"Yes! I promise you."
With this hope, Pallanza was perfectly contented, and after instructing his landlady, who was in a state of great bewilderment at this sudden reappearance, to look after him, I went out to find Avenza. Fortunately he was well known in Verona, and I had no difficulty in discovering his house. He saw me at once, listened to my account of the way Pallanza had passed the night, and promised to see him without delay. Having thus carried out satisfactorily the first part of my mission, I departed to perform the second, which involved a somewhat embarrassing interview with Signorina Angello.
On arriving at the house of the Maestro, I was received by Petronella, who threw up her hands with an appeal to the saints when she saw my haggard appearance and burst out into a volley of questions.
"Eh! Signor Inglese. Is it not well with you? San Pietro! how the wine does change a face. Here has the Maestro been asking for you every day! 'Well! Well!' said I, 'he has gone away like the lover of the piccola!' And it is true! I see how you return. Eh! Madonna, all men are bad. I have been married--I know."
"You are wrong on this occasion, Petronella. I have not been at the wine, as you seem to think!"
"But your face, Signor Inglese--like that of a sick person! Gran dio!"
"Comes from sitting up all night by the bedside of Guiseppe Pallanza."
Petronella clapped her hands together with an ejaculation of delight
"He is found, then, the poor young man! Ah! it is well I did not waste a centesimo in masses; and those priests are such thieves. Eh! this news will be like wine to the piccola. Go in! go in, Signor Inglese! the Signorina is there, but the Maestro! he is in bed, which is the best place for him, say I."
After this breathless harangue Petronella ushered me into the sitting-room, where I found Bianca sitting by the window, contemplating a portrait of her lost lover. She arose when she saw me and came forward with an anxious look on her paleface, while the faithful but noisy domestic left the apartment.