Quinola
Listen. (Aside) Here is a man, the very one I want, knows everything
in Barcelona. (Aloud) After what you have told me we ought to be
friends.
Monipodio
He who has my secret must be my friend--
Quinola
You are as watchful here as if you were jealous. What is it? Come let
us moisten our clay and wet our whistle with a bottle in some tavern;
it is daybreak--
Monipodio
Do you see how this palace is lit up for a feast? Don Fregose is
dining and gaming at the house of Senora Faustine Brancadori.
Quinola
Quite Venetian, Brancadori. 'Tis a rare name! She must be the widow of
some patrician.
Monipodio
She is twenty-two, subtle as musk, and governs the governor, and, let
me tell you between ourselves, has already wheedled out of him all
that he picked up under Charles V. in the wars of Italy. What comes
from the flute--
Quinola
The air takes. What is the age of the viceroy?
Monipodio
He owns up to sixty years.
Quinola
And yet they speak of first love! I know of nothing so terrible as
last love; it strangles a man. I am happy that I have been brought up
so far with unsinged wings! I might be a statesman--
Monipodio
The old general is still young enough to employ me as a spy upon the
Brancadori, while she pays me for her liberty; and--you can understand
the joyous life I lead by making no mischief!
Quinola
Now you want to know all, Old Curiosity, in order to place your thumb
upon the throat of opportunity! (Monipodio nods assent.
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