Latest / The Charterhouse of Parma / Chapter 27

Transcript

Chapter 27 · The Charterhouse of Parma

0:00
Section thirty three of the Charterhouse of Palmer by Stendahl, translated by Siki Scott
0:07
Moncrief. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Peter Dan,
0:13
Chapter twenty seven. This serious conversation was held on the day following Fabrizio's
0:19
return to the Palazzo San Severina. The Duchessa was still overcome by the joy
0:25
that radiated from Fabrizio's every action, So she said to herself that little saint
0:32
has deceived me. She has not been able to hold out against her lover
0:36
for three months. Even the certainty of a happy ending had given that pucillanimous
0:41
creature the young prince the courage to love. He knew something of the preparations
0:47
for flight that were being made at the Palazzo San Severena, and his French
0:51
valet, who had little belief in the virtue of great ladies, gave him
0:55
courage with respect to the Duchessa, and Esto the fifth allowed himself to take
1:00
a step for which he was severely reproved by the Princess and all the sensible
1:04
people at court. To the Populace had appeared to set the seal on the
1:08
astonishing favor, which the Duchess enjoyed. The Prince went to see her in
1:15
her palazzo. You are leaving his head tour in a serious tone, which
1:19
the Duchess I thought odious. You are leaving. You are going to play
1:23
me false and violate your oath. And yet if I had delayed ten minutes
1:29
in granting you Fabrizio's pardon, he would have been dead. And you leave
1:33
me in this wretched state, when but for your oath I should never have
1:37
had the courage to love you as I do. Have you no sense of
1:41
honor? Then think, for a little Prince, in the whole of your
1:45
life, has there been a period equal in happiness to the four months that
1:49
have just gone by your glorious sovereign, And I venture to think your happiness
1:55
as a man have never risen to such a pitch. This is the compact
2:00
that I propose, if you deign to consent to it, I shall not
2:04
be your mistress for a fleeting instant and by virtue of an oath extorted by
2:07
fear. But I shall consecrate every moment of my life to procuring your happiness.
2:13
I shall be always what I have been for the last four months,
2:15
and perhaps love will come to crown friendship. I would not swear to the
2:21
contrary. Very well, said the Prince, delighted, take on another part,
2:27
be something more still, reign at once over my heart and over my
2:30
state, Be my prime Minister. I offer you such a marriage as is
2:35
permitted by the regrettable conventions of my rank. We have an example close at
2:39
hand. The King of Naples has recently married the Duchess of di Partana.
2:45
I offer you all that I have to offer a marriage of the same sort.
2:50
I am going to add a distressing political consideration to show you that I
2:53
am no longer a mere boy, and that I have thought of everything.
2:57
I lay no stress on the condition which I impose on my myself of being
3:00
the last sovereign of my race, the sorrow of seeing in my lifetime the
3:05
great powers dispose of my succession. I believe these very genuine drawbacks, since
3:10
they offer me additional means of proving to you my esteem and my passion.
3:16
The duchessa did not hesitate for an instant. The Prince bored her, and
3:21
the Comte seemed to her perfectly suitable. There was only one man in the
3:24
world who could be preferred to him. Besides, she ruled the comte,
3:30
and the Prince, dominated by the exigencies of his rank, would more or
3:32
less rule her. Then, too, he might become unfaithful to her and
3:38
take mistresses. The difference of age would seem, in a very few years
3:42
to give him the right to do so. The DUCHESSA, from the first
3:47
moment the prospect of boredom had settled a whole question. However, the Duchess,
3:53
who wished to be as charming as possible, asked leave to reflect.
3:58
It would take too long to recount here the almost loving turns of speech and
4:01
the infinitely graceful terms in which he managed to clothe her refusal. The Prince
4:08
flew into a rage. He saw all his happiness escaping. What was to
4:12
become of him when the DUCHESSA had left his court? Besides, what a
4:15
humiliation to be refused? And what will my French valet say when I tell
4:20
him of my defeat. The duchessor knew how to calm the Prince and to
4:25
bring the discussion back gradually to her actual terms. If your Highness deigns to
4:30
consent, not to press for the fulfillment of a fatal promise, and one
4:35
that is horrible in my eyes, as making me incur my own contempt.
