Bruno did not pause a moment on his way, though more than one called to him as he drove, to know if it were true indeed that this night there was to be a gala for the Lamia and the princes.
He nodded, and flew through the chill grey afternoon, splashing the deep mud on either side of him.
The figure of St. Giusto on his high tower; the leafless vines and the leafless poplars; the farriers' and coopers' workshops on the road; grim Castel Pucci, that once flung its glove at Florence; the green low dark hills of Castagnolo; villa and monastery, watch-tower and bastion, homestead and convent, all flew by him, fleeting and unseen; all he thought of was that the boy would be waiting, and want food.
He was reckless and furious in his driving always, but his mule had never been beaten and breathless as it was that day when he tore up the ascent to his own farm as the clocks in the plain tolled four.
He was surprised to see his dog lie quiet on the steps.
"Is he there?" he cried instinctively to the creature, which rose and came to greet him.
He went out again and shouted to the air.
The echo from the mountain above was all his answer. When that died away the old silence of the hills was unbroken.
He returned and took the food and the little rose-tree out of his cart.
He had bought them with eagerness, and with that tenderness which was in him, and for which dead Dina had loved him to her hurt. He had now no pleasure in them. A bitter disappointment flung its chill upon him.
Disappointment is man's most frequent visitor--the uninvited guest most sure to come; he ought to be well used to it; yet he can never get familiar.
Bruno ought to have learned never to hope.
But his temper was courageous and sanguine: such madmen hope on to the very end.
He put the things down on the settle, and went to put up the mule. The little rose-tree had been too roughly blown in the windy afternoon; its flowers were falling, and some soon strewed the floor.
He covered the food with a cloth, and set the flower out of the draught. Then he went to see his sheep.
There was no train by the seaway from Rome until night. Signa would not come that way now, since he had to be in the town for the evening.
"He will come after the theatre," Bruno said to himself, and tried to get the hours away by work. He did not think of going into the city again himself. He was too proud to go and see a thing he had never been summoned to; too proud to stand outside the doors and stare with the crowd while Pippa's son was honoured within.