Hermione walked into Ruffo's home.
There were two rooms, one opening into the other. The latter was a
kitchen, the former the sleeping-room. Hermione looked quietly round
it, and her eyes fell at once upon a large green parrot, which was
sitting at the end of the board on which, supported by trestles of
iron, the huge bed of Maddalena and her husband was laid. At present
this bed was rolled up, and in consequence towered to a considerable
height. The parrot looked at Hermione coldly, with round, observant
eyes whose pupils kept contracting and expanding with a monotonous
regularity. She felt as if it had a soul that was frigidly ironic. Its
pertinacious glance chilled and repelled her, and she fancied it was
reflected in the faces of the women round her.
"Can I speak to you alone for a few minutes?" she asked Maddalena.
Maddalena turned to the two women and spoke to them loudly in dialect.
They replied. The old woman spoke at great length. She seemed always
angry and always upon the verge of tears.
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