第2章

8th.--Yesterday I felt blue--blue and bored; and when I got up this morning I had half a mind to leave Florence. But I went out into the street, beside the Arno, and looked up and down--looked at the yellow river and the violet hills, and then decided to remain--or rather, Idecided nothing. I simply stood gazing at the beauty of Florence, and before I had gazed my fill I was in good-humour again, and it was too late to start for Rome. I strolled along the quay, where something presently happened that rewarded me for staying. I stopped in front of a little jeweller's shop, where a great many objects in mosaic were exposed in the window; I stood there for some minutes--Idon't know why, for I have no taste for mosaic. In a moment a little girl came and stood beside me--a little girl with a frowsy Italian head, carrying a basket. I turned away, but, as I turned, my eyes happened to fall on her basket. It was covered with a napkin, and on the napkin was pinned a piece of paper, inscribed with an address.

This address caught my glance--there was a name on it I knew. It was very legibly written--evidently by a scribe who had made up in zeal what was lacking in skill. Contessa Salvi-Scarabelli, Via Ghibellina--so ran the superion; I looked at it for some moments; it caused me a sudden emotion. Presently the little girl, becoming aware of my attention, glanced up at me, wondering, with a pair of timid brown eyes.

"Are you carrying your basket to the Countess Salvi?" I asked.

The child stared at me. "To the Countess Scarabelli.""Do you know the Countess?"

"Know her?" murmured the child, with an air of small dismay.

"I mean, have you seen her?"

"Yes, I have seen her." And then, in a moment, with a sudden soft smile--"E bella!" said the little girl. She was beautiful herself as she said it.

"Precisely; and is she fair or dark?"

The child kept gazing at me. "Bionda--bionda," she answered, looking about into the golden sunshine for a comparison.

"And is she young?"

"She is not young--like me. But she is not old like--like--""Like me, eh? And is she married?"

The little girl began to look wise. "I have never seen the Signor Conte.""And she lives in Via Ghibellina?"

"Sicuro. In a beautiful palace."

I had one more question to ask, and I pointed it with certain copper coins. "Tell me a little--is she good?"The child inspected a moment the contents of her little brown fist.

"It's you who are good," she answered.

"Ah, but the Countess?" I repeated.

My informant lowered her big brown eyes, with an air of conscientious meditation that was inexpressibly quaint. "To me she appears so,"she said at last, looking up.

"Ah, then, she must be so," I said, "because, for your age, you are very intelligent." And having delivered myself of this compliment Iwalked away and left the little girl counting her soldi.

I walked back to the hotel, wondering how I could learn something about the Contessa Salvi-Scarabelli. In the doorway I found the innkeeper, and near him stood a young man whom I immediately perceived to be a compatriot, and with whom, apparently, he had been in conversation.

"I wonder whether you can give me a piece of information," I said to the landlord. "Do you know anything about the Count Salvi-Scarabelli?"

The landlord looked down at his boots, then slowly raised his shoulders, with a melancholy smile. "I have many regrets, dear sir--"

"You don't know the name?"

"I know the name, assuredly. But I don't know the gentleman."I saw that my question had attracted the attention of the young Englishman, who looked at me with a good deal of earnestness. He was apparently satisfied with what he saw, for he presently decided to speak.

"The Count Scarabelli is dead," he said, very gravely.

I looked at him a moment; he was a pleasing young fellow. "And his widow lives," I observed, "in Via Ghibellina?""I daresay that is the name of the street." He was a handsome young Englishman, but he was also an awkward one; he wondered who I was and what I wanted, and he did me the honour to perceive that, as regards these points, my appearance was reassuring. But he hesitated, very properly, to talk with a perfect stranger about a lady whom he knew, and he had not the art to conceal his hesitation. I instantly felt it to be singular that though he regarded me as a perfect stranger, Ihad not the same feeling about him. Whether it was that I had seen him before, or simply that I was struck with his agreeable young face--at any rate, I felt myself, as they say here, in sympathy with him. If I have seen him before I don't remember the occasion, and neither, apparently, does he; I suppose it's only a part of the feeling I have had the last three days about everything. It was this feeling that made me suddenly act as if I had known him a long time.

"Do you know the Countess Salvi?" I asked.

He looked at me a little, and then, without resenting the freedom of my question--"The Countess Scarabelli, you mean," he said.

"Yes," I answered; "she's the daughter."

"The daughter is a little girl."

"She must be grown up now. She must be--let me see--close upon thirty."My young Englishman began to smile. "Of whom are you speaking?""I was speaking of the daughter," I said, understanding his smile.

"But I was thinking of the mother."

"Of the mother?"

"Of a person I knew twenty-seven years ago--the most charming woman Ihave ever known. She was the Countess Salvi--she lived in a wonderful old house in Via Ghibellina.""A wonderful old house!" my young Englishman repeated.