4:40
I shall spend my life at his court, and that court will always be
4:44
what it has been this winter. Every moment of my time will be devoted
4:47
to contributing to his happiness as a man and to his glory as a sovereign.
4:53
If he insists on binding me by my oath, he will be destroying
4:57
the rest of my life, and will at once me leave his states,
5:00
never to return. The day on which I shall have lost my honor will
5:04
be also the last day on which I shall set eyes on you. But
5:10
the Prince was obstinate, like all pusillanimous creatures. Moreover, his pride as
5:15
a man and a sovereign was irritated by the refusal of his hand. He
5:19
thought of all the difficulties which he would have had to overcome to make this
5:23
marriage be accepted, difficulties which nevertheless he was determined to conquer. For the
5:29
next three hours, the same arguments were repeated on either side, often interspersed
5:33
with very sharp words. The Prince exclaimed, do you then wish me to
5:39
believe, Senora, that you are lacking in honor. If I had hesitated
5:43
so long on the day when General Fabiogonti was giving Fabrizio a poison, you
5:46
would at present be occupied in erecting a tomb to him in one of the
5:50
churches of Palmer, not at Palma, certainly, in this land of poisoners.
5:58
Very well, then go, Senora Roches, retorted the prince angrily,
6:01
and you would take with you my contempt. As he was leaving, the
6:05
Duchess had said to him in a whisper, very well, be here at
6:10
ten o'clock this evening, in the strictest incognito, and you shall have your
6:14
fool's bargain. You will then have seen me for the last time, and
6:17
I would have devoted my life to making you as happy as an absolute prince
6:21
can be in this age of Jacobin's. And think what your court will be
6:26
when I am no longer here to extricate it by force from its innate dulness
6:30
and mischief. For your part, you refuse the crown of Palmer, and
6:34
more than the crown, for you would not have been the ordinary princess married
6:39
for political reasons and without being loved. My heart is all yours and you
6:43
would have seen yourself for ever the absolute mistress of my actions, as of
6:46
my government. Yes, but the princess your mother would have the right to
6:51
look down upon me as a vile intriguer. What then I should banish the
6:57
princess with a pension? There were still three quarters of an hour of cutting
7:01
retorts. The Prince, who had a delicate nature, could not make up
7:05
his mind either to enjoy his rights or to let the duchess A go.
7:10
He had been told that after the first moment has been obtained, no matter
7:14
how women come back. Driven from the house by the indignant Duchessa, he
7:19
had the temerity to return, trembling all over and extremely unhappy. At three
7:24
minutes to ten. At half past ten, the Duchess has stepped into her
7:29
carriage and started for Bologna. She wrote to the cont as soon as she
7:32
was outside the Prince's states the ambassador, the sacrifice has been made. Do
7:41
not ask me to be merry for a month. I shall not see Fabrizio
7:45
again. I await you at Bologna, and when you please, I will
7:47
be the contessa mosque. I ask you one thing only, do not ever
7:53
force me to appear again in the land I am leaving, and remember always
7:56
that instead of an income of a hundred and fifty thousand leer, you are
8:00
going to have thirty or forty thousand at the very most. All the fools
8:05
have been watching you with gaping mouths, and for the future you will be
8:07
respected only so long as you demean yourself to understand all their petty ideas.
8:13
Tou la vouleeu Jeorge dandins. A week later, their marriage was celebrated at
8:20
Perugia, in a church in which the Comte's ancestors were buried. The prince
8:26
was in despair. The duchessa had received from him three or four couriers and
8:31
had not failed to return his letters to him in fresh envelopes with their seals
8:35
unbroken. Ernesto the fifth had bestowed a magnificent pension on the Conte and had
8:41
given the grand cordon of his order to Fabrizio. This is what pleased me
8:46
most. In his farewells we parted, said the Comte to the new Contessa
8:50
Mosca dela Rovera, the best friends in the world. He gave me a
8:54
Spanish grand cordon and diamonds which worth quite as much as the Grand cordon.
9:00
He told me that he would make me a duca, but he wished to
9:03
keep that in reserve as a way of bringing you back to his states.
9:07
And so I am charged to inform you a fine mission for a husband,
9:11
that if you deigned to return to Palmer, be it only for a month.
