"
"Were any of my letters to you about Nanina among these private
papers?"
"Unfortunately they were. Pray, pray excuse my want of caution
this time. It shall never happen again."
"Go on. Such imprudence as yours can never be excused; it can
only be provided against for the future. I suppose the apprentice
showed my letters to the girl?"
"I infer as much; though why he should do so--"
"Simpleton! Did you not say that he was in love with her (as you
term it), and that he got no encouragement?"
"Yes; I said that--and I know it to be true."
"Well! Was it not his interest, being unable to make any
impression on the girl's fancy, to establish some claim to her
gratitude; and try if he could not win her that way? By showing
her my letters, he would make her indebted to him for knowing
that she was watched in your house. But this is not the matter in
question now. You say you infer that she had seen my letters. On
what grounds?"
"On the strength of this bit of paper," answered the little man,
ruefully producing a note from his pocket. "She must have had
your letters shown to her soon after putting her own letter into
the post. For, on the evening of the same day, when I went up
into her room, I found that she and her sister and the
disagreeable dog had all gone, and observed this note laid on the
table."
Father Rocco took the note, and read these lines:
"I have just discovered that I have been watched and suspected
ever since my stay under your roof.
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