The Yellow Mask / Желтая маска. Уилки КоллинзЧитать онлайн книгу.

      About a century ago, there lived in the ancient city of Pisa a famous Italian milliner, who, by way of vindicating to all customers her familiarity with Paris fashions, adopted a French title, and called herself the Demoiselle Grifoni. She was a wizen little woman with a mischievous face, a quick tongue, a nimble foot, a talent for business, and an uncertain disposition. Rumor hinted that she was immensely rich, and scandal suggested that she would do anything for money.

      The one undeniable good quality which raised Demoiselle Grifoni above all her rivals in the trade was her inexhaustible fortitude. She was never known to yield an inch under any pressure of adverse circumstances. Thus the memorable occasion of her life on which she was threatened with ruin was also the occasion on which she most triumphantly asserted the energy and decision of her character. At the height of the demoiselle's prosperity her skilled forewoman and cutter-out basely married and started in business as her rival. Such a calamity as this would have ruined an ordinary milliner; but the invincible Grifoni rose superior to it almost without an effort, and proved incontestably that it was impossible for hostile Fortune to catch her at the end of her resources. While the minor milliners were prophesying that she would shut up shop, she was quietly carrying on a private correspondence with an agent in Paris. Nobody knew what these letters were about until a few weeks had elapsed, and then circulars were received by all the ladies in Pisa, announcing that the best French forewoman who could be got for money was engaged to superintend the great Grifoni establishment. This master-stroke decided the victory. All the demoiselle's customers declined giving orders elsewhere until the forewoman from Paris had exhibited to the natives of Pisa the latest fashions from the metropolis of the world of dress.

      The Frenchwoman arrived punctual to the appointed day-glib and curt, smiling and flippant, tight of face and supple of figure. Her name was Mademoiselle Virginie, and her family had inhumanly deserted her. She was set to work the moment she was inside the doors of the Grifoni establishment. A room was devoted to her own private use; magnificent materials in velvet, silk, and satin, with due accompaniment of muslins, laces, and ribbons were placed at her disposal; she was told to spare no expense, and to produce, in the shortest possible time, the finest and nearest specimen dresses for exhibition in the show-room. Mademoiselle Virginie undertook to do every-thing required of her, produced her portfolios of patterns and her book of colored designs, and asked for one assistant who could speak French enough to interpret her orders to the Italian girls in the work-room.

      'I have the very person you want,' cried Demoiselle Grifoni. 'A work-woman we call Brigida here-the idlest slut in Pisa, but as sharp as a needle-has been in France, and speaks the language like a native. I'll send her to you directly.'

      Mademoiselle Virginie was not left long alone with her patterns and silks. A tall woman, with bold black eyes, a reckless manner, and a step as firm as a man's, stalked into the room with the gait of a tragedy-queen crossing the stage. The instant her eyes fell on the French forewoman, she stopped, threw up her hands in astonishment, and exclaimed, 'Finette!'

      'Teresa!' cried the Frenchwoman, casting her scissors on the table, and advancing a few steps.

      'Hush! call me Brigida.'

      'Hush! call me Virginie.'

      These two exclamations were uttered at the same moment, and then the two women scrutinized each other in silence. The swarthy cheeks of the Italian turned to a dull yellow, and the voice of the Frenchwoman trembled a little when she spoke again.

      'How, in the name of Heaven, have you dropped down in the world as low as this?' she asked. 'I thought you were provided for when-'

      'Silence!' interrupted Brigida. 'You see I was not provided for. I have had my misfortunes; and you are the last woman alive who ought to refer to them.'

      'Do you think I have not had my misfortunes, too, since we met?' (Brigida's face brightened maliciously at those words.) 'You have had your revenge,' continued Mademoiselle Virginie, coldly, turning away to the table and taking up the scissors again.

      Brigida followed her, threw one arm roughly round her neck, and kissed her on the cheek. 'Let us be friends again,' she said. The Frenchwoman laughed. 'Tell me how I have had my revenge,' pursued the other, tightening her grasp. Mademoiselle Virginie signed to Brigida to stoop, and whispered rapidly in her ear. The Italian listened eagerly, with fierce, suspicious eyes fixed on the door. When the whispering ceased, she loosened her hold, and, with a sigh of relief, pushed back her heavy black hair from her temples. 'Now we are friends,' she said, and sat down indolently in a chair placed by the worktable.

      'Friends,' repeated Mademoiselle Virginie, with another laugh. 'And now for business,' she continued, getting a row of pins ready for use by putting them between her teeth. 'I am here, I believe, for the purpose of ruining the late forewoman, who has set up in opposition to us? Good! I will ruin her. Spread out the yellow brocaded silk, my dear, and pin that pattern on at your end, while I pin at mine. And what are your plans, Brigida? (Mind you don't forget that Finette is dead, and that Virginie has risen from her ashes.) You can't possibly intend to stop here all your life? (Leave an inch outside the paper, all round.) You must have projects? What are they?'

      'Look at my figure,' said Brigida, placing herself in an attitude in the middle of the room.

      'Ah,' rejoined the other, 'it's not what it was. There's too much of it. You want diet, walking, and a French stay-maker,' muttered Mademoiselle Virginie through her chevaux-de-frise of pins.

      'Did the goddess Minerva walk, and employ a French stay-maker? I thought she rode upon clouds, and lived at a period before waists were invented.'

      'What do you mean?'

      'This-that my present project is to try if I can't make my fortune by sitting as a model for Minerva in the studio of the best sculptor in Pisa.'

      'And who is he! (Unwind me a yard or two of that black lace.)'

      'The master-sculptor, Luca Lomi-an old family, once noble, but down in the world now. The master is obliged to make statues to get a living for his daughter and himself.'

      'More of the lace-double it over the bosom of the dress. And how is sitting to this needy sculptor to make your fortune?'

      'Wait a minute. There are other sculptors besides him in the studio. There is, first, his brother, the priest-Father Rocco, who passes all his spare time with the master. He is a good sculptor in his way-has cast statues and made a font for his church-a holy man, who devotes all his work in the studio to the cause of piety.'

      'Ah, bah! we should think him a droll priest in France. (More pins.) You don't expect him to put money in your pocket, surely?'

      'Wait, I say again. There is a third sculptor in the studio-actually a nobleman! His name is Fabio d'Ascoli. He is rich, young, handsome, an only child, and little better than a fool. Fancy his working at sculpture, as if he had his bread to get by it-and thinking that an amusement! Imagine a man belonging to one of the best families in Pisa mad enough to want to make a reputation as an artist! Wait! wait! the best is to come. His father and mother are dead-he has no near relations in the world to exercise authority over him-he is a bachelor, and his fortune is all at his own disposal; going a-begging, my friend; absolutely going a-begging for want of a clever woman to hold out her hand and take it from him.'

      'Yes, yes-now I understand. The goddess Minerva is a clever woman, and she will hold out her hand and take his fortune from him with the utmost docility.'

      'The first thing is to get him to offer it. I must tell you that I am not going to sit to him, but to his master, Luca Lomi, who is doing the statue of Minerva. The face is modeled from his daughter; and now he wants somebody to sit for the bust and arms. Maddalena Lomi and I are as nearly as possible the same height, I hear-the difference between us being that I have a good figure and she has a bad one. I have offered to sit, through a friend who is employed in the studio. If the master accepts, I am sure of an introduction to our rich young gentleman; and then leave it to my good looks, my various accomplishments, and my ready tongue, to do the rest.'

      'Stop! I won't have the lace doubled, on second thoughts. I'll have it single, and running all round the dress in curves-so. Well, and who is this friend of yours employed in the studio? A fourth