“Ah then you have seen him?”
“No, but I’ve heard him. He speaks straight out (the floors of this house are not built as we build in Italy) and his voice is the same I’ve noticed in the people of the wild parts, where they ‘shoot.’ Besides, she has told me—some few things. He’s a chemist’s assistant.”
“A chemist’s assistant? Santo Dio! And the other one, a year ago—more than a year ago—was a bookbinder.”
“Oh the bookbinder——!” the old woman wailed.
“And does she associate with no people of good? Has she no other society?”
“For me to tell you more, Prince, you must wait till I’m free,” she pleaded.
“How do you mean, free?”
“I must choose. I must either go away—and then I can tell you what I’ve seen—or if I stay here I must hold my tongue.”
“But if you go away you’ll have seen nothing,” the Prince objected.