'Why?'

'Your excellency will know when the letter comes. Here she is; I
hear steps in the cloister. Now, one bet before they enter. I give
you two to one she asks you to turn pagan.'

'What in? Negro-boys?'

'Anything you like.'

'Taken. Come in, slaves?'

And Hypocorisma entered, pouting.

'That Jewish fury is outside with a letter, and has the impudence to
say she won't let me bring it in!'

'Bring her in then. Quick!'

'I wonder what I am here for, if people have secrets that I am not
to know,' grumbled the spoilt youth.

'Do you want a blue ribbon round those white sides of yours, you
monkey?' answered Orestes. 'Because, if you do, the hippopotamus
hide hangs ready outside.'

'Let us make him kneel down here for a couple of hours, and use him
as a dice-board,' said Raphael, 'as you used to do to the girls in
Armenia.'