George W. M. Reynolds

“ When the Jew reappeared, bearing the light, Orsini's first and natural impulse was to cast a rapid, searching glance at the brigand captain. At the same moment this individual burst into a loud, coarse, joyous laugh; and the marquis, to his profound surprise, recognized in Stephano Verrina the person with whom he had twice played so unsuccessfully at the gambling house.
"Good, my lord!" exclaimed Verrina, flinging himself upon the ottoman which the Jew had ere now occupied; "there is not in all Florence a man whom I would rather have encountered than yourself." ”

“ Did I not lend my good golden ducats upon those diamonds? and must I be blamed, if knowing—ah! knowing too well, the base artifices of which many of even the best-born Florentine nobles and great ladies are capable, must I be blamed, I say, if aware of all this, I adopted a device which the wickedness of others, and not our own, has rendered common amongst those of our race who traffic in loans upon jewels and precious stones. ”

“ But this is no place for explanations on that head," added Stephano, glancing toward the Jew.
"I understand you, signor; we must confer alone," said the arquis. "We will go out together presently; but in the mean-time, one word concerning the diamonds which the Countess of Arestino——"
"Employed me to procure for her," exclaimed Stephano, finishing the nobleman's sentence for him. "I presume that old Isaachar here has informed you of the particulars of my previous visit to him this night—or rather last night, for it is now the Sabbath morning." ”