say one thing, but think another: happily, it is with me that they have
to do; and I am not to be deceived, but know well when the shoe pinches
my foot. Above all, I am well born, for I belong to the Crivellis of
Milan, and I carry the point of honour ten thousand feet above the
clouds; by this you may judge, Signora, through what troubles I have had
to pass, since, being what I am, I have been brought to serve as the
housekeeper of Spaniards, or as, what they call, their _gouvernante_.
Not that I have, in truth, any complaint to make of my masters, who are
a couple of half-saints[4] when they are not put into a rage. And, in
this respect, they would seem to be Biscayans, as, indeed, they say they
are. But, after all, they may be Galicians, which is another nation, and
much less exact than the Biscayans; neither are they so much to be
depended on as the people of the Bay."

[4] The original is _benditos_, which sometimes means simpleton, but is
here equivalent to the Italian _beato_, and must be rendered as in the
text.

By all this verbiage, and more beside, the bewildered lady was induced
to follow the advice of the old woman, insomuch that, in less than four
hours after the departure of the friends, their housekeeper making all
arrangements, and Cornelia consenting, the latter was seated in a
carriage with the nurse of the babe, and without being heard by the
pages they set off on their way to the curate's village. All this was
done not only by the advice of the housekeeper, but also with her money;
for her masters had just before paid her a year's wages, and therefore
it was not needful that she should take a jewel which Cornelia had
offered her for the purposes of their journey.

Having heard Don Juan say that her brother and himself would not follow