‘What am I to do?’ she asked when she had explained everything. ‘He is generally at the War Office at this time and he may not even go home before he comes here. I see no way but to send a note.’
‘He would certainly go home to change his clothes,’ answered the practical Frenchwoman; ‘but it is not necessary for you to write. I will telephone to the War Office, and if the Count is there I will explain everything.’
Angela looked at her doubtfully.
‘But then the servant who telephones will know,’ she objected.
‘The servant? Why? I do not understand. I shall speak myself. No one will be there to hear.’
‘Yourself? My father never could, and I never was shown how to do it. Are you sure you understand the thing? It is very complicated, I believe.’
Madame Bernard was not surprised, for she knew the ways of the Palazzo Chiaromonte; but she smiled and assured the young girl that a telephone was not really such a dangerous instrument as she had been led to believe.
‘I once tried to make a few stitches with a sewing-machine,’ Angela said, apparently in explanation.
‘A telephone is different,’ Madame Bernard answered gravely. ‘Shall I ask the Count to come to-morrow at four o’clock, instead of to-day?’
Angela hesitated, and then blushed faintly.
‘Do you think — —’ she began, but she stopped and hesitated. ‘He would be angry, I am sure — —’ She seemed to be suddenly distressed.
‘Your father?’ asked the Frenchwoman, guessing what she meant. ‘My dear Princess — —’
‘Oh, please don’t call me that!’ cried Angela. ‘You never do — —’
‘You see, you are a great personage now, my dear child,’ Madame Bernard answered, ‘and I am no longer your governess — —’
‘But you are my friend, dear, dear Madame Bernard! Indeed, I think you are my only friend now!’
And thereupon Angela threw her arms round the little woman’s neck and kissed her very affectionately. Madame Bernard’s fresh face beamed with pleasure.
‘Thank you, my dear,’ she answered. ‘And as for your father, my child, he is without doubt in heaven; and that means that he now judges you by your intentions and no longer by appearances only.’
This sage little speech reassured Angela, though she soon afterwards asked herself whether it was quite loyal to allow any one to say that the Prince had ever judged her ‘by appearances only.’ But while she was making this reflection Madame Bernard was already telephoning to Giovanni, who was at the War Office, as Angela supposed, and he answered with alacrity that he would come to the palace on the following afternoon and ask to see Madame Bernard on a matter of business. It was really her business to teach French, as all the servants knew, and if they thought that the young officer came to ask about some lessons for himself or a friend, so much the better. Madame Bernard was naturally practical, and Giovanni was by nature quick-witted; so the matter was settled in a few words, to the satisfaction of both; and when Angela was merely told that he was coming she was much more pleased than she was willing to show, and she said no more about her father’s hypothetical disapproval.
That afternoon she received the Marchesa del Prato and the lawyer downstairs in the second of the outer drawing-rooms. It was cold there, but she had not quite dared to order a fire to be made, because the Prince had never allowed fires except in the inner rooms, which were still closed under the notarial seals. The place had a certain grandeur of its own, for the massive decorations, the heavy furniture, and the rich brocade curtains all dated from the best period of Louis the Fourteenth’s reign. On the walls there were four or five first-rate pictures, the largest of which was a magnificent portrait of a former Chiaromonte by Vandyke; there was a Holy Family by Guercino, another by Bonifacio, a Magdalen with the box of ointment, by Andrea del Sarto, and one or two smaller paintings of no inconsiderable value.
But at that hour the light was bad, for the afternoon had turned cold and rainy after a beautiful morning, and at four o’clock it was still too early to have lamps. A few moments after the hour, a servant opened the door, held the curtains aside, and announced the visitor.
‘Her Excellency, the Princess Chiaromonte!’
Angela started slightly at the name. The last Princess Chiaromonte who had passed through that doorway had been her mother, and in her solitude the girl had not even been told that her uncle had already assumed the title of the head of the house. The lacquey paid no attention whatever to the quiet man in black who followed the Princess, holding his hat against his chest with both hands and advancing with a bowing motion at every step, as if he were saluting the family chairs as he passed them. Angela vaguely remembered his solemnly obsequious face.
Her aunt seemed to have grown taller and larger, as she bent to imprint a formal kiss on the girl’s cheek, and then sat down in one of the huge old easy-chairs, while the lawyer seated himself at a respectful distance on an ottoman stool with his high hat on his knees. Angela took her place at one end of the stiff sofa that stood directly under the Vandyke portrait, and she waited for her aunt to speak.
The Princess had evidently prepared herself, for she spoke clearly and did not pause for some time.
‘Your uncle has a slight attack of influenza,’ she said; ‘otherwise he would have come with me, and I should have been more than glad if he himself could have explained the whole situation to you instead of leaving that painful duty to me. You are well aware, my dear Angela, that your father always clung to the most prejudiced traditions of the intransigent clericals, and could never be induced to conform to any of the new regulations introduced by the Italian Government. In point of fact, I do not think he quite realised that the old order had passed away when he was a mere boy, and that the new was to be permanent, if not everlasting. If he had, he would have acted very differently, I am sure, and my present duty would have been much easier than it is. Are you quite certain that you understand that?’
