, on the other hand,
should he be compelled to relinquish all idea of such alliance, though
he did not contemplate the base perfidy of actually assisting
Peschiera's avowed designs, still, if Frank's marriage with Beatrice
should absolutely depend upon her brother's obtaining the knowledge of
Violante's retreat, and that marriage should be as conducive to his
interests as he thought he could make it, why,--he did not then push his
deductions farther, even to himself--they seemed too black; but he
sighed heavily, and that sigh foreboded how weak would be honor and
virtue against avarice and ambition. Therefore, on all accounts,
Riccabocca was one of those cards in a sequence, which so calculating a
player would not throw out of his hand: it _might_ serve for repique at
the worst--it might score well in the game. Intimacy with the Italian
was still part and parcel in that knowledge which was the synonym of
power.

While the young man was thus meditating, on his road to Norwood,
Riccabocca and his Jemima were close conferring in their drawing-room.
And if you could have there seen them, reader, you would have been
seized with equal surprise and curiosity; for some extraordinary
communication had certainly passed between them. Riccabocca was
evidently much agitated, and with emotions not familiar to him. The
tears stood in his eyes at the same time that a smile, the reverse of
cynical or sardonic, curved his lips; while his wife was leaning her
head on his shoulder, her hand clasped in his, and, by the expression of
her face, you might guess that he had paid her some very gratifying
compliments, of a nature more genuine and sincere than those which
characterized his habitual hollow and dissimulating gallantry. But just
at this moment Giacomo entered, and Jemima, with her native English
modesty, withdrew in haste from Riccabocca's sheltering side.

"Padrone," said Giacomo, who, whatever his astonishment at the connubial
position he had disturbed, was much too discreet to betray it--"Padrone,
I see the young Englishman riding towards the house, and I hope, when he
arrives, you will not forget the alarming information I gave you this
morning."

"Ah--ah!" said Riccabocca, his face falling.

"If the Signorina were but married!"

"My very thought--my constant thought!" exclaimed Riccabocca. "And you
really believe the young Englishman loves her?"

"Why else should he come, Excellency?" asked Giacomo, with great
_naivete_.