"No, it is the name of the star that presides over your destiny."
We arrived at Cafaggiolo and did not find Nasi there.
"Your star is waning, fortune is abandoning you," I said to the girl from Chioggia.
She bit her lips and replied at once, with a smile:
"There is always a mist on the lagoons before sunrise. In any event we must keep up our strength and so be prepared for the blows of destiny."
As she spoke, she took her seat at the table and ate almost the whole of a pope's eye stuffed with truffles; after which she slept twelve hours without a break, passed three hours at her toilet, and sparkled with wit and nonsense until evening. Nasi did not appear.
For my own part, amid the merriment and animation which that excellent girl had brought into my solitude, I was absorbed by the memory of my adventure at the Grimani villa, and tortured by the longing to see my fair patrician once more. But how was I to do it? I cudgelled my brain to no purpose to invent some means which would not compromise her. When I left her I had sworn to do nothing imprudent. As I reviewed in my mind my impressions of those last moments, when she had appeared in such an artless and touching aspect, I felt that I could not act inconsiderately with respect to her without forfeiting my own esteem. I dared not make inquiries concerning her friends, still less concerning her domestic arrangements. I had refrained from making acquaintances in the neighborhood, and now I almost regretted that I had done so; for I might have learned by accident what I dared not ask directly. The servant who waited upon me was a Neapolitan who had come with me, and, like myself, had never been in that region before. The gardener was stupid and deaf. An old care-taker, in charge of the villa since Nasi's childhood, might perhaps have enlightened me; but I was afraid to question her, for she was inquisitive and loquacious. She was much disturbed to know where I went; and, during the three days that I had failed to bring her any game or to give an account of my rambles, she was so wrought up that I trembled lest she should discover my romance. The bare mention of a name might put her on the track. So I was very careful not to pronounce it. I did not wish to go to Florence; I was too well known there; if I showed my face there, I was certain to be overwhelmed with visits. The unhealthy and misanthropical frame of mind which had caused me to seek the solitude of Cafaggiolo, had led me likewise to conceal my name and profession from the very servants in the house as well as from the neighbors. It was necessary now for me to guard my incognito more closely than ever; for I supposed that the count would soon arrive, and that his fancy for marriage would lead him to desire to bury in mystery Checchina's presence in his house.
Two days passed with no word from Nasi, who might have enlightened me; and I had not ventured to take a step out-of-doors. Checchina had a heavy cold and considerable pain, as a result of the mishaps of her journey. It may well be that, as she did not quite know what course to adopt with me, and as she preferred not to seem to be waiting for her faithless lover, after swearing that she would not wait for him, she was not sorry to have a valid excuse for remaining at Cafaggiolo.
One morning, finding that I could not stand it any longer, for that signorina of fifteen with her little white hands and great black eyes was always in my head, I took my game-bag, called my dog, and started out to hunt, forgetting nothing but my rifle. In vain did I prowl about the Grimani villa; I did not see a living being, I did not hear a human sound. All the gates of the park were locked, and I noticed that on the main avenue, at the end of which one could catch a glimpse of the house-front, some large trees had been felled and their dense foliage completely intercepted the view. Had that barricade been erected with premeditation? Was it an act of revenge on the cousin's part? Was it a precaution taken by the aunt? Was it a mischievous exploit of my heroine herself? "If I thought that!" I said to myself. But I did not think it. I much preferred to suppose that she was lamenting over my absence and her own captivity, and I formed innumerable plans to set her free, each more absurd than the last.
On returning to Cafaggiolo, I found in Checchina's bedroom a pretty village maiden whom I at once recognized as La Grimani's foster sister.