her!"

He actually shouted the words as he walked on with proud step. Sardi
followed, and, taking him by the arm, guided him quietly into a less
frequented street. But Mansana paid no heed, and with loud voice and
vigorous gesticulations, gave his secretly wounded egotism vent.

"After all, what should I gain," he cried, "by becoming the husband of
the Princess Leaney, the steward of her ladyship's estates, the slave
of her ladyship's caprices? Now, for the first time, I can acknowledge
to myself the truth; such a life would have been unworthy of Giuseppe
Mansana."

Sardi came to the conclusion that if Mansana could so belie the usual
taciturnity and reserve of his nature as to bawl and shout in this
outrageous manner, almost any mad feat might be possible; so, with an
ingenuity and perseverance that did him credit, he sought to induce him
to take a little journey, just to give time for the confused condition
of his mind and his affairs to settle themselves. But he might as well
have expected a hurricane to heed his words.

CHAPTER XI

That same evening, Amanda's curiosity was stirred by receiving a letter
conveyed to her with every appearance of precaution. She struck a
light, and found that it came from Luigi--the first he had ever sent to
her--and thus it ran:

"MY AMANDA,--There is a madman in pursuit of me, and he threatens
my life. An hour ago he got me to swear solemnly, and to put my
hand to the oath, that I would renounce all pretensions to you,
and never even speak to you again. I was a poltroon to submit to
it. I know that well enough, and you cannot despise me more than I
despise myself. But there is this to be said: until I consented to
that declaration I never knew that I loved you. Perhaps, indeed, I
had not done so. At any rate, now I know that I do love you--love
you beyond measure, beyond bounds; and in all the wide world there
is no wretch more miserable than I am at this moment. But I cannot
bring myself to believe that all is over between us, or that this
monstrous agreement can be binding.

"All rests with you, Amanda, if you do not despise me too deeply.
If you love me, then the madman can do nothing to you, and some day
matters will happily mend for us. At present I am like one in a
prison cell. I cannot move to release myself. But this I know: if
you will not help me to escape from t