"Then go open the door. Be guarded in your words, and show no disquietude. Bring him to this room; tell him that I am engaged with the foreign merchant; if he does not sit down at once, watch a favorable moment to lead him to the arm-chair. Then call me and I will do the rest."
"You, then, are determined to make me entice the Signor Geronimo to sit down in the arm-chair?"
Turchi replied in a threatening voice and with flashing eyes:
"Pietro Mostajo, remember the Superintendent of Lucca."
Julio left the building, went to the garden-gate and opened it.
"Benvenuto, Signor Geronimo," he said, "what good luck brings you here on a visit to my master? It is a long time since we have seen you."
"It is indeed a long time," replied the young noble with a genial smile, as he walked towards the house. "But the place looks so wild and uncared for. Did not the Signor Turchi speak of having the garden put in order?"
"Yes; but for some time my master has been very melancholy, and nothing seems to give him pleasure."
"I know it, Julio; but things will be better for him now."
"Would that your words were true, signor!"