All this is true.' 'It should be a comfort to you! The Signor Mertyrio...' Beppo writhed his person at the continuance of the questionings, and obtaining a pause, he rushed into his statement: 'The Signor Mertyrio was well, and on the point of visiting Italy, and quitting the wave-embraced island of fog, of beer, of moist winds, and much money, and much kindness, where great hearts grew.

The signorina corresponded with him, and with him only.' 'You know that, and will swear to it ?' Laura exclaimed.
Beppo thereby receiving the cue he had commenced beating for, swore to its truth profoundly, and straightway directed his statement to prove that his mistress had not been politically (or amorously, if the suspicion aimed at her in those softer regions) indiscreet or blameable in any of her actions.

The signorina, he said, never went out from her abode without the companionship of her meritorious mother and his own most humble attendance.

He, Beppo, had a master and a mistress, the Signor Mertyrio and the Signorina Vittoria.

She saw no foreigners: though--a curious thing!--he had seen her when the English language was talked in her neighbourhood; and she had a love for that language: it made her face play in smiles like an infant's after it has had suck and is full;--the sort of look you perceive when one is dreaming and hears music.