In a box on the grand tier I saw Aurelia herself in a yellow silk
gown and a hood of the same, half fallen from her dark hair. There she
sat, as if absorbing the light--Aurelia, and no other, in a gallant
company. She was smiling, interested, eager. Her lips were parted; I saw
her little teeth; I saw the rise and fall of her white breast. Starting
violently, a sharp intense pain pierced my heart. I shut my eyes and
tried to recall myself, while the theatre was hushed, like death. I felt
myself swaying about, and to save myself from falling, stretched out my
hand for some support. Unfortunately I found it; for I caught and held
the bony ridge of the nose of Il Nanno, which was just on the level of
my elbow, and drove my fingers into it until he yelled with pain. Risu
solvuntur! The audience rose at us in wild delight--but I, in my horror
and concern, knew nothing but that here was I, a poor fool in motley,
and there, at some few paces from me, radiant as a star in the
firmament, was the adorable being under whose maddening rays I had
fallen, as struck by the sun. I gave one short cry, and fell on my
knees. "Pardon, pardon, queen of my soul!" I began, when Il Nanno,
beside himself with mortification, sprang at me like a wild beast and
gripped my throat. Had not the contessa and Truffaldino pulled him off
me, I should have been strangled. The audience hushed, the curtain fell.
I knew no more until I found myself lying on my strand paillasse at the
inn and saw Belviso, yet in his skirt and spangles, leaning over me with
vinegar in a sponge.
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