At
the corner of the Vicolo dei Soldati he saw a little marble tablet let
into the masonry and yellow with age. He stopped a moment and read the
inscription. Then he turned away with a look of annoyance, for it set
forth that "by order of the most Eminent Vicar all persons were warned
not to empty garbage there, on pain of a fine." It was a forgotten
document of the old papal administration, as he could have told
without reading it if he had known Rome better. From the corner he
counted his paces and then stopped again and examined the wall and the
pavement minutely.
There was nothing to be seen at all different from the pavement and
the wall for many yards further on and further back, and Malipieri
apparently abandoned the search, for he now walked on quickly till he
reached the entrance of the palace, on the other side, and went in.
From the low door of the wine shop, Toto, the mason, had seen him, and
stood watching him till he was out of sight.
"He does not know where it is," Toto said, sitting down again opposite
Gigi.
"Engineers know everything," retorted the carpenter.
"If this one knew anything, he would not have stood there looking at
the stones. I do not suppose the municipality is going to put up a
monument to my grandfather, whom may the Lord preserve in glory!"
At this Gigi laughed, for he knew that Toto's grandfather had been
drowned in the "lost water" somewhere deep down under that spot, and
had never been found.
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