Guy bowed to
her as she made her reverence, while her face lit up with an amused smile.
"Your father says I have seen you before, signora, but in sooth I know not
where or how, since it was but this morning that I arrived in Paris."
"We parted but half an hour since, monsieur."
"Parted?" Guy repeated with a puzzled expression on his face. "Surely you
are jesting with me."
"Do you not recognize my messenger?" the Italian said with a smile. "My
daughter is my assistant. In a business like mine one cannot trust a
stranger to do one service, and as a boy she could come and go unmarked
when she carries a message to persons of quality. She looks a saucy page
in the daytime when she goes on the business, but after nightfall she is
dressed as you saw her this evening. As a girl she could not traverse the
streets unattended, and I am far too busy to bear her company; but as a
boy she can go where she likes, and indeed it is only when we are alone,
and there is little chance of my having visitors, that she appears in her
proper character."
"You must be very courageous, signora," Guy said; "but, indeed, I can well
imagine that you can pass where you will without anyone suspecting you to
be a girl, for the thought that this was so never entered my head."
"I am so accustomed to the disguise," she said, "that I feel more
comfortable in it than dressed as I now am, and it is much more amusing to
be able to go about as I like than to remain all day cooped up here when
my father is abroad.
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