returned the other.
"This is painful, I know ... for me as well as for you...." he added,
with some feeling.

Amaldi said in a different tone, but without looking at him:

"Yes. I know it is. Forgive me. Go on."

Barti then said that it might be possible for the citizenship to be
obtained without the disclosure of its object, though this would be
extraordinarily difficult.

"In fact," he wound up, "I am afraid that in your case it would be
practically impossible. The head of a noble Italian family does not
apply for Swiss citizenship without some very unusual object, and in my
opinion the authorities would be sure to demand for what object the
Marchese Amaldi wished to become a Swiss."

Amaldi got to his feet this time.

"Then, really...." he began.

"_Caro_ Marco ... I beg of you to let me finish," pleaded Barti.

He, too, was pale by now, and he snatched off his eyeglasses, breathing
nervously upon them, and squinting slightly with his short-sighted eyes,
in the stress of the moment.

"Switzerland is not the only country in the world," he hurried on,
polishing and repolishing the glasses as he spoke, very glad not to be
able to see Amaldi's set, white face more clearly. "I have made
inquiries, and it seems that in Hungary...."

"_'Hungary'!_" echoed Amaldi. He gave a short laugh. "But I beg your
pardon. Go on, please...." he said gravely the next moment.

"And why not Hungary?" Barti demanded, with a show of impatience which
he was far from feeling. "For my part, I think I should prefer a
Hungarian citizenship. It seems that in Hungary there is a process of
adoption...."

Again Amaldi echoed him.

"'Adoption'!" he exclaimed, with even more emphasis than before. "My
dear Barti, excuse me--but I hadn't realised that the thing would be
ridiculous as well as humiliating."

Then he checked himself, walking to and fro in the small room several
times. The other sat watching him in silence.

Presently he stopped in front of Barti and looked down at him with a
rather wry but affectionate smile.

"Forgive me, dear Barti," he said. "You've gone to no end of trouble for
me, and I act like a bad-tempered _tousin_. Will you please go on about
... Hungary?"

Barti rushed into suggestions now. He wished, he said, with Amaldi's
consent, to go forthwith to Hungary and make a thorough investigation of
the legal questions involved.

"_Ma!_... Go if you think best," Amaldi said, when he had ended. Then
added with