"Locked up! She is probably dancing with her harlequin."
"You don't mean to say that you let her go?"
"Quite so. She is all right now; she has come back to her senses. I had six words with the youth, however; he'll treat her better—for the present, at least; I have frightened him."
"What did you mean when you said you'd send him away?"
"That was what brought her round. He has had a hankering for a long time to emigrate to—to the land of the free; he would go in a minute if his passage were paid and he had a hundred dollars in his pocket—go and never think of her again; she knows this. But the land of the free doesn't want him—he is incorrigibly lazy; and his departure would end her as far as I am concerned—make her perfectly useless."
"Good heavens! you're not going to take that murderess back?"
"I can't take her back without sending her away first. And that I haven't done," answered Dennison.
"But won't she be arrested, in any case? Every one will know that she attacked this girl, and that the girl has fled."
"No one knows that she attacked her. And even if it is guessed, Tuscan peasants are not so easily alarmed as you suppose; they understand each other. As to the disappearance of this one, I shall explain it by saying that I decided to advance the money to send her as far as Florence, instead of making her wait for the remittance which is expected from the consul; it is known that she was to go before long, in any case. It will cost me something, but I like peace and quietness. The other woman is perfect as a servant, and the cause of her jealousy removed she will continue perfect."
"Brrrr!" said Gray, uttering the sound that accompanies a shudder.