three days.

"Well, I'm deaf, praise the saints! and they can't make much of me,"
said the old woman.

Roma put on her simple black straw hat with a quill through it and set
off for the office of the lawyer, Napoleon Fuselli.

"Just writing to you, dear lady," said the great man, dropping back in
his chair. "Sorry to say my labour has been in vain. It is useless to go
further. Our man has confessed."

"Confessed?" Roma clutched at the lapel of her coat.

"Confessed, and denounced his accomplices."

"His accomplices?"

"Rossi in particular, whom he has implicated in a serious conspiracy."

"What conspiracy?"

"That is not yet disclosed. We shall hear all about it the day after
to-morrow."

"But why? With what object?"

"Pardon! Apparently they have promised the clemency of the court, and
hence in one sense our object is achieved. It is hardly necessary to
defend the man. The authorities will see to that for us."

"What will be the result?"

"Probably a trial in contumacy. As soon as Parliament rises for Easter
Rossi will be summoned to present himself within ten days. But you will
be the first to know all about it, you know."

"How so?"

"The summons will be posted upon the door of the house he lived in, and
on the door of any other house he is known to have frequented."

"But if he never hears of it, or if he takes no heed?"

"He will be tried all the same, and when he is a condemned man his
sentence will be printed in black and posted up in the same places."

"And then?"

"Then Rossi's life in Rome will be at an end. He will be interdicted
from all public offices and expelled from Parliament."

"And Bruno?"

"He will be a free man the following morning."

Roma went home dazed and dejected. A letter was waiting for her. It was
from the Director of the Roman prisons. Although the regulations
stipulated that only relations should visit prisoners, except under
special conditions, the Director had no objection to Bruno Rocco's
former employer seeing him at the ordinary bi-monthly hour for visitors
to-morrow, Sunday afternoon.

At two o'clock next day Roma set off for Regina C[oe]li.

XV

The visiting-room of Regina C[oe]li is constructed on the principle of a
rat-trap. It is an oblong room divided into three compartments
longitudinally, the partition walls being composed of wire and
resembling cages. The middle compartment is occupied by the armed warder
in