"Do you know, master," she said with a sober face, "that your departure leaves me in a very difficult position?"
"How so, my child?"
"Pagolo is becoming fonder of me all the time."
"Ah! is it so?"
"And he is forever talking to me about his love."
"What do you reply?"
"Dame! as you bade me, master. I say that I will see, and that perhaps it may be arranged."
"Very well."
"How is it very well? You don't understand, Benvenuto, that he takes everything that I say to him most seriously, and that I may be entering into a real engagement with him. It's a fortnight since you laid down a rule of conduct for me to adopt, is it not?"
"Yes, I think so; I hardly remember."