hiaja on the day of the murder.

'And you are sacrificing yourself that Clyde may escape, trusting to
chances to clear yourself?'

I answered nothing.

'What is your motive in all this?' he asked me.

What right had I to withhold it, then? what right to be ashamed of the
truth? Yet I paused.

'It is not friendship for Clyde. What _is_ the motive?'

'I was silent because I waited here for events to decide what I could
not decide for myself.'

'And what was that?'

'How to give Cecilia least pain.'

'Are you in love with Cecilia?' he asked me.

'No,' I answered honestly, 'I am not in love with Cecilia, but she is
dearer to me than anybody in the world. I could not love my sister or my
mother more tenderly.'

'H'm!' he said in his old way, when thinking. 'And what have events led
you to?'

'They lead me nowhere,' I cried; 'I am helpless.'

'And so Clyde has never been here, of course. Has he escaped?'

'I cannot say.'

'It is a terrible business, Calvotti, but it is better so. You have done
right. You have done well. You have done nobly. There is no evidence
against you which is not so flimsy that a fly could break through it.
Clyde will disappear. If he should come back again, I will warn him
off--trust me. Time will console Cecilia, and you will have averted a
tragedy. Here is somebody at the door.'

Chain and lock creaked and jangled. The door swung inwards, and Ratuzzi
appeared with the advocate.

'Signor l'Avvocato,' I said, 'this gentleman will tell you everything it
concerns you to know. Or--stay. Do you speak English?'

'I speak no language but my own,' said the young advocate.

'My dear Calvotti,' said my old patron, in Italian smoother and more
choicely worded than his English, one language is pretty much the
same to me as another, so long as it _is_ a language, and is spoken
in Europe. I have been a mercantile adventurer in Europe for more than
thirty years, and have found a knowledge of languages a necessity.'

'Then, sir,' I said in English, 'deal with this gentleman according to
your discretion. If you think it wise, let him know all.'

'Trust to me,' he answered, and bade me a cheery adieu.

In another hour the advocate was back, again.

'Signor Calvotti,' he exclaimed, holding out his hand for mine, 'I did
not know that I had a hero to defend. But I know it now. You are in no
danger. It is weary waiting, but two weeks do not make up eternity; and
we shall march out of the court