this manner?"

"Why, Santa Virgine, Signor Quinto! Where's the harm? Isn't the
Signor Ludovico the old one's own nephew?" expostulated Gigia
shrilly.

"The old one, as you call him, is not a bit the more likely to like
it for that. It is just the very last thing she should have done. I
do wonder she should not have more sense," grumbled Quinto.

"Misericordia! why what a piece of work about nothing! The old
gentleman will never know anything about it, you may be very sure.
He is safe enough in bed and asleep after his late hours, you may
swear. Besides, it's both best and honestest to begin as you mean to
go on, and accustom him to what he's got to expect," said Gigia,
fighting loyally for her side.

"All very well in good time. But it would be as well for Bianca to
make sure first what she has got to expect."

"Why, you don't suppose, Signor Quinto, nor yet that old Marchese
don't suppose, I should think, that he's going to marry a woman like
my mistress, to keep her caged up like a bird that's never to sing,
except for him?"

"I tell you, Gigia, and you would do well to tell her, and make her
understand, that she is not Marchesa di Castelmare yet, and is not
likely to be, if this morning's work were to come to the ears of the
Marchese. It is just the very worst thing she could have done; and I
should have thought she must know that. I had rather that she should