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"A tall gentleman came here late last night, Signor Professore," said Mariuccia, as I sat down in the old green arm-chair. "He seemed very angry about something, and said he must positively see you." The idea of Benoni flashed uneasily across my brain. "Was he the grave signore who came a few days before I left?" I asked. "Heaven preserve us!" ejaculated Mariuccia.
"Ah, professore, it looks almost as though it were you yourself who were to make your début" said she, laughing and leaning back in her chair. "Your name is on every corner in Rome, and I saw you coming out of a side door of the theatre this morning." Nino trembled, but reflected that if she had suspected anything she would not have made so light of it.
She was doubtless brewing herself a quiet cup with my best Porto-Rico, which I do not allow her to use. She thought I was never coming back, the cunning old hag! "Dio mio, Signor Professore! A good Easter to you!" she cried, as I heard the flat pattering of her old feet inside, running to the door. "I thought the wolves had eaten you, padrone mio!" And at last she let me in.
Who would have thought a short month ago that such a life could have so ended?" "The 24th of March, Signor Professore, is the anniversary on which, more fervently than on any other day of the year, I thank God for all his mercies," said the lawyer, with grim solemnity. "I don't understand you, Signor Dottore; what has the 24th of March to do with this?" said Tomosarchi, staring at him.
"And the mysterious," added the baroness, who had not spoken, "for his departure without showing himself has left me the impression of a sweet dream. Give me your arm, Professore Cardegna. I will not stay here any longer, now that the dream is over." Nino sprang to her side politely, though, to tell the truth, she did not attract him at first sight.
A woman, wrapped in a black shawl, was standing in an archway, looking up to the window. "Eh, eh! the Signor Professore has admirers," said Sora Lodovica. "Medea, mia dea!" I burst out as loud as I could, with a boy's pleasure in disconcerting the inquisitive passer-by.
With these thoughts in his mind Signor Fortini suddenly changed his immediate purpose of going to the Professore Tomosarchi; and determined to walk as far as the Porta Nuova and make inquiry himself of the people at the gate as to the testimony they might be able to give respecting Paolina's exit from the city at a very early hour on that morning.
Well, this girl sees the Marchese and Bianca driving out alone together at that time in the morning to the Pineta that much we know sees them cheek by jowl together in a little bagarino, doing heaven only knows what billing and cooing. Now it seems to me that she would, under these circumstances, be likely to feel not altogether kindly towards the lady in possession, eh, Signor Professore?
I was never there at night." "I will go there at night," she said briefly. "Ah you would have it lit up with torches, as they do the Coliseum?" "No. Is there no moon in Italy, professore?" "The moon, there is. But there is such a little hole in the top of the Rotonda" that is our Roman name for the Pantheon "that it would be very dark." "Precisely," said she.
Behind the Palazzo Castelmare there was an extensive range of stabling and coach-houses, with a large stable-yard opening on to a back street, which was the nearest way to the house of the Signor Professore Tomosarchi, on whom Signor Fortini thought he would call, just to ask whether he had yet seen the body, or at what hour in the morning he thought of making his post-mortem examination.
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