CHAPTER IX.
"Passa la Bella Donna e par che dorma"-- Tasso "What's to be done now?
I absolutely must find her," said Ludovico, looking, as he felt, exceedingly puzzled and annoyed.
"Well, yes.

Considering the nature of the information she gave you this morning, and bearing in mind that her existence in the flesh promises to be the means of leaving you without the price of a crust of bread in the world, and the further fact she was last seen starting on a tete-a-tete expedition with you at six o'clock in the morning, I admit that it is desirable that you should find her," said the lawyer, with somewhat grim pleasantry.
"For heaven's sake, Signor Giovacchino, don't talk in that sort of way, even in jest," replied the young man, looking round at the lawyer with an uneasy eye.

"After all, nothing can have happened to her, you know, worse than losing herself in the Pineta." "Pooh! happen to her.

What should happen to her?
Either you did not go back to the place where you left her; or, likely enough, after strolling a little away from it, and not finding you, she sat down, and two to one, fell asleep again.

I would wager that she is, at this moment, fast asleep under the shadow of a pine-tree, making up for last night." "But what had I better do?
If she is still either sleeping or waking in the forest, I must find her." "Let us just step as far as the gate, and make some inquiry there.