Part 91 (1/2)
But some strange instinct possessed her. She could not avoid touching his hand--or the tips of his fingers, rather--for one brief second; then she turned away from him with an involuntary shudder, and went back through the hall, her head bent down. Calabressa stood looking after her for a moment or two, then he turned and left the hotel.
He walked quickly: there were tears running down his face. He looked neither to the right nor to the left; he was talking in a broken voice to himself; he repeated again and again, ”No, she shall not turn away from me. She will be sorry for that soon. She will say she should not have crushed the heart of her old friend Calabressa.”
He walked out to Posilipo. Near the villa where he had formerly sought the representatives of the Council he pa.s.sed an old woman who was selling fruit by the roadside. She glanced up at him, and said,
”The door is closed, signore.”
”The door must be opened, good mother,” said he, scarcely regarding her as he hurried on.
Arrived in the garden of the villa, his summons brought out to the entrance of the grotto the Secretary Granaglia, who somewhat impatiently told him that it was quite impossible that any member of the Council should see him.
”And no doubt it is about that Lind affair?”
”Indirectly only,” Calabressa said. ”No, it concerns myself mostly.”
”Quite enough time, the Council think, has been given to the Lind affair. I can tell you, my friend, there are more important matters stirring. Now, farewell; I am wanted within.”
However, by dint of much persuasion, Calabressa got Granaglia to take in a message to Von Zoesch. And, sure enough, his antic.i.p.ations were correct; the good-natured, bluff old soldier made his appearance, and seemed glad to get a breath of fresh air for a minute or two.
”Well, well, Calabressa, what is it now? Are you not all satisfied? the young lady with her sweetheart, and all that? You rogue! you guessed pretty rightly; to tell them the news was no light matter; but by-and-by she will become reconciled. Her lover is to be envied; she is a beautiful child, and she has courage. Well, are they not satisfied?”
”I crave your pardon, Excellency, for intruding upon you,” Calabressa said, in a sort of constrained voice. ”It is my own affair that brings me here. I shall not waste your time. Your Excellency, I claim to be subst.i.tute for Ferdinand Lind.”
The tall soldier burst out laughing.
”What the devil is the matter with you, Calabressa; have you gone mad?”
For a second Calabressa stood silent; his eyes downcast; his fingers working nervously with the cap he held in his hands.
”Your Excellency,” he said, as if struggling to repress some emotion, ”it is a simple matter. I have been to see the beautiful child you speak of; I addressed her, in the hall of the hotel; she turned away from me, shuddering, as if I were a murderer--from me, who loves her more than I love life. Oh, your Excellency, do not smile at it; it is not a girlish caprice; she has a n.o.ble heart; it is not a little thing that would make her cruel. I know what she thinks--that I have been the means of procuring her father's death. Be it so. I will give her father his life again. Take mine--what do I care?”
”Nonsense, nonsense, my Calabressa. The girl has bewitched you. One must talk to her. Take your life in exchange for that of Lind? Pooh! We cannot send good men after bad; you are too valuable to us; whereas he, if he were released, could be of no more use at all. It is a generous notion on your part, friend Calabressa, but it is quixotic; moreover, impossible.”
”You forget, Excellency, that I can claim it,” said Calabressa, firmly.
”Under Article V. I can claim to be the subst.i.tute of Ferdinand Lind.
Your Excellency yourself has not the power to refuse me. I call upon you to release Lind from the death-penalty: to-morrow I will take his place; then you can send a message to--to Natalie Berezolyi's daughter, that, if I have wronged her, I have made amends.”
Von Zoesch grew more serious; he eyed Calabressa curiously. The elder man stood there trembling a little with nervous excitement, but with a firm look on his face: there was no doubt about his resolve.
”Friend Calabressa,” said Von Zoesch, in a kindly way, ”it seems as if you had transferred your old love for Natalie Berezolyi to Natalie's daughter, only with double intensity; but, you see, we must not allow you to sacrifice yourself merely because a girl turns her heel on you.
It is not to be thought of. We cannot afford to lose you; besides, it is monstrous that the innocent should suffer, and the guilty go free--”
”The articles of the Society, your Excellency--”
”That particular article, my Calabressa, was framed with a view to encourage self-sacrifice and generosity, no doubt, but not with a view, surely, to any such extreme madness as this. No. The fact is, I had no time to explain the circ.u.mstances of the case to the young lady, or I could easily have shown her how you were no more involved than herself in procuring the decree against her father. To-day I cannot; to-morrow I cannot; the day after to-morrow, I solemnly a.s.sure you, I will see her, and reason with her, and convince her that you have acted throughout as her best friend only could have done. You are too sensitive, my Calabressa: ah, is it not the old romance recalled that is making you so? But this I promise you, that she shall beg your pardon for having turned away from you.”
”Then,” said Calabressa, with a little touch of indignant pride, ”then your Excellency imagines that it is my vanity that has been wounded?”