9:15
I shall be made duca with whatever title you may select, and you
9:18
shall have a fine estate. This, the duchess a refused with an expression
9:24
of horror. After the scene that had occurred at the ball at court,
9:30
which seemed fairly decisive, Slelia seemed to retain no memory of the love which
9:33
he had for a moment reciprocated. The most violent remorse had seized hold of
9:39
that virtuous and Christian soul. All this Fabrizio understood quite well, and,
9:46
in spite of all the hopes that he sought to entertain, a somber misery,
9:50
took possession similarly of his soul. This time, however, his misery
9:54
did not send him into retreat. As on the occasion of Slelia's marriage,
10:00
the Conte had requested his nephew to keep him exactly informed of all that went
10:03
on at court, and Fabrizio, who was beginning to realize all that he
10:07
owed to him, had promised himself that he would carry out this mission faithfully.
10:13
Like every one in the town and at court, Fabrizio had no doubt
10:18
that the Comte intended to return to the ministry and with more power than he
10:22
had ever had before. The Conte's forecasts were not long in taking effect.
10:26
In less than six weeks after his departure, Rassi was Prime Minister, Fabio
10:31
Conti Minister of War, and the prisons which the Conte had nearly emptied,
10:35
began to fill again. The Prince, in summoning these men to power,
10:41
thought that he was avenging himself on the Duchessa he was madly in love,
10:46
and above all hated Comte Moscow as a rival. Fabricio had plenty to do.
10:52
Monsignor Landriani, now seventy two years old, had declined into a state
10:56
of great languor, and as he now hardly ever left his palace, it
11:01
fell to his coadjutor to take his place in almost all his functions. The
11:05
Marchesa Crescenzi, crushed by remorse and frightened by her spiritual director, had found
11:11
an excellent way of withdrawing herself from Fabrizio's gaze. Taking as an excuse the
11:18
last months of her first confinement, she had given herself as a prison her
11:22
own palazzo. But this palazzo had an immense garden. Fabrizio managed to find
11:28
a way into it and placed on the path which slearly are most affected,
11:33
flowers tied up in nosegays, and arranged in such a way as to form
11:37
a language, like the flowers which she had sent up to him every evening
11:41
in the last days of his imprisonment in the Torre Fanaza. The court the
11:48
Marchesa was greatly annoyed by this overture. The motions of her soul were swayed
11:52
at one time by remorse, at another by passion. For several months she
11:58
did not allow herself to go down once to them the garden of her palazzo.
12:01
She had scruples even about looking at it from the windows. Fabrizio began
12:07
to think that she was parted from him forever, and despair began to seize
12:11
hold of his soul. Also, the world in which he was obliged to
12:16
live disgusted him unspeakably, and had he not been convinced in his heart that
12:20
the Conte could not find peace of mind apart from his ministry. He would
12:24
have gone into retreat in his small apartment in the archbishop's palace. It would
12:28
have been pleasant for him to live entirely in his thoughts, and never more
12:33
to hear the human voice, save in the exercise of his functions. But
12:37
he said to himself, in the interest of the Comte and Contessa Mosca,
12:41
there is no one to take my place. The Prince continued to treat him
12:48
with a distinction which placed him in the highest rank at that court, and
12:50
this favor he owed in great measure to himself. The extreme reserve which in
12:56
Fabrizio sprang from an indifference board ring on disgust for all the affections or petty
13:01
passions that filled the lives of men, had pricked the young prince's vanity.
13:07
He often remarked that Fabrizio had as much character as his aunt. The Prince's
13:13
candid nature had in part perceived a truth, namely that no one approached him
13:18
with the same feelings in his heart as Fabrizio. What could not escape the
13:22
notice even of the common herd of courtiers, was that the consideration won by
13:26
Fabrizio was not that given to a mere coadjutor, but actually exceeded the respect
13:31
which the sovereign showed to the archbishop. Fabrizio wrote to the Comte that if
13:37
ever the Prince had enough intelligence to perceive the mess into which the ministers Rassi,
13:41
Fabio, Conti Zerla, and others of like capacity had thrown his affairs,
13:46
he, Fabrizio, would be the natural channel through which he would take
13:50
action without unduly compromising his self esteem. But for the memory of those fatal
13:56
words that boy he told, go contessa Mosca, applied by a man of
14:01
talent to an august personage, the august personage would already have cried, return
14:07
at once and rid me of these rascals at this very moment. If the
14:11
wife of the man of talent deigned to make an advance of however little significance,
14:18
the conte would be recalled with joy. But he will return through a
14:22
far nobler door if he is willing to wait until the fruit is ripe.
