uare, they saw two men before them.
"There goes the Gladiator," said Reanda to his companion, suddenly.
"There is no mistaking his walk, even at this distance."
"What do you mean?" asked Francesca. "Unless I am mistaken, the man who
is a little the taller, the one in the rough English clothes, is Mr.
Dalrymple. I spoke of him the other day, you know."
"Oh! Is that he? The other has a still more extraordinary name. He is
Paul Griggs. He is the son of an American consul who died in Civita
Vecchia twenty years ago, and left him a sort of waif, for he had no
money and apparently no relatives. Somehow he has grown up, Heaven knows
how, and gets a living by journalism. I believe he was at sea for some
years as a boy. He is really as much Italian as American. I have met him
with artists and literary people."
"Why do you call him the Gladiator?" asked Francesca, with some
interest.
"It is a nickname he has got. Cotogni, the sculptor, was in despair for
a model last year. Griggs and two or three other men were in the
studio, and somebody suggested that Griggs was very near the standard of
the ancients in his proportions. They persuaded him to let them measure
him. You know that in the 'Canons' of proportion, the Borghese
Gladiator--the one in the Louvre--is given as the best example of an
athlete. They measured Griggs then and there, and found that he was at
all points the exact living image of the statue. The name has stuck to
him. You see what a fellow he is, and how he walks."
"Yes, he looks strong," said Francesca, watching the man with natural
curiosity.
The young American was a little shorter than Dalrymple, but evidently
better proportioned. No one could fail to notice the vast breadth of
shoulder, the firm, columnar throat, and the small athlete's head with
close-set ears. He moved without any of that swinging motion of the
upper part of the body which is natural to many strong men and was
noticeable in Dalrymple, but there was something peculiar in his walk,
almost undefinable, but conveying the idea of very great strength with
very great elasticity.
"But he is an ugly man," observed Reanda, almost immediately. "Ugly, but
not repulsive. You will see, if he turns his head. His face is like a
mask. It is not the face you would expect with such a body."
"How curious!" exclaimed Francesca, rather idly, for her interest in
Paul Griggs was almost exhausted.
They went on along the crowded pavement. When t
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