‘Today I’m a cash customer myself.’
‘I didn’t know you were interested in art.’
‘In a general way,’ said Comber affably. ‘In a very general way. What I want is a book that gives the names of all the artists and all their best-known pictures, but without a lot of waffle.’
‘That sounds like a dictionary.’
‘Is there such a thing? No, I will not get out of the way. Impudent monkey.’
This was to a youth on a Lambretta who tried to edge past them in the narrow street and was baffled by the Commander’s habit of walking in the middle of the road.
‘Steam gives way to sail, my boy.’
The motor scooter mounted the pavement and shot past with a triumphant toot. They emerged into the bustle of the Via de Benci, turned right, and the Galleria e Biblioteca delle Arti was on their right. A passage-like entrance led through into the surprisingly spacious establishment.
The shop was already open. Francesca, a solemn girl who wore round glasses and held Broke in awe, always arrived before nine, took down the shutters, took in the post, and dusted round.
The bookshop portion of the establishment was a hexagonal room, with an overhead glass light. The walls were covered with shelves, and there was a display counter filling most of the middle. The larger and more expensive books were stacked on it.
‘I’ve made up my mind,’ said Broke. ‘Any book selling at more than three thousand lire is to be covered in cellophane. Completely covered. If people are sufficiently interested in it, we will be happy to break it open for them.’
‘Sissignore,’ said Francesca. ‘I will buy some cellophane and start now.’
Broke was already on top of a ladder. He climbed down with two books. ‘This one’s got illustrations,’ he said. ‘It’s a bit more expensive. This one’s just out. It’s called The Cosmopolitan Art Lover’s Companion. I should guess that most of it’s been cribbed from other books.’
‘Exactly what I want.’
‘You’re not interested in one particular field?’
‘The whole world is my province! Who was it said that? Talleyrand? Sidney Smith?’ The Commander peeled off two thousand lire notes. ‘By the way, are you doing anything this evening?’
‘Nothing that I can think of. Why?’
‘Would you like to come to a party?’
‘What sort of party?’
‘The usual sort of party. Eating and drinking, and talking and being talked to.’
‘Where?’
‘At the Villa Rasenna. Professor Bronzini.’
The Commander felt in his pocket and pulled out a thick card. It was pale green, and the writing on it was in purple ink. ‘Like a frog menu,’ he said. ‘I gather he’s a bit queer.’
‘Are you using queer in the technical sense, or do you just mean that he’s odd?’
‘Both, really. He’s a fantastic old nut, but his food and drink’s all right. Come along for laughs.’
Broke was examining the card.
Professor Bruno Bronzini warmly invites all his friends and fellow enthusiasts for Etruscan art and the Etruscan way of life to join him at the Villa Rasenna, to eat, to drink, to listen to Etruscan music on pipes and zither, and to enjoy the beauties of a civilization happier and more cultivated than our own.
‘Happier!’ said Broke. ‘He might have something there. Do you know this chap?’
‘I’ve been introduced. I believe he really is by way of being an authority on Etruscan art. Made some discoveries, on his own property out near Volterra, and has written books about it.’
‘Yes,’ said Broke. He thought about it, and shook his head. ‘He can’t want just anyone turning up to his party.’
‘Not just anyone. He wants to meet you.’
‘He doesn’t know me.’
‘He knows you have taken over Welford Hussey’s shop and gallery. What’s happened to Welford, by the way?’
‘He’s gone to South America. To study Aztec art. He’ll be back at the end of the year. If I haven’t lost all his customers for him by then!’
‘I overheard two young ladies talking about you the other day. One of them said that you were not the least simpatico. On the contrary, very strict. You reminded her of her father. It caused her a delicious frisson of terror every time she came into the gallery.’
‘And what did the other say? Something equally silly?’
‘Shan’t tell you,’ said Comber with a grin. ‘Our young ladies here are remarkably outspoken, not to say indelicate, about the opposite sex. Talking of the opposite sex, here comes Miss Plant. Better mind your Ps and Qs. I’m off.’ At the door he stopped, and said, ‘You will come tonight, won’t you? I’ll pick you up at your place about eight o’clock.’
