“An excellent idea!” cried Pantaleone. “You need repose! You have fully earned it, noble signor! Come along, Emilio! On tip-toe! On tip-toe! Sh—sh—sh!”
When he said he wanted to go to sleep, Sanin had simply wished to get rid of his companions; but when he was left alone, he was really aware of considerable weariness in all his limbs; he had hardly closed his eyes all the preceding night, and throwing himself on his bed he fell immediately into a sound sleep.
XXIII
He slept for some hours without waking. Then he began to dream that he was once more fighting a duel, that the antagonist standing facing him was Herr Klüber, and on a fir-tree was sitting a parrot, and this parrot was Pantaleone, and he kept tapping with his beak: one, one, one!
“One … one … one!” he heard the tapping too distinctly; he opened his eyes, raised his head … some one was knocking at his door.
“Come in!” called Sanin.
The waiter came in and answered that a lady very particularly wished to see him.
“Gemma!” flashed into his head … but the lady turned out to be her mother, Frau Lenore.
Directly she came in, she dropped at once into a chair and began to cry.
“What is the matter, my dear, good Madame Roselli?” began Sanin, sitting beside her and softly touching her hand. “What has happened? calm yourself, I entreat you.”