The Marble Faun; Or, The Romance of Monte Beni - Volume 1

in my father's days (and the same was true of all my endless line of grandfathers, as I have heard), there used to be uncles, aunts, and all manne

e as this. One solitary heart, it is true, may be apt to shiver a little. But, I trust,

hood. Old Tomaso will tell you that the air of Monte Beni is not so favorable to length o

a more satisfactory rea

an to tell it. One cause, however, of the longer and healthier life of my forefathers was, that they had many pleasant

that?" asked

ee!" said hi

th. The butler showing his white head at the door, his master beckoned to him. "Tomaso, bring some Sunshine!" said he. The readiest method of obeying this order, one might suppose, would have been to fling wide the green window-blinds, and let the glow of the summer noon into the carefully shaded room. But, at Monte Beni, with provident caution against the wintry

lone the Monte Beni grape can be produced. There is little else left me, save that patch of vines. Taste some of their juice, and tell me whether it is worthy to be called Sunshine! for that is its name." "A glorious name,

avor must be rare, indeed, if it fulfill the promise of this fragrance, which is

gh its delicate piquancy produced a somewhat similar effect upon the palate. Sipping, the guest longed to sip again; but the wine demanded so deliberate a pause, in order to detect the hidden peculiarities and subtile exquisiteness of its flavo

lities; for, while it required a certain leisure and delay, yet, if you lingered too

Monte Beni wine; for, as it stood in Kenyon's glass, a little circle of light

gar in comparison. This is surely the wine of the Golden Age, such as Bacchus himself first taught mankind to press from the choicest of his grapes. My dear Count

derful qualities, if any of it were sent to market. The Counts of Monte Beni have never parted with a single flask of it for gold. At their banquets, in the olden time, they have entertained princes, cardinals, and once an emperor and once a pope,

f Monte Beni even more abundantly than before. As I understand you, it is a sort of c

et. The wine, Signore, is so fond of its native home, that a transportation of even a few miles turns it quite sour. And yet it is a wine that keeps well in the cellar, underneath this floor, and gathers fragrance, flavor, and brigh

observed Donatello. "When once the flask is uncorked, its finest qualities lose little time in mak

tibly clouded, as he approached the bottom of the flask. The effect of the w

the compartments of the roof, were completely Covered with frescos, which doubtless had been brilliant when first executed, and perhaps for generations afterwards. The designs were of a festive and joyous character, representing Arcadian scenes, where nymphs, fauns, and satyrs disported themselves among mo

een defaced in one spot, and retouched in another, and had peeled from the wall in patches, and had hidden some of their brightest portions under dreary dust, till the joyousness had quite vanished out of them all. It was often difficult to puzzle out the design; and even where it was more readily intelligible, the figures showed like the ghosts of dead and buried joys,-the closer their resemblance to

of the Monte Beni wine. "Your forefathers, my dear Count, must have been joyous fellows, keeping up the vintage merriment throughout the year. It does me good to thi

ello, looking gravely at the painted walls. "It was meant for mirth, as you see; and when I brought my own cheerful

t have put into shape, "to convert this saloon into a chapel; and when the priest tells his hearers of the instability of earthly joys, and would show how

experience that had changed him; "and yonder, where the minstrels used to stand, the altar sh

You startle me, my friend, by so ascetic a design! It would hardly have entered your head, when we first met. Pray do not,-if I may take the freedom of a somewhat elder m

he case in such pictorial designs) the whole series of frescos were bound together, but which it would be impossible, or, at least, very wearisome, to unravel. The sculptor's eyes took a similar direction, and soon began to trace through the

striking resemblance we all of us-Hilda, Miriam, and I-found between your features and those of the Faun of Praxiteles. Then, it seemed an ide

ome," replied the Count, turning away his face

u caught in the Roman air, and which grows upon you, in your solitary life. It need be no hindrance to my taking your bust; for I will catch the liken

om you, you are welcome to put it in the bust. It is not my will, but my necessity, to avoid men's eyes. Only," he added, with a smile which made Ke

r, laughing, as the young Count shook his clustering curls. "I co

e same thought, in which one or both take the profoundest interest; but as long as it remains unspoken, their familiar talk flows quietly over the hidden idea, as a rivulet may sparkle and dimple over somethin

up out of the depths of the young Count's heart. He trembled either with anger or terror, and glared at the sculptor with wild eyes, like a wolf that meets you in the forest, a

last, in an altered and tremulous tone;

ome at about the time of your own departure. Within a day or two after our last meeting at the Churc

ked no furth

ersation, and many shadowy silences. The sculptor had a perception of change in his companion,-possibly of growth and development, but

er of a great many generations of the Monte Beni family. He was aroused, soon after daylight, by the clamor of a tribe of beggars who had taken their stand in a little rustic l

interrupted nap; "who could it be? Donatello has his own rooms in the tower; Stella, Tomaso, and th

ght have had each his suite of apartments without infringing upon one another's ample precincts