ell as the count, should seek an interview
with me, to obtain what information I was willing to give.

There he stood in his gray clothes, tall and thin and smiling as of
yore.

CHAPTER XXIV

Nino is a man for great emergencies, as I have had occasion to say,
and when he realised who the unwelcome visitor was, he acted as
promptly as usual. With a face like marble he walked straight across
the room to Benoni and faced him.

"Baron Benoni," he said, in a low voice, "I warn you that you are most
unwelcome here. If you attempt to say any word to my wife, or to force
an entrance, I will make short work of you." Benoni eyed him with a
sort of pitying curiosity as he made this speech:--

"Do not fear, Signor Cardegna. I came to see Signor Grandi, and to
ascertain from him precisely what you have voluntered to tell me. You
cannot suppose that I have any object in interrupting the leisure of a
great artist, or the privacy of his very felicitous domestic
relations. I have not a great deal to say. That is, I have always a
great deal to say about everything, but I shall at present confine
myself to a very little."

"You will be wise," said Nino, scornfully, "and you would be wiser if
you confined yourself to nothing at all."

"Patience, Signor Cardegna," protested Benoni. "You will readily
conceive that I am a little out of breath with the stairs, for I am a
very old man."

"In that case," I said, from the other side of the room, "I may as
well occupy your breathing time by telling you that any remarks you
are likely to make to me have been forestalled by the Graf von Lira,
who has been with me this morning." Benoni smiled, but both Hedwig and
Nino looked at me in surprise.

"I only wished to say," returned Benoni, "that I consider you in the
light of an interesting phenomenon. Nay, Signor Cardegna, do not look
so fierce. I am an old man--"

"An old devil," said Nino hotly.

"An old fool," said I.

"An old reprobate," said Hedwig, from her corner, in deepest
indignation.

"Precisely," returned Benoni, smilingly. "Many people have been good
enough to tell me so before. Thanks, kind friends, I believe you with
all my heart. Meanwhile, man, devil, fool, or reprobate, I am very
old. I am about to leave Rome for St. Petersburg, and I will take this
last opportunity of informing you that in a very singularly long life
I have met with only two or three such remarkable instances as this of
yours."

"Say what y