Complete Works of F Marion Crawford

by F. Marion Crawford

  MARIA CAROLINA WAS not exactly insane, but she was entirely unbalanced, and seemed to have no sane judgment in ordinary matters. Her first outbursts of grief had subsided into a profound religious melancholy, and she insisted upon being taken to a convent in which she might end her days in peace. She seemed utterly regardless of the fact that her daughter would be left alone until her surviving brother came back, if he ever returned at all, and that such a man, even as she knew him, was no fit guardian for a young girl. The doctors said that in all probability, if she were not allowed to do what she wished, she would really go mad, in her present state. They suggested that she should retire to one of the convents where ladies were received who wished to go into a religious retreat, and that one of the Sisters of the Bon Secours should obtain permission to live with Vittoria for a few days until her brother arrived.

  Vittoria, worn out with anxiety and sorrow, did not know how to face this new difficulty. Miss Lizzie Slayback insisted that she should come and stay with her and her aunt at the hotel. After a little hesitation, she accepted, for it seemed the only solution of the difficulty. The American girl had become sincerely attached to her Italian friend, and felt herself drawn to Vittoria for the sake of having been on the point of marrying Tebaldo, a state of mind which is natural to some characters and utterly unnatural to others. It was a generous impulse, at all events.

  Vittoria went with her mother to the convent and helped her to install herself, and on the same afternoon she moved with her maid to the Hotel Bristol. She was like a lovely shadow.

  ‘I am so tired,’ she said, when she sat down at last beside Miss Lizzie.

  ‘Rest, dear, rest,’ answered the American girl, drawing the weary head down to her shoulder.

  As the hours went by, and she felt the freedom of not being obliged to go back to the sadness of her mother’s society, Vittoria revived a little. But her life was almost more than she could bear. The papers had been full of the capture of Mauro’s band, and of her brother’s share in it, for the story had spread like wildfire over Sicily. Even the Roman papers made scathing allusions to Tebaldo’s possible relations with the brigands, and while congratulating the government on its victory, made sarcastic enquiries into the state of the betrayer’s conscience. It was indeed hard for Vittoria to bear. She had no news of Tebaldo himself, who seemed to have disappeared mysteriously. Her mother had practically abandoned her in her selfish and half-insane sorrow. She felt herself utterly alone in the world.

  Orsino gravely read the articles in the papers, and wished that he could silence them for Vittoria’s sake. Had there ever been so much as a mention of her name, or even of her mother’s, he would have taken active measures to do so. But the editors were careful never to allude to Tebaldo’s family, and it was out of the question to hinder them from speaking of him as they chose. So far as Orsino knew, the man was quite able to defend himself.

  Sant’ Ilario read the accounts aloud to his father and to Corona. Sometimes Ippolito listened, but Orsino always made an excuse for leaving the room, preferring to read the news for himself.

  There was a perpetual subdued anxiety in the great household, on Ippolito’s account, with an eager expectation that in the course of the present events the mystery of Francesco’s death should be cleared up. Their friends looked upon the affair very much as though it had taken place in Africa or the South Seas, for Sicily seems very remote to Roman society. They laughed at the idea that Ippolito could really ever be brought to trial. Even the Minister of Justice, who was a friend of Sant’ Ilario’s, smiled and said that the law had means of putting off the trial for a long time in order that satisfactory evidence might be obtained. But no such evidence was forthcoming. The judge who had heard the case in Messina had been to Santa Vittoria, but had met with the most complete substantiation of Tebaldo’s own story. He had not even thought of causing the grating under the altar to be opened. Nothing new transpired, and Ippolito resolutely held his tongue. In order to avoid being questioned by his many acquaintances, he saw as few people as he could, and spent much time over his music in Orsino’s room. The two brothers were as fond of each other as ever, but when they were together they were much more silent than formerly. The secret preoccupation of each conflicted with that of the other, and the peace between them depended upon silence for its security.

  Nor did anyone in the household know that Orsino had seen Vittoria several times at Mrs. Slayback’s, still less that the American lady and her niece always managed to leave the two alone together for a while on such occasions. Orsino was determined that nothing should come between him and Vittoria, but at the present juncture it was impossible for him to insist upon his family’s consent to his marriage.

