es.

Alberto Paluzzo Altieri was good-for-nothing, and like most really
worthless young men he exercised an extraordinary charm on every one who
knew him, both women and men. For to be a real good-for-nothing,
without being a criminal, implies a native genius for wasting other
people's time as agreeably as one's own, and for helping rich men to get
rid of their money with infinite pleasure and no profit at all, and for
making every woman believe that she can certainly convert and reform the
prodigal by the simple process of allowing him to fall in love with her,
which, of course, must elevate him to her moral and intellectual level.

There was nothing very remarkable about Alberto except that charm of
his. He was dark, he had straight black hair, and tolerably regular
features, like many young Romans; he was neither tall nor short, nor
exceptionally well made, and of the three young gentlemen who
accompanied the ex-Queen on her sight-seeing excursion, he was the least
ostentatiously dressed. But he had a wonderfully pleasant voice in
speaking, with the smile of a happy and phenomenally innocent boy, and
his bright brown eyes had the most guileless expression in the world. At
the present time it amused him to be Queen Christina's favourite,
perhaps because she was a genuine queen, or possibly because her
cold-blooded murder of Monaldeschi was still so fresh in every one's
memory that there was a spice of danger in the situation; but in any
case he was prepared for the first pleasant opportunity of changing his
allegiance which might present itself.

When he saw Stradella's young wife it occurred to him at once that such
a chance was within his reach, and he was not satisfied till he had made
the musician promise to move from the inn to the Altieri palace on the
next day but one; for Alberto was the eldest son, and neither his
father, who was old, nor his mother, who was a slave to her perpetual
devotions, ever attempted to oppose his wishes in such matters. Was he
not a model son? Could anything surpass his sweet-tempered affection for
his parents? Why should he not have what he liked? Good-for-nothings are
often their mothers' favourites; but Alberto had long ago won over his
father as well, and not him only, but his uncle also, the Cardinal, who
ruled Rome and the States of the Church like a despot. The great man was
really not sorry that one of his own family should occupy the most
important position in Queen Christ