"Absolutely the same."
"There was no codicil in Ninfo's favor?"
"Not a word had been changed or added. The priest himself, who blandly pretends to be interested in my behalf, and whose every sidelong glance seems to say to me: 'You will have to pay me for my zeal,' insisted on my re-reading the paper carefully."
"And you did it?"
"I did it."
The Piccinino, in view of the princess's self-possession and tranquillity, began to form a more exalted idea of her merit; for hitherto he had seen in her nothing more than a seductive and charming woman.
"I am very well satisfied with these explanations," he said; "but, before taking any steps, I must know something more. Are you quite sure, signora, that within the last two hours Abbé Ninfo has not taken Doctor Recuperati by the throat and extorted that paper from him?"
"How can I know, captain? You alone can tell me, when you have consented to begin your secret investigation. However, the doctor is a strong and brave man, and his simplicity would not go so far as to allow himself to be robbed by a weak, chicken-hearted creature like Abbé Ninfo."
"But what would prevent Ninfo, who is a scoundrel of the first order, and has relations with all the greatest villains in the country, from hiring a bravo, who, for an honorable reward, may have lain in wait for the doctor and murdered him—or who is all ready to do it at this moment?"
The tone in which the Piccinino presented this suggestion caused the three persons who were listening to him a painful shock.