human
Sufficiently, Signora, though I never had the pleasure of speaking to you before, to be aware of the nature of the business which has induced you to favour me with this visit,
gpt
Well, then, Signor Dottore, I hope you will excuse--
human
There is not the smallest need for any apology, Signora. Anzi--I am very glad that you should have thought it well to call on me; I shall be most happy to hear anything that you may wish to say to me.
gpt
You are very polite, Signor Dottore, I am sure, said the old woman, hesitatingly; for she was alarmed at the idea, which the lawyer's courtesy had suggested to her cautious mind, that she might be supposed to be engaging his professional services, and might thus find herself, before she was aware of it, involved in expenses which she had no means of meeting, and no intention of incurring;
human
Indeed; I am beholden to the Signora Contessa Violante. As you say most judiciously, Signora, it is best to speak quite plainly. With regard to any professional services, which it might be otherwise in my power to render you, it is necessary to say at once that I am engaged in this most unhappy business on the behalf of my old client and friend the Marchese Ludovico di Castelmare. There can be no question, therefore, of any professional remuneration to me in the matter from any other quarter. Anything that may pass between us, he continued, perceiving that his visitor had not fully comprehended what he sought to convey to her,
gpt
he added, yet more plainly with a good-humoured smile, and putting his hand on her sleeve as he spoke,
human
Thank you kindly, sir; and, truth to say, it is not so much that I wanted to ask you to say or to do anything, as only just not to say what a many people in this city are wicked enough to say and to think,
gpt
I hope, Signora, that I shall not say anything which it is wicked to say; but what is it that people are wicked enough to say?
human
Why they say, Signor Dottore--some of them--some of them are wicked enough to say that that dear blessed child has--it is enough to blister one's tongue to say it--has done that dreadful thing; Santa Maria abbia misericordia--that murder in the forest. O Dio mio! Why--
gpt
Is she any relative of yours, Signora, the Signorina Paolina Foscarelli?
human
No relative by blood, Signor; but she is the same to me as a daughter. I took her when she was left an orphan--
gpt
And she has lived with you ever since?
human
Ever since she has lived with me as if she was my own, Signor; and if anybody in the world ever knew another, I know her; and, bless your heart, she isn't capable of lifting her hand against a fly, let alone a Christian. There never was such wicked nonsense talked in this world since world it was; and I'm told, Signor Dottore, that you have said that she had been the one as did this deed; and--
gpt
Stop, stop, my good Signora Orsola! Are you aware that you are accusing me of being guilty of punishable defamation and slander? I say that the Signorina Paolina Foscarelli committed murder? Who on earth could ever have told you so monstrous an untruth? Allow me to assure you that I never said anything of the kind.
human
Oh, Signor Dottore, I am so glad to hear you say so. What lies people do tell, to be sure; I am sure it was a very good thought of the Contessa Violante to tell me to come to you; and since you say that the poor child is innocent, as innocent she is, as the child unborn--
gpt
Stay, Signora, stay; you go too fast--somewhat too fast. Unhappily, I am by no means in a condition to say that your young friend is innocent of this crime; appearances, it must be admitted, are very much against her; we must hope that they can be explained. I accuse no one; it is not my province to do so.
human
But you don't think the judges will believe that my child could have done such a thing? If they only knew her! You don't think that, do you, Signor Dottore?
gpt
They will judge according to the evidence and the probabilities of the case. It is impossible to say as yet to what conclusion these may seem to point. The Marchese Ludovico is an acquaintance of yours and of the Signorina Paolina, is he not?
human
An acquaintance? why they are engaged to be married, almost shrieked poor Signora Orsola;
gpt
Indeed! and you are acquainted with the Contessa Violante too. Do you know whether her ladyship is aware of the engagement you speak of? I ask, because she is an old friend of the Marchese Ludovico.
human
To be sure she is aware of it. She and Paolina have often talked it over together. Altro che, aware of it.
gpt
Humph,
human
It must be very terrible to you then, Signora, to think that the Marchese should be suspected of this shocking crime, since you have such reason to feel an interest in him,
gpt
Lord bless your heart, exclaimed the old woman in reply;
human
Perhaps, then, you would not mind saying who did do it, said the lawyer;
gpt
Why she did it herself to be sure. It is a wonder anybody should doubt it. And a like enough end for such a baggage to come to,
human
You do not seem to have been among the admirers of the Signora Bianca,
gpt
Admirers, indeed! She had too many admirers, I am thinking. A good-for-nothing, impudent, brazen--well, she has gone to her account, so I won't be the one to speak ill of her.
human
You seem to have had considerable opportunities of becoming acquainted with her character, Signora Orsola. Had you much acquaintance with her?
gpt
I never saw her but once in my life, and that was at the theatre on the last Sunday night of Carnival. The Marchese had given us a box.
human
And it was upon that occasion then, that she impressed you so unfavourably. The Signorina Paolina I suppose was with you at the theatre?
gpt
Of course she was. Would it be likely, I ask you, Signor Dottore, that the Marchese took the box for me?
human
And no doubt the Signorina Foscarelli was impressed by the actress in the same manner that you yourself were.
gpt
Of course she was, as any other decent young woman would have been; let alone being, as Paolina is, engaged to be married to the Marchese.
human
I have no doubt, Signora, that your remarks are perfectly just. If the manners and conduct of the young women now-a-days were regulated a little more in conformity with the ideas of such persons of discretion as yourself, the world would be all the better for it. But I don't quite see how the behaviour of the prima donna on the stage could have had anything to do with the circumstance of the Marchese Ludovico's engagement to the Signorina Foscarelli,
gpt
You don't see it, Signor Dottore. Perhaps you were not in the theatre that night. If you had been you would have seen it fast enough. The way she went on, when the Marchese Ludovico was a-giving her a lovely nosegay of flowers--hothouse flowers, if you please--as big pretty near as this table; not just a-throwing them on to the stage the way I've seen 'em do it many a time at the Fenice; but putting them into her hand; and she, the minx a coming up to the box to take 'em before all the people as bold as brass.
human
Ah, I see? The Signorina Foscarelli naturally did not quite like that,
gpt
Like it! Who would have liked it in her place, I ask you? And that painted hussy a-going on they way she did; making such eyes at him, and smiling and a-pressing her hand to her bosom, that was just as naked as my face; and looking for all the world if she could have jumped right into the box, and eaten him up. Like it, indeed!
human
No doubt it was provoking enough. And your adopted daughter, Signora Steno, would not be the right-minded and well-brought-up girl I take her to be, if she did not express to you her disgust at such goings on,
gpt
You may say that. She expressed it plain enough and not to me only, but to the Marchese himself well, when she saw him afterwards. She let him know what she thought of the painted huzzy. And she told him, too, some more of the truth. She told him that the creature knew well enough what she was doing, or trying to do. The way she looked straight up at my poor child in the box, where we were, was enough to make the blood curdle in your veins. If ever I saw a face look hatred, it was the face of that woman when she looked up at our box. She looked at the poor child as if she could have taken her heart's blood. She did. Ah! bless your heart, she knew all about it. Talk of the old Marchese, indeed. Yes; the creature had set her mind upon being Marchesa di Castelmare. Not a doubt of it; but it was the nephew she wanted, not the uncle; and she knew that my Paolina stood in the way of her scheming; and Paolina knew that she knew it.