elled
the sale of the work of art, and a few days later Deplis learned with a
sense of consternation that she had presented it to the municipality of
Bergamo, which had gratefully accepted it. He left the neighbourhood
as unobtrusively as possible, and was genuinely relieved when his
business commands took him to Rome, where he hoped his identity and
that of the famous picture might be lost sight of.

"But he bore on his back the burden of the dead man's genius. On
presenting himself one day in the steaming corridor of a vapour bath,
he was at once hustled back into his clothes by the proprietor, who was
a North Italian, and who emphatically refused to allow the celebrated
Fall of Icarus to be publicly on view without the permission of the
municipality of Bergamo. Public interest and official vigilance
increased as the matter became more widely known, and Deplis was unable
to take a simple dip in the sea or river on the hottest afternoon
unless clothed up to the collarbone in a substantial bathing garment.
Later on the authorities of Bergamo, conceived the idea that salt water
might be injurious to the masterpiece, and a perpetual injunction was
obtained which debarred the muchly harassed commercial traveller from
sea bathing under any circumstances. Altogether, he was fervently
thankful when his firm of employers found him a new range of activities
in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux. His thankfulness, however, ceased
abruptly at the Franco-Italian frontier. An imposing array of official
force barred his departure, and he was sternly reminded of the
stringent law which forbids the exportation of Italian works of art.

"A diplomatic parley ensued between the Luxemburgian and Italian
Governments, and at one time the European situation became overcast
with the possibilities of trouble. But the Italian Government stood
firm; it declined to concern itself in the least with the fortunes or
even the existence of Henri Deplis, commercial traveller, but was
immovable in its decision that the Fall of Icarus (by the late Pincini,
Andreas) at present the property of the municipality of Bergamo, should
not leave the country.

"The excitement died down in time, but the unfortunate Deplis, who was
of a constitutionally retiring disposition, found himself a few months
later, once more the storm-centre of a furious controversy. A certain
German art expert, who had obtained from the municipality of Bergamo
permission to inspect