[The Shame of Motley by Raphael Sabatini]@TWC D-Link bookThe Shame of Motley CHAPTER V 6/19
She was without money, as I knew, and she would have found in Fano such a reception as would have brought the bitter tears of late repentance to her pretty eyes. But I was soft-hearted, and, so, I reasoned with her; yet in a manner that was to leave her no doubt of the true nature of her situation, and the need to use me with a little courtesy for the sake of what I might yet do, if she lacked the grace to treat me with gratitude for the sake of that which I had done already. "Madonna," said I."It were wiser to choose the by-road and forego the escort, since we have dispensed with it so far.
There are many reasons why a lady should not seek to enter Fano at this hour of night." "I know of none," she interrupted me. "That may well be.
Nevertheless they exist." "This night-riding in so lonely a fashion is little to my taste," she told me sullenly.
"I am for Fano." She had the mercy to spare me the actual words, yet her tone told me as plainly as if she had uttered them that I could go with her or not, as I should choose.
In silence, very sore at heart, I turned my mule's head once more towards the lights of the town. "Since you are resolved, so be it," was all my answer; and we proceeded. No word did we exchange until we had entered the main street, when she curtly asked me which was the best inn. "'The Golden Fish,'" said I, as curtly, and to "The Golden Fish" we went. Arrived there, Madonna Paola took affairs into her own hands.
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