"
As this request was reasonable, no objection was raised. The podesta
turned aside, and observing Ghita, who had visited his niece, and of
whose intelligence he entertained a favorable opinion, he drew nearer to
the girl, determined to lose a moment in dignified trifling.
"Honest 'Maso, poor fellow, is sadly puzzled," he observed, smiling
benevolently, as if in pity for the pilot's embarrassment; "he wishes to
persuade us that the strange craft yonder is a lugger, though he cannot
himself say to what country she belongs!"
"It is a lugger, Signore," returned the girl, drawing a long breath, as
if relieved by hearing the sound of her own voice.
"How! dost thou pretend to be so skilled in vessels as to distinguish
these particulars at the distance of a league?"
"I do not think it a league, Signore--not more than half a league; and
the distance lessens fast, though the wind is so light. As for knowing a
lugger from a felucca, it is as easy as to know a house from a church,
or one of the reverend padri, in the streets, from a mariner."
"Aye, so I would have told 'Maso on the spot, had the obstinate old
fellow been inclined to hear me. The distance is just about what you
say; and nothing is easier than to see that the stranger is a lugger. As
to the nation--"
"That may not be so easily told, Signore, unless the vessel show us her
nag."
"By San Antonio! thou art right, child; and it is fitting she should
show us her flag. Nothing has a right to approach so near the port of
his Imperial and Royal Highness, that does not show its flag, thereby
declaring its honest purpose and its nation.
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