“What did I tell you!” he cried vindictively. “Who is the liar now? Oh, thief! thief! I, Victor, have unmasked thee—”
Here he turned round and suddenly beheld me. His manner grew more exultant. “Ha! It is the signor himself.”
Then I saw that what he held out so triumphantly was my little gold purse, and in the breathless pause that followed, cinema pictures were flashing and flickering in my brain. How vivid they were! Twin sister imploring aid—girl distracted—no money to give her—What’s to be done?—Suddenly sees gold purse—Temptation: “I’ll just borrow one little piece. The signor will never miss it. Some day I’ll pay it back.”
How she struggles, gazes at it like one fascinated, puts out a hand, shrinks back, looks round fearfully! Then at last she takes it in her hand;—a sudden noise,—impulsively she pushes it in the bosom of her dress. Then Victor’s high pitched voice of denunciation, bringing every one on the scene.
All this I saw in a luminous moment, but—where did I come in? My heart bled for the poor girl so tried, so tempted. A quixotic flame leapt in me. There was the vindictive valet; there was the frail Lucrezia; there was the centre of the stage waiting for what?—me. Ah! could I ever resist the centre of the stage?
So I stepped quietly forward, and, to complete the artistic effect, the girl, who had been gazing at me with growing terror, swayed as if to faint. Deftly I caught her over my left arm; then with the other hand I snatched the purse from the astonished Victor, and deliberately pushed it back into the blouse of Lucrezia.
“The girl is innocent,” I said calmly; “the money is her own. I, myself, gave it to her,—this morning.”
Of the scene that followed I have no vivid recollection. I was conscious that poppa herded his flock hurriedly from the room; that Lucrezia disappeared with surprising suddenness; that the dumbfounded Victor was ordered to “begone” by an indignant maître d’hôtel, who, while extremely polite, seemed to regard me with something of reproach.
I was, in fact, rather dazed by my sudden action, so hastily packing the alligator-skin suitcase I paid my bill and ordered a carriage. Telling the man to drive in the direction of Possillipo, I there selected a hotel of a more diffident type, and, in view of my reduced finances, engaged a single room.