se seated beside him. It was a
layman, with an eye as small and restless as Friar Jerome's was calm and
majestic.

The man inquired earnestly how he felt.

"Very, very weak. Where have I seen you before, messer?"

"None the worse for my gauntlet?" inquired the other, with considerable
anxiety; "I was fain to strike you withal, or both you and I should be
at the bottom of Tiber."

Gerard stared at him. "What, 'twas you saved me? How?"

"Well, signor, I was by the banks of Tiber on-on an errand, no matter
what. You came to me and begged hard for a dagger stroke. But ere I
could oblige you, ay, even as you spoke to me, I knew you for the signor
that saved my wife and child upon the sea."

"It is Teresa's husband. And an assassin?!!?"

"At your service. Well, Ser Gerard, the next thing was, you flung
yourself into Tiber, and bade me hold aloof."

"I remember that."

"Had it been any but you, believe me I had obeyed you, and not wagged a
finger. Men are my foes. They may all hang on one rope, or drown in one
river for me. But when thou, sinking in Tiber, didst cry 'Margaret!'"

"Ah!"

"My heart it cried 'Teresa!' How could I go home and look her in the
face, did I let thee die, and by the very death thou savedst her from?
So in I went; and luckily for us both I swim like a duck. You, seeing
me near, and being bent on destruction, tried to grip me, and so end us
both. But I swam round thee, and (receive my excuses) so buffeted thee
on the nape of the neck with my steel glove; that thou lost sense, and
I with much ado, the stream being strong, did draw thy body to land, but
insensible and full of water. Then I took thee on my back and made for
my own home. 'Teresa will nurse him, and be pleased with me,' thought I.
But hard by this monastery, a holy friar, the biggest e'er I saw, met us
and asked the matter. So I told him. He looked hard at thee. 'I know
the face,' quoth he. ''Tis one Gerard, a fair youth from Holland.'
'The same,' quo' I. Then said his reverence, 'He hath friends among our
brethren. Leave him with us! Charity, it is our office.'

"Also he told me they of the convent had better means to tend thee than
I had. And that was true enow. So I just bargained to be let in to see
thee once a day, and here thou art."

And the miscreant cast a strange look of affection and interest upon
Gerard.

Gerard did not respond to it. He felt as if a snake were in the room. He
closed his eyes.

"Ah, thou woulds