I laughed gently.
"How many more trifles can you think of, my friend, in opposition to my wishes? As for the portmanteau, you can pack it this very day if you so please--then it will be in readiness. The rest of your duties can for once be performed by others. It is not only important, but imperative that you should go to Avellino on my errand. I want you to take this with you," and I tapped a small square iron box, heavily made and strongly padlocked, which stood an the table near me.
He glanced at the box, but still hesitated, and the gloom on his countenance deepened. I grew a little annoyed.
"What is the matter with you?" I said at last with some sternness. "You have something on your mind--speak out!"
The fear of my wrath startled him. He looked up with a bewildered pain in his eyes, and spoke, his mellow Tuscan voice vibrating with his own eloquent entreaty.
"Eccellenza!" he exclaimed, eagerly, "you must forgive me--yes, forgive your poor servant who seems too bold, and who yet is true to you--yes, indeed, so true!--and who would go with you to death if there were need! I am not blind, I can see your sufferings, for you do suffer, 'lustrissimo, though you hide it well. Often have I watched you when you have not known it. I feel that you have what we call a wound in the heart, bleeding, bleeding always. Such a thing means death often, as much as a straight shot in battle. Let me watch over you, eccellenza; let me stay with you! I have learned to love you! Ah, mio signor," and he drew nearer and caught my hand timidly, "you do not know--how should you?--the look that is in your face sometimes, the look of one who is stunned by a hard blow. I have said to myself 'That look will kill me if I see it often.' And your love for this great lady, whom you will wed to-morrow, has not lightened your soul as love should lighten it. No! you are even sadder than before, and the look I speak of comes ever again and again. Yes, I have watched you, and lately I have seen you writing, writing far into the night, when you should have slept. Ah, signor! you are angry, and I know I should not have spoken; but tell me, how can I look at Lilla and be happy when I feel that you are alone and sad?"