.

Odo, as in duty bound, waited the next morning on the Duchess; but word
was brought that her Highness was indisposed, and could not receive him
till evening.

He passed a drifting and distracted day. The fear lay much upon him that
danger threatened Gamba and his associates; yet to seek them out in the
present conjuncture might be to play the stalking-horse to their
enemies. Moreover, he fancied the Duchess not incapable of using
political rumours to further her private caprice; and scenting no
immediate danger he resolved to wait upon events.

On rising from dinner he was surprised by a summons from the Duke. The
message, an unusual one at that hour, was brought by a slender pale lad,
not in his Highness's service, but in that of the German physician
Heiligenstern. The boy, who was said to be a Georgian rescued from the
Grand Signior's galleys, and whose small oval face was as smooth as a
girl's, accosted Odo in one of the remoter garden alleys with the
request to follow him at once to the Duke's apartment. Odo complied, and
his guide loitered ahead with an air of unconcern, as though not wishing
to have his errand guessed. As they passed through the tapestry gallery
preceding the gentlemen's antechamber, footsteps and voices were heard
within. Instantly the boy was by Odo's side and had drawn him into the
embrasure of a window. A moment later Trescorre left the antechamber and
walked rapidly past their hiding-place. As soon as he was out of sight
the Georgian led Odo from his concealment and introduced him by a
private way to the Duke's closet.

His Highness was in his bed-chamber; and Odo, on being admitted, found
him, still in dressing-gown and night-cap, kneeling with a disordered
countenance before the ancient picture of the Last Judgment that hung on
the wall facing his bed. He seemed to have forgotten that he had asked
for his kinsman; for on the latter's entrance he started up with a
suspicious glance and hastily closed the panels of the picture, which
(as Odo now noticed) appeared to conceal an inner painting. Then,
gathering his dressing-gown about him, he led the way to his closet and
bade his visitor be seated.

"I have," said he, speaking in a low voice, and glancing apprehensively
about him, "summoned you hither privately to speak on a subject which
concerns none but ourselves.--You met no one on your way?" he broke off
to enquire.

Odo told him that Count Trescorre had passed, but without perce