"A dream—a fancy."
"Trust to neither dream nor fancy. Let me cast your nativity. You have often refused me—for what reason I know not."
"For a very simple one. I have always had a conviction that I was not born to be fortunate or happy; and evil fortune comes with so sure and swift a foot that he would be a fool who would add the needless agony of expectation to the inevitable doom."
"But since you have brooded over a dream, a mere disturbance of the brain, it were better to consult the stars."
"No, Vincenti. For myself I will seek no further knowledge. 'Tu ne quæsieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi, finem Di dederint.' But in this house you may easily discover the hour of my birth, which you have often asked me when we were abroad, and which I had forgotten. The old family Bible is in the next room, and in that I know my father recorded the date and hour of my advent here, as it had been the custom in his family to record all such events, however insignificant in their influence upon the world. If you choose to satisfy your own curiosity—"
"To satisfy my own keen interest in your welfare, you should say, my lord," replied the Italian eagerly. "Yes, if the day and hour are there correctly entered, I will cast your nativity."
"Do so, but breathe not a word to me of the result; I would not be wiser than I am."
"I will be dumb."
"The Bible is with other folios in the lowest shelf on the right hand of the fireplace."
"I will find it."