The Valley Of Decision

rom Chivasso to Turin; andwhen Odo woke next mo

umbers now knelt by his bed andlaughingly drew on his stockings. She was a slim brown morsel, not muchabove his age, with a glance that flitted like a bird, and roundshoulders s

below and seethat the cavaliere's chocolate was ready; a

me, won't you?" she persisted. "Ishall be a great actress by that time, and you'll appoint me primaamorosa to the ducal theatre of Pianura, and throw me a diamond braceletfrom your Highness's box and make all the court ladies ready to poisonme for rage!" She released his collar and dropped away from him.

turned and kissed her boldly and then bolted down thestairs like a hare. And all that

dscape. Alreadythe nearness of a great city began to make itself felt. The brightchampaign was scattered over with farm-houses, their red-tiledpigeon-cots and their granges latticed with openwork te

d there of gardens flashing with fountains and villaroofs decked with statues and vases; and at length, toward sunset, abend of the road brought them out o

, clean and bright as a ball-room, lined withpalaces and filled with well-dressed loungers: officers in the brilliantSardinian uniforms, fine gentlemen in Fren

chocolate and reading the gazettes; and here and there the archeddoorway of

f the streets roused Cantapresto,who sat

it streets, such fair pavements, shops so full of Parisian wares,promenades so crowded with fine carriages and horses. What a life ayoung gentleman m

astics: the younger you acquire it, theless effort it costs. Our Maker Himself has taught us the value ofsilence by putting us speechless into the world: if we learn to talklater we do it at our own risk! But for your own part, cavaliere--sincethe habit cannot too early be exercised--I would humbly counsel you tosay nothing to your illustrious parents of our little diversion of lastevening."The Countess Valdu lived on the upper floor of a rococo palace near thePiazza San Carlo; and here Odo, led by Cantapresto, presently foundhimself shown into an apartment where several

tions werelittle to the Countess's humour, and the society to which her narrowmeans confined her offered few distractions to her vanity. Thefrequenters of the house were chiefly poor relations and hangers-on ofthe Count's, the parasites who in those days were glad to subsist on thecrumbs of the slenderest larder. Half-a-dozen hungry Counte

nd of the clergy. The fashion of the Queen's headdressat the last circle, the marked manner in which his Majesty had latelydistinguished the brilliant young cavalry officer, Count Roberto diTournanches, the third marriage of the Countess Alfieri of Asti, theincredibility of the rumour that t

action consisted invisits to the various shrines--the Sudario, the Consolata, the CorpusDomini--at which the feminine aristocracy offered up its devotions andimplored absolution for sins it ha

tion than from the hopeof using his expectations as a sop to her creditors. The pittance whichthe ducal treasury allowed for his education was scarce large enough tobe worth diverting to

native sympathy, a wondering joy in the mere spectacle of life,that tinged his most personal impressions with a streak of thephilosophic temper. If this trait did not save him from sorrow, it atleast lifted him above pettiness; if it could not solve the difficultiesof life it could arm him to endure them. It was the best gift of thepast fro

oy. In one division of thesumptuous building were housed his Majesty's pages, a corps of luxuriousindolent young fops; another wing accommodated the regular students ofthe Academy, sons of noblemen and gentlemen destined for the secularlife, whil

ur and assured morality than one of your glibink-spatterers who may know the inside of all the folios in the King'slibrary without being the better qualified for the direction of a younggentleman's conduct; and to this letter Don Gervaso appended the tersepostcript: "Your excellency is especially warned against according thisor any other position of trust to the merry-andrew who calls himself theabate Cantapresto."Donna Laura, with a

adays, to give the lads a governor, butthey must maintain their servants too, an idle gluttonous crew that

y? The Duke's beggarlypittance hardly clothes him."The cicisbeo suggested that the cavaliere Odo had expectations; at whichDonna Laura flushed and turned uneasy; while the Count

hy not in all?" said the cicisbeo thoughtfully. "There would beundoubted advantages to the cavaliere in possessing a servant who wouldexplain the globes while powdering his hair and not be above calling hischair when he attended him to a lecture."An

tic methods then prevailing, or the distractions of hisnew life, could dull the flush of his first encounter with the past. Hisimagination took fire over the dry pages of Cornelius Nepos, glowed withthe mild pastoral warmth of the Georgics and burst into flame at thefirst hexameters of the Aeneid. He caught but a fragment of meaning hereand there, but the sumptuous imagery, the stirring names, the glimpsesinto a past where Roman senators were mingled with the gods of agold-pillared Olympus, filled his mind with a misty pageant ofimmortals. These moments of high emotion were interspersed with hours ofplodding over the Latin grammar and the textbooks of philosophy andlogic. Books were unknown ground to Cantapresto, and among masters andpupils there was not one who could help Odo to the meaning of his task,or who seemed aware that it might have a meaning. To most of the ladsabout him the purpose of the Academy w

its glitteringcurves like some poisonous flower enveloping him in rich malignantfragrance. This impression was dispelled by the rising of the curtain ona scene of such Claude-like loveliness as it would have been impossibleto associate with the bug-bear tales of Donnaz or with the coarse anticsof the comedians at Chivasso. A temple girt with mysterious shade,lifting its colonnade above a sunlit har

ameasure explains the different points from which at that period thestage was viewed in Italy: a period when in such cities as Milan,Venice, Turin, actors and singers were praised to the skies and loadedw

cicisbeo had given him; but Odo saw that he took lesspleasure in the spectacle than in the fact of accompanying theheir-presumptive of Pianura to a gala performance at the royal theatre;and the lads about them were for the most part engaged either with theirown dress and appearance, or in exchanging greetings with the royalpages and the older students. A few of these sat near Odo, disdainfullysuperior in their fob-chains and queues; and as the boy glanced abouthim he met the fixed stare of one

pomp and glitter of the royal train, the meltinggraces of Deidamia and her maidens; seemed, in their multiple appeal, todevelop in Odo new faculties of perception. It was his first initiationinto Italian poetry, and the numbers, now broken, harsh and passionate,now flowing into liquid sweetnes

ings of the Greek chieftains, and, while theKing and Deidamia are marvelling at the jewels and t

close of the act the youth leanedforward to ask with an air of condescension: "Is this your firstacq

ntance resumed, "and handling a great theme. But doyou not suffer from the silly songs that perpetually interrupt the flowof the verse? To me they are intolerable. Metastasio might have been agreat tragic dramatist if Italy would have

asement! What are the Italians of today but men tricked out in women'sfinery, when they should be waiting full-armed to rally at the firstsignal of revolt? Oh, for the day when a poet shall arise who dares tellthem the truth, not disguised in sentimental frippery, not ending in amaudlin reconciliation of love and glory--but the whole truth, naked,cold and fatal as a patriot's blade; a poet who dares show thesebed

ura;" when, fearing he had seemed toparade his birth before one evidently of inferior station, he at onceadded with a touch of shyness: "And you, sir, are perhaps a poet, sincey