CHAPTER II.
Now at last the education is accomplished! Viola is nearly sixteen. The Cardinal declares that the time is come when the new name must be inscribed in the Libro d'Oro — the Golden Book set apart to the children of Art and Song. Yes, but in what character? — to whose genius is she to give embodiment and form? Ah, there is the secret! Rumours go abroad that the inexhaustible Paisiello, charmed with her performance of his Nel cor più non me sento, and his Io son Lindoro, will produce some new masterpiece to introduce the débutante. Others insist upon it that her forte is the comic, and that Cimarosa is hard at work at another Matrimonio Segreto. But in the meanwhile there is a check in the diplomacy somewhere. The Cardinal is observed to be out of humour. He has said publicly — and the words are portentous — "The silly girl is as mad as her father; what she asks is preposterous!" Conference follows conference — the Cardinal talks to the
