the Marchesino, he is as good a gentleman as any in Ravenna or out
of it, for that matter. But he is young, Signora, he is young! And
that's all the fault he has. Can I give him any message for you,
Signora?"

"The fact is," said old Orsola, after a few moments of rapid
reflection as to the expediency of telling her trouble to the
porter, and a decision prompted by the good-natured manner of the
man, and by the poor woman's extreme need of some one to tell her
trouble to,--"the fact is, that I wanted to ask the advice of the
Signor Marchesino about a young friend of mine, the Signora Paolina
Foscarelli, who went out of the city early this morning to go to St.
Apollinare in Classe, and ought to have been back hours ago. And I
am quite uneasy about her."

"Why, your trouble, Signora, is of a piece with our own," said the
porter, with a burly laugh; "and it seems to me like enough we can
help each other. You miss a young lady; and we miss a young
gentleman. When I used to go out into the marshes a-shooting with
the Marchese, we used to be sure, when we had put up the cock bird,
that the hen was not far off; or, if we got the hen, we knew we had
not far to look for the cock. Do you see, Signora? Two to one the
pair of runaways are together; and they'll come home safe enough
when they've had their fun out. I dare say the Signor Marchesino and
the Signorina you speak of are old friends?"

"Why, yes, Signore. For that matter they are old friends!" replied
Orsola, adopting the porter's phrase for want of one which could
express the meaning she had in her mind more desirably.