Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-10-29
CHAPTER LII.
SUSPICIOUS PROVIDERS.

|
| of their soldier guests, still more is
| their chief magistrate. Though hold
| ing Office, francesca Torreani, as is
known to the reader, has no sympathy
with the regime under which he holds
| 1t. He would resign in an hour but
| for certain views he is DESTROYS of pro-
noting, and which he can better serve
while exercising authority. 1t is not
much, to be sure; still it affords him
some ages-opportunities of pos
tai communication and the like-all OF
which he employs for the benefit of his
political party. In this respect he may
be termed a traitor, but 1t is treason
for Liberty's sake; and who would not
look leniently upon-aye, freely par
/ don it?
| AS Count Guardiola is staunch sup
| porter of the statu quo-because of its
pleasant suitability to himself and his
class-and a bitter partisan to boot,
there could, of course, be no congenial-
ity between him and the Sindico; nor Is
there, but instead a stand-off, suspi-
cious reserve. For all that, no open
rupture has arisen between them; and
the chief magistrate, though hating it,
has to receive the military officer at his
house. Common civility requires that,
! to say nothing of duty or its make pre-
tence.
And to his house Guardiola goes once
every day, some days oftener-in short,
whenever he can shape excuse for a
call even of the most trivial kind. This
to the great annoyance of its inmates
greater to the Sendico's daughter than
himself For, Notwithstanding his
studied politeness, assumed and pre-
tended, the Counts real character now
and then declares itself, his VOLTS skin
| peeping out from under the fleece of the
! lamb Not that he wishes to pass for
a lamb or gentle creature of any kind.
| On the contrary, he objects to the lion,
4
aspiring to be thought brave, generous,
and gallant. But the young lady sees
the false color; for, ingenious and inno-
cent though she be, she is nevertheless
acute enough to detect the cheat. In
women, even at earliest age, sharpness
of this speciality is intuitive, if not an
| instinct
After his own fashion, Guardiola has
| fallen in love with Lucetta Torreani; a
passion not strong, but sufficient for the
time, and enough to drive the conta-
dina out of his head, If not his heart.
Little chance has he of its being re-
ciprocated; never lover less. For her
heart, though not absolutely occupied,
has received an impression likely to re-
main long. Since looking upon the face
| of that young forestiere-so suddenly
snatched from her sight-she has had
! strange thoughts-felt f1utterings never
known to her before. But her friend
| Camilla, who has long since expert
enced the same sort of thing, can ex-
plain them, and does. Often have the
two oonversed about the povere cattivo,
| wondering what has become of him
whether he has been ransomed and let
go again or is still in the hands of the
brigands. At times, taking the gloom
lest view Of it, they fear he may have
been sent to his long account, and is
now sleeping his last sleep on some lone
mountainside or at the bottom of dark
defile, his bones unburied, his flesh
gone. devoured by the wolves and
ravens! The Neapolitan girl knows Of
many such cases having occurred,
though only once has she spoken OF
them: and that once with regret for
having done So as she observed the
painful effect it had produced on her lis
tener.
Who or of what country the unfor-
tunate young man was they have never
been able to scertain-nothing further
than his being a forestiere-this known
to them on that night when they made
their futile attempt to set him free.
But for letter mislaid, Lucetta Tor
reani would ere this have learnt more
of him; enough to increase her sympa-
thies, and, perhaps, strengthen that in
comprehensive impression she has
made upon her memory or her heart,
That letter was signed by her brother
Luigi. sent from Marseille by the Mes
sageries steamer, and brought to Civit
Vecchia, but there detained. For, be-
| fore 1t could reach Rome, the seven
hilled city was in a state of turmoil,
and revolt. All postal communication
suspended
Of this great event, now historical,
no news had as yet reached the remote
mountain town of Val di Orno. There
things were as ever; soldiers, many of
them, half intoxicated, in squads parad-
ing the streets, officers equally disso-
| lutte lounging about the osteria; Guard
! lola, like a gamecock proud of its gay
| plumage strutting hither and thither,
paying frequent visits to the Sindico's
bo,,ea onl xyovipu ;n,oo+ac