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The shock jostled him back to a thinking state. Here was no ordinary donkey-driver. The hand that had rested for a moment on his arm was the hand of a gentleman. The man's face was vaguely, elusively familiar; if the lieutenant had not seen him before, he had at least seen his picture. The man had pretended he could not talk Italian, but Scusi it came out very pat when it was needed.
"I brought them for the Signorina from the wood. Behold! the tints are hers. The cream upon Madonna's shoulder, here; the soft red flame upon her cheek is there." "Ah! I thank you," said Eve. "Good night." "Scusi, I beg that the Signorina take them." "No, no," answered Eve, obliged to speak, and, hanging on her foot, half turned away, a moment before flight; "why should I rob you so?"
"Scusi," murmured the Prince as he leant across the man to pull at her sleeve. "I must see you," he said urgently. "When? Where?" "When you like," she answered, but her eyes were startled as they met his. "No. 27 Borgo San Jacopo. The only door on the sixth landing." "Very well. To-night, then, and in an hour's time." The press of incoming masqueraders screened them.
Tony looked back and smiled. He swept off his hat with a deferential bow. 'Scusi, he murmured, and jumped over the wall into the grounds of Villa Rosa. The lieutenant gasped. If anything could have been more insultingly inadequate to the situation than that one word Scusi, it did not at the moment occur to him. Jeering, blasphemy, vituperation, he might have excused, but this!
'I am acquainted with a number of families that I have never told you about, she observed. 'Scusi, signorina, he stammered; and immediately, 'Tony, zat donk'-man, what you do wif him? 'Oh, he and my father are climbing Monte Brione to-day. 'What time zay come home? 'About seven o'clock, I fancy.
She sat up and regarded him sternly. He had the grace to blush. 'Tony, did you kiss my hand? 'Scusi, signorina. I ver' sorry to wake you, but it is tree o'clock and ze Signor Papa he say we must start just now or we nevair get to ze top. 'Answer my question. 'Signorina, I cannot tell to you a lie. It is true, I forget I am just poor donkey-man. I play li'l' game.
'Scusi, signorina. You you acquaint wif him? 'Yes, certainly. I have known him for six years. Don't forget to deliver the note; it's important. They raised their parasols and departed, while Gustavo stood in the gateway bowing. The motion was purely mechanical; his thoughts were labouring elsewhere.
"You are coming with us, Signor Barone?" said the Pretore. Artois was about to say yes, when he saw pass across the aperture of the doorway of the cottage the figure of a girl with bent head. It disappeared immediately. "That must be Maddalena!" he thought. "Scusi, signore," he said, "but I have been seriously ill.
"It is down in the olive woods and quite near the lake, and you must go to it by a lane from the Galleria di Sopra, the upper road to Castel Gandolfo." After a momentary hesitation he added, "Scusi! But are you thinking of taking it, signore?" Jean started. It had not occurred to him that the house might be empty. "I don't know," he answered cautiously. "Has it been to let long?"
"Don't say that!" he said. "Don't call me that!" He had almost hissed the words out. Salvatore started, and for an instant, as they walked side by side, the two men looked at each other with eyes that told the truth. Then Salvatore, without asking for any explanation of Maurice's sudden outburst, said: "Va bene, signore, va bene! I thought for to-day we were all compares. Scusi, scusi."
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