“Gia,” said she.
“You need n't rub it in,” said he. “For the matter of that, you yourself entertained him in your kitchen.”
“Scusi?” said she.
“Ah, well—it was probably for the best,” he concluded. “I daresay I should n't have behaved much better if I had known.”
“It was his coming which saved this house from being struck by lightning,” announced Marietta.
“Oh—? Was it?” exclaimed Peter.
“Yes, Signorino. The lightning would never strike a house that the Lord Prince Cardinal was in.”
“I see—it would n't venture—it would n't presume. Did—did it strike all the houses that the Lord Prince Cardinal was n't in?”
“I do not think so, Signorino. Ma non fa niente. It was a terrible storm—terrible, terrible. The lightning was going to strike this house, when the Lord Prince Cardinal arrived.”
“Hum,” said Peter. “Then you, as well as I, have reason for regarding his arrival as providential.”