And then the Marchese sat himself in the seat of danger that had been proposed to him, and, in a certain degree, explained to Bianca the difficulties attending a marriage with her.  He tried hard to recommend to her favourable consideration the plan of a secret marriage—­of a marriage to be kept secret, at all events, for awhile for the present; but such an arrangement, as may easily be understood, did not, in Bianca’s view, meet the requirements of the case.  That was not what she wanted.  It may also be easily understood that the Marchese, occupying the position which the enemy had assigned to him, carried on the contest at an overpowering disadvantage, and was finally routed, utterly conquered, and yielded at discretion.

On her side the advantages of the situation were made the most of with the most consummate generalship.  The limit between that which was permitted to him, and that which was denied to him, was drawn with a firmness and judgment admirably conducive to the attainment of the end in view.  He was permitted to encircle the slender, yielding waist with one arm as he sat by her side on the sofa, and to retain possession of her hand with the other; but any advanced movement from this base of operations was firmly and unhesitatingly repressed.  At one moment, when the attacking party seemed to be on the point of pressing his advances with more vigour than before, it chanced that the Diva coughed; and it so happened that, in the next instant, Gigia entered the room, bringing wood for the fire in her arms—­a diversion which, of course, involved the execution of a hurried movement of retreat on the part of the enemy.

The whole of Bianca’s tactics, indeed, were admirable.  And the result was, as usual, victory.  Once again, as long as he was in her presence and by her side, the unfortunate Marchese felt that the spell was irresistible—­absolutely irresistible by any force of volition that he was able to oppose to it.  Once again it seemed to him that the only thing in the world that it was utterly impossible to him to relinquish was the possession of Bianca.  The hot fit of his fever was on him in all its intensity; and there was nothing that he could do, or suffer, or undergo that he would not rather do, or suffer, or undergo than admit the thought of giving her up.  It really seemed as if there were some physical emanation from her person—­some magnetic stream—­some distillation from the nervous system of one organization mysteriously potent over the nervous system of another, which mounted to his brain, mastered the sources of his volition, and drew him helpless after her, as helplessly as the magnetized patient obeys the will of his magnetizer.

Suddenly both of them heard one o’clock strike from the neighbouring church.  To the Marchese it was a knell which, with horrid warning-note, dragged him forcibly back from his Circean dalliance to the thoughts, the things, and the people whose incompatibility with the possibility of such dalliance was driving him mad.  It was the hour at which he had promised to wait upon the Cardinal.  It was absolutely necessary that he should go at once; and he tore himself away from that fatal sofa-seat with a wrench, and a reflection on the purpose of his visit to the Legate, which seemed to him really to threaten to disturb his reason.