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Emily Post

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• Publié par: iwapobix
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 136
• Langue: Français

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Title Market, by Emily Post This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Title Market Author: Emily Post Illustrator: J. H. Gardner Soper Release Date: February 5, 2006 [EBook #17680] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TITLE MARKET *** Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Brian Janes, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE TITLE MARKET By [Pg i] ii] Emily Post Author of "The Flight of a Moth," "Woven in the Tapestry," etc. With Illustrations by J. H. Gardner Soper New York Dodd, Mead and Company 1909 [Pg iii] "'WE OF ITALY,' HE WAS SAYING, 'LIVE, ENDURE, DIE, IF NEED BE—ALWAYS FOR THE SAME REASON—WOMAN AND LOVE!'" (Page 65) Copyright, 1909, by THE RIDGWAY COMPANY Copyright, 1909, by DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY Published, September, 1909 [Pg iv] As though you did not know each page, each paragraph, each word; as though for months and months the Sanseveros, Nina, John, and all the rest, had not been your daily companions— MADRE MIA , this book is dedicated to you. [Pg v] CONTENTS CHAPTER I PRINCE SANSEVERO D IMINISHES THE FORTUNES OF H IS H OUSE II THE PRINCESS PLANS TO R ECEIVE THE AMERICAN H EIRESS III N INA IV THE D UKE SCORPA MAKES A D EAL V D ON GIOVANNI ARRIVES VI LOVE, AND A GARDEN VII R OME VIII OPENING D AY AT THE TITLE MARKET IX A D OOR IS OPENED THAT GIOVANNI PREFERS TO KEEP C LOSED X MR. R ANDOLPH SENDS FOR JOHN D ERBY XI R OME GOES TO THE OPERA XII A BALL AT C OURT XIII C ORONETS FOR SALE XIV APPLES OF SODOM XV AN OPPOSITION BOOTH IS SET UP IN THE MARKET PLACE XVI A MENACE XVII N INA D USTS BEHIND THE C OUNTER XVIII FAVORITA D RIVES A BARGAIN XIX A C HALLENGE, AND AN ANSWER XX H IS EMINENCE, THE ARCHBISHOP OF VENCATA XXI THE SULPHUR MINES XXII BEFORE D AYLIGHT XXIII THE SPIDER'S WEB XXIV WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE XXV "THY PEOPLE SHALL BE MY PEOPLE —" PAGE 1 14 25 42 48 64 72 86 97 107 116 136 142 157 163 173 192 214 221 236 246 257 269 289 308 [Pg vii] [Pg vi] ILLUSTRATIONS "'WE OF ITALY,' HE WAS SAYING , 'LIVE, ENDURE, DIE, IF NEED BE—ALWAYS FOR Frontispiece THE SAME REASON—WOMEN AND LOVE!'" Page 65 Facing "AS SHE SPOKE, A DOOR OPENED OPPOSITE, AND THE PRINCE CAME IN " page 4 "FOR THE SPACE OF A SECOND SHE FACED THE AUDIENCE, STANDING STILL AND RIGID" "N INA LOOKED AT HIM—'I WONDER IF YOU WOULD BE AMUSED IF YOU KNEW 134 184 WHY I LAUGHED'" 184 232 239 [Pg 1] "H IS LIPS FRAMED 'GOOD-BY' AND HERS ANSWERED, BOTH SMILED BRIGHTLY —AND THAT WAS THE PARTING " "'YOU ARE AMERICANO , ARE YOU NOT? YOUR LAND HAS DONE MUCH FOR MY PEOPLE!'" CHAPTER I PRINCE SANSEVERO DIMINISHES THE FORTUNES OF HIS HOUSE Her excellency the Princess Sansevero sat up in bed. Reaching quickly across the great width of mattress, she pulled the bell-rope twice, then, shivering, slid back under the warmth of the covers. She drew them close up over her shoulders, so far that only a heavy mass of golden hair remained visible above the old crimson brocade of which the counterpane was made. The room was still darkened so that the objects in it were barely discernible, but presently one of the high, carved doors opened and a maid entered, carrying a breakfast tray. Setting the tray down, she crossed quickly to the windows and drew back the curtains. Sunlight flooded the black and white marble of the floor, and brought out in sharp detail the splendor of the apartment. The rich colors of the frescoed walls, the mellow crimson damask upholstering, might have suggested warmth and comfort, had not a little cloud of white vapor floating before the maid's lips proclaimed the temperature. She was a stocky peasant woman, this maid, with good red color in her cheeks, but she wore a dress of heavy woolen material and a cardigan jacket over that. Her thick felt slippers pattered briskly over the stone floor as she went to a clothes-press, carved and beautifully inlaid, took out a drab-colored woolen wrapper trimmed with common red fox fur, and, picking up the tray again, mounted the dais of the huge carved bed. "If Excellency will make haste, the coffee is good and very hot." The covers were pushed down just a little, and the princess peered out. "What sort of a day have we, Marie? Isn't it very cold?" "Oh, no! It is a beautiful day. But Excellency will say that the coffee is cold unless it is soon taken." So again the Princess Sansevero sat up in bed. Her maid placed the coffee tray before her, and wrapped her quickly in the dressing-gown. The plain woolen wrapper had looked ugly enough in the maid's hands, but its drab color and fox fur so toned in with the red-gold hair and creamy skin of its wearer that an artist, could he have beheld the picture, would have been filled with