As Marzio fumbled with the fastenings of the door, two women came up and
stopped. Marzio had his back turned, and Gianbattista touched his hat in
silence. The younger of the two was a stout, black-haired woman of
eight-and-thirty years, dressed in a costume of dark green cloth, which
fitted very closely to her exuberantly-developed bust, and was somewhat
too elaborately trimmed with imitation of jet and black ribands. A high
bonnet, decorated with a bunch of purple glass grapes and dark green
leaves, surmounted the lady's massive head, and though carefully put on
and neatly tied, seemed too small for the wearer. Her ears were adorned
by long gold earrings, in each of which were three large garnets, and
these trinkets dangled outside and over the riband of the bonnet, which
passed under her chin. In her large hands, covered with tight black
gloves, she carried a dark red parasol and a somewhat shabby little
black leather bag with steel fastenings. The stout lady's face was of
the type common among the Roman women of the lower class--very broad and
heavy, of a creamy white complexion, the upper lip shaded by a dark
fringe of down, and the deep sleepy eyes surmounted by heavy straight
eyebrows. Her hair, brought forward from under her bonnet, made smooth
waves upon her low forehead and reappeared in thick coils at the back of
her neck. Her nose was relatively small, but too thick and broad at the
nostrils, although it departed but little from the straight line of the
classic model. Altogether the Signora Pandolfi, christened Maria Luisa,
and wife to Marzio the silver-chiseller, was a portly and
pompous-looking person, who wore an air of knowing her position, and of
being sure to maintain it. Nevertheless, there was a kindly expression
in her fat face, and if her eyes looked sleepy they did not look
dishonest.

Signora Pandolfi's companion was her old maid-of-all-work, Assunta,
commonly called Suntarella, without whom she rarely stirred abroad--a