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Felipe looked at him with that bright and good-natured smile which was known to be so deadly. He spread out his arms in a gesture of lofty indifference. "What will you?" he asked, with a laugh. "It will come your fortune." And Tomaso smiled gravely.
At an energetic command from Signor Tomaso the lion slipped into the swinging circle, and began to skip in a ponderous and shamefaced fashion. The house thundered applause. For perhaps half a minute the strange performance continued, the whip snapping rhythmically with every descent of the rope.
And two trick comedians, with slippers that flapped a foot beyond their toes, undertook to wipe out the memory of what had happened. The show was touring the larger towns of the Northwest. On the following day it started, leaving Tomaso behind in hospital, with a shattered shoulder and bitter wrath in his heart.
But in a moment I was glad that I had not said this; after her words to me it would have been unmanly, and, besides, I knew she knew it. When I lost sight of her in the grove by the house, I turned and picked up the pages of the story of Tomaso and Lucilla, which I had dropped. In doing so I saw her inkstand, with its open case near by it, on the ground by the stone on which she had been sitting.
The stout man leant forward with his chin in the palm of his hand and reflected for some moments. He was singularly reflective, and seemed to be making a mental calculation. "See here," he said at length, looking at Tomaso with quick business-like eyes. He was beginning to recover his colour now. "See here, I am not going to give you money between gentlemen, eh! such things are not done.
A salvo of clapping ran smartly round the tiers King's usual tribute, which he had so learned to expect that any failure of it would have dispirited him for the whole performance. Signor Tomaso had taken his stand, whip in hand, just inside the cage, with Hansen opposite him, to see that the animals, on entry, went each straight to his own bench or pedestal.
In short, there was no rent to pay, as there were plenty of empty mansions open to the poor, and a few coppers would have sufficed for food, easily contented and sober as one was. "But oh, sir," Tomaso continued, "things were ever so much better under the Pope. My father, a mason like myself, worked at the Vatican all his life, and even now, when I myself get a job or two, it's always there.
He told me at parting, he longed to consult with you, how next to play this mighty game, on which so many kingdoms are staked, and which he is resolved to win, or be nothing. 'An imperfect relation, replied Philander, 'we had of this affair, but I never could learn by what artifice the Prince brought about his good fortune at Court; but of your own escape I have heard nothing, pray oblige me with the relation of it. 'Sir, said Tomaso, 'there is so little worthy the trouble you will take in hearing it, that you may spare yourself the curiosity. 'Sir, replied Philander, 'I always had too great a share in what concerned you, not to be curious of the story. 'In which, replied Tomaso, 'though there be nothing novel, I will satisfy you.
"Who are they?" "You haven't far to look," returned Tomaso, drawing himself up haughtily; "myself, for instance." Toro burst into a loud and derisive laugh. "You?" he said, contemptuously. "Yes, I." "Why, I have led a band of gallant fellows years ago a band of thrice our strength; aye, and what is more, I have led them to victory again and again to victory and fortune."
In short, there was no rent to pay, as there were plenty of empty mansions open to the poor, and a few coppers would have sufficed for food, easily contented and sober as one was. "But oh, sir," Tomaso continued, "things were ever so much better under the Pope. My father, a mason like myself, worked at the Vatican all his life, and even now, when I myself get a job or two, it's always there.
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