Knowing him to be a very powerful
personage I thought it best to accept these conditions, which in any
case it would have been difficult to resist; and the next day he
informed me that the Holy Office had consented to the Signorina Miranda
Malmocco's appearing on the stage of Pianura during the remainder of the
season, in consideration of the financial injury caused to the manager
of the company by the edifying conversion of her twin-brother.
"In this way," the Abbot was pleased to explain, "you will be quite safe
from my sister, who is a woman of the most unexceptionable morals, and
at the same time you will not expose our excellent Bishop to the charge
of having been a party to a grave infraction of ecclesiastical
discipline.--My only condition," he added with a truly paternal smile,
"is that, after the Signorina Miranda's performance at the theatre her
twin-brother the Signor Mirandolino shall return every evening to the
monastery: a condition which seems necessary to the preservation of our
secret, and which I trust you will not regard as too onerous, in view of
the service I have been happy enough to render you."
It would have ill become me to dispute the excellent ecclesiastic's
wishes, and Tartaglia and the rest of the company having been sworn to
secrecy, I reappeared that very evening in one of my favourite parts,
and was afterward carried back to the monastery in the most private
manner. The Signorina Malmocco's successes soon repaired the loss
occasioned by her brother's withdrawal, and if any suspected their
identity all were interested to conceal their suspicions.
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