‘All right,’ said Broke. He didn’t sound very grateful.
Miss Plant was, in every sense of the word, the Leading Lady of the English Colony in Florence. She had been there since around the beginning of the century. The accident that Italy had happened to be on the wrong side in the Second World War had not incommoded her at all. It had, in truth, served to emphasize her standing and increase her prestige. It was true that the Italian authorities, badgered beyond endurance by the Germans, and after exhausting every excuse for delay, had eventually agreed to take Miss Plant into custody as an enemy alien. The experiment had not been a success. She had allowed herself to be driven to the Questura, and had sat there, upright, unmoving, and unspeaking, during the remainder of that day, and the night following; acknowledging the arrival of evening only by elevating the umbrella she had brought with her. She had refused all food and drink. The thought that Miss Plant might actually starve to death, under her umbrella, in his outer office, had so unnerved the Questore that he had preferred to brave the wrath of the Germans, and had returned her to her villa under very nominal house arrest. Even so, she had not forgiven him. She omitted his name from the invitations to her first garden party after the war, and the Questore had disappeared from public life.
Miss Plant sailed into the shop, ignored Francesca who had sidled up to serve her, and brought her guns to bear on the man. ‘My name is Beatrice Plant,’ she said. ‘You must be Robert Broke.’ She pronounced the name in the correct English way as ‘Brook’. ‘You’ve taken on the gallery from that American. Why is it, I wonder, that Americans have such curious Christian names? Welford! It sounds like a telephone number. We had an American here, just after the war, whose Christian name was Shaftesbury. Your wife was a Temple-Hardy.’
‘She was,’ agreed Broke, grimly. If Miss Plant noticed the hardening in his face she gave no sign of it. The feelings of others were of little interest to her.
‘You’ve met Elizabeth Weighill, I believe.’ She indicated the young woman who had followed her into the shop. ‘Elizabeth very kindly gave me a lift down into town this morning. The traffic gets worse every day. It’s time somebody did something about it. Have you met her father?’
‘I’ve met Sir Gerald,’ said Broke. He caught Elizabeth’s eye as he said this, and she winked at him.
‘It’s surprising,’ said Miss Plant, ‘that this Government should have had enough good sense to send us out a Baronet as our Consul. The last one was a terrible little man, with no birth or breeding.’
‘Oh, nonsense,’ said Elizabeth. ‘He was perfectly all right. He called on Miss Plant on a very cold day in mid-winter, and kept his overcoat on in the drawing-room.’
‘I once had a doctor,’ said Miss Plant, ‘who kept his overcoat on in my bedroom. He was a very well-known man, I believe. Of course, I never had him in the house again. Macchiaiuoli.’
Broke assumed that this final word was a war cry, connected with what had gone before. When it was repeated, he realized that it was a question. He pulled himself together.
‘Are you looking for a book about them, or for reproductions of their drawings? We’ve got some Telemaco Signorinis in the gallery, and at least one Cabianca.’
‘I want a book ab
out the Macchiaiuoli. Gertrude Strozzi started a discussion about them the other day. I’d not the least idea what she was talking about. I just want to know enough about them to put her in her place if she tries it on again.’
Fortunately Broke was able to produce a volume dealing with these minor painters of the nineteenth century.
When Miss Plant had taken herself off, Elizabeth said, ‘You mustn’t mind her. She’s been eccentric for so long that what started as a pose has become a habit. There’s no malice in it.’
‘It’s rather refreshing when someone simply says the first thing that comes into her head.’
‘If she did that,’ said Elizabeth, ‘it wouldn’t be so bad. The real trouble is that she says the first three things that come into her head. One after the other. When she was introduced to daddy she said, “How do you do, Sir Gerald. A second generation baronetcy, ’ent it! Your father was Lord Mayor of London. It was the year that horse with a foreign name won the Derby.”’
Broke smiled. It was a little grim, but it was a genuine smile.
‘What did your father say?’
