Odo's impatience to be gone increased with every delay, and at length he
determined to go forward at all adventure, leaving Cantapresto to
conclude the preparations and overtake him later. It had been agreed
with Trescorre that Odo, on his way to Pianura, should visit his
grandfather, the old Marquess, whose increasing infirmities had for some
years past imprisoned him on his estates, and accordingly about the
Ascension he set out in the saddle for Donnaz, attended only by one
servant, and having appointed that Cantapresto should meet him with the
carriage at Ivrea.
The morning broke cloudy as he rode out of the gates. Beyond the suburbs
a few drops fell, and as he pressed forward the country lay before him
in the emerald freshness of a spring rain, vivid strips of vineyard
alternating with silvery bands of oats, the domes of the walnut-trees
dripping above the roadside, and the poplars along the water-courses all
slanting one way in the soft continuous downpour. He had left Turin in
that mood of clinging melancholy which waits on the most hopeful
departures, and the landscape seemed an image of anticipations clouded
with regret. He had had a stormy but tender parting with Clarice, whose
efforts to act the forsaken Ariadne were somewhat marred by her
irrepressible pride in her lover's prospects, and whose last word had
charged him to bring her back one of the rare lap-dogs bred by the monks
of Bologna. Seen down the lengthening vista of separation even Clarice
seemed regrettable; and Odo would have been glad to let his mind linger
on their farewells.
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