"Troppo buono, Signor Conte! Truly a good glass of hot ponche would
be the saving of me! It is very kindly thought of. Well, then;
listen in your ear. But you won't say a word about it till to-morrow
morning. It is all right. The thing is done. The writings signed.
Have I done well, eh? Have I deserved well of the city, eh? But you
won't say a word!"
"Bravo, Signor Ercole! Bravo, bravissimo! Not a word. Not a word. I
run to order the punch. Good night. Not a word to a living soul!"
And the Conte Leandro ran off to give a hasty order at the cafe in
the Piazza, on his way to the Circolo to spread his important news
all over the town.
CHAPTER II
The Marchese Lamberto di Castelmare
Signor Leandro Lombardoni felt himself to be abundantly repaid for
his hour of waiting in the cold street, and for the bajocchi
expended on the glass of punch, by the position he occupied at the
Circolo all that evening. He was the centre of every group anxious
to gain the earliest information respecting a matter of the highest
interest to all the society of Ravenna. And the matter belonged to a
class of subjects respecting which the Conte Leandro was especially
desirous of being thought to be thoroughly well-informed, and to
have interest in the highest quarters.
The fact was, that Signor Ercole Stadione, the Ravenna impresario,
had undertaken a journey to Milan, in the hope of accomplishing a
negotiation in which the whole of the smaller provincial city had
felt itself deeply interested.
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