The gaiety and high spirits of the two girls, when they were in the house, amused and pleased him, especially as it was in contrast to the somewhat stiff and dignified demeanour which they assumed when passing through the frequented canals in the gondola.
"I do not like that woman Castaldi," Francis said one evening as, after leaving the palazzo, Giuseppi rowed them towards the Palazzo Giustiniani, where Matteo was to be landed.
"Gouvernantes are not popular, as a class, with young men," Matteo laughed.
"But seriously, Matteo, I don't like her; and I am quite sure that, for some reason or other, she does not like me.

I have seen her watching me, as a cat would watch a mouse she is going to spring on." "Perhaps she has not forgiven you, Francisco, for saving her two charges, and leaving her to the mercy of their assailants." "I don't know, Matteo.

Her conduct appeared to me, at the time, to be very strange.

Of course, she might have been paralysed with fright, but it was certainly curious the way she clung to their dresses, and tried to prevent them from leaving the boat." "You don't really think, Francis, that she wanted them to be captured ?" "I don't know whether I should be justified in saying as much as that, Matteo, and I certainly should not say so to anyone else, but I can't help thinking that such was the case.

I don't like her face, and I don't like the woman.