"'Voyons, sweetheart!' I said. 'There is no need for you to be afraid. I will protect you. Tell me everything that you know about this Camorra.'
"To my amazement, she snatched her hand away and ran screaming down the corridor.
"I changed my tone.
"'Voyons, baby! Send up the landlord to me!' I shouted after her.
"He came with the indignant air of a man whose establishment I had outraged by the commission of an impropriety; but I received him with an indignation equal to his own.
"'Voyons, landlord!' I exclaimed. 'What is the meaning of all this? Is this house a lunatic asylum?'
"He replied that it was nothing of the kind.
"'It is because my house is not a lunatic asylum,' he added, 'that I invite the signor to leave it without delay.'
"It was natural that I should express myself strongly.
"'Leave your house!' I said. 'Neither your manners nor your macaronis tempt me to make a long stay in it. But before I go, I must have an answer to a question. I insist. Attend!'