eet a friend too; a lady, he said--a
young lady. He fancied she might have passed this way and questioned me
closely; but as it happened there had been no petticoat under my roof
for three days.--I wonder, now, if he could have been looking for your
excellencies?"

Fulvia flushed high at this, but a sign from Odo checked the denial on
her lips.

"Why," said he, "it is not unlikely, though I had fancied our friend
would come from another direction. What was this gentleman like?"

The landlord hesitated, evidently not so much from any reluctance to
impart what he knew as from the inability to express it. "Well," said
he, trying to supplement his words by a vaguely descriptive gesture, "he
was a handsome personable-looking man--smallish built, but with a fine
manner, and dressed not unlike your excellency."

"Ah," said Odo carelessly, "our friend is an ecclesiastic.--And which
way did this gentleman travel?" he went on, pouring himself another
glass.

The landlord assumed an air of country cunning. "There's the fishy part
of it," said he. "He gave orders to go toward Verona; but my boy, who
chased the carriage down the road, as lads will, says that at the
cross-ways below the old mill the driver took the turn for Peschiera."

Fulvia at this seemed no longer able to control herself. She came close
to Odo and said in a low urgent tone: "For heaven's sake, let us set
forward!"

Odo again signed to her to keep silent, and with an effort she resumed
her seat and made a pretence of eating. A moment later he despatched the
landlord to the stable, to see that the horses had been rubbed down; and
as soon as the door closed she broke out passionately.

"It is my fault," she cried, "it is all my fault for coming here. If I
had had the courage to keep on this would never have happened!"

"No," said Odo quietly, "and we should have gone straight to Peschiera
and landed in the arms of our pursuer--if this mysterious traveller is
in pursuit of us."

His tone seemed to steady her. "Oh," she said, and the colour flickered
out of her face.

"As it happens," he went on, "nothing could have been more fortunate
than our coming here."

"I see--I see--; but now we must go on at once," she persisted.

He looked at her gravely. "This is your wish?"

She seemed seized with a panic fear. "I cannot stay here!" she repeated.

"Which way shall we go, then? If we continue to Peschiera, and this man
is after us, we are lost."

"But i