r so appalling, that, had he not broken the spell by stooping
to light his pipe, the excited Florian would ere long have thought him
an unearthly object. The stranger now quitted his seat by the fire,
took from a table near him a jug of wine, and approached the wondering
Florian. "With your leave, my good sir," he began, "I will take a chair
by your table. A little friendly gossip is the best of all seasoning to
a glass of wine."

Without waiting for a reply, the old man seated himself directly
opposite to Florian, and again fixed a scrutinising gaze upon
his countenance. The conscious fugitive, who felt a growing and
unaccountable dread of this singular intruder, muttered a brief assent,
and continued to eat his supper in silent but obvious embarrassment;
stealing now and then a timid look at the stranger, but hastily
withdrawing his furtive glances as he felt the beams of the old man's
small and vivid eyes penetrating his very soul. He observed that the
features of his tormentor were cast in a vulgar mould, but his gaze was
widely different from that of clownish curiosity, and there was in his
deportment a stern and steady self-possession, which suggested to the
alarmed Florian a suspicion that he was an agent of the police, who had
probably tracked him through the cross-roads he had traversed in his
flight from D. The rich colour of his cheeks turned to an ashy paleness
at this appalling conjecture; and, leaving his supper unfinished, he
rose abruptly from the table to quit the room, when the old man,
starting suddenly from his chair, seized the shaking hand of Florian,
and, looking cautiously around him, said in subdued but impressive
tones--"It is not accident, young man, which brings us together at this
hour. I came in while you were asleep, and begged the landlord would not
awaken you, that I might say a few words to you in confidence, after the
servants had gone to bed."

"To me?" exclaimed Florian, in anxious wonder.

"Hush!" said the old man, again looking round the kitchen. "My object
is to give you a friendly warning; for, if I am not for the first time
mistaken in these matters, you are menaced with a formidable danger."

"Danger?" repeated the pallid Florian, in a voice scarcely audible.

"And have you not good reason to expect this danger?" continued the
stranger. "Your sudden paleness tells me that you know it. I am an old
man, and my life has been a rough pilgrimage, but I have still a warm
heart,