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THE COMPLETE WORKS OF
F. MARION CRAWFORD
TO LEEWARD
BY F. MARION CRAWFORD
WITH FRONTISPIECE
P. F. COLLIER & SON
NEW YORK
Copyright 1883 and 1892
By F. MARION CRAWFORD
All Rights Reserved
TO
My Uncle
SAMUEL WARD
OF NEW YORK
THIS NOVEL IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
THE LAST RAYS OF THE SUN SHONE HORIZONTALLY ACROSS THE TERRACE.
TO LEEWARD.
CHAPTER I.
There are two Romes. There is the Rome of the intelligent foreigner,consisting of excavations, monuments, tramways, hotels, typhoid fever,incense, and wax candles; and there is the Rome within, a city ofantique customs, good and bad, a town full of aristocratic prejudices,of intrigues, of religion, of old-fashioned honour and new-fashionedscandal, of happiness and unhappiness, of just people and unjust.Besides all this, there is a very modern court and a government of thefuture, which may almost be said to make up together a third city.
Moreover, these several coexistent cities, and their correspondinginhabitants, are subdivided to an infinity of gradations, in order tocontain all and make room for all. The foreigner who hunts excavationsdoes not cross the path of the foreigner who sniffs after incense, anymore than the primeval aristocrat sits down to dinner with therepresentative of fashionable scandal; any more than the just man wouldever allow the unjust to be introduced to him. They all enjoy sothoroughly the freedom to ignore each other that they would not forworlds endanger the safety of the barrier that separates them. Ofcourse, as they all say, this state of things cannot last. There mustultimately be an amalgamation, a deluge, a unity, fraternity andequality; a state of things in which we shall say, "Sois mon frère, ouje te tue,"—a future glorious, disgusting, or dull, according as youlook at it. But, meanwhile, it is all very charming, and there is plentyfor every one to enjoy, and an abundance for every one to abuse.
When Marcantonio Carantoni saw his sister married to a Frenchman, he wasexceedingly glad that she had not married an Englishman, a Turk, a Jew,or an infidel. The Vicomte de Charleroi was, and is, a gentleman; rathereasy-going, perhaps, and inclined to look upon republics in general, andthe French republic in particular, with the lenient eye of the man whoowns land and desires peace first—and a monarchy afterwards, wheneverconvenient. But in these days it is not altogether worthy of blame thata man should look after his worldly interests and goods; for how elsecan the aristocracy expect to make any headway against the stream ofgrimy bourgeois, who sell everything at a profit, while the nobles buyeverything at a loss? So Marcantonio is satisfied with hisbrother-in-law, and just now is particularly delighted because Charleroihas got himself appointed to a post in Rome; and he goes to see hissister every day, for he is very fond of her.
In truth, it is not surprising that Marcantonio should like his sister,for she is a very charming woman. She is beautiful, too, in a grand way,with her auburn ha