The Gadfly - E. L. Voynich (phonics readers .txt) 📗
- Author: E. L. Voynich
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to her. During the last few months she had
changed and developed greatly, and now looked a
grown-up young woman, though the dense black
plaits still hung down her back in schoolgirl
fashion. She was dressed all in black, and had
thrown a black scarf over her head, as the room
was cold and draughty. At her breast was a spray
of cypress, the emblem of Young Italy. The
initiator was passionately describing to her the
misery of the Calabrian peasantry; and she sat
listening silently, her chin resting on one hand
and her eyes on the ground. To Arthur she
seemed a melancholy vision of Liberty mourning
for the lost Republic. (Julia would have seen in
her only an overgrown hoyden, with a sallow complexion,
an irregular nose, and an old stuff frock
that was too short for her.)
“You here, Jim!” he said, coming up to her
when the initiator had been called to the other end
of the room. “Jim” was a childish corruption of
her curious baptismal name: Jennifer. Her Italian
schoolmates called her “Gemma.”
She raised her head with a start.
“Arthur! Oh, I didn’t know you—belonged
here!”
“And I had no idea about you. Jim, since when
have you–-?”
“You don’t understand!” she interposed
quickly. “I am not a member. It is only that
I have done one or two little things. You see, I
met Bini—you know Carlo Bini?”
“Yes, of course.” Bini was the organizer of the
Leghorn branch; and all Young Italy knew him.
“Well, he began talking to me about these
things; and I asked him to let me go to a students’
meeting. The other day he wrote to me to
Florence––Didn’t you know I had been to
Florence for the Christmas holidays?”
“I don’t often hear from home now.”
“Ah, yes! Anyhow, I went to stay with the
Wrights.” (The Wrights were old schoolfellows
of hers who had moved to Florence.) “Then Bini
wrote and told me to pass through Pisa to-day on
my way home, so that I could come here. Ah!
they’re going to begin.”
The lecture was upon the ideal Republic and
the duty of the young to fit themselves for it.
The lecturer’s comprehension of his subject was
somewhat vague; but Arthur listened with devout
admiration. His mind at this period was curiously
uncritical; when he accepted a moral ideal
he swallowed it whole without stopping to think
whether it was quite digestible. When the lecture
and the long discussion which followed it were
finished and the students began to disperse, he
went up to Gemma, who was still sitting in the
corner of the room.
“Let me walk with you, Jim. Where are you
staying?”
“With Marietta.”
“Your father’s old housekeeper?”
“Yes; she lives a good way from here.”
They walked for some time in silence. Then
Arthur said suddenly:
“You are seventeen, now, aren’t you?”
“I was seventeen in October.”
“I always knew you would not grow up like
other girls and begin wanting to go to balls and
all that sort of thing. Jim, dear, I have so often
wondered whether you would ever come to be
one of us.”
“So have I.”
“You said you had done things for Bini; I
didn’t know you even knew him.”
“It wasn’t for Bini; it was for the other one”
“Which other one?”
“The one that was talking to me to-night—
Bolla.”
“Do you know him well?” Arthur put in with
a little touch of jealousy. Bolla was a sore subject
with him; there had been a rivalry between them
about some work which the committee of Young
Italy had finally intrusted to Bolla, declaring
Arthur too young and inexperienced.
“I know him pretty well; and I like him very
much. He has been staying in Leghorn.”
“I know; he went there in November––”
“Because of the steamers. Arthur, don’t you
think your house would be safer than ours for that
work? Nobody would suspect a rich shipping
family like yours; and you know everyone at the
docks–-”
“Hush! not so loud, dear! So it was in your
house the books from Marseilles were hidden?”
“Only for one day. Oh! perhaps I oughtn’t to
have told you.”
“Why not? You know I belong to the society.
Gemma, dear, there is nothing in all the world that
would make me so happy as for you to join us—
you and the Padre.”
“Your Padre! Surely he–-”
“No; he thinks differently. But I have sometimes
fancied—that is—hoped—I don’t know–-”
“But, Arthur! he’s a priest.”
“What of that? There are priests in the society
—two of them write in the paper. And why
not? It is the mission of the priesthood to lead
the world to higher ideals and aims, and what else
does the society try to do? It is, after all, more
a religious and moral question than a political one.
If people are fit to be free and responsible citizens,
no one can keep them enslaved.”
Gemma knit her brows. “It seems to me,
Arthur,” she said, “that there’s a muddle somewhere
in your logic. A priest teaches religious
doctrine. I don’t see what that has to do with
getting rid of the Austrians.”
“A priest is a teacher of Christianity, and the
greatest of all revolutionists was Christ.”
“Do you know, I was talking about priests to
father the other day, and he said–-”
“Gemma, your father is a Protestant.”
After a little pause she looked round at him
frankly.
“Look here, we had better leave this subject
alone. You are always intolerant when you talk
about Protestants.”
