violent?'

I hesitated.

'I shan't let you out unless you do.'

'Very well!' I answered, laughing.

Matteo opened the door and stood bolt upright on the threshold, decked out from head to foot in my newest clothes.

'You villain!' I said, amazed at his effrontery.

'You don't look bad, considering,' he answered, looking at me calmly.

II

WHEN we arrived at the Palazzo Orsi, many of the guests had already come. Matteo was immediately surrounded by his friends; and a score of ladies beckoned to him from different parts of the room, so that he was torn away from me, leaving me rather disconsolate alone in the crowd. Presently I was attracted to a group of men talking to a woman whom I could not see; Matteo had joined them, and they were laughing at something he had said. I had turned away to look at other people when I heard Matteo calling me.

'Filippo,' he said, coming towards me, 'come and be introduced to Donna Giulia; she has asked me to present you.'

He took me by the arm, and I saw that the lady and her admirers were looking at me.

'She's no better than she should be,' he whispered in my ear; 'but she's the loveliest woman in Forli!'

'Allow me to add another to your circle of adorers, Donna Giulia,' said Matteo, as we both bowed—'Messer Filippo Brandolini, like myself, a soldier of distinction.'

I saw a graceful little woman, dressed in some Oriental brocade; a small face, with quite tiny features, large brown eyes, which struck me at the first glance as very soft and caressing, a mass of dark, reddish-brown hair, and a fascinating smile.

'We were asking Matteo where his wounds were,' she said, smiling on me very graciously. 'He tells us they are all in the region of his heart.'

'In that case,' I answered, 'he has come to a more deadly battlefield than any we saw during the war.'

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