"To be sure--to be sure. And if you will take my advice, Signora,
you will go home, and give yourself no trouble at all about the
young lady. Lord bless us! what though 'tis Lenten-tide? Young folks
will be young, Signora Orsola. They'll come home safe enough. And
maybe I might as well say nothing to the Signor Marchesino about
your coming here, you know. When folks have come to that time of
life, Signora, as brings sense with it, they mostly learn that least
said is soonest mended," said the old porter, with a nod of deep
meaning.

And Signora Orsola was fain to take the porter's advice, so far as
returning to her home went. But it was not equally easy to give
herself no further trouble about Paolina. It might be as the porter
said; and if she could have been sure that it was so the old lady
would have been perfectly easy. But it was not at all like Paolina
to have planned such an escapade without telling her old friend
anything about it. She felt sure that when Paolina said she was
going to St. Apollinare to look after the preparations for her
copying there, she had no other or further intention in her
thoughts. To be sure there was the possibility that Ludovico might
have known her purpose of going thither, and might have planned to
accompany her on her expedition, without having apprized her of any
such scheme. And it might not be unlikely that in such a case they
had been tempted to spend a few hours in the Pineta. And with these
possibilities Signora Steno was obliged to tranquillize herself as
she best might.

She returned home not without some hope that she might find that
Paolina had returned during her absence; but such was not the case--
Paolina was still absent. And though it was now some eight or nine