But he had been tremendously stirred by Gheta,
who was never touched by such emotions.
A desire to see Mochales grew insidiously out of her speculations; a
desire to talk about him, hear his name. Lavinia deliberately shut her
eyes to the fact that this last became her principal reason for wishing
to see Gheta.
She told Cesare, with a diffidence which she was unable to overcome,
that she had written asking her sister for a visit. Seemingly he didn't
hear her. They were at breakfast, on the wine-red tiling of a pergola
by the water, and he had shaken his fist, with a rueful curse, in the
direction of Naples. Before him lay an open letter with an engraved
page heading.
"I said," Lavinia repeated impatiently, "that Gheta will probably be
here the last of the week."
"The sacred camels!" Orsi exclaimed; then: "Oh, Gheta--good!" But he
fell immediately into an angry reverie. "If I dared--" he muttered.
"What has stirred you up so?"
"It's difficult to explain to any one not born in Naples. Here, you
see, all is not in order, like Florence; we have had a stormy time
between brigands and secret factions and foreign rulers; and certain
societies sprang up, necessary once, but now--when one still exists--a
source of bribery and nuisance. This letter, for example, congratulates
me on the possession of a charming bride; it expresses the devotion of
a hidden organization, but points out that in order to guarantee your
safety in a city where the guards are admittedly insufficient it will
be necessary for me to forward two thousand lire at once.
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