  Vittoria, on her side, had given up all hope, though her love gained upon her sorrows in the struggle for her soul. She was too lonely not to love her love for its companionship, too weary not to love Orsino for his strength, and yet too desolate to believe that happiness could wait for her while the cruel hours and days crawled slowly on.

  It had seemed easy long ago — a month or a little more, at most — when Orsino had first gone to Sicily. It had seemed possible when he had come back that first time, even though he had killed her own brother in self-defence. But there was no more possibility now. She felt that this was the end of her race. Some fearful thing must happen to Tebaldo, and she should be left alone, the last of the long and evil line of the Corleone. It would be better for her, too, to go back to the convent, to the dear old nuns who knew her and had loved her and would take her back as a sister, now, to end her days in peace and innocence and devotion. Her name should be forgotten, and while she lived she could pray that the evil of it might be forgiven and the remembrance of it blotted out among men.

  Once or twice she had spoken in this way to Orsino, but he had stopped her suddenly and almost roughly. Come what might, he meant to marry her, and he would. That was all he said, but he meant it, and she had moments of belief when she heard the words and saw his face.

  He admitted, when she pressed him, that neither his father nor his mother would at present give their consent, and that there was little to choose between them, and that they were people whose minds being once made up, would not easily change. And Vittoria sadly answered that they were right, and that she should feel and act as Corona did, were she in Corona’s place. Yet still Orsino smiled gravely and said that they should not hinder him at the last, for that he, too, had made up his mind, and that he was their son and like them, and could be as stubborn as they. Vittoria could not say that Orsino had once wavered in his determination since that night when he had kissed her on the bridge outside the ballroom. He was always the same, and it was small wonder that her weariness should find rest in his strength. But when he was gone, her courage sank again.

  She was seated alone one afternoon in Mrs. Slayback’s drawing-room. The two ladies were out, but Vittoria would not drive with them in their big open carriage, to meet her old acquaintances and to feel that she was pointed out as the sister of Tebaldo Pagliuca, who had betrayed Mauro and his band. She went for little walks in the morning with Miss Lizzie, before it was hot, and sometimes in the afternoon she took a closed cab and drove to the convent to see her mother. To-day she was at home, and she had come into the drawing-room and established herself in the corner of a sofa, with a book, trying to read. But she could not care for what the book said, and the volume dropped upon her lap, while her head fell back and the low sunlight filtered through the blinds and gilded her brown hair, leaving her sad young face all in the shadow.

  Suddenly the door opened wide, and one of the servants of the hotel announced a visitor, in a pompous tone.

  ‘The Signorina Basili!’ he said, waited for Aliandra to enter, and he closed the door.

  Aliandra came in swiftly and stood before Vittoria, who half rose from her seat, startled by the singer’s sudden appearance. Aliandra held something in her hand. She had never seen Vittoria, and the sunlight made the
girl’s hair look fair. She had ordered the servant to show her to Miss Slayback’s drawing-room without announcing her, and she naturally took Vittoria for Miss Lizzie. Her handsome face was faintly flushed with anger and excitement, and her dark eyes gleamed.

  ‘I have brought you this,’ she said, holding out the Moscio’s parcel, ‘from the man who has deceived us both, who wished to marry you and ruin me, who has come back to marry you now—’

  ‘Who? What?’ asked Vittoria, half frightened, but mechanically taking the parcel.

  ‘Tebaldo Pagliuca,’ answered Aliandra, too much excited to notice that Vittoria spoke in Italian with an Italian’s accent. ‘Tebaldo Pagliuca, who betrayed his friends the outlaws to death, Tebaldo Pagliuca, who is trying to marry you for your fortune, Tebaldo Pagliuca, who killed his own brother Francesco on the steps of the altar with the knife that is in that package—’

  ‘Merciful God!’ The young girl’s voice rang breaking through the room, as she sank back.

