]
HORACE [speaking as they enter]. But, Lord Hawcastle, Ethel says Mr.
Pike positively refuses.
HAWCASTLE. Leave him to me. Within ten minutes he will be as meek as a
nun.
[HORACE goes into the hotel.]
My dear Pike, there is a certain question--
PIKE [in his mildest tone]. I don't want to seem rough with you, but I
meant what I said.
HAWCASTLE. Imagining I did not mean _that_ question--
PIKE. Then it's all right.
HAWCASTLE. Late this afternoon I developed a great anxiety concerning
the penalty prescribed by Italian law for those unfortunate and
impulsive individuals who connive at the escape or concealment--[he
speaks with significant emphasis and a glance at the hotel, where lights
begin to appear in the windows]--of certain other unfortunates who may
be, to speak vulgarly, wanted--by the police.
PIKE [coolly]. You're anxious about that, are you?
HAWCASTLE. So deeply that I ascertained the penalty for it. You may
confirm my information by appealing to the nearest carabiniere--strange
to say, many of them are very near. The minimum penalty for one whose
kind heart has thus betrayed him--[he turns up sharply toward the
lighted windows of hotel, then sharply again to PIKE, his voice
lifting]--is two years' imprisonment, and Italian prisons, I am credibly
informed, are quite ferociously unpleasant.
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