Angela was quite certain that she did, and nodded quietly, though she could not see how her father’s political convictions could affect her own present situation.
‘I have no doubt,’ continued the Princess, ‘that he brought you up to consider yourself the heiress of all his fortune, though not of the title, which naturally goes to the eldest male heir. Am I right?’
‘He never told me anything about my inheritance,’ Angela replied.
‘So much the better. It will be easier for me to explain your rather unusual position. In the first place, I must make it clear to you that your father and mother declined to go before the mayor at the Capitol when they were married, in spite of the regulations which had then been in force a number of years. They were devout Catholics and the blessing of the Church was enough for them. According to your father, to go through any form of civil ceremony, before or after the wedding, was equivalent to doubting the validity of the sacrament of marriage.’
‘Naturally,’ Angela assented, as her aunt paused and looked at her.
‘Very naturally.’ The Princess’s eyes began to glitter oddly, and the lawyer turned his hat uneasily on his knees. ‘Very naturally, indeed! Unfortunately for you, however, your father was not merely overlooking a municipal regulation, as he supposed; he was deliberately bidding defiance to the laws of Italy.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Angela rather nervously.
‘It is very painful to explain,’ answered the elder woman with gleaming eyes and a disagreeable smile. ‘The simple truth is that as your father and mother were not civilly married — civilly, you understand — they were not legally married at all, and the law will never admit that they were!’
Angela’s hand tightened on the arm of the old sofa.
‘Not married?’ she cried. ‘My father and mother not married? It is impossible, it is monstrous — —’
‘Not “legally” married, I said,’ replied the Princess. ‘To be legally married, it is absolutely necessary to go before the mayor a
t the Capitol and have the civil ceremony properly performed. Am I right?’ she asked, turning suddenly to the lawyer. ‘It is absolutely necessary, is it not?’
‘Absolutely, Excellency,’ the legal adviser answered. ‘Otherwise the children of the marriage are not legitimate.’
‘What does that mean?’ asked Angela in a frightened tone.
‘It means,’ explained the Princess, ‘that in the eyes of the law you do not exist — —’
Angela tried to laugh.
‘But I do exist! Here I am, Angela Chiaromonte, to say that I am alive!’
‘Angela, but not Chiaromonte,’ corrected the Princess, hardly able to hide her satisfaction. ‘I am sorry to say that your dear father would not even submit to the regulation which requires all parents alike to declare the birth of children, and he paid a heavy fine for his refusal. The consequence is that when your birth was entered at the Municipality, you were put down as a foundling child whose parents refused to declare themselves.’
‘A foundling! I, a foundling!’ Angela half rose in amazed indignation, but almost instantly sat down again, with an incredulous smile. ‘Either you are quite mad,’ she said, ‘or you are trying to frighten me for some reason I do not understand.’
The Princess raised her sandy eyebrows and looked at the lawyer, evidently meaning him to speak for her.
‘That is your position, Signorina,’ he said calmly. ‘You have, unhappily, no legal status, no legal name, and no claim whatever on the estate of His Excellency Prince Chiaromonte, who was not married to your mother in the eyes of the law, and refused even to acknowledge you as his child by registering your birth at the mayoralty. Every inquiry has been made on your behalf, and I have here the certified copy of the register as it stands, declaring you to be a foundling. It was still in your father’s power to make a will in your favour, Signorina, and as the laws of entail no longer exist, His Excellency may have left you his whole estate, real and personal, though his titles and dignities will in any case pass to his brother. I must warn you, however, that such a will might not prove valid in law, since His Excellency did not even legally acknowledge you as his child. So far, no trace of a will has been found with his late Excellency’s notary, nor with his lawyer, nor deposited with his securities at his banker’s. It is barely possible that some paper may exist in the rooms which are still closed, but I think it my duty to tell you that I do not expect to find anything of the kind when we break the seals to-morrow, in the presence of the heirs and witnesses.’
He ceased speaking and looked at the Princess as if asking whether he should say more, for Angela had bent her head and quietly covered her eyes with one hand, and in this attitude she sat quite motionless in her place. The lawyer thought she was going to burst into tears, for he did not know her.
‘That will do, Calvi,’ said the Princess calmly. ‘You have made it all very clear, and you may retire for the present. The young lady is naturally overcome by the bad news, and would rather be alone with me for a little while, I daresay.’
Signor Calvi rose, made a profound obeisance to the Princess, scarcely bent his head to Angela, and retired, apparently bowing to the family chairs as he passed each. The young girl dropped her hand and looked after him with a sort of dull curiosity; she was the last person in the world to take offence or to suppose that any one meant to be rude to her, but it was impossible not to notice the lawyer’s behaviour. In his opinion she was suddenly nobody, and deserved no more notice than a shop-girl. She understood enough of human nature to be sure that he counted on the Princess’s approval.
