"
"By the way, Signor Barone, have you heard whether the medical
report has been made yet? But I suppose the police would not let us
know what the doctor's opinion was, if it had been made. Who knows
who has been employed to examine the body?"
"I know!" answered the Baron Manutoli, "the Professore Tomosarchi.
And whatever can be found out by examining the body, he will find
out, depend upon it. I was asking about it just now. The examination
will take place to-morrow morning."
"But who ever heard of such a thing as going off to the Pineta at
that time in the morning, and after being up all night at a ball
too?" said Lombardoni, spitefully. "Why, it looks as if a man must
have had some scheme, some out-of-the-way motive of some kind to do
such a thing."
"Not at all," returned Manutoli angrily," I don't see that at all. A
charmingly imagined frolic, I should say, a capital wind-up for a
last night of carnival. I should have liked it myself."
"And then," said one of the others, "one can't refuse such a girl as
La Bianca. And it's two to one that she asked Ludovico to take her,
for a lark."
"But I happen to know," said Leandro, quickly, that it was he who
proposed it to her. He persuaded her to go."
"And how in the world do you know that, pray?" asked Manutoli,
turning sharply upon him.
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