Little Poems in Prose

terrifying hearts and stupefying minds; frus- trated of his hopes and deceived in his fore- sight; such suspicions, not exactly justified, yet not altogether without justification, shot across my mind as I looked upon the countenance of the Prince, upon which a new-found paleness ceaselessly increased upon its ordinary pale- ness like snow falling upon snow. His lips tightened more and more, and his eyes flamed with an interior fire like that of jealousy and bitterness, even while he ostensibly applauded the talents of his old friend, the strange buf- foon who made such excellent fun of death. At a certain moment I saw His Highness lean back towards a little page-boy who was standing behind him and whisper in his ear. The merry countenance of the pretty child lit up with a smile; then he hurriedly left the royal box as if to execute an urgent commission. Some minutes later a sharp and prolonged hiss interrupted Fanciullo in one of his best moments, tearing asunder at one and the same moment every ear and every heart, and, from that part of the room whence this unex- pected sound of disapproval had leapt, a child, stifled with laughter, ran into the corridor. Fanciullo, shaken, awakened in his dream, first closed his eyes, then opened them almost at once, enormously enlarged; then opened his