The Gadfly by Ethel Voynich (top fiction books of all time .txt) 📕

the screen; then Signora Grassini’s thin, piping little voice broke off for a moment in its stream of chatter.

The other voice, a man’s, was remarkably soft and musical; but its sweetness of tone was marred by a peculiar, purring drawl, perhaps mere affectation, more probably the result of a habitual effort to conquer some impediment of speech, but in any case very unpleasant.

“English, did you say?” it asked. “But surely the name is quite Italian. What was it⁠—Bolla?”

“Yes; she is the widow of poor Giovanni Bolla, who died in England about four years ago⁠—don’t you remember? Ah, I forgot⁠—you lead such a wandering life; we can’t expect you to know of all our unhappy country’s martyrs⁠—they are so many!”

Signora Grassini sighed. She always talked in this style to strangers; the role of a patriotic mourner for the sorrows of Italy formed an effective combination with her boarding-school manner and pretty infantine pout.

“Died in England!” repeated the other voice. “Was he a refugee, then? I seem to recognize the name, somehow; was he not connected with Young Italy in its early days?”

“Yes; he was one of the unfortunate young men who were arrested in ’33⁠—you remember that sad affair? He was released in a few months; then, two or three years later, when there was a warrant out against him again, he escaped to England. The next we heard was that he was married there. It was a most romantic affair altogether, but poor Bolla always was romantic.”

“And then he died in England, you say?”

“Yes, of consumption; he could not stand that terrible English climate. And she lost her only child just before his death; it caught scarlet fever. Very sad, is it not? And we are all so fond of dear Gemma! She is a little stiff, poor thing; the English always are, you know; but I think her troubles have made her melancholy, and⁠—”

Gemma stood up and pushed back the boughs of the pomegranate tree. This retailing of her private sorrows for purposes of small-talk was almost unbearable to her, and there was visible annoyance in her face as she stepped into the light.

“Ah! here she is!” exclaimed the hostess, with admirable coolness. “Gemma, dear, I was wondering where you could have disappeared to. Signor Felice Rivarez wishes to make your acquaintance.”

“So it’s the Gadfly,” thought Gemma, looking at him with some curiosity. He bowed to her decorously enough, but his eyes glanced over her face and figure with a look which seemed to her insolently keen and inquisitorial.

“You have found a d-d-delightful little nook here,” he remarked, looking at the thick screen; “and w-w-what a charming view!”

“Yes; it’s a pretty corner. I came out here to get some air.”

“It seems almost ungrateful to the good God to stay indoors on such a lovely night,” said the hostess, raising her eyes to the stars. (She had good eyelashes and liked to show them.) “Look, signore! Would not our sweet Italy be heaven on earth if only she were free? To think that she should be a bond-slave, with such flowers and such skies!”

“And such patriotic women!” the Gadfly murmured in his soft, languid drawl.

Gemma glanced round at him in some trepidation; his impudence was too glaring, surely, to deceive anyone. But she had underrated Signora Grassini’s appetite for compliments; the poor woman cast down her lashes with a sigh.

“Ah, signore, it is so little that a woman can do! Perhaps some day I may prove my right to the name of an Italian⁠—who knows? And now I must go back to my social duties; the French ambassador has begged me to introduce his ward to all the notabilities; you must come in presently and see her. She is a most charming girl. Gemma, dear, I brought Signor Rivarez out to show him our beautiful view; I must leave him under your care. I know you will look after him and introduce him to everyone. Ah! there is that delightful Russian prince! Have you met him? They say he is a great favourite of the Emperor Nicholas. He is military commander of some Polish town with a name that nobody can pronounce. Quelle nuit magnifique! N’est-ce-pas, mon prince?”

She fluttered away, chattering volubly to a bull-necked man with a heavy jaw and a coat glittering with orders; and her plaintive dirges for “notre malheureuse patrie,” interpolated with “charmant” and “mon prince,” died away along the terrace.

Gemma stood quite still beside the pomegranate tree. She was sorry for the poor, silly little woman, and annoyed at the Gadfly’s languid insolence. He was watching the retreating figures with an expression of face that angered her; it seemed ungenerous to mock at such pitiable creatures.

“There go Italian and⁠—Russian patriotism,” he said, turning to her with a smile; “arm in arm and mightily pleased with each other’s company. Which do you prefer?”

She frowned slightly and made no answer.

“Of c-course,” he went on; “it’s all a question of p-personal taste; but I think, of the two, I like the Russian variety best⁠—it’s so thorough. If Russia had to depend on flowers and skies for her supremacy instead of on powder and shot, how long do you think ‘mon prince’ would k-keep that Polish fortress?”

“I think,” she answered coldly, “that we can hold our personal opinions without ridiculing a woman whose guests we are.”

“Ah, yes! I f-forgot the obligations of hospitality here in Italy; they are a wonderfully hospitable people, these Italians. I’m sure the Austrians find them so. Won’t you sit down?”

He limped across the terrace to fetch a chair for her, and placed himself opposite to her, leaning against the balustrade. The light from a window was shining full on his face; and she was able to study it at her leisure.

She was disappointed. She had expected to see a striking and powerful, if not pleasant face; but the most salient points of his appearance were a tendency to foppishness in dress and rather more