lency is in a hurry to be gone," he said, with a surprised
glance.

Odo handed him the coat-of-arms. "Can you tell me what this is?" he
asked carelessly. "I picked it up here a moment ago."

The other turned it over and stared. "Why," said he, "that's off the
harness of the gentleman that supped here last night--the same that went
on later to Peschiera."

Odo proceeded to question him about the mule-tracks over Monte Baldo,
and having bidden him saddle the horses in half an hour, crossed the
courtyard and re-entered the inn. A grey light was already falling
through the windows, and he mounted the stairs and knocked on the door
which he thought must be Fulvia's. Her voice bade him enter and he found
her seated fully dressed beside the window. She rose with a smile and he
saw that she had regained her usual self-possession.

"Do we set out at once?" she asked.

"There is no great haste," he answered. "You must eat first, and by that
time the horses will be saddled."

"As you please," she returned, with a readiness in which he divined the
wish to make amends for her wilfulness the previous night. Her eyes and
cheeks glowed with an excitement which counterfeited the effects of a
night's rest, and he thought he had never seen her more radiant. She
approached the table on which the wine and bread had been placed, and
drew another chair beside her own.

"Will you not share with me?" she asked, filling a glass for him.

He took it from her with a smile. "I have good news for you," he said,
holding out the bit of silver which he had brought from the stable.

She examined it wonderingly. "What does this mean?" she asked, looking
up at him.

"That it is I who am being followed--and not you."

She started and the ornament slipped from her hand.

"You?" she faltered with a quick change of colour.

"This coat-of-arms," he explained, "dropped from the harness of the
traveller who left the inn just before our arrival last night."

"Well--" she said, still without understanding; "and do you know the
coat?"

Odo smiled. "It is mine," he answered; "and the crown is my cousin's.
The traveller must have been a messenger of the Duke's."

She stood leaning against the seat from which she had risen, one hand
still grasping it while the other hung inert. Her lips parted but she
did not speak. Her pallor troubled Odo and he went up to her and took
her hand.

"Do you not understand," he said gently, "that there is no farther