delight. It would not in the least have mattered to him that there was a chip in the cup into which she poured her coffee, nor that the linen napkin was darned in three [Pg 2] places. The silver breakfast service belonged to a time when such things were chiseled only for great personages and by master craftsmen. That it was battered through several centuries of constant handling rather enhanced than diminished its value. Of the same antiquity was the bed—seven feet wide, its four posts elaborately carved with fruits and flowers, and with cupids grouped in the corners of the framework supporting a dome of crimson damask that matched the hangings. What difference could it make to the artist that the springless mattress was as hard as a rock, and lumpy as a ploughed field? With painted walls and vaulted ceilings that were the apotheosis of luxury, what did it matter that the raw chill from their stone surface penetrated to the very marrow of her Exalted Excellency's bones? Unfortunately, however, it was she who had to occupy the apartment and to her it did matter very much, for her American blood never had grown used to the chill of unheated rooms. "I think I can heat the bathroom sufficiently for Excellency's bath," ventured the maid. The princess shivered at the mere suggestion. She knew only too well the feeling of the water in a room that was like an unheated cellar in the rainy season of late autumn. "No, no!" she exclaimed, "fill me the little tub, in my sitting-room." [Pg 3] "AS SHE SPOKE, A DOOR OPENED OPPOSITE THE ONE THROUGH WHICH THE MAID HAD ENTERED, AND THE PRINCE CAME IN" As she spoke, a door opened opposite the one through which the maid had entered, and the prince came in. A fresh color glowed under his olive skin, his hair was brushed until it was as polished as his nails; also he was shaved, but here his toilet for the day ended. The open "V" of his dressing-gown (his was made of a costly material, quite in contrast to the one his wife wore) showed his throat; bare ankles were visible above his slippers. With the raillery of a boy he cried: "Can it really be possible that you are cold! No wonder they call yours the nation of ice water! I know that is what you have in your veins!" With a spring he threw himself full length across the bed. "Sandro, be careful! See what you are doing! You have spilled the coffee." "Oh, that's nothing!" he said gaily; "it will wash out." "On the contrary, it is a great deal. It makes unnecessary laundry and uses up the linen—we can't get any more, you know." At once his gay humor changed to sulkiness. "Va bene, va bene! let us drop that subject." Immediately the princess softened, as though she had unthinkingly hurt him, "I did not mean it as a complaint; but you know, dear, we do have to be careful." But the prince stared moodily at his finger-nails. She began a new topic cheerfully. "I hope to get a letter from Nina to-day; there has been time for an answer." Sansevero had been quite interested in the idea of a possible visit from Nina Randolph, his wife's niece, a much exploited American heiress. But now he paid no attention. He still stared at his nails. The princess scrutinized his face as though in the habit of reading its expression, and at last she said gently: "What have you in mind, dear? Tell me—come, out with it, I see quite well there is something." For answer he sat up, took a cigarette from his pocket, put it between his lips, searched in both pockets for a match, and, failing to find one, sat with the unlighted cigarette between his lips, sulkier than ever. He felt her looking at him, and swayed his shoulders exactly as though some one were trying to hold him. "Really, Leonora," he burst out, "this question of money all the time is far from pleasant!" A helpless, frightened look came into her face. It grew suddenly pinched; instinctively she put her hand over her heart. "I have not mentioned money." She made an effort to speak lightly, but there was a vibration in the tone. Then, as though gathering her strength together, she made a direct demand: "Alessandro, tell me at once, what have you done?" For a moment he looked defiant, then shrugged his shoulders. "Well, since you will know——" he sprang from the bed, pulled a letter out of his pocket, and, quite as a small boy hands over the note that his teacher has caught him passing in school, he tossed her the envelope, and left the room. Her fingers trembled a little in unfolding the paper; and she breathed quickly [Pg 4] [Pg 5] as she read. For some time she sat staring at the few lines of writing before her. Then suddenly thrusting her feet into fur slippers, she ran into the next room. "Sandro," she said, "come into my sitting-room; I must speak with you." He followed her through her bedroom into an apartment much smaller and, unlike the other two rooms, quite warm. Just now, all the articles of a woman's toilet were spread out on a table upon which a dressing-mirror had been placed; and close beside a br