‘Something suitable, I’m sure. He’s a professional diplomat. By the way, did you know you were coming to luncheon with us the day after tomorrow. If you’re not otherwise engaged, that is.’
‘Thursday? I’m not sure–’
‘Tom Proctor’s going to be there.’
‘Tom! Is he in Florence?’
‘Not yet. But he’s getting in tomorrow night. He’s a trustee of yours, or something, isn’t he?’
‘He’s my sister Felicia’s trustee and he’s my solicitor. Yes, if Tom’s there, I suppose I ought to turn up.’
‘That’s not the most enthusiastic acceptance I’ve ever heard,’ said Elizabeth. ‘Most people consider an invitation to luncheon with the British Consul confers a considerable social cachet.’
Broke said, ‘I’m sure it does,’ and smiled again.
‘Twice in one morning,’ said Elizabeth to herself as she drove to the Consulate. ‘If we go on at this rate, we may ultimately let our hair right down, go the whole hog, and laugh.’ She opened the window of the car and said, in excellent Italian, ‘If the signore would spend less time sounding his horn, and more time using his eyes, he would observe that my left indicator is out, demonstrating that I intend to turn to the left. Thank you.’
The gallery shut for two hours in the middle of the day, and this gave Broke plenty of time to walk home to lunch. It was his custom to cross the Ponte Vecchio, and make his way back along the left bank of the river, thus completing the circuit which his morning walk had started.
As he passed the café on the corner of the Lungarno Acciaioli he noticed the two strangers, sitting at the table under the awning. They were clearly not tourists. He judged that they might be from Naples. Even, perhaps, from Sicily.
3
Tuesday Evening: Professor Bruno Bronzini
‘An instructive treatise,’ said Commander Comber, ‘could be written – I may even write it myself – on the difference between English and European drivers. As a nation we are law-abiding, intolerant, and insistent on priorities. One of the results of this is our morbid passion for queuing. We become bad-tempered if another driver interferes with those priorities by, say, cutting in, or jumping the lights, or pulling out into the wrong lane, even if – get out of my way you cross-eyed cow. Europeans, on the other hand, and more particularly Italians, regard driving as a sport. Provided the referee isn’t looking, you can cheat and bluff to the limit. See that taxi? He thinks I’m going to give way, but I’m not. But you must be cheerful about it, and good-tempered when your bluff’s called. Molte grazie, signore.’
‘If I was running Florence,’ said Broke, ‘I’d put in a few more traffic lights.’
‘Of course you would. And Halt signs and Give Way signs and carefully marked traffic lanes and it’d take everyone three times as long to get through. We’ll be clear of the worst in a moment.’
They crossed the railway, and turned up the tree-lined Viale Alessandro Volta, out of the heat and turmoil of the city, and up into the coolness of the foot-hills.
It had been a blazing day. With the coming of evening a light mist, the thinnest of bridal veils, was rising from the valley of the Arno. The colour of the sky deepened from pale blue into indigo, and from indigo into steel. A few lights began to show.
‘Lovely, isn’t it,’ said Comber.
‘Most cities are more attractive,’ said Broke, ‘when you’re far enough away not to be able to hear them. Or smell them,’ he added.
‘Don’t be such a bloody realist.’
‘Who’s going to be there tonight?’
‘Apart from the Professor? I expect Mercurio will be there. He’s an adopted son. A remarkable specimen. Danilo Ferri will be somewhere in the background, running things in his usual quiet and competent way. He’s Bruno’s steward. Oh, and a lot of top brass from the Uffizi and the Pitti Palace, and, of course the Museo Archeologico. They’re the Etruscan experts – but I imagine you know them.’
‘I know Solferini and Bartolozzi, and I’ve met two or three of the others. What’s the form, will it just be drinks?’
The Commander laughed so heartily that the car nearly mounted the pavement.
‘I can see that you don’t know Bruno. This is an Etruscan orgy. There’ll be eats, drinks, music, dancing, if you like. The last guests leaving at daylight.’
‘I hope,’ said Broke, ‘that not everything one associates with an Etruscan orgy will be taking place tonight.’
‘Not in public, anyway. Here we are.’