“I didn’t mean to be intolerant. But I think
Protestants are generally intolerant when they
talk about priests.”
“I dare say. Anyhow, we have so often quarreled
over this subject that it is not worth while to
begin again. What did you think of the lecture?”
“I liked it very much—especially the last part.
I was glad he spoke so strongly about the
need of living the Republic, not dreaming of it.
It is as Christ said: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is
within you.’”
“It was just that part that I didn’t like. He
talked so much of the wonderful things we ought
to think and feel and be, but he never told us practically
what we ought to do.”
“When the time of crisis comes there will be
plenty for us to do; but we must be patient; these
great changes are not made in a day.”
“The longer a thing is to take doing, the more
reason to begin at once. You talk about being
fit for freedom—did you ever know anyone so fit
for it as your mother? Wasn’t she the most perfectly
angelic woman you ever saw? And what use
was all her goodness? She was a slave till the day
she died—bullied and worried and insulted by your
brother James and his wife. It would have been
much better for her if she had not been so sweet
and patient; they would never have treated her
so. That’s just the way with Italy; it’s not
patience that’s wanted—it’s for somebody to get
up and defend themselves––”
“Jim, dear, if anger and passion could have
saved Italy she would have been free long ago;
it is not hatred that she needs, it is love.”
As he said the word a sudden flush went up
to his forehead and died out again. Gemma
did not see it; she was looking straight before
her with knitted brows and set mouth.
“You think I am wrong, Arthur,” she said
after a pause; “but I am right, and you will grow
to see it some day. This is the house. Will you
come in?”
“No; it’s late. Good-night, dear!”
He was standing on the doorstep, clasping her
hand in both of his.
“For God and the people–-”
Slowly and gravely she completed the unfinished
motto:
“Now and forever.”
Then she pulled away her hand and ran into
the house. When the door had closed behind her
he stooped and picked up the spray of cypress
which had fallen from her breast.
CHAPTER IV.
ARTHUR went back to his lodgings feeling as
though he had wings. He was absolutely, cloudlessly
happy. At the meeting there had been
hints of preparations for armed insurrection; and
now Gemma was a comrade, and he loved her.
They could work together, possibly even die together,
for the Republic that was to be. The
blossoming time of their hope was come, and the
Padre would see it and believe.
The next morning, however, he awoke in a
soberer mood and remembered that Gemma was
going to Leghorn and the Padre to Rome. January,
February, March—three long months to
Easter! And if Gemma should fall under “Protestant”
influences at home (in Arthur’s vocabulary
“Protestant” stood for “Philistine”)––
No, Gemma would never learn to flirt and simper
and captivate tourists and bald-headed shipowners,
like the other English girls in Leghorn; she was
made of different stuff. But she might be very
miserable; she was so young, so friendless, so
utterly alone among all those wooden people. If
only mother had lived–-
In the evening he went to the seminary, where
he found Montanelli entertaining the new Director
and looking both tired and bored. Instead
of lighting up, as usual, at the sight of Arthur, the
Padre’s face grew darker.
“This is the student I spoke to you about,” he
said, introducing Arthur stiffly. “I shall be much
obliged if you will allow him to continue using the
library.”
Father Cardi, a benevolent-looking elderly
priest, at once began talking to Arthur about the
Sapienza, with an ease and familiarity which
showed him to be well acquainted with college
life. The conversation soon drifted into a discussion
of university regulations, a burning question
of that day. To Arthur’s great delight, the new
Director spoke strongly against the custom
adopted by the university authorities of constantly
worrying the students by senseless and vexatious
restrictions.
“I have had a good deal of experience in guiding
young people,” he said; “and I make it a
rule never to prohibit anything without a good
reason. There are very few young men who will
give much trouble if proper consideration and respect
for their personality are shown to them.
But, of course, the most docile horse will kick if
you are always jerking at the rein.”
Arthur opened his eyes wide; he had not expected
to hear the students’ cause pleaded by the
new Director. Montanelli took no part in the discussion;
its subject, apparently, did not interest
him. The expression of his face was so unutterably
hopeless and weary that Father Cardi broke
off suddenly.
“I am afraid I have overtired you, Canon. You
must forgive my talkativeness; I am hot upon this
subject and forget that others may grow weary
of it.”
“On the contrary, I was much interested.”
Montanelli was not given to stereotyped politeness,
and his tone jarred uncomfortably upon
Arthur.
When Father Cardi went to his own room
Montanelli turned to Arthur with the intent and
brooding look that his face had worn all the
evening.
“Arthur, my dear boy,” he began slowly; “I
have something to tell you.”
“He must have had bad news,” flashed through
Arthur’s mind, as he looked anxiously at the haggard
face. There was a long pause.
“How do you like the new Director?” Montanelli
asked suddenly.
The question was so unexpected that, for a moment,
Arthur was at a loss how to reply to
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