GRAND DUKE SENDS ME TO CONSOLE PAPI.
I went almost at a run, and from Palazzo Pitti to the Via Cavour is a good bit of way. I was all in a perspiration. I knocked at his door, and after a time his maid-servant appeared.
"Who is it?" says she.
"It is I; open the door."
"Oh, is it you, Signor Professor?"
"Yes, it is I; open the door, I have a word to say to your master."
"The master is in bed; you could speak to him to-morrow."
"No; I must do so now. If he is in bed, no matter; he will be glad all the same."
"But if he is asleep, do you want to wake him?"
"Asleep!" said I; "is he asleep?"