"Yes," I replied, surprised at the man's knowledge of my name.
He fumbled in the pocket of his overcoat for a moment, produced a letter, and then handed it to me in quite a surreptitious manner, saying in a low tone:
"This is for the signorina."
Then he banged to the door with a great show of officiousness, without waiting for me to thank him, and we drove forward along the deserted promenade.
As it was quite dark within the carriage, I was unable to read the communication that had so suddenly been handed to me.
What, I wondered, did it contain? Who had taken the precaution to bribe one of the dazio guards to hand it to me?
Surely it must contain something of the highest importance and strictest privacy.
CHAPTER XVII
DESCRIBES A NEW ACQUAINTANCE
At the outlying suburb of San Jacopo the street-lamps began, and tearing open the strange note, I found it to contain some lines penned in a rather uneducated hand.