Pietro Ghisleri

nostentatiously, as was becoming for a young couple who must live economically. Few persons were asked to be present at the wedding service, and among the

out upon the world a well-behaved, proper, married man. The next moment he smiled faintly and rather bitterly. Marriage had not been instituted for men like him, thought Ghisleri. If it had been, it would hardly have

ng, too, since the very possibility of loving a young girl had crossed his mind, and since his early youth there had not been anything approaching to the reality of such a love in his life. And yet he knew that he was in some degree under Laura's influence, and in a way in which he was assuredly not under that of the Contessa dell' Armi. The consciousness of this fact annoyed him. There was a good deal of a certain sort of loyalty in his nature, bad as he believed himself to be, and bad as many honest and good people who read this history will undoubtedly say that he was. If such badness could be justified or even excused, it would not be hard to find some reasonable excuses for him, and after all he was probably not worse than a hundred others to be found in the society of every great city. He thought he was worse, sometimes, as he

and happy face. "You know how glad my brother always is to see you. Besides, you are an o

d Laura, promptly, as

half-timid, half-pained dislike for Ghisleri, since she

ut a bundle of threads in Ghisleri's strong grip. And yet Laura Arden, as she now was to be called, knew that she would trust her husband to take her part and win against a stronger and a worse man than Ghisleri, should she ever be in need; and, what is more, Ghisleri saw that she did, and his admiration rose still higher. There must be something magnificent in a woman who could so wholly forget such outward frailness a

n clothed in the colossal frame and iron strength of San Giacinto himself, Laura would have felt no safer nor more perfectly shielded and guarded from earthly harm than sh

, and positive sufferings which beset the path of young married couples who have not yachts at their disposal. What both most desired was to be alone together, to have enough of each other at last, free from the tiresome daily little crowd of social spectators, and this they could nowhere accomplish so pleasantly and completely as in the luxuriously fitted vessel lent them by Arde

oth. I have sent the yacht to Naples for you, if you care for a cruise. Keep her as long as you like, and telegraph if you want her sent anywhere else-Nice, for instance, or Venice. Ask your wife to wear the pearls

se a few circular notes which may be useful. Bess and the children are all well and

egretted that Herbert needed so little and insisted upon living within his modest income. To "give things to Herbert" was one of the few real pleasures he extracted from his great fortune. On the present occasion Arden was glad to accept the money, for he had the very most vague notions of the expense of married lif

s life can be where soul and heart are in harmony, heart to sou

incided to an extraordinary degree with Arden's own. Both liked the same authors, the same general kind of art, the same things in nature, and very generally the same people. Both were perhaps at that time somewhat morbidly inclined to a sort of semi-transcendentalism, Arden by nature and circumstances, and Laura by attraction. It must not be supposed that they went to any lengths in that direction. They did not speculate on spiritual marriage, nor did they agree with that famous philosopher who at the last was sure that the earth was turning into a bun and the s

grosser things. To explain what Laura felt would be to explain the deepest impulses of humanity, and those may attempt it who feel themselves equal to the task and are attracted by it. The fact, as such, is undeniable. On the whole, too, it may be s

nds for its existence upon youth and innocence. Laura possessed all the latter, and something of the former as well. She would have been shocked a

d desired nothing beyond what they had, which, perhaps, is the ideal condition for lovers. To most people, however, the honeymoon is a terrible trial-probably because most young couples are not very desperately in love with each other. They wander aimlessly about in all directions, a sort of joint sacrifice, perpetually tortured and daily offered up on the altar of the diabolical courier, crushed beneath the ubiquitous Juggernaut hotel

e courier, and the hotel-keeper, and they loved each other so much that neither ever irritated

in the world, and Arden had his share of it, and a most abundant share. Never, he said to himself, had a man been so blessed as he, nor at a time when he so little expected blessings, having made up his mind that all he could hope for had already been given him in this world. He almost forgot that he was a cripple, as he sat in his deep cane chair by Laura's side, looking from her to the dancing light on the water, and from the blue water to her dark eyes again. He seemed to go every day through a round of beauty, from one delicious vision to another, returning between each to that one of al

heir fancy took them, to Palermo, to Messina, to Syracuse. They sat together in the vast ruined theatre above magic Taormina, and gazed on the sunlit sea and Etna's snowy crest. They went to Malta, they drove, side by side, through the lovely gardens of Corfu. They ran in fair weather up to the lagoons of Venice, and wandered in a gondola through the wide canals and narrow water lanes of the most beautiful city in the world. Then down the long Adriatic again, past Zara and Xanthe, round Matapan to the Pir?us-then, when they had had th

hom the writer had in his mind. Pietro generally wrote in that way. Rarely, indeed, did he mention people by name, and then only when he had something to say to their credit. It was a part of what Arden called his absurd reticence, and which, absurd or not, was certainly exaggerated. Possibly Ghisleri had, at some time in his youth, experienced the extremely unpleasant consequences of being indiscreet, and had promised himself not to succumb to that form of weakness again. At all events, he found that t

e for her daughter and Arden, asking many questions as to their plans for the future

a asked one day, as they sat to

the south as usual. I do not believe I could stand England in December and January. There are lots of delightful southern pla

aid Laura. "You come before

are!" He took her hand

ate, as you say, and then there is a social question we have never talked about-it seems so far away n

rfectly well in Rome, and I lik

, I do not think either of us would ever wish to stay a whole winter with my mother and s

better. Is that the so

, when you first knew me, that somehow I was not so much liked as other girls in society? Do not think I ask th

ther you were aware of it. I even tried to find out

en interest. "I wish I knew-I hav

g back in his chair a

in love with you, and I suppose they imagine that you have something to do with it-encouraged him, and that sort of thing. I am quite sure that Donna Adele-am I to call her Adele now?-is jealous, f

d this time Laura jo

love with me, when he is so perfectly happy with his wife! And he is always so nice, and talk

still smiling. "But I do not think we shall have any nonsense

us that there was anything wrong, than I w

would have been, had he heard it. The story Arden had put together out of the evide

need be taken into consideration, when we are talking of

re was anything to make us disliked. As you say, there are plenty of other places, and as for my mo

believe our position would not be everything

f course. Only we might not be ex

of us care to b

e are our own set, y

not a universal favourite. But the story did not cover all the ground. Of one thing, however, she became almost certain-Adele was her enemy, for some reason or other, and was a person t

d travelled northward towards his brother's home. The season was not yet over in London, but "Harry" did not like London much, and did not like the season there at all. What the Marchioness thought about it no one knows to this day, but she appeared to resign herself with a go

ever grew weary of those long days spent with Laura, nor indeed was she ever tired of being with the man she loved. But being young and strong, she would gladly have breathed the bright air again, while he, on his part, lost appetite, caught cold continually, and grew daily paler and more languid. Little by little Laura became anxious about him and her care redoubled. He had never looked

u are not looking well, and I believe we shall n

t well. I shall be all right a

ole Laura was glad of it. She would be glad to see her mother, too, after so many mon

that she often felt her hand tremble violently when she smoothed his cushion in the railway carriage, or poured him out something to drink. She would not hear of being helped, wh

d gently. "You must be very careful about that, too, when you are alon

ered that his new mistress did not easily change her mind upon any subject, and never

nds just where the Via Gregoriana and the Via Sistina end together in the open square of the Trinità de' Monti-a quarter and a house