You shall be taken to his room immediately. You will see,
Signor Barone, that we have endeavoured to make him as comfortable
as the circumstances would allow."
"Manutoli," said Ludovico, after the first expressions of
astonishment and condolence had been spoken between the young men,
"of course I knew I should see you here before long; and my note was
to call you at once, instead of waiting to see you in the morning;
because I want you to do something for me before you sleep this
night--something that I don't want to wait for till to-morrow
morning."
"To be sure, my dear fellow, anything; I am ready for anything, if
it takes all night."
"Thanks. Well, now, look here: I am innocent of this deed--"
"S' intende; of course you are."
"S' intende, of course; that's just the worst of it. It is so much a
matter of course that I should say I had not done it if I had, that
my saying so is of no use at all. Nevertheless, to you I must say
that I neither did it nor have I the slightest conception or
suspicion who did. And you may guess that the fact itself is a
horror and a grief to me that I shall never get over, putting this
dreadful suspicion of my own guilt out of the question. A horror and
a grief, and a remorse, too; for if I had not moved away from her
the tragedy could not have happened.
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