You understand that,
signore?"
"Excellency, the man that could lie to the Prince of Iseo has yet to
be born."
It was a compliment spoken from the very heart; but the priest ignored
it.
"Let us not speak of others, but of you and your friends. And,
firstly, of the woman who sent you. She is now--"
"In the Palazzo Pisani waiting news of you."
"You were to carry that news to her?"
"And to receive my wage, Excellency. But I did not know what work it
was--Holy God, I would not have come for--"
Fra Giovanni cut him short with a gesture of impatience.
"Tell me," he exclaimed, "the Count of Pisa, is he not the woman's
lover?"
"They say so, signore."
"And he is at her house to-night?"
The man shook his head.
"Before Heaven, I do not know, Excellency. An hour ago, he sat at a
cafe in the great square."
"And the woman--was she alone when you left her?"
"There were three with her to sup."
The priest nodded his head.
"It is good!" he said; "we shall even presume to sup with her."
"To sup with her--but they will kill you, Excellency!"
"Ho, ho! see how this assassin is concerned for my life.
"Certainly I am. Have you not given me mine twice? I implore you not
to go to the house--"
He would have said more, but the splash of an oar in the narrow
canal by which they walked cut short his entreaties. A gondola was
approaching them; the cry of the gondolier, awakening echoes beneath
the eaves of the old houses, gave to Fra Giovanni that inspiration he
had been seeking now for some minutes.
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