Clelia

“ What does she expect with only one waitress?"
Clelia went away and Smith and I resumed coffee, toast, and a poached egg apiece. Presently Clelia returned, her eyes and cheeks brilliant with suppressed emotion.
"Well," said I, "what's the matter now?"
"Madame Xenos is very, very angry, and she demands to see the landlord."
"Did she employ that word?"
"Yes, she did."
"You say she wants to see me?" I asked.
"She insists."
"But you tell me she's in bed, Clelia. How can I go up?"
Clelia shrugged her pretty shoulders! "Queens don't care. A landlord of an inn has no masculine meaning to a queen." ”

“ Clelia seemed to come out of her trance. She turned to Thusis and said in a naïve, bewildered way:
"It's rather extraordinary, Thusis, that nobody seems to have found out who we really are.... It's almost as though we are not of as much importance as we have been brought up to suppose." ”

“ The face of Clelia Alba grew chillier and harder still.
"Sir, leave me to judge of my own duties as the mother of Adone, and the keeper of this house. He has told me that he is master here. I do not deny it. He is over age. He can bring her here if he chooses, but I go."
"But you must know the child cannot live here with a young man!"
"Why not?" said Clelia Alba, and a cruel smile passed over her face. "It seems to me more decent than lying out in the fields together night after night."
"Silence!" said Don Silverio in that tone which awed the boldest. ”

“ Sabrina did it. She moved in a daze, and presently she was lying in her bed clothed in blue and white, her soft hair piled above her head, and her eyes wide with some unconfessed emotion. But to Clelia, she was accustomed to look vivid; life was her portion always. The girl sped out of the room, and came back presently, her arms full of summer flowers, tiger-lilies, larkspur, monkshood, and herbs that, being bruised, gave out odors. Sabrina's eyes questioned her. Clelia tossed the flowers in a heap on the table. ”

“ I replied politely and suitably, and Clelia presently piloted this dark, lean, vivacious young man to his quarters across the corridor from General von Dungheim.
When she returned her flushed, set features arrested my attention. "Did that Turk annoy you, Clelia?" I asked sharply.
She shrugged: "Tavern gallantry," she replied briefly: "men of that sort are prone to it."
I said: "If any of these people annoy you and Thusis come to me at once."
She laughed: "Dear Monsieur O'Ryan," she said, "Thusis and I know how to take care of ourselves." ”

“ The gay talk and brilliant fancies of the duchess seemed at moments to throw Clelia into a state of distress [284] which almost amounted to horror. “What sobs and moans that poor woman will pour out when she hears that her lover—that noble-hearted and noble-looking young man—has been cast into prison! And the sovereign’s eyes, that condemned him to death. Oh, absolute power, when wilt thou cease to crush our Italy? Oh, vile, base beings! And I—I am a jailer’s daughter; and I did not fail to act up to that noble part when I would not condescend to answer Fabrizio. ”

“ But they had not gone many paces before the knave whose vile arms encircled Julia was felled to the ground by a blow from a sudden hand; and Clelia gave a cry of joy as her deliverer raised her from the ground.
CHAPTER XXIII. THE LIBERATOR
Clelia's liberator, who had arrived so opportunely on the scene of violence, was by no means a giant, being not more than an inch or two above the ordinary height; but the erectness of his person, the amplitude of his chest, and the squareness of his shoulders, showed him to be a man of extraordinary strength. ”

“ At that instant there came a sound of men hurrying. There entered the Prince's aide-de-camp, with order to remove Fabrice from the citadel and to seize the poisoned food. The Duchess had heard of the plot, and had persuaded the Prince to take instant action.
Clelia, when her father was in danger of death on account of the plot, vowed before the Virgin Mary never again to look upon the face of Fabrice. Her father escaped with a sentence of banishment; and Clelia, to the profound satisfaction of the Duchess, was wedded to the Marquis Crescenzi. The Duchess was now a widow, Count Mosca a widower. ”

“ But if I do see Clelia, will she condescend to notice me? Faith, I must risk some indiscretion, so as to attract her attention. Some privileges must surely be allowed to a man in my position. And besides, we two are alone here, and far away from all the world. I am a prisoner, and what General Conti and wretches of his kind probably regard as their inferior, ... but she has so much cleverness, or rather so much heart, as the count believes, that perhaps, even as he says, she despises her father’s trade. That would account for her melancholy. A noble reason, truly, for her sadness. ”

