"Well, how goes it?" Salvator cried to him. "What are you hanging your head for, superlatively happy man, who can kiss and caress his darling every day?"
"Ah, Salvator!" answered Antonio; "it is all over with my happiness. The devil delights in making me the sport of his tricks. Our plots have all come to nothing, and we are at open war with the accursed Capuzzi."
"So much the better! so much the better!" said Salvator. "But tell me what has been happening."
"Just imagine, Salvator," said Antonio. "When, yesterday, I was going back to Strada Ripetta, after I had been gone about two hours, bringing all sorts of essences, &c., there I saw the old gentleman standing at his door, completely dressed. At his back were the Pyramid Doctor, and the accursed Sbirro, whilst there was some little many-coloured object running in and out amongst their legs; this, I believe, was that little abortion of a Pitichinaccio. As soon as the old fellow saw me he menaced me with his fist, uttered the most gruesome curses and maledictions, and swore he would have every bone in my body broken if I dared to come to his door. 'Be off with you to all the devils in Hell, cursed Beard-scratcher!' he croaked and screamed at me. 'You thought to make a fool of me, with all sorts of infernal lies and deceptions; you have striven like the very Satan himself to tempt and mislead my Marianna. But wait a little. I will spend my last farthing, if necessary, in getting your life-light snuffed out before you are aware of it. And as for your fine patron, Signor Salvator--the murderer, the robber, the cheat-the-gallows!--he shall to hell to join his leader, Mas' Aniello. Him I'll get kicked out of Rome; that won't give me much trouble.' Thus did the old man rave; and as the cursed Sbirro, egged on by the Pyramid Doctor, made as if he would set on me and attack me, whilst the curious populace began to crowd round, what could I do but get off as quickly as possible? In my despair I thought I should not come to you, for I felt certain you would only laugh--and in fact you hardly can help doing so at this moment."
Indeed, when Antonio ceased speaking, Salvator did laugh heartily.
"Now," he cried, "now the affair is really beginning to become most delightful. But I shall now tell you, circumstantially, my dear Antonio, what happened in Capuzzi's house when you had gone out. Scarcely had you got down-stairs, when Signor Splendiano Accoramboni--who, heaven knows how, had found out that his bosom friend Capuzzi had broken his leg in the night--came, in the most solemn state, to see him, bringing a surgeon with him. Your bandagings, and your whole treatment of Capuzzi, could not but excite some suspicion; the surgeon took the splints and bandages off, and of course found--what we know very well--that there was nothing whatever the matter with Capuzzi's foot; not so much as a sprained ankle. Very well; it did not require much acuteness to find out the rest."
"My dearest Maestro," asked Antonio, full of amazement, "how on earth did you manage to find out all this?--how could you get into Capuzzi's house, and know all that went on?"
"I told you," said Salvator, "that in Capuzzi's house--and in fact on the same storey with him--there lives an acquaintance of Dame Caterina's. This acquaintance, the widow of a wine-merchant, has a daughter whom my little Margerita often goes to see. Girls have a special faculty for finding out others like themselves, and in this way Rosa (the wine-merchant's widow's daughter) and Margerita soon discovered a little peep-hole in the dining-room, which is the next room to a dark chamber which opens into Marianna's room. The whisperings of the girls by no means escaped Marianna's notice, neither did the peephole; so that the way to mutual communications was marked out, and taken advantage of. When the old gentleman is having his afternoon nap, the girls have a right good chatter to their heart's content. You have no doubt noticed that little Margerita (her mother's favourite, and mine) is by no means so grave and reserved as her elder sister Anna, but a droll, merry creature. Without having exactly told her about your love affair, I have asked her to get Marianna to let her know all that goes on in the house. In this she has proved very clever; and if I, just now, laughed a little at your pain and despair, it was because I have it in my power to prove to you that your affairs have just, for the first time, got into an exceedingly favourable groove. I have a whole sackful of delightful news for you."
"Salvator!" cried Antonio, his eyes bright with joy, "what hopes dawn upon me! Blessings on the peephole in the dining-room. I can write to Marianna--Margerita will take the note with her."
"No, no, Antonio," said Salvator, "not quite that; Margerita shall do us good service without being exactly your go-between. Besides, chance--which often plays strange tricks--might place your love-prattle in the hands of old Capuzzi, and bring a thousand new troubles upon Marianna's head, just at the moment when she is on the point of getting the amorous old goose properly and completely under her little satin shoe. For just listen how affairs are progressing. The style in which Marianna received him when he was taken home has turned him round completely. He believes no less a thing than that Marianna has ceased to care for you, but has given one half of her heart to him, so that all he has to do is to get hold of the other half. Since she has imbibed the poison of your kisses, she has all at once become some three years cleverer and more experienced. She has not only convinced the old gentleman that she had nothing to do with our escapade, but that she abhors the idea of it, and would repel with the deepest scorn any plot which should have the object of bringing you into her proximity. In the excess of his delight at this, he vowed that if there should be anything he could do to please her, he would set about it in a moment; she had but to give her wish a name. On this she very quietly said what she would like would be that her zio carissima should take her to the theatre outside the Porto del Popolo, to see Signor Formica. The old fellow was somewhat startled by this, and consulted with the Pyramid Doctor and Pitichinaccio; and the result is that Signor Pasquale and Signor Splendiano are actually going to take Marianna to the said theatre to-morrow. Pitichinaccio is to be dressed as a waiting-maid; but he only consented to this on condition that Pasquale should give him a periwig, over and above the plush doublet, and that he and the Pyramid Doctor should relieve each other, from time to time, of the task of carrying him home at night. This has been all agreed upon; and this remarkable three-bladed-clover will really go, to-morrow evening, with beautiful Marianna, to see Signor Formica, at the theatre outside the Porto del Popolo."