plans for the future the young people had formed, but in this he did not
succeed. He began shuffling the cards with the intention of continuing
the game, but Signor Giacomo looked at his watch, and found that it
wanted only nine minutes to seven, at which hour he was in the habit of
winding his clock. Three minutes in the street, two minutes on the
stairs, and there remained only four minutes for leave-taking. "Reckon
it out for yourself, most gracious Controller. It is as I say: there is
no doubt about it."

Signora Bardorin, noticing this consultation, questioned her husband
about it. Pasotti raised his hands to his mouth, and shouted into her
face: "He wants to go and see his sweetheart!" "What nonsense! What
nonsense!" poor Signor Giacomo exclaimed, turning all colours; and
Signora Pasotti, having understood by a miracle, opened her mouth
enormously wide, not knowing whether or no to believe her husband. "His
sweetheart? Oh, what nonsense. It is foolish talk, is it not, Signor
Giacomo? Of course you might have a sweetheart, I don't deny that.
You're not old, but...!" Seeing that he really intended to be off, she
tried to detain him, telling him she had some chestnuts from Venegono on
the fire, which were nearly done, and begging him to accept some of
them. But neither the chestnuts nor Pasotti's reproaches could persuade
Signor Giacomo, and he departed with the spectre of the Imperial and
Royal Commissary in his heart, harassed by unpleasant twinges of
conscience, and a vague sense of dissatisfaction with himself, which he
could not explain, and feeling instinctively that the perfidious
servant's insolence was, after all, preferable to Pasotti's cajoleries.

As to the latter, his eyes shone even brighter than usual. He intended
going to Cressogno at once. Being an indefatigable walker he expected to
get there by eight o'clock. He was hugely pleased at the prospect of
going to the Marchesa with his great discovery _in pectore_, of acting
mysteriously, of dropping the most artful hints, one by one, and of
obliging her to wrest the particulars from him. For his own
gratification he was already preparing a gentle and soothing little
speech to lay upon the wound of the imperturbable old dame, so that she
might not be able to hide it, and that no one might complain of him, not
even Franco. He went to the kitchen where he got them to light a lantern
for him, for the night was very dark, and then he set out.

At the doo