“ Mentally, Thusis snaps her fingers at us, Smith. So does Clelia."
"Clelia is gentler—more girlish and immature," he said, "but she makes no bones about having been in better circumstances. She's sweet but she's no weakling. My curiosity amuses her and she pokes a lot of fun at me."
"Doesn't she tell you anything? Doesn't she give you any hint?"
"No, she doesn't. She's friendly—willing to stop dusting and exchange a little innocent banter with me.... Do you know, O'Ryan, I never before saw such a pretty girl. She's only eighteen. ”

“ But at the doorstone she paused a moment, to add with some recurrence of the intensity the girl had seen in her that other day: "Ain't you glad you got somethin' to do for him? Ain't you glad? You go ahead an' do what you can, an' call yourself lucky you've got it to do."
And Clelia very humbly did it. Then it was another week, and the two friends had not met; but again at twilight Clelia took her walk, and this time she found Sabrina stretched out on the lounge of the sitting-room. ”

“ Courtiers, having nothing to look at within their own souls, are very observant of external matters. The Parmese courtiers had remarked that it was especially when Clelia could not persuade herself to cast off her beloved reveries, and feign interest in outside things, that the duchess was fond of hovering near her, and tried to make her talk. Clelia had fair hair, which contrasted, very softly, with her delicate colouring, somewhat too pale, as a general rule. ”

“ She was a beautiful being, neither old nor young.
She stood there smiling at Clelia's approach.
"How do?" she said softly; but when the girl was near enough to betray the trouble of her face, she added, "Whatever is the matter?"
"Come into the house, Sabrina," said Clelia, in a muffled voice. "I can't tell it out here."
Sabrina dropped her trowel on a heap of weeds, and cast her gardening gloves on the top. She led the way to the house, and when they were in the coolness of the big sitting-room with its air of inherited repose, she turned about and spoke again in her round, low voice. "Well?" ”

“ Clelia came for orders, sweet and serious in her garb of service. Again I laid aside my poem to Thusis.
"I am glad," said I, camouflaging my melancholy with a sprightly allure, "that you have renounced kidnaping kings and have decided to kidnap Mr. Smith instead."
She didn't seem to think it was funny. The newly engaged lack humor. ”

“ She straightened, and resumed the habit of an ordered life.
"Now this is what I was comin' to," she said, "the way to bear it. It ain't a light thing. It's a heavy one. A lot o' folks go through with it, an' they take it different ways. Sometimes their minds give out. Folks say they're love-cracked. Sometimes they die. Yes, Clelia, often I've thought that would be the easiest. But there's other ways."
Clelia's tears were dried. She sat upright and looked at the woman opposite. It suddenly seemed to her that she had never known Sabrina. ”

“ You know nothing about honour."
"Fabrizio is dead," thought Clelia; "they have poisoned him at dinner, or it is arranged for to-morrow." She ran to the aviary, resolved to sing, accompanying herself on the piano. "I shall go to confession," she said to herself, "and I shall be forgiven for having broken my vow to save a man's life." What was her consternation when, on reaching the aviary, she saw that the screens had been replaced by planks fastened to the iron bars. In desperation she tried to give the prisoner a warning in a few words shouted rather than sung. ”

“ Her lively and pleasant Manners—Her Reading and Decision—Her Intercourse with different Classes of Society—Her Kind of Character—The favoured Lover—Her Management of him: his of her—After one Period, Clelia with an Attorney: her Manner and Situation there—Another [Pg 425] such Period, when her Fortune still declines—Mistress of an Inn—A Widow—Another such Interval: she becomes poor and infirm, but still vain and frivolous—The fallen Vanity—Admitted into the House; meets Blaney.
LETTER XV.
CLELIA.
We had a sprightly nymph—in every town
Are some such sprights, who wander up and down ”

“ This acquiescence gratifies the vanity of her husband; he thinks her an admirable [Pg 479] wife, but to every one else, she appears a very insignificant woman.
Imperitus was early a worshipper of the showy attractions of Clelia. She was always a forward girl, and took the command of all the little parties of her own age. This forwardness her parents mistook for mental superiority, and thought they could not bestow too much pains in the cultivation of her extraordinary talents. ”