The elder woman was watching her with a satisfaction she hardly tried to conceal. Her small hands were encased in marvellously fitting black gloves, though black gloves rarely fit so well as others, and were crossed on her knee over the little leather bag she always carried. She was leaning back in the great arm-chair, and the mourning she wore made her faultless complexion look even more brilliant than it was. No one knew how near forty the Princess might be, for she appeared in the Almanach de Gotha without a birthday, and only the date of her marriage was given; but the year was 1884, and people said it was impossible that she should have been less than seventeen when her parents had brought her to Rome and had tried to marry her to the elder of the Chiaromonte family; as twenty years had passed since they had succeeded in capturing the second son for their daughter, it was clear that she could not be under thirty-seven. But her complexion was extraordinary, and though she was a tall woman she had preserved the figure and grace of a young girl.
Angela did not look directly at her enemy for some seconds after the lawyer had left the room, closing the door behind him, not loudly but quite audibly; but she was the first to speak when she was sure that he was out of hearing.
‘You hate me,’ she said at last. ‘What have I done to you?’
The Princess was not timid, nor very easily surprised, but the question was so direct that she drew further back into her chair with a quick movement, and her bright eye sparkled angrily as she raised her sandy eyebrows.
‘In this world,’ she said, ‘the truth is always surprising and generally unpleasant. In consideration of what I have been obliged to tell you about yourself, I can easily excuse your foolish speech.’
‘You are very kind,’ Angela answered quietly enough, but in a tone that the Princess did not like. ‘I was not asking your indulgence, but an explanation, no matter how disagreeable the rest of the truth may be. What have I done that you should hate me?’
The Princess laughed contemptuously.
‘The expression is too strong,’ she retorted. ‘Hatred would imply an interest in you and your possible doings, which I am far from feeling, I assure you! Since it turns out that you are not even one of the family — —’
She laughed again and raised her eyebrows still higher, instead of ending the speech.
‘From what you say,’ Angela answered with a good deal of dignity, ‘I can only understand that if you followed your own inclination you would turn me out into the street.’
‘The law will do so without my intervention,’ answered the elder woman. ‘If my brother-in-law had even taken the trouble to acknowledge you as his child, without legitimising you, you would have been entitled to a small allowance, perhaps two or three hundred francs a month, to keep you from starving. But as he has left no legal proof that you are his daughter, and since he was not properly married to your mother, you can claim nothing, not even a name! You are, in fact, a destitute foundling, as Calvi just said!’
‘It only remains for you to offer me your charity,’ Angela said.
‘That was not my intention,’ returned the Princess with a savage sneer. ‘I have talked it over with my husband, and we do not see why he should be expected to support his brother’s — natural child!’
Angela rose from her seat without a word and went quietly towards the door; but before she could reach it the Princess had followed her with a rush and a dramatic sweep of her black cloth skirt and plentiful crape, and had caught her by the wrist to bring her back to the middle of the great room.
‘I shall not keep you long!’ cried the angry woman. ‘You ask me what you have done that I should hate you, and I answer, nothing, since you are nobody! But I hated your mother, because she robbed me of the man I wanted, of the only man I ever loved — your father — and when I married his brother I swore that she should pay me for that, and she has! If she can see you as you are to-day, all heaven cannot dry her tears, for all heaven itself cannot give you a name, since the one on her own tombstone is not hers by any right. I hope she sees you! Oh, I hope it was not for nothing that she fasted till she fainted, and prayed till she was hoarse, and knelt in damp churches till she died of it! I hope she has starved and whined her way to paradise and is looking down at this very moment and can see her daughter turned out of my house, a pauper foundling, to beg her bread! I hope you are in a state of grace, as she is, and that the communion of saints brings you near enough togeth
er for her to see you!’
‘You are mad,’ Angela said when the Princess paused for breath. ‘You do not know what you are saying. Let go of my wrist and try to get back to your senses!’
Whether the Princess was really out of her mind, as seemed at least possible, or was only in one of her frequent fits of rage, the words had an instantaneous effect. She dropped Angela’s wrist, drew herself up, and recovered her self-control in a few seconds. But there was still a dangerous glare in her cat-like eyes as she turned towards the window and faced the dull yellowish light of the late afternoon.
‘You will soon find out that I have not exaggerated,’ she said, dropping from her late tone of fury to a note of icy coldness. ‘The seals will be removed to-morrow at noon, and I suppose no one can prevent you from being present if you choose. After that you will make such arrangements for your own future as you see fit. I should recommend you to apply to one of the two convents on which my brother-in-law lavished nearly three millions of francs during his life. One or the other of them will certainly take you in without a dowry, and you will have at least a decent roof over your head.’
With this practical advice the Princess Chiaromonte swept from the room and Angela was left alone to ask herself whether such a sudden calamity as hers had ever before overtaken an innocent girl in her Roman world. She went back very slowly to the sofa and sat down again under the great Vandyke portrait; her eyes wandered from one object to another, as if she wished to make an inventory of the things that had seemed to be hers because they had been her father’s, but she was far too completely dazed by what had happened to think very connectedly. Besides, though she did not dare let the thought give her courage, she still had a secret conviction that it was all a mistake and that her father must have left some document which would be found among his papers the next day, and would clear away all this dreadful misunderstanding.
Complete Works of F Marion Crawford Page 1262