“May I not ask if you have wine in the house, padrona?” he now repeated. Before the last word was finished, the dog, howling loudly, sprang upon him with unaccountable fury and with his teeth tore the cloak from the man’s shoulders, and would have broken loose upon him again and again had not a sharp command from his mistress restrained him.
“Back, Fuoco, back! Peace, be quiet!” The dog stood in the middle of the room, beating heavily with his tail, his eyes fixed on the stranger. “Shut him up in the stall, Pietro!” said the young woman, half-aloud. She stood at the hearth, rigid as always, and, as Pietro hesitated, repeated the order. For the nightly place of the old dog had been for years by the hearth. The servants whispered one to the other, the dog followed reluctantly, and from without the howling and whining penetrated unpleasantly into the room until it seemed to cease from sheer exhaustion. In the mean time the maid-servant, at a sign from her mistress, had brought wine. The stranger drank, handed the beaker to his companion, and fell into silent reflection over the surprising disturbance he had so unwittingly caused. One after the other the servants put down their spoons and passed out with a “good night, padrona!” At last the three were alone with their hostess and the old serving-maid.
“The sun rises at four o’clock,” said one of the contrabbandieri to the stranger. “Excellency, it is not necessary to start much earlier to be at Pistoja in good time. It’s on account of the horse, that must have his six hours’ rest.”
“Very good, my friend. Go and sleep!”
“We will awaken you, Excellency.”
“By all means,” replied the stranger. “Though Madonna knows, I do not often sleep six hours at a stretch. Good night, Carlone; good night, Master Giuseppe!”
The men removed their hats respectfully and stood up. One went to the hearth and said: “Padrona, I have a message from Costanzo from Bologna, who wants to know if it was at your house he left his knife lying last Saturday.”
“No,” she said sharply and impatiently.
“I told him you would have sent it back to him long ago if it had been there. And then—”
“Nina,” she broke in, “show them the way to the lean-to if they have forgotten it.”