distant stage, the actors’ cries piercing the din, and quite suddenly he wanted to dissolve and rest in the quiet of the palazzo.
Then he felt Marianna’s hand slip out of his, and turning he could not find her.
He glanced back and forth. Where was Alessandro?
It seemed a tall figure straight ahead must surely be he, but the figure was moving away from him. He gave a loud shout, and couldn’t even hear it himself; and glancing back saw a little figure in bauta and domino in the arms of another masker. It seemed they kissed, or whispered to one another, the stranger’s mantle concealing both their faces. “Mamma.” He went towards the tiny one, and the crowd intervened before he could reach her.
Then he heard Alessandro behind him. “Tonio!” He had been saying the proper address, Excellency, over and over and getting no answer.
“Ah, she’s disappeared!” Tonio said desperately.
“She’s right there,” came Alessandro’s reply, and again there was a little figure, bird-faced, eerie, peering right at him.
He tore off his mask, wiping at the sweat of his face, and closed his eyes for a moment.
They did not go home until two hours before they were to be at the theater. Marianna let down her long black hair and stood with her glassy eyes to the side as if enchanted. Then seeing the serious expression on Tonio’s face, she stood on tiptoe to kiss him.
“But, Mamma…” He drew back suddenly. “When we were near the church door, did someone…did someone…?” He stopped, positively unable to continue.
“Did someone what? What’s the matter with you?” she asked warmly. She shook out her hair. Her face was all angles, her mouth drawn back in a dazed smile. “I don’t remember anything by the church door. When were we at the church door? That was hours ago. Besides”—she let out a little laugh—“I have you and Alessandro to protect my honor.”
He was staring at her with something that was very near horror.
She seated herself before the glass as Lena undid the snaps of her gown. All of her movements were swift, yet uncertain. She lifted the glass stopper of her cologne and held it before her lips. “What shall I wear, what shall I wear, and you, look at you, you who all your life have begged to go to the opera. Don’t you know who is singing tonight?” She turned with her hands on the edge of the cushioned bench looking up at him. Her dress had fallen down and her breasts were almost bare, yet she didn’t seem to know it. She looked childlike.
“But Mamma, I thought I saw…”
“Will you stop it!” she screamed suddenly. Lena moved back, startled, but he did not move.
“Take that look off your face,” she said, the voice still high in pitch, and her hands on her own ears as if to blunt the sound of it. She started to gasp, and it seemed the taut flesh of her face was being cruelly twisted.
“No, don’t…don’t,” he whispered. He stroked her hair, patted her until she gave a deep breath and seemed to become limp. Then looking up at him, she made that smile again, glittering and beautiful and frightening him. But it lasted only a moment. Her eyes were wet.
“Tonio, I’ve done nothing wrong,” she pleaded as if she were only his younger sister. “Don’t you dare spoil it all for me, you can’t do it. All these years, only once in my life before have I ever been out in it. Don’t you, don’t you…”
“Mamma!” He held her face against his coat. “I’m sorry.”
As soon as they stepped into the box Tonio knew he would not be able to hear anything.
It was no surprise. He’d heard enough stories of what went on, and he knew that with three different performances tonight, there would be a constant shifting among the theaters. Catrina Lisani, in a white satin mask, was already seated with her back to the stage, at a hand of cards with her nephew Vincenzo. The young Lisani were waving and hissing to those below, and the old senator, Catrina’s husband, dozed in his gilded chair, waking suddenly to grumble that he wanted his supper.
“Come here, Alessandro,” said Catrina, “and tell me if all this is true about Caffarelli.” She dissolved into laughter before Alessandro could kiss her hand. But she motioned for Marianna to sit beside her.
“And you, my dear, do you know what it means to me to see you here at last, having some