great
handkerchief from her pocket and pressed it to her face with one hand,
while with the other she sought Luisa's hand, without turning her head.
But Luisa rose, and going to the writing-desk, scrawled upon a piece of
paper: "When is the Marchesa coming? What road will she take?" Barborin
answered that the dinner was to be at half-past three; that at about
three the Marchesa would leave her gondola at the landing-stage of the
Calcinera, where Pasotti was to meet her with four men and the famous
litter that had belonged to an archbishop of Milan a century ago.

Luisa listened to every detail in silence and with the greatest
attention. Before leaving, Signora Pasotti said she longed to kiss that
love of a Maria, but was afraid the child might not know how to keep the
secret. At this point the good creature plunged her left arm into her
pocket up to the elbow, and drew out a small tin boat, which she begged
Luisa to give to her little daughter in the name of another battered
old craft, whose identity must not be made known. Then she rushed down
stairs and disappeared.

Luisa returned to her letter to Franco, but having thought a long time,
pen in hand, she finally put the letter away again without having added
a word, and drawing the notary's documents towards her, began to copy.
Her resolution was formed. Fate itself was offering her this meeting
with the old wretch. She had neither a doubt nor a scruple. The passion
which had sprung up within her so long ago, which she had caressed and
fostered, had now gathered that strength which, when it reaches its
full, transforms the thought into the deed at one blow, and in such a
manner that all responsibility seems removed from the agent, while in
reality, it is simply carried back to the first inward movement of
yielding to temptation.

Yes, on the morrow, either at the landing-stage, on the Calcinera path,
or on the church-place of the Annunciata, she would stand scornfully
before the Marchesa, openly declaring war, and advising her to have a
care, for now all legitimate weapons of defence were to be used against
her. Yes, she would tell her so, and then she would act, act alone and
unaided, since Franco would take no steps. If Franco had made promises
she had not. A little later she wrote a note to the lawyer V. begging
him to come to her as soon as possible. She wished to learn from him how
to use the documents in Gilardoni's possession. Then she resumed her
copying f