s
altogether a business affair, and was managed chiefly by Tonelli, who
having met a young doctor, laurelled the year before at Padua, had heard
him express so pungent a curiosity to know what the Paronsina would have
to her dower, that he perceived he must be madly in love with her. So
with the consent of the signora he had arranged a correspondence between
the young people; and all went on well at first,--the letters from both
passing through his hands. But his office was anything but a sinecure,
for while the Doctor was on his part of a cold temperament, and disposed
to regard the affair merely as a proper way of providing for the natural
affections, the Paronsina cared nothing for him personally, and only
viewed him favorably as abstract matrimony,--as the means of escaping
from the bondage of her girlhood and the sad seclusion of her life into
the world outside her grandfather's house. So presently the
correspondence fell almost wholly upon Tonelli, who worked up to the
point of betrothal with an expense of finesse and sentiment that would
have made his fortune in diplomacy or poetry. What should he say now?
that stupid young Doctor would cry in a desperation, when Tonelli
delicately reminded him that it was time to answer the Paronsina's last
note. Say this, that, and the other, Tonelli would answer, giving him
the heads of a proper letter, which the Doctor took down on square bits
of paper, neatly fashioned for writing prescriptions. "And for God's
sake, caro dottore, put a little warmth into it!" The poor Doctor would
try, but it must always end in Tonelli's suggesting and almost dictating
every sentence; and then the letter, being carried to the Paronsina made
her laugh: "This is very pretty, my poor Tonelli, but it was never my
onoratissimo dottore who thought of these tender compliments. Ah! that
allusion to my mouth and eyes could only have come from the heart of a
great poet. It is yours, Tonelli, don't deny it." And Tonelli, taken in
his weak point of literature, could make but a feeble pretence of
disclaiming the child of his fancy, while the Paronsina, being in this
reckless humor, more than once responded to the Doctor in such fashion
that in the end the inspiration of her altered and amended letter was
Tonelli's. Even after the betrothal, the lovemaking languished, and the
Doctor was indecently patient of the late day fixed for the marriage by
the notary. In fact, the Doctor was very busy; and, as his pr