Neale was repeating to himself, in mortal terror of forgetting it,
"Pierleoni. Pierleoni." He drank his coffee and ate his roll as though
he had a train to catch, and, rushing back to his room, seized his hat
and made off to the nearest cafe to consult the directory. With a sigh
of relief he found that there was only one Pierleoni, and that the
address was indeed as Livingstone had said, far away in the rich, new,
fashionable quarter. He set off on foot, but before he had walked five
minutes he was overcome with panic lest he be late, and hailed a rickety
cab. Thinking of nothing but the precious address which he had committed
to memory, he shouted it out to the cabman. Half-way there, he suddenly
remembered that he had no possible business at that address. He had a
horrid vision of driving up to the door, having the _portiere_ ask him
his errand, perhaps of having Miss Allen look out of the window and see
the scene.
This threw him into such a fright that for an instant he could think of
no escape and sat passive, borne along to his fate by the unconscious
cabman. Then his wits came back to him, he called out to the cabman to
drive to number seventy-five and not a hundred and twenty; and having
thus snatched himself from destruction, perceived that they were even
then turning into the street. At number seventy-five he descended,
hastily paid the driver a good deal more than was due him, stepped into
the house, inquired if a gentleman by the name of Robinson lived there,
professed surprise and regret on hearing that he did not and walked on,
settling his necktie nervously.
He told himself that he was acting like an imbecile, but he could not
seem to consider that important fact seriously. Having started in to do
anything, naturally he liked to put it through. Everybody did. And he
really would like to know how under the sun a dark-eyed girl in Rome
happened to know anything about his Great-uncle Burton. Any one would
feel a natural human curiosity on that score. And he had only five days
in Rome.
The idea that he had only five days in Rome fell on him like a
thunderbolt, as though he had had no idea of it till that moment. Had
he said he had only five days in Rome?
He walked along, looking up at the green waves of feathery foliage which
foamed down over the fawn-colored walls from the verdure of the gardens
inside. What a beautiful spot Rome was! He had not begun to appreciate
it on his last visit. It was wonderful! Such light! He had never seen
such sunlight anywhere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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