"Bah! what a bore? My uncle is always making himself the maestro di
casa, the manager, the protector, the servant of all the world. Tell
the Marchese I'll go directly," he said to the servant; then added
to his companion, "Come, Leandro, don't desert me! Let's go together
and see what these Venetian women want."
"I ought to go to the Contessa Giulia at two. She'll be waiting for
me, and will be furious if I disappoint her. Never mind, what must
be, must be! I Tre Re! Ugh, what a distance; why, it is at the other
end of the town?"
"Never mind, come along; it will do you good to walk half a mile for
once and away," returned Ludovico, who knew perfectly well how much
to believe about the Contessa Giulia's despair at his friend's non-
appearance.
Thus the two young men went together to the locanda de' Tre Re to
execute the commission entrusted to his nephew by the Marchese
Lamberto.
"Yes," said a slatternly girl, who came forth from some back region
at the call of the two young men, and who stared at them with an
offensive mixture of surprise and understanding interest, when they
inquired for the ladies recently arrived from Venice. "Yes, they
were upstairs, on the right hand, in No. 13." So they climbed the
stairs, knocked at No. 13, were told to passare by the voice of
Signora Orsola, and in the next instant were in the room with the
two strangers.
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