Far away, under a southern sky, in one of the great palaces of Florence, there stood a woman of fair stature, with tight-clenched hands, whose many jewels bit the tender flesh. Her russet eyes flashed under threatening brows, her teeth held fast the curling upper lip. Great, alack! was her fame: men crept to her knee like spaniels craving favour. Great was her wealth: a golden piece for every ruddy strand that hung a shimmering mantle to her knee. Her beauty—nay, men had slain themselves gladly to escape the torment of her look. She stood in the curtained doorway, a heavy purple hanging at her back; and the man who awaited her paled as he saw her vengeful face.
It was Hilarius. He drew himself up to the full of his slender height, and bowed.
Panting a little, the woman came towards him across the many-hued marble floors; and, as she passed, a vase of great white lilies caught in her draperies of cramoisie and fell. She gave no heed, but swept on, and faced him in the sunny silence. Across the pause the Angelus sounded from a church hard by: Hilarius crossed himself devoutly; and the stillness fled before a woman’s scornful laugh.
“Nay, then, Signor,” she cried mockingly, “is ours to be a war of signs and silence? I have heard thy lips were ready enough with judgment, though they halt at a love-phrase. By Our Lady, if all that is said of thee be true, I will e’en have thee whipped at the gibbet for thy gibes! Speak, fool, while thy tongue is left thee; ’tis a last asking. Wilt thou paint this face of mine that is, it seems, so little to thy liking? Strain not my patience over much—’tis a slender cord at best, and somewhat tried already. Speak, is it yea or nay?”
Hilarius looked away to where Mary’s flowers lay bruised and scattered on the flag of blood-red marble; his answer came low and clear:—
“‘It is nay.’”
She thrust her head forward, and looked at him wondering; there was a stain where her teeth had been busy.
“‘It is nay,’” she repeated after him, and her eyes mocked him. “May a poor Princess ask the Signor’s reason?”
Hilarius pointed past her to the fallen lilies.
“It lies there.”