Often he went to the window, and looked out, as if expecting
something. Three or four times he observed him start violently at
the sound of a door banging in some other part of the palace.
Once in the course of the afternoon the servant had had a genuine
excuse for entering the room. The Conte Leandro had called, and
asked if the Marchese was at home. He had not seen the Marchese
Ludovico in the course of the day, and was curious to find out what
had been the result of the eavesdropping that he had retailed to the
Marchese Lamberto. That it had not availed to induce the Marchese to
interfere in any way to put a stop to the excursion, the Conte
Leandro had the means of knowing, as will presently appear. But his
curiosity was doomed to remain unsatisfied. The Marchese had replied
with a savage ill-humour, that the old servant had never seen in his
master before, that he did not want to see the Conte, leaving the
domestic to modify the harshness of the reply as he might.
When, however, some hours later, Signor Fortini came to the door,
and despite what the servants told him of the state their master was
in, and of his refusal to see the Conte Leandro, insisted on being
announced, the Marchese admitted him.
The first thought that flashed through the lawyer's brain, when he
came into the presence of his old friend and client, was a profound
sense of self-congratulation at his own freedom from all connection
with womankind.
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