"
Raoul muttered a "sacr-r-re," between his teeth, but he succeeded in
suppressing all outward expression of feeling. Cuffe, on the contrary,
saw no other motive for unusual discretion, beyond the presence of his
boat's crew, before whom, however, he was accustomed to less reserve
than with his people in general.
"If she be the same as the one we had in the cabin," he answered, "there
is no necessity for a veil; for a prettier or a more modest-looking girl
is not often fallen in with. What she wanted exactly is more than I can
tell you, as she spoke Italian altogether; and 'miladi' had the
interview pretty much to herself. But her good looks seem to have taken
with this old bachelor, the justice of the peace, who eyes her as if he
had an inclination to open his mind to the beauty. Ask him in Italian,
Griffin, what mare's nest he has run foul of now."
"You seem to have found something to look at besides the Minerva, Signor
Podesta," observed Griffin, in an undertone. "I hope it is not Venus."
"Cospetto!" grunted Vito Viti, nudging his neighbor, the
vice-governatore, and nodding toward the other boat; "if that be not
little Ghita, who came into our island like a comet and went out of
it--to what shall I liken her sudden and extraordinary disappearance,
Signor Andrea?--"
"To that of le Feu-Follet, or ze Ving-y-Ving," put in Griffin, who, now
he had got the two functionaries fairly afloat, spared none of the jokes
that come so easy and natural to a man-of-war's man.
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