ot understand, made her laugh at him.

"Do you imagine you can crush a man like that by trying and condemning
him?" she said. "He has insulted and humiliated me, but I'm not silly
enough to deceive myself. Try him, condemn him, and he will be greater
in his prison than the King on his throne."

The Baron twisted the ends of his moustache again.

"Besides," she said, "what benefit will it be to me if you put him on
trial for inciting the people to rebellion against the King? The public
will say it was for insulting yourself, and everybody will think he was
punished for telling the truth."

The Baron continued to twist the ends of his moustache.

"Benefit!" She laughed ironically. "It will be a double injury. The
insult will be repeated in public again and again. First the advocate
for the crown will read it aloud, then the advocate for the defence will
quote it, and then it will be discussed and dissected and telegraphed
until everybody in court knows it by heart and all Europe has heard of
it."

The Baron made no answer, but watched the beautiful face, now very pale,
behind which conflicting thoughts seemed to wriggle like a knot of
vipers. Suddenly she leaped up with a spring.

"I know!" she cried. "I know! I know! I know!"

"Well?"

"Give the man to me, and I will show you how to escape from this
humiliating situation."

"Roma?" said the Baron, but he had read her thought already.

"If you punish him for this speech you will injure both of us and do no
good to the King."

"It's true."

"Take him in a serious conspiracy, and you will be doing us no harm and
the King some service."

"No doubt."

"You say there is a mystery about David Rossi, and you want to know who
he is, who his father was, and where he spent the years he was away from
Rome."

"I would certainly give a good deal to know."

"You want to know what vile refugee in London filled him with his
fancies, what conspiracies he is hatching, what secret societies he
belongs to, and, above all, what his plans and schemes are, and whether
he is in league with the Vatican."

She spoke so rapidly that the words sputtered out of her quivering lips.

"Well?"

"Well, I will find it all out for you."

"My dear Roma!"

"Leave him to me, and within a month you shall know"--she laughed, a
little ashamed--"the inmost secrets of his soul."

She was walking to and fro again, to prevent the Baron from looking into
her face, which was now red over