The car turned off the road through high gate-posts of squared stone and passed down a tunnel of driveway between a double row of cypresses, which emerged with theatrical suddenness into a paved courtyard with lights.
A boy in dark overalls, belted at the waist and clipped at the wrists and ankles, ran up, almost before they had stopped, and opened the door. A second boy, similarly dressed, appeared at the other side, and said, ‘Leave the keys, signori, I will take the car.’
‘The devil you will. What are you going to do with it?’
‘Over there.’ The boy pointed to a row of cars on the far side. ‘She will be quite safe.’
The Commander said, ‘I’m not worried about it being safe. I want it parked where I can get it out quickly if I have to.’
The boy grinned, and said, ‘I put her at the end. You want to get her out, take a young lady for a ride perhaps, you can get her out quick.’
‘You flatter me,’ said the Commander, but handed the keys over. They walked under a semi-circular arch into an inner courtyard, set round with orange trees in terracotta urns, and up a shallow flight of steps. The front door was opened for them by a burly character, dressed in the loose-fitting overall which seemed to be the uniform of the place. He ushered them into an inner hall where a dark-haired, pale-faced man of medium height, unremarkable appearance, and entirely conventional dress, was awaiting them.
‘Danilo Ferri,’ whispered the Commander. And, as they reached him, ‘Allow me, Signor Ferri – Robert Broke.’
‘Good evening, Commander Comber. Good evening, Mr Broke.’ Ferri handled the tricky pronunciations with remarkable efficiency. ‘Let me take you in. The Professor will be so pleased that you could come.’
The Villa Rasenna had originally been built round a central courtyard. A later owner had enlarged it, roofing over the courtyard in the process, and the result was a complex of rooms of different sizes and at different levels. From somewhere ahead came music.
‘Watch the steps,’ said Ferri. ‘They’re tricky, even when you’re sober.’
The music was unlike anything Broke had ever heard before. Predominantly it was pipe music, with a background of strings and castanets.
‘Etruscan style,’ said Ferri. ‘A little monotonous at first, but you’ll find you’ll get used to it.’ They had turned a corner and were now in the main hall of the villa, a long, low room,
with a beamed ceiling, hung with tapestries, Broke could see the musicians, and confirmed what he had suspected. The instruments they were performing on were the double flute and the zither. Considering the limitations of the instruments they were performing very well.
A small, round figure detached itself from the group in the far corner, and came bouncing across to meet them. It did not need Comber’s whispered warning to tell Broke that this was his host.
Professor Bronzini was dressed in pointed slippers and a robe, similar to that worn by his servants, but of richer and more elaborate stuff, with a short tunic, or chlamys on top. His small, round body was circled at the waist by an elaborate leather belt, hung with small gold ornaments. A cherubic Silenus countenance, crimson cheeks, flat nose, thick lips, and grey hair astart, seemed to be balanced on the high collar which topped this remarkable outfit.
‘Commander! I am so pleased. And you have brought Mr–?’
‘Broke.’
‘Mr Broke. Delighted. I saw you looking at the orchestra. The instruments they are playing are exact reproductions of the double flute or subulo, and the ancient lyre. You have studied the Etruscans, Mr Broke?’
Comber started to say, ‘As a matter of fact, he’s rather–’ but got no further. The Professor had turned away to clap his hands, and a boy came across with a tray. The glasses on it were heavy green beakers. The drink inside seemed to be an aromatic wine.
The Professor bounded away to greet some new arrivals and Broke had time to study his surroundings. Apart from the tapestries the only ornamentation consisted of two circular bronze mirrors on the stone shelf over the fireplace, and a remarkable bronze strigil, the handle formed in the shape of a goat on its hind legs. He was examining these, when he found Ferri beside him again.
‘Interesting work,’ said Broke. ‘Fine copies.’
‘Copies?’ said Ferri.
‘Well,’ said Broke, mildly, ‘they could hardly be the originals, could they? Both the mirrors are in the Archaeological Museum at Dresden, and the goat comes from the Villa Giulia, at Rome.’
The Etruscan Net Page 2