"What is the matter, Bruno?" she asked.
Bruno brushed his coat-sleeve across his eyes, set his teeth, and said
with a savage fierceness:
"What's the matter? Treason's the matter, telling tales and taking away
a good woman's character--that's what is the matter! A man who has been
eating your bread for years has been lying about you, and he is a rascal
and a sneak and a damned scoundrel, and I would like to kick him out of
the house."
"And who has been doing all this, Bruno?"
"Myself! It was I who told Mr. Rossi the lies that made him speak
against you on the day of the Pope's Jubilee, and when you asked him to
come here, I warned him against you, and said you were only going to pay
him back and ruin him."
"So you said that, did you?"
"Yes, I did."
"And what did Mr. Rossi say to you?"
"Say to me? 'She's a good woman,' says he, 'and if I have ever said
otherwise, I take it all back, and am ashamed.'"
Roma, who had turned to the window, heaved a sigh and said: "It has all
come out right in the end, Bruno. If you hadn't spoken against me to Mr.
Rossi, he wouldn't have spoken against me in the piazza, and then he and
I should never have met and known each other and been friends. All's
well that ends well, you know."
"Perhaps so, but the miracle doesn't make the saint, and you oughtn't to
keep me any longer."
"Do you mean that I ought to dismiss you?"
"Yes."
"Bruno," said Roma, "I am in trouble just now, and I may be in worse
trouble by-and-by. I don't know how long I may be able to keep you as a
servant, but I may want you as a friend, and if you leave me now...."
"Oh, put it like that, miss, and I'll never leave you, and as for your
enemies...."
Bruno was doubling up the sleeve of his right arm, when Joseph and the
poodle came back to the room. Roma received them with a merry cry, and
there was much noise and laughter. At length the gorgeous garments were
taken off, the cardboard box was corded, and Bruno and the boy prepared
to go.
"You'll come again, won't you, Joseph?" said Roma, and the boy's face
beamed.
"I suppose this little man means a good deal to his mother, Bruno?"