An old hand, a
man accustomed to be at odds with the laws and the police, would
have known better. Did he make the same statement here?" asked
Fortini, rather surprised.
"On my asking him, as I felt compelled to do, what special
conversation had passed between him and the girl that morning, he
told me the fact," replied the Commissary.
"But what led you to ask him such a question?" said Fortini.
"Ah!--something that had reached my ears. We are forced, you know,
Signor Giovacchino, to have very long ears in our business. His
conversation with you to-day was held in the street,--a bad place
for such talk, Signor Giovacchino."
"And not chosen by me for such a purpose, as you may imagine. Little
could I guess what sort of confidence I was about to hear."
"Not that it makes any difference. All that would have had to come
out, you know, Signor Giovacchino."
"Oh, quite so, quite so; no, no difference in the world. Did he come
to you immediately on leaving me?"
"No; it would have been better upon the whole if he had done so. He
went first, it seems, to the residence of a lady, one Signorina
Paolina Foscarelli, being very desirous, he said, of not leaving her
to hear of the business from other lips than his own. It is a pity,
because his abstaining from flight might have been something in his
favour, if he had not made it appear, that his remaining in the city
might have been caused by his desire to see again this Paolina.
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