14:26
Meanwhile, everyone is bored to death at the Princess's drawing rooms. They have
14:31
nothing to amuse them but the absurdity of Rassi, who, now that he
14:35
is a conte, has become a maniac for nobility. Strict orders have just
14:39
been issued that anyone who cannot produce eight quarterings of nobility must must no longer
14:45
dare to present himself at the Princess's evenings. These are the exact words of
14:50
the proclamation. Or the men who already possess the right to enter the Great
14:54
Gallery in the mornings and to remain in the Sovereign's presence when he passes on
14:58
his way to mass are to continue. You to enjoy that privilege, But
15:01
newcomers will have to show proof of their eight quarterings, which has given rise
15:07
to the saying that it is clear that Rasi gives no quarter. It may
15:11
be imagined that such letters were not entrusted to the post. Contessa Mosca replied,
15:16
from Naples, we have a concert every Thursday and a conversastione on Sundays.
15:22
There is no room to move in our rooms. The Conte is enchanted
15:26
with his excavations. He devotes a thousand francs a months to them, and
15:30
has just brought some laborers down from the mountains of the Abruzzi, who cost
15:33
him only three and twenty sold year. Day. You must really come and
15:37
see us. This is the twentieth time, and more, you, ungrateful
15:41
man, that I have given you this invitation the pulpit. Fabrizzio had no
15:48
thought of obeying the summons. The letter which he wrote every day to the
15:52
Kante or Contessa seemed in itself an almost insupportable burden. The reader will forgive
15:58
him when he learns that a whole year passed in this way without his being
16:02
able to address a single word to the Marchesa. All his attempts to establish
16:07
some correspondence with her had been repulsed with horror. The habitual silence, which
16:11
in his boredom with life, Fabrizio preserved everywhere except in the exercise of his
16:17
functions and at court, added to the spotless purity of his morals, made
16:22
him the object of a veneration so extraordinary that he finally decided to pay heed
16:26
to his aunt's advice. The Prince has such a veneration for you. She
16:30
wrote to him, that you must be on the look out for disgrace.
16:34
He will lavish on you signs of indifference, and the atrocious contempt of the
16:38
courtiers will follow on the heels of his These petty despots, however honest,
16:44
they may be change like the fashions, and for the same reason boredom.
16:49
You will find no strength to resist the sovereign's caprices. Except in preaching.
16:55
You improvise so well in verse. Try to speak for half an hour on
16:57
religion. He will utter heresies at first. But hire a learned and discreet
17:03
theologian to help you with your sermons and warn you of your mistakes. You
17:07
can put them right the day after. The kind of misery which a crossed
17:12
love brings to the soul has this effect that everything which requires attention and action
17:18
becomes an atrocious burden. But Fabrizio told himself that his influence with the people,
17:23
if he acquired any, might one day be of use to his aunt,
17:26
and also to the conte his veneration, for whom increased daily. As
17:30
his public life taught him to realize the dishonesty of mankind. He decided to
17:37
Pridge, and his success prepared for him by his thinness and his worn coat
17:41
was without precedent. People found in his utterances of fragrance, of profound sadness,
17:48
which combined with his charming appearance, and the stories of the high favor
17:52
that he enjoyed at court captivated every woman's heart. They invented the legend that
17:59
he had been one of the most most gallant captains in Napoleon's army. Soon
18:03
this absurd rumor had passed beyond the stage of doubt. Seats were reserved in
18:07
the churches in which he was to preach. The poor used to take their
18:11
places. There is a speculation from five o'clock in the morning. His success
18:17
was such that Fabrizio finally conceived the idea which altered his whole nature. That
18:21
were it only from simple curiosity, the marchesa Crescenzi might very well come one
18:26
day to listen to one of his sermons. Suddenly, the enraptured public became
18:30
aware that his talent had increased twofold. He allowed himself, when he was
18:36
moved, to use imagery, the boldness of which would have made the most
18:38
practiced orators shudder at times forgetting himself completely. He gave way to moments of
18:45
passionate inspiration, and his whole audience melted in tears. But it was in
18:51
vain that his agrotato eye sought. Among all the faces turned towards the pulpit,
18:56
that one face, the presence of which would have been so great an
18:59
eventful. But if ever I do have that happiness, he said to himself,
19:03
either I should be taken ill, or I shall stop short altogether.
