"Righteous Samuel! your cavaliers of the Senate are not always mindful of the past, Signore, or these are words that might have been spared. If your excellency is inclined to forget pledges, the fault is not of my seeking; but as for the account that has been so long growing between us, there is not a dealer on the Rialto that will dispute the proofs."
"Well, be it so—would'st thou dun my father's son in the face of the revellers in St. Mark?"
"I would do no discredit to any come of that illustrious race, Signore, and therefore we will say no more of the matter; always relying that, at the proper moment, you will not question your own hand and seal."
"I like thy prudence, Hebrew. It is a pledge thou comest on some errand less ungracious than common. As I am pressed for time, 'twill be a favor wert thou to name it."
Hosea examined, in a covert but very thorough manner, the vacant spot around them, and drawing nearer to the supposed noble, he continued:
"Signore, your family is in danger of meeting with a great loss! It is known to you that the Senate has altogether and suddenly removed Donna Violetta from the keeping of the faithful and illustrious senator your father."
Though Jacopo started slightly, the movement was so natural for a disappointed lover, that it rather aided than endangered his disguise.
"Compose yourself, young Signore," continued Hosea; "these disappointments attend us all in youth, as I know by severe trials. Leah was not gained without trouble, and next to success in barter, success in love is perhaps the most uncertain. Gold is a great make-weight in both, and it commonly prevails. But you are nearer to losing the lady of your love and her possessions than you may imagine, for I am sent expressly to say that she is about to be removed from the city."
"Whither?" demanded Jacopo, so quickly as to do credit to his assumed character.
"That is the point to learn, Signore. Thy father is a sagacious senator, and is deep at times in the secrets of the State. But judging from his uncertainty on this occasion, I think he is guided more by his calculations than by any assurance of his own knowledge. Just Daniel! I have seen the moments when I have suspected that the venerable patrician himself was a member of the Council of Three!"