Peppina was looking hard at her, and there was a queer glitter in her eyes. She had been dreaming through the night of the lottery and possible riches, and she immediately connected Wilbraham’s visit with her disappointment. There was, however, no use in talking.
“I am sorry, signora,” she said, drawing a deep angry breath. “It would have been good for the poor fellow.”
“He will find something better to do.”
“In Rome!” The girl flung out her hands with a gesture of hopelessness which made Mrs Maxwell uncomfortable.
“Really, Peppina,” she said pettishly, “as you have not told him, I can’t see that there is much harm done. If I give you five lire for him, he ought to be delighted.”
“The signora is always so generous!” said Peppina. Her fingers closed round the note, but her eyes had not lost their dangerous gleam, and her face was pale. Mrs Maxwell, quite satisfied with herself, went away, wondering, it must be confessed, how Teresa would bear this interruption of her plans for the good of mankind. But she thought if they all opposed her wish to enlist Cesare, that she would yield, especially because, for Sylvia’s sake, she avoided anything which Wilbraham appeared particularly to dislike.
Peppina went that evening to the house of a sister-in-law near the Piazza Navona, and sent a child to seek for Cesare. When he came, she made a sign that she wished to speak to him alone, and they went out into the piazza. The south wind fluttered warmly, and the sky was thick with stars. She told her story quickly, holding back Donna Teresa’s name, because she had never been sure that he would have worked for her. As it was, he only heard that a chance had been snatched from him.
“It was the Englishman, I know it!” cried Peppina. “You were quite right. He hates you.”
“I will be even with him one day,” said Cesare in a low fierce voice.
“He came to the house in all that rain; they talked—talked—I heard them. And as soon as he had gone, in comes the signora to me. She thought herself so clever, because she did not say his name. As if I were a fool!”