Part 3

Her stare dissolved, her attitude relaxed. She smiled--relief, rebuke. She shook her finger at him.

“Ah, the Signorino gave me a fine fright,” she said.

“A thousand regrets,” said Peter. “Now be a succouring angel, and make a clean breast of it. Who is my landlady?”

Marietta drew back a little. Her brown old visage wrinkled up, perplexed.

“Who is the Signorino's landlady?” she repeated.

“Ang,” said he, imitating the characteristic nasalised eh of Italian affirmation, and accompanying it by the characteristic Italian jerk of the head.

Marietta eyed him, still perplexed--even (one might have fancied) a bit suspicious.

“But is it not in the Signorino's lease?” she asked, with caution.

“Of course it is,” said he. “That's just the point. Who is she?”

“But if it is in your lease!” she expostulated.

“All the more reason why you should make no secret of it,” he argued plausibly. “Come! Out with it! Who is my landlady?”

Marietta exchanged a glance with heaven.

“The Signorino's landlady is the Duchessa di Santangiolo,” she answered, in accents of resignation.

But then the name seemed to stimulate her; and she went on “She lives there--at Castel Ventirose.” Marietta pointed towards the castle. “She owns all, all this country, all these houses--all, all.” Marietta joined her brown old hands together, and separated them, like a swimmer, in a gesture that swept the horizon. Her eyes snapped.

“All Lombardy?” said Peter, without emotion.

Marietta stared again.

“All Lombardy? Mache!” was her scornful remonstrance. “Nobody owns all Lombardy. All these lands, these houses.”

“Who is she?” Peter asked.

Marietta's eyes blinked, in stupefaction before such stupidity.

“But I have just told you,” she cried “She is the Duchessa di Santangiolo.”

“Who is the Duchessa di Santangiolo?” he asked.

Marietta, blinking harder, shrugged her shoulders.

“But”--she raised her voice, screamed almost, as to one deaf--“but the Duchessa di Santangiolo is the Signorino's landlady la, proprietaria di tutte queste terre, tutte queste case, tutte, tutte.”

And she twice, with some violence, reacted her comprehensive gesture, like a swimmer's.

“You evade me by a vicious circle,” Peter murmured.

Marietta made a mighty effort-brought all her faculties to a focus--studied Peter's countenance intently. Her own was suddenly illumined.

“Ah, I understand,” she proclaimed, vigorously nodding. “The Signorino desires to know who she is personally!”

“I express myself in obscure paraphrases,” said he; “but you, with your unfailing Italian simpatia, have divined the exact shade of my intention.”