that the marriage with Countess Gorka's brother could not have been
arranged four months ago. Connection with the family of her mother's
lover would be tolerably immoral! But she would at least have had less
chance of ever knowing it; and the convenient combination by which the
mother has caused her to form a friendship with that wife in order the
better to blind the two, would have bordered a little more on propriety.
To-day Alba would be Lady Ardrahan, leading a prosaic English life,
instead of being united to some imbecile whom they will find for her here
or elsewhere. She will then deceive him as her mother deceived the late
Steno--with me, perhaps, in remembrance of our pure intimacy of to-day.
That would be too sad! Do not let us think of it! It is the future,
of the existence of which we are ignorant, while we do know that the
present exists and that it has all rights. I owe to the Contessina my
best impressions of Rome, to the vision of her loveliness in this scene
of so grand a past. And this is a sensation which is enjoyable; to visit
the Palais Castagna with the adorable creature upon whom rests the menace
of a drama. To enjoy the Countess Steno's kindness, otherwise the house
would not have that tone and I would never have obtained the little one's
friendship. To rejoice that Ardea is a fool, that he has lost his
fortune on the Bourse, and that the syndicate of his creditors, presided
over by Monsieur Ancona, has laid hands upon his palace. For, otherwise,
I should not have ascended the steps of this papal staircase, nor have
seen this debris of Grecian sarcophagi fitted into the walls, and this
garden of so intense a green. As for Gorka, he may have returned for
thirty-six other reasons than jealousy, and Montfanon is right: Caterina
is cunning enough to inveigle both the painter and him. She will make
Maitland believe that she received Gorka for the sake of Madame Gorka,
and to prevent him from ruining that excellent woman at gaming. She will
tell Boleslas that there was nothing more between her and Maitland than
Platonic discussions on the merits of Raphael and Perugino.... And I