Part 54 (1/2)
Impossible! impossible! [_To Zaida._] We are rich....
_Zaida._ I am glad to hear it. Nothing anywhere goes on well without riches.
_Countess._ We can provide for you amply....
_Zaida._ Our husband....
_Countess._ _Our!... husband!..._
_Zaida._ Yes, yes; I know he is yours too; and you, being the elder and having children, are lady above all. He can tell you how little I want: a bath, a slave, a dish of pilau, one jonquil every morning, as usual; nothing more. But he must swear that he has kissed it first.
No, he need not swear it; I may always see him do it, now.
_Countess._ [_Aside._] She agonizes me. [_To Zaida._] Will you never be induced to return to your own country? Could not Ludolph persuade you?
_Zaida._ He who could once persuade me anything, may now command me everything: when he says I must go, I go. But he knows what awaits me.
_Countess._ No, child! he never shall say it.
_Zaida._ Thanks, lady! eternal thanks! The breaking of his word would break my heart; and better _that_ break first. Let the command come from you, and not from him.
_Countess._ [_Calling aloud._] Ludolph! Ludolph! hither! Kiss the hand I present to you, and never forget it is the hand of a preserver.
THE PENTAMERON;
OR,
INTERVIEWS OF MESSER GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO AND MESSER FRANCESCO PETRARCA
WHEN
SAID MESSER GIOVANNI LAY INFIRM AT HIS VILLETTA HARD BY CERTALDO;
AFTER WHICH THEY SAW NOT EACH OTHER ON OUR SIDE OF PARADISE.
FIRST DAY'S INTERVIEW
_Boccaccio._ Who is he that entered, and now steps so silently and softly, yet with a foot so heavy it shakes my curtains?
Frate Biagio! can it possibly be you?
No more physic for me, nor ma.s.ses neither, at present.
a.s.sunta! a.s.suntina! who is it?
_a.s.sunta._ I cannot say, Signor Padrone! he puts his finger in the dimple of his chin, and smiles to make me hold my tongue.
_Boccaccio._ Fra Biagio! are you come from Samminiato for this? You need not put your finger there. We want no secrets. The girl knows her duty and does her business. I have slept well, and wake better.