"Pardon me, pardon me," replied Hector, pretending that his spur had caught on a superb rose-bush by which they were standing, and which he crushed with his whole might. "I did not at all expect to find you here; I thought you were at Naples."
"It makes little difference what you thought. You are here, and so am I. What is the difficulty?"
"Why, my dear fellow, I want you to help me find my cousin Alezia, who has the assurance to go out alone on horseback, without my mother's permission, and who is somewhere about here, so I am told."
"What do you mean by somewhere about here? If you think that the young lady you mention is in this neighborhood, stick to the street and look for her."
"But deuce take it, my dear fellow, she is here!" said Hector, compelled by Nasi's tone and by the presence of his witnesses to pronounce himself a little more clearly. "She is either in your house or in your garden, for she was seen to ride into your avenue—and, God's blood! there's her horse now!—my horse, I mean, for it was her good pleasure to take him for her expedition, and leave her hack for me." And he tried, by a loud, forced laugh, to enliven an interview which Nasi did not seem disposed to treat so lightly.
"Signor," he replied, "I have not the honor to be sufficiently well acquainted with you for you to call me my dear fellow. I must ask you, therefore, to address me as I address you. Furthermore, I will call your attention to the fact that my house is not a tavern nor my garden a public promenade, that passers-by should take the liberty to explore it."
"Faith, signor, I am very sorry if you are displeased," said Hector. "I thought that I knew you well enough to venture to enter your grounds, and I was not aware that your country house was a fortress."
"Such as it is, signor, palace or hovel, I am the master of it, and I beg you to consider yourself informed that no one is at liberty to enter it without my permission."
"By Bacchus! signor count, you are terribly afraid that I shall ask leave to enter your house, for you refuse me beforehand with a tartness which gives me much food for thought. If, as I believe, Alezia Aldini is in this house, I begin to hope, for her sake, that she came here on your account. Give me that assurance, and I will go away content."
"I do not recognize any man's right to question me on any subject," rejoined Nasi; "least of all do I recognize your right to question me concerning a woman to whom your conduct at this moment is a deadly insult."