CHAPTER V
"Miserrimus"
He found the Marchese in a state which really seemed to threaten his
life or his reason. It would scarcely be correct to say of him that
he was depressed, for that phrase is hardly consistent with the
feverish condition of excitement in which he was. There was evidence
enough in his appearance of the presence of deep-seated and
torturing misery, especially devastating in the case of men of his
race, constituted as they are with nervous systems of great
delicacy, and unendowed with that robustness of fibre which enables
the more strongly-fashioned scions of the northern peoples to stand
up against misfortune, and present a bold front to adversity.
There is no connection in the minds of this race between the
repression and control of emotion and their ideal of virile dignity.
Reticence is impossible to them. The Italian man, it is true, has
been often described as eminently reticent; and the northern popular
conception represents him as apt to seek the attainment of his
object by the concealment of it. Nor is that representation an
erroneous one. But the two statements are in no wise inconsistent.
The Italian man is by nature, habit, and training an adept at
concealing his thoughts; he rarely or never seeks to conceal his
emotions.
Whether there were thoughts in the Marchese's mind, which he had no
wish or intention to disclose to his visitor, might be a matter of
speculation to the latter.
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