I dare say he is living still--living in clover on some
unfortunate woman. The beautiful and the good die untimely deaths. _He,_
and his kind, last and live."

Mr. Mool had neither time nor inclination to plead in favour of the more
hopeful view, which believes in the agreeable fiction called "Poetical
justice." He tried to express his sense of obligation at parting.
Baccani refused to listen.

"The obligation is all on my side," he said. "As I have already
told you, your visit has added a bright day to my calendar. In our
pilgrimage, my friend, through this world of rogues and fools, we
may never meet again. Let us remember gratefully that we _have_ met.
Farewell."

So they parted.

Returning to his office, Mr. Mool attached to the copy of the confession
a brief statement of the circumstances under which the Italian had
become possessed of it. He then added these lines, addressed to
Benjulia:--_"You_ set the false report afloat. I leave it to your sense
of duty, to decide whether you ought not to go at once to Mrs. Gallilee,
and tell her that the slander which you repeated is now proved to be a
lie. If you don't agree with me, I must go to Mrs. Gallilee myself. In
that case please return, by the bearer, the papers which are enclosed."

The clerk instructed to deliver these documents, within the shortest
possible space of time, found Mr. Mool waiting at the office, on his
return. He answered his master's inquiries by producing Benjulia's
reply.

The doctor's amiable humour was still in the ascendant. His success in
torturing his unfortunate cook had been followed by the receipt of
a telegram from his friend at Montreal, containing this satisfactory
answer to his question:--"Not brain disease." With his mind now set
completely at rest, his instincts as a gentleman were at full liberty
to control him. "I entirely agree with you," he wrote to Mr. Mool. "I go
back with your clerk; the cab will drop me at Mrs. Gallilee's house."

Mr. Mool turned to the clerk.

"Did you wait to hear if Mrs. Gallilee was at home?" he asked.

"Mrs. Gallilee was absent, sir--attending a lecture."

"What did Doctor Benjulia do?"

"Went into the house, to wait her return."

CHAPTER XLIV.

Mrs. Gallilee's page (attending to the house-door, in the footman's
absence) had just shown Benjulia into the library, when there was
another ring at the bell. The new visitor was Mr. Le Frank. He appeared
to be in a hurry. Without any prel