“ Tennyson,
The Princess
, ii.
Cle'lia, a vain, frivolous female butterfly, with a smattering of everything. In youth she was a coquette; and when youth was passed, tried sundry means to earn a living, but without success.—Crabbe, Borough (1810) .
Clelie (2 syl.) , the heroine of a novel so called by Mdlle. Scudéri. (See CLELIA.)
Clement, one of the attendants of Sir Reginald Front de Boeuf (a follower of Prince John) .—Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.) .
Clem'ent (Justice) , a man quite able to discern between fun and crime. ”

“ My gentle babe, Marina here, I must charge your charity with her. I leave her the infant of your care, beseeching you to give her princely training.' And then turning to Cleon's wife, Dionysia, he said: 'Good madam, make me blessed in your care in bringing up my child': and she answered: 'I have a child myself who shall not be more dear to my respect than yours, my lord'; and Cleon made the like promise, saying: 'Your noble services, prince Pericles, in feeding my whole people with your corn (for which in their prayers they daily remember you) must in your child be thought on. ”

“ When the family moved into this mansion, it was with a consciousness that the only one who really belonged there was Celia. She alone could behave like one perfectly at home. It seemed entirely natural to the others that she should do just what she liked, shut them off from her portion of the house, take her meals there if she felt disposed, and keep such hours as pleased her instant whim. If she awakened them at midnight by her piano, or deferred her breakfast to the late afternoon, they felt that it must be all right, since Celia did it. ”

“ When Cleon saw Prince Pericles and heard of the great loss which had befallen him he said, “Oh, your sweet queen, that it had pleased Heaven you could have brought her hither to have blessed my eyes with the sight of her!”
Pericles replied: “We must obey the powers above us. Should I rage and roar as the sea does in which my Thaisa has, yet the end must be as it is. My gentle babe, Marina here, I must charge your charity with her. ”

“ IN Celia's arms while bless'd I lay,
My soul in bliss dissolved away:
'Tell me,' the charmer cried, 'how well
'You love your Celia; Strephon, tell.'
Kissing her glowing, burning cheek,
'I'll tell,' I cried — but could not speak. ”

“ Twice a week Celia ties up parcels for the Fleet. Ordinary people provide the blankets, sea-boots, chocolate, periscopes and so forth; Celia looks after the brown paper and string, which always seems to me the most tricky part. There are a dozen of them, all working together; and you can imagine (or, anyhow, I can) Vera or Kitty or Isobel, her mouth full of knot, gossiping away about her highly-placed relations, while Beryl or Evelyn or Lorna looks up from the parcel she is kneeling on and interrupts, "Well, my brother heard——— I say, where did you put my scissors?" ”

“ Celia, the purity of sisterly affection, whilst love in all its innocence and gaiety binds in delicious fetters, not only the younger exiles, but the pastoral natives of the forest. A day thus spent, in all the careless freedom of unsophisticated nature, seems worth an eternity of common-place existence! ”

“ Then all at once they beheld a big Celia, whom they spoke of as being home again, but who really seemed never to have been there before—a tall, handsome, confident young woman, swift of tongue and apprehension, appearing to know everything there was to be known by the most learned, able to paint pictures, carve wood, speak in divers languages, and make music for the gods, yet with it all a very proud lady, one might say a queen. ”

“ I CELIA Cherry, cherry, glowing on the hearth, bright red cherry.... When you try to pick up cherry Celia's shriek sticks in you like a pin.
: :
When God throws hailstones you cuddle in Celia's shawl and press your feet on her belly high up like a stool. When Celia makes umbrella of her hand. Rain falls through big pink spokes of her fingers. When wind blows Celia's gown up off her legs she runs under pillars of the bank— great round pillars of the bank have on white stockings too. ”

“ Celia. Come, lady, the hour for bed
The clock hath long since marked.
Julia. I care not yet to rest.
Celia. Shall I Roselo Montes call,
That he may bid thee seek with speed
Those slumbers which thy sleepless eyes so need?
Julia. How sweet to drink his name's sweet syllables.
Place ready for the morrow, Celia, pray,
The dress I yestereven wore,
When I did see my cousin Dorotea.
Celia. Pray heaven, that Roselo Montes be—
Julia. What?
Celia. Thy husband.
Julia. Thou said'st but now that such could never be.
Celia. Love changes never into ever, so
I have heard my grandam say. ”