could be missed by some. His dark eyelashes and pink lips had such a sheen to them they appeared to have been painted. Of course they weren’t. And on his fingers he wore an assortment of rings that caught the light as he used his hands with deliberate grace in the most languid movements. His black hair he left curled naturally at his shoulders; it was just a little too long. And he didn’t talk at all, which made Tonio realize he had never heard the sound of Domenico’s voice, either in song or speech. It intrigued him. Domenico was just always there looking on. He had seen Lorenzo stabbed with no change of expression.
As he took the bottle of wine now, wiping his lips first with a lace napkin, his eyes fixed on Tonio and their stare was unnerving. He was appraising Tonio in some new light. And Tonio thought, This creature knows so well he is beautiful that he is beyond vanity.
In the coming opera production on the little conservatorio stage, Domenico would play the part of the first woman. And Tonio found himself suddenly fascinated by the prospect of seeing this boy transformed into a girl. He thought of the stays of a corset closing around Domenico’s waist and it actually made him blush so that he lost track of what Giovanni was saying to him.
So he stopped thinking about it. And then the thought that this was a woman in breeches began to unnerve him. He took a little uncomfortable breath. Domenico’s head was slightly to the side. He was almost smiling. In the candlelight his skin looked like porcelain, and he had a little cleft to his chin that suggested a man, which made him all the more confusing.
When they had gone, Tonio sat on the side of the bed thinking. He blew out the candle and lay down and tried to sleep, and when sleep wouldn’t come right away, he imagined he was on Vesuvius. He felt that trembling earth again; he felt it against his eyelids.
And this became a ritual with him every night for years, the feel of that earth and the rumble of that mountain.
2
BUT TONIO HAD no real need to induce sleep after this first evening.
The next morning, though he was still bruised from the night on the mountain, he awoke in exceptional humor. He was to start his studies with Guido immediately.
Even the colors and the scents of the conservatorio rather appealed to him. There was in particular a fragrance which he associated with wood instruments that seemed to linger in the hallways, and he liked it. He liked the sounds of the practice rooms coming alive.
And enjoying a somewhat plain breakfast, especially the fresh milk, he found himself just a little entranced with the early morning stars which he could just see over the wall from the refectory window.
The air was almost silky, he was thinking. It had an inviting warmth. You felt you could have walked outdoors naked.
And it was exhilarating to him to be awake so early.
Even Guido Maffeo looked good to him.
The Maestro was at his harpsichord, making notes with his pen, and it appeared he’d been working for hours. His candle had burned low; the darkness was turning to mist outside his window; and settling back to wait at a bench against the wall, Tonio for the first time absorbed the details of this little studio.
It was a stone room, its hard floor relieved only by a rush mat. And yet all its furnishings—the harpsichord, high desk, chair and bench—were lavishly painted with floral designs and shining enamel. They seemed vibrant against the cold walls. And the Maestro in his black frock coat and small linen stock looked somber and clerical here, but as if he belonged to all of it.
He was not always so terrible to look at, Tonio was thinking, in fact, he was somewhat handsome. But his expression was so often full of rage, and those brown eyes of his were just a little too large for his face and gave the rest of it a pugnacious quality. But it was altogether such a mobile and expressive face; it was so full of turbulence and caring that Tonio could not help but be fascinated with it.
Yet he could not think of this man in Flovigo, or in Ferrara, or in Rome in that garden where they had embraced. If he thought of these things, Tonio would despise him. So he did