Don Orsino by F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
page 28 of 574 (04%)
page 28 of 574 (04%)
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"Not yet. I will wait as long as possible, before I do. It is not every
one who has your luck." "There was something more than luck in my marriage. We loved each other, it is true, but there were difficulties--you have no idea what difficulties there were. But Faustina was brave and I caught a little courage from her. Do you know that when the Serristori barracks were blown up she ran out alone to find me merely because she thought I might have been killed? I found her in the ruins, praying for me. It was sublime." "I have heard that. She was very brave--" "And I a poor Zonave--and a poorer painter. Are there such women nowadays? Bah! I have not known them. We used to meet at churches and exchange two words while her maid was gone to get her a chair. Oh, the good old time! And then the separations--the taking of Rome, when the old Princess carried all the family off to England and stayed there while we were fighting for poor France--and the coming back and the months of waiting, and the notes dropped from her window at midnight and the great quarrel with her family when we took advantage of the new law. And then the marriage itself--what a scandal in Rome! But for the Princess, your mother, I do not know what we should have done. She brought Faustina to the church and drove us to the station in her own carriage--in the face of society. They say that Ascanio Bellegra hung about the door of the church while we were being married, but he had not the courage to come in, for fear of his mother. We went to Naples and lived on salad and love--and we had very little else for a year or two. I was not much known, then, except in Rome, and Roman society refused to have its portrait painted by the adventurer who had run away with a |
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