  ‘Tebaldo Pagliuca, who confessed the crime to the priest,’ continued Aliandra, working herself into a fury, ‘who accused the priest of the murder, knowing that he would die with the secret rather than betray a confession — Tebaldo Pagliuca, the traitor, the betrayer, the false accuser, the murderer! The story is there, with the knife, in the paper — read it, and give him his answer when he comes to-day to kiss your hands—’

  ‘Mercy of Heaven! Mercy of God!’ moaned Vittoria, still too strong to faint or not to hear and understand every word.

  Aliandra believed that she had done what she had come to do. She had foiled Tebaldo effectually and for ever in any attempt he might make to marry the American heiress. With a glance at the girl’s bent head, and at the soft, brown hair that looked so fair in the flecks of sunshine, she turned and left the room as quickly as she had entered it.

  Vittoria started as she heard the door close, looked up, and then glanced at the package in her hand. She did not quite remember what she did after that, till she found herself locked into her own room, breaking the violet seals from the brown paper, cutting the string with her nail scissors, tearing the stout paper to pieces with her little hands, her heart beating with horror and her eyes already frightened by the expectation of the knife they were to see. She saw it, a moment later, and then her heart stood still, for she had seen it many times in Tebaldo’s room, during that winter, and once she had borrowed it of him to cut a strong cord from a parcel.

  Then came the letter, and the long and painful reading of the hideous tale. She spent a terrible half-hour, and then she sat still for a long time, and her face was almost restful. At last she rose, quite calm and decided, and began to dress herself to go out. In a quarter of an hour she was ready, and she went downstairs alone and told the porter to get her a cab.

  ‘Palazzo Saracinesca,’ she said to the cabman, ‘and drive under the gate!’

  She went up the great staircase and asked for Corona. The footman hesitated to say whether the Princess would receive or not. Vittoria fixed her eyes on him and spoke quietly in a tone he understood.

  ‘Be good enough to take me to the Princess’s room,’ she said. ‘The matter is urgent.’

  She followed the man through the long succession of state drawing-rooms till he knocked at a side door, and immediately opened it inwards.

  Corona was at her table writing a note. She looked up quickly, bending her brows, and rose rather formally. She had always liked Vittoria for herself, but she had good cause to hate her name, and she had avoided the possibility of meeting the lonely girl of late. Vittoria went forward and spoke first.

  ‘I should not have come to you for a small matter,’ she said. ‘But I have come to make a reparation.’

  ‘There is none to make,’ answered Corona. ‘You have done nothing—’ She paused, not understanding.

  ‘You shall see. Will you sit down? It may take some time to explain — or, rather, to read. There is only one question which I must ask you first. Has Don Ippolito been acquitted or not?’

  Corona’s face darkened.

  ‘He has not,’ she answered. ‘He is at liberty on San Giacinto’s security.’

  ‘Here are the proofs of his innocence,’ said Vittoria, simply, as she produced her package and laid it on Corona’s lap.

  Corona opened her eyes in surprise, and her expression changed.

  ‘My brother Tebaldo did it,’ continued Vittoria. ‘He forced your son, as a priest, to hear his confession, because Don Ippolito surprised him in the church. Then he accused him of the murder, knowing that he would keep the secret.’

  Corona stared, realised what the girl meant, and suddenly grasped her wrist, looking into her face. She saw the truth there, but Vittoria understood the doubt.

  ‘When you have read, you will understand better,’ said the young girl, pointing to the package.

  Corona said nothing, but her fingers were quick to find the letter. Vittoria rose softly and went to the window and looked out. Her hands rested on the cold stone sill and twitched nervously from time to time, but she would not turn round. She knew that what was shame and horror to her, was the joy of heaven to the mother of the accused man. Corona read in silence, intently, quickly, almost desperately.

  She was a generous woman. When she had finished, and the weight had fallen from her heart at last, she rose and went to Vittoria. The girl heard her step and turned. Corona was holding out both hands.

  ‘What shall I do to make you know how grateful I am?’ she asked.

  ‘What should you do?’ asked Vittoria, sadly. ‘It was justice, so I came at once. The great singer — the Basili — came into the room an hour ago. I was alone. She took me for Miss Slayback, with whom I am staying, and before I could speak she had told the truth and given me the package and was gone. So I brought it to you. I trust you to spare my poor brother if you can. Keep the secret, if you can, now that you know the truth. Perhaps something else may prove Don Ippolito innocent long before the trial. But if nothing else will do — why then, you have his innocence in your hands.’

