ring, and he had too much tact to press the ceremonial
etiquette upon any one whom he desired to influence. But he nodded
graciously, and receiving his cloak from the gentleman who accompanied
him and who had waited at a respectful distance, the statesman passed out
of the great doorway, where the double line of torch-bearers stood ready
to accompany him down the grand staircase to his carriage, in accordance
with the custom of those days.

CHAPTER X.

When he was alone, Giovanni retraced his steps, and again took up his
position near the entrance to the reception-rooms. He had matter for
reflection in the interview which had just ended; and, having nothing
better to do while he waited for Corona, he thought about what had
happened. He was not altogether pleased at the interest his marriage
excited in high quarters; he hated interference, and he regarded Cardinal
Antonelli's advice in such a matter as an interference of the most
unwarrantable kind. Neither he himself nor his father were men who sought
counsel from without, for independence in action was with them a family
tradition, as independence of thought was in their race a hereditary
quality. To think that if he, Giovanni Saracinesca, chose to marry any
woman whatsoever, any one, no matter how exalted in station, should dare
to express approval or disapproval was a shock to every inborn and
cultivated prejudice in his nature. He had nearly quarrelled with his own
father for seeking to influence his matrimonial projects; it was not
likely that he would suffer Cardinal Antonelli to interfere with them. If
Giovanni had really made up his mind--had firmly determined to ask the
hand of Donna Tullia--it is more than probable that the statesman's
advice would not only have failed signally in preventing the match, but
by the very opposition it would have aroused in Giovanni's heart it would
have had the effect of throwing him into the arms of a party which
already desired his adhesion, and which, under his guidance, might have
become as formidable as it was previously insignificant. But the great
Cardinal was probably well informed, and his words had not fallen upon a
barren soil. Giovanni had vacillated sadly in trying to come to a
decision. His first Quixotic impulse to marry Madame Mayer, in order to
show the world that he cared nothing for Corona d'Astrardente, had proved
itself absurd, even to his impetuous intelligence. The growing antipathy
he felt for Do