of Milan, and she
was become one of the most noted figures of the capital. There had been
some talk of offering her the chair of poetry at the Brera; but the
report of her liberal views had deterred the faculty. Meanwhile the very
fact that she represented the new school of thought gave an added zest
to her conversation in a society which made up for its mild servitude
under the Austrian by much talk of liberalism and independence. The
Signorina Vivaldi became the fashion. The literati celebrated her
scholarship, the sonneteers her eloquence and beauty; and no foreigner
on the grand tour was content to leave Milan without having beheld the
fair prodigy and heard her recite Petrarch's Ode to Italy, or the latest
elegy of Pindamonte.

Odo scarce knew with what feelings he listened. He could not but
acknowledge that such a life was better suited to one of Fulvia's gifts
and ambitions than the humdrum existence of a Swiss town; yet his first
sensation was one of obscure jealousy, of reluctance to think of her as
having definitely broken with the past. He had pictured her as adrift,
like himself, on a dark sea of uncertainties; and to learn that she had
found a safe anchorage was almost to feel himself deserted.

The court was soon busy with preparations for the coming performance. A
celebrated actress from Venice was engaged to play the part of Virginia,
and the rehearsals went rapidly forward under the noble author's
supervision. At last the great day arrived, and for the first time in
the history of the little theatre, operetta and pastoral were replaced
by the buskined Muse of tragedy. The court and all the nobility were
present, and though it was no longer thought becoming for ecclesiastics
to visit the theatre, the easy-going Bishop appeared in a side-box in
company with his chaplains and the Vicar-general.

The performance was brilliantly successful. Frantic applause greeted the
tirades of the young Icilius. Every outburst against the abuse of
privileges and the insolence of the patricians was acclaimed by
ministers and courtiers, and the loudest in approval were the Marquess
Pievepelago, the recognised representative of the clericals, the
Marchioness of Boscofolto, whose harsh enforcement of her feudal rights
was among the bitterest grievances of the peasantry, and the good
Bishop, who had lately roused himself from his habitual indolence to
oppose the threatened annexation of the Caccia del Vescovo. One and all
p