"Do you know a boat--white with a green line--which sometimes comes
into the harbor from the direction of Posilipo? It was here this
afternoon, or it passed here. I don't know whether it went on to the
Arsenal."
"White with a green line?" said the man. "That might be--who was there
in it, Signorino Marchesino?"
"Two ladies, one old and one very young. The young lady--"
"Those must be the ladies from the island," interrupted the man. "The
English ladies who come in the summer to the Casa del Mare as they
call it, on the island close to the Grotto of Virgilio by San
Francesco's Pool. They were here this afternoon, but they're gone
back. Their boat is white with a green line, Signorino Marchesino."
"Grazie, Giuseppe," said the Marchesino, with an immovable
countenance. "Do you smoke cigarettes?'
"Signorino Marchesino, I do when I have any soldi to buy them with."
"Take these."
The Marchesino emptied one side of his cigarette case into the
boatman's hand, called a hired carriage, and drove off towards the
Villa--the horse going at a frantic trot, while the coachman, holding
a rein in each hand, ejaculated, "A--ah!" every ten seconds, in a
voice that was fiercely hortatory.
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