Open your little parcel
while I tell you the rest. Who made you so pretty, carissima? Nature
knew what she was doing when she made those eyes of yours and those
bright cheeks, and those little hands and this small waist--per Dio--if
some one I know were as pretty as Teresinella, all Naples would be at
her feet!"
He slipped his arm round her, there in the shade. Still she held the
package unopened in her hand. She grew a little pale, as he touched her,
and shrank away as though to avoid him, but evidently uncertain and
deeply disturbed. The poor girl's good and evil angels were busy
deciding her fate for her at that moment.
"Open your little gift and see whether you like the reason I give you
for coming here," said San Miniato, who was pleased with the turn of the
phrase and thought it as well to repeat it. "Open it, Teresinella,
bella, bella--the first of as many as you like--and come and sit beside
me on the bench there and let me talk a little. I have so much to say to
you, all pretty things which you will like, and the hour is short, you
know."
Poor girl! He was a fine gentleman with a very great name, as Teresina
knew, and he was young still and handsome, and had winning ways, and she
loved gold and pretty speeches dearly.
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