  ‘Where is he?’ asked Corona. ‘Where is your brother?’

  ‘I do not know. It is several days since he has telegraphed. He never writes. The Basili spoke as though he were in Rome, but I do not think he is. I will go home, please. I am a little tired. You will keep the secret if you can, will you not?’

  ‘Yes. No one shall know it unless it is necessary. But you, child—’

  She put her arm round Vittoria, for the girl looked shadowy and faint as she leaned against the table by the window. Vittoria straightened herself, and opened and shut her eyes once or twice as though waking.

  ‘There is nothing the matter,’ she said rather proudly. ‘I am very well. I am glad that you are happy.’

  ‘You have given me back my life,’ answered Corona. ‘Some day — but there are no thanks for such things.’

  Vittoria began to go towards the door. She wanted no thanks, yet somehow she had hoped that Corona would speak differently, remembering how she had once been left by her with Orsino in that very room. The Princess walked with her to the hall.

  ‘I shall not forget this, my dear,’ she said, almost solemnly, as she pressed the passive little hand. ‘I shall come and see you soon.’

  As Vittoria drove back to the Piazza Barberini, she felt as though the very desolation of loneliness were beside her in the shabby little cab. But Corona had never been a woman of many words, and she meant more than she said when she told Vittoria that she should not forget.

  CHAPTER XXXIX

  CORONA REGRETTED THE promise of secrecy which Vittoria had obtained from her, as soon as she found herself alone and able to think over the situation calmly. She had no secrets from her husband, and few of any kind, and it was hard to keep silence when Giovanni discussed Ippolito’s position and the possibilities of obtaining the evidence necessary to clear Ippolito. She had, indeed, the sort of satisfaction which a woman feels all the more keenly when she feels it alon
e, with the certainty that everyone else will soon know what she knows, for she saw that Ippolito had behaved with almost heroic constancy. But she would soon begin to long for the moment when others would see that he was a hero.

  Being naturally a calm woman, and somewhat reserved, even with her own family, her face did not betray her at first. Yet she hardly dared to look at Ippolito that evening, lest her happiness should break like light from her eyes.

  Her difficulty was a considerable one, however, and puzzled her at first. In her own room she read and re-read the Moscio’s letter, and her maturer judgment told her what neither Aliandra nor Vittoria had understood in their impetuosity. The law would look upon this so-called evidence as a piece of vengeance on the part of a brigand, and would attach little value to it. Why, the law would ask, since the brigand professed to hold proofs that could ruin his enemy, had he not sent them to the carabineers? The answer must take the very unsatisfactory form of a dissertation on Sicilian character in general, and on that of the Moscio in particular; whereas, while he was still at large, his character could be but an unknown quantity. It might be proved, of course, that the knife had belonged to Tebaldo. But it would be hard to show how the Moscio had come by it. To demonstrate Ippolito’s innocence something more was necessary.

  Corona made up her mind that she would see Tebaldo himself and force him to a confession of his crime. It did not occur to her to fear such a meeting, or even to hesitate, after she had once made up her mind. The difficulty lay in finding the man immediately. She did not believe that Vittoria had deceived her in saying that she did not know where her brother might be, but she supposed that he would soon come to Rome, and decided to wait for him. She sent frequently to enquire at the house where the Corleone had lived. The servants knew nothing. She wrote a note to Vittoria at Mrs. Slayback’s, but Vittoria had no news.

  Corona wrote to the Minister of Justice. She knew him very well, and told him that in the matter of the accusation against her son she wished to communicate with Don Tebaldo Pagliuca, but could not find out where he was. To her surprise the Minister’s answer gave her the information she wished. Tebaldo, said the note, was dangerously ill in Messina at a certain hotel. Owing to the strong feeling which existed against him in Sicily, it had been thought necessary to protect him, and the government was, therefore, kept constantly apprised of his condition through the office of the prefect of Messina. He was very ill indeed, and was not expected to recover.