there was the entire treasure on the floor, and the Pope and a cardinal on all fours were scrambling for the napoleons, when a servant entered.... Tableau!
....I a.s.sure you that good Pius IX would be the first to laugh with us at all the Vatican jokes. He is not so much 'alla mano'. But he is a holy man just the same. Do not think I do not render him justice. Only, the holy man is a man, and a good old man. That is what you do not wish to see.”
”Where are you going?” said Alba to f.a.n.n.y, who had risen as she had threatened to do.
”To talk with my father, to whom I have several words to say.”
”I warned you to change the subject,” said Alba, when she and the Prince were alone. Ardea, somewhat abashed, shrugged his shoulders and laughed:
”You will confess that the situation is quite piquant, little Countess.... You will see she will forbid me to go to the Quirinal....
Only one thing will be lacking, and it is that Papa Hafner should discover religious scruples which would prevent him from greeting the King.... But f.a.n.n.y must be appeased!”
”My G.o.d!” said Alba to herself, seeing the young man rise in his turn.
”I believe he is intoxicated. What a pity!”
As have almost all revolutions of that order, the work of Christianity, accomplished for years, in f.a.n.n.y had for its principle an example.
The death of a friend, the sublime death of a true believer, ended by determining her faith. She saw the dying woman receive the sacrament, and the ineffable joy of the benediction upon the face of the sufferer of twenty lighted up by ecstasy. She heard her say, with a smile of conviction:
”I go to ask you of Our Lord, Jesus Christ.”
How could she have resisted such a cry and such a sight?
The very day after that death she asked of her father permission to be baptized, which request drew from the Baron a reply too significant not to be repeated here:
”Undoubtedly,” had replied the surprising man, who instead of a heart, had a Bourse list on which all was tariffed, even G.o.d, ”undoubtedly I am touched, very deeply touched, and very happy to see that religious matters preoccupy you to such a degree. To the people it is a necessary curb, and to us it accords with a certain rank, a certain society, a certain deportment. I think that a person called like you to live in Austria and in Italy should be a Catholic. However, it is necessary to remember that you might marry some one of another faith. Do not object. I am your father. I can foresee all. I know you will marry only according to the dictates of your heart. Wait then until it has spoken, to settle the question.... If you love a Catholic, you will then have occasion to pay a compliment to your betrothed by adopting his faith, of which he will be very sensible.... From now until then, I shall not prevent you from following ceremonies which please you. Those of the Roman liturgy are, a.s.suredly, among the best; I myself attended Saint Peter's at the time of the pontifical government.... The taste, the magnificence, the music, all moved me.... But to take a definite, irreparable step, I repeat, you must wait. Your actual condition of a Protestant has the grand sentiment of being more neutral, less defined.”
What words to listen to by a heart already touched by the attraction of 'grace and by the nostalgia of eternal life! But the heart was that of a young girl very pure and very tender. To judge her father was to her impossible, and the Baron's firmness had convinced her that she must obey his wishes and pray that he be enlightened. She therefore waited, hoping, sustained and directed meanwhile by Cardinal Guerillot, who later on was to baptize her and to obtain for her the favor of approaching the holy table for the first time at the Pope's ma.s.s. That prelate, one of the n.o.blest figures of which the French bishopric has had cause to be proud, since Monseigneur Pie, was one of those grand Christians for whom the hand of G.o.d is as visible in the direction of human beings as it is invisible to doubtful souls. When f.a.n.n.y, already devoted to her charities, confided in him the serious troubles of her mind and the discord which had arisen between her and her father on the so essential point of her baptism, the Cardinal replied:
”Have faith in G.o.d. He will give you a sign when your time has come.”
And he uttered those words with an accent whose conviction had filled the young girl with a certainty which had never left her.