nt?" I said, dryly.

"Sir, I am come to ask you to help me. I am a family man, and it is
thought that . . ."

I did not let him finish.

"I have never refused to aid the unfortunate," said I. "Clairmont, give
him ten sequins. Leave the room."

This incident spoke in my favour, and made me in a better temper.

We sat down to table, and a letter was handed to me. I recognized
Possano's writing, and put it in my pocket without reading it.

The dinner was delicious, and my cook was pronounced to have won his
spurs. Though her exalted rank and the brilliance of her attire gave
Signora Isoia-Bella the first place of right, she was nevertheless
eclipsed by my two nieces. The young Genoese was all attention for the
fair Marseillaise, and I could see that she was not displeased. I
sincerely wished to see her in love with someone, and I liked her too
well to bear the idea of her burying herself in a convent. She could
never be happy till she found someone who would make her forget the
rascal who had brought her to the brink of ruin.

I seized the opportunity, when all my guests were engaged with each
other, to open Possano's letter. It ran as follows:

"I went to the bank to change the piece of gold you gave me. It was
weighed, and found to be ten carats under weight. I was told to name the
person from whom I got it, but of course I did not do so. I then had to
go to prison, and if you do not get me out of the scrape I shall be
prosecuted, though of course I am not going to get myself hanged for
anybody."

I gave the letter to Grimaldi, and when we had left the table he took me
aside, and said,--

"This is a very serious matter, for it may end in the gallows for the man
who clipped the coin."

"Then they can hang the biribanti! That won't hurt me much."

"No, that won't do; it would compromise Madame Isola-Bella, as biribi is
strictly forbidden. Leave it all to me, I will speak to the State
Inquisitors about it. Tell Possano to persevere in his silence, and that
you will see him safely through. The laws against coiners and clippers
are only severe with regard to these particular coins, as the Government
has special reasons for not wishing them to be depreciated."

I wrote to Possano, and sent for a pair of scales. We weighed the gold I
had won at biribi, and every single piece had been clipped. M. Grimaldi
said he would have them defaced and sold to a jeweller.

When we got back to the dining-room we found everyb