hes. In three-quarters of an hour he was to
be within hail of the maestro's house. Thither Luigi quietly returned.

Beppo's place there was vacant.

'That's better than a draught of Asti,' said Luigi.

The lighted windows of the maestro's house, and the piano striking
corrective notes, assured him that the special rehearsal was still going
on; and as he might now calculate on two or three minutes to spare, he
threw back his coat-collar, lifted his head, and distended his chest,
apparently to chime in with the singing, but simply to listen to it.
For him, it was imperative that he should act the thing, in order to
apprehend and appreciate it.

A hurried footing told of the approach of one whom he expected.

'Luigi!'

'Here, padrone.'

'You have the chocolate?'

'Signor Antonio, I have deposited it in the carriage.'

'She is in up there?'

'I beheld her entering.'

'Good; that is fixed fact.' The Signor Antonio drove at his moustache
right and left. 'I give you, see, Italian money and German money: German
money in paper; and a paper written out by me to explain the value of
the German paper-money. Silence, engine that you are, and not a man! I
am preventive of stupidity, I am? Do I not know that, hein? Am I in
need of the acclamation of you, my friend? On to the Chateau
Sonnenberg:--drive on, drive on, and one who stops you, you drive over
him: the gendarmes in white will peruse this paper, if there is any
question, and will pass you and the cage, bowing; you hear? It is a
pass; the military pass you when you show this paper. My good friend,
Captain Weisspriess, on the staff of General Pierson, gives it, signed,
and it is effectual. But you lose not the paper: put it away with the
paper-money, quite safe. For yourself, this is half your pay--I give
you napoleons; ten. Count. And now--once at the Chateau Sonnenberg,
I repeat, you leave her in charge of two persons, one a woman, at the
gate, and then back--frrrrr....'

Antonio-Pericles smacked on the flat of his hand, and sounded a rapid
course of wheels.

'Back, and drop not a crumb upon the road. You have your map. It is,
after Roveredo, straight up the Adige, by Bolzano... say "Botzen."'

'"Botz,"' said Luigi, submissively.

'"Botz"--"Botz"--ass! fool! double idiot! "Botzon!"' Antonio-Pericles
corrected him furiously, exclaiming to the sovereign skies, 'Though I
pay for brains, can I get them! No. But make a fiasco, Luigi, and not a
second ten for you