"Then you may just as well stay here altogether," said Bertalda.
"Go, go!" said Cilli.
And now again it was Ferdinanda who thought that Bertalda could not quickly enough put on the cloak which she had thrown off in the hot studio, or find the bonnet which she had flung down anywhere.
"I called a cab as I came," said Bertalda; "it is waiting at the door; we shall be at my house in five minutes." At the house door there were two cabs waiting.
Bertalda helped Ferdinanda to get into the first, and was in the act of following her, when the driver of the second carriage asked whether the gentleman was not coming.
"What gentleman?"
"The one who called me. Doesn't he belong to you?"
"I know nothing about him," said Bertalda, getting in and shutting the door behind her.
The vehicle was hardly in motion before Antonio came out of the house, with a broad-brimmed hat upon his black hair, and a large cloak over his shoulders--he had brought them both from Italy, and they were the first things which he had laid his hands upon--and with a small travelling-bag under his cloak into which he had thrust a change of linen. He rushed up to the driver of the second cab:
"I told you to wait at the corner!"