shall see nothing at all,'
observed Gambardella with his usual sourness.

'Possibly,' Trombin answered pleasantly. 'I shall therefore hide my
light under a bushel, as it were, and thus spare your mental eyes a
shock that might be fatal to them. For my present inspiration is of such
a tremendous nature that an ordinary intelligence might be unsettled by
it.'

'Could you not communicate the nature of it in small doses, as it were?'
asked Gambardella, mimicking him a little. 'One can get accustomed even
to poisons in that way, as Mithridates did.'

'To oblige you, I will attempt it, my friend, but I shall endeavour to
lead you to guess the truth yourself by asking questions, instead of
presenting it to you in disjointed fragments. Now consider that youth
whom I ran through the arm the other night, and answer me. Do you
suppose that he was serenading Pina, the serving-woman, or Ortensia her
mistress?'

'What a question! It was Ortensia, of course.'

'But was he serenading the Lady Ortensia out of ill-feeling towards her,
or out of good-feeling?'

'Out of good-feeling.'

'What is the good-feeling of a handsome young man towards a beautiful
young woman usually called, my friend?'

'Love, I suppose. What nonsense is this?'

'It is the Socratic method, as recorded by Plato. I learned something of
it when I was a student at Padua. Now, you have told me that the young
man feels love for the young woman, and you appear to be right; but what
do you think he hopes to get from her in return, love or dislike?'

'Her love, no doubt.'

'You answer well, my friend. Now tell me this also. Will he get her love
without the consent of her husband, or with it?'

'Without, if he gets it at all! I am tired of this fooling. It bores me
excessively.'

'You will not be bored long,' answered Trombin with confidence. 'Answer
me one question more. Do you suppose that the young man will have any
success with the Lady Ortensia, unless he can separate her from
Stradella by some stratagem?'

Gambardella looked sharply at his wordy companion.

'I begin to take your meaning,' he said.

'You have a good mind,' Trombin answered, 'but it works slowly. You are
on the verge of guessing what my inspiration is. Let us, for a large
consideration, be the means of carrying off the Lady Ortensia for this
rich young man, and when we have done so and received his money, let us
execute the plan we have already made. For it will be easy for us to
pe