19:08
To obviate the latter misfortune, he had composed a sort of prayer, tender
19:12
and impassioned, which he always placed in the pulpit on a footstool. His
19:18
plan was to begin reading this piece should the Marchesa's presence ever place him at
19:22
a loss for a word. He learned one day through those of the Marchesa's
19:26
servants who were in his pay, that orders had been given to prepare for
19:30
the following evening the box of the Kaza Crescenzi at the Principal Theater. It
19:36
was a year since the Marchesa had appeared at any public spectacle, and it
19:40
was a tenor who was creating a furori and filling the house every evening that
19:44
was making her depart from her habit. Fabrizio's first impulse was an intense joy.
19:51
At last, I can look at her for a whole evening. They
19:53
say she is very pale, and he sought to imagine what that charming face
19:59
could be like, its colours half obliterated by the war that had been waged
20:03
in her soul. His friend Ludovico, in consternation at what he called his
20:07
master's madness, found with great difficulty a box on the fourth tier, almost
20:12
opposite the marchesaes An idea suggested itself to Fabrizio, I hope to put it
20:19
into her head to come to a sermon, and I shall choose a church
20:22
that is quite small, so as to be able to see her properly.
20:26
As a rule, Fabrizio preached at three o'clock on the morning of the day
20:30
on which the Marchesa was to go to the theatre. He gave out that
20:34
as he would be detained all day at the palace by professional duties, he
20:38
would preach as a special exception at huff past eight in the evening in the
20:42
little church of Santa Maria de la Visitazione, situated precisely opposite one of the
20:48
wings of the Palazzo Crescenzi. Lodovico, on his behalf, presented an enormous
20:53
quantity of candles to the nuns of the visitation, with a request that they
20:57
would illuminate their church during the day. He had a whole company of grenadier
21:03
guards. The sentry was posted with fixed bayonets outside each chapel to prevent pilfering.
21:10
The sermon was announced for half past eight only, and by two o'clock
21:12
the church was completely filled. One may imagine the din that there was in
21:18
the quiet street over which towered the noble structure of the Palazzo Cresenzi. Fabrizzio
21:23
had published the announcement that in honor of our Lady of Pity, he would
21:27
preach on the pity which a generous soul ought to feel for one in misfortune,
21:33
even when he is guilty. Disguised with all possible care, Fabrizio reached
21:38
his box in the theater at the moment when the doors were open, and
21:41
when there were still no lights. The performance began about eight o'clock, and
21:47
a few minutes later he had that joy which no mind can conceive that has
21:51
not also felt it. He saw the door of the Cresenzi box open.
21:56
A little later the Marchesa appeared. He had not had so clear review of
22:00
her since the day on which she had given him her fan. Fabrizio thought
22:04
that he would suffocate with joy. He was conscious of emotion so extraordinary that
22:08
he said to himself, perhaps I am going to die, What a charming
22:14
way of ending this sad life. Perhaps I'm going to collapse in this box.
22:18
The faithful gathered at the visitation will wait for me in vain, and
22:22
to morrow they will learn that their future archbishop forgot himself in a box at
22:26
the opera, and what is more, disguised as a servant and wearing livery.
22:32
Farewell my whole reputation, and what does my reputation mean to me?
22:37
However, about a quarter to nine, Fabrizio collected himself with an effort.
22:42
He left his box on the fourth tier, and had the greatest difficulty in
22:45
reaching on foot the place where he was to doff his livery and put on
22:49
a more suitable costume. It was not until nearly nine o'clock that he arrived
22:55
at the visitation in such a state of pallor and weakness that the rumor went
22:59
round the church that the signor Cowardgittore would not be able to preach that evening.
