“Ah,” said Andrea, deeply affected.
“Good morning, Benedetto,” said Bertuccio, with his deep, hollow voice.
“You—you?” said the young man, looking fearfully around him.
“Do you not recognize me, unhappy child?”
“Silence—be silent!” said Andrea, who knew the delicate sense of hearing possessed by the walls; “for Heaven’s sake, do not speak so loud!”
“You wish to speak with me alone, do you not?” said Bertuccio.
“Oh, yes.”
“That is well.”
And Bertuccio, feeling in his pocket, signed to a keeper whom he saw through the window of the wicket.
“Read?” he said.
“What is that?” asked Andrea.
“An order to conduct you to a room, and to leave you there to talk to me.”
“Oh,” cried Andrea, leaping with joy. Then he mentally added—“Still my unknown protector! I am not forgotten. They wish for secrecy, since we are to converse in a private room. I understand, Bertuccio has been sent by my protector.”
The keeper spoke for a moment with an official, then opened the iron gates and conducted Andrea to a room on the first floor. The room was whitewashed, as is the custom in prisons, but it looked quite brilliant to a prisoner, though a stove, a bed, a chair, and a table formed the whole of