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Updated: May 25, 2025
We must not tell the Baroness these dreadful stories. They would upset her nerves." Malipieri had not supposed Volterra's wife to be intensely sensitive. He moved, as if he meant to take his leave presently. "By the bye," he said, "whereabouts should you recommend me to look for a lodging?" The Baron reflected a moment. "If I were you," he said, "I would go to a hotel.
It was no wonder that she smiled in her sleep as she lay resting in the warm afternoon, in her own room. Her mother had made her lie down, partly because she was still tired, and partly because it would be convenient that she should be out of the way if Malipieri came.
Anybody might be called Vittorio Bruni, and Vittorio Bruni might be anybody, from a senator to a shoemaker; but if he had been a senator, or any political personage, Malipieri would have heard of him. There was something very odd, too, about his knowledge of Carthaginian antiquities, which was entirely limited to the contents of Malipieri's own pamphlets.
"I was thinking, sir," he said, as he threw away the wooden match, "that if we kill him here we may have trouble in disposing of his body. Thank you, sir," he added as he took over the drill again and made it clang on the stones. "There will be no trouble about that," Malipieri answered, speaking over the hole. "We can drop him down the overflow shaft in the passage."
Malipieri drew back and showed it to his man, who examined it, understood, and put it into his pocket without a word. Then they both went in through the aperture in the wall. The masonry outside was rectangular, as far as it could be seen. Inside, it was built like a small circular cistern, smoothly cemented, and contracting above in a dome, that opened by a square hole to the well-shaft above.
If Malipieri had refused to leave his lodging in the palace, Volterra could have answered by filling the house with people in his own employ, or by calling in government architects, archaeologists and engineers, and taking the whole matter out of Malipieri's hands. The first thing to be ascertained was, who had entered the vaults and reported the state of the work to Volterra.
Malipieri smiled indifferently. "Surely," said the Baron, affecting some surprise, "if I ask you, as a favour, to move somewhere else, you will do so!" To tell the truth, he was not prepared for Malipieri's extreme forbearance, for he had expected an outbreak of temper, at the least, and he still feared a positive refusal. Instead, the young man did not seem to care a straw.
A short silence followed, and Malipieri waited for her to speak, but she hesitated. In years, she was but lately out of childhood, but the evil of the world had long been near her in her mother's house, and she knew well enough that if she did what he asked, and if it were known, her reputation would be gone.
So far, Volterra had created the impression that the young man had been concerned with a dealer in smuggling them out of the country; but in case of an investigation it could easily be proved that they were gone before Malipieri had arrived in Rome in answer to Volterra's invitation. Besides, the Senator had discovered that the young archaeologist was much more celebrated than was convenient.
Malipieri watched her face, but her expression showed no signs of any inward disturbance. "Are you sure that nobody will interrupt us?" she asked, as Masin went out and shut the door. "Quite sure. What can I do to serve you?" "I have had this disgusting letter."
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