"Heard? Why, the news—the great news," Baldassare spoke in the same jeering tone. He drew himself up, affecting to look over the cavaliere's head as he bent on his stick before him.
"Go on," retorted the cavaliere, doggedly.
"How strange you have not heard any thing!" Trenta now looked so enraged, Baldassare thought it was time to leave off bantering him. "Well, then, cavaliere, since you really appear to be ignorant, I will tell you. After you left the Orsetti ball, Malatesta asked me and the other young men of their set to supper at the Universo Hotel."
"Mercy on us!" ejaculated the cavaliere, who was now thoroughly irritated, "you consider yourself one of their set, do you? I congratulate you, young man. This is news to me."
"Certainly, cavaliere, if you ask me, I do consider myself one of their set."
The cavaliere shrugged his shoulders contemptuously.
"We talked of the accident," continued Baldassare, affecting not to notice his sneers, "and we talked of Nobili. Many said, as you do, that Nobili is in love with Nera Boccarini, and that he would certainly marry her. Malatesta laughed, as is his way, then he swore a little. Nobili would do no such thing, he declared, he would answer for it. He had it on the best authority, he said, that of an eye-witness." (Ah, cruel old Carlotta, you have made good your threat of vengeance!) "An eye-witness had said that Nobili was in love with some one else—some one who wrote to him; that they had been watched—that he met some one secretly, and that by-and-by all the city would know it, and that there would be a great scandal."
"And who may the lady be?" asked the cavaliere carelessly, raising his head as he put the question, with a sardonic glance at Baldassare. "Not that I believe one word Malatesta says. He is a young coxcomb, and you, Baldassare, are a parrot, and repeat what you hear. Per Bacco! if there had been any thing serious, I should have known it long ago. Who is the lady?" Spite of himself, however, his blue eyes sparkled with curiosity.
"The marchesa's niece, Enrica Guinigi."
"What!" roared out the cavaliere, striking his stick so violently on the ground that the sound echoed through the solitary street. "Enrica Guinigi, whom I see every day! What a lie!—what a base lie! How dare Malatesta—the beast—say so? I will chastise him myself!—with my own hand, old as I am, I will chastise him! Enrica Guinigi!"