little mad'—he tapped his forehead, you know, sir. The doctor's courier sat there grinning. I got suddenly uneasy about you, sir, and went out to the front door to see whether you were coming. It's very different from what it was thirty years ago. There was no talk in Italy of cutting foreigners' throats when Sir Charles and I were here. It was quite a startling experience." 

 Cosmo nodded. "You seem impressed. Spire. Well, I too had an experience, just as the sun was setting." 

 "I am sorry to hear that, sir." 

 "What do you mean? Why should you be sorry?" 

 "I beg your pardon, sir, I thought it was something unpleasant." 

 Cosmo had a little laugh. "Unpleasant? No! Not exactly, though I think it was more dangerous than yours, but if there was any madness connected with it, it had a very visible method. It was not all talk either. Yes, Spire, it was exciting." 

 "I don't know what's come to them all. Everybody seems excited. There was not excitement in Italy thirty years ago when I was with Sir Charles and took four horses with only one helper from this very town to Florence, sir." 

 Cosmo with fixed eyes did not seem to hear Spire's complaining remark. He exclaimed: "Really it was very extraordinary," so suddenly that Spire gave a perceptible start. He pulled himself together and asked in a purely business tone: 

 "Are you going to dine in your room, sir? Time is getting on." 

 Cosmo's mood too seemed to have changed completely. 

 "I don't know. I am not hungry. I want you to move one of those screens here near the fire and place a table and chair there. I will do some correspondence to-night. Yes, I will have my dinner here, I think." 

 "I will go down and order it, sir," said Spire. "The cook here is a Frenchman who married a native and . . ." 

 "Who on earth is swearing like this outside?" exclaimed Cosmo, while Spire's face also expressed astonishment at the loud burst of voices coming along the corridor, one angry, the other argumentative, in a crescendo of scolding and expostulation which, passing the door at its highest, died away into a confused murmur in the distance of the long corridor. 

 "That was an English voice," said Cosmo. "I mean the angry one." 

 Prev. P 37/183 next