's head back and looked down into the round, green eyes.
"Is it true, Pasht?" he said. "Are all these unkind things true that
your mistress is s-saying about me? Is it a case of mea culpa; mea
m-maxima culpa? You wise beast, you never ask for opium, do you? Your
ancestors were gods in Egypt, and no man t-trod on their tails. I
wonder, though, what would become of your calm superiority to earthly
ills if I were to take this paw of yours and hold it in the c-candle.
Would you ask me for opium then? Would you? Or perhaps--for death? No,
pussy, we have no right to die for our personal convenience. We may spit
and s-swear a bit, if it consoles us; but we mustn't pull the paw away."

"Hush!" She took the cat off his knee and put it down on a footstool.
"You and I will have time for thinking about those things later on. What
we have to think of now is how to get Domenichino out of his difficulty.
What is it, Katie; a visitor? I am busy."

"Miss Wright has sent you this, ma'am, by hand."

The packet, which was carefully sealed, contained a letter, addressed
to Miss Wright, but unopened and with a Papal stamp. Gemma's old school
friends still lived in Florence, and her more important letters were
often received, for safety, at their address.

"It is Michele's mark," she said, glancing quickly over the letter,
which seemed to be about the summer-terms at a boarding house in the
Apennines, and pointing to two little blots on a corner of the page.
"It is in chemical ink; the reagent is in the third drawer of the
writing-table. Yes; that is it."

He laid the letter open on the desk and passed a little brush over its
pages. When the real message stood out on the paper in a brilliant blue
line, he leaned back in his chair and burst out laughing.

"What is it?" she asked hurriedly. He handed her the paper.

"DOMENICHINO HAS BEEN ARRESTED. COME AT ONCE."

She sat down with the paper in her hand and stared hopelessly at the
Gadfly.

"W-well?" he said at last, with his soft, ironical drawl; "are you
satisfied now that I must go?"

"Yes, I suppose you must," she answered, sighing. "And I too."

He looked up with a little start. "You too? But----"

"Of course. It will be very awkward, I know, to be left without anyone
here in Florence; but everything must go to the wall now except the
providing of an extra pair of hands."

"There are plenty of hands to be got there."

"They don't belong to people whom you can trust thoroughl