GRACIOSA
Dear me, but your search must have been desperate!
GUIDO (Who speaks, as almost always hereinafter, with sober enjoyment of the fact that he is stating the exact truth unintelligibly.) Yes, my search is desperate.
GRACIOSA
Did you find gems worthy of your search?
GUIDO Very certainly, since at my journey's end I find Madonna Graciosa, the chief jewel of Tuscany.
GRACIOSA Such compliments, Guido, make your speech less like a merchant's than a courtier's.
GUIDO Ah, well, to balance that, you will presently find courtiers in Florence who will barter for you like merchants. May I descend?
GRACIOSA
Yes, if you have something of interest to show me.
GUIDO Am I to be welcomed merely for the sake of my gems? You were more gracious, you were more beautifully like your lovely name, on the fortunate day that I first encountered you … only six weeks ago, and only yonder, where the path crosses the highway. But now that I esteem myself your friend, you greet me like a stranger. You do not even invite me into your garden. I much prefer the manner in which you told me the way to the inn when I was an unknown passer-by. And yet your pennant promised greeting.
GRACIOSA (With the smile of an exceptionally candid angel.) Ah, Guido, I flew it the very minute the boy from the inn brought me your message!
GUIDO Now, there is the greeting I had hoped for! But how do you escape your father's watch so easily?