“Do I deserve this at your hands, gracious prince?” exclaimed Civitella, with extreme emotion.
“You have refrained from pressing me, and I gratefully appreciate your delicacy. In twenty days, as I before said, you shall be fully satisfied.”
“But how is this?” asked Civitella, with agitation and surprise. “What means all this? I cannot comprehend it.”
We explained to him all that we knew, and his indignation was unbounded. The prince, he asserted, must insist upon full satisfaction; the insult was unparalleled.
In the meanwhile he implored him to make unlimited use of his fortune and his credit.
When the marquis left us the prince still continued silent. He paced the apartment with quick and determined steps, as if some strange and unusual emotion were agitating his frame. At length he paused, muttering between his teeth, “Congratulate yourself; he died at ten o’clock.”
We looked at him in terror.
“Congratulate yourself,” he repeated. “Did he not say that I should congratulate myself? What could he have meant?”
“What has reminded you of those words?” I asked; “and what have they to do with the present business?”
“I did not then understand what the man meant, but now I do. Oh, it is intolerable to be subject to a master.”