Abbess. I need instruct you no further. I do not wish anything ungodly or unfit to appear; nor do I wish anything in the play to suggest that there is any impropriety in the illustrious audience.
Grimana. I understand, Mother. It is chiefly a question of the dressing of the ladies.
Abbess. Precisely. I shall leave it in your charge. Remembering, Sister Grimana, the laws of Venice and the customs of the house of your father, the most illustrious Admiral, and you Sister Rosalba, the fêtes in the gardens of your uncle, the Doge—surely it will be properly cared for.
[Exit the Abbess.]
Grimana. All this because we have been given a bourgeois Confessor—
Rosalba. No matter for that, Sister. I love puppets. We had once a puppet festival, when they played the whole history of the Serene Republic, and there were great ships with puppet sailors—
[They begin to separate the puppets with their wires and strings. Enter Sister Benvenuta.]
Benvenuta. Oh, the joy! Are these for the Shrove Tuesday play? If only we could show them to—
[She glances toward the Sacristy closet, stops, and goes on.]
Sister Rosalba, can you make them dance?