icient faith in the contents of her own casks to trust
to their reputation; for this bush of hers was as regularly renewed as
its withering leaves required. Indeed, it was a common remark among her
customers, that her bush was always as fresh as her face, and that the
latter was one of the most comely that was to be met with on the island;
a circumstance that aided much indifferent wine in finding a market.
Benedetta bore a reasonably good name, nevertheless, though it was
oftener felt, perhaps, than said, that she was a confirmed coquette. She
tolerated 'Maso principally on two accounts; because, if he were old and
unattractive in his own person, many of his followers were among the
smartest seamen of the port, and because he not only drank his full
proportion, but paid with punctuality. These inducements rendered the
pilot always a welcome guest at La Santa Maria degli Venti, as the house
was called, though it had no other sign than the often-renewed bush
already mentioned.

At the very moment, then, when Raoul Yvard and Ghita parted on the hill,
'Maso was seated in his usual place at the table in Benedetta's upper
room, the windows of which commanded as full a view of the lugger as the
hour permitted; that craft being anchored about a cable's length
distant, and, as a sailor might have expressed it, just abeam. On this
occasion he had selected the upper room, and but three companions,
because it was his wish that as few should enter into his counsels as at
all comported with the love of homage to his own experience. The party
had been assembled a quarter of an hour, and there had been time to
cause the tide to ebb materially in the flask, which, it may be well to
tell the reader at once, contained very little less than half a gallon
of liquor, such as it was.

"I have told it all to the podesta," said 'Maso, with an important
manner, as he put down his glass, after potation the second, which
quite equalled potation the first in quantity; "yes, I have told it all
to Vito Viti, and no doubt he has told it to Il Signor Vice-governatore,
who now knows as much about the whole matter as either of us four.
Cospetto!--to think such a thing dare happen in a haven like Porto
Ferrajo! Had it come to pass over on the other side of the island, at
Porto Longone, one wouldn't think so much of it, for _they_ are never
much on the lookout: but to take place here, in the very capital of
Elba, I should as soon have expected it in Livo