lush, wishes me first to
enquire if you purpose returning to Turin; since in that case, as she
points out, your kindness might result in annoyances to which we have no
right to expose you."

Odo coloured. "Such considerations, I beg your daughter to believe,
would not weigh with me an instant; but as I am leaving Piedmont for two
years I am not so happy as to risk anything by serving you."

Vivaldi on this assurance at once consented to accept a seat in his
carriage as far as Boffalora, the first village beyond the Sardinian
frontier. It was agreed that at Vercelli Odo was to set down his
companions at an inn whence, alone and privately, they might gain their
friend's house; that on the morrow at daybreak he was to take them up at
a point near the convent of the Umiliati, and that thence they were to
push forward without a halt for Boffalora.

This agreement reached, Odo was about to offer Fulvia a hand to the
carriage when an unwelcome thought arrested him.

"I hope, sir," said he, again turning to Vivaldi, and blushing furiously
as he spoke, "that you feel assured of my discretion; but I ought
perhaps to warn you that my companion yonder, though the good-naturedest
fellow alive, is not one to live long on good terms with a secret,
whether his own or another's."

"I am obliged to you," said Vivaldi, "for the hint; but my daughter and
I are like those messengers who, in time of war, learn to carry their
despatches beneath their tongues. You may trust us not to betray
ourselves; and your friend may, if he chooses, suppose me to be
travelling to Milan to act as governor to a young gentleman of quality."

The Professor's luggage had by this been put on Odo's carriage, and the
latter advanced to Fulvia. He had drawn a favourable inference from the
concern she had shown for his welfare; but to his mortification she
merely laid two reluctant finger tips in his hand and took her seat
without a word of thanks or so much as a glance at her rescuer. This
unmerited repulse, and the constraint occasioned by Cantapresto's
presence, made the remainder of the drive interminable. Even the
Professor's apposite reflections on rice-growing and the culture of the
mulberry did little to shorten the way; and when at length the
bell-towers of Vercelli rose in sight Odo felt the relief of a man who
has acquitted himself of a tedious duty. He had looked forward with the
most romantic anticipations to the outcome of this chance encounter w