HE. Have you so soon forgotten your husband, Violante? He, surely, has that right! And it is thoughtful of him, too, to pause in the midst of his antiquarian researches in Rome, to think of his young wife and send her a gift. He appreciates you more than I imagined. Under his grizzled and scientific exterior, he is a human being. I respect him for it.
He puts down his hat and stick.
SHE. My husband! But why, then, do you bring it?
HE. I was commissioned by him to do so. I received the package, this morning, with a letter. Shall I read it to you?
He takes out the letter.
SHE. Yes…. But why should he not send it direct to me?
HE. Your husband is a man of curious and perverse mind, Violante, and, in spite of his interest in dead things, not without some insight into the living soul. I think it gave him an obscure pleasure to think of me the bearer of his gift. But shall we let him speak for himself?
He opens the envelope.
SHE. Yes. Read the letter.
She sits down to listen.