"Oh! do you think that it is possible for me to remain unmoved when I hear someone say that he knows where you hide, that you will be arrested, that you will be—— Oh! I will not utter that horrible word!"
"In the first place, my dear love, why are you so silly as to place any faith in these fables, invented by one person to give himself importance, and repeated by others because lies always find fools enough who are ready to spread them? I, kill a peasant! to take her vegetables, I presume? I, steal an ass! Why, what on earth should I do with it?—And you could believe that, Miretta! you, who have seen my wealth, and who know of the thirst for gold that possesses me now!"
"Mon Dieu! will it never be satisfied, this passion which drives you to crime? Giovanni, do you mean to pass your whole life in this way?"
"No; a few months more.—Hark ye, next spring I mean to return to my lovely Italy."
"You will take me, will you not?"
"Yes, I will take you. I will buy a palace, a superb villa. I will have splendid equipages. You shall be covered with diamonds! I propose that Milan and Florence shall be dazzled by my magnificence and my luxurious mode of life."
"Why do you not carry out your plan now?"
"No; this will be a good winter in Paris; we will go in the spring."
"Giovanni, no one can defy danger forever with impunity! No one can be always stronger than the laws and his fellow men! The moment of retribution arrives when he believes that he is safe from all danger."
"Enough, Miretta, enough! I have told you before that your arguments are of no avail.—Let us take this street—we shall soon be at the Hôtel de Mongarcin."