bring me where she is, thou shalt
soon see it; for she will incontinent throw herself on my neck;
wherefore I ask no better than that it be as thou proposest.' 'Then,'
said Paganino, 'let us be going.' Accordingly they betook themselves
to the corsair's house, where he brought the judge into a saloon of
his and let call the lady, who issued forth of a chamber, all dressed
and tired, and came whereas they were, but accosted Messer Ricciardo
no otherwise than as she would any other stranger who might have come
home with Paganino. The judge, who looked to have been received by her
with the utmost joy, marvelled sore at this and fell a-saying in
himself, 'Belike the chagrin and long grief I have suffered, since I
lost her, have so changed me that she knoweth me not.' Wherefore he
said to her, 'Wife, it hath cost me dear to carry thee a-fishing, for
that never was grief felt like that which I have suffered since I lost
thee, and now meseemeth thou knowest me not, so distantly dost thou
greet me. Seest thou not that I am thine own Messer Ricciardo, come
hither to pay that which this gentleman, in whose house we are, shall
require to thy ransom and to carry thee away? And he, of his favour,
restoreth thee to me for what I will.' The lady turned to him and
said, smiling somewhat, 'Speak you to me, sir? Look you mistake me
not, for, for my part, I mind me not ever to have seen you.' Quoth
Ricciardo, 'Look what thou sayest; consider me well; an thou wilt but
recollect thyself, thou wilt see that I am thine own Ricciardo di
Chinzica.' 'Sir,' answered the lady, 'you will pardon me; belike it is
not so seemly a thing as you imagine for me to look much on you.
Nevertheless I have seen enough of you to know that I never before set
eyes on you.' Ricciardo, concluding that she did this for fear of
Paganino and chose not to confess to knowing him in the latter's
presence, besought him of his favour that he might speak with her in a
room alone. Paganino replied that he would well, so but he would not
kiss her against her will, and bade the lady go with him into a
chamber and there hear what he had to say and answer him as it should
please her. Accordingly the lady and Messer Ricciardo went into a room
apart and as soon as they were seated, the latter began to say,
'Alack, heart of my body, sweet my soul and my hope, knowest thou not
thy Ricciardo, who loveth thee more than himself? How can this be? Am
I so changed? Prithee, fair mine eye,