"Eccellenza!"
A curious small bright-eyed woman appeared, with rough hair and not too
tidy clothes. She came from Viterbo, and had a laugh for everything and
sometimes a tear.
"Why did you tell the signorina it was an unlucky day?"
"Eh-h-h-h-h-h!" Nina's "eh" began on the fourth line, and ran down
chromatically. Taken with outspread hands and raised shoulders it
implied, "How can the signora ask, when she knows as well as I?" What
she said was, "Did not the eccellenza lose her purse?"
"But I have had a much bigger one sent to me," said Teresa gravely.
"Then, eccellenza, it is probable that after the priest you met a
hunchback, and she might counteract. Besides--" she hesitated--"there
is always that unfortunate Cesare."
The marchesa was not surprised, Nina having an extraordinary knack of
knowing whatever went on. But she was vexed at her thoughts being flung
back upon a subject which gave her a miserable impression of having
behaved ill without intending it.
"What do you know about Cesare?"
Nina screwed her eyes together, and nodded her rough head.
"See here, eccellenza, I should not mind knowing less. When one meets
such in the street it is best to shut one's eyes and walk on. If he has
a temper or not! That poor Camilla! She was a butterfly, yes, and
foolish, yes--but to be shot all in a minute, without a priest! What a
brother!"
"They say he loved her."
"Eh-h-h-h-h--h! So they say. They came from Sicily alone, these two,
without parents, and he was strict with her, poor little baby, and so--!
It was not a love I should have liked, but as for stealing! No, no,
no, that is not Cesare."
"Why did not the guardie say so, then?" demanded Teresa impatiently.
"See, eccellenza, they are afraid, and they do not like him. He is hand
and glove with the fiercest men in Rome, men who would overthrow
anything, everything, king or pope, what you will! Since Camilla died
it is as if an evil spirit had entered into him--he keeps with those
men, he never hears mass, he is like a lost soul. What took him into
San Martino, I wonder? At any rate I wish the eccellenza had had
nothing to do with him," Nina ended, uneasily.
And Teresa wished the same thing with all her heart. The young violent
face, the passion of the eyes, haunted her. Her grandmother and sister
were taken up with delight and wonderment over her good fortune. She
tried to fling herself into it with them, but while she planned, with
all the generosity of her nature, which but yesterday would have leapt
to feel certain galling chains removed, her thoughts wandered away to
the police station, and to Cesare in the lock-up, with a board for his
bed, and the smart of an unjust accusation goading him to yet more
furious rebellion against his fate.