Don Orsino | Page 8

been imparted at home and had at least the
advantage of being homogeneous.
It must not be supposed that Orsino's father and mother were satisfied
with this sort of education. But it was not easy to foresee what social
and political changes might come about before the boy reached mature
manhood. Neither Giovanni nor his wife were of the absolutely

"intransigent" way of thinking. They saw no imperative reason to
prevent their sons from joining at some future time in the public life of
their country, though they themselves preferred not to associate with
the party at present in power. Moreover Giovanni Saracinesca saw that
the abolition of primogeniture had put an end to hereditary idleness,
and that although his sons would be rich enough to do nothing if they
pleased, yet his grandchildren would probably have to choose between
work and genteel poverty, if it pleased the fates to multiply the race. He
could indeed leave one half of his wealth intact to Orsino, but the law
required that the other half should be equally divided among all; and as
the same thing would take place in the second generation, unless a
reactionary revolution intervened, the property would before long be
divided into very small moieties indeed. For Giovanni had no idea of
imposing celibacy upon his younger sons, still less of exerting any
influence he possessed to make them enter the Church. He was too
broad in his views for that. They promised to turn out as good men in a
struggle as the majority of those who would be opposed to them in life,
and they should fight their own battles unhampered by parental
authority or caste prejudice.
Many years earlier Giovanni had expressed his convictions in regard to
the change of order then imminent. He had said that he would fight as
long as there was anything to fight for, but that if the change came he
would make the best of it. He was now keeping his word. He had
fought as far as fighting had been possible and had sincerely wished
that his warlike career might have offered more excitement and
opportunity for personal distinction than had been afforded him in
spending an afternoon on horseback, listening to the singing of bullets
overhead. His amateur soldiering was over long ago, but he was strong,
brave and intelligent, and if he had been convinced that a second and
more radical revolution could accomplish any good result, he would
have been capable of devoting himself to its cause with a
single-heartedness not usual in these days. But he was not convinced.
He therefore lived a quiet life, making the best of the present,
improving his lands and doing his best to bring up his sons in such a
way as to give them a chance of success when the struggle should come.
Orsino was his eldest born and the results of modern education became

apparent in him first, as was inevitable.
Orsino was at this time not quite twenty-one years of age, but the
important day was not far distant and in order to leave a lasting
memorial of the attaining of his majority Prince Saracinesca had
decreed that Corona should receive a portrait of her eldest son executed
by the celebrated Anastase Gouache. To this end the young man spent
three mornings in every week in the artist's palatial studio, a place
about as different from the latter's first den in the Via San Basilio as the
Basilica of Saint Peter is different from a roadside chapel in the
Abruzzi. Those who have seen the successful painter of the nineteenth
century in his glory will have less difficulty in imagining the scene of
Gouache's labours than the writer finds in describing it. The workroom
is a hall, the ceiling is a vault thirty feet high, the pavement is of
polished marble; the light enters by north windows which would not
look small in a good-sized church, the doors would admit a carriage
and pair, the tapestries upon the walls would cover the front of a
modern house. Everything is on a grand scale, of the best period, of the
most genuine description. Three or four originals of great masters, of
Titian, of Reubens, of Van Dyck, stand on huge easels in the most
favourable lights. Some scores of matchless antique fragments, both of
bronze and marble, are placed here and there upon superb carved tables
and shelves of the sixteenth century. The only reproduction visible in
the place is a very perfect cast of the Hermes of Olympia. The carpets
are all of Shiraz, Sinna, Gjordez or old Baku--no common thing of
Smyrna, no unclean aniline production of Russo-Asiatic commerce
disturbs the universal harmony. In a full light upon the wall hangs a
single silk carpet of