23:04
One may imagine the attention that was lavished on him by the sisters at
23:07
the grille of their inner parlor, to which he had retired. These ladies
23:12
talked incessantly. Fabrizio asked to be left alone for a few moments, then
23:17
hastened to the pulpit. One of his assistants had informed him about three o'clock
23:22
that the church of the Visitation was packed to the doors, but with people
23:26
of the lowest class, attracted apparently by the spectacle of the illumination. On
23:30
entering the pulpit, Fabrizio was agreeably surprised to find all the chairs occupied by
23:36
young men of fashion and by people of the highest distinction. A few words
23:41
of excuse began his sermon, and were received with suppressed cries of admiration.
23:47
Next came the impassioned description of the unfortunate wretch whom one must pity to honor
23:52
worthily the Madonna de la Pieta, who herself had so greatly suffered when on
23:56
earth. The orator was greatly moved. There were moments when he could barely
24:02
pronounce his words so as to be heard in every part of this small church,
24:07
in the eyes of all the women and of a good many of the
24:08
men. He had himself the air of the wretch whom one ought to pity.
24:12
So extreme was his pallor. A few minutes after the words of apology
24:18
with which he had begun his discourse. It was noticed that he was not
24:21
in his normal state. It was felt that his melancholy this evening was more
24:26
profound and more tender than usual. Once he was seen to have tears in
24:30
his eyes. In a moment, there rose through the congregation a general sob
24:36
so loud that the sermon was completely interrupted. This first interruption was followed by
24:41
a dozen others. His listeners uttered cries of admiration their utbursts of tears.
24:47
One heard at every moment such exclamations as Ah Saint, to Madonna, ah
24:52
Grandio. The emotion was so general and so irrepressible in this select public that
24:59
no one was ashamed of uttering these cries, and the people who were carried
25:03
away by them did not seem to their neighbors to be in the least absurd.
25:07
During the rest, which it is customary to take in the middle of
25:11
the sermon, Fabricio was informed that there was absolutely no one left in the
25:15
theater. One lady only was still to be seen in her box the marches
25:19
a crescenza. During this brief interval, a great clamor was suddenly heard proceeding
25:25
from the church. It was the faithful who were voting a statue to the
25:29
signor coadjittori. His success in the second part of the discourse was so wild
25:34
and worldly. The bursts of Christian contrition gave place so completely to cries of
25:41
admiration that were altogether profane, that he felt it his duty to address,
25:45
on leaving the pulpit, a sort of reprimand to his hearers. Whereupon they
25:51
all left at once with a movement that was singularly formal, and on reaching
25:55
the street, all began to applaud with frenzy and to shout Evevaddonio Fabrizio hastily
26:03
consulted his watch and ran to a little barred window which lighted the narrow passage
26:07
from the organ gallery to the interior of the convent. Out of politeness to
26:11
the unprecedented and incredible crowd which filled the street, the porter of the Palazzo
26:17
Crescenzi, had placed a dozen torches in those iron sconces which one sees projecting
26:22
from the outer walls of palazzo built in the Middle Ages. After some minutes,
26:26
and long before the shouting had ceased, the event for which Fabrizio was
26:30
waiting with such anxiety occurred the Marchesa's carriage, returning from the theater, appeared
26:37
in the street. The coachman was obliged to stop, and it was only
26:41
at a crawling pace, and by dint of shouts, that the carriage was
26:44
able to reach the door. The Marchesa had been touched by the sublime music,
26:48
as is the way with sorrowing hearts, but far more by the complete
26:52
solitude in which she sat when she learned the reason for it. In the
26:57
middle of the second act, and while the tenna was on the stage,
27:00
even the people in the pit had suddenly abandoned their seats to go and tempt
27:04
fortune by trying to force their way into the church of the visitation. The
27:10
Marchesa, finding herself stopped by the crowd outside her door, burst into tears.
27:15
I had not made a bad choice, she said to herself, Annetta
27:21
Marini. But precisely on account of this momentary weakening, she firmly resisted the
27:26
pressure put upon her by the marches and the friends of the family, who
27:30
could not conceive her not going to see so astonishing a preacher. Really,
27:36
they said, he beats even the best tenor in Italy. If I see
27:40
him, I am lost. The Marchesa said to herself. It was in
27:44
vain that Fabrizio, whose talent seemed more brilliant every day, preached several times
27:48
more in the same little church opposite the Palazzo Crescenzi. Never did he catch
27:53
sight of Slelia, who indeed took offense finally at this affectation of coming to
27:59
disturb her quiet street, after he had already driven her from her own garden.
