ge and in my circumstances."

He bowed gravely, and turned to his bed. From under it, he pulled out
a clumsy tin box. Having opened the rusty lock with some difficulty,
he produced a ragged pocket-book, and picked out from it a paper which
looked like an old letter.

"There," he said, handing the paper to Mr. Mool, "is the statement which
vindicates this lady's reputation. Before you open the manuscript I must
tell you how I came by it."

He appeared to feel such embarrassment in approaching the subject, that
Mr. Mool interposed. "I am already acquainted," he said, "with some of
the circumstances to which you are about to allude. I happen to know of
the wager in which the calumny originated, and of the manner in which
that wager was decided. The events which followed are the only events
that I need trouble you to describe."

Baccani's grateful sense of relief avowed itself without reserve.
"I feel your kindness," he said, "almost as keenly as I feel my own
disgraceful conduct, in permitting a woman's reputation to be made the
subject of a wager. From whom did you obtain your information?"

"From the person who mentioned your name to me--Doctor Benjulia."

Baccani lifted his hand with a gesture of angry protest.

"Don't speak of him again in my presence!" he burst out. "That man
has insulted me. When I took refuge from political persecution in this
country, I sent him my prospectus. From my own humble position as a
teacher of languages, I looked up without envy to his celebrity among
doctors; I thought I might remind him, not unfavourably, of our early
friendship--I, who had done him a hundred kindnesses in those past
days. He has never taken the slightest notice of me; he has not even
acknowledged the receipt of my prospectus. Despicable wretch! Let me
hear no more of him."

"Pray forgive me if I refer to him again--for the last time," Mr. Mool
pleaded. "Did your acquaintance with him continue, after the question of
the wager had been settled?"

"No, sir!" Baccani answered sternly. "When I was at leisure to go to the
club at which we were accustomed to meet, he had left Rome. From that
time to this--I rejoice to say it--I have never set eyes on him."

The obstacles which had prevented the refutation of the calumny from
reaching Benjulia were now revealed. Mr. Mool had only to hear, next,
how that refutation had been obtained. A polite hint sufficed to remind
Baccani of the explanation that he had promised.