A very handsome sullen young woman, of the dark, thick-browed Lombard type, asked what was wanted; at the same time the deep voice of a man; conjecturally rising from a lower floor, called, and a lock was rattled.
The woman told Luigi to enter.

He sent a glance behind him; he had evidently been drained of his sprightliness in a second; he moved in with the slackness of limb of a gibbeted figure.

The door shut; the woman led him downstairs.

He could not have danced or sung a song now for great pay.

The smell of mouldiness became so depressing to him that the smell of leather struck his nostrils refreshingly.