'Nor try to speak to anyone?'
'No, no, I won't.'
'If you are found out, do not say that I put you there.'
'Of course not.'
'Come with me,' he said sharply.
She started after the host, who left the hall and went up the outside stair to the second-floor. Carmela gave a glance from the parapet up the two roads that lead from Naples to Barbassone's inn, but they were quiet and deserted. Not the slightest noise of a carriage or footsteps came up in that noontide silence. The inn-keeper took Carmela across the room where he and his wife slept, and opened the door of the smaller one alongside where the inn provisions were kept. A whiff of rancid lard and ripe cheese caught Carmela by the throat and made her cough.
'You will be all right here, my dear,' Barbassone said to her, leading her to a window that looked to the front of the inn. 'If these honest fellows come, they will dine down there in the arbour. You will see their every movement. Only you must promise you will stay behind the window-glass.'
'Yes, sir, I will,' Carmela promised.
'You are not to go down, whatever happens. Do you understand? I don't want to get into a scrape with my customers.'
'Yes, sir; I will not go down, never fear,' she said in a low tone, half shutting her eyes, as if she saw a frightful sight before her.