The Torrents Of Spring

XVIII
An hour later the waiter came in again to Sanin, and handed him an old,
soiled visiting-card, on which were the following words: ‘Pantaleone
Cippatola of Varese, court singer (cantante di camera) to his Royal Highness
the Duke of Modena’; and behind the waiter in walked Pantaleone
himself. He had changed his clothes from top to toe. He had on a black
frock coat, reddish with long wear, and a white piqué waistcoat, upon
which a pinch-beck chain meandered playfully; a heavy cornelian seal
hung low down on to his narrow black trousers. In his right hand he carried
a black beaver hat, in his left two stout chamois gloves; he had tied
his cravat in a taller and broader bow than ever, and had stuck into his
starched shirt-front a pin with a stone, a so-called ‘cat’s eye’. On his forefinger
was displayed a ring, consisting of two clasped hands with a
burning heart between them. A smell of garments long laid by, a smell of
camphor and of musk hung about the whole person of the old man; the
anxious solemnity of his deportment must have struck the most casual
spectator! Sanin rose to meet him.
‘I am your second,’ Pantaleone announced in French, and he bowed
bending his whole body forward, and turning out his toes like a dancer.
‘I have come for instructions. Do you want to fight to the death?’
‘Why to the death, my dear Signor Cippatola? I will not for any consideration
take back my words – but I am not a bloodthirsty person!…
But come, wait a little, my opponent’s second will be here directly. I will
go into the next room, and you can make arrangements with him. Believe
me I shall never forget your kindness, and I thank you from my
heart.’
‘Honour before everything!’ answered Pantaleone, and he sank into an
arm-chair, without waiting for Sanin to ask him to sit down. ‘If that ferroflucto
spitchebubbio,’ he said, passing from French into Italian, ‘if that
counter-jumper Klüberio could not appreciate his obvious duty or was
afraid, so much the worse for him!… A cheap soul, and that’s all about
it!… As for the conditions of the duel, I am your second, and your interests
are sacred to me!… When I lived in Padua there was a regiment of
the white dragoons stationed there, and I was very intimate with many
of the officers!… I was quite familiar with their whole code. And I used
often to converse on these subjects with your principe Tarbuski too… . Is
this second to come soon?’
‘I am expecting him every minute – and here he comes,’ added Sanin,
looking into the street.
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