custom and keen observation can ever reveal to a foreigner the meaning
of Italian life, which is like the free sky of the south, and where a
rich man will not endure a cloud. A man of rank cares little about
the management of his fortune; he leaves the details to his stewards
(ragionati), who rob and ruin him. He has no instinct for politics, and
they would presently bore him; he lives exclusively for passion, which
fills up all his time; hence the necessity felt by the lady and her
lover for being constantly together; for the great feature of such a
life is the lover, who for five hours is kept under the eye of a woman
who has had him at her feet all day. Thus Italian habits allow of
perpetual satisfaction, and necessitate a constant study of the means
fitted to insure it, though hidden under apparent light-heartedness.

It is a beautiful life, but a reckless one, and in no country in the
world are men so often found worn out.

The Duchess' box was on the pit tier--_pepiano_, as it is called in
Venice; she always sat where the light from the stage fell on her face,
so that her handsome head, softly illuminated, stood out against the
dark background. The Florentine attracted every gaze by her broad, high
brow, as white as snow, crowned with plaits of black hair that gave her
a really royal look; by the refinement of her features, resembling the
noble features of Andrea del Sarto's heads; by the outline of her face,
the setting of her eyes; and by those velvet eyes themselves, which
spoke of the rapture of a woman dreaming of happiness, still pure though
loving, at once attractive and dignified.

Instead of _Mose_, in which la Tinti was to have appeared with
Genovese, _Il Barbiere_ was given, and the tenor was to sing without the
celebrated prima donna. The manager announced that he had been obliged
to change the opera in consequence of la Tinti's being ill; and the Duke
was not to be seen in the theatre.

Was this a clever trick on the part of the management, to secure two
full houses by bringing out Genovese and Tinti separately, or was
Clarina's indisposition genuine? While this was open to discussion by
others, Emilio might be better informed; and though the announcement
caused him some remorse, as he remembered the singer's beauty and
vehemence, her absence and the Duke's put both the Prince and the
Duchess very much at their ease.

And Genovese sang in such a way as to drive out all memories of a night
of ill