Show A TEXAS ROMANCE Vendetta of the Duke With the Scene Laid in Venice and Houston I Over the scene hangs a deep star studded skI sk-I is midnight in Venice On the balcony of a magnificent ducal palace on the waters of the Adriatic sits the Countess Ginccioli By her side is Pete Skidmore the talented young American Amer-ican painter The brilliant but soft light of an Italian moon floods the marble steps of the palace and the crystal sea I where shadowy gondolas wind in and out like the mazy figures in some halfre membered dream Do you love me asks the countess in low overripe tones Easy says Pete kissing her jeweled hand I As he speaks a black gondola slides past and something is thrown and falls at the feet of the countess Corpo di Bacchol she exclaims I is a vendetta The gondola glides past again and someone some-one in it hisses some words in Italian through his clenched teeth That must be a steamboat says Pete and the escape valve Is out of order I is the Duke Rivoli says the countess coun-tess He loves me to distraction You must fly Why He has declared a vendetta Whats that Anything like a dividend divi-dend Do not jest FJv oh fly ere it is too late One kiss and then farewell As Pete Skidmore kisses the countess another prolonged hissing sound comes from the gondola Pete looks up at the I summit of Mount Vesuvius in the distance dis-tance Sounds like we were going to have another an-other eruption he mutters to himself Pete then puts on his shoes and goes back to the palace where he boards I I It was twenty minutes to 6 oclock in Texas Pete Skidmore had finished his art studies in Venice and ha returned to I Houston He has arisen early and to oblige an old friend Is painting a barn a i dark red color for 3 onehalf in advance ad-vance He often sighs when he thinks of Ven ice and the dark languishing eyes of the Countess Ginccioli and through hs head runs the refrain of a song she used to sing Barcipa setta mup a ganon me Suddenly the ladder is jerked from under I un-der him and he falls into a bucket of red tHe t-He colors auickly and rises to his feet rses The Duke Di Rivoli stands before him Zls ees ze vendetta to ze death hisses hiss-es the duke between hs clenched teeth I have come to kepi you What for asks Pete 1 Rrrrrevenge says the duke For what asks Pete I married ze countess IH I Moonlight on the Adriatic I The Duchess Di Rivoli nee Ginccloll waits upon the balcony A gondola elides to the steps and the Duke Di Rivoli springs out The duchess hastens to meet him Did vou kill him she whispers I did not What Did vou fail In your mission Is it possible that a Rivoli could declare a vendetta and then let it go to pro f test testPeace Flametta says the duke I do not deserve your reproaches What did you do to him I left him running a weekly newspaper newspa-per in Texas The duchess sinks down covers her face with her hands and shudders violently vio-lently I Oh Luigl she sobs revenue Is all right but wa there any need to be so L inhuman You should have killed him Houston Post |