"Much, Master Pier-Angelo," the majordomo solemnly replied to the old painter's jocose question.
"I see," rejoined Michel, ironically, "that your lordship is no ordinary steward, and that you are far more cultivated than your duties require."
"My duties, while not brilliant, have always been very pleasant," replied the majordomo, "even in Prince Dionigi's day, and he was pleasant to nobody but me. He had much consideration, almost friendship for me, because I was an open book which he could consult at any hour concerning his ancestors. As for the princess, his daughter, as she is kind to everybody, I cannot but be happy with her. I do almost exactly as I choose, and there are only three things about her that grieve me, and those are her giving up her family gallery, her never consulting her genealogical tree, and her not deigning to investigate the science of heraldry. And yet it is a delightful science, and one which ladies used to cultivate with success."
"And now it is a part of the stock in trade of decorators and gilders of wood," said Michel, laughing anew. "They are attractive ornaments of which the bright colors and the flavor of the days of chivalry please the eye and the imagination; that is all."
"That is all?" rejoined the scandalized steward; "pardon me, your lordship, that is not all. Heraldry is history written in hieroglyphics ad hoc. Alas! the time will soon come, perhaps, when we shall know how to read this mysterious writing better than the sacramental characters which cover the tombs and monuments of Egypt! And yet what profound and ingeniously expressed meaning there is in that figurative language! To place upon a seal, upon the bezel of a ring the whole history of one's own race—is not that the result of a marvellous art? And what more concise and more impressive signs have civilized people ever used?"
"What he says is not without a basis of reason and common sense," said the marquis, in an undertone, addressing Michel. "But you listen to him with a disdainful expression which impresses me, young man. Come! say all that you think; I would like to hear it, in order to ascertain whether you have good reason for laughing at the nobility with a touch of bitterness, as you seem inclined to do. Do not be embarrassed; I will listen to you as calmly and disinterestedly as yonder dead men, who look down upon us with lifeless eyes, from their frames blackened by the lapse of time."
[10]A black silk cloak, which covers the whole body and the head.