wine up at that
house, that, when the oil is once out of the neck of the flask[2], goes
down a man's throat as smoothly as if it were all oil itself! I could
drink a flask of it without once stopping to take breath. It is that
liquor which makes the nobles so light and airy."

[2] It is a practice in Tuscany to put a few drops of oil in the neck of
each flask of the more delicate wines, to exclude the air.

"I know the washy stuff," put in Benedetta, with more warmth than she
was used to betray to her customers; "well may you call it smooth, a
good spring running near each of the wine-presses that have made it. I
have seen some of it that even oil would not float on!"

This assertion was a fair counterpoise to that of the sail, being about
as true. But Benedetta had too much experience in the inconstancy of
men, not to be aware that if the three or four customers who were
present should seriously take up the notion that the island contained
any better liquor than that she habitually placed before them, her
value might be sensibly diminished in their eyes. As became a woman who
had to struggle singly with the world, too, her native shrewdness taught
her, that the best moment to refute a calumny was to stop it as soon as
it began to circulate, and her answer was as warm in manner as it was
positive in terms. This was an excellent opening for an animated
discussion, and one would have been very likely to occur, had there not
fortunately been steps heard without, that induced 'Maso to expect the
podesta. Sure enough, the door opened, and Vito Viti appeared, followed,
to the astonishment of all the guests, and to the absolute awe of
Benedetta, by the vice-governatore himself.

The solution of this unexpected visit is very easily given. After the
departure of the Capitano Smees, Vito Viti returned to the subject of
'Maso's suspicions, and by suggesting certain little circumstances in
the mariner's manner, that he had noted during the interview, he so far
succeeded in making an impression on himself, that, in the end, his own
distrust revived, and with it that of the deputy-governor. Neither,
however, could be said to be more than uneasy, and the podesta happening
to mention his appointment with the pilot, Andrea determined to
accompany him, in order to reconnoitre the strange craft in person. Both
the functionaries wore their cloaks, by no means an unusual thing in the
cool night air of the coast, even in midsummer, which