you to trip off a neat little
speech, thanking the Senators kindly for the great honour they are doing
themselves in electing us into their noble body. But it will not be easy
for me," said O'Toole, with a sigh. "How can I get enough Latin through
my skull by June not to disgrace myself?" He looked so utterly miserable
and distressed that Wogan never felt less inclined to laugh. "I sit up
at nights with a lamp, but the most unaccountable thing happens. I may
come in here as lively as any cricket, but the moment I take this book
in my hands I am overpowered with sleep--"

"Oh, listen to me," cried Wogan. "I have only a fortnight--"

"And I have only till June," sighed O'Toole. "But there! I am listening.
I have no doubt, my friend, your business is more important than mine,"
he said with the simplicity of which not one of his friends could resist
the appeal. Wogan could not now.

"My business," he said, "is only more important because you have no need
of your Latin grammar at all. There's a special deputy, a learned
professor, appointed on these occasions to make a speech for us, and all
we have to do is to sit still and nod our heads wisely when he looks
towards us."

"Is that all?" cried O'Toole, jumping up. "Swear it!"

"I do," said Wogan; and "Here's to the devil with the Latin grammar!"
exclaimed O'Toole. He flung open his window and hurled the book out
across the street with the full force of his prodigious arm. There
followed a crash and then the tinkle of falling glass. O'Toole beamed
contentedly and shut the window.

"Now what will I do for you in return for this?" he asked.

"Keep a watch on the little house and the garden. I will tell you why
when I return. Observe who goes in to visit the Princess, but hinder no
one. Only remember who they are and let me know." And Wogan got back to
his lodging and mounted his black horse. He could trust O'Toole to play
watchdog in his absence. If the mysterious visitor who had bestowed upon
Clementina with so liberal a hand so much innuendo and such an artful
combination of truth and falsity, were to come again to the little house
to confirm the slanders, Wogan in the end would not fail to discover the
visitor's identity.

He dismissed the matter from his mind and rode out from Bologna. Four
days afterwards he presented himself at the door of the Caprara Palace.

CHAPTER XXIV

Maria Vittoria received the name of her visitor with a profound
astonishment.