"Besides, what woman could do it if I did? Women can be unselfish,
they can be faithful, they can be true; but--don't ask me to say
things I do not want to say--women love wealth and luxury and
ease, and shrink from pain and poverty and the forced marches of a
hunted life. And why shouldn't they? Heaven spare them all such
sufferings as men alone should bear!
"Yet all this is still outside the greater obstacle which stands
between me and the dear girl from whom I must separate myself now,
whatever it may cost me, as an inexorable duty. I entreat you to
spare me the pain of explaining further. Believe that for her sake
my resolution, in spite of all your sweet and charming pleading,
is strong and unalterable.
"Only one thing more. If it is as you say it may be, that she
loves me, though I had no right to believe so, that will only add
to my unhappiness in thinking of the wrench that she must suffer.
But she is strong, she is brave, she is the daughter of her
father, and I have faith in the natural power of her mind, in her
youth and the chances of life for one so beautiful and so gifted,
to remove the passing impression that may have been made.
"Good-bye yet again! And God bless you! D.
"P. S.--I am not afraid of M----, and come when he may, I shall
certainly stand my ground. There is only one person in Rome who
could be used against me in the direction you indicate, and I
could trust her with my heart's blood."
VIII
Before two o'clock next day the Chamber of Deputies was already full.
The royal chair and baldacchino had been removed, and their place was
occupied by the usual bench of the President.
When the Prime Minister took his place, cool, collected, smiling,
faultlessly dressed and wearing a flower in his button-hole, he was
greeted with some applause from the members, and the dry rustle of fans
in the ladies' tribune was distinctly heard. The leader of the
Opposition had a less marked reception, and when David Rossi glided
round the partition to his place on the extreme Left, there was a
momentary hush, followed by a buzz of voices.
Then the President of the Chamber entered, with his secretaries about
him, and took his seat in a central chair under a bust of the young
King. Ushers, wearing a linen band of red, white, and green on their
arms, followed with portfolios, and with little trays containing
water-bottles and glasses. Conversation ceased, and the President rang a
hand-bell that stood by his side, and announced that the sitting was
begun.