evening. I thereupon rang my bell as a sign that the dinner need no
longer be delayed; and, turning to those assembled, I announced to them
the unavoidable absence of two of the party.

"A pity Francesco could not have come," said Captain Freccia, twirling
the ends of his long mustachios. "He loves good wine, and, better
still, good company."

"Caro Capitano!" broke in the musical voice of the Marchese Gualdro,
"you know that our Francesco goes nowhere without his beloved Carlo.
Carlo CANNOT come--altro! Francesco WILL NOT. Would that all men were
such brothers!"

"If they were," laughed Luziano Salustri, rising from the piano where
he had been playing softly to himself, "half the world would be thrown
out of employment. You, for instance," turning to the Marquis
D'Avencourt, "would scarce know what to do with your time."

The marquis smiled and waved his hand with a deprecatory gesture--that
hand, by the by, was remarkably small and delicately formed--it looked
almost fragile. Yet the strength and suppleness of D'Avencourt's wrist
was reputed to be prodigious by those who had seen him handle the
sword, whether in play or grim earnest.

"It is an impossible dream," he said, in reply to the remarks of
Gualdro and Salustri, "that idea of all men fraternizing together in
one common pig-sty of equality. Look at the differences of caste!
Birth, breeding and education make of man that high-mettled, sensitive
animal known as gentleman, and not all the socialistic theories in the
world can force him down on the same level with the rough boor, whose
flat nose and coarse features announce him as plebeian even before one
hears the tone of his voice. We cannot help these things. I do not
think we WOULD help them even if we could."

"You are quite right," said Ferrari. "You cannot put race-horses to
draw the plow. I have always imagined that the first quarrel--the Cain
and Abel affair--must have occurred through some difference of caste as
well as jealousy--for instance, perhaps Abel was a negro and Cain a
white man, or vice versa; which would account for the antipathy
existing between the races to this day."

The Duke di Marina coughed a stately cough, and shrugged his shoulders.

"That first quarrel," he said, "as related in the Bible, was
exceedingly vulgar. It must have been a kind of prize-fight. Ce n'etait
pas fin."

Gualdro laughed delightedly.

"So like you, Marina!" he exclaimed, "to say that! I sympathize wit