Castelrovinato complied with his usual air of resignation,
and the door closing on the couple, Odo and Miranda found themselves
alone.
"And now," said the good-natured girl, placing herself on the sofa and
turning to her guest with a smile, "if you will take a seat at my side I
will gladly continue the history of my adventures"...
2.9.
Odo woke with a start. He had been trying to break down a great
gold-barred gate, behind which Fulvia, pale and disordered, struggled in
the clutch of the blind beggar of the Corpus Domini...
He sat up and looked about him. The gate was still there; but as he
gazed it resolved itself into his shuttered window, barred with wide
lines of sunlight. It was day, then! He sprang out of bed and flung open
the shutters. Beneath him lay the piazza of Vercelli, bathed in the
vertical brightness of a summer noon; and as he stared out on this
inexorable scene, the clock over the Hospital struck twelve.
Twelve o'clock! And he had promised to meet Vivaldi at dawn behind the
Umiliati! As the truth forced itself on Odo he dropped into a chair and
hid his face with a groan. He had failed them again, then--and this time
how cruelly and basely! He felt himself the victim of a conspiracy which
in some occult manner was forever forcing him to outrage and betray the
two beings he most longed to serve. The idea of a conspiracy flashed a
sudden light on his evening's diversion, and he sprang up with a cry.
Yes! It was a plot, and any but a dolt must have traced the soprano's
hand in this vulgar assault upon his senses.
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