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Page 51
"Also she perhaps quickly go away. The Americans are so instantaneous.
Maybe my vision fade like--like anything."
"In a perspective of tourists' coupons," I suggested.
For a moment there was silence, through which we could hear the
scrubbing-brush of the chambermaid on the marble hall of the first
floor. It seemed a final note of desolation.
"If I must speak of myself believe me it is not a nobody the Count
Filgiatti," he went on at last. "Two Cardinals I have had in my family
and one is second cousin to the Pope."
"Fancy the Pope's having relations!" I said, "but I suppose there is
nothing to prevent it."
"Nothing at all. In my family I have had many ambassadors, but that was
a little formerly. Once a Filgiatti married with a Medici--but these
things are better for Mistra and Madame Wick to inquire."
"Poppa is very much interested in antiquities, but I'm afraid there will
hardly be time, Count Filgiatti."
"Listen, I will say all! Always they have been much too large, the
families Filgiatti. So now perhaps we are a little _re_duce. But there
is still somethings-ah--signorina, can you pardon that I speak these
things, but the time is so small--there is fifteen hundred lire yearly
revenue to my pocket."
"About three hundred dollars," I observed sympathetically. Count
Filgiatti nodded with the smile of a conscious capitalist. "Then of
course," I said, "you won't marry for money." I'm afraid this was a
little unkind, but I was quite sure the Count would perceive no irony,
and said it for my own amusement.
"_Jamais!_ In Italy you will find that never! The Italian gives always
the heart before--before----"
"The arrangimento," I suggested softly.
"Indeed, yes. There is also the seat of the family."
"The seat of the family," I repeated. "Oh--the family seat. Of course,
being a Count, you have a castle. They always go together. I had
forgotten."
"A castle I cannot say, but for the country it is very well. It is not
amusing there, in Tuscany. It is a little out of repairs. Twice a year I
go to see my mother and all those brothers and sisters--it is enough!
And the Countess, my mother, has said to me two hundred times, 'Marry
with an Americaine, Nicco--it is my command.' 'Nicco,' she calls me--it
is what you call jack-name."
The Count smiled deprecatingly, and looked at me with a great deal of
sentiment, twisting his moustache. Another pause ensued. It's all very
well to say I should have dismissed him long before this, but I should
like to know on what grounds?
"I wish very much to write my mother that I have found the American lady
for a new Countess Filgiatti," he said at last with emotion.
"Well," I said awkwardly, "I hope you will find her."
"Ah, Mees Wick," exclaimed the Count recklessly, "you are that American
lady. When I saw you in the railway I said, 'It is my vision!' At once I
desired to embrace the papa. And he was not cold with me--he told me of
the soda. I had courage, I had hope. At first when I see you to-day I
am a little derange. In the Italian way I speak first with the papa.
Then came a little thought in my heart--no, it is propitious! In America
the daughter maka always her own arrangimento. So I am spoken."
At this I rose immediately. I would not have it on my conscience that I
toyed with the matrimonial proposition of even an Italian Count.
"I think I understand you, Count Filgiatti," I said--There is something
about the most insignificant proposal that makes one blush in a
perfectly absurd way. I have never been able to get over it--"and I fear
I must bring this interview to a close. I----"
"Ah, it is too embarrassing for you! It is experience very new, very
strange."
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