A boundless
lassitude weighed upon him, a lassitude which did not invite sleep, a
sense of weariness, so empty, so disconsolate as to be almost a longing
for death; while the fire died out on the hearth and the tea grew cold
in the cup.
CHAPTER IV
He waited in vain during the days that followed for the promised note to
tell him when he might see Elena again----So she did intend to make
another appointment with him; the question was--where? At the Casa
Zuccari again? Would she risk such an imprudence a second time? This
uncertainty kept him on the rack. He passed whole hours in searching for
some way of meeting her, of seeing her again. He went several times to
the Hotel Quirinal in the hope of being received, but never once did he
find her at home. One evening, he saw her again in the theatre with
'Mumps,' as she called her husband. Though only saying the usual things
about the music, the singers, the ladies, he infused a supplicating
melancholy into his gaze. She seemed greatly taken up by the arrangement
of their house. They were going back to the Palazzo Barberini, her old
quarters, but were having them much enlarged, and she was for ever
occupied with upholsterers and decorators, giving orders and
superintending the placing of the furniture.
'Are you going to stay long in Rome?' asked Andrea.
'Yes,' she answered--'Rome will be our winter residence.
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