anyone's pay. For ten years and through half as many little
wars he had been the Marquesa's titular chief of staff. Her husband?
Well, her husband was a good Carlist--and a true philosopher. As I tore
myself away from the impending flow of scandal, Fouquart murmured
regretfully. "Must you go? It is a pity. We have only begun, _a demain_."
But we had really ended, for the next morning, shaking off a nightmare of
a red-robed Lilith who tried to sell me a questionable Zeuxis, I took the
early steamer. Of the Marquesa del Puente, whom I believe to be still at
her castle, I have seen or heard nothing since.

* * * * *

After some reflection in the corner of the Pretorian where Anitchkoff
once told me his story, I have come measurably into the clear about the
whole matter. Mantovani's position is plain up to a certain point. Either
the 'Zorzi' was given to him or else he bought it in his hopeful youth.
In either case he surely kept it merely as a solemn hoax on his learned
contemporaries. He may have withheld it from Anitchkoff maliciously, or
again out of simple considerateness for a trusting disciple. When
Mantovani came to set his worldly affairs in order, however, it must have
struck him that the joke could not be perpetuated on the walls of the San
Marcello gallery, while the panel was one that a great connoisseur would
not willingly have inventoried by his executors. It was at this time that
he bestowed the 'Zorzi' upon the Marquesa del Puente, as a final token
between them. It may fairly be assumed that he knew her to be incapable
of believing the precious souvenir to be a veritable Giorgione. Such
simplicity as that gift and credulity presuppose lay neither in his
nature nor in hers. Beyond this point certitudes fail us lamentably, and
we are reduced to an exasperating balance of possibilities. Did he send
the picture as an elaborate and unavoidable slight? or was it essentially
a delicate alms, in view of the Marquesa's known poverty and proved
resourcefulness? or, again, did he with a deeper perversity set the thing
afloat to trouble the critical world after he was gone, foreseeing
perhaps some such international comedy as was actually played with the
'Zorzi' as leading gentleman? All these things must remain problematical
for Mantovani cannot tell, and the Marquesa del Puente will not if indeed
she knows.

THE LOMBARD RUNES

Professor Hauptmann dropped wearily into his cha