The opening of the room door aroused me from my meditations. I turned--to find Vincenzo standing near me, hat in hand--he had just entered.

"Ebbene!" I said, with a cheerful air--"what news?"

"Eccellenza, you have been obeyed. The young Signor Ferrari is now at his studio."

"You left him there?"

"Yes, eccellenza"--and Vincenzo proceeded to give me a graphic account of his adventures. On leaving the banqueting-room, Ferrari had taken a carriage and driven straight to the Villa Romani--Vincenzo, unperceived, had swung himself on to the back of the vehicle and had gone also.

"Arriving there," continued my valet, "he dismissed the fiacre--and rang the gate-bell furiously six or seven times. No one answered. I hid myself among the trees and watched. There were no lights in the villa windows--all was darkness. He rang it again--he even shook the gate as though he would break it open. At last the poor Giacomo came, half undressed and holding a lantern in his hand--he seemed terrified, and trembled so much that the lantern jogged up and down like a corpse-candle on a tomb.

"'I must see the contessa,' said the young signor, Giacomo blinked like an owl, and coughed as though the devil scratched in his throat.

"'The contessa!' he said. 'She is gone!'

"The signor then threw himself upon Giacomo and shook him to and fro as though he were a bag of loose wheat.