As an infusion of fresh blood to Odo were Alfieri's meteoric returns toTurin. Life moved languidly in the strait-laced city, even to a younggentleman a-tiptoe for adventure and framed to elicit it as thehazel-wand draws water. Not that vulgar distractions were lacking. Thetown, as Cantapresto had long since advised him, had its secretleniencies, its posterns opening on clandestine pleasure; but there wasthat in Odo which early turned him from such cheap counterfeits ofliving. He accepted the diversions of his age, but with a clear sense oftheir worth; and the youth who calls his pleasures by their true namehas learned the secret of resisting them.
Alfieri's coming set deeper springs in motion. His follies andextravagances were on a less provincial scale than those of Odo's dailyassociates. The breath of a freer life clung to him and his allusionswere so many glimpses into a larger world. His political theories werebut the enlargement of his private grievances, but the mere play ofcriticism on accepted institutions was an exercise more novel andexhilirating than the wildest ride on one of his half-tamedthorough-breds. Still chiefly a man of pleasure, and the slave, asalways, of some rash infatuation, Alfieri was already shaking off theintellectual torpor of his youth; and the first stirrings of hiscuriosity roused an answering passion in Odo. Their tastes were indeeddivergent, for to that external beauty which was to Odo the very bloomof life, Alfieri remained insensible; while of its imaginativecounterpart, its prolongation in the realm of thought and emotion, hehad but the most limited conception. But his love of ringing deeds wokethe chivalrous strain in Odo, and his vague celebration of Liberty, thatunknown goddess to whom altars were everywhere building, chimed with theother's scorn of oppression and injustice. So far, it is true, theircompanionship had been mainly one of pleasure; but the temper of bothgave their follies that provisional character which saves them fromvulgarity.
Odo, who had slept late on the morning after his friend's return, waswaked by the pompous mouthing of certain lines just then on every lip inItaly:--Meet was it that, its ancient seats forsaking,An Empire should set forth with dauntless sail,And braving tempests and the deep's betrayal,Break down the barriers of inviolate worlds--That Cortez and Pizarro should esteemThe blood of man a trivial sacrificeWhen, flinging down from their ancestral thronesIncas and Mexicans of royal line,They wrecked two kingdoms to refresh thy palate--They were the verses in which the abate Parini, in his satire of TheMorning, apostrophizes the cup of chocolate which the lacquey presentsto his master. Cantapresto had in fact just entered with a cup of thisbeverage, and Alfieri, who stood at his friend's bedside with unpowderedlocks and a fashionable undress of Parisian cut, snatching the tray fromthe soprano's hands presented it to Odo in an attitude of mockservility.
The young man sprang up laughing. It was the fashion to applaud Parini'sverse in the circles at which his satire was aimed, and none recited hismock heroics with greater zest than the young gentlemen whose fopperieshe ridiculed. Odo's toilet was indeed a rite almost as elaborate as thatof Parini's hero; and this accomplished, he was on his way to fulfil thevery duty the poet most unsparingly derides: the morning visit of thecicisbeo to his lady; but meanwhile he liked to show himself above thefollies of his class by joining in the laugh against them. When heissued from the powder-room in his gold-laced uniform, with scentedgloves and carefully-adjusted queue, he presented the image of a younggentleman so clearly equal to the most flattering emergencies thatAlfieri broke into a smile of half-ironical approval. "I see, my dearcavaliere, that it were idle to invite you to try one of the new Arabs Ihave brought with me from Spain, since it is plain other duties engageyou; but I come to lay claim to your evening."Odo hesitated. "The Queen holds a circle this evening," he said.
"And her lady-in-waiting is in attendance?" returned Alfieri. "And thelady-in-waiting's gentleman-in-waiting also?"Odo made an impatient movement. "What inducements do you offer?" said hecarelessly.
Alfieri stepped close and tapped him on the sleeve. "Meet me at teno'clock at the turn of the lane behind the Corpus Domini. Wear a cloakand a mask, and leave this gentleman at home with a flask of Asti." Heglanced at Cantapresto.
Odo hesitated a moment. He knew well enough where such midnight turningsled, and across the vision evoked by his friend's words a girl's faceflitted suddenly.
"Is that all?" he said with a shrug. "You find me, I fear, in no humourfor such exploits."Alfieri smiled. "And if I say that I have promised to bring you?""Promised--?""To one as chary of exacting such pledges as I of giving them. If I saythat you stake your life on the adventure, and that the stake is not toogreat for the reward--?"His sallow face had reddened with excitement, and Odo's foreheadreflected the flush. Was it possible--? But the thought set him tinglingwith disgust.
"Why, you say lit............