"I do, indeed," returned Riccabocca, with emotion. "I leave this place, in the fear lest my enemies discover me. I shall say to others that you are of an age to require teachers, not to be obtained here. But I should like none to know where we go."
The Italian said these last words through his teeth, and hanging his head. He said them in shame.
"My mother--(so Violante always called Jemima)--my mother, you have spoken to her?"
"No difficulty, for she loves you so well," replied Violante, with soft reproach. "Ah, why not also confide in her? Who so true? so good?"
"Good--I grant it!" exclaimed Riccabocca. "What then? 'Da cattiva Donna guardati, ed alla buona non fidar niente,' (from the bad woman, guard thyself; to the good woman, trust nothing.) And if you must trust," added the abominable man, "trust her with any thing but a secret!"
"Fie," said Violante, with arch reproach, for she knew her father's humors too well to interpret his horrible sentiments literally--"fie on your consistency, _Padre carissimo_. Do you not trust your secret to me?"
"You! A kitten is not a cat, and a girl is not a woman. Besides, the secret was already known to you, and I had no choice. Peace, Jemima will stay here for the present. See to what you wish to take with you; we shall leave to-night."
Not waiting for an answer, Riccabocca hurried away, and with a firm step strode the terrace and approached his wife.
"_Anima mia_," said the pupil of Machiavel, disguising in the tenderest words the cruelest intentions--for one of his most cherished Italian proverbs was to the effect, that there is no getting on with a mule or a woman unless you coax them--"_Anima mia_,--soul of my being--you have already seen that Violante mopes herself to death here."
"She does, core of my heart, she does, and is as ignorant of music as I am of tent-stitch."
"Just as birds do, against all the rules, and in defiance of gamut. Therefore, to come to the point, O treasure of my soul! I am going to take her with me for a short time, perhaps to Cheltenham, or Brighton--we shall see."
"All places with you are the same to me, Alphonso. When shall we go?"
"_We_ shall go to-night; but, terrible as it is to part from you--you--"
"Ah!" interrupted the wife, and covered her face with her hands.