14.
Notary De Fusco read over and over again the short letter that Greta had written to him, before making the decision to invite to his office the fisherman who brought the girl on the Bisentina island: he must have something to do with the girl's strange escape.
Greta seemed to him so different after coming back from that short trip. It was ten o'clock on a stifling hot late July morning, when the doorbell rang in the stale air of the notary's office, making him jump out of his chair. He got up reluctantly and went to open the door: since Greta had gone he had got used to doing everything by himself; he had not yet made up his mind to find another secretary. In his heart he believed that Greta would return.
Ernesto had put on his good suit: his mother had to work hard to remove the
