o by the little courtyard! Climb over the wall!" He
did not answer, but hastily threw on some clothes and rushed from the
room, heedless of danger, and determined never of his own free will to
leave his Luisa and his sick child.

He dashed down the stairs. "Who is there?" he inquired, without opening
the door. "The Police!" some one answered. "Open at once."

"At this hour I open to no one I do not see."

A short dialogue ensued in the street. The voice he had heard first
said: "You speak to him," and the voice that spoke next was very
familiar to Franco.

"Open, Signor Maironi."

It was the Receiver. Franco threw the door open. A gentleman, dressed in
black and wearing spectacles, entered, and was followed by the mastiff;
after the mastiff came a gendarme with a lantern, then three other armed
gendarmes, two of whom were subalterns while the other was of higher
rank, and carried a large leathern bag. Some one remained outside.

"Are you Signor Maironi?" said the man in spectacles, a police-adjunct,
or detective from Milan. "Come upstairs with me." And the whole party
started upstairs, with the thud of heavy steps and the rattling of
military trappings.

They had not yet reached the first floor when a light fell on the stairs
from above, and sobs and groans were heard on the second floor.

"Is that your wife?" asked the detective.

"Do you fancy it is?" Franco retorted ironically. The Receiver murmured:
"It is probably the servant." The detective turned and gave an order;
two gendarmes started forward and went rapidly up to the second floor.
More sharply than before the adjunct asked Franco: "Is your wife in
bed?"

"Of course."

"Where? She must get up."

The door of the alcove-room was thrown open, and Luisa appeared in her
dressing-gown, with flowing hair, and bearing a candle in her hand. At
the same moment a gendarme leaned over the banisters on the upper floor,
and said that the servant had nearly fainted away, and could not come
down. The detective ordered him to leave his companion with the woman,
and to descend. Then he saluted the lady, who did not reply. In the hope
that Franco had fled, she had hastened to leave the room in order to
detain and, if possible, deceive the police. She now saw her husband and
shuddered, her heart beating wildly, but she composed herself at once.

The detective stepped forward to enter the room. "No!" Franco exclaimed.
"Some one is ill in there." Luisa clutched the