human
We're in for it! he said in English to Gray.
gpt
I shall take her to the nearest railway station--not the one you know, but another--and pack her off to Florence; there her consul can see to her. I have explained it to her clearly. She is glad enough to go.
human
What was it all about, anyhow?
gpt
Didn't you comprehend? That harlequin (I'll mention no names, and then she won't be startled) was no less a person than the lover of your Madonna beauty--the youth she expects to marry. During the game he was flirting, or trying to flirt after his fashion, with our present companion. This was too much for the older woman. Hence the knife.
human
Which I have in my pocket, by-the-bye.
gpt
Don't take it out now; you can throw it away after we have disposed of our Scandinavian. I suppose she has never before seen such a thing as a brandished weapon of that sort. It's a knife used by the peasants about here to cut hides with; your Madonna probably took it from among Filippo's tools somehow while the festivities were going on. She must have been jealous even then.
human
I told you that her laugh wasn't natural. 'Twas an awful sight, though! She would certainly have murdered the girl if we hadn't happened to be standing just where we were.
gpt
Very likely, answered Dennison.
human
Tchk, tchk,
gpt
I hope she is safely locked up by this time.
human
Locked up! She is probably dancing with her harlequin.
gpt
You don't mean to say that you let her go?
human
Quite so. She is all right now; she has come back to her senses. I had six words with the youth, however; he'll treat her better--for the present, at least; I have frightened him.
gpt
What did you mean when you said you'd send him away?
human
That was what brought her round. He has had a hankering for a long time to emigrate to--to the land of the free; he would go in a minute if his passage were paid and he had a hundred dollars in his pocket--go and never think of her again; she knows this. But the land of the free doesn't want him--he is incorrigibly lazy; and his departure would end her as far as I am concerned--make her perfectly useless.
gpt
Good heavens! you're not going to take that murderess back?
human
I can't take her back without sending her away first. And that I haven't done,
gpt
But won't she be arrested, in any case? Every one will know that she attacked this girl, and that the girl has fled.
human
No one knows that she attacked her. And even if it is guessed, Tuscan peasants are not so easily alarmed as you suppose; they understand each other. As to the disappearance of this one, I shall explain it by saying that I decided to advance the money to send her as far as Florence, instead of making her wait for the remittance which is expected from the consul; it is known that she was to go before long, in any case. It will cost me something, but I like peace and quietness. The other woman is perfect as a servant, and the cause of her jealousy removed she will continue perfect.
gpt
Brrrr!