which was
worth money, and that if I were not going so suddenly she would gladly
have given me another opportunity.

This piece of impudence made me want to break the wine bottle on her
head. She must have known what I was going to do from the way I took it
up, but she did not waver for a moment. This coolness of hers prevented
my committing a crime.

I contented myself with saying that she was the most impudent slut I had
ever met, and I poured the wine into my glass with a shaking hand, as if
that were the purpose for which I had taken up the bottle.

After this scene I got up and went into the next room; nevertheless, in
half an hour she came to take coffee with me.

This persistence of hers disgusted me, but I calmed myself by the
reflection that her conduct must be dictated by vengeance.

"I should like to help you to pack," said she.

"And I should like to be left alone," I replied; and taking her by the
arm I led her out of the room and locked the door after her.

We were both of us in the right. Leah had deceived and humiliated me, and
I had reason to detest her, while I had discovered her for a monster of
hypocrisy and immodesty, and this was good cause for her to dislike me.

Towards evening two sailors came after the rest of the luggage, and
thanking my hostess I told Leah to put up my linen, and to give it to her
father, who had taken the box of which I was to be the bearer down to the
vessel.

We set sail with a fair wind, and I thought never to set face on Leah
again. But fate had ordered otherwise.

We had gone twenty miles with a good wind in our quarter, by which we
were borne gently from wave to wave, when all of a sudden there fell a
dead calm.

These rapid changes are common enough in the Adriatic, especially in the
part we were in.

The calm lasted but a short time, and a stiff wind from the
west-north-west began to blow, with the result that the sea became very
rough, and I was very ill.

At midnight the storm had become dangerous. The captain told me that if
we persisted in going in the wind's eye we should be wrecked, and that
the only thing to be done was to return to Ancona.

In less than three hours we made the harbour, and the officer of the
guard having recognized me kindly allowed me to land.

While I was talking to the officer the sailors took my trunks, and
carried them to my old lodgings without waiting to ask my leave.

I was vexed. I wanted to avoid Leah, and I had