Romance of Roman Villas (The Renaissance)

e of Nature

. .

ot,-Great God

kled in a c

anding on this

hat would make

Proteus rising

iton blow his

ords

he child of one of Chigi's servants, as playful and as ignorant as a little fawn. The startled look in her eyes, when spoken to by any one but Raphael, reminded me of some wild creature of the woods. But with him she was never shy,-singing and prattling the l

scowl unhandsomely, and though Maria Dovizio was sweet and generous to her, she showed an unreasoning prejudice amounting to discourtesy, for which at first I was at a loss to account. I mind me that she was present when I tied th

, and that the strange lady had no business to try to steal him from her. Seeing her so unreasoningly jealous at such a tend

Maria Dovizio, but that he had so modest an estimate of his own talent and prospects that he would never tell her of his affection. The knowledge that

neglected not to set forth how superior were my own advantages. To my immense surprise she refused me in such terms a

sal had temporarily taken away my senses,

wn this before," she

he message implied by the flowers which I att

science, and when my pride had somewhat recovered from the wound which it had received, my better nature asserted itself for I reflected that here were tw

at self-sacrifice and delicacy of feeling, while Raphael cannot fail to be touched by my magnanimity. Back of all this self-laudation there was an ulterior motive hardly confessed to myself. By springing the mine prematurely I would either cement their union or

lla Mirandola, who strove to harmonise Greek mythology with the Christian religion, had been snatched away by death before he could have had the opportunity to converse with him. He read his writings with avidity and listened to what Dovizio remembered of his arguments that the religion of the Gr

, the Myth of Psyche, translated from Apuleius, which he declared Raphael must one day paint for him. But of all the gods of antiquity the one which roused our young enthusiast to deepest admira

ld be sin to utter a prayer like this of Socrates: 'Beloved Pan, and all ye gods who haunt thi

ebrate a visit from the improvisatrice Imperia, who was on her way to Rome. Raphael could not be induced to join the company, preferring to spend the night devouring some books lately come from Venice. He had

o you," he said, "but no

on to Chigi and Imperia, an

ne. If the Signorina would graciously sing some old Greek chant yonde

siast to his bent," she said. "I will hide in the laurel copse at the

your divine voice," Chigi objected,

usion would be too cruel. No, I am too evidently a pa

zio, who stood near the window, her slight figure outl

ful and ethereal enough to

i said, "that she h

robe the Signorina Dovizio in Greek draperies and pose her in the little pillared tem

when Chigi explained that it was an ovation to Raphael, in which she was to crown him with a wreath of laurel and foretell him a

angements were completed and, returning to the studio, I dragged Rapha

oared above the soft murmur of a viol still strumming in the villa as a skylark cuts the mists. It was not another nightingale as I at first thought, but Imperia's voice from the laurel thicket mocking the melody. As she sang there appeared within the circle of the tiny temple's columns a white-robed figure, outlined against the pale green and lemon yellow of the dawn. It might have been a statue save tha

I was not prepared for such phenomenal success, and I

omedy was a supernatural vision, and kneeling before Maria Dovizio he exclaimed: "Beaut

hich I had assigned her: "To you it is decreed

ating his senses, her bared arms encircling his neck, her soul in her eyes, Raphael awoke to the consc

ere around her and he drew her to him unresisting till for an instant her lips touched his forehead and his face was buried in her b

again, O my beloved?" he c

ed, "surely, when yo

hurrying toward the villa, but h

ot now!" she cried,

ers over some small object, "this is my pledge

ok upon his face that I had played and lost. Raphael had awakened from his dreams to love. That instant of mutua

he nor his friends had understood the full significance of what had just happen

she said, "and begged me to bese

Dovizio. "Show it to me," and he

he others I also recognised the famous Apollo intaglio, the gem of the collection of

zed Chigi by the arm, exclaiming: "We have the thief! Look you Agostino, I have had my suspicions all alon

e your gems. You shall not burst in upon him and kill him with the shock of your accusations. Listen while I

u are a pair of rogues, the two of you. Come wit

believe in my soul that Bazzi speaks the truth. I will hear Raphael's version of how he came by this in

we heard a scampering and chattering, and caught a glimpse of Ciacco leaping to the top o

" I cried, "come down

he hay loft, which joined the studio, retur

mpared them with the list. All were there, excepting the Apollo intagli

der that he imagined it had fallen from the skies, and this vi

avoured by Apollo; and as for my niece, since our business here is now accomplished and we shall leave Siena on th

ur meeting together. But I knew that the day would surely come when he would claim his beloved, and that in the spinning of their fates so slight a thing as