ame in these mountains. It can scarcely be for seclusion,
for he's always rambling away to some village or town near. It's now
more than a week since we have seen him. I wish I could make out who or
what he is!'

'Would you indeed?' cried a deep voice, as a large, heavy hand fell upon
his shoulder; 'and what would the knowledge benefit you, boy?' Gerald
looked up, and there stood Gabriel. He was dressed in a loose peasant's
frock, and seemed by his mien as if he had come off a long day's march.

'Go in, Pippo, and make me a good salad. Grill me that old hen yonder,
and I'll give you a share of a flask of Orvieto that was in the bishop's
cellar last night.'

He threw off his knapsack as he spoke, and removing his hat, wiped his
heated forehead, and then turning to the youth at his side, he said:
'So, boy, I am a sort of mystery to you, it seems--mayhap others share
in that same sentiment--at least I have heard as much. But whence this
curiosity on your part? You were a stranger to me, and you are so still.
What can it signify to either of us what has happened before we met and
knew each other? Life is not a river running in one bed, but a series
of streams that follow fifty channels--some pure and limpid, some,
perchance, turbid and foul enough. What you have been gives no guarantee
to what you may be, remember that!'

He spoke with a tone of sternness that made his words sound like
reproof, and the youth held down his head abashed.

'Don't suppose I am angry with you,' continued the other, but in the
self-same tone as before; 'nor that I regard this curious desire of
yours as ingratitude. You owe me nothing, or next to nothing, and you
're a rare instance of such in life, if within the next ten years the
wish will not occur to you at least twenty times, that I had left you to
die beside the dark shores of Bolseno!'

'I can well believe it may be so,' said Gerald with a sigh.

'Not that this is my own philosophy,' said the other, in a voice of
powerful meaning. 'I soon made the discovery that life was not a garden,
but a hunting-ground, and that the wolves had the best of it! Ay, boy,'
cried he, with a kind of savage exultation, 'there's the experience of
one whose boast it is to know something of his fellows!'

Gerald was silent, and for some time Gabriel also did not speak. At
last, looking steadfastly at the youth, he said: 'I have been up to
Rome these last three days. My errand there was to learn something a