Saracinesca

found seats somewhere, and among them were the melancholy Spicca, who was a famous duellist, and a certain Casalverde, a man of rather doubtful reputation. The others wer

, and that Giovanni was indeed a sort of cousin. She would perhaps have condescended to say that she would not have done such a thing in Paris, but that in dear old Rome one was in the bosom of one's family, and might do anything. At present she sat chatting with Valdarno, a tall and fair young man, with a weak m

who had been a great deal in England, occasionally put in a remark not very complimentary to the Roman hunt. Del Ferice listened in silence, and Giovanni did not listen at all, but buttoned his

e cried. "How soon? What a d

a terrier that suspects the presence of a rat. Valdarno's ans

ards Giovanni as he spoke. The latter shrugged his shoulders and went on

he would profit by them. He had little to lose, but he had everything to gain; and being a patient man, he resolved to gain all he could by circumspection-in other words, by acting according to his nature, rather than by risking himself in a bold course of action for which he was wholly unsuited. He was too wise to attempt wholly to deceive the authorities, knowing well that they were not easily deceived; and he accordingly steered a middle course, constantly speaking in favour of progress, of popular education, and of freedom of the press, but at the same time loudly proclaiming that all these things-that every benefit of civilisation, in fact-could be obtained without the slightest change in the form of government. He thus asserted his loyalty to the temporal power while affecting a belief in the possibility of useful reforms, and the position he thus acquired exactly suited his own ends; for he attracted to himself a certain amount of suspicio

as never harmed them, and are led on from dislike to hatred, until their soberest actions take colour from what in its earliest beginnings was nothing more than a senseless prejudice. Del Ferice's weakness was his unaccountable detestation of Giovanni Saracinesca; and he had so far suffered this abhorrence of the man to dominate his existence, that it had come to be one of his chiefest delights in life to thwart Giovanni wherever he could. How it had begun, or when, he no longer knew nor cared. He had perhaps thought Giovanni treated him superciliously

it should be an easy matter to draw a Saracinesca into any scheme for the subversion of a Government against which so many generations of Saracinesca had plotted and fought. To involve Giovanni in some Liberal conspiracy, and then by betraying him to cause him to be imprisoned or exiled from Rome, was a plan which pleased Del Ferice, and which he desired earnestly to put into execution. He had often tried to lead his enemy into conversation, repressing and hiding his dislike for the sake of his end; but at the first mention of political subjects Giovanni became impenetrable, shrugged, his shoulders, and assumed an air of the utmost indifference. No paradox could draw him into argument, no flattery could loose his tongue. Indeed those were times when men hesitated to

stantly levelled at him; still less was he amused by the shallow gaiety of her party of admirers, tempered as their talk was by the occasional tonic of some outrageous cynicism from the melancholy Spicca. Del Ferice smiled, and talked, and smiled again, seeking to flatter and please Donna Tullia, as was his wont. By-and-by the clear north wind and the bright sun dried the ground, and Madame Mayer p

uld make any sacrifice to rid the Duchessa d'Astrardente of himself, and now again he felt how futile such a sacrifice would be. He was ashamed in his heart, for he was no boy of twenty to be swayed by a woman's look or a fit of Quixotism; he was a strong grown man who had seen the world. He had been in the habit of supposing his impulses to be good, and of following them naturally without much thought; it seemed desperately perplexing to be forced into an analysis of those impulses in order to decide what he should do. He was in a thorough

"that if you had your choice, you wo

i, carelessly. "It i

e anything but a source of satisfaction to its

ry good gra

en one thinks that in ancient tim

ent. We do not live in ancient t

ions depend on man-not on nature. What our proud forefathers accomplished by law a

he ancient Romans to turn the Campagna into a garden, or even into a fertile productive regi

irst time, Giovanni seemed inclined

t? I do not see. Here is the same u

nstantly flooded. The rivers have risen and have swamped the country. Do you think any amount of law or energy could drain this fever-stricken plain into the sea? I do not. Do you think that if I could be persuaded that the land could be improved into fertility I would hesitate, at any expenditure in my

pposing the Government passed a law forcing all of you propriet

e Tre Fontane are trying it, and dying by scores. Do you think I, or any ot

id Del Fence. "You will not deny that there is room for much improvement in ou

stance the figures of Donna Tullia and her friends, and regulating his pace so as not to lessen the distance which separated them

e phrase he had long since constructed as his profession of faith to the world. Giovanni eyed him keenl

have frankly expressed your views. I am under the impression that you reall

tious of being overheard. But Del Ferice knew his man, and he knew that the only way in which he could continu

answer to a fair question

an, and attached no more belief to anything he said than to the chattering of a

ot be supposed to feel any kind of loyal attachment to the temporal power. I do not know whether you individually w

lling you that. I would si

iguous answer, affecting to c

would personally take up arms to fight for the temporal power, or whether you would a

uestion must be to decide the precise point at which the position becomes untenable. So long as France makes our quarrels hers, every man should give his personal assistance to the cause; but it is absurd to suppose that if we were left alone, a handful of Romans against a great Power, we could

the French troops were withdrawn, and the Italians

t. It would be criminal to sacrifice ou

d t

omitting to congratulate Del Ferice upon obtaining a po

took no notic

sympathy or loyalty to the holy Father, the change

now enjoys as the headquarters of the Catholic world. Those efforts at a spurious growth would ruin her financially, and the hatred of Romans for Italians of the north would cause endless internal dissension. We should be subjected to a system of taxation which would fall more heavily on us than on other Italians, in proportion as our land is less productive. On the whole, we should grow rapidly poorer; for prices would rise, and we should have a paper currency instead of a metallic one. Especially we landed proprietors would suffer terribly by the Italian land system being suddenly thrust upon us. To be obliged to sell one's acres to any peasant who can scrape toge

own nothing, or next to noth

o not see why the intelligent few should

he majority is to be e

ri

ni. "Any good schoolmaster knows vastly more than you or I.

ument," laughed Del Feri

or wiser electors than the same number of gentlemen who cannot name all the cities and rivers in Italy, nor translate a page of Latin without a mistake, but who understand the conditions of property by practical experience as no schoolmaster can possibly understand them? I tell you it is nonsense. Education, of the kind which is of any practical value in the government of a nation, means the teac

sighed ra

r the sake of his own interests desired no change from the Government under which he lived, and who would surely be the first to draw the sword for the temporal power, and the last to sheathe it. His calm judgment concerning the fallacy of holding a hopeless position would vanish like smoke if his fiery

und in Europe. Donna Tullia is calling us. We had better join that harmless flock of lambs, and give over speculati

mbed again to their se

back into Rome by th