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Updated: May 21, 2025
And Ruggiero and Bastianello sat side by side amidships looking out at the gleaming sea to windward. "What hast thou?" asked Bastianello in a low voice. "The pain," answered his brother. "Why let thyself be consumed by it? Ask her in marriage. The Marchesa will give her to thee." "Better to die! Thou dost not know all." "That may be," said Bastianello with a sigh.
And that is enough, because it seems that we know each other." "We have been in the same crew once or twice," said Ruggiero. "It seems to me that we have," answered his brother. Neither of the two smiled, for they meant a good deal by the simple jest. "Tell me, Ruggiero," said Bastianello after a pause, "since you never loved Teresina, who is it?" "No, Bastianello.
Bastianello felt unaccountably nervous, and when he had spoken he regretted it. "I hope it is good news," answered the girl. "Come to the window at the end of the corridor. We shall be further from the door there, and there is more air. Now what is it?" she asked as they reached the place she had chosen.
With a quick nod, she turned and left them, and went in search of Teresina, whose duty it was to accompany her to the bath. The maid was unusually cheerful, though she had not failed to notice the change in Beatrice's manner which had taken place since the day of the betrothal, and she understood it well enough, as she had told Bastianello.
And it chanced that Beatrice was there, and she looked down and saw that it was Ruggiero. Then she sighed and drew back. But Bastianello did not understand, and when the laugh subsided at last, he said so. "I laughed yes. I could not help it. But you are a good brother, and very honest, and when you want to marry Teresina, you may have my savings, and I do not care to be paid back."
He refused, and rightly, to believe that this was because she had needed his help in the matter of the telegram. She could have called Bastianello, who was in her own service, and Bastianello would have done just as well. But she had chosen to employ the man who had so rudely forgotten himself before her less than twenty-four hours earlier. Why?
"Who is it?" asked Bastianello of the boatman who passed nearest to him. "The Giovannina," answered the man. She had returned from her last voyage to Calabria, having taken macaroni from Amalfi and bringing back wine of Verbicaro.
Bastianello and Teresina exchanged a word now and then in a whisper and Ruggiero came last, watching the dark outline of Beatrice's graceful figure, against the bright light which shone outside at the upper end of the tunnel. Many confused thoughts oppressed him, but they were like advancing and retreating waves breaking about the central rock of his one unalterable purpose.
"Who goes slowly, goes safely, and who goes safely goes far," answered Bastianello. "Listen to me. Ruggiero has also seven hundred and sixty-three francs in the bank, and will soon have more, because he saves his money carefully, though he is not stingy.
"But I do not understand," repeated Bastianello, in the greatest bewilderment. "You loved her so " "Teresina? No. I never loved Teresina, but I never knew you did, or I would not have let you believe it. It is much more I who have cheated you, Bastianello, and when you and Teresina are married I will give you half my earnings, just as I now put them in the bank."
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