Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/258

 shall do my best, since I have become bound to make you succeed. I know, besides, that Marianna possesses the disposition that inspires love; she has persuaded old Capuzzi that she was ignorant of our stratagem, and that she much despised it, and that on no account would she allow us to see her again. The old argus, mad with joy, and believing himself on the eve of an unlooked for happiness, has sworn to grant every wish to Marianna; she immediately asked to be taken to signor Formica's theatre, near the Popolo gate.—The good man, surprised at this desire, held eouncil with doctor Pryamid and Pitichinaccio; and they decided that Capuzzi ought to keep his word. To-morrow Marianna is to go to the theatre; Pitichinaccio is to accompany her, dressed like a duenna."

Antonio Scacciati became more and more surprised, and he was not far from thinking that his friend had dealings with the devil, to have so well informed himself of all that concerned Marianna. "This is the explanation that Salvator gave him of this omniscience, from which no detail escaped. In the Ripetta street house lodged, next door to Capuzzi, an old friend of Salvator's hostess. This woman's daughter, a firm friend of Margerita's, had taken a tender interest in Capuzzi's poor niece, and chance favored their secret interviews, for Margerita's friend had discovered in her chamber an opening for ventilation, which had for a long time been closed by a thin board. This aperture opened into a dark closet, which belonged to Marianna's chamber, only separated from her neighbor's lodging by a simple partition. The young girls had, in this manner, long and confidential conversations, during the daily siesta of old Capuzzi; it was from Margerita's friend that Salvator had procured all the necessary information concerning the domestic habits of Marianna's tyrant, and had learned the projected visit to Formica's theatre.

But it is necessary, before going farther, that the reader become acquainted with the famous Formica and his theatre at the People's gate.