"Thank you very much," said Peter.
"Of course," she went on, "we may all die of our wetting yet.
It would perhaps show a neighbourly interest if you were to
come up to-morrow, and take our news. Come at four o'clock;
and if we're alive . . . you shall have another pinch of
snuff," she promised, laughing.
"I adore you," said Peter, under his breath. "I'll come with
great pleasure," he said aloud.
"Marietta," he observed, that evening, as he dined, "I would
have you to know that the Aco is bridged. Hence, there is one
symbol the fewer in Lombardy. But why does--you mustn't mind
the Ollendorfian form of my enquiry--why does the chaplain of
the Duchessa wear red stockings?"
"The chaplain of the Duchessa--?" repeated Marietta, wrinkling
up her brow.
"Ang--of the Duchessa di Santangiolo. He wore red stockings,
and shoes with silver buckles. Do you think that's precisely
decorous--don't you think it 's the least bit light-minded--in
an ecclesiastic?"
"He--? Who--?" questioned Marietta.
"But the chaplain of the Duchessa--when he was here this
afternoon."
"The chaplain of the Duchessa!" exclaimed Marietta. "Here this
afternoon? The chaplain of the Duchessa was not here this
afternoon. His Eminence the Lord Prince Cardinal Udeschini was
here this afternoon."
"What!" gasped Peter.
"Ang," said Marietta.
"That was Cardinal Udeschini--that little harmless-looking,
sweet-faced old man!" Peter wondered.
"Sicuro--the uncle of the Duca," said she.
"Good heavens!" sighed he. "And I allowed myself to hobnob
with him like a boon-companion."
"Gia," said she.
"You need n't rub it in," said he. "For the matter of that,
you yourself entertained him in your kitchen."
"Scusi?" said she.
"Ah, well--it was probably for the best," he concluded. "I
daresay I should n't have behaved much better if I had known."
"It was his coming which saved this house from being struck by
lightning," announced Marietta.
"Oh--? Was it?" exclaimed Peter.
"Yes, Signorino. The lightning would never strike a house that
the Lord Prince Cardinal was in."
"I see--it would n't venture--it would n't presume. Did--did
it strike all the houses that the Lord Prince Cardinal was n't
in?"
"I do not think so, Signorino. Ma non fa niente. It was a
terrible storm--terrible, terrible. The lightning was going to
strike this house, when the Lord Prince Cardinal arrived."