28:04
In letting his eye run over the faces of the women who listened to
28:07
him, Fabrizio had noticed some time back a little face of dark complexion,
28:12
very pretty, and with eyes that darted fire. As a rule, these
28:17
magnificent eyes were drowned in tears. At the ninth or tenth sentence in the
28:21
sermon, when Fabrizio is obliged to say things at some length which were tedious
28:26
to himself, he would very readily let his eyes rest on that head,
28:30
the youthfulness of which pleased him. He learned that this young person was called
28:34
Annetta Mariini, the only daughter and heiress of the richest cloth merchant in Parma,
28:41
who had died a few months before presently the name of this Sanetta Mariini,
28:45
the cloth merchant's daughter, was on every tongue. She had fallen desperately
28:51
in love with Fabrizio when the famous sermons began. Her marriage had been arranged
28:56
with Giacomo Rassi, eldest son of the Minister of Justice, who was by
29:00
no means unattractive to her. But she had barely listened twice to Monseigneur Fabrizio
29:06
before she declared that she no longer wished to marry. And since she was
29:08
asked the reason for so singular a change of mind, she replied that it
29:12
was not fitting for an honorable girl to marry one man when she had fallen
29:17
madly in love with another. Her family sought to discover, at first without
29:22
success who this other might be, But the bursting tears which Annetta shed at
29:27
the sermon put them on the way to the truth. Her mother and uncles
29:33
having asked her if she loved Monseigneur Fabrizio, she replied boldly that, since
29:37
the truth had been discovered, she would not demean herself with a lie.
29:41
She added that, having no hope of marrying the man whom she adored,
29:45
she wished at least no longer to have her eyes offended by the ridiculous figure
29:48
of contin No Rassi. This speech, in ridicule of the son of a
29:53
man who was pursued by the envy of the entire middle class, became in
29:57
a couple of days the talk of the whole town. Annetta Mariini's reply was
30:03
thought charming, and everyone repeated it. People spoke of it at the Palazzo
30:07
Crescenzi, as everywhere else. Aies Slelia took good care not to open her
30:15
mouth on such a topic in her own drawing room, but she plied her
30:18
maid with questions, and the following Sunday, after hearing Mass in the chapel
30:22
of her palazzo, bade her maid come with her in her carriage, and
30:26
went in search of a second Mass at Signora Marini's parish church. She found
30:33
assembled there all the gallants of the town, drawn by the same attraction.
30:37
These gentlemen were standing by the door, presently from the great stir which they
30:41
made the marchesa gathered that this Signorina Marini was entering the church. She found
30:48
herself excellently placed to see her, and for all her piety paid little attention
30:52
to the mass. Sleelia found in this middle class beauty a little air of
30:56
decision, which, to her mind, would have suited if any one a
31:00
woman who had been married for a good many years. Otherwise, she was
31:04
admirably built on her small scale, and her eyes, as they say in
31:08
Lombardy, seemed to make conversation with the things at which she looked. The
31:14
Marchesa escaped before the end of the mass. The following day, the friends
31:18
of the Creshenzi household, who came regularly to spend the evening there, related
31:23
a fresh absurdity on the part of Annetta Mariini, since her mother, afraid
31:29
of her doing something foolish, left only a little money at her disposal.
31:33
Annetta had gone and offered a magnificent diamond ring, a gift from her father,
31:37
to the famous Hyez then at Palma decorating the drawing rooms of the Palazzo
31:41
Creshenzi, and had asked him to paint the portrait of Signor del Dogno.
31:47
But she wished that in this portrait he should simply be dressed in black and
31:51
not in the priestly habit well. The previous evening, Anetta's mother had been
31:56
greatly surprised and even more shocked, to find in her daughter's room a magnificent
32:01
portrait of Fabrizio del Dono sat in the finest frame that had been gilded in
32:07
Palma in